The Sims 3 (console)

The Sims 3 is a recently released multi-platform game, developed by Electronic Arts for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS consoles.

For the first time ever, players can share the fun with a friend in the co-op buddy mode or take on up to three friends in the Life Moments Game on the Nintendo Wii, upload and download content on Xbox Live and Playstation Store, including furnishings, houses, and player creations or experience a full life simulation on a handheld with Nintendo DS.

Description
"Create Sims with unique personalities, fulfill their desires, and control their lives within a living neighbourhood that you can customise. Unlock all-new Karma Powers and unleash them on your Sims: help your Sim get lucky with the power of “love connector”, bless them with the power of “age defier” or 'instant beauty' or curse them with an 'instant enemy' or an “alien abduction.” Use these powers wisely, because they may have unexpected results! As you guide your Sims through life, you can complete challenges to unlock additional items, new buildings and landmarks."

Features
Not much is known about the game at this time, however it will feature a new Karma system (possibly similar to the influence system in The Sims 2).


 * "Create any Sim you can imagine – give them unique personalities! Fine-tune your Sims’ appearances and personalities. Make them evil, romantic, paranoid, kleptomaniacs, or a mix of something completely different."


 * "Unlock all-new Karma Powers. Wield the ultimate control over your Sims giving them wealth, beauty, and love—or take it all away with the click of a button."


 * "Control your Sims’ destinies – Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims’ destinies by making their wishes come true—or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be rock stars, world leaders, or expert thieves? It’s up to you."


 * Complete challenges to unlock additional items, new buildings and landmarks


 * It has been confirmed by IGN that life cycles will be included.


 * Kids have been confirmed for the console version of the game.
 * PS3 and 360 versions will have the Exchange. Items can be shared between both consoles.

Xbox 360/PS3 only features

 * Build and share online! – Connect through Xbox Live and PSN to share your creations and download content from other players around the world.
 * Connect with Facebook and Twitter to share your achievements with your friends.
 * The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will not have direct controls, but will instead use tradition controls as seen in The Sims 3 PC.
 * Internet connection required for online features.
 * The city in 360/PS3 will have short loading times when moving between areas, unlike the PC version.
 * The town in the 360/PS3 versions will be called Moonlight Bay.
 * The game will support Xbox 360 achievments and PlayStation 3 trophies.

Nintendo Wii only features

 * This game will feature weather which can be controlled with Karma Powers.


 * New co-op mode where players can join friends. A second player can join the fun as a gnome who can help—or hinder—your Sims. You can also play the new Life Moments Game with up to four players. Bet on life’s most important moments to earn points and garner rewards.


 * Some traits, careers, lifetime wishes, and weather will be exclusive to the Wii version of the game.
 * The Wii version offers direct control which will give the players the use of the nunchuck controls and the wii remote.
 * The beach city can be explored seemlessly with no loading screens, similar to the PC version.
 * Exclusive skate park community lot.
 * Has weather such as: hail, lightning, rain, snow and thunder.

Nintendo DS only features

 * The NDS version will allow players to "sculpt" Sims using the stylus.


 * Experience a full life simulation on a handheld with Nintendo DS
 * You cannot WooHoo.

Nintendo 3DS only features

 * New camera angles that take advantage of 3D
 * Face-mapping feature
 * Take a photo of yourself to transfer to your sim and have your sims look like you.
 * Possible online functionality

PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360
Good Karma Good Karma is Karma that helps your Sims and/or other Sims:


 * Divine Intervention – Lose a Sim to death and want to bring back his or her ghost? Now, you can.
 * Get Lucky – Give your Sim a higher chance of succeeding with socials, woohoo, raises, promotions, fishing and more.
 * Good Times – Remove all bad “moodlets” from an entire household and good times are sure to be had.
 * Instant Beauty – A chance to fix those physical features that just aren’t quite right. And then fix them again and again and again. This opens Create a Sim so you can edit facial and body features.
 * Super Satisfy – Immediately fulfills all of your Sims’ needs. Your Sim feels completely invigorated and is ready to face the future with new found hope.
 * Giant Jackpot – Shower your Sims with money and help the household gain wealth. Greed can be fun, but it can also haunt your Sim.
 * Stroke of Genius – Accelerate your Sims’ skill gain like their cooking, logic or athleticism.
 * Bless The Mess – Broke your favorite shower or just want a clean house with the snap of a finger? This power will fix that right up for you and more.

Bad Karma


 * Cosmic Curse – Cast instant doom upon any Sim. This curse depletes all of the target Sims’ needs.
 * Quake Maker – Terrify Sims with an earthquake, breaking objects and creating trash.
 * Epic Fail – Any Sims’ worst nightmare; curse any Sim with clumsy fingers and watch chaos ensue. It might be best to cast it in their house and not yours. Make Sims fight, have gas, get demoted or fired, break things, cause fires, and more.
 * Fire Storm – Drop fireballs onto a location to cause destruction and mayhem.
 * Poltergeist – Make ghosts appear to haunt Sims.

Nintendo DS
Good Karma


 * Giant Jackpot - Shower your Sims with money and help the household gain wealth. Greed can be fun, but it can also haunt your Sim.  Beware!
 * Winter Wonderland - Winter really is the best time of the year and now your Sims can experience all year long!
 * Instant Beauty - A chance to fix those physical features that just aren't quite right. And then fix them again and again and again.  This opens Create a Sim so you can edit facial and body features.
 * The Muse - For the love of art. Inspiration from this power increases your creative skills aiding the ability of your Sim to create better quality food and paintings.
 * The Riddler - For the love of logic. Inspiration from this power increases your Sim's mechanical and cognitive skill aiding the ability of your Sim to win more chess matches and upgrade items faster.
 * Casanova - Sometimes love seems impossible, but when your Sim is a Casanova no other Sim can resist their charm.
 * Wormhole - The power to open up space time to travel somewhere quickly is amazing, though overuse can cause unexpected things to happen.
 * Super Satisfy - Immediately fulfills all of your Sims' needs. Life is so wonderful!  Your Sims feel completely invigorated and is ready to face the future with new found hope.
 * Bless the Mess - Only coming out when there is no one around, when these wee little wonders are set free things just seem to be magically fixed and cleaned.

Bad Karma


 * Cosmic Curse - Is your Sim really sick of a conniving townie? Do they want a bit of revenge?  Make the Sim of your choice the town pariah.
 * Epic Fail - Any Sims' worst nightmare! Curse any Sim with clumsy fingers and watch chaos ensue!  It might be best to cast it in their house not yours.  Make Sims fight, have gas, get demoted or fired, break things, cause fires and more.

Wii
The Sims 3 Nintendo Wii version is set to be released later than the others, releasing on November 15th rather than October 29th. Sims Wiki have not yet pinpointed why, but are asking EA to find out.

Good Karma


 * Giant Jackpot - Make your Sim instantly filthy stinking rich! It's better than a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
 * Super Satisfy - Immediately fulfills all of your Sims' needs. Life is so wonderful! Your Sims feel completely invigorated and is ready to face the future with new found hope.

Bad Karma


 * Nudist Camp - How embarrassing! Use a magic wand, and embarrass the Sims of your choice by making their clothes disappear.
 * Make It Rain - Harness the power of the elements to unleash rain and high winds on your town.
 * Fury - Using the Magic Wand, all designated Sims start fighting each other for no reason!
 * Cosmic Curse - Cast instant doom upon any Sim. Depletes all of the target Sims' needs.
 * Epic Fail - For a low price, unleash any random Karma power on any unfortunate Sim. You might not get to choose the misfortune that befalls them but it will feel almost as good as you had.

Trailer
The trailer for the Sims 3 console was released on June 14th, 2010. It shows many of the original features of the Sims, such as cycling around town and changing Sims' appearance. It also shows the newly-added features, such as 'Karma Powers', such as when a female Sim is exposed outside a restaurant, leaving her totally nude with only the blur to cover her, presumably after doing something bad. It also shows that, unlike previous games, players are allowed to build more than one floor onto buildings. Another feature seems to be the ability to have children in the game, unlike its predecessors: (The Sims 2, The Sims 2: Pets, and The Sims 2 Castaway). Also on the Sims 3 for Wii, Sims can have WooHoo, and players can remove the blur, and it also shows features from The Sims 3 PC Expansion pack Ambitions, although we don't know if they will be in the game. The 2nd E3 trailer features the Kris Allen song, "Live Like We're Dying" and shows the possibility of the ageing system as the trailer shows Sims life memories of when they were younger as well as one point of the trailer showing the 6 life stages from The Sims 3 as well as an elderly man with the Grim Reaper. The ageing system was later confirmed by Sam Player in an interview with Gamespot.

Images
"Promotional images"=

Videos
Video:Die Sims 3 Nintendo DS - gamescom Hands On

Video:The Sims 3 Wii Trailer

Video:The Sims 3 Nintendo DS Trailer

Video:The Sims 3 on Console trailer

Video:The Sims 3 Console Commercial

Video:The Sims are Alive!: The Sims 3 Console TV Spot

Music

 * 3OH!3 - Double Vision
 * Flo Rida and Jovi - Fresh I Stay
 * School of Seven Bells - Dust Devil

Reception
Reviews have been generally positive with Gameblog.fr giving 3 stars saying that it will "satisfy fans of the series". Gamespot gave a 7/10 praising the new features given to the console version but critisised the performance and load times. However, Game Informer scored the game with 9/10 on the 360 and PS3, praising The Sims Studio for the console controls and the all new features, commenting that "The console edition of Sims 3 plays just like its PC predecessor". Currently, the PS3 version of the game is scored at 77/100 at Metacritic, while the Xbox 360 version is scored at 76/100. .

Trivia
The idea of karma is taken from the Hindu religion. However, the Western interpretation of the term more accurately describes the Karma system in the game.