The first two Sims games are still exceedingly well-regarded these days, but sadly, actually gaining access to them in a legitimate way isn’t particularly easy. The first was a disc-only jobby, and the second has long-since been removed from digital platforms.
Thankfully, with a new report from Kotaku (thanks, Push Square) accompanying an intriguing tease from EA itself, it looks like The Sims and The Sims 2 will be re-released on PC very soon. The catch? Well, according to Kotaku’s sources, it seems as though a console release is still “unclear” at the time of writing.
As rumoured, The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 have returned to (official) PC stores. Kindly Uncle EA has taken a break from his busy layoff schedule to rustle up a pair of Legacy collections that include a bunch of DLC. It’s the very first time the original Sims has graced a digital retail platform, I believe – it was first released in 2000, back when people used to access the internet using smoke signals and semaphore. Anyway, here’s the reveal trailer.
Last week, we asked you go chasing in-game waterfalls and share your best moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
mariprosilvashares a massive waterfall in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
M_Joe_Hortshares a waterfall with a moose standing before it in Red Dead Redemption 2.
xenobitzstrikes a pose in front of a waterfall in Infinity Nikki.
MrioMoreno5shares walking across a rope in front of waterfalls in Sea of Stars.
call_me_xaviishares Aloy taking a break in front of a rocky waterfall in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
snejku23shares the light hitting a lost city a top a waterfall in Uncharted: Lost Legacy.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Climb SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 5, 2025
Next week, we’re climbing up. Share characters climbing or ascending to great heights from the game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
Warner Bros’ licensed free-to-play fighting game MultiVersus – aka, the one where Velma Dinkley and Arya Stark can team up to kick Superman’s face in – will no longer be playable online as of 30th May. It’ll be pulled from Steam, the Epic Games Store and the PlayStation and Xbox stores at the end of its next season, though you’ll still be able to get your fill of Bugs Bunny bashing offline against either friends or bots.
EA and Maxis are celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Sims franchise with a truly excellent surprise. Today, both The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 are available on PC once again via two Legacy Collections and The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle.
EA has announced that it’s releasing The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection today on PC. The two are available separately as well as combined for $40 in The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle.
Both games include all expansions and almost all stuff packs, as it looks like The Sims 2: Legacy Collection is missing the IKEA Home Stuff pack from 2008. But otherwise, everything’s there. In fact, both collections include some bonus content, with The Sims 1 getting something called Throwback Fit Kit and The Sims 2 receiving a Grunge Revival Kit on top of all the other add-ons.
EA’s re-release of the two older The Sims games marks the first time in over a decade that both gave have been readily available to play. The Sims 1 was only ever released on disc, so for years now unless you were able to track down an old physical copy and somehow make it run on a modern Windows machine, there was just no way to get ahold of it (and that doesn’t even include the expansion packs!). The Sims 2 was available more recently in 2014 via an Ultimate Collection on EA’s Origin store, but the Ultimate Collection was taken down a while ago. So unless you took advantage of it at the time, The Sims 2 remained unavailable to you unless you could similarly find a physical disc. With these two new collections, all four The Sims games are now easily purchaseable and playable again through digital storefronts.
We gave The Sims 1 a 9.5/10 and The Sims 2 an 8.5/10 waaaaay back in the day when we first reviewed them both. While the series has added numerous new features and ironed out a lot of kinks since then, the originals are still worth checking out for their goofiness, relative simplicity, challenge, and legacy.
The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection are both available now on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and through the EA app.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Player First Games has announced that MultiVersus Season 5 will be its last, bringing the Warner Bros. platform fighting game to a close May 30, 2025, at 9 a.m. PST.
The studio revealed plans to discontinue support for the crossover brawler with a blog post on its website. MultiVersus, which launched May 28 last year, will launch into Season 5 starting next week, February 4, and will continue through its May 2025 end date. It’s at this point that support for online play will come to an end, with Player First promising that players will still be able to access all earned and purchased content while offline via the local gameplay mode and training mode.
“Most importantly, we want to thank every player and person who has ever played or supported MultiVersus,” a message from the MultiVersus team says. “All of us on the Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games teams have poured our heart and soul into this game. We will be forever grateful for the incredible support of the MultiVersus community throughout this journey.”
Player First adds that real-money transactions for MultiVersus are no longer available as of today, though fans will still have the option to use Gleamium and character tokens to access in-game content until support ends come May 30. MultiVersus will also be delisted from the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Steam, and Epic Games Store at this time.
“We took another $100 million plus impairment due to the underperforming releases, primarily MultiVersus this quarter, bringing total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, a key factor in this year’s studio profit decline,” chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said during the November call.
Although today’s news means the free-to-play Warner Bros. fighting game will shut down just days after celebrating its one-year launch anniversary, Season 5 will at least send it out with a bang. In addition to the usual new content seasonal updates bring, new characters Lola Bunny and Aquaman will also be joining the fight as playable characters. Both will be available starting next week, with the Looney Toons icon able to be unlocked as a daily calendar reward and the DC superhero available through the battle pass.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
The patch notes below include indicators showing which game each fix belongs to, with a couple of generic improvements included at the bottom. It looks like the first game has received the most love here, but your experience should be improved across both entries regardless.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Xbox app for Windows PC, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Samar is a young witch working the spirit-swapping night shift in the eastern outskirts of Demashq. A recent spike in spirits crossing over from another dimension breaks the chill atmosphere of their night shift, so with her trusty familiarZ by her side, she sets off into the city to find out what’s happened. With a popular band scheduled to kick off their big comeback tour in Demashq, Samar needs to work quickly before the city is overrun with stans and spirits alike!
Welcome to the fourth chapter of the “Mystery Box” series with 10 new boxes full of enigmas to crack that are waiting for you on this journey through lost worlds.
Rogue Waters is a tactical, turn-based rogue-lite – with pirates! Lead Captain Cutter and their crew through procedurally generated encounters for revenge. Recruit, train, and upgrade crew, harness sea creatures, and engage in naval and melee combat to succeed.
Journey of Johann is an action-adventure platformer with puzzle elements. Make your way through levels and a boss with different challenges and obstacles. Collect goblets, secrets and beat time trials. Use your weapons as tools such as climbing, blocking hits, and defeating enemies. The game was designed with speedrunning in mind.
Embark on a steampunk adventure in Mechanita, a side-scrolling platformer with challenging pixel art stages! Guide a goggled heroine through 50 increasingly complex levels.
A charming puzzle game that blends cuteness and strategy into a relaxing and fun experience. Play solo or in local co-op mode to help the kittens solve puzzles and find their cozy beds.
Punch Monk is a challenging puzzle game with 50 phases of incremental progression. As players advance, new mechanics are introduced, increasing the game’s complexity.
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator lets you experience a paramedic’s life. Your goal is to reach accident sites quickly, care for the injured, and provide first aid. Each case is unique, requiring you to adapt and make swift, effective decisions.
Explore the engaging world of Big Helmet Heroes, a 3D beat ’em up that merges combat and adventure. Discover 29 unique heroes concealed within various kingdoms, and select your preferred characters to embark on a quest to rescue the princess. You can play solo or with a companion as you strive to conquer the significant challenges ahead.
Embark on a gripping cooperative journey to save the planet and its food from the regime of Nutri Inc. – a powerful group of zero waste maniacs seeking to turn life on Earth into a tasteless dystopia. Become an Ohmie – member of Weldon Ohm’s resistance movement seeking to liberate the world from Nutri Inc’s food and mind control.
Your landlord is banging on the door. You have a single coin left to your name. You insert the coin into your slot machine and… Jackpot!! Luck be a Landlord, tonight! Collect symbols, build synergies, and defeat capitalism in this cult classic roguelike deck builder – now on consoles by popular demand.
Teams of darsanauts got lost on Darsalon’s moons during mining missions. You must lead them to the nearest base station, where they will follow your commands using their AI. Protect them from dangers and enemies with your laser gun, jet pack, and vehicles. Use the ground maker gun to destroy terrain and create new paths.
A multiplayer first-person shooter where players and their teammates must survive in the dark and hostile environment of the Iapetus Station, a former laboratory now inhabited by alien creatures. Featuring retro graphics, Spacepunk references notable sci-fi and retrofuturistic works from the past.
Under Defeat is a classic game developed by G.rev, originally released in Japanese arcades nearly twenty years ago. It later came to various platforms, including the Dreamcast. The 2024 edition is the ultimate version, featuring all previous content and expertly ported by industry veterans.
Bomb Bowling X is a casual retro game where you need to help a cute cat in a superhero cape win at Bomb Bowling. It has only a few bomb charges, as well as bowling balls, basketballs and your skill and ingenuity. Armed with the laws of physics and your own ingenuity, bring down the full power of your “striking” skill on the pins!
In the vibrant world of Beeflandia, our hero Beef Cat and his friends always know how to celebrate the good times. But when a mysterious Big Guy shows up and stirs up trouble, everything changes. The peaceful vibes are over and it’s time for a new kind of adventure!
Engage in intense combat with your friends where the stakes are astronomical. Collide with skyscrapers, marine giants, and asteroids to gain the upper hand, pursue them relentlessly, and execute extraordinary special moves. The focus is on the exhilaration of strategic confrontation.
A roguelike shooter game that unites the nostalgic and fun 8-bit aesthetic with modern and deep shooting mechanics. Make your way into the church hall to shoot and dash-holy-punch through different species of demons and bosses with unique mechanics that keeps challenging your abilities each run.
Idle Devils is a strategic placement game. You can choose devils to cultivate and conquer new female demons, ultimately saving the Demon World and becoming the Demon King. The game features rich roles, skills, and equipment systems.
In this relaxing game, your ability to optimize inventory space will be put to the test. Each relic has a unique shape and its own challenges to fit, making the gameplay experience both challenging and rewarding. Relish the sense of achievement as you uncover hidden items and refine your strategy to collect all the available treasures.
A game series inspired by the classic “Spot the Differences,” where you need to compare two images and identify the differences between them. With over 330 differences spread across 35 levels, will you be able to find them all?
Roll the dice and fight! Sugoro Quest: The Quest of Dice Heroes comes to the West for the first time! This is a board game-style turn-based RPG where dice will decide your fate! The story begins in the kingdom of Siland, where four adventurers set out to talk to the king in search of intrepid adventures. Each adventure is different, so be sure to choose the most suitable member for each journey.
The developer of Civilization 7 has explained why it strongly recommends even veteran Civ players stick with the tutorial for their first full campaign.
In a post on Steam, Ed Beach, creative director at Firaxis Games, offered his tips for your first game of Civilization 7.
“Civilization 7 is a big game, with many new systems and mechanics that differentiate it from earlier games in our series,” he began. “There’s a lot to learn, so we felt that it was important that we provide some suggestions to ensure everyone has a successful first experience.”
This is a reference to Civilization 7’s Ages system, which is a drastic change for the long-running strategy series. A full campaign in Civilization 7 is one that goes through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves. The Civilization games have never had such a system.
Beach then explained why Firaxis chose Small as the default map size for Civilization 7.
“We know that many veteran Civ players love to play on the largest map size and see the maximum number of empires battle it out,” he said. “However, there’s a very deliberate reason that we chose Small as the default map size. With three other empires on your home continent, and a few more to discover later in the game, Small Maps make for a very comfortable experience while you are learning the ins and outs of Civ 7.
“We especially recommend this map size as you get your feet wet with our new Diplomacy system. Tracking your relationship and ongoing diplomatic activities with a manageable number of opponents makes it way easier to get the hang of how you want to spend and manage your Diplomatic Influence.
“We also recommend sticking with Continents Plus for your Map Type selection. The extra islands just off-shore help ease you into the ocean exploration – a key element of the Exploration Age, the second chapter of our game.”
As for the Tutorial and Advisors, Beach confirmed that when you launch into your first game of Civilization 7, it turns the Tutorial on for you. He also strongly recommended Civ pros play with the Tutorial on, at least for their first full game.
“The Tutorial is designed to provide tips and explanations exactly when you first encounter something new,” Beach explained.
“Fans experienced with earlier Civ titles may scoff at the idea of playing with the Tutorial on, but with so many of our game systems having received upgrades and revisions, we really do recommend sticking with the Tutorial for your first full campaign through our three Ages.
“Keep in mind that the game has four different Advisors, and you can control which ones are actively leading you through a series of quests to teach you their portion of the game. If it’s too much to take in all at once, we suggest listening to only a single Advisor at a time.”
Even after you’ve mastered enough systems to turn the tutorial off, you should switch to the setting Only Warnings, Beach recommended.
“This setting allows these same Advisors to jump in and warn you if your empire’s progress is about to undergo a major setback,” he said. “Even our internal team at Firaxis that knows this game so well plays with these warnings enabled!”
Overnight, Firaxis unveiled Civilization 7’s post-launch roadmap as part of a special livestream event (Great Britain has been relegated to DLC). Civilization 7 itself launches on PC via Steam, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on February 11, although the more expensive Deluxe Edition grants access from February 6.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
