I have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection and I'm trying to decide if it'd be worth switching to the Legacy Collection or not. I already have a functioning version of the game, but I wouldn't mind redownloading all my mods. (It's been years and some of them have updates.)
(Main reason I'm considering this is because I'm having a glitch with the Apartment Life community story display. And I just wanna know if there'd be any real difference in terms of play experience.)

If you have the UC I'd in all honesty just stay with that. The gameplay is the same, however, the Legacy introduced more bugs than the UC has. Most of these bugs have been squashed by now thanks to the efforts of the community. But aside from that, the most important thing is that the Legacy version doesn't have the IKEA stuff pack, while the UC does. If you plan to use any CC that uses the official IKEA content you might run into compatibility issues.

Fortunately, the community has also fixed the IKEA stuff pack issue: https://github.com/hiloyt/the-sims-2-legacy-ikea
(Apologies if you already knew, I just wanted to be sure.)

What glitch are you having? It's possible that it can be fixed.

I fully plan on reporting it, I just need some more screenshots.

You'll find more bugs in Legacy than you will with UC, especially if you use any mods/cc. Exactly what is Apartment Life community story display? The only display items that came with AL are the know on wood shelves. And does the glitch exist with a vanilla game?

What I meant to say was "Belladonna Cove Neighborhood Story menu." It's a UI glitch.
Seems so.

I looked that up in Google and got this. AI, so take it with a grain of salt.

Based on community reports, a UI glitch in the Sims 2: Apartment Life Belladonna Cove neighborhood story menu often involves blank story pages, broken UI elements, or a failure to display the intended storyline images, sometimes appearing only as blank boxes. This issue is often related to missing neighborhood templates or corruption in the Storytelling folder.

Here are the known causes and solutions for the Belladonna Cove Neighborhood Story menu UI glitch:

1. Corrupted Storytelling Folder (Common Fix)

The most common cause is a corrupt or missing Storytelling folder, which holds the images for the neighborhood introduction.

Fix: Navigate to Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\E001\Storytelling (where E001 is Belladonna Cove) and delete the contents. The game should regenerate them upon loading.

Alternative: If that fails, go to Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\Userdata\Neighborhoods\E001\Storytelling and copy those files into your Documents folder.

2. Missing/Incomplete Neighborhood Templates

If the game was not installed correctly (common in "Ultimate Collection" or pre-installed setups), the neighborhood may be missing its story files, resulting in blank pages.

Fix: You may need to reinstall or repair the installation. Using clean, pre-installed templates from community sites like MeetMeToTheRiver often fixes this, as the default Maxis installation can sometimes be flawed.

3. Mod/Custom Content Interference

Custom UI replacements (like "Clean UI") or mods that affect cameras can disrupt the story slideshow.

Fix: Remove your Downloads folder, delete the localthumbcache.package (if applicable), and test if the story menu works.

4. Other Issues

Pink Flashing/Graphic Glitch: If the menu is flashing, this is a graphical error, often requiring updating graphics drivers or using the GraphicRules Maker.

Unfurnished Apartments: Sometimes, if you enter a neighborhood without the neighboring apartments being furnished, it can cause general game stability issues, though this is less likely to break the Story menu specifically.

Key Advice: Always backup your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder before deleting files or testing new templates.

I don't think so. Afaik there's nothing in the Legacy edition that the UC doesn't have, on the contrary. I'm not planning on making the switch myself.

I got the Legacy Collection for both Sims 1 and 2 just for a back up if it is ever needed.
I have 2 full sets on disc.
I have the UC from EA it self when it came out for free.

I now have 3 sets of Sims 1 on disc and now the one from Steam for back up.

I have used the UC since it came out (2014, I think) with no plans to change to something else, except if I have to.

I'm a bit old school, I still use the CDs! Well, actually I use .isos I made from my legally bought CDs because I don't want to damage them! They're about as valuable as gold to me nowadays since EA stopped selling physical copies long ago.

The UC was a bit of a godsend, in that it offered players a chance to get-it-all for free. The Legacy is a different monster though, and it reeks of stinky rotten EA corporate greed. i wouldn't support it, I'd rather unfortunately give Jack Sparrow a visit then give the soon-to-be Saudi PIF and that douchebag Jared Kushner any money. they don't deserve anything but the worst of humanity for their human rights offenses...


I'll shut up now.

BUT WHY IS THE RUM GONE?

My discs stopped working so I ended up downloading a *ahem* slightlylesslegal version that I stupidly didn't save a copy of, so if my computer ever crashes I'm going to be SOL. Fingers crossed it never happens. I got the discs used so I wasn't able to get the UC when it came out for free.

I remember ordering Double Deluxe just so I could tell EA that I had a code in order to get the Ultimate Collection. The day the Double Deluxe finally arrived in the mail, I quickly contacted EA support with the code and inserted a line about how I love the Sim series. Just as the Ultimate Collection got added to Origin, I had to leave in order to attend a horse race.

I used to have the Ultimate Collection installed but I had to do a fresh reinstall of my OS, upgrading from Windows 10 to 11. I still own the game, of course, but I don't have the EA App installed and frankly I could do without installing it. I need to go through the hassle of installing the RPC Launcher anyway so, in February 2026 and with Windows 11, is it worth it to go for the Legacy Collection or should I stick to UC?

@Yvelotic2001 : By all accounts the Legacy Collection is buggier than the Ultimate Collection, so I think you'll be better sticking with the UC. I think (but I'm not sure) that they both need the EA App. For myself I'm sticking with my discs.

In the Legacy Edition, EA tried to fix some of the problems of running TS2 on modern PCs, but by now there must be few, if any, of the original TS2 programmers left working at Maxis. So I think the "fixes" were probably written by programmers who had never even looked at the TS2 code before. IMAO it would have been better if they had temporarily taken on some of the more technically-minded TS2 modders to help them upgrade the code. I can't help thinking that people like LazyDuchess and kestrellyn would have done a much better job.

You can install the app and the game, then use "George" to go around having to use the app for startup/etc.

I haven't updated my game to use the app - it's still the Origin version with "George" for startup.

As long as I'm using my current computer, it's not a problem. UC runs happily, without needing the app and without being dependent on internet connection and all that.
Might be a problem whenever I decide to get a new computer, though.

(Probably should install the app at some point, at least to see if UC ported over - haven't played TS4 since before the app, either - last time I played was somewhere around 2022 ...)

UC ported over for me.

While I don't use the EA app for TS2, I do use it for Sims Medieval and DA: Origins. You have to stop it from automatically starting when you start your computer up and make sure that it usn't allowed to update without your permission, but otherwise it has been good lol.

@Yvelotic - you only use the EA app to download the UC or repair or reinstall it. Not for playing it.

Yours truly broke one of her 4 BG disks one day, and then, the day arrived when I had to reinstall the game. I hunted down a Double Deluxe, could not find a BG, but soldiered on. Then, just before the UC broke, another disk (I think it may have been Free Time) bit the dust. When the UC was released, I immediately decided that the UC was the answer to all my problems.

I started using the UC on Win 7, went with it to Win 10 (back in the day, I even wrote a tutorial) and have been on Win 11, UC and all for around 3 years now. Never going back

I had to reinstall my game the other day, but that was because a stupid mistake I make, not anything the UC did.

Good luck

I tried installing the UC from the EA App but it just crashes immediately upon launching the game. This is precisely why I didn't want to upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, the game was working fine and now I have to jump through a million hoops to get it back to a working state.

I had troubles with Win10 - mine also had some issues with crashing (plus pink-flashing and whatnots), plus my first fw times trying to play, the game screen looked like it had a seizure (colors, jumping around). What did help for me was running in windowed, adjusting the screen resolution to roughly around what the game is running at (I've got a 4K screen, by game hated it), plus some adjustments in the GraphicRules file (which caused pink-flashing because at the time GRM had some issues, but that's a whole 'nother story, and fixed now), plus update my graphic card (CAS had black lines running all through it, but the rest of the game seemed fine, apart from the pink that is). Plus "George" (If I can avoid playing online, I will...)

Now my game is running quite well (though for the moment I'm refusing to update to 11...)

For the GraphicRules - the LC file apparently fixes/stabilizes a few things, so you may want to try that one.
https://may-s2resources.tumblr.com/...435792412311552
(if you get pink flashing or random crashing with it and have Nvidia graphics, it's probably because of a missing line, not sure if the above file has been edited).

I play old-school on discs, but also have the UC in case one day my discs decide to bite the dust before I can make working images/backups of them.

I'd definitely play on UC, since Legacy introduced a whole load of new bugs and appearently can cause trouble with mods as well.

My game did not crash after installing on Win 10, nor on Win 11. I started building Paternoster on Win 10; my pc broke, I bought a laptop. I completed Paternoster on Win 11.