Just like everyone else, crashed right away, after some searching online I found a fix for both the crashes, and empty neighbourhoods,

To fix the crashing navigate to your install folder and find the music folder, such as SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\The Sims Legacy Collection\Music

Rename the avi file eag_us.avi to eag_usa.avi (I dont know why, but it works)

As for loading into empty neighbourhoods you cant change, copy the user data folders 0-8 from your install directory and paste them into your save game folder (C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Saved Games\Electronic Arts\The Sims 25, and as simple as that I had the base populated neighborhood and others working.

This worked for me, and if its really this simple, please fix it EA for people who don't know what they are doing, also thanks to whoever figured this out before me.

10/10 nostalgia here we come!

This should be an easy recommend because anyone buying it is mostly doing so for the nostalgia. We all know what we're going to get, and we get it because we already know we enjoy it.

And indeed, the neighborhood music gives a pleasant hit of dopamine. I can practically smell the vague musk of the basement at the house in which I grew up, feel the cold tile against my bare feet, and faintly hear the TV upstairs as my mom (RIP) listens and reads. My siblings are all doing other things because this is MY time on the computer. I'm going to make some strange-looking sims, hit rosebud a few dozen times, build the biggest house I can fit on the biggest lot, and eventually burn it all down.
But something is missing.. it's the intro scene. It's on YouTube no doubt, but I was looking forward to watching it in anticipation of soon playing with my own hands.. It was part of the experience, and it always sounded so sweet through those Boston Acoustics (RIP) speakers on our Gateway (RIP) PC. Oh well.
Something else is missing though... Oh, its literally all of the neighborhood houses and families. Just a blank slate, nothing to look at except roads and empty lots.
That sucks. But I guess that'll happen. I'll create a family and get started anyways.

And that's where the adventure ends at this point. There is simply no way to move forward from here. Without fail, the game fails. Hard crash, every time.

I'm sure it's difficult porting a 25 year old game to work on modern operating systems and hardware, but I feel like you could go to some forum and find a group of people who made it happen completely for free simply because they're genuinely passionate about the game. It feels ridiculous that I paid actual money for this when all I can do is listen to the neighborhood music and look at the barren lots and scenery. This is a complete disappointment.

I'm hopeful that patches and updates will eventually fix the game. If they do, I'll try to remember to update my review accordingly. But at this point, I feel scammed out of my money. No one should pay for this kind of experience. Does it even mean anything to be a part of a big studio anymore?

Good luck, devs. By the look of things, you've got a lot of work ahead of you to make this right!
(the work probably should have been done before the game was released, but maybe I'm just old-fashioned)

Crashed multiple times. Never able to play it. Froze and crashed again. Completely unplayable. 25 year old game. Typical EA Sims to throw out buggy unfinished garbage. Can't wait for inzoi. Asking for a refund.