Pretty much everyone who's ever been within a hundred yards of a PC knows about The Sims – love it or hate it, EA's virtual life simulator has sold more than a few copies, and is now on it's third major iteration. In the Sims, you make your own people – or Sims as they're known in the game – and then direct them through various aspects of their life, from getting a job, falling in love and starting a family to having a shower, paying the bills and cooking the tea. What makes The Sims so popular is the freedom you have – you could make your Sim into a multi-millionaire head of a massive company, or you could be a virtual Casanova romancing all the ladies, or, if you're feeling nasty you could lock your Sim in the toilet, remove the door and watch them die. Sims are also surprisingly flammable.
Sim cruelty in action.
Last year, when The Sims 3 released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, one of the new features was Karma Powers, which let you alter your Sims lives in very drastic ways. Over the course of a day, your Sims would accumulate Karma Points, which could be spent on these Karma Powers – you could shower your Sims with money using the 'Giant Jackpot' power, use 'Divine Intervention' to bring a ghost Sim back to life or give your Sim a 'Stroke of Genius', making them learn skills faster. There were 'bad' (aka fun) powers too, like causing a damaging earthquake with the 'Quake Maker', conjuring up a 'Poltergeist' to haunt Sims or just cause an 'Epic Fail', where everything the Sim does goes wrong – appliances break, jobs get lost and fights ensue.
With the sequel of sorts, The Sims 3 Pets on the way (as a standalone game on consoles, rather than expansion packs, like for the PC), EA have taken the opportunity to add six brand new Karma Powers, many of which have a pet-related slant to them:
A Little Sunshine gives a quick boost in stats (like energy, toilet, hunger etc) without any interruptions.
Transmogrify lets you transform any Sim, cat or dog into a different species
Solar Flare unleashes a rogue solar flare, making things a bit too hot
Meteor Strike drops massive space rocks from the sky for maximum destruction
Feral Possession will transform even the most docile and friendly pet into a furry terror
The Sickness releases a wave of illness over any nearby Sims
The Sims 3 Pets releases on the 21st October as a stand-alone game on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and 3DS, as well as as an expansion pack for the PC – although Karma Powers are exclusive to the console versions.
