The Sims: Castaway Stories (PC)

As a big fan of The Sims 2, I couldn't wait to give the Life Stories range a go. I bought the fist Sims Life stories, and although enjoyed it, found it was lacking something a bit...different. This version however, was more enjoyable. Unlike The Sims 2, Castaway Stories encourages you to travel from area to area, discovering things, meeting and talking to people. Yes, there was a slight delay between each area as your castaway moved around, but nothing compared to travelling from your home to a community lot in the original Sims games. I felt that this idea of moving around a little more freely was the interim step between The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. ...  Read the complete review

As a fan of the Sims Series I was really looking forward to this new stand alone version. However, while the story mode offered was challenging and a lot of fun, the actual game play is VERY slow! As you move between the different areas (which you have to do very often in the story mode) it can take several minutes for the new landscape to load. Also you need to have a lot of memory free and an updated video card or the water will appear as red flashes which can be very annoying and can irritate your eyes after a while. Apart from these flaws, the game itself is very entertaining. It is not as good as the normal series but has a few quirky additions such as being able to ...  Read the complete review

This is one of the first 'laptop friendly' editions of the Sims by EA. The truth is it really isn't that 'laptop friendly'. My laptop has twice the processing power and ram needed to make this game run and yet it really is the slowest game I've played on it, it would seem that 'laptop friendly' only really refers to the controls. The major problem seems to be with the cut sequences, they are so slow, and there is no option to skip through. The premise is excellent, you can choose one of two paths to play and once you have done this you can enter the sandbox mode. It plays more like console versions of The Sims, setting you tasks and running through the ...  Read the complete review