Shacknews – The Sims 3 Console E3 2010 Preview

Starting off is similar to the PC version. You create your character and dwelling. You select your character’s personality traits and lifetime wishes. Then it’s all about the classic god gaming, voyeurism, and persistence that has made the series so popular. Challenges mix up the gameplay by giving you specific tasks. These range from snagging a kiss on a date, meeting a certain amount of people, reaching a level of athletic fitness, and more. Challenges unlock new items, buildings, and town upgrades.

The big twist is the addition of karma points and powers. As you play, you earn karma points depending on how you play your character’s life. When enough karma points are gained, karma powers are earned and can drastically change the flow of the game. You can reward your character by granting him or her instant beauty or you can punish your character by bombarding his or her dwelling with a rain of fire. Other karma powers include cosmic curse, get lucky, poltergeist, and epic fail — you can pretty much guess what those do. Karma powers add another fun layer or manipulating life in The Sims 3.

full preview