Windows

The Sims: Life Stories

Regular Sims devotees might find this version a little simplistic, but for newcomers it is undoubtedly an ideal introduction to The Sims. The stories are engaging and fun, there's plenty to see and do and - best of all - in today's demand for the latest and greatest graphical fidelity, here is a quality title that easily runs on low-end PCs and laptops - perfect for those commutes to work.

Theses are the days of your Sims’ lives (or at least your Sims named Riley and Vincent). It is totally up to you how quickly their fates intertwine at the conclusion of The Sims Life Stories. Does either find the true love they seek? It’s their tale to tell, and you’re the narrator. And it doesn’t end here. There’s already a whole line of Stories titles planned, from The Sims Pet Stories to The Sims Castaway Stories. So the stories of the Sims are not going to end anytime soon, and it’s off to a good first chapter with The Sims Life Stories.

EA are going to be making Sims: Stories into a whole new series - this one's going to be followed by The Sims: Castaway Stories. And with the whole thing being so similar to The Sims 2, you can certainly accuse them of churning out too many Sims spin-offs. But this is still entertaining for any self-respecting soap-addicted control freak.

At its current price, The Sims Life Stories probably isn't worth the money for those people who are intimately familiar with The Sims 2 series and should probably be avoided by all those who have master computers with world dominating graphics cards. However, those who have laptops and not a lot of time to invest into virtual lifestyles should definitely check this out - with easy to use controls, a more causal gameplay style in the sense that it doesn't take all day to refresh your Sims and teach them new skills, and two stories to play through, The Sims Life Stories is an interesting experiment that ticks the right boxes for the right kind of people. And those people should get a life - in the way of this game!

The Sims: Life Stories is aimed at people who grew tired of The Sims but don’t have the necessary computer hardware to upgrade to the full version of The Sims 2. If you’re in this group, The Sims: Life Stories serves as a nice middle-step, but you’ll be better off upgrading to the full-on Sims 2.

EA heeft een nieuwe melkkoe, met enkele aanpassingen voor laptopgamers. De verslaving blijft echter overheersen.

A nice tutorial for people who have yet to play a Sims game, Life Stories’ draw is the directed experience of Riley and Vince. But those who have played before may find the limits of this game rather restrictive. For those that like the creation process of Sims 2, Life Stories limits are revealed rather quickly. Still, EA has done a nice job in creating a game for lower-end systems.

Si vous n’avez pas encore goûté au phénomène, Histoires de vie est un excellent premier choix, une mise en bouche bien menée. Notre jugement est un peu différent si vous êtes un fan de la première heure ; en effet, le mode Histoire ne semble pas justifier à lui seul la somme demandée.

All in all, while Life Stories does indeed give that performance boost and makes the game playable on low-end machines, what it loses in the process is just too much. We concede that, perhaps, the problem lies in the fact that we've played obscene numbers of hours in The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 with all their expansion packs. Playing Life Stories just seems like a step backwards.

De kans is klein dat een liefhebber van De Sims 2 nog iets kan aanvangen met dit spel. De verhalen zijn een leuke nieuwigheid, maar als speler in de vrije modus krijg je snel het gevoel dat je dingen mist. Voor mensen die het 'hele' spel te moeilijk vinden of het gewoon niet op hun pc kunnen draaien, is dit wel een goed alternatief.

The question is, should you buy the game? Well, if you own the Sims 2, you may not want to look this direction but if you have a low end computer or a laptop, and have not played the Sims 2 before, this may be the Sims game for you.

Wie aan het spel begint zal in de verhaallijnen een duidelijk verschil zien met de Sims 2. Als de verhalen eenmaal uitgespeeld zijn blijft er niet veel meer over dan een lichte versie van de Sims 2 die sneller laadt en in een klein venster te spelen is. De verhalenlijnen zijn grappig en voegen wel iets extra's toe aan de klassieke gameplay van de Sims. Om dit spel totaal vernieuwend te noemen gaat te ver, maar het is een leuke aanvulling op het bestaande Sims-assortiment en een must-have voor Sims fans.

While some may bristle at a £30 price tag for what looks like a truncated version of an existing game, it really is a different product for a different audience. I realise I'll probably have to surrender my testicles for admitting as much, but I chuckled at most of the soapy plot twists and, come the end of the stories, even felt a small twinge of regret that the only way to carry things forward would be in the old freeform style. Snobbery be damned, Life Stories is a thoroughly enjoyable crossover between an established series and the world of casual games.

The Sims: Life Stories was a bit too watered down from the other Sims games. I realize that Maxis was aiming for gaming efficiency on laptops and older PCs, but in terms of content, there is almost too little here to consider the game an upgrade from, or even on the same level as, the other Sims offerings. While it certainly lives up to the promise of being "PC laptop friendly," the story mode and lack of content truly make this a game to have only if your PC or laptop is so feeble that it isn't capable of playing The Sims or The Sims 2.

Впрочем, короткий забег к финалу выдержит не всякий. В Life Stories нельзя ошибиться, но можно заскучать, поскольку слишком часто нас просят подождать момента, когда сработает следующий скрипт. Мы подолгу сидим в тесной клетке сценария, мучаясь от надоедливой бытовой рутины. Именно поэтому консольные ответвления (Urbz: Sims in the City, The Sims: Bustin' Out и иже с ними) не снискали популярности своего старшего брата с РС. С другой стороны, на роль «первой дозы» Life Stories подходит идеально.

Even with that in mind, it’s hard to deny the quality of the product on offer here. If you can live with the fact that there are no expansions aside from a minor collection of downloadable extras, and that, unless you’re somehow immune to the boredom which strikes after playing any instalment of The Sims for more than a week, it probably won’t last you very long, then Life Stories might make for a decent introduction to one of the most over-exposed series of all time. It has to be said though – the fact EA are choosing to release this at full price is evidence that their brazenness really does have no boundaries.

Voilà un titre qui n'est pas mauvais en soi mais dont les nouveautés sont trop peu intéressantes pour justifier un achat de la part de ceux qui possèdent déjà Les Sims 2. Les novices peuvent quand même se laisser tenter, mais on ne saurait trop leur conseiller d'acheter directement le deuxième volet des Sims qui offre des possibilités d'évolution plus importantes grâce à ses add-on (dont aucun n'est compatible avec les jeux de la gamme Histoires).

"The Sims Histórias da Vida" é recomendável apenas para os proprietários de laptop, PCs de menor potência e, em último caso, para os fanáticos por "The Sims" que não deixam passar nada sobre a franquia. De resto, chega a ser um título desnecessário, dada a quantidade de limitações. Os próximos capítulos, que vão abordar animais de estimação e Sims em uma ilha tropical deserta, ao menos, parecem ter um apelo maior.

It might be fun, but it’s not new and certainly not original. In other words, what we are used to from the Sims team at EA (apart from the original Sims and Sims 2). The total amount of Sims games is almost not countable anymore.

Casuals and newcomers to the franchise alike would do best trying the core entries in the series instead, while long-time fans, curious to see what this ‘story thing’ is all about, should stick to their own imaginations.

Au final, Les Sims : Histoires de Vie offre une approche assez peu originale de l'univers des Sims : les objectifs à respecter et l'histoire à suivre ont beau innover un petit peu sur ce que la série nous offrait habituellement, l'ensemble du gameplay et des actions effectuées restent bien trop proches des Sims 2 pour réellement impressionner. La linéarité et la durée de vie plutôt faible de l'ensemble rapproche du coup le titre d'une espèce de Sims 2 light, incompatible avec les extensions, limitant clairement l'intérêt de la chose sur le long terme. Sans compter sur le fait que les fans de la série qui possèdent et chérissent déjà tout ce qu'Electronic Arts a pu produire comme titre sur Les Sims, devront débourser 50€ pour deux histoires et un mode libre dont ils profitent déjà depuis presque 3 ans.