The Sims 3 has given us so many different towns to play in lately, from the luscious Hidden Springs to the glamorous Starlight Shores to outer space in Lunar Lakes. Now, they have taken us out to the desert where fortunes are made with a bit of luck in The Sims 3: Lucky Palms.

Since Lucky Palms takes place in the desert, the landscape looks more like Lunar Lakes than any of the other towns, except Earth-bound, of course! Lucky Palms is a relatively large town complete with a military base and "Area-52 Test Labs" on the outskirts of town. I guess it is the lesser-known cousin to Area-51? I think that it’s quite amusing that you can join the science career and the ghost hunter profession at Area-52. It is quite fitting. There are the normal stores, movie theater, stadium, and plenty of parks. Lucky Palms is also complete with a graveyard for all your ghost hunting needs.

There are quite a few new households available for you to choose to start with, if you don’t want to create your own. Some of them are significantly harder than others. I think my favorite is the "Lovers?" household. In it, Lina and the much older Eli are in a relationship and Lina is pregnant. Her lifetime goal is Gold Digger, which means that you will have to get Eli to marry her and then kill him off so she can see his ghost. It’s really quite morbid, I know, but for some reason it seems to fit as that is a "lucky" life for Lina! One of the more difficult households is the Claremont Family, simply because you have 4 people ranging from child to mother-in-law and it’s not easy to keep them all happy. Of course, you can just kill off the mother-in-law… There are also a few families that live on an actual houseboat in Lucky Palms. It’s not a houseboat like you’ve ever seen before, though. In this case, it is a real normal looking house that is on a floating platform. It’s a really neat concept that I’d love to have in real life!

There is a new item in Lucky Palms that can truly grant wishes. Unlike the Tree of Prosperity from Lunar Lakes, you don’t have to buy this well. It is simply found in the center of town next to the Botanical Garden. For one Simolean, your Sim can wish for love, happiness, wealth, power, or even a child. Be careful what you wish for though, because sometimes you don’t always get what you want. Your Sim might end up kissing a lot of frogs before finding love. When you do find love, they might not be quite what you expected or wanted. So far, I haven’t managed to get it to give me a huge amount of money, but getting $300+ for only $1 isn’t a bad deal if you’re willing to put in the time to continually throw in money. Wishing for a child is quite amusing. First off, if you have The Sims 3: Pets, you might not even get a human child. When you get a child, it is automatically added to your household as a playable character. Fair warning though, children received from the well will have Evil as one of their traits (at least every one I’ve gotten so far has!). This means that they will most likely be a handful and more difficult at times. Wishing for power increases your prowess at work, but once again, there could be a price to pay. Things gotten from the well are quite fun, but they come with a price.

I really like the new Wishing Well in The Sims 3: Lucky Palms as a tool for your Sims. I do wish that it were like the prosperity tree so it could be used in other worlds, but maybe that will come later. It is quite amusing to see what the evil offspring produced by the well will do. Granted, you could choose to give a normal conceived child the evil trait as well, but it’s a lot quicker to just get one at random from the well. While there aren’t many new buildings and such, the fact that there are so many new pre-made families gives you a whole lot of new scenarios to work with. I also like that there are plenty of empty lots and empty area for you to add in any community lots that you want as I really like the Sweet Treats buildings and wanted them to add a bit of color to the desert scenery. If you’re looking for a new world that you can customize to your heart’s content, with some new families that you can try your best to please, check out The Sims 3: Lucky Palms today!