I'll preface this by saying Chatham is my favorite, but I'll try to remain unbiased.
Vista - Oldest complex. Called the "party" apartments, and it's definitely true. It was also voted one of the top places to "get laid," if that interests you. Definitely the loudest of the 3 complexes, but it's not bad by any means. I lived right beside the basketball court, though, and I would get woken up at 4 AM by the bouncing balls. There are a lot of people to meet here, and there's always something going on. Even if you don't want to party, you can make friends so easily. They have 2 pools here and a Learning Center where you can use computers and check out movies. Everything's really convenient here, if you can deal with the partying. They have their own bus stop. You can walk to Walgreens, Chick Fil A, Wendys, or the convenience store. That's always a plus, especially if you don't have a car. They only go up to 3 bedrooms, so you'll have 5 roommates max. Some are wood floors in the living room, some are carpet. I think all top floors might be wood floors. Washer/dryers are in the bottom floor hallway of each building. No pantry in the kitchen, which makes space tight.
Chatham, Patterson, and The Commons are all located at Little Lake Bryan. Vista is the only one off by itself.
Chatham - Ahh, sweet sweet Chatham. So aesthetically pleasing. I think it's the prettiest complex. I love the way it looks on the outside and inside. This one is calmer than Vista, but not as quiet as Patterson, which is what I liked about it. Some of the rooms have porches that look out over Little Lake Bryan. These go up to 4 bedrooms, so you can have up to 7 roommates. I was in a 4BR, which sounds difficult, especially regarding Kitchen space, but we had an extra refrigerator, which was awesome! Laundry rooms are more sparse, so you might have to walk a ways to do it, which might suck. Luckily, I was close to one. The carpet is really fluffy. haha. All the apartments have some sort of little outdoor porch. The living rooms are big... In general, Chatham feels really spacious. There's a really nice pool. Has its own bus stop.
Patterson - My least favorite, and the only one I haven't lived in. Spent plenty of time there, though. This is actually most people's favorite, because it's the newest complex. New, with cable jacks in each bedroom and a really nice pool, yes. Downsides: You have to walk across the street to Chatham to use their bus stop, the carpet is really thin and a type I don't like, and it's real quiet. Noise complaints are more common here, and I'm pretty loud, so I'm steering clear of this one. haha. I think the laundry facilities are like Chatham here, where they are spread out, but not at every single building? I might be wrong. Like I said, the pool is really nice. I like their kitchens a lot as well.
The Commons is only for ICPs, and I know nothing about it, except that it's nice as crap. They have a parking garage and their own washer/dryers. Lame.
Hope my opinionated answers help!