Good, but too short

User Rating: 7.4 | The Sims: Life Stories PC
As a Sims newbie, the game is an excellent introduction to the series. The stories are fun and soapy, and you can always get reminders about how to perform various actions. This means that by the time you get to the end of your first story, you're well prepared for the free play that follows. This even though -- and this is the game's biggest flaw -- you get there very quickly indeed: the stories in themselves offer around ten hours of gameplay in all.

The lack of compatibility with Sims 2 addons is a serious flaw: Sims 2 owners will get very few hours of story gameplay for their money, and then probably end up going back to Sims 2 because of the expansion packs.