My first experience of Maxis' line of simulation games was their SNES version of Sim City released in the early Nineties. Back then the graphics were basic but the gameplay was still as addictive as ever. Fifteen or so years and many spin-offs later, including SimAnt, SimCopter and SimSwamp (okay, I made that last one up), the latest version of the hugely popular Sims series has been released.

For those of you who've been living under a SimRock for the past seven years, the original game was released in 2000. Basically it's SimPeople, where you control humans (Sims) and their daily lives, helping them to wash, eat, find work, fall in love and look after their houses, whilst also controlling their bank balance, expanding and designing their homes and making sure their every whim is catered for. The Sims 2 built on this premise with more realistic characters, and expansion packs for both versions have brought in the cash for Maxis whilst giving gamers access to pets, nightclubs, magic and university life, amongst other things.

The latest series of Sims releases - before The Sims 3 finally hits the stores - goes under the banner of The Sims Stories, cut down versions of the main game built to be laptop-friendly. Following on from the recent Life Stories, the second release is The Sims Pet Stories, an episodic version of The Sims 2 with the Pets expansion pack.

My first assumption about this game is that it would be The Sims Lite. Whereas the full version would be like going on holiday to an adventure park, this would be like being stuck at home with your grandparents. Grandparents who don't have a television. But I was surprised: it's actually not that restrictive. You can still make your meals, go to the toilet and change clothing. Although the game is built around chapters and tasks that need to be completed, it's still free enough for you to wander away from the storyline to prank call the police or meander around the house and tell jokes to your friends whilst wearing nothing but your underwear.

The first thing you notice about the game is that you play it in a window that doesn't fill the whole screen, meaning that you can see the desktop behind it and open up other programs. This is part of the whole 'laptop friendly' image of the game that, according to the blurb on the back of the box, allows you to "IM and email while playing". It's saying that you can let the game run in the background - pretty much like classic pet simulators such as Catz - whilst you send smileys to your friend, safe in the knowledge that chaos won't ensue, though as dirty plates build up I'm not sure if you could write a college essay during the game. However, with a spec that requires 512MB of RAM and a 1.8Ghz processor, this is still a lot to ask for some portable computers. I wasn't surprised that mine - which has suffered several years of being carted around the country and thus has a fan that sounds like a Harley Davison engine - couldn't handle the game, but even my spec-matching desktop struggled. There are lots of settings to tweak to maximise performance for your machine, but I'd still suggest only considering this game if your laptop - or desktop - was only bought recently.

When you begin you are greeted with the first of two stories. Alice owns a Dalmatian, Sam, and urgently needs money to prevent her losing the house. Through a series of chapters you perform tasks, which appear on the interface on the screen and will be familiar to anyone who has owned any Sims game in the past.

The environment is fully movable with onscreen controls and keyboard shortcuts to rotate and zoom in and out, although I did find these controls to be hit and miss at times, especially the on-screen buttons. Statistics for both your sim and dog can be seen and what I found fantastic about this version is that keyboard shortcuts can be used to perform important tasks such as cleaning up, going to the bathroom and eating, which speeds up the gameplay greatly. Each chapter is controlled by a series of goals, the completion of which allows you to continue through the story. There are also 'wants' that improves your sim's aspiration, basically a happiness-meter. These wants include tasks such as training your pet, making friends and, weirdly, seeing The Ghost of Claire, which is something you don't often find on a household to-do list.

Though you are anchored to achieving these goals, there is still a good amount of freedom. What you can do on this standalone game is impressive though, including being able to redesign your Sim with different hair, make-up and more. Due to its nature, the game is something that you have to play for hours to find all the little pieces that make it a great simulator. Sims can get ill, build relationships (and house extensions) and get careers; they also age and celebrate birthdays. A lot of what you can do in the full game can be done here, which is both a blessing and a curse; it's great that there is always something to do, but it can be daunting at times with lots of things to do, especially if you are trying to IM or email at the time, as the manual suggests.

The one big fault with Pet Stories, which is also a fault of the whole series and not just this particular title, is that while the action can be frozen with a quick press of the ESC key, having it running along in the background isn't perfect. Even though the sims and pets meander around of their own accord, things can still go awry. Whilst playing, without even diverting my attention to other things, my dog decided to relieve itself on the patio before proceeding to roll about in its wee, which can be fixed by your sim, but not when they're throwing a tantrum for being tired or hungry or because their environment is covered in doggy water. However, the keyboard shortcuts (press 'B' and the Sim adds 'toilet' to their list of tasks) do speed up the process.

One bugbear that isn't excusable is still the dodgy clock that runs at the wrong speed. Naturally having it run in real-time would be tedious, but the times just don't match up; does it really take someone five minutes to answer the front door or ten minutes to visit the bathroom? I know it's not a realistic simulator - the fact that one of the options with the cat is to take it for a walk and an early task asks you to praise your dog "for being filthy" - but having a clock that matches up to the length of activities would be so much better. These little touches make the game a tad stressful and if you want to try and keep your Sim and pet happy, meet the goals and progress through the game then it can get on top of you, especially if you are doing other things outside of the main goals.

Each chapter of the story is quite short and your hand is held throughout most of it, either through the goals or speech bubbles advising of plot points. Plot points are also told through these, advancing the story along. A chapter is brought to its conclusion with a brief summary of the story so far - a kind of soap recap - before a short headline reveals the title of the new chapter. As you progress through this first story - entitled 'Best In Show' - you unlock the second story, 'Midnight Masquerade', which involves a cat rather than a dog, but the similar premise of the game remains.

If following a strict story is not really your thing then you can go for the Free Mode and this is where the scope of the game becomes fully apparent. Expecting a really cut down version of the creation tools from the main game, I was surprised to find that your sim and pets are entirely customisable, from the standard things such as height, hair colour and clothes to the surprising options such as facial hair, nose size and star sign. In fact, almost everything you could think about is customisable, including the ability to create a biography for your sim and set what sort of things are turn-ons and turn-offs. You can even choose your breed of cat and dog by tweaking their vital statistics.

In Free Mode what you do is up to you, with the ability to change the house, set your own story and do what you want. There is the option to set a story and to follow certain 'wants', but these aren't compulsory. This section itself shows that the game is really a self-contained package of the full version.

Graphically, Pet Stories won't blow you away. It's been scaled down so it's compatible with lower-end systems, although there are settings to tweak for things like shadows and reflections, so the game will look as good as your system allows. It might not be so amazing that in a moment of madness you think you're watching a TV soap opera, but it's fantastic when you think of simulation games from only a few years ago. The little touches, such as your sim moving about in bed and them actually pulling the plug from the bath - with the sound - give the game an immersing atmosphere. The sound overall won't win any awards, but what is here is well done. There isn't really any background music other than on the menus, unless a sim switches on the stereo or TV, but most activities have accurate sounds. The only point that is irritating is the Simish, a sort of gobbledegook the characters speak. At times this loops and can become rather annoying.

There's plenty more to the gameplay that I haven't mentioned and don't intend to, as to reveal every last feature would be to spoil your enjoyment. The depth of gameplay really is incredible, with customisation and interaction being key to all aspects. The fact that with the pets alone you can breed them, have kittens/puppies adopted; and even report them lost shows how much depth there is. And for those of you with less adventurous tastes in animals, options for caged and aquatic animals do become available.

However, the depth is a double-edged sword, because for a game that promotes itself as laptop friendly and with a window that allows you to do other things, it can be stressful to multitask unless you hit the pause button. Even giving the game your full attention - you can maximise it so that fills the whole screen - can still mean there's a lot to do and not enough time to do it, like when your 9am car has arrived to take you to work and you're still halfway through a shower - and you got up at 5am.

For those of you who like their games with lots to do or for those who just want to ignore the storyline and mess about by sitting back and watching their pet destroy their house one sofa at a time, The Sims Pet Stories is perfect. For gamers who want to relax in front of their PC, this might not be the best option. However, dodgy controls for changing the viewing angle and on-screen buttons that are sometimes unresponsive aside, it's very enjoyable and allows you to play God in ways never before seen outside of the series, with a level of interaction that astounds me every time I play it. And if you enjoy the game then it's one that will keep you playing for a considerable time. Once you have completed both stories - which aren't that long but can take longer if you divert from the story - there is the massive Free Play section to master, which will satisfy you for as long as your interest lasts. I doubt this release will change the minds of any SimSceptics, but if you enjoyed The Sims or its sequel and want to take it with you on your laptop, then this is for you. If simulators generally are too complex for you to enjoy then the chapter-based format might appeal too. But, if your laptop is a few years old or you find the whole continuous list of tasks to do stressful then I'd give this a miss. Anyway, I've said more than enough, so if you're excuse me I have my cat to walk and my dog is practicing for the Sim equivalent of Crufts…

Reviewed by Philip Lickley for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).