The Sims: Pet Stories is a spin-off of The Sims product line where it is catered towards the new Sims player. Earlier this year, The Sims: Life Stories was released which is the same idea. This is not an expansion of the original PC game, but a new game that is “laptop friendly” and not supposed to be a resource hog. There are two story modes that you could play through. One story follows Alice, who wants to train her Dalmatian Sam to win Best of Show. The other storyline follows a chef who has to cat-sit his cousin’s cat named Diva. He will go through a lot of unexpected surprises that come with taking care of a pet. Unlike the previous Sims games which don’t come with a storyline, The Sims: Pet Stories provides you with constant goals to reach, but in the event that you want to play an open-ended game, you can mess around with that as well. Micromanaging your Sim is less tedious, as this game caters towards a more casual player than a hardcore Sims player. The fact that the game is “laptop friendly” allows you to play in a window so you can leave other programs running in the background. The game can be played entirely with keyboard shortcuts and, depending on how quickly you want to rush through the game, it can be completed in a couple of hours. You can also deviate from the goals and play in a classic free play mode where you can create your own character and build your own home.
It looks very much like the original Sims game on the PC, except there may be a fewer menu options at the bottom of your screen. Your characters will interact naturally on their own, which is hilarious in itself. Your pet will probably pee in a corner if you’re not paying attention. Part of what makes The Sims such a popular game is that you can watch the soap opera unfold right in front of you.
There are about 20 different locations to go to throughout the game, including an agility course for your dog. The game is on a DVD and requires 2.7 gigs of free space. Even though it should run relatively smoothly, the demo laptop which was a Dell XPS, lagged horrendously when switching locations.
I am a Canadian living in California with my husband and my precious baby Bailey (95lbs of labrador fun). I work full time and go to school, so finding the time to play video games is tough. I still manage to sneak some time in, whether it's playing on my GBA while I wait in line or sitting in the back seat of my car so I can use our dvd player to play the Gamecube on long trips. I've always been fairly decent at playing games to give my younger brother some competition. I started at the early age of 6 when I inherited an Atari 2600. I played any computer game I could get my hands on during those Commodore 64 days. Now I'll play anything from RPGs to first person shooters, racing games or basically anything that's fun and allows me to play with at least 3 other people.
