In an unusually charitable move, EA are giving away the now-two-games-old version of its living dolls house simulator, The Sims 2: Ultimate Edition, completely free of charge. That's the full game, plus every single expansion and "stuff pack" ever released - for free. For nothing. Nada. Zilch. As long as you get in there quick at least, as the offer ends on the 31st July.
In an even stranger move, it turns out the game's being made free in order to "celebrate" the fact that EA are ceasing support for the Sims 2, meaning it will no longer be releasing any new stuff, nor any bug fixes for the game. After roughly a decade since the original Sims 2 release (which makes us feel really old), it's not really too much of a surprise that EA are cutting off updates for the title - after all, with the Sims 4 on the horizon, pretty much every man and his dog has likely moved on. And every woman and their dog already had the majority of the expansion packs too.
Just in time for summer!
Included in the Ultimate Edition are all eight of the expansion packs, which add fairly substantial bits and pieces to your core game. The University pack did exactly what it says on the tin, letting you take your Sims to university, opening up new career paths and adding a new 'Young Adult' age group between teens and adults. Nightlife meanwhile, let your Sims go downtown on dates, buy cars and added vampires (yes, really), while Open for Business gave you the option to start your own businesses. The staple, and our personal favourite expansion, Pets, let you add cats and dogs to your Sim families, while Seasons added in a weather system, as well as adding the gardening and fishing pursuits. Bon Voyage let you take your Sims on holiday, FreeTime brought in a whole host of hobbies for your Sims to take up, and Apartment Life let you forego the house in favour of renting an apartment, along with adding a witchcraft system for reasons known only to itself. FreeTime, Apartment Life and University also add zombies, just because.
The Ultimate Edition also comes with all ten of the Stuff Packs, which, as the name suggests, include all manner of extra 'stuff' to add to your game. A mixture of outfits and furniture, with a fair few blatant marketing deals thrown in, the full list is as follows:
- Christmas Party Pack
- Family Fun Stuff
- Glamour Life Stuff
- Festive Holiday Stuff
- Celebration Stuff
- H&M Fashion Stuff
- Teen Style Stuff
- Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff
- IKEA Home Stuff
- Mansion & Garden Stuff
To claim your free PC copy, you'll need to download and install EA's Origin digital platformy-thing (found here) and sign up for a free account (done here). Then, start up Origin, log in, and click on 'Origin' in the menu bar on the top left. In the menu that opens, click on the 'Redeem Product Code' option, which will be right at the top of the list. Now enter the code, which is I-LOVE-THE-SIMS in the box and click 'Next' a few times to confirm your 'purchase' of The Sims 2: Ultimate Edition. Once it's been added to 'My Games', you can choose to download and install the game whenever you want - the digital copy of the game will take up roughly 12.5GB of space on your hard drive.
And so there you have it - a totally free and totally legitimate copy of The Sims 2, with more extra content than you'll know what to do with. But make sure you're quick, as the offer ends on the 31st July!
