I am so easily entertained. And it turns out that I really like having someone else set out goals for me when I play the Sims.

I bought Sims Life Stories for my Mac because well, I already own Sims 2 for my PC, and really couldn’t justify buying it again for the Mac (it’s still at $50 at the Apple Store, not including any expansion packs). SInce Life Stories was only $35, and allows you to do free-play along with the stories, it was absolutely perfect.

The day I bought it, I played the entire first scripted story (the game comes with two). That’s right. I played Sims for about, oh, six hours straight.

While I am depressed that I finished the first story so quickly, I did learn with the second story to take my own sweet time. I’ve been forcing myself to not rush through it just to get through it, because I know I’ll be sad when this one is done too.

However, even though the scripted stories end, you can keep playing the story sims, living out the rest of your life how ever you want–turns out the Sim I married is a horn-dog. He’s aspiration’s been down ever since. Because I just don’t condone cheating sims. Unless it’s the sim I like. Then they can cheat all they want.

Along with having these two stories, there’s the free-play mode, which is exactly like Sims 2. The only difference I can see is that there aren’t as many objects, there are a few different objects, and there are no expansion packs. I can live with all that for a sims game for this laptop.

And this game is made for the laptop. It’s designed to be played entirely without a mouse, if you so wish (which I don’t), and keyboard shortcuts for things your sim can do–greeting, eating, and cleaning, for example. I don’t have to click on things to get it done, I can just hit a key, and Bob’s your uncle.

Can you tell I really like this game?

The only bad thing I can think of is that it isn’t actually put out by EA Games. The Mac version is distributed by Aspyre, which I take to mean that they ported it over. This means that I can’t register my game on the EA website, and take advantage of the stuff there.

Also, it means I’ll probably have to wait for Sims Castaway Stories, which I really really want. Because I heart playing it on my DS, and I bet it’ll be even better on the laptop. It’s slated for release today by EA, but the Aspyre site says early ‘08. Whenever it is, I want it.

In addition to Life Stories, and the awaited Castaway Stories (PC), there’s Pet Stories (Mac). I might get that. Maybe. Probably. I do like me some sims.

– “I Constantly Thank God for Esteban,” A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out: Panic at the Disco