The Sims: Life Stories

One Of The the most popular game ever made, The Sims 2 is particularly loved by those not usually found buying PC games. So it makes sense to assume that it's an accessible game, one that's easy to understand and simple to play. I've rarely, for example, ever been left wondering how to make a sim dance in a puddle of his own urine.

So where did The Sims Life Stories come from? It's a reworked version of The Sims 2, which strips away housebuilding and character-creation and adds a storyline to the life of a preset girl sim called Riley. Your sim has a single goal (be it seducing a man or trying on a new outfit) which changes throughout the story. Once you achieve a goal, the story moves on a bit.

This would actually be fun if the story wasn't so bland. I can't tell if this is genuinely low-grade processed Home And Away offal, or whether it's so post-modern it's simply spewing ironic soap meta-humour out of every dialogue box. Had Life Stories (which contains two life stories and a threat to release more) been a little more mature in its scripting, I might have even recommended this. As it is, your mum would find it patronising.