Electronic Arts is stopping support for The Sims 2 and its various expansions on July 22nd. This may sound like the death knell for the classic game (that I have argued as being as good or better than The Sims 3), but in stark contrast, EA is instead releasing The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection for anyone who owned Sims 2 on Origin for free.
This collection contains The Sims2 as well as all of its expansion packs in one big package, but it’s not without some issues. For one, in game branding is inconsistent. The title screen reads “The Sims 2: Fun with Pets,” and the main menu is labeled “The Sims 2: Mansion and Garden Stuff.” This makes the whole product seem like a bit of a rush job. Worse is that the game doesn’t seem to recognize my graphics card and I’m stuck at an 800×600 resolution with a number of graphical options like shadows greyed out. There’s also the simple fact that The Sims 2 plus all of its expansions is a slow loading game, so count on a lengthy wait upon starting a new neighborhood.
This is an issue
All in all, though, The Sims 2 is still a fantastic game and giving all of its constituent parts to past owners on Origin for free is great. I personally haven’t played The Sims 2 in ages, but the resolution issue is a significant one because it makes navigating the menus much more difficult than it needs to be. If EA can iron that out, I will be playing this for quite some time. Hopefully they’ll offer it for sale as well, so those who haven’t yet tried it can get in on the fun.
