Regular readers of my Sims reviews will know how much The Sims series means to me. For most of those Sims 2 reviews, I have crafted a loving story including me and some of the AceGamez cast - we've been to wild parties in Nightlife, we ran a robot shop in Open for Business and we even adopted a couple of four-legged friends in Pets. I get most of my Sim kicks from crafting a story for my characters; I'll start the game, give certain Sims some back story and decide upon some personal goals for my Sims.

EA have a treat for some of us in the form of The Sims: Life Stories, which is a laptop friendly version of The Sims 2 - almost. It's more like The Sims 2 with injected casual playability, almost like the console version but still on the PC. Sims 2 Lite, perhaps. The beauty of Life Stories is that you get to play though two Life Stories for two completely different Sims. As each day goes by, your pre-made character has story-based goals to complete - not just goals I will dream up for myself when playing The Sims 2 and all its expansions - proper, real, rewarding goals with rich storylines.

When you first get the game you can only play the first of the two stories available, as well as the freeplay mode which I'll cover later on. The first story is great fun and the first couple of chapters teach you all of the new laptop-friendly controls. You play as a cute young lady called Riley who has moved to the new Four Corners neighbourhood in search of new friends and possible romance. She finds a possible romance pretty early on, but as for the new friends, well - she makes an enemy to say the least. Things really get spicy when her ex-boyfriend moves in nearby and suddenly you're faced with a love triangle that you have to guide poor old Riley through. After going through the basics in Riley's story, you then unlock Vincent's story. Vincent is a rich young man with a high paid job but he's always been a little unlucky in love. Surrounded by money grabbers, will Vincent find love? You'll have to play the game to find out!

I love how these life stories are told. You have goals that you have to complete to advance the story; some are simple, like cooking a meal for your friends, while others are more challenging, such as flirting enough with a guy until you get the option to hit on him, or taking him out for a meal, which involves calling up a taxi and finding a place to eat. After completing a goal you may have to wait a short while until something else happens in the game that causes the next goal to pop up. In that time, putting your mouse over the hourglass that tells you to wait for your next goal reveals diary style thoughts that come straight from your character that are entertaining to read. This allows you to really get into your character's story a bit more and his or her personality really shines through.

Of course, no personality is complete without that Simish talk - each character has their own voice, talking in gibberish, romanticising in nonsense - it's really fun to listen to. Combine that with the Sim radio stations and the classic Latin salsa channel - which no Sim can resist dancing to - and you're set for audio pleasure!

The Sims Life Stories is really made for laptops - and this shows. There are loads of key shortcuts that make life a lot easier, especially for users playing on the go. WSAD keys move the camera up down, left and right, while keys on the other side of the keyboard pan the camera around. The real stroke of genius comes in the form of pressing T to talk on your mobile phone, pressing B for bladder to make your character go to the loo - or H for hunger to make your character eat. There are loads of clever shortcuts like this - combined with the ease of camera navigation and your little laptop mouse pad, playing this on the go is a breeze.

This laptop reincarnation of The Sims 2 also plays in windows mode, so you can have your Sims experience windowed with enough room for your IM client at the side - and no, your Sims games won't minimize when you do go to chat to your friend. Having the game full screen still lets you minimize the game with ease if you wanted to quickly check your mails, too. With all these laptop features, it's no surprise that the graphics have taken a hit when compared to the regular Sims 2 games - especially when you factor in that Life Stories will accept most Laptop graphics chips, even those crummy integrated ones. Don't get me wrong, it still looks like The Sims 2, but the textures are a little fuzzier, the edges aren't quite as smooth and some 3D objects appear 2D when you zoom closer! It's no biggie though, as the animations for talking, kissing, hugging, fighting and just about everything else are still intact and looking great, especially for a laptop running on battery power!

While it's all well and good to include two stories, once you've done them, that's it. No multiple endings means no replay value - it would have been nice to decide who Riley should see; the new guy, or her ex, and it would have been nice to see different endings for both outcomes (although to be fair, upon story completion, it does let you keep playing to take in your own direction, just without goals). Also, Sims veterans will probably complete the stories in no time at all. With no plans for expansion packs (just more standalone laptop story games and maybe just a couple of new items to download online), the only thing left to do is play in the Freeplay mode, which is just like playing The Sims 2 with some features from a few of the expansions, such as the influence system from Nightlife, but hardly any of the items from those expansions. It's like a 2.1 version of The Sims 2. Freeplay is great for messing about with, but it's a massive shame that you can't make your own stories and share them online with others. I'd kill for a mode like that; creating characters, events triggers and a storyboard for those characters - I'm sure Maxis could implement a story editor into the Life Stories series and I really hope they do, or this could be a missed opportunity that could really improve the replay value. As it stands, two stories and a Freeplay mode with no new items to look forward to from incoming expansions that don't exist is a little bit of a kick in the teeth.

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!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).