Installing and Patching

The game can be purchased in either CD format or as a download from any of several sellers. I purchased my copy from Direct2Drive, but it should also be available elsewhere. If you have a Retail or European version of the game, you can also download patches from fileplanet.com

IMPORTANT: if you have an nVidia graphics card, do not install the v.1.3 patch!!! Instead, download and install the 91.31 (or better) driver package from nVidia.

Windows 2000/XP can get it here
Windows XP (64-bit) can get it here
Windows XP Media Center Edition can get it here

It seems that nVidia driver versions in the mid-70s to high-80's range have problems rendering character textures in Singles 2 (which is what the v.1.3 patch addressed). If your driver version is below something like 72.xx or above 90.xx, you shouldn't have any problems and should not need the patch. Players with an ATI graphics card are unaffected in all driver versions and do not need the v.1.3 patch at all, as far as I know.

If you install the v.1.3 patch, the game will run fine, but you will be unable to load any saved games where you have deleted any of the starting walls (the game will crash while the save is loading). And if you delete any walls and then hop off to the bar, the game will crash when you return to the apartment. So be warned - don't delete any walls if you have installed the v.1.3 patch. If you have already installed it, uninstall the game, upgrade your drivers and reinstall without the v.1.3 patch. Your saved games should work, so move them off to another directory and then move them back into the \singles2\savegame folder. I haven't tested this, though, so plan on it not working (you can always delete them if it doesn't) and be happy if it does work.

There is one rendering issue that we have found with upgrading your drivers. If you do the upgrade, the character skin tones will change (they'll be a bit darker - overall, a very nice tanned effect), but the tones for female character nipples do not change, so they'll look kind of like a pair of headlights. As with most things, it seems to be a trade-off. Use the v.1.3 patch and you run into crashes while loading saved games; upgrade the drivers to avoid the patch and breasts will look odd. On the whole, I'd take the breast problem because the game will work. We can always hope for a fix.

You must also have the latest DirectX 9c update. The game will install it for you if you let it. If you don't know, let it install. Nothing will happen if it's already there.

The game installs to wherever you tell it to, but defaults to c:\program files\singles2. You might want to make a shortcut to this folder somewhere because there are a lot of cheats and edits you can do to spice-up (or ruin) your gameplay and the shortcut will make it easier to make those changes.

There is a copy-protection system running on the game, so you will need to have your CD in order to play. Since there is no CD in the download version, it just runs. However, you will need to keep a record of your activation key for the download version. Direct2Drive allows you to install the game on multiple computers (can't speak for any other downloaded version). If you are doing the first installation on a machine AND do a fresh download of the installation package, it should activate automatically. If you copy the installation package onto another machine, though, you'll need the activation key or the game won't launch.

Also, as part of the copy-protection system, you can't copy certain game files from one computer to another because it will change the "created on" date in the file attributes, which the game checks to make sure that you're running a legitimate version.