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Good, but not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 87 / 88
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was able to finish both stories in one day. The stories were OK but could be improved. It's good for beginners like another review said but for fans who are used to the usual Sims games, it may seem a bit tedioius. There are some obvious differences in the game, such as the game can be played as "windowed mode", which minimizes it to a smaller screen so the player can e-mail and chat at the same time. While the feature is a nice idea, I find that having such a small screen minimized (esp. for laptop users), makes it harder to find certain objects in a house or character and I just don't even bother playing it in windowed mode. Here are some pros and cons of the game.

Pros:
1. The story mode actually makes the game feel like there's a purpose to it than make babies and get a promotion then die.
2. The stories were decently interesting, although a bit predictable.
3. Riley's story was probably the best since there are some twists to the ending that I kind of saw coming but didn't really see it coming.
4. With Vincent's story, it was more like the user got a nice choice in determining the fate of Vincent. I won't spoil it but I'm interested to play it again just to see the other ending.
5. In free play mode, there are now 4 wants and no fears, which makes it easier to make your sim happy.
6. As you move along in the story, you can get some really, really nice rewards. These rewards can add to the house and not something that would be found in the buy mode.
7. Loading times are so much faster, but that's a given with the laptop-friendly feature.
8. When you create a family in the free play mode, you get 40,000 to start out instead of the usualy 20,000. Then again, the houses are more expensive but they usually include more objects than the Sims 2 game so you don't have to buy everything once you go into the lot.
9. Most sims that are acquired already have a cell phone. otherwise, you don't have to go to a community lot just to buy a cell phone now. It can be bought under the electronics category in buy mode.

Cons:
1. Riley's story ended way too fast. I had a "that's it?" feeling at the end of the story. Like, I got so caught up into the story just to have it end.
2. Vincent's story was longer but it was kind of tedious, doing the same things over and over. It seemed like the creators failed to have a balance of intersting story and length but it's still fun. (HINT: When you get any extra rewards in Vincent's Story, don't place it on the lot anywhere, just keep it in the backpack).
3. No real replay value to the game besides maybe Vincent's story.
4. Seems like the only way to replay a story would be to reset the game by moving the original folder somewhere else and renaming it. No in-game option.
5. You get the same objects and hairstyales and clothing choices as Sims 2, only a lot less of them.
6. After the stories are done, even if the story rewards have been unlocked for Riley and Vincent, it remains locked for the new sims that you create. And there were some pretty nice reward objects as well. Maybe there's a cheat to unlock them but I have yet to see it.
7. Besides story mode, the other aspects of the game is pretty much the same.

Overall, it's a pretty good game. For those who like to torture sims for the fun of it, it's harder to do in story mode since the story won't move forward if you don't complete a goal. So get this game if the pros seem to outweigh the cons for you. In my case, it does.

EDIT: Something else I have noticed... it seems that the sims don't get bills anymore! I love that feature since I always forget about the mailbox when I play Sims 2. With the windowed mode, one thing I have noticed is that the size of it varies from computer to computer. On my boyfriend's computer and my laptop, it's minimized to about 75% or less so it was relatively small on the screen. On my PC, it stretches all the way across the screen. The only annoying thing is that if you move the cursor to the edge of the screen it doesn't scroll through the lot like it used to so it gets annoying trying to get to certain objects. The nanny bug that is infamous in Sims 2 is also in The Sims Life Stories.

OK, If you haven't played The Sims before

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 38 / 41
Date: February 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My thoughts on this product.
1. OVER PRICED. Not worth the $40s. Might be worth $25 like an expansion of The Sims.
2. MEMORY HOG. I haven't put it on my laptop, but I can see this program would make your system slow to a crawl.
3. Liked the "Goal" part of the game.
4. Liked that relationships didn't deteriorate quickly, if at all, when you haven't contacted a Sim in a while.
5. Liked the story mode. Wish Maxis would add this to Sims 2. Wish they added a "story outline" feature to help user create a goal oriented story.

Over all I wouldn't have purchased it and saved the money for the "Seasons Expansion".
If your new I still would spend the $40s on "The Sims 2" and NOT "The Sims Life Stories".

I wish there were more stories

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 25 / 28
Date: February 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game the first day it came out. I have been playing the sims ever since the 1st sims game. Its really not worth the 40 dollar price tag for only 2 stories. After you are finshed with the stories, you then get to play in classic mode, witch is just the same as the oringal sims. If I were you, I would save my money and just go buy Seasons when it come out later this month.

Don't waste your money!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 27
Date: February 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Stink...Stank...Stunk...I found this game to be a complete waste of my money. It's not worth it once you have all the other expansion packs added to your previous game to abandon it for this one...Do yourself a favor, if you love the Sims 2...keep playing it! It took me fifteen minutes to reject this game!! Not worth forty dollars!!

Fun, but short lived

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: February 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun, but not really worth the $40. It takes only a few hours to complete a story. Perhaps borrow it from a friend when they finish with it in one day.

Very Disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: March 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought because this said it was very laptop friendly and since you can't use any custom content that the game would load faster and play faster. But it doesn't. The regular Sims2 plays slow on my pc and I was hoping this would be my answer to faster play. Unfortunately it is just as slow as the regular Sims and not as fun to play and no access to custom content which makes the game so fun in the first place. And the life stories are really just a small expansion of the regular Sims goals and wants anyway. I might buy the Sims Castaway Stories since it might be interesting to see what goes on at the deserted island, but LifeStories and Pet LifeStories is just a different and not as fun way to play regular Sims. I would not recommend this game especially for the price. I guess it is just time to upgrade my PC so I can play the regular game at a faster speed!

Geared for kids who only have low-end laptops

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you're 40'ish, like me, or have a high-end laptop, best pass on this one unless you're a collector. I bought it out of curiosity, and because I collect the Sims 2 and have a complete library of all of the different series.

This is a stand-alone product completely separate from the regular PC Sims 2 base game, expansions, and add-ons.

I installed this, played it for about 10 minutes before the frustration of having to use keyboard camera controls along with the mouse and not being able to build like in the regular PC Sims 2 game took over, then uninstalled it to free up hard drive memory since it uses well over a Gig. For me it was a complete waste of hard drive space. I'd rather save my laptop hard drive space for future regular PC Sims 2 EP's and add-ons or whatever else I might need it for.

This version is for players whose laptops aren't quite as high-end in capabilities (very limited hard drive space) and it really is geared for the younger generations of gamers in my opinion. I can't even say that this one would be good to install on laptops for people WITH high-end laptops who travel because my laptop has the entire regular Sims 2 AND Sims 1 series (with ALL expansions and add-ons) on it without any problems at all, which I take with me when I travel. And quite frankly, I'd rather play something that's more mouse friendly, less keyboard, even on my laptop. That's why wireless laptop mouses were invented..for people like me who aren't particularly fond of having to use two hands all the time while playing a game, and for mouse friendly games.

The tediousness of reaching goals, one goal at a time, is what I feel geared toward kids or those who are completely unfamiliar with the Sims 1 or Sims 2 series in general.

In either case, the price set for this is too high. You don't get the complete Sims 2 base game with this, not even close. Many regular Sims 2 features are missing. This one doesn't even have as many features in it as PSP Sims 2...at least in it you can build, in PC Life Stories you can't.

To me, I'd rather spend my time playing the regular Sims 2 series ON MY LAPTOP.

So...What's new?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: April 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this at Target thinking that this was an expansion pack for the sims 2, but all you do in Life Stories is play the lives of a couple of pre-designed characters. Now, if I'm going to play the life of a character, it's going to be my own where I can decide where they are going to go. There's nothing here that I couldn't have done on the sims 2. Don't waste your money. Buy the Nightlife or Pets expansions instead.

A good starter...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When I saw that the Sims were coming out with a "new" style of game play, I was very excited. However, once I finished the game I was pretty disappointed. It's entertaining, but it's not for anyone who has been playing The Sims and Sims 2 since their creation, like I have. I thought it would be a "choose your own adventure" type of game, but there is a specific storyline chosen for you, and you can't progress unless you follow that story. You don't get to choose who your character falls in love with, it's already been decided for you. It's a good game if you've never played before, because it teaches you all about the fun you can have with the Sims 2; but if you've already been playing I would stick to the expansion packs if you're looking for something new.

Awesome For Beginners and Adepts Alike

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 33
Date: February 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a Sims2 junkie. I have all the expansion packs and spend far too much of my time playing the game and downloading custom content for it. When I heard about this new line of games, I was skeptical. But I am SO glad I got it. Playing in story mode is super cute and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to have a scaled down version of the game that loads quickly but offers lots of in game options and fun.

I highly recommend this game! I can't wait for the next one!

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