I got customer support to register my base game cd's a couple of days ago, no ultimate collection as yet although double deluxe showed up straight away, I'm sure it will happen though, if not I'll get in touch with them again.
I don't have all the stuff packs and only have ep's up to Bon Voyage so it will be nice to see how Sims 2 handled apartments and all the hobbies that came with Freetime. I reinstalled the base game a couple of months back, I played it to death when I first got it but hadn't touched it for years, compared to TS3 sims they seem to chat at a hundred miles an hour, talking over the top of each other while gesticulating wildly, I can see why many say TS3 sims seem wooden in comparison, I'd forgotten what they were like, unfortunately a few minutes in they were giving me a headache and I went back to my nice calm sims 3 game.
I shall definitely give this another go though when I get it.