The Sims Stories on Yahoo!

Play through unpredictable moments of pet ownership with your Sims

Based on The Sims™ 2 Pets, the top-selling expansion pack to The Sims™ 2, The Sims™ Pet Stories is the second release in the new product line called The Sims™ Stories. Train, play with, and care for your Sims’ cats and dogs, and do your best to keep them happy. Count on many unexpected twists and turns in this easy-to-play, laptop-friendly version of The Sims™. Choose from two different stories in the directed Story mode, taking on a variety of challenges as you compete in a local pet show and learn that even pets have their own personalities. Unlock rewards as you achieve set goals for your Sims and their pets. In open-ended Freeplay mode, create your Sims and their pets, design their homes, and teach your pets tricks. You decide how their stories unfold.

Features

• Two Complete Stories in Directed Story Mode

  Play as Alice who needs to win the local Dog Show Competition (and the large cash prize) with her loveable dog Sam in order to save her house. Or follow Stephen, an executive chef whose highly predictable life is thrown into chaos when he’s forced to take care of his cousin’s spoiled cat, Diva.

• The Brand-New Pet Show

  Your Sims can train their pets to strut their stuff and earn rewards by getting them to navigate an agility course including walking along a see-saw, running through tunnels, and jumping over obstacles.

• Open-Ended Freeplay Mode

  You create your Sims and their pets (choose from 70 dog and 30 cat breeds), fulfill their desires or dash their hopes, and tell their stories.

• It’s Never Been Easier to Play on Your Laptop

  Featuring simple shortcuts and an all-new auto-pause that lets you start and stop easily when opening/closing your laptop.

• Be Creative While Staying Connected

  Easily stay in touch with your friends by using your own IM and email while playing the game in its own window.

• Part of a Fun New New Product Line

  The Sims™ Stories also includes The Sims™ Life Stories and the upcoming The Sims™ Castaway Stories!

Each game in The Sims Stories product line is a standalone product and does not support expansion packs or stuff packs from The Sims or The Sims 2 game collections.

System Requirements:

Windows XP

• 1.8 Ghz processor
• 256 MB RAM Desktop, 512 MB RAM Laptop
• At least 2.7 GB of hard drive space
• Onboard video card of the following supported cards
• DVD-ROM drive
• Audio Output

Windows Vista Home Basic

• 1.8 Ghz processor
• 1 GB RAM
• At least 2.7 GB of hard drive space
• 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
• DVD-ROM drive
• Audio Output

Windows Vista Home Premium/Business/Ultimate

 

• 1.8 Ghz processor
• 1 GB RAM
• At least 2.7 GB of hard drive space
• 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
• WDDM Driver
• 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
• Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
• 32 bits per pixel
• DVD-ROM drive
• Audio Output

The Sims™ Pet Stories requires 220 Megs of additional save game space for each user that loads the game. Make sure you have at least 220 Megs free on the drive that holds your "My Documents" files before starting The Sims™ Pet Stories for the first time.

Supported video cards:

 
• AMD's ATI Radeon® series (7500 or better) and the following mobility cards:
  • VE series (see note below)
  • 7500
  • 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
  • 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
  • X300, X600, X800
• AMD's ATI Mobility™ 7500,
  • Mobility™ 9000, 9200, 9600, 9700
  • Mobility™ M7, x200, x300, x600, x700, x1100, x1150 x1400, x1600, x1800
  • Mobility™ Fire GL, GL V5200
• NVIDIA® Quadro® series and the following mobility cards:
  • Quadro®, Quadro2®, Quadro4®
  • Quadro FX 1500m, 350m, Go 1000
  • GO 1400 Geforce4 440 GO\
• NVIDIA GeForce® series (GeForce2 and better) and the following mobility cards:
  • GeForce® 2
  • GeForce® 3, 3 Ti
  • GeForce® 4, 4 Ti, MX 420, 440
  • GeForce® FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
  • GeForce® 6600, 6800 \
  • GeForce® Go 6100, 6150, 6200, 6600, 6800
  • GeForce® Go 7300, 7400, 7600, 7800
  • GeForce® FX GO 5200, 5700
• Intel® Extreme Graphics*
  • 82845, 82865, 82915, 915, 945, 945 Express, 950 & Intel Extreme Graphics 2

* If you have a non-T&L capable video card, such as Intel Extreme Graphics or Radeon® VE series, then you need at least 512 MB RAM.

If your video drivers pre-date 12/2005 and you have less than 512 MB RAM there is a chance you will have graphics-related problems.  Any video card driver pre-dating 8/2004 will have a high likelihood of problems.  These problems include poor frame rate, texture dropout, special effects not working and other problems.  For some of the known problems please review below.  Go to the laptop manufacturer's site in order to obtain the latest drivers.

NOTE:  The SimsTM Pet Stories does NOT support Widescreen mode.  If your computer supports widescreen and you have that feature turned on there will be graphical problems when running The SimsTM Pet Stories.  It is advised to turn off Widescreen when running The SimsTM Pet Stories.