Note: This guide is based upon installing The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection via Origin.
Even now, in twenty-twenty one, The Sims 2 is still hugely popular within The Sims community and a question that gets asked often is “how do I install The Sims 2 on Windows 10?”
Firstly, you’ll need to locate The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection in your Origin Game Library. Once you have found it, click on the game box art and then hit download.
You’ll then be presented with a series of pop-up boxes. These will ask you to check which language you wish the game to install in and where on your PC/Mac you would like the game to install.
Once you’ve gone through the pop-ups, you’re game will start to download and install.
Now that your game is installed, there’s a few things to keep in mind. The Sims 2 was not designed to run on current generation technology, so it requires a few quick and easy tweaks to help fix and improve the graphics as well as the overall experience of the game.
A video that you will find handy to walk you through the different fixes is one from XUbranSimsX. In this video, Jenn talks about the different fixes that helped fix her game, as well as many players within the community. This is also the same guide that I used myself when reinstalling The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection recently, and my game works brilliantly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BRX0JlN8lM
Jenn also has a Fix Checklist that has all the links that you need and use alongside her video. You can find the Fix Checklist here.
While there is a chance you could run into a few glitches or technical issues once you have installed the game, the Fix Checklists will take you through how to troubleshoot different issues, including issues where the game will present you with purple/pink flashes and texture issues as well as how to get The Sims 2 working on modern hardware and Windows 10. Again, you can check the guide out here.
If you are still having problems with improving your graphics or the random black shadow boxes, you can check out our handy guide here.
Another helpful guide by Captain Nikki on Tumblr as has references to a selection of mods for The Sims 2 and cheat codes for the game. You can find Captain Nikki’s guide here.
Again, this guide is based on The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection that was released as a limited time promotion via Origin. The promotion ended in late 2018 which you can read more about it here. This article will also be useful if you are reinstalling the game by using the physical disks.
I wish I picked up the edition when it was given out for free. I once owned all the Sims 2 packs, but I threw them away, thinking I never need them again (and I needed the space as a student). I also don’t have any proof that I once owned them, so contacting EA is a waste of time, unfortunately.
If Sims 2 ever makes a reappearance, my guess is that EA will sell it to us for 40$ or something like that.
But to all of you who can still play it: Have fun! Sims 2 is such a great experience!
aw this got me excited because I thought it was back on origin to buy…
I was among those lucky people who got it in 2019 when the promotion was already over. I just wrote that I have almost all ts4 packs to the support team and that I wish to get TS2 as well. Soon it appeared in my origin account.
I refuse to sell my old PC as it has all packs and so much CC on it. I loved this game.
I remembered that I brought a physical copy of the base game from amazon but the code didn’t work so I got in contact with EA and got the entire collection. I thought it was a mistake at first. I still remembered the first time I played the game ever was when my teen sim was talking to some random walkby who decided to go into their bedroom while the parents didn’t care. I thought “is that normal?” Outside of the graphics and the controls it’s my preferred game so I hope TS5 follows that path except with no loading between households – compromise with loading only for a neighborhood but not open world like TS3 since that caused some issues for some players (not myself) especially detailed custom worlds. Speaking of custom worlds that is something TS4 could really use but very, very unlikely to get unfortunately.
This article is pretty useless if you DON’T have
game and you didn’t have the opportunity to download the game back in 2018 and you didn’t have the chance to download the game. Because this game is not anymore in any platform besides of Amazon so this is kinda stupid.
I mean, it is abandonware at this point so you could just download it from such a site
i want the urbz and bustin out on pc.