I could have swore there was a thread about this before, but I couldn’t find it (I did find one about *least* favorite premades), so here we are.

For me it’s the Pleasant twins, probably because when I first played University they were the ones I picked to send to college for the first time and I spent quite a bit of time with them in that round of Pleasantview. That was in 2005. I give them such a radically different story line now that makes them almost a custom character now though.

I like the Goths and the Brokes too. Calientes and Lothario are fun to play with, but fun to hate too. The Veronaville characters are interesting as well with the feud.

Pleasantview: Nina Caliente, my accidental founder sim married her and they had twelve kids and became super old through copious amounts of elixir of life. She was a fun, cool sim and never really seemed that grouchy other than beating up a garden club member for being mean to her husband. Also, if townies count, Randy London. As an adult, he became best friends with one of my sims and married another, and was very nice, chill and delightfully awkward.

Strangetown: Tank Grunt - the way he acted in my game made him come across as a very complex character, who eventually started coming into his own and became very likable and endearingly stiff. I like his brothers too.

Veronaville: This is the neighbourhood where the premades really got to shine in my game as I played with just them and none of my own sims. My favourites have sometimes shifted from day to day, but my all-time faves would probably be Desdemona Capp, Beatrice Monty and Benedick Monty.

Desiderata Valley: Natasha Una.

Angela Pleasant of course. I like how they are twins, which requires quite a bit of tinkering to make two people the same, and how the mouth doesn't have a cupid's bow, which is also a task for careful sculpting. She is the kind of person who can get far by manipulating others (popularity) and that is a useful and hard to attain power. She is the queen of Pleasantview because of this. And she has a supernatural origin.

Imagine having a male child called Caliente.

In Pleasantview I think I like Angela and Dustin best, but I like Lilith and Dirk too. I think, under Dustin's influence, Angela has come to see how badly her sister has been treated. So I hope for a reconciliation between the twins, allowing Angela, Lilith, Dustin and Dirk to come together as a formidable foursome, who will sweep the cobwebs from the skies over Pleasantview, and drag the town, kicking and screaming into a revitalised 21st Century future, in much the same way as the transformation my Sims are already achieving in Veronaville.

In Veronaville, I mostly concentrate on my CAS-made Sims, whom I see as the ordinary townspeople, rather than the rich leading families, whose feuding has blighted the town for decades, if not centuries. But even in these families, the younger generation has no appetite to continue this destructive conflict. I think my favourites of the pre-made families are probably the Capp girls, Juliette, Hermia and Miranda. Juliette of course has fallen in love with Romeo Monty, and Hermia has a zany sense of humour which makes her fun to be with. Miranda is just loveable. Juliette is now Grand Duchess and titular Head of State, and Consort has moved out of Capp Manor with his new bride April Hutchins and their baby, leaving Capp Manor to Juliette and Hermia. (Tybalt also married and moved out.) Desdemona, Beatrice and Benedick are still children in my very slow-paced game. No doubt their time will come.

I don't like picking favourites, but, if I have to name one, I think Ravi Bertino may be my absolute favourite. Possibly better known to you all as Patrick Teens (or even Patrick Tricou) he is a wrong-side-of-the-blanket child of the late Jon Smith Tricou. After I gave him extra Nice points, to enable him to take part in an "open" relationship under the rules of Pescado's Romance Mod, which I was using at the time, he became one of the kindest, most considerate characters I have ever had the good fortune to meet. He's a Pleasure Sim who loves to give pleasure to others. He's the kind of person who likes to brighten up the day of everyone he meets, unusual at any age, and especially unusual in someone still so young.

Angie seems to be a love/hate kind of character (and Lily too for that matter). Oddly enough, it’s always seemed like more didn’t like Angie than liked her, so it’s nice to see it seems like the opposite here. She’s actually one of the main characters in my story, married to a custom. (I edited that last sentence in).

Angie as a manipulator is an interesting take. I always thought that was more of a Daniel thing (possibly even the mom as well). I guess in your world the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 😉

It could be Pong Grundstrom from Takemizu Village.

Or Cyd Roseland from the bin?

Perhaps it is Natasha Una from Desiderata Village...

The Curios brothers always had a special place in my heart too -

But it is definitely not a sim from Pleasantview.

I like making my own sims very much, so I hardly play the Maxis sims! I remember playing Pleasantview and Strangetown a bit in the early days of Sims 2, so I know the characters well. But I hardly played Veronaville, and seldom the Maxis universities. And I didn't play the neighbourhoods that came with the later EPs at all. Maybe I should!

However, I do remember that I loved the Strangetown characters, very intriguing with the aliens and PT 9 trying to blend in with his lawns and picket fences. I always tried to rescue Nervous and have him reunite with Olive before she died, so that he got some inheritance! But Ajay Loner was the one I usually played from that town, I always thought he seemed like someone who had just arrived in the area, and had no idea of what was going on there. It was fun to find him a house and have him meet everyone. I loved Strangetown Bella Goth too, such a great character for the creators to have put there for you to discover!

From Pleasantview I liked the Pleasants, and usually banished Daniel to that little cabin in the forest on the outskirts of town. Mary Sue usually ended up marrying one of the NPCs or townies, someone useful (unlike her ex!). Once I brought Bella back and reunited her with her long lost family, only for Sim Sample to move in next door and steal her away.

My longest played sims and hoods are my own creations, and I was often inspired by the Maxis buildings (adapting floorplans or ideas for my own lots). I always make my own subhoods, townies and NPCs- as well as the terrains and lots. That's most fun for me.

Mine are:
1. The Grunt boys, with Tank being my favorite all-time premade
2. Benedick Monty
3. Aldric Davis from La Fiesta Tech
4. Dustin Broke
5. Olive Specter

But I am fond of most of them, at least from the three base game hoods and the three universities.

Another pre-made Sim, of whom I have a, perhaps surprisingly, positive opinion is Buzz Grunt. I maybe wouldn't say I like him, but I do have respect for him. He is a dreadful parent, but I think he's a good soldier, and his promotion to General is deserved on merit. He has a very strong sense of duty and he's not lacking in courage. He'll get involved where I know I would chicken out. I think he's the sort of soldier you'd be glad to have beside you under enemy fire in a foxhole in No Man's Land.

Another Sim for whom I have great respect is Ginger Newson. I think she and Buzz have far more in common than you might think. Both are primarily motivated by a very strong sense of duty. And both would rather die than fail in their duty. She has been heard to say-, "My family will only go into 'care'" (she spits the word "care" out) "over my dead body." I think she's safe in my game; I certainly wouldn't want the death of somebody so courageous on my conscience.

The curious brothers. I don't know why, but I always keep coming back to them if I (once in a blue moon) feel like just playing the game without taking pictures and all that.

I like the Broke family. Maybe it's a lot to do with the challenge they come with, and the interesting ways you can interpret them as characters, but I think I would have liked them anyway. I usually end up getting Brandi a good relationship to someone with money because I feel so bad for her. Apart from the Brokes, I have soft spots for Puck Summerdream, Pollination Technician 9, John Mole and Natasha Una. Oh, and Goopy. I like him, in all his plaid-short, cowboy-shirt, failed-romance-sim glory! But I haven't played the premades all that much, for most of my sims 2-playing years I have focused heavily on my own sims.

I love the Curious brothers too - their obsession with conceiving their own alien babies despite being the brothers, uncles and brothers-in-law to aliens already, their different personalities (especially the fact that Lazlo, the lazy stoner brother, is doing the best at his job at the science lab!), the connection to Nervous Subject and his mysteries and burdens. I don't play Maxis hoods much, but when I do, it's usually them.

However, due to my struggles with following complex instructions, I've ended up with the Pleasantview townies in all three of the hoods I play most. (And by the time I realised I'd installed empty templates incorrectly yet again, I'd already made my first family in the new hood and was desperate to just play them rather than start the whole process again.) So their faces are familiar and they've become part of my playable families in multiple incarnations. Tosha Go grew up and married a playable and had seven children and, so far, eight grandchildren; her fellow teen townies Randy London, Sophie Miguel, Orlando Centowski and teen Ivy Copur all married into playable families. Pizza delivery driver Marie Mazza has married playables in two hoods. Christy Stratton was a spouse in a legacy hood and in my current game she's just had a baby - she always passes on red hair. Joe Carr has randomised as gay in every hood I've played! Komei Tellerman has had two children with wonderfully distinctive faces - his nose and jawbone are, shall we say, striking, especially on toddlers. One day I'll be in the mood to start a new hood and it will be populated with sims from face templates I chose... but for now, the Pleasantview sims are familiar companions.

Goopy!!!

Brandi Broke is marrying an heir to the largest company in the world (think Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Sysco, and Sears back when Sears was a serious company all in one) in my game so I don't think she'll have to worry about money anymore. Landgraab and Goth would see her along with her ridiculously wealthy husband and bow down to her.

As if that weren't interesting enough, her son is in prison for robbing one of the company's locations in Downtown along with his then-girlfriend Angela (her age at 13 being her only saving grace in the story, but she was still a max-risk offender in the juvenile justice system, just no 20 year adult sentence like her boyfriend; I don't know why but that story never gets old to me, Angela in a Holes situation and her sister taking the goodie-two-shoes role, both making amends). So Brandi is caught between her son and her husband, with an exciting story for him post-release coming soon. Will he take his mother and father-in-law's side and walk a straight line from there on, or will he side with the gang that ruined his youth and attack his middle school sweetheart, now in her 30s and married with kids, to prove loyalty?

All of them including the dead which I brought back to life and now you can play them to.
Check out the download section if you want them.

I like Ripp Grunt, Aldric Davis, Stella Terrano and Jill Smith

I haven't played a lot with the premades... but I'd got a soft spot for the Broke family. (Even though Brandi died the first time I ever played Sims 2.)
I also like Olive Spectre for her macabre backstory. I feel sorry about Nervous Subject too.

Strangetown: Olive Specter will disappear you and Ophelia Nigmos can do everything and anything.
Belladonna Cove: Tara DuBateau knows a guy who knows a guy who also knows a guy - she's well connected and can get a way with it.
Pleasantview: Darren Dreamer is a peacefuly guy just living his life doing what he likes and what needs to be done.
Veronaville: Titania Summerdream could takeover the world and Oberon would let her.
Riverblossom Hills: Leod McGreggor ain't got time for you and your nonsense he's got trees to prune and radioactive coffee to drink.

Do Townies count? Cos Meadow Thayer will find you.

The real tragedy is that Bob Newbie is dead so he doesn't count

Oh man. I have this one townie in my custom neighborhood that always comes running and smacks you if you dare look through the telescope in the day. His name is Vidar Mejbert. (He's one of the default townies initiated when you make a new neighborhood, not a custom townie). Even if you're in a sub-hood! Guy is everywhere.

Pleasantview premades are at the top of my list. Out of everyone, I think Brandi Broke is my all time favorite. She is really crazy for a family sim and never gets stale to play.

I like the Dreamers' family in Pleasantville. Darren, I sympathize with him having lost his wife and eventually crushing on Cassandra from a distance, as she looks to have fallen for the town's lover. Now that I'm near his projected age, I see Darren as a man having a midlife crisis choosing to invest in his own passion for painting to take care of the bills. While this can seem irresponsible when he has a well-achieving son, Dirk, to look out for, I think it was intentional he waited until Dirk had high enough grades and was sympathetic as well (since he's dating Lilith, who is seen as the black sheep in her family). I enjoy helping Darren and Dirk in their journey through Pleasantville.

In Strangetown, I try to enlighten the Grunts family, since they also deal with a single father, Buzz, who seemingly drove his own wife to abandonning the boys, who have no idea that she had died. Little Buck, I see as being nonconforming but loved no less by the General. Ripp, I see moving out and carving his own life and happiness, and perhaps eventually work things out with Tank. Tank being the eldest son has a lot to live up to, displaying self-pleasing traits. This family I like to change things up from the projected downward path laid for them.

I make up my own storylines with them as well, but I don’t play them often. They take more of a townie role in my hoods.

-Ginger Newson, as she is the perfect fit for the evil witch dress and hat
-Faith Goodie with her cute soft looks she makes a wonderful plantsim
-Samantha Ottomas I see her as a person of great strength of character as she is still a kind and gentle guide even when she loses her husband (worked too much and died) and her children all choose to be vampires
-Julien Cooke who makes an excellent grand warlock
-Isiah Gavigan, a boy or patience and perseverance since he keeps ties with his parents , who are both vampires but refused to succumb to their lavish but loathe
some lifestyle
-Wendy Melody Tinker who becomes a good witch despite her parents vehement warnings against having any magic in the family
That’s all for now, I have other favorites but I blogged two posts about my sims today and made 8 new lots.. all tired out for now. Look forward to reading all your posts about favorite premade sims!

Actually thinking about it, the Pleasant twins story line in my game (as well as the other premades) aren't really different they're just a heck of a lot deeper. To give a spoiler, EA said Jeff and Diane Pleasant died, the twins had no memory of it, and Daniel felt guilty for Jeff never obtaining his life dream, I expanded on that to say Jeff and Diane died in a nasty car crash vs. a school bus on US 17 in Wauchula, Florida (SimNation = Florida analog in my game) on the way to Disney when the twins were four years old, they have no memory of it because an angel blocked their memory of it, and Daniel guilt is he feels responsible for them existing, blaming the girls and especially Lily for it because they were fighting over a toy, causing Jeff to turn to the back seat and plow into the back of the bus full throttle (meanwhile two middle school girls on the bus were going at each other causing them to slow down to pull over when it happened).

The part of the story line that is different comes after the release of the game and initial events that unfold, so technically it's not different from the EA story. (The predestined firing of Mary-Sue on the day that Angela was arrested was fun to play out to say the least, it lead to the Pleasants to fighting for hours, ignoring phone calls, and them to not even realize Angie never came home from the game vs. Sarasota High School where she was being a cheerleader until the FDLE showed up with DCF the next morning and catching Daniel in the act of being abusive toward Lily). I really put a lot of detail into it, must be the autism in me.

(And yes, the Pleasant parents went to prison, thanks to SimLogical's system)

Dina Caliente! They way I play her, she's an absolute man-eater. Beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, amazing, no notes. I also like to revive Darleen Dreamer & get her remarried to Darren & have them live out a happily ever after. Here are my makeovers of the both of them!