The Sims: Life Stories (PC)

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MY HISTORY WITH THE SIMS
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Well, yes I had Sims 1 for ages and only had Sims 2 for about 6 months ago for Christmas. I am someone who is careful with my money, so I always like to wait for the price to go down before having it; whether I buy it, or someone else buys it for me as a gift. I tend to borrow the expansion packs from my friend and I have become incredibly addicted ...
...present. No waiting for the price to come down! I was a tad bit annoyed, as I was so into Sims 2, I weren’t sure whether to start the ‘Life Stories’. Well, after 2 months, I decided to since it was half term.



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ABOUT THE LIFE STORIES
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Having no previous knowledge about the game, until I received it as a gift, Life Stories (LS) is a game in its own right ... more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY HISTORY WITH THE SIMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, yes I had Sims 1 for ages and only had Sims 2 for about 6 months ago for Christmas. I am someone who is careful with my money, so I always like to wait for the price to go down before having it; whether I buy it, or someone else buys it for me as a gift. I tend to borrow the expansion packs from my friend and I have become incredibly addicted to Sims 2.

Therefore, it was a real treat when ‘The Sims: Life Stories’ came out and I got it for my birthday present. No waiting for the price to come down! I was a tad bit annoyed, as I was so into Sims 2, I weren’t sure whether to start the ‘Life Stories’. Well, after 2 months, I decided to since it was half term.

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ABOUT THE LIFE STORIES
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Having no previous knowledge about the game, until I received it as a gift, Life Stories (LS) is a game in its own right and not an expansion pack. Therefore the big question was whether you need this game as well as Sims 2? Well, you just have to read on.

LS uses the same format, furniture and character creators as Sims 2 does, which was rather disappointed as I would have loved something completely new. So what is ‘Life Stories’? The concept of the game comes from its titled. You have the control of a single Sim character, and guiding her or him through their life in a lovely town called ‘Four Corners’.

The first life that you come across, will be Riley ’s. She has decided to move back to ‘Four Corners’ to live with her auntie Sharon after losing her job in SimCity. She decided to move away and to get her feet back on the ground. During her journey, she will meet friends like Fiona, fall in love with Mickey, having a catfight with Agora and bumping into her old flame, Dylan.

Riley’s journey is guided by the tutorials within the game, teaching you how to play – for those that are novice or experienced. Riley must fulfil certain goals in order for the storyline to move on. They goal may ask you to eat cereal for breakfast, get a job, get to know Mickey and go to the gym. Eventually, Riley will go through a love dilemma, losing guys, winning guys and eventually getting married and bring a child to the world.

Unfortunately the game only consist of two stories. You can only play Vince’s one when you get to Chapter 4 in Riley’s life. Each life stories has only 12 chapters each. The other story is Vince. Vince is a successful businessman, which also mean he is extremely wealthy. Success in wealth but hopeless in love. As a player you have to help Vince conquer his fear and to fall in love with the right lady, who is not only after him for the money. By playing LS, you can enjoy a bit of soap opera, sharing the good and bad, humour and as well as twists.

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THE SCIENCE
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Unlike Sims 1 and 2, LS claims that it is ‘Laptop Friendly’ on the cover of the game case. And it is true. I tried on both laptop and desktop as an experiment. On the desktop, the loading and exiting is about 3 times faster than Sims 2. The game makers have obviously acknowledged the problem with using up too much memory and seem to have found the ideal solution.

The game runs smoothly on most occasions, even with good graphics. At the bottom of the screen, whilst playing, you have your ‘Windows’ bar, to allow you to use the computer at the same time, such as exploring the Internet (though computer does slow down) and using Office packages.

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PLAY WISE
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You can play on two different modes on LS – the story or the free play mode. The story mode is as I’ve explained earlier with Riley and Vince’s story. With the free play mode, it’s basically what you play on Sims 2.

This game is extremely easy for those who have played Sims 2, as it uses the same format and functions. For those who haven’t played it, you control the Sim’s everyday action. Your Sims must get involve in mundane tasks (like humans), in order to survive longer. So they will be doing chores such as cleaning the toilet, watching telly, painting and cooking.

The adult Sims can have babies, which will grow up into toddlers – child – teenager and eventually adults. All Sims will grow old and will die, unless you are fulfilling all desires of the Sim. Life as a Sim is not all fine and dandy. You can also ruin their lives by forgetting to install fire alarm, so the house will burn down, or arguing with other Sims. So, there is no change between LS and Sims 2.

However, I think they have change the mood of the homes as the lighting has colour to it! There is some sort of sensitivity to the type of lights you have in the room. Rather than it being full bright like in Sims 2, there are some dimmer ones. The reflections on the mirror are also more sensitive as it reflects what is in the room too. Also, there is a real enhancement to the detail of shadows.

I must confess that I find the character on LS easier to please than on Sims 2. LS Sims look after themselves better when you leave them alone. This meant, you were able to achieve their desire goals a lot easier and they are less likely to be depress; where they wave frantically at you like a lunatic, wetting themselves and pulling their hairs out.

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THE PROBLEMS
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When you enter LS, you can only have the nice neighbourhood of ‘Four Corners’. In Sims 2, you have 3 existing ones, plus you can create many your own ones within the package. Four Corners is smaller than the ones in Sims 2, as well as having smaller houses. This meant that you are allowed a maximum of 4 in the family house, rather than 8 in Sims 2.

It is extremely addictive as you try your best to fulfil the goals of Riley and Vince. But once Vince has found love and Riley has a baby, the story ends there. You are free to play the game like Sims 2. Therefore, do we really needed another Sim2 wannabe game? I’m beginning to think that EA Games (maker) are trying to cash in some extra money here.

The stories are appealing to play; however, there is the notion that you are not making your own stories with your own characters. They should provide a programme where you can write your own and swap stories on the Internet. As for the free play, there is a limited amount of existing family and the house sizes and family sizes that are too small, which makes Sim 2 a better contestant.

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THE VERDICT
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The Sims games are based on soap opera genre, with never ending drama throughout the Sim’s life, with an open ending for you to control. What Life Stories did was to consolidate so the game had more structure and linear flow.

I feel that LS is not designed for Sims hardcore fans, who are happy in taking on the challenge of the traditional game and expansion pack. It is actually a fantastic game for those who may have no Sims experience, as the instructions are clear, and the linear pathway the character lead can be seen as an extended tutorial to the game.

It is a plus for on the fact that the game is designed for computer that has less rams and memory. I feel that Sims 1 and Sims 2 has advance, with continuously introducing new expansion packs, which has a nice challenging concept. Life Stories seems to have taken the step back as it is less challenging and rather pointless to have if you are an avid Sims gamer.

I feel generally the game is just too short. I completed Riley’s story in a day. If I was to play free mode afterward, I might as well have suck to playing Sims 2. For those of you who have already got Sims 2, don’t bother with this. Use your money to buy an expansion pack instead. Those of you who are Simless, this one would the ideal starter kit for you.

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IT’S NOT THE END
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Sims Life Stories is the first in the new series. They have also introduced new titles such as Pet Stories and Castaway Stories. I have not tried them yet, but there could be an element of difference compared to Sims 2 as it based on pet and on an island. I will not buy it to try it; no doubt I can borrow it from my friends at some point to explore the play factor.

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MY RATING
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Difficulty - 2/10
Gameplay - 6/10
Graphic - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Value - 2/10 (From Tesco £29.99, you can get it £5 cheaper on internet)

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INFO=
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Developer – EA Games
Genre - Strategy
Year – 2007
Package - Windows XP
Processor – 1.4GHz or 1.8GHz for laptop
Memory – 256 MB Ram or 512MB RAM for laptop 

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