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Applelinks recently reviewed The Sims Life Stories, a new story driven addition to the Sims franchise. Created by Aspyr Media, Life Stories offers both traditional and story focused play as well as a laptop computer friendly interface. Applelinks gave Life Stories a score of 3 out of 5.

Okay, here's what happens. There are two stories built into The Sims Life Stories. In the first, you play Riley Harlowe. She's young, she's pretty, and she's starting life in a new town at her aunt's house. She meets some new people, and "generic One Tree Hill plot #14 takes place (only, the boys mostly leave their shirts on). She decides she likes dude #1, which angers chick #3, so she becomes friends with chick #2, but then dude #2 shows up, and then everyone wins the basketball tournament and the evil mayor gets his come-uppance.

Okay, there's no basketball and there's no evil mayor, but I sure wish there was. Anything to make this story worth playing through. The characters are generally annoying, which is fine, because the fun thing about any Sims game is the ability to be annoying and mess with people's lives. That works in the wide-open gameplay of The Sims 2. But in Life Stories, when you're stuck within a linear plot that you really can't control and with sims that you didn't create, the comic value of annoying people is lost.

Applelinks: The Sims Life Stories Review

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The Sims Life Stories (add to watch list)

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