So I'm getting a basic laptop for school stuff but would like a few entertainment stuff as well. I know The Sims 2 wouldn't be a good idea but I know the Sims stories would run ok and would do for me. I was just wondering between the Sims life stories and pet stories which is for a lack of a better word "better" and includes more content, i.e clothes/objects?

Castaway stories is the best one of stories, but it goes far from traditional TS2 items and setting. I would say pets, because you get... well pets. Alongside it you have training items, pet parks and some kind of sculpting station, which is interesting. You also get restaurants and night clubs. I thing that life stories only has restaurants.

So, yeah. In terms of both gameplay and items, pet stories is better choice. Though, I wouldn't know to tell which one had better stories. Both are mediocre compared to Castaway.

I prefer Pet Stories because... cats, duh! xD
I think Pet Stories is really good: hoods are really pretty, pet-specific items are awesome, and the whole storyline is cool. But then, I'm kind of biased, because I never actually played Life Stories, only read about it, but have played Pets. I guess whatever seems more appealing to you is what you should buy.

Get all 3 and for Life Stories you can put in any of my "Beginning Hoods" and they will play. Life Stories has all life stages but for YA where Pet Stories don't have YA or Elders.

Any base game hood will play in Life Stories as long as they have any number other than N001, N002 and N003 for they are used for the 2 story hoods and the 1 free play hood.

You could after playing through the stories replace all 3 with the Sims 2 base game hoods of Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville if you want to.

ADD: Until the stories are over and done with it is best not to use CC or mods for some CC's and most mods can break the story and you will not be able to finish them.

ADD: You can use most CC and mods that work for OFB as long as they are none business related. (Life Stories).
For Pets Stories you can use pets EP related mods and CC but remember none until the stories or done.

Some CC can be use but you run the risk of breaking the stories if you are not careful.

Lifestories because of Sherman Boggle.

I've only ever played Life Stories and it was pretty good to me; Riley and Vincent's stories were interesting.

Both are good and equally entertaining, I think, but I would suggest Pets over Life Stories because:
-Mesa Flats, one of the Pets neighbourhoods, is pretty unique among maxis hoods (desert terrain, modern architectural style)
-pets obviously
-no elder life stage
-bigger households than Life Stories which is limited to 4 sims
-a little less buggy than Life Stories, in which the driver NPCs will generate endlessly because of a bug (the carpool/taxi driver is moved to the Default family when he appears on a lot to pick your sim, and will have been replaced by a new driver the next time a driver is needed).
If you don't plan to play past the scenario mode, though, you probably don't care about this issue.

But the Life Stories also has bonus points:
-Elders, non-existent in Pet Stories
-more cheat codes available
-original careers and LTWs unavailable in the main game, and family goals
-the ability to play chess with death
-Sherman (see above)
-nice architectural style in the Four Corners hood

By the way, the forum has a Stories dedicated sub-forum

If you're looking for something different I'd recommend Castaway Stories. Otherwise I can only recommend Pet Stories as I don't have LS. I picked PS because of the new training stuff and well the pets, heh.

Pet Stories for reasons mentioned above. Pets + Mesa Flats has amazing architecture.

I'm no fan of Castaway, but if you're looking for something really different, then it could be great.

I enjoyed them all until they glitched up so badly I couldn't play, both castaways and pet stories could not be played once I reached 3/4 the way through. I don't know if they patched it or what, this was years ago.

More info after checking in-game: the content is equally limited, it's Base Game hair and clothes. But there's always CC.

As for buy/build mode, Life Stories probably wins there, for the build mode anyway, it has a lot of unique walls/floors.
Both games have some original objects, but overall the catalogue is more or less the same Base Game stuff (Life Stories has a bit more I think, a bed, couch, barstools, a couple of dressers... Pets has some deco objects and the pet training course).

If you're into building or customizing generally speaking, it's worth mentioning that Life Stories has both the moveobjects and the testingcheats codes. Pets does not! Many of us are addicted to those so that could count in your choice too.

All of the Stories neighborhoods look stunning! The unique houses and such.
But I don't like that it's not possible to use the testingcheats in both Pets and Castaway Stories, so Life Stories is my favourite Sims Stories game.

And there are no elders in Pet Stories, which is strange.

Castaway was fabulous. A very immersive story that had me hooked. I only played it first time last year, so yeah, it's still that good.

sorry for the necropost but what happens if an adult reaches the top of their age in pet stories? Since they don't turn into elders

If I remember correctly, the sims just die of old age instead of becoming elders.

Lolololol