While we certainly haven't seen the end of the English Countryside item them in FarmVille, it is nice to see another theme join the ranks of limited edition items this evening, as new items were launched in the Spring theme. One animal was among the release, coming in the form of the Bunny Ewe.
This happens to be one of the cutest darn sheep I've ever seen in the game, and while the price tag is fairly high at 20 Farm Cash, sheep collectors will want to add at least one to their herd. As the Ewe's body is plain white, we doubt that sheep breeders will be able to get anything special from breeding her, but that's also something to keep in mind all the same. The Bunny Ewe will be available in the game for the next two weeks, and we can only hope she'll be given some more company in that time.
Check out the rest of our Easter 2011 coverage right here.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
FarmVille English Countryside Decorations: Spring Cottage, Bluebells Knoll & More
While we've seen some Easter and Spring-related items being released in FarmVille this week, we can't forget that the English Countryside theme is still chugging alone, with four new items being released in the buildings and decorations department this evening.
To start, the two buildings are the Spring Cottage and the English Mill. The English Mill is the more expensive of the two items, costing 25 Farm Cash, while the Spring Cottage goes for coins - a whopping 350,000 coins, to be exact. With the increasing coin prices of buildings, it almost makes me want to spend Farm Cash on the items instead... almost. Then again, that's probably the entire point, but I digress.
For a full look at the new decorations released tonight, meet us behind the break.
As for the new decorative items, you'll be able to purchase just two: the Bluebells Knoll, which costs 10,000 coins, and the Garden Trellis Bench, which is priced at 150,000. The Garden Trellis Bench is a fairly large item, all things considered, standing both tall and wide. The Bluebells Knoll, then, is roughly the size of the other hill items that have been released in the past, but simply covered in a few Bluebell flowers for effect.
Regardless of which item you choose to purchase, all are available in the game's store for the next two weeks. There weren't a lot of items released in the English Countryside theme this evening, which leaves me to wonder if Zynga is finally running out of things to release; or, perhaps they've transitioned more into Spring items for the time being. We'll make sure to let you know what ends up being the case either way.
To start, the two buildings are the Spring Cottage and the English Mill. The English Mill is the more expensive of the two items, costing 25 Farm Cash, while the Spring Cottage goes for coins - a whopping 350,000 coins, to be exact. With the increasing coin prices of buildings, it almost makes me want to spend Farm Cash on the items instead... almost. Then again, that's probably the entire point, but I digress.
For a full look at the new decorations released tonight, meet us behind the break.
As for the new decorative items, you'll be able to purchase just two: the Bluebells Knoll, which costs 10,000 coins, and the Garden Trellis Bench, which is priced at 150,000. The Garden Trellis Bench is a fairly large item, all things considered, standing both tall and wide. The Bluebells Knoll, then, is roughly the size of the other hill items that have been released in the past, but simply covered in a few Bluebell flowers for effect.
Regardless of which item you choose to purchase, all are available in the game's store for the next two weeks. There weren't a lot of items released in the English Countryside theme this evening, which leaves me to wonder if Zynga is finally running out of things to release; or, perhaps they've transitioned more into Spring items for the time being. We'll make sure to let you know what ends up being the case either way.
FarmVille Spring Decorations: Peeky Bunny, Chick-n-Egg, Egg Fence, and more
A series of five new (ok, maybe the word "new" is pushing it a bit... or a lot) Spring themed decorative items were released in FarmVille this evening, with some of these items falling into the unnamed Easter theme as well. All told, there are three Farm Cash items available at this time - let's take a look at them. The first, and most expensive item, is the Chick-N-Egg, a re-released item from last year's Spring theme. The price has remained constant at 14 Farm Cash, and remember if you purchase this at first unassuming item, you'll be able to watch it animate, as a chicken cracks open the egg and appears.
Otherwise, your Farm Cash can be spent on two other items: the Peeky Bunny for 9 Farm Cash, and the Tulip Knoll for 4 Farm Cash. No, your eyes (and memories) aren't failing you - both of these items are re-releases as well. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come for this entire theme, as we'd love to see more original items being released for purchase.
Either way, the other two items that are now available are the Egg Fence (yet another re-released item) for 700 coins, and the Flower Egg Basket, which costs 10,000 coins. Believe it or not, the Flower Egg Basket is actually an entirely new item to the game, so at least veterans have something new to purchase this evening.
No matter whether you already have these items from last year, or if you're just looking at them for the first time, you'll have two weeks to purchase any that interest you before they disappear (at this rate, likely until next year).
Check out the rest of our Easter 2011 coverage right here.
Otherwise, your Farm Cash can be spent on two other items: the Peeky Bunny for 9 Farm Cash, and the Tulip Knoll for 4 Farm Cash. No, your eyes (and memories) aren't failing you - both of these items are re-releases as well. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come for this entire theme, as we'd love to see more original items being released for purchase.
Either way, the other two items that are now available are the Egg Fence (yet another re-released item) for 700 coins, and the Flower Egg Basket, which costs 10,000 coins. Believe it or not, the Flower Egg Basket is actually an entirely new item to the game, so at least veterans have something new to purchase this evening.
No matter whether you already have these items from last year, or if you're just looking at them for the first time, you'll have two weeks to purchase any that interest you before they disappear (at this rate, likely until next year).
Check out the rest of our Easter 2011 coverage right here.
Game of the Day: Inspector Parker
The Game of the Day hopes you are a fan of Inspectors.... Clouseau or Gadget will do. Inspector Parker: If you like to snuggle with a good mystery, you'll love 'Inspector Parker' to death. Solve the mystery of Misanthorpe Manor, where seven potential suspects, motives, weapons, victims, pieces of evidence and body disposal methods must be sorted through to solve the crime.
Click --> Play Inspector Parker
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Click --> Play Inspector Parker
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
CityVille goes for Spring fling with new buildings, decorations
Spring had sprung weeks ago, but finally we're just feeling Spring weather over on the East Coast. It's nice of Zynga to notice this and release some new items in CityVille for us late bloomers to enjoy. Alright, so most of these things are on a schedule, but looking at it like this makes all the more awesome. The update includes three new buildings and six new decorations. Join us behind the break for more details.
Here are all the items included in this Spring theme update with prices and stats:
Breezy Cabin
Costs: 20,000 coins
Population: 130
Rent: 303 every 3.1 days
Garden Cottage
Costs: 1,000,000 coins
Population: 700
Rent: 195 coins every 8 hours
Luggage Store
Costs: 200,000 coins
Revenue: 636 coins
Goods required: 120
Purple Bloom: 50 coins, 1% payout bonus
Dog Walker: 20 City Cash
Red Bloom: 50 coins, 1% payout bonus
Blue Blossom Tree: 300 coins, 4% payout bonus
Cherry Blossom: 300 coins, 4% payout bonus
Weeping Cherry: 15 City Cash, 6% payout bonus
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Info]
Check out the rest of our Easter 2011 coverage right here.
Here are all the items included in this Spring theme update with prices and stats:
Breezy Cabin
Costs: 20,000 coins
Population: 130
Rent: 303 every 3.1 days
Garden Cottage
Costs: 1,000,000 coins
Population: 700
Rent: 195 coins every 8 hours
Luggage Store
Costs: 200,000 coins
Revenue: 636 coins
Goods required: 120
Purple Bloom: 50 coins, 1% payout bonus
Dog Walker: 20 City Cash
Red Bloom: 50 coins, 1% payout bonus
Blue Blossom Tree: 300 coins, 4% payout bonus
Cherry Blossom: 300 coins, 4% payout bonus
Weeping Cherry: 15 City Cash, 6% payout bonus
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Info]
Check out the rest of our Easter 2011 coverage right here.
Monday, December 26, 2011
How to build CityVille's Leaning Tower Landmark with your friends
Alright, we'll even admit that the Landmarks in CityVille are a tad on the useless silly side. Regardless, Zynga has released yet another of these real life landmark-inspired Population boosts to the game: the Leaning Tower. The new building goes for an immense 300 thousand coins and will raise your city's Population cap by 1,250. Not to mention you'll need some help from your friends to build this massive structure.
Build the Leaning Tower
After giving the Leaning Tower a few whacks for a total of 10 Energy, clicking on the building again will cause the above screen to appear. If you've been keeping up with your game, you should already have a few of these items stockpiled in your inventory. But you will likely need to ask for a few of them:
5 Ribbons
5 Levelers
5 Marble
5 Arches
5 Protractors
The Arches, Levelers (heh, get it?) and Protractors are the items you'll most certainly have to ask for, as they're unique to this Landmark. Once you've added these items to your Wish List and asked your friends directly, the Leaning Tower will soon be completed, granting you one cool-looking building ... and not much else.
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Feed]
Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.
Have you bought or completed your Leaning Tower yet? What do you think Zynga can do for Landmarks to make them more compelling?
Build the Leaning Tower
After giving the Leaning Tower a few whacks for a total of 10 Energy, clicking on the building again will cause the above screen to appear. If you've been keeping up with your game, you should already have a few of these items stockpiled in your inventory. But you will likely need to ask for a few of them:
5 Ribbons
5 Levelers
5 Marble
5 Arches
5 Protractors
The Arches, Levelers (heh, get it?) and Protractors are the items you'll most certainly have to ask for, as they're unique to this Landmark. Once you've added these items to your Wish List and asked your friends directly, the Leaning Tower will soon be completed, granting you one cool-looking building ... and not much else.
[Source and Image Credit: CityVille Feed]
Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.
Have you bought or completed your Leaning Tower yet? What do you think Zynga can do for Landmarks to make them more compelling?
FarmVille Sneak Peek: Cool, legit Pig Breeding patterns incoming
FarmVille Pig Breeding patterns
If you thought the previously illegal Sheep Breeding patterns in FarmVille were awesome, check these upcoming Pig Breeding patterns and colors. And better yet, they will all be 100 percent legit--once release, of course. FarmVille Feed has found several screen shots of upcoming Pig patterns including checkers, swirls, hearts and more. However, it appears that they will be gradually unlocked through, well, breeding Pigs.
FarmVille Pig Levels
At certain milestones, like Level 5, 10, 20 and so on, new patterns will become available either in the Market or elsewhere. If this new feature goes down well enough, you wouldn't be wrong to expect a similar version to come to Sheep Breeding as well. FarmVille Feed estimates that Zynga will offer plenty of Farm Cash options to instant level up and unlock the new patterns, and we wouldn't put it past them either. You better bet we'll be all over this once it does release.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Feed]
Which of these future Pig patterns do you like best? Would you like a similar feature to made for Sheep Breeding as well?
If you thought the previously illegal Sheep Breeding patterns in FarmVille were awesome, check these upcoming Pig Breeding patterns and colors. And better yet, they will all be 100 percent legit--once release, of course. FarmVille Feed has found several screen shots of upcoming Pig patterns including checkers, swirls, hearts and more. However, it appears that they will be gradually unlocked through, well, breeding Pigs.
FarmVille Pig Levels
At certain milestones, like Level 5, 10, 20 and so on, new patterns will become available either in the Market or elsewhere. If this new feature goes down well enough, you wouldn't be wrong to expect a similar version to come to Sheep Breeding as well. FarmVille Feed estimates that Zynga will offer plenty of Farm Cash options to instant level up and unlock the new patterns, and we wouldn't put it past them either. You better bet we'll be all over this once it does release.
[Image Credit: FarmVille Feed]
Which of these future Pig patterns do you like best? Would you like a similar feature to made for Sheep Breeding as well?
Is that FrontierVille's Bess riding the Black Stallion ... naked?
FrontierVille Bess rides bottomless
Like a scene from a campy 'Skinemax' flick, Bess gallops across FrontierVille on her Black Stallion with red hair blowing in the wind, revealing her hoo-hah to the homestead--wait, huh? You heard that right, FrontierVille Info has found that, presumably due to a glitch, Bess riding her new Black Stallion half-naked. Zynga will surely fix this bug in no time, unless of course, this is intentional (which we doubt). So, grab your laugh-worthy screen shots of "Bottomless Bess" now before it's too late.
[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]
Have you seen Bottomless Bess riding around your homestead? Do you think this was intentional or a glitch?
Like a scene from a campy 'Skinemax' flick, Bess gallops across FrontierVille on her Black Stallion with red hair blowing in the wind, revealing her hoo-hah to the homestead--wait, huh? You heard that right, FrontierVille Info has found that, presumably due to a glitch, Bess riding her new Black Stallion half-naked. Zynga will surely fix this bug in no time, unless of course, this is intentional (which we doubt). So, grab your laugh-worthy screen shots of "Bottomless Bess" now before it's too late.
[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]
Have you seen Bottomless Bess riding around your homestead? Do you think this was intentional or a glitch?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Social games could teach music, movies a thing or two
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Don't worry Zynga, the other Big Z might like you after all. (Can somebody say, "Awww?") At least Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg respects what social game developers have done for the games industry on the whole. In fact, paidContent reports that the Facebook chief said today at the eG8 convention in France that other media industries could learn from what companies like EA, Playfish and Playdom have done for online casual games.
"We're going to see a lot of the transformation in these industries over the next three, five years that we have with gaming so far," Zuckerber said. "The gaming industry has been completely transformed. Social gaming has taken off from scratch to be, the biggest companies in the gaming industry are now social games companies."
More specifically, Zuckerberg congratulated Zynga and Playfish for "baking the principles of social design" into games, paidContent reports. And the effort is reaching even farther than the 27-year-old executive mentioned. Traditional publishers like EA have enlisted developers like EA2D to promote their existing games via Facebook games.
Even better, Facebook is digging its claws right into traditional games like the upcoming Uncharted 3, bringing the social graph right into consoles. And as Facebook inevitably continues to grow, it wouldn't be surprising to see more console games (and movies and music) experience the same type of "social renaissance."
[Image Credit: paidContent]
Do you see social features finding their way into music and movies in the future? How do you think Facebook will continue to change the gaming industry?
Don't worry Zynga, the other Big Z might like you after all. (Can somebody say, "Awww?") At least Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg respects what social game developers have done for the games industry on the whole. In fact, paidContent reports that the Facebook chief said today at the eG8 convention in France that other media industries could learn from what companies like EA, Playfish and Playdom have done for online casual games.
"We're going to see a lot of the transformation in these industries over the next three, five years that we have with gaming so far," Zuckerber said. "The gaming industry has been completely transformed. Social gaming has taken off from scratch to be, the biggest companies in the gaming industry are now social games companies."
More specifically, Zuckerberg congratulated Zynga and Playfish for "baking the principles of social design" into games, paidContent reports. And the effort is reaching even farther than the 27-year-old executive mentioned. Traditional publishers like EA have enlisted developers like EA2D to promote their existing games via Facebook games.
Even better, Facebook is digging its claws right into traditional games like the upcoming Uncharted 3, bringing the social graph right into consoles. And as Facebook inevitably continues to grow, it wouldn't be surprising to see more console games (and movies and music) experience the same type of "social renaissance."
[Image Credit: paidContent]
Do you see social features finding their way into music and movies in the future? How do you think Facebook will continue to change the gaming industry?
CityVille Sneak Peek: Zynga teases Mall feature, time for a shopping spree
CityVille Malls
Jay and Silent Bob would be proud. Zynga has released the first promotional image of Malls, an upcoming feature in CityVille. There are little to no details on this new building, just a blurb from the developer that reads, "Malls are coming soon! Get ready for some great benefits and perks too! Stay tuned, you won't wanna miss out!" If you're asking for our educated guess (or wild speculations), we'd imagine that Malls will be another community building. However, we hope that they will come with those additional features Zynga has been teasing since the release of the Visitor's Center. Until these Malls are released, they'll have roller coasters and hover cars inside them ... at least in your dreams.
What do you think these Malls will amount to in CityVille? What function do you think is missing from CityVille buildings?
Jay and Silent Bob would be proud. Zynga has released the first promotional image of Malls, an upcoming feature in CityVille. There are little to no details on this new building, just a blurb from the developer that reads, "Malls are coming soon! Get ready for some great benefits and perks too! Stay tuned, you won't wanna miss out!" If you're asking for our educated guess (or wild speculations), we'd imagine that Malls will be another community building. However, we hope that they will come with those additional features Zynga has been teasing since the release of the Visitor's Center. Until these Malls are released, they'll have roller coasters and hover cars inside them ... at least in your dreams.
What do you think these Malls will amount to in CityVille? What function do you think is missing from CityVille buildings?
Game of the Day: Shape Shifter
The Game of the Day wants you to remember the games we've had for a while. Shape Shifter: A delightful convergence of action, intrigue and fun. Drag shapes into matching shape cutouts.
Click --> Play Shape Shifter
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Click --> Play Shape Shifter
Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.
Plank'd: Digital planking is more fun (and way safer) than the real deal
Honestly, how fun could laying flat on random surfaces (and taking pictures of it) be? Planking has taken the world by storm as the newest runaway fad, and already a game inspired by the Australian phenomenon has been created. Plank'd, developed by N3V Games using the Unity Player, actually makes for an entertaining way to lose an hour of your life kill some time. Once you get a grip on the game's quirky controls and physics, you'll be stringing epic planks together in no time.
While flipping around a vertically sprawling cityscape in a Rigamortis-like position turns out to be a blast, the main draw of Plank'd is its nostalgic 8-bit-inspired visuals and thumping, catchy techno beat. To flip around and balance yourself on anything from traffic lights to giant clocks and innocent grannies, you'll have to use the W,A and D keys. Admittedly, the game requires quite a bit of dexterity, but give the game some time and you should plank the sun in no time at all. (Yes, you can, in fact, plank the sun.)
Plank'd granny plank
You'll be scored on your ability to string planks together, and if you score high enough you're free to post to the leader boards. However, the lowest ranking is 64,900, so you'll have a long ways to go before you reach the home page. Until then, just keep planking to that beat--just remember to come back from your lunch break this time.
Click here to play Plank'd Now >
Have you played Plank'd before or seen someone in the act of planking? Is planking just another fad or is it here to stay?
While flipping around a vertically sprawling cityscape in a Rigamortis-like position turns out to be a blast, the main draw of Plank'd is its nostalgic 8-bit-inspired visuals and thumping, catchy techno beat. To flip around and balance yourself on anything from traffic lights to giant clocks and innocent grannies, you'll have to use the W,A and D keys. Admittedly, the game requires quite a bit of dexterity, but give the game some time and you should plank the sun in no time at all. (Yes, you can, in fact, plank the sun.)
Plank'd granny plank
You'll be scored on your ability to string planks together, and if you score high enough you're free to post to the leader boards. However, the lowest ranking is 64,900, so you'll have a long ways to go before you reach the home page. Until then, just keep planking to that beat--just remember to come back from your lunch break this time.
Click here to play Plank'd Now >
Have you played Plank'd before or seen someone in the act of planking? Is planking just another fad or is it here to stay?
Saturday, December 24, 2011
CityVille: Throw a July 4th cookout, complete with fireworks
If you're planning on spending any time indoors over this upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend, Zynga hopes that you'll spend some of that time playing CityVille, as they have released a whole set of themed items that scream of backyard barbecues and fireworks celebrations.
There are two new businesses to purchase for coins (that is, once you unlock them by completing the accompanying 4th of July goals): an Ice Cream Parlor for 2,200 coins and a Barbecue Restaurant for 2,500 coins. The Ice Cream Parlor will give your citizens a chance to buy some sweet treats, so long as you supply it with 70 Goods. You'll earn 308 coins in return. As for the Barbecue Restaurant, you'll need to stock the business with 75 Goods (probably napkins) to receive a 338 coin payout in return.
If you have some City Cash to spare, you can purchase a third business - the Fireworks Tent - for 30 City Cash. This one requires a whopping 200 Goods to open, but you'll receive 920 coins as profit in return.
For new decorations, you can purchase a Bean Bag Toss for 10 City Cash (offers a 6% bonus payout), a Horseshoe Pit for 15 City Cash (9% bonus payout), a Barbecue for 1,000 coins (4% bonus payout) or an American Flag for 20 coins (2% bonus payout). There are even three different flower patches that come in the expected colors: red, white, and blue. A patch of each single color costs just 50 coins, with each patch offering a single 1% in bonus to surrounding buildings.
Finally, a new home comes in the form of the Boat Driveway House. While this home has a funny name, it basically just means that you're purchasing a house that happens to have a boat parked in the driveway. You can purchase a single Boat Driveway House for 25,000 coins. It starts with 150 citizens in population, and can be expanded to 250 citizens over time.
All told, it's great to see so many items released for coins, when the game seemed to have taken a turn for the worse in that respect over the past few weeks. I, for one, will be glad to see this sort of balance return in the future.
There are two new businesses to purchase for coins (that is, once you unlock them by completing the accompanying 4th of July goals): an Ice Cream Parlor for 2,200 coins and a Barbecue Restaurant for 2,500 coins. The Ice Cream Parlor will give your citizens a chance to buy some sweet treats, so long as you supply it with 70 Goods. You'll earn 308 coins in return. As for the Barbecue Restaurant, you'll need to stock the business with 75 Goods (probably napkins) to receive a 338 coin payout in return.
If you have some City Cash to spare, you can purchase a third business - the Fireworks Tent - for 30 City Cash. This one requires a whopping 200 Goods to open, but you'll receive 920 coins as profit in return.
For new decorations, you can purchase a Bean Bag Toss for 10 City Cash (offers a 6% bonus payout), a Horseshoe Pit for 15 City Cash (9% bonus payout), a Barbecue for 1,000 coins (4% bonus payout) or an American Flag for 20 coins (2% bonus payout). There are even three different flower patches that come in the expected colors: red, white, and blue. A patch of each single color costs just 50 coins, with each patch offering a single 1% in bonus to surrounding buildings.
Finally, a new home comes in the form of the Boat Driveway House. While this home has a funny name, it basically just means that you're purchasing a house that happens to have a boat parked in the driveway. You can purchase a single Boat Driveway House for 25,000 coins. It starts with 150 citizens in population, and can be expanded to 250 citizens over time.
All told, it's great to see so many items released for coins, when the game seemed to have taken a turn for the worse in that respect over the past few weeks. I, for one, will be glad to see this sort of balance return in the future.
CityVille: Instantly unwither crops and boat supplies with City Cash
Have you ever accidentally forgot to come back to your CityVille town in time to harvest your crops, only to return to a withered field of strawberries or pumpkins? Don't worry, we've done it too. In the future though, this won't be as big of an issue, that is, if you're willing to pay City Cash to rectify the error.
The next time you have withered crops on your land, and you click on a square to remove them, you'll first be given a chance to "instantly unwither" those crops by paying Farm Cash. Similarly, if you've ever let supplies on your Cargo Ships spoil, you can "refresh" those Goods with City Cash as well.
Just as this system works in FarmVille, the more crops or Cargo Ship goods you've allowed to wither/spoil, the more City Cash it will cost to revive them. And actually, it's a fairly expensive number. For example, to unwither 17 crops, I was told the price would be 39 City Cash. That's a fairly huge number on its own, but can you imagine how expensive it would have been had I let even more crops wither? What if there were 50 withered crops? I shutter at the thought.
So why would we bother with reviving crops, if it costs this much? I suppose this would save you from having to wait for crops to grow all over again, should you have needed them for a quest or the like, but at that point, whether or not this high price of revival is really worth it would be up to you.
The next time you have withered crops on your land, and you click on a square to remove them, you'll first be given a chance to "instantly unwither" those crops by paying Farm Cash. Similarly, if you've ever let supplies on your Cargo Ships spoil, you can "refresh" those Goods with City Cash as well.
Just as this system works in FarmVille, the more crops or Cargo Ship goods you've allowed to wither/spoil, the more City Cash it will cost to revive them. And actually, it's a fairly expensive number. For example, to unwither 17 crops, I was told the price would be 39 City Cash. That's a fairly huge number on its own, but can you imagine how expensive it would have been had I let even more crops wither? What if there were 50 withered crops? I shutter at the thought.
So why would we bother with reviving crops, if it costs this much? I suppose this would save you from having to wait for crops to grow all over again, should you have needed them for a quest or the like, but at that point, whether or not this high price of revival is really worth it would be up to you.
CityVille July 4th Quests: Everything you need to know
To celebrate the upcoming Fourth of July holiday, Zynga has released a series of quests in CityVille that will introduce you to a series of new businesses, among other things. The first quest in this series is called "Brain Freeze," and it will help you unlock the Ice Cream Parlor business. Here's what you'll need to do to unlock it:
Collect from City Hall 2 Times
Have 2 Strawberry Collection Items
Get 3 Baseball Caps
When you complete this quest, you will unlock access to purchasing an Ice Cream Parlor from the store for just 2,200 coins. That's not a bad price, all things considered.
Next comes the Four Scoops of Freedom quest:
Build and Supply Ice Cream Parlor
Collect from Ice Cream Parlor 5 Times
Harvest 45 Watermelon
Watermelon take four hours to grow, so you'll plenty of time for your Ice Cream Parlor to run out of goods five times so you can resupply it. Each resupply costs 70 Goods. Finishing this quest gives you the Liberty Bell item.
Quest number three is called Red, White & BBQ and it asks you to deal with one older business in particular.
Collect from Burger Joint 4 Times
Send 30 Tour Buses to Burger Joints
Get 10 Packages of Hot Dogs
You'll need to ask your friends for help with the Hot Dog portion of this goal, while simply visiting friends and clicking on their Burger Joints will add up to your tally of 30 tour buses in total. Remember, if you don't have enough friends to add up to 30 Burger Joints, just come back the next day and repeat the process until you do have enough. For your efforts here, you'll unlock the Fireworks Tent, another business, but this one costing City Cash.
Finally, you'll come to the quest called Light the Fuse, which deals with fireworks and a bit of fireworks safety.
Collect from Emergency Clinic(s) 5 Times
Supply a Fireworks Shop 10 Times
Get 5 Boxes of Sparklers
Don't panic here players. You don't need to build or supply a Fireworks Tent in your city (a new business that costs City Cash to place); rather, you'll need to supply the Fireworks Shop, released back in the Lunar New Year celebration, so your City Cash is safe. Finishing this goal unlocks yet another business to you: the Barbeque Restaurant, that costs just 2,500 coins to build from the store. Of course, as this is the end of the quest line, you don't technically have to build one, but the cost is fairly low if you do wish to.
All told, these quests don't really seem to be too difficult, but perhaps more time consuming in the case of supplying the same business 10 times. Just remember, if you only supply that one business, and leave the rest of your businesses ready to be cashed out, all of your citizens will clamor for this one location, and you can complete such tasks much more quickly. Happy July 4th!
Collect from City Hall 2 Times
Have 2 Strawberry Collection Items
Get 3 Baseball Caps
When you complete this quest, you will unlock access to purchasing an Ice Cream Parlor from the store for just 2,200 coins. That's not a bad price, all things considered.
Next comes the Four Scoops of Freedom quest:
Build and Supply Ice Cream Parlor
Collect from Ice Cream Parlor 5 Times
Harvest 45 Watermelon
Watermelon take four hours to grow, so you'll plenty of time for your Ice Cream Parlor to run out of goods five times so you can resupply it. Each resupply costs 70 Goods. Finishing this quest gives you the Liberty Bell item.
Quest number three is called Red, White & BBQ and it asks you to deal with one older business in particular.
Collect from Burger Joint 4 Times
Send 30 Tour Buses to Burger Joints
Get 10 Packages of Hot Dogs
You'll need to ask your friends for help with the Hot Dog portion of this goal, while simply visiting friends and clicking on their Burger Joints will add up to your tally of 30 tour buses in total. Remember, if you don't have enough friends to add up to 30 Burger Joints, just come back the next day and repeat the process until you do have enough. For your efforts here, you'll unlock the Fireworks Tent, another business, but this one costing City Cash.
Finally, you'll come to the quest called Light the Fuse, which deals with fireworks and a bit of fireworks safety.
Collect from Emergency Clinic(s) 5 Times
Supply a Fireworks Shop 10 Times
Get 5 Boxes of Sparklers
Don't panic here players. You don't need to build or supply a Fireworks Tent in your city (a new business that costs City Cash to place); rather, you'll need to supply the Fireworks Shop, released back in the Lunar New Year celebration, so your City Cash is safe. Finishing this goal unlocks yet another business to you: the Barbeque Restaurant, that costs just 2,500 coins to build from the store. Of course, as this is the end of the quest line, you don't technically have to build one, but the cost is fairly low if you do wish to.
All told, these quests don't really seem to be too difficult, but perhaps more time consuming in the case of supplying the same business 10 times. Just remember, if you only supply that one business, and leave the rest of your businesses ready to be cashed out, all of your citizens will clamor for this one location, and you can complete such tasks much more quickly. Happy July 4th!
Building the FrontierVille Fireworks Stand: Everything you need to know
Earlier today, we brought you the news that the Fireworks Stand had launched in FrontierVille to celebrate the Fourth of July. Well, now that the building has started rolling out to more users, we can bring you a complete guide to actually building one on your own Homestead.
First, you can either place the building when prompted by an in-game pop-up, or you can simply purchase the Stand from the market for around 1700 coins. From there, you'll need to whack the base five times, with each whack costing five wood. As usual, your work is just beginning at this point, as you'll then be tasked with collecting six building materials: 10 each of Scrap Wood, Small Flags and Banners, and eight each of Stock Labels, No Smoking Signs and Canopies. The first three items are earned by simply posting a general request to your news feed, while the latter trio is acquired by sending out individual item requests to friends.
Once you complete the Fireworks Stand, you'll be able to craft fireworks within the building using various recipes. The items used to create fireworks, like Firework Shells and Firework Fuses, can be found by completing tasks around your own Homestead, or you can ask your friends to send these items to you, whenever the "Ask for More" button happens to be available.
Once you have crafted enough fireworks to create what you think is a great show, you'll be able to ask for Matches, and three helpers, to set the whole thing ablaze. Yes, you read that correctly - you're not just setting off your fireworks, you're destroying the entire Fireworks Stand! You'll be able to rebuild the stand and craft more fireworks, but as the building will only be available until July 21, you might have time to only do this once or twice, so plan accordingly beforehand.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you go through this entire process only to destroy your Fireworks Stand at the end? Or, will you try to save this building (therefore not wasting your work or item requests) even after the event has ended?
First, you can either place the building when prompted by an in-game pop-up, or you can simply purchase the Stand from the market for around 1700 coins. From there, you'll need to whack the base five times, with each whack costing five wood. As usual, your work is just beginning at this point, as you'll then be tasked with collecting six building materials: 10 each of Scrap Wood, Small Flags and Banners, and eight each of Stock Labels, No Smoking Signs and Canopies. The first three items are earned by simply posting a general request to your news feed, while the latter trio is acquired by sending out individual item requests to friends.
Once you complete the Fireworks Stand, you'll be able to craft fireworks within the building using various recipes. The items used to create fireworks, like Firework Shells and Firework Fuses, can be found by completing tasks around your own Homestead, or you can ask your friends to send these items to you, whenever the "Ask for More" button happens to be available.
Once you have crafted enough fireworks to create what you think is a great show, you'll be able to ask for Matches, and three helpers, to set the whole thing ablaze. Yes, you read that correctly - you're not just setting off your fireworks, you're destroying the entire Fireworks Stand! You'll be able to rebuild the stand and craft more fireworks, but as the building will only be available until July 21, you might have time to only do this once or twice, so plan accordingly beforehand.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you go through this entire process only to destroy your Fireworks Stand at the end? Or, will you try to save this building (therefore not wasting your work or item requests) even after the event has ended?
FrontierVille Fourth of July Goals: Everything you need to know
Earlier today, we brought you a sneak peek of the first goal available in the new Fourth of July series in FrontierVille. This three part goal series doesn't stop there, however, so we've compiled a complete guide that will see you celebrating the fourth in FrontierVille like never before!
First though, here's a quick refresher over the first goal's requirements:
Chop Trees 30 times on your Homestead or a Neighbor's
Plant 25 Wheat
Visit 15 Neighbors
Luckily, all three of these tasks are relatively basic, which is a good thing, as we'll only be able to complete these goals until July 21. For completing this first one, you'll receive 570 XP, one match, and a Blue Spider Firework. Both the match and the firework can be put to good use in your Fireworks Stand. Don't have one on your Homestead yet? You can learn how to build one in our complete guide.
For the second goal, "Stars and Stripes Forever," you'll need to tend some animals, along with actually putting your new Fireworks Stand to good use.
Tend 25 Geese on your Homestead or a Neighbor's
Have 10 Pyrotechnic Stars
Craft One Firework in the Fireworks Stand
Remember, you'll need to have completely finished the construction on your Fireworks Stand to craft anything within it, but you can find some of the crafting ingredients by simply completing tasks around your Homestead. One of these items just so happens to be the Pyrotechnic Stars that you need 10 of, but this item also comes with the ability to ask your friends to send them to you (conveniently enough). For completing this second goal, you'll receive 676 XP, one match, and a Red Peony Firework.
Finally, the last goal in this trio is called "American the Beautiful," and it asks you to collect quite a few more matches before all is said and done.
Find or Obtain 25 Matches
Tend 30 Apple Trees
Set of 5 New Fireworks that are Crafted from the Fireworks Stand
Feel free to harvest Apple Trees that are currently inside your Orchard. You don't need to pull them out for these to count. For finishing this final goal, you'll receive 776 XP, a July 4th Decoration Crate and a Giant Roman Candle.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Do you with more Fourth of July goals had been released in FrontierVille, on top of these three? Do you like the idea of being able to craft your own fireworks, or do you wish we could use the same fireworks we've been holding onto and crafting since last year?
First though, here's a quick refresher over the first goal's requirements:
Chop Trees 30 times on your Homestead or a Neighbor's
Plant 25 Wheat
Visit 15 Neighbors
Luckily, all three of these tasks are relatively basic, which is a good thing, as we'll only be able to complete these goals until July 21. For completing this first one, you'll receive 570 XP, one match, and a Blue Spider Firework. Both the match and the firework can be put to good use in your Fireworks Stand. Don't have one on your Homestead yet? You can learn how to build one in our complete guide.
For the second goal, "Stars and Stripes Forever," you'll need to tend some animals, along with actually putting your new Fireworks Stand to good use.
Tend 25 Geese on your Homestead or a Neighbor's
Have 10 Pyrotechnic Stars
Craft One Firework in the Fireworks Stand
Remember, you'll need to have completely finished the construction on your Fireworks Stand to craft anything within it, but you can find some of the crafting ingredients by simply completing tasks around your Homestead. One of these items just so happens to be the Pyrotechnic Stars that you need 10 of, but this item also comes with the ability to ask your friends to send them to you (conveniently enough). For completing this second goal, you'll receive 676 XP, one match, and a Red Peony Firework.
Finally, the last goal in this trio is called "American the Beautiful," and it asks you to collect quite a few more matches before all is said and done.
Find or Obtain 25 Matches
Tend 30 Apple Trees
Set of 5 New Fireworks that are Crafted from the Fireworks Stand
Feel free to harvest Apple Trees that are currently inside your Orchard. You don't need to pull them out for these to count. For finishing this final goal, you'll receive 776 XP, a July 4th Decoration Crate and a Giant Roman Candle.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Do you with more Fourth of July goals had been released in FrontierVille, on top of these three? Do you like the idea of being able to craft your own fireworks, or do you wish we could use the same fireworks we've been holding onto and crafting since last year?
FrontierVille's Fourth of July items celebrate the Red, White, and Blue
If the Fireworks Stand (and the accompanying Goals) aren't enough to fully satisfy your patriotism in FrontierVille, you can now go on a shopping spree in the store for some returning patriotic trees, along with some new decorations celebrating the Fourth of July.
First, here's something that comes with a bit of pros and cons: the colored Cherry Trees have been re-released to the game, (well, the Liberty Cherry Tree has been renamed the Blue Cherry Tree), but these trees now cost coins, rather than Horseshoes. That's a great thing, as you can pick up a single tree (Red, White, Blue or Green) for less than 1700 coins, but if you're one of the players that purchased these trees for 15 Horseshoes last year, I can see how you'd be a bit upset.
Elsewhere, you can also pick up a Parade Float for 8 Horseshoes, some Sparklers for 6 Horseshoes, or a Statue of Liberty for 24 Horseshoes. There are even returning decorations like the Liberty Bell and Liberty Cannon that can be purchased for 25 and 45 Horseshoes, respectively. Again, these prices are incredibly lower than what they were last year, so now's the time to purchase if you held off last July.
Some of these items, like the trees and Liberty Bell, are limited edition, only being available in the game's store for the next 19 days. Sure, that gives you plenty of time to purchase them, but if you wait for the holiday itself to pass, they really won't have the same ring, will they?
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you stock up on these limited edition Cherry Trees now that they don't cost Horseshoes to purchase? What about the Liberty Bell?
First, here's something that comes with a bit of pros and cons: the colored Cherry Trees have been re-released to the game, (well, the Liberty Cherry Tree has been renamed the Blue Cherry Tree), but these trees now cost coins, rather than Horseshoes. That's a great thing, as you can pick up a single tree (Red, White, Blue or Green) for less than 1700 coins, but if you're one of the players that purchased these trees for 15 Horseshoes last year, I can see how you'd be a bit upset.
Elsewhere, you can also pick up a Parade Float for 8 Horseshoes, some Sparklers for 6 Horseshoes, or a Statue of Liberty for 24 Horseshoes. There are even returning decorations like the Liberty Bell and Liberty Cannon that can be purchased for 25 and 45 Horseshoes, respectively. Again, these prices are incredibly lower than what they were last year, so now's the time to purchase if you held off last July.
Some of these items, like the trees and Liberty Bell, are limited edition, only being available in the game's store for the next 19 days. Sure, that gives you plenty of time to purchase them, but if you wait for the holiday itself to pass, they really won't have the same ring, will they?
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you stock up on these limited edition Cherry Trees now that they don't cost Horseshoes to purchase? What about the Liberty Bell?
FrontierVille Patriotic Mystery Animal Crate: Uncle Sam would be proud
While buying trees and decorations is a great way to give your Homestead that Fourth of July feel in FrontierVille, a way to really make statement is by adding themed animals. If you agree, you can now do just that by purchasing the Patriotic Crate from the game's store. This Mystery Animal Crate comes stocked with three animals, all of which have been dressed up either as Uncle Sam, or at least in the red, white and blue theme.
For the price of 50 Horseshoes, you'll be able to purchase a single crate containing either an Alpaca, Chameleon or Himalayan Cow. Which one is the best? They're all cute in their own way, but if you ask which one is the most decorated, I'd have to go with Alpaca - just look at his cute coat and top hat!
There doesn't seem to be a time limit for how long you can purchase these crates, but I wouldn't expect them to stick around any longer than the end of July at the latest.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you purchase a Patriotic Mystery Animal Crate? Which of the three animals are you hoping to find inside?
For the price of 50 Horseshoes, you'll be able to purchase a single crate containing either an Alpaca, Chameleon or Himalayan Cow. Which one is the best? They're all cute in their own way, but if you ask which one is the most decorated, I'd have to go with Alpaca - just look at his cute coat and top hat!
There doesn't seem to be a time limit for how long you can purchase these crates, but I wouldn't expect them to stick around any longer than the end of July at the latest.
Check out the rest of our July 4th coverage right here. >
Will you purchase a Patriotic Mystery Animal Crate? Which of the three animals are you hoping to find inside?
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Pioneer Trail Beaver Valley Missions: Everything you need to know
So, you've left the safety of your Homestead in FrontierVille, and have moved off to the Pioneer Trail. You might be wondering what's waiting ahead of you in this grand new expansion (or, in fact, entirely new game), and the short answer to that thought is: a lot. To start, the entire game has been renamed to "Pioneer Trail." That's right - FrontierVille doesn't exist anymore, as even attempting to load the old app automatically redirects you to the new game.
The first place you'll head after landing in the Pioneer Trail (that is, if you care to leave your perfectly safe homestead at all) will be Beaver Valley. Beaver Valley serves as the introductory leg of your journey to Fort Courage, which sees you learning all about Rations, your trail companions, Trail Points, Hunting and so on. We'll try to make this learning curve as simple as possible by detailing each of the missions (apparently Zynga has tired of the word "Goals") available within the entirety of Beaver Valley in our guide below. Let's get started!
Actually, let's detail a few ground rules first. Your new Pioneer Trail crew (that is, the crew that's found only when you're actually exploring the trail, and not when back on the homestead) consists of your own avatar, your Carpenter, Doctor and Hunter. These positions will be filled by Hank, Doc and Bess by default, but you can hire your own friends to help you for bonuses if you'd like. You'll need to hire friends that are incredibly active to make the most out of these bonuses, however. That being said, when controlling Bess, Hank and Doc, you'll be able to ask them to complete tasks just as you would your own avatar. Click on a rock or piece of grass and they will perform it just as your own avatar would. The significance here is that each character can find their own bonuses when completing tasks. Your Hunter can bring out Turkeys (and other animals), which can be shot for Meat (not the same thing as Food), while the Doctor can find Medicine. Finally, the Carpenter can find Toolboxes with Parts you'll need later on.
In addition, the order in which you complete many of the Beaver Valley's missions will be different than our own guide here (unless you follow along step-by-step, that is), as some missions won't even be available until you manually start them at your own leisure. Keep that in mind if you don't see a mission being available in your own game yet. Either way, we'll list the missions in the order that we know they're available to begin.
Phew, now that that's out of the way, let's really get into this, shall we?
Shovel Trouble Hurts Yer Travel!
Scavenge one Toolbox (with your Carpenter)
Using your Carpenter, clear three Plains Grass
Kidnappers have taken nine-year-old Ezekial Cobb, and this first step into Beaver Valley will help you begin your search to find him. Just like on the homestead, Beaver Valley is full of debris, coming in the form of items like Plains Grass, Rocks and Wild Lupine (among others), and you'll need to clear three Plains Grasses after clicking on your Carpenter (Hank by default) to activate them beforehand. For finishing this first task, you'll earn 30 Trail Points, a Ration Refill (Rations are your Energy Points on the trail, and you start with a maximum capacity of just 10), and 5 Prize Tickets.
Make Sure Yer First Aid Ain't the Worst Aid!
Gather one Doctor's Bag with your Doctor
With your Doctor, Harvest Four Pecan Trees
Just as simply as you completed the first mission, for this one you'll need to simply switch your active character to the Doctor and then click on enough Pecan Trees to either reach four total or continue until you receive a Doctor's Bag as a random bonus item. Clicking on these bonus items (including Turkeys and Toolboxes) doesn't cost Rations, so don't worry if it takes you your entire supply before you finally receive one; you can open it right then and there. Finish this mission and you'll earn 30 Trail Points, another Ration Refill and 5 more Prize Tickets.
Get a Turkey in Yer Tummy!
Shoot one Turkey with your Hunter
With your Hunter, Chop Trees five times
Simply click on Bess (your default Hunter) to make her active and chop at trees until you reach five, or have finally pulled out a Turkey. They seem to appear fairly quickly, so blast it and finish this one off. You'll receive 30 Trail Points, a Ration Refill and 5 Prize Tickets.
From here, you'll receive a cutscene introducing you to Trader Bart, whose wagon has seen better days. You'll then see an overall Map Goals mission icon appear on top of the mission symbolized by Bart's head. This "Map Goals" mission is your overall mission for Beaver Valley, and you'll only complete it after completing (practically) the entirety of Beaver Valley itself. What's this mean in the short term? Ignore it and move on to helping Bart!
Travails of a Travelin' Trader
Shoot one Turkey with your Hunter
Gather one Doctor's Bag with your Doctor
Using your own character, clear five Cattails
Cattails are a new debris found near the water in Beaver Valley. Finishing this mission gives you 60 Trail Points, a Ration Refill and 25 Prize Tickets.
After this, you're greeted with more cutscenes with Trader Bart, and you can either continue on with the somewhat linear story progression, or start looking for bonus missions. Assuming you're after all of the goodies possible, we'll detail a few of the game's first bonus missions next.
Bonus Mission: Case of the Curious Torticoon
Collect 5 Wild Berries from your Friends
Have 10 Meat (this will be consumed)
Have 10 Medicine (this will also be consumed)
As these missions are voluntary, they tend to offer better prizes, but are also more difficult in the process. To start this mission, look out for the Torticoon (a raccoon stuck inside a turtle shell) at the top of your map, with a blue exclamation mark over its head. You'll be able to post a general news item for your wall, asking for the Wild Berries, while your Doctor and Hunter can take care of gathering the Meat and Medicine. Finish this first bonus mission, and you'll earn 450 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets (I told you the prizes were better for such missions).
Bonus Mission: Blackberry Pickin'
Clear 8 Blackberry Bushes with your Doctor
Clear 8 Plains Grass with your own character
Clear 8 Wild Lupine with your Doctor
This mission is started by finding a Blackberry Bush with another blue exclamation mark over it. You'll find this one towards the center of the map. Finishing it gives you 750 Trail Points, 100 XP and 30 Prize Tickets. Even if you choose to put off doing both of these Bonus Missions until a later time, you'll need to at least find and start them for your next story-centric mission, so keep that in mind.
Movin' Down the Trail
Using your own character, Harvest five Pecan Trees
Find and Start Two Hidden (Bonus) Missions
Using your Carpenter, Scavange Two Toolboxes
Again, you'll need to at least start the two Bonus Missions above to quickly complete this mission (apparently, Hidden and Bonus Missions are the same thing), but you don't actually have to finish them before finishing this Mission itself. Once you do finish off this mission, though, you'll earn 60 Trail Points and Ration Refill and 5 Prize Tickets.
Blazin' Campfire
Using your Doctor, Clear two Plains Grass
Collect Two Hickory Firewood
Using your own character, Clear Two Rocks
Hickory Firewood comes from chopping down Hickory Trees, which are found abundantly in Beaver Valley, so just whack away at some trees if you haven't earned the two you need by random already. This would also be a good time to mention that you are allowed to have more than one character working at once, so feel free to queue the two Grasses with your Doctor and immediately put your own character to work without waiting. Finish this mission and you'll earn 130 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets.
Campsite Comforts
Have 5 Meat in your Wagon
Clear 10 Plains Grass with your Hunter
Clear 5 Rocks with your Hunter
Clearly, this entire mission is about the Hunter, as you'll even need to use him/her to hunt the Turkeys for meat. Once you finish it off, and you'll earn 130 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets.
Pitching a Tent
Tend Three Animals
Finish one Hidden Mission
Collect five friends to help you complete your Tent Stitchin'
You might have noticed that along with your crew of workers, you've also brought an Ox, Goat and Pig along with you. Simply tend those (when they're hungry) and you'll complete that task. As for the Tent Stitchin', you'll gather your five friends through a general news item posted to your wall.
From here, we'll take some help from Zynga as to what to expect next (by this point, if you've completed everything in a single sitting, you've likely run out of Rations for the time being).
Bonus Mission: Purdy, Purdy Pignuts
Collect 3 Smoky Charcoal
Chop Hickory Trees 10 Times with your Carpenter
Have 6 Meat in your Wagon
Dysentery Danger
Have 5 Medicine in your Wagon
Harvest 7 Blackberries with your Doctor
Harvest 7 Pecan Trees with your Doctor
By this point, you might be a bit tired of completing the same series of steps over and over again, just in different missions, but remember - this entire Beaver Valley section has been more about easing you into the new gameplay setup, and things will (we assume) become more complicated as time goes on.
Fixin' Up Your Wagon
Collect 5 Hickory Wood
Finish 3 Hidden Missions
Have an Upgraded Wagon
In order to help you travel across the trail, you'll need to upgrade your Wagon to hold more items. This first upgrade can be started by clicking on your Wagon and clicking on the Upgrade button. Similar to building any item on the Homestead, this upgrade requires building materials - six to be exact: two each of Heavy Ropes, Axle Grease, Iron Bolts, Treated Hardwood, Oiled Canvas and Wagon Schematics - and you'll earn these ingredients by asking your friends to send them to you.
Bonus Mission: Missin' Home
Clear 15 Wild Lupine
Chop 15 Hickory Trees
Harvest 20 Pecan Trees with your Carpenter
While we're not told exactly who needs to complete these first two tasks, we can only assume that it means "your own character." Until we know for sure, I'd suggest simply clearing one Wild Lupine with each character until you find one that counts and then move from there.
Bonus Mission: Who Wants Pie?
Collect 3 Candied Pecans
Harvest 20 Pecan Trees with your own character
Have 10 Parts in your Wagon
Candied Pecans are a new item in the Pecan tree collection, and while you might already have them by now (let's face it, you've already harvested a ton of Pecan trees by this point), you can continue to let the trees grow and re-harvest if you need some more.
Bonus Mission: Lost Lil' Bucky
Collect 15 Tender Tree Barks
Have 12 Medicine in your Wagon
Have 12 Meat in your Wagon
Who Wants Gumbo Stew?
Have 10 Meat in your Wagon
Collect 15 Nettles
Ask friends for 15 Bottles of Dr. Firemeister's Hot Sauce
With this mission, you'll likely be stalled for some time, even if only due to the fact that you'll need to wait for your friends to send your Hot Sauce. Still, this gives you time to perform other tasks around Beaver Valley, like stocking up on extra Meat since you'll lose 10 at the end of this mission.
We're almost at the end of Beaver Valley now, so hang in there!
Showdown at Beaver Bridge
Fix the Bridge
Chop down 5 Hickory Trees
Clear 10 Plains Grass with your Doctor
Apparently, you'll only need to click on the Bridge with either your own character or one of your crew-mates to fix it. Meanwhile, make sure to notice the specific wording of the Hickory Tree task: you'll need to chop trees down entirely, rather than simply complete a specific number of swings with the ax.
Bonus Mission: Cajun Crawdad Boil
Harvest 12 Crawdad Traps
Clear 10 Debris
Chop Trees 15 Times with your Carpenter
If you look downstream in Beaver Valley, you may not see any Crawdad Traps before this mission, but as with others, you'll need to complete steps with your own avatar to trigger the launch of the "blue exclamation point items" on your game screen. From there, just complete these tasks as normal and you'll finally have completed every mission in Beaver Valley!
From here, you'll be ready to jump right into the High Plains, and we'll make sure to bring you a detailed looked at the missions you'll hit there as soon as we can.
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille / Pioneer Trail cheats and tips right here.
How far have you been able to travel so far in Beaver Valley? What do you think of the heavily repetitive nature of these first missions? Is the Pioneer Trail everything you've hoped it would be?
The first place you'll head after landing in the Pioneer Trail (that is, if you care to leave your perfectly safe homestead at all) will be Beaver Valley. Beaver Valley serves as the introductory leg of your journey to Fort Courage, which sees you learning all about Rations, your trail companions, Trail Points, Hunting and so on. We'll try to make this learning curve as simple as possible by detailing each of the missions (apparently Zynga has tired of the word "Goals") available within the entirety of Beaver Valley in our guide below. Let's get started!
Actually, let's detail a few ground rules first. Your new Pioneer Trail crew (that is, the crew that's found only when you're actually exploring the trail, and not when back on the homestead) consists of your own avatar, your Carpenter, Doctor and Hunter. These positions will be filled by Hank, Doc and Bess by default, but you can hire your own friends to help you for bonuses if you'd like. You'll need to hire friends that are incredibly active to make the most out of these bonuses, however. That being said, when controlling Bess, Hank and Doc, you'll be able to ask them to complete tasks just as you would your own avatar. Click on a rock or piece of grass and they will perform it just as your own avatar would. The significance here is that each character can find their own bonuses when completing tasks. Your Hunter can bring out Turkeys (and other animals), which can be shot for Meat (not the same thing as Food), while the Doctor can find Medicine. Finally, the Carpenter can find Toolboxes with Parts you'll need later on.
In addition, the order in which you complete many of the Beaver Valley's missions will be different than our own guide here (unless you follow along step-by-step, that is), as some missions won't even be available until you manually start them at your own leisure. Keep that in mind if you don't see a mission being available in your own game yet. Either way, we'll list the missions in the order that we know they're available to begin.
Phew, now that that's out of the way, let's really get into this, shall we?
Shovel Trouble Hurts Yer Travel!
Scavenge one Toolbox (with your Carpenter)
Using your Carpenter, clear three Plains Grass
Kidnappers have taken nine-year-old Ezekial Cobb, and this first step into Beaver Valley will help you begin your search to find him. Just like on the homestead, Beaver Valley is full of debris, coming in the form of items like Plains Grass, Rocks and Wild Lupine (among others), and you'll need to clear three Plains Grasses after clicking on your Carpenter (Hank by default) to activate them beforehand. For finishing this first task, you'll earn 30 Trail Points, a Ration Refill (Rations are your Energy Points on the trail, and you start with a maximum capacity of just 10), and 5 Prize Tickets.
Make Sure Yer First Aid Ain't the Worst Aid!
Gather one Doctor's Bag with your Doctor
With your Doctor, Harvest Four Pecan Trees
Just as simply as you completed the first mission, for this one you'll need to simply switch your active character to the Doctor and then click on enough Pecan Trees to either reach four total or continue until you receive a Doctor's Bag as a random bonus item. Clicking on these bonus items (including Turkeys and Toolboxes) doesn't cost Rations, so don't worry if it takes you your entire supply before you finally receive one; you can open it right then and there. Finish this mission and you'll earn 30 Trail Points, another Ration Refill and 5 more Prize Tickets.
Get a Turkey in Yer Tummy!
Shoot one Turkey with your Hunter
With your Hunter, Chop Trees five times
Simply click on Bess (your default Hunter) to make her active and chop at trees until you reach five, or have finally pulled out a Turkey. They seem to appear fairly quickly, so blast it and finish this one off. You'll receive 30 Trail Points, a Ration Refill and 5 Prize Tickets.
From here, you'll receive a cutscene introducing you to Trader Bart, whose wagon has seen better days. You'll then see an overall Map Goals mission icon appear on top of the mission symbolized by Bart's head. This "Map Goals" mission is your overall mission for Beaver Valley, and you'll only complete it after completing (practically) the entirety of Beaver Valley itself. What's this mean in the short term? Ignore it and move on to helping Bart!
Travails of a Travelin' Trader
Shoot one Turkey with your Hunter
Gather one Doctor's Bag with your Doctor
Using your own character, clear five Cattails
Cattails are a new debris found near the water in Beaver Valley. Finishing this mission gives you 60 Trail Points, a Ration Refill and 25 Prize Tickets.
After this, you're greeted with more cutscenes with Trader Bart, and you can either continue on with the somewhat linear story progression, or start looking for bonus missions. Assuming you're after all of the goodies possible, we'll detail a few of the game's first bonus missions next.
Bonus Mission: Case of the Curious Torticoon
Collect 5 Wild Berries from your Friends
Have 10 Meat (this will be consumed)
Have 10 Medicine (this will also be consumed)
As these missions are voluntary, they tend to offer better prizes, but are also more difficult in the process. To start this mission, look out for the Torticoon (a raccoon stuck inside a turtle shell) at the top of your map, with a blue exclamation mark over its head. You'll be able to post a general news item for your wall, asking for the Wild Berries, while your Doctor and Hunter can take care of gathering the Meat and Medicine. Finish this first bonus mission, and you'll earn 450 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets (I told you the prizes were better for such missions).
Bonus Mission: Blackberry Pickin'
Clear 8 Blackberry Bushes with your Doctor
Clear 8 Plains Grass with your own character
Clear 8 Wild Lupine with your Doctor
This mission is started by finding a Blackberry Bush with another blue exclamation mark over it. You'll find this one towards the center of the map. Finishing it gives you 750 Trail Points, 100 XP and 30 Prize Tickets. Even if you choose to put off doing both of these Bonus Missions until a later time, you'll need to at least find and start them for your next story-centric mission, so keep that in mind.
Movin' Down the Trail
Using your own character, Harvest five Pecan Trees
Find and Start Two Hidden (Bonus) Missions
Using your Carpenter, Scavange Two Toolboxes
Again, you'll need to at least start the two Bonus Missions above to quickly complete this mission (apparently, Hidden and Bonus Missions are the same thing), but you don't actually have to finish them before finishing this Mission itself. Once you do finish off this mission, though, you'll earn 60 Trail Points and Ration Refill and 5 Prize Tickets.
Blazin' Campfire
Using your Doctor, Clear two Plains Grass
Collect Two Hickory Firewood
Using your own character, Clear Two Rocks
Hickory Firewood comes from chopping down Hickory Trees, which are found abundantly in Beaver Valley, so just whack away at some trees if you haven't earned the two you need by random already. This would also be a good time to mention that you are allowed to have more than one character working at once, so feel free to queue the two Grasses with your Doctor and immediately put your own character to work without waiting. Finish this mission and you'll earn 130 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets.
Campsite Comforts
Have 5 Meat in your Wagon
Clear 10 Plains Grass with your Hunter
Clear 5 Rocks with your Hunter
Clearly, this entire mission is about the Hunter, as you'll even need to use him/her to hunt the Turkeys for meat. Once you finish it off, and you'll earn 130 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets.
Pitching a Tent
Tend Three Animals
Finish one Hidden Mission
Collect five friends to help you complete your Tent Stitchin'
You might have noticed that along with your crew of workers, you've also brought an Ox, Goat and Pig along with you. Simply tend those (when they're hungry) and you'll complete that task. As for the Tent Stitchin', you'll gather your five friends through a general news item posted to your wall.
From here, we'll take some help from Zynga as to what to expect next (by this point, if you've completed everything in a single sitting, you've likely run out of Rations for the time being).
Bonus Mission: Purdy, Purdy Pignuts
Collect 3 Smoky Charcoal
Chop Hickory Trees 10 Times with your Carpenter
Have 6 Meat in your Wagon
Dysentery Danger
Have 5 Medicine in your Wagon
Harvest 7 Blackberries with your Doctor
Harvest 7 Pecan Trees with your Doctor
By this point, you might be a bit tired of completing the same series of steps over and over again, just in different missions, but remember - this entire Beaver Valley section has been more about easing you into the new gameplay setup, and things will (we assume) become more complicated as time goes on.
Fixin' Up Your Wagon
Collect 5 Hickory Wood
Finish 3 Hidden Missions
Have an Upgraded Wagon
In order to help you travel across the trail, you'll need to upgrade your Wagon to hold more items. This first upgrade can be started by clicking on your Wagon and clicking on the Upgrade button. Similar to building any item on the Homestead, this upgrade requires building materials - six to be exact: two each of Heavy Ropes, Axle Grease, Iron Bolts, Treated Hardwood, Oiled Canvas and Wagon Schematics - and you'll earn these ingredients by asking your friends to send them to you.
Bonus Mission: Missin' Home
Clear 15 Wild Lupine
Chop 15 Hickory Trees
Harvest 20 Pecan Trees with your Carpenter
While we're not told exactly who needs to complete these first two tasks, we can only assume that it means "your own character." Until we know for sure, I'd suggest simply clearing one Wild Lupine with each character until you find one that counts and then move from there.
Bonus Mission: Who Wants Pie?
Collect 3 Candied Pecans
Harvest 20 Pecan Trees with your own character
Have 10 Parts in your Wagon
Candied Pecans are a new item in the Pecan tree collection, and while you might already have them by now (let's face it, you've already harvested a ton of Pecan trees by this point), you can continue to let the trees grow and re-harvest if you need some more.
Bonus Mission: Lost Lil' Bucky
Collect 15 Tender Tree Barks
Have 12 Medicine in your Wagon
Have 12 Meat in your Wagon
Who Wants Gumbo Stew?
Have 10 Meat in your Wagon
Collect 15 Nettles
Ask friends for 15 Bottles of Dr. Firemeister's Hot Sauce
With this mission, you'll likely be stalled for some time, even if only due to the fact that you'll need to wait for your friends to send your Hot Sauce. Still, this gives you time to perform other tasks around Beaver Valley, like stocking up on extra Meat since you'll lose 10 at the end of this mission.
We're almost at the end of Beaver Valley now, so hang in there!
Showdown at Beaver Bridge
Fix the Bridge
Chop down 5 Hickory Trees
Clear 10 Plains Grass with your Doctor
Apparently, you'll only need to click on the Bridge with either your own character or one of your crew-mates to fix it. Meanwhile, make sure to notice the specific wording of the Hickory Tree task: you'll need to chop trees down entirely, rather than simply complete a specific number of swings with the ax.
Bonus Mission: Cajun Crawdad Boil
Harvest 12 Crawdad Traps
Clear 10 Debris
Chop Trees 15 Times with your Carpenter
If you look downstream in Beaver Valley, you may not see any Crawdad Traps before this mission, but as with others, you'll need to complete steps with your own avatar to trigger the launch of the "blue exclamation point items" on your game screen. From there, just complete these tasks as normal and you'll finally have completed every mission in Beaver Valley!
From here, you'll be ready to jump right into the High Plains, and we'll make sure to bring you a detailed looked at the missions you'll hit there as soon as we can.
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille / Pioneer Trail cheats and tips right here.
How far have you been able to travel so far in Beaver Valley? What do you think of the heavily repetitive nature of these first missions? Is the Pioneer Trail everything you've hoped it would be?
Pioneer Trail Pecan and Turkey Hunting Collections: Finish them in Beaver Valley
With the launch of the Pioneer Trail (and the removal of the FrontierVille name), Zynga has also released a series of new collections that offer tons of equally new prizes, based on activities you'll partake in during your trek to Fort Courage on the Pioneer Trail. To start, you'll take off to Beaver Valley, where your two main collections will be the Pecan Collection and Turkey Hunting Collection.
First, the Pecan Collection is completed, you guessed it, by harvesting Pecan Trees. These grow abundantly in Beaver Valley, and you'll be required to harvest plenty of them for the section's many, many missions. As you go, you'll run into the following items:
Pecan Bark
Candied Pecans
Pecan Pie
Pecan Pralines
Trout with Pecans
One thing to note here is the Candied Pecans item in particular. This is required in bulk for one of the missions in Beaver Valley, so you might reconsider turning in this collection until you've passed that point as to not "waste" a Candied Pecan that you'll need later. Of course, that's all up to you. For trading in this collection, the prize is actually a bit lackluster, if you ask me: 3,000 coins. I don't know about you, but I would have much preferred Trail Points, or even an exclusive decoration.
As for the Turkey Hunting Collection, this one (in theory) will likely be more difficult to complete. You'll be able to bring out Turkeys only at random, and only when completing tasks in Beaver Valley with your Hunter. If you're finishing tasks with your Carpenter or Doctor (or even with your own avatar), Turkeys won't appear, lessening your chances to shoot them. Furthermore, you're not even guaranteed to receive a collectible item with each Turkey you shoot, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to finish this one off. Here's what you're looking for:
Giant Turkey Leg
Turkey Feather
Wing Bone Whistle
Turkey Stew
Turkey Jerky
Again, these items are only earned through hunting Turkeys out on the Pioneer Trail, and not through harvesting Turkeys back on your Homestead (there's a separate collection for that). Still, with enough perseverance (and enough hunting), you'll be able to finally turn this one in, and will receive 50 Prize Tickets for your efforts.
To be especially clear, these aren't the only collections you'll be able to complete while venturing through Beaver Valley or the Pioneer Trail at large, but they do seem to be the two largest collections you'll come across. Either way, just keep an eye out for any unusual looking item as you play the game, as you never know what kind of goodies will appear now!
Are you going to work quickly to finish each Pioneer Trail collection, or will you simply play casually, and complete them as they come?
First, the Pecan Collection is completed, you guessed it, by harvesting Pecan Trees. These grow abundantly in Beaver Valley, and you'll be required to harvest plenty of them for the section's many, many missions. As you go, you'll run into the following items:
Pecan Bark
Candied Pecans
Pecan Pie
Pecan Pralines
Trout with Pecans
One thing to note here is the Candied Pecans item in particular. This is required in bulk for one of the missions in Beaver Valley, so you might reconsider turning in this collection until you've passed that point as to not "waste" a Candied Pecan that you'll need later. Of course, that's all up to you. For trading in this collection, the prize is actually a bit lackluster, if you ask me: 3,000 coins. I don't know about you, but I would have much preferred Trail Points, or even an exclusive decoration.
As for the Turkey Hunting Collection, this one (in theory) will likely be more difficult to complete. You'll be able to bring out Turkeys only at random, and only when completing tasks in Beaver Valley with your Hunter. If you're finishing tasks with your Carpenter or Doctor (or even with your own avatar), Turkeys won't appear, lessening your chances to shoot them. Furthermore, you're not even guaranteed to receive a collectible item with each Turkey you shoot, so don't feel bad if it takes you a while to finish this one off. Here's what you're looking for:
Giant Turkey Leg
Turkey Feather
Wing Bone Whistle
Turkey Stew
Turkey Jerky
Again, these items are only earned through hunting Turkeys out on the Pioneer Trail, and not through harvesting Turkeys back on your Homestead (there's a separate collection for that). Still, with enough perseverance (and enough hunting), you'll be able to finally turn this one in, and will receive 50 Prize Tickets for your efforts.
To be especially clear, these aren't the only collections you'll be able to complete while venturing through Beaver Valley or the Pioneer Trail at large, but they do seem to be the two largest collections you'll come across. Either way, just keep an eye out for any unusual looking item as you play the game, as you never know what kind of goodies will appear now!
Are you going to work quickly to finish each Pioneer Trail collection, or will you simply play casually, and complete them as they come?
Pioneer Trail: Collect Trail Points to unlock Bart's Bargains
See those circular TP icons that appear after completing most every task in FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail? No, that TP doesn't stand for "toilet paper" (c'mon, I can't be the only one that thought it), but it instead stands for "Trail Points." These points are earned while on the Pioneer Trail (and only in the trail - not when playing on your Homestead), and they allow you to earn all sorts of new and exclusive items not available anywhere else.
Early on in your quest to complete Beaver Valley (the first section of the Pioneer Trail), you'll be greeted by Trader Bart, whose wagon needs repairing. After completing a mission to repair it, you'll have access to "Bart's Bargains," a new store that allows you to view prizes specific to the trail as a whole, and to each individual section of the trail map (Beaver Valley, High Plains and so on).
While we won't go into detail about each and every one of the dozens of items available (trust me, we'd be here all day!), we will give you a quick rundown of how the store works. Whenever you feel like you have enough Trail Points to earn a new prize, you can simply click on Bart's wagon to enter the Bart's Bargains marketplace. While you can use this menu to purchase Rations with Horseshoes, you can also use it to see the Trail Points required (thousands and thousands of Trail Points) to unlock various prizes.
For instance, the Beaver Valley section of the store offers you Beaver Arbors at 15,500 Trail Points and a fully grown Hickory Tree for 75,000 Trail Points. Once you've unlocked them, you'll use Prize Tickets to purchase them. There are plenty of items that require more or less Trail Points to unlock, so you'll just need to browse around each section until you find something you like. Also watch out for the many items that are quest locked, rather than locked to specific values of Trail Points. If you keep checking back with the store frequently, you shouldn't miss out on anything, which is just the way we like it.
Should the Pioneer Trail continue to grow with new missions and prizes in the future, we'll make sure to let you know, but for now, let us know which of these new Bart's Bargains prizes you're saving up for first? How far have you been able to travel in the Pioneer Trail so far?
Early on in your quest to complete Beaver Valley (the first section of the Pioneer Trail), you'll be greeted by Trader Bart, whose wagon needs repairing. After completing a mission to repair it, you'll have access to "Bart's Bargains," a new store that allows you to view prizes specific to the trail as a whole, and to each individual section of the trail map (Beaver Valley, High Plains and so on).
While we won't go into detail about each and every one of the dozens of items available (trust me, we'd be here all day!), we will give you a quick rundown of how the store works. Whenever you feel like you have enough Trail Points to earn a new prize, you can simply click on Bart's wagon to enter the Bart's Bargains marketplace. While you can use this menu to purchase Rations with Horseshoes, you can also use it to see the Trail Points required (thousands and thousands of Trail Points) to unlock various prizes.
For instance, the Beaver Valley section of the store offers you Beaver Arbors at 15,500 Trail Points and a fully grown Hickory Tree for 75,000 Trail Points. Once you've unlocked them, you'll use Prize Tickets to purchase them. There are plenty of items that require more or less Trail Points to unlock, so you'll just need to browse around each section until you find something you like. Also watch out for the many items that are quest locked, rather than locked to specific values of Trail Points. If you keep checking back with the store frequently, you shouldn't miss out on anything, which is just the way we like it.
Should the Pioneer Trail continue to grow with new missions and prizes in the future, we'll make sure to let you know, but for now, let us know which of these new Bart's Bargains prizes you're saving up for first? How far have you been able to travel in the Pioneer Trail so far?
Pioneer Trail Bring Back Some Souvenirs Mission: Everything you need to know
No, that isn't a typo - a new mission has launched in FrontierVille, but technically, the game isn't called FrontierVille anymore. While we all train ourselves to call the game the Pioneer Trail from now on, how about we complete a mission on our Homesteads that deals with the gameplay on the trail itself?
The new mission is called "Bring Back the Souvenirs," and it essentially asks you to earn a whole slew of Prize Tickets by completing missions on the Pioneer Trail, and then use those tickets to purchase three animals from Bart's Bargains. These three prizes are the Purple Beaver, Skunkadillo, and Snow Chipmunk.
To purchase any of the three, you'll need to first complete the mission in Beaver Valley that has you repairing Bart's wagon for business. You can check out our complete guide to Beaver Valley's missions if you need help. From there, click on Bart's Wagon to enter the "Bart's Bargain" store. The Purple Beaver is unlocked through Beaver Valley missions, while the Snow Chipmunk comes in Avalanche Pass missions. Finally, the Skunkadillo is found in the High Plains section, so feel free to sort through the store accordingly to find your items.
The Purple Beaver is the first animal you'll earn, and it costs just 25 Prize Tickets. By completing most goals in Beaver Valley, you earn at least five tickets, so reaching 25 can actually be done in a single sitting. As for the others, they're unlocked far, far later into the Pioneer Trail, so don't get into a rush about completing this mission anytime soon. If anything, you might set it as a benchmark to reach later, to keep you going when times get tough.
Back on the Homestead, once you've finished this mission, you'll receive three fairly hefty prizes (according to FrontierVille Legend): a Dying Tree (a dead stump of sorts with a vulture on top), 5,000 XP and 5,000 coins. There doesn't appear to be any time limit for how long you have to complete this mission, so feel free to take your time over in the Pioneer Trail and eventually the spoils will be yours!
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here. >
Do you like longer missions like these, that force you to complete many other gameplay features before completing them? Which of these three animals are you most looking forward to purchasing?
The new mission is called "Bring Back the Souvenirs," and it essentially asks you to earn a whole slew of Prize Tickets by completing missions on the Pioneer Trail, and then use those tickets to purchase three animals from Bart's Bargains. These three prizes are the Purple Beaver, Skunkadillo, and Snow Chipmunk.
To purchase any of the three, you'll need to first complete the mission in Beaver Valley that has you repairing Bart's wagon for business. You can check out our complete guide to Beaver Valley's missions if you need help. From there, click on Bart's Wagon to enter the "Bart's Bargain" store. The Purple Beaver is unlocked through Beaver Valley missions, while the Snow Chipmunk comes in Avalanche Pass missions. Finally, the Skunkadillo is found in the High Plains section, so feel free to sort through the store accordingly to find your items.
The Purple Beaver is the first animal you'll earn, and it costs just 25 Prize Tickets. By completing most goals in Beaver Valley, you earn at least five tickets, so reaching 25 can actually be done in a single sitting. As for the others, they're unlocked far, far later into the Pioneer Trail, so don't get into a rush about completing this mission anytime soon. If anything, you might set it as a benchmark to reach later, to keep you going when times get tough.
Back on the Homestead, once you've finished this mission, you'll receive three fairly hefty prizes (according to FrontierVille Legend): a Dying Tree (a dead stump of sorts with a vulture on top), 5,000 XP and 5,000 coins. There doesn't appear to be any time limit for how long you have to complete this mission, so feel free to take your time over in the Pioneer Trail and eventually the spoils will be yours!
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here. >
Do you like longer missions like these, that force you to complete many other gameplay features before completing them? Which of these three animals are you most looking forward to purchasing?
EA sinks its teeth into Trade Nations developer Bight Games
Sometimes they're just way too easy to pass up. EA, veteran games publisher and now proud owner of PopCap Games, has purchased Charlottetown, Canada-based mobile game developer Bight Games for an undisclosed amount. (And just when you thought EA had little money left to throw around.)
Bight Games is best known for freemium iPhone games, or mobile games that take on the Facebook games payment model, like Trade Nations. In fact, the developer recently brought it's popular iPhone game published by Z2Live, Trade Nations, to Facebook.
Bight Games will join the existing EA Interactive (EAi) development division in Canada, though according to a blog post written by EAi lead Barry Cottle, EAi and Bight Games already go way back. The team has helped in the creation of several unnamed EAi mobile games, so I guess we can think of this as the two simply tying the knot after dating for so long--so cute!
"The freemium game model in mobile is here to stay, and it's growing fast," Cottle writes. And the guy has a point. Just look at games like Smurfs Village for iPhone by Capcom, which we all know probably did a little too well. But that's just one of likely hundreds of successful freemium games on smartphones. And EAi looks to dig deeper into that gold mine once the deal closes later this month.
[Via VentureBeat]
Do you think this was a good move for EA and EAi? With Bight Games, do you think EA could find success on mobile phones with the freemium model like Capcom has with its Beeline division?
Bight Games is best known for freemium iPhone games, or mobile games that take on the Facebook games payment model, like Trade Nations. In fact, the developer recently brought it's popular iPhone game published by Z2Live, Trade Nations, to Facebook.
Bight Games will join the existing EA Interactive (EAi) development division in Canada, though according to a blog post written by EAi lead Barry Cottle, EAi and Bight Games already go way back. The team has helped in the creation of several unnamed EAi mobile games, so I guess we can think of this as the two simply tying the knot after dating for so long--so cute!
"The freemium game model in mobile is here to stay, and it's growing fast," Cottle writes. And the guy has a point. Just look at games like Smurfs Village for iPhone by Capcom, which we all know probably did a little too well. But that's just one of likely hundreds of successful freemium games on smartphones. And EAi looks to dig deeper into that gold mine once the deal closes later this month.
[Via VentureBeat]
Do you think this was a good move for EA and EAi? With Bight Games, do you think EA could find success on mobile phones with the freemium model like Capcom has with its Beeline division?
Order & Chaos Online's Gameloft hits the bayou in New Orleans studio
The land of Mardi Gras and jambalaya will soon be known for another, more international pastime: video games. Gameloft, creator of mobile and Facebook games like Order & Chaos Online and N.O.V.A. Elite, has announced that it will open a studio in New Orleans, La. beginning Oct. 1 of this year. The Paris-based worldwide mobile games publisher is moving to the unofficial French capital of the states early with the promise that it will move into a more permanent location in 2012.
According to The Advertiser, Gameloft plans to hire 20 employees with the goal of creating its first locally-developed game within its first year. So, expect the first game to come from Gameloft New Orleans by October of 2012, and by then the company expects the studio to house at least 53 employees. Later, the studio is expected to grow to over 100 more employees to join Gameloft's 4,000-strong global talent force.
"As we seek to expand our presence in the U.S. we are looking for the most talented gaming professionals to help us maintain our position as an industry leader in digital and social games," said Gameloft studio GM Samir El Agili. We sure hope that these future developers have a better time than some reportedly did in Gameloft New Zealand. Then again, there's no way that could possibly happen in one of the party capitals of the U.S, right?
[Image Credit: Joystiq]
Do you think Gameloft moving into New Orleans is a good move on its part? Do you have any excuse not to head down there now?
According to The Advertiser, Gameloft plans to hire 20 employees with the goal of creating its first locally-developed game within its first year. So, expect the first game to come from Gameloft New Orleans by October of 2012, and by then the company expects the studio to house at least 53 employees. Later, the studio is expected to grow to over 100 more employees to join Gameloft's 4,000-strong global talent force.
"As we seek to expand our presence in the U.S. we are looking for the most talented gaming professionals to help us maintain our position as an industry leader in digital and social games," said Gameloft studio GM Samir El Agili. We sure hope that these future developers have a better time than some reportedly did in Gameloft New Zealand. Then again, there's no way that could possibly happen in one of the party capitals of the U.S, right?
[Image Credit: Joystiq]
Do you think Gameloft moving into New Orleans is a good move on its part? Do you have any excuse not to head down there now?
Pioneer Trail High Plains Goals: Everything you need to know
By now you've traversed the Beaver Valley, helped Trader Bart with his wagon and fixed the bridge. You should be proud that you've restored the land of beavers and ... torticoons (?) to order, but there's much to be done in FrontierVille's Pioneer Trail. Even worse, the Gratchett Gang is still on the loose with that little tike Ezekiel.
The next portion of the Pioneer Trail is the High Plains, and it introduces some interesting new elements to how the game is played, not to mention a slew of new Goals to complete. So, let's git-r-done (sorry, that's about as southwestern as I get):
High Plains
Complete 6 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Complete 5 Story Scrolls
Complete all Travel Quests to reach the end of High Plains
This is the overarching Travel Goal for the entire High Plains area. Hidden Missions are found through blue exclamation points, and usually hover above points of interest like new animals or plants. (The lot of Hidden Missions are found below.) Story Scrolls are found by clicking on things with your own character, so remember to do things yourself whenever possible. You will also need to complete every major Goal in this area to move on.
Pioneer Trail McBaggins House
Picking up the Pieces
Collect 10 Water from Damp Ground
Have 10 Medicine in your wagon
Whack the McBaggins House 5 times
The Damp Ground is likely the same as any other piece of debris, so just use your main character to do so. To find Medicine, use your Doctor to harvest bushes, trees and other things to cause Doctor Bags to appear. Collected Medicine automatically appears in your wagon, and will be consumed for this Goal. Once you arrive the the McBaggins' home, just click on it five times. For completing this Goal, you will earn 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and five Prize Tickets.
Pioneer Trail BuzzardsScarin' Buzzards
Scare 10 Buzzards using your Hunter
Start 2 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Ask your friends for 15 Emergency Provisions
To use your Hunter, click on either your Hunter in the game screen or their portrait beneath. Then, just click on 10 Buzzards until they're scared away. Use the "Ask Friends" button to, well, ask your friends for Emergency Provisions. Your reward for finishing this Goal is 550 trail points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets.
Shelter from the Storm
Have 10 Meat in your wagon
Have 11 Medicine in your wagon
Collect the daily bonus from the McBaggins House
To collect Meat, use your Hunter to click on trees, debris and bushes to cause wild animals to appear. If a cross hair appears when you hover your mouse over them, click on them to collect some Meat. After fixing the McBaggins House, which requires the items pictured below, collect from it like any other house on the homestead. Enjoy 185 trail points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets for completing this Goal.
McBaggina House fixing items
The McBaggins Well
Use your Hunter to clear 15 Tall Grass
Use your Carpenter to chop White Oak trees 20 times
Ask for 15 Prairie Rain Dancers
To use your Carpenter, click on his portrait or character model, and then on Oak trees. Remember, most trees require multiple chops, and each one counts. Use the "Ask Friends" button to acquire 15 Prairie Rain Dancers. For finishing these tasks, 550 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets are yours.
Wallopin' Prairie Dogs
Finish 3 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Use your Doctor to clobber 15 Prairie Dogs
Collect 2 bonuses from the McBaggins Well after fixing it
Use your Doctor as if he were a Hunter, and click on him and then the critters to clobber them. You'll likely fix the McBaggins Well just like how you fixed their house. So, do the same here, only twice, which could take awhile. Another 550 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets await you for completing this Goal.
Not the Sheep, Pa!
Collect 2 bonuses from the Sheep Barn, after Fixing it
Have 10 Medicine in your Wagon
Ask friends for 15 Baby Lambkins
You'll also end up fixing the McBaggins Sheep Barn in the same way as the others: with a few whacks. While collecting Medicine by doing the usual, use the "Ask Friends" button to grab 15 Baby Lampkins. You'll earn 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets after this Goal is through.
Pioneer Trail McBaggins Sheep Barn
Not the Chickens, Pa
Collect the bonus from the Chicken Coop 3 times
Use your own character to harvest 20 Wild Rice
Recruit 5 friends to lend a hand with the coop
The McBaggins Chicken Coop will likely need fixing, too. However, this building looks as if you will need friends to come help fix it, most likely through a Build Menu. Wild Rice will grow at random on the High Plains, much like the Blackberry Bushes in Beaver Valley, so find them and click on them with your own character. After whacking the Chicken Coop a few times and getting your friends to help, stick around to collect that Daily Bonus. Another 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets await those who finish this Goal.
Pioneer Trail Giant Raging InfernoGiant Raging Inferno!
Rustle up a fire brigade and put out the fire!
Use your Doctor to tend 15 animals
Use your Carpenter to harvest 20 Wild Strawberries
This is most likely the grand finale to the High Plains area. Rustling up a fire brigade is as simple as asking your friends--any friends--to help through the button that will appear at the top of the screen when this event occurs.
Once a friend accepts your help request, their character will appear in your game and put out the fire, contributing one of the 100 required buckets. Wild Strawberries also grow randomly in the High Plains, but remember to click the Carpenter first. A whopping 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets are your reward for this Goal.
Now, onto the Hidden Missions! Unfortunately, information on where exactly to find these missions is scarce, but big old blue exclamation points can't be too hard to find, no?
Bonus Mission: Prairie Doggin'
Ask for 15 Prairie Dog Decoys
Have 12 Parts in your Wagon
Craft 10 Prairie Dog Traps in the McBaggins House
Most of this mission is self-explanatory (even the mission's title), but Prairie Dog Traps require you to use the Carpenter, click on the McBaggins House and then click "Go Inside." The traps likely require wagon parts or other items found in Tool Boxes through your Carpenter. A cool 800 Trail Points, 100 XP and 35 Prize Tickets are yours for finishing this one.
Bonus Mission: Wild Rice an' Persimmon Puddin'
Use your Hunter to harvest 20 Wild Rice
Use your own character to harvest 25 Persimmon
Ask for 15 Secret Spice Jars
Just like Wild Rice and Wild Strawberries, Persimmon Trees grow randomly on the High Plains, too. The 15 Secret Spice Jars are found through friends. Again, enjoy 800 Trail Points, 100 XP and 35 Prize Tickets after these tasks are through.
Bonus Mission: Stockin' the Root Cellar
Have 12 Meat in your Wagon
Rebuild the Windmill using Parts you find in the prairie
Turn in 1 Wild Rice collection
There is a Windmill on the High Plains that needs fixing, and the Windmill requires you to ask friends for parts much like any other new building in the game. The Wild Rice Collection comes from, clearly, harvesting Wild Rice, just remember to always hold onto Collections while on the Trail because of Goals like these.
Pioneer Trail Wagon Upgrade 2Bonus Mission: Stockin' up the McBaggins Homestead
Use your Hunter to flush out 15 Pheasants
Have a second Wagon Upgrade
Use your Carpenter to scavenge 15 Steamer Trunks
Pheasants most likely appear when using the Hunter to clear debris and chop down trees, so do this and then blast away at the winged beasts. The second Wagon upgrade requires you to ask friends for even more parts.
Click the Wagon and then the "Upgrade" button to get started. Steamer Trunks are just like Toolboxes from the Beaver Valley, and appear after clearing debris and other items. For this Goal, 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize Tickets are yours.
Bonus Mission: Skunkadillo Rumors
Use your Doctor to chop White Oak trees 20 times
Have 11 Meat in your wagon
Ask for 15 Curious Critter Nets
You're used to using the Carpenter to chop trees, so remember the distinction. The Curious Critter Nets are found using the "Ask Friends" Button on the Goal menu. This Goal will score you 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets.
Bonus Mission: Gifts for Back Home
Use your Doctor to clear 20 Prairie Lavender
Use your own character to harvest 20 Wild Strawberries
Have 12 Parts in your wagon
Of course, Prairie Lavender appear in the High Plains just like Wild Strawberries do, but remember the distinctions. Parts, again, are found through using the Carpenter. Finally, enjoy an extra 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets after this Goal.
[Sources and Image Credits: Zynga, FrontierVille Info]
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here. >
Have you made it to the High Plains in Pioneer Trail yet? What tips do you have for your fellow pioneers to breeze through this area even more quickly?
The next portion of the Pioneer Trail is the High Plains, and it introduces some interesting new elements to how the game is played, not to mention a slew of new Goals to complete. So, let's git-r-done (sorry, that's about as southwestern as I get):
High Plains
Complete 6 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Complete 5 Story Scrolls
Complete all Travel Quests to reach the end of High Plains
This is the overarching Travel Goal for the entire High Plains area. Hidden Missions are found through blue exclamation points, and usually hover above points of interest like new animals or plants. (The lot of Hidden Missions are found below.) Story Scrolls are found by clicking on things with your own character, so remember to do things yourself whenever possible. You will also need to complete every major Goal in this area to move on.
Pioneer Trail McBaggins House
Picking up the Pieces
Collect 10 Water from Damp Ground
Have 10 Medicine in your wagon
Whack the McBaggins House 5 times
The Damp Ground is likely the same as any other piece of debris, so just use your main character to do so. To find Medicine, use your Doctor to harvest bushes, trees and other things to cause Doctor Bags to appear. Collected Medicine automatically appears in your wagon, and will be consumed for this Goal. Once you arrive the the McBaggins' home, just click on it five times. For completing this Goal, you will earn 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and five Prize Tickets.
Pioneer Trail BuzzardsScarin' Buzzards
Scare 10 Buzzards using your Hunter
Start 2 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Ask your friends for 15 Emergency Provisions
To use your Hunter, click on either your Hunter in the game screen or their portrait beneath. Then, just click on 10 Buzzards until they're scared away. Use the "Ask Friends" button to, well, ask your friends for Emergency Provisions. Your reward for finishing this Goal is 550 trail points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets.
Shelter from the Storm
Have 10 Meat in your wagon
Have 11 Medicine in your wagon
Collect the daily bonus from the McBaggins House
To collect Meat, use your Hunter to click on trees, debris and bushes to cause wild animals to appear. If a cross hair appears when you hover your mouse over them, click on them to collect some Meat. After fixing the McBaggins House, which requires the items pictured below, collect from it like any other house on the homestead. Enjoy 185 trail points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets for completing this Goal.
McBaggina House fixing items
The McBaggins Well
Use your Hunter to clear 15 Tall Grass
Use your Carpenter to chop White Oak trees 20 times
Ask for 15 Prairie Rain Dancers
To use your Carpenter, click on his portrait or character model, and then on Oak trees. Remember, most trees require multiple chops, and each one counts. Use the "Ask Friends" button to acquire 15 Prairie Rain Dancers. For finishing these tasks, 550 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets are yours.
Wallopin' Prairie Dogs
Finish 3 Hidden/Bonus Missions
Use your Doctor to clobber 15 Prairie Dogs
Collect 2 bonuses from the McBaggins Well after fixing it
Use your Doctor as if he were a Hunter, and click on him and then the critters to clobber them. You'll likely fix the McBaggins Well just like how you fixed their house. So, do the same here, only twice, which could take awhile. Another 550 Trail Points, 100 XP and 20 Prize Tickets await you for completing this Goal.
Not the Sheep, Pa!
Collect 2 bonuses from the Sheep Barn, after Fixing it
Have 10 Medicine in your Wagon
Ask friends for 15 Baby Lambkins
You'll also end up fixing the McBaggins Sheep Barn in the same way as the others: with a few whacks. While collecting Medicine by doing the usual, use the "Ask Friends" button to grab 15 Baby Lampkins. You'll earn 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets after this Goal is through.
Pioneer Trail McBaggins Sheep Barn
Not the Chickens, Pa
Collect the bonus from the Chicken Coop 3 times
Use your own character to harvest 20 Wild Rice
Recruit 5 friends to lend a hand with the coop
The McBaggins Chicken Coop will likely need fixing, too. However, this building looks as if you will need friends to come help fix it, most likely through a Build Menu. Wild Rice will grow at random on the High Plains, much like the Blackberry Bushes in Beaver Valley, so find them and click on them with your own character. After whacking the Chicken Coop a few times and getting your friends to help, stick around to collect that Daily Bonus. Another 185 Trail Points, 100 XP and 5 Prize Tickets await those who finish this Goal.
Pioneer Trail Giant Raging InfernoGiant Raging Inferno!
Rustle up a fire brigade and put out the fire!
Use your Doctor to tend 15 animals
Use your Carpenter to harvest 20 Wild Strawberries
This is most likely the grand finale to the High Plains area. Rustling up a fire brigade is as simple as asking your friends--any friends--to help through the button that will appear at the top of the screen when this event occurs.
Once a friend accepts your help request, their character will appear in your game and put out the fire, contributing one of the 100 required buckets. Wild Strawberries also grow randomly in the High Plains, but remember to click the Carpenter first. A whopping 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets are your reward for this Goal.
Now, onto the Hidden Missions! Unfortunately, information on where exactly to find these missions is scarce, but big old blue exclamation points can't be too hard to find, no?
Bonus Mission: Prairie Doggin'
Ask for 15 Prairie Dog Decoys
Have 12 Parts in your Wagon
Craft 10 Prairie Dog Traps in the McBaggins House
Most of this mission is self-explanatory (even the mission's title), but Prairie Dog Traps require you to use the Carpenter, click on the McBaggins House and then click "Go Inside." The traps likely require wagon parts or other items found in Tool Boxes through your Carpenter. A cool 800 Trail Points, 100 XP and 35 Prize Tickets are yours for finishing this one.
Bonus Mission: Wild Rice an' Persimmon Puddin'
Use your Hunter to harvest 20 Wild Rice
Use your own character to harvest 25 Persimmon
Ask for 15 Secret Spice Jars
Just like Wild Rice and Wild Strawberries, Persimmon Trees grow randomly on the High Plains, too. The 15 Secret Spice Jars are found through friends. Again, enjoy 800 Trail Points, 100 XP and 35 Prize Tickets after these tasks are through.
Bonus Mission: Stockin' the Root Cellar
Have 12 Meat in your Wagon
Rebuild the Windmill using Parts you find in the prairie
Turn in 1 Wild Rice collection
There is a Windmill on the High Plains that needs fixing, and the Windmill requires you to ask friends for parts much like any other new building in the game. The Wild Rice Collection comes from, clearly, harvesting Wild Rice, just remember to always hold onto Collections while on the Trail because of Goals like these.
Pioneer Trail Wagon Upgrade 2Bonus Mission: Stockin' up the McBaggins Homestead
Use your Hunter to flush out 15 Pheasants
Have a second Wagon Upgrade
Use your Carpenter to scavenge 15 Steamer Trunks
Pheasants most likely appear when using the Hunter to clear debris and chop down trees, so do this and then blast away at the winged beasts. The second Wagon upgrade requires you to ask friends for even more parts.
Click the Wagon and then the "Upgrade" button to get started. Steamer Trunks are just like Toolboxes from the Beaver Valley, and appear after clearing debris and other items. For this Goal, 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize Tickets are yours.
Bonus Mission: Skunkadillo Rumors
Use your Doctor to chop White Oak trees 20 times
Have 11 Meat in your wagon
Ask for 15 Curious Critter Nets
You're used to using the Carpenter to chop trees, so remember the distinction. The Curious Critter Nets are found using the "Ask Friends" Button on the Goal menu. This Goal will score you 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets.
Bonus Mission: Gifts for Back Home
Use your Doctor to clear 20 Prairie Lavender
Use your own character to harvest 20 Wild Strawberries
Have 12 Parts in your wagon
Of course, Prairie Lavender appear in the High Plains just like Wild Strawberries do, but remember the distinctions. Parts, again, are found through using the Carpenter. Finally, enjoy an extra 800 Trail Points, 100 XP, 35 Prize tickets after this Goal.
[Sources and Image Credits: Zynga, FrontierVille Info]
Check out the rest of our FrontierVille Cheats & Tips right here. >
Have you made it to the High Plains in Pioneer Trail yet? What tips do you have for your fellow pioneers to breeze through this area even more quickly?
Journey of Moses: Exodus to Deuteronomy get FarmVille treatment
Bringing Moby Dick in its entirety to Facebook was sort of a noble gesture. But we're left trying so, so hard to give Journey of Moses the benefit of the doubt. Hexify has formally announced the release of its Facebook game of biblical proportions, Journey of Moses.
The game takes the epic, Biblical story that spans the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy in the Old Testament... and presents it in a format only a FarmVille fan could truly appreciate.
The game appears to have a much heavier focus on story than similarly-styled Facebook games like FrontierVille and recently PyramidVille. Journey of Moses begins with a cartoon introduction depicting the dramatic moment Moses' mother sends him down the river Nile to avoid execution and into the arms of the Pharaoh's daughter. For the rest of the game, you literally assume the role of Moses, and guide him through the story of his life.
This is done through ... searching tiles (seriously), and much like games such as Treasure Isle. The game's story is pushed along through quests and dialog sequences, but players' Moseses (kinda had to make up a word here, folks) can build their own camps to provide friends with bonuses when they visit daily. It doesn't do much of anything to advance the story, but keeps Journey of Moses in line with the norm of Facebook games (and provides players with free Energy through a honey tree).
Journey of Moses gameplay
There are even "bonus" pieces to the Moses story that players can purchase for Facebook Credits. Or, you know, they can just read the Bible, if they're into that sort of thing. It's a well-polished game with amusing visuals and a surprising amount of depth, much more so than Vatican Wars or Holy Town. It kind of leaves us waiting with bated breath for when The Four Gospels hit Facebook. Or not.
Click here to play Journey of Moses on Facebook Now >
Have you tried this Biblical Facebook game yet? Do you think there's a place for ... theologically-charged Facebook games?
The game takes the epic, Biblical story that spans the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy in the Old Testament... and presents it in a format only a FarmVille fan could truly appreciate.
The game appears to have a much heavier focus on story than similarly-styled Facebook games like FrontierVille and recently PyramidVille. Journey of Moses begins with a cartoon introduction depicting the dramatic moment Moses' mother sends him down the river Nile to avoid execution and into the arms of the Pharaoh's daughter. For the rest of the game, you literally assume the role of Moses, and guide him through the story of his life.
This is done through ... searching tiles (seriously), and much like games such as Treasure Isle. The game's story is pushed along through quests and dialog sequences, but players' Moseses (kinda had to make up a word here, folks) can build their own camps to provide friends with bonuses when they visit daily. It doesn't do much of anything to advance the story, but keeps Journey of Moses in line with the norm of Facebook games (and provides players with free Energy through a honey tree).
Journey of Moses gameplay
There are even "bonus" pieces to the Moses story that players can purchase for Facebook Credits. Or, you know, they can just read the Bible, if they're into that sort of thing. It's a well-polished game with amusing visuals and a surprising amount of depth, much more so than Vatican Wars or Holy Town. It kind of leaves us waiting with bated breath for when The Four Gospels hit Facebook. Or not.
Click here to play Journey of Moses on Facebook Now >
Have you tried this Biblical Facebook game yet? Do you think there's a place for ... theologically-charged Facebook games?
Zynga caught in another fight, this time, over 'With Friends' brand
While we may poke fun at Facebook game developers for their use of "ville" or the "just add 'Wars'" approach, naming games remains a matter of serious business, especially when it involves the US Patent and Trademark Office.
After their fight with Digital Chocolate over Mafia Wars in February, Zynga applied for a series of trademarks, including the word "ville" and "With Friends" in Europe, and then "With Friends" for use in the US last month. Zynga came by the 'With Friends' brand last December, when it purchased a small Texas mobile developer, Newtoy, for $53.3 million. Newtoy made it big on mobile by creating Words With Friends and We Rule, before they became Zynga With Friends, churning out Words With Friends for Facebook (and eventually, the Android), and then Hanging With Friends for the iOS.
Zynga With Friends Newtoy
You'd think that by doing all this, Zynga has secured their rights to the 'With Friends' brand, but you'd be wrong. This is because last week, a company named Roxy Friday LLC quietly filed for a dozen 'With Friends' trademarks of what are obviously games:
Farkle With Friends
Gin Rummy With Friends
Canasta With Friends
Yacht With Friends
Mahjong With Friends
Cribbage With Friends
Backgammon With Friends
Dominos With Friends
Pinochle With Friends
Solitaire With Friends
Sudoku With Friends
Crosswords With Friends
After some excellent sleuthing, Fusible.com traced these filings to Brian Fargo, the CEO of inXile Entertainment, which has a web division called SparkWorkz that offers free-to-play online games.
There is no way this list is going to remain unnoticed by Zynga. Can you say, "Shots fired"?
After their fight with Digital Chocolate over Mafia Wars in February, Zynga applied for a series of trademarks, including the word "ville" and "With Friends" in Europe, and then "With Friends" for use in the US last month. Zynga came by the 'With Friends' brand last December, when it purchased a small Texas mobile developer, Newtoy, for $53.3 million. Newtoy made it big on mobile by creating Words With Friends and We Rule, before they became Zynga With Friends, churning out Words With Friends for Facebook (and eventually, the Android), and then Hanging With Friends for the iOS.
Zynga With Friends Newtoy
You'd think that by doing all this, Zynga has secured their rights to the 'With Friends' brand, but you'd be wrong. This is because last week, a company named Roxy Friday LLC quietly filed for a dozen 'With Friends' trademarks of what are obviously games:
Farkle With Friends
Gin Rummy With Friends
Canasta With Friends
Yacht With Friends
Mahjong With Friends
Cribbage With Friends
Backgammon With Friends
Dominos With Friends
Pinochle With Friends
Solitaire With Friends
Sudoku With Friends
Crosswords With Friends
After some excellent sleuthing, Fusible.com traced these filings to Brian Fargo, the CEO of inXile Entertainment, which has a web division called SparkWorkz that offers free-to-play online games.
There is no way this list is going to remain unnoticed by Zynga. Can you say, "Shots fired"?
FarmVille Landscapes give farms fresh look for some fresh Farm Cash
Ah, the price of beauty. Zynga has given FarmVille a bit of a makeover--take a look for yourself--and has released a few new items to the game through the Market.
Though the items, known as Landscapes or Themes, might not be considered "items," but rather cosmetic upgrades. For a whopping 50 Farm Cash, or just under $10, players can transform the area surrounding their farms into a number of new landscapes.
Let me repeat that: For about nine bucks, these Horizons will change the look around your farm ... and do diddly squat to your actual farm functionally. The new landscapes include Beach, Desert, Fall, Green and Snow themes.
But if you zoom way out from your FarmVille game right now, you'll notice that Zynga has already improved the look of your farm's outskirts both Home and on the English Countryside. At that point, you may as well save up for Platinum Mastery Statue.
FarmVille Landscaping Themes
If you're a completion freak looking to add the finishing touches to your Beach farm, then by all means go for it. For those folks who would rather spend their hard-earned cash on, say, something useful like more Fuel--more power to ya.
Do you like the cosmetic changes Zynga has made to FarmVille? Would you ever pay for even more cosmetic changes?
Though the items, known as Landscapes or Themes, might not be considered "items," but rather cosmetic upgrades. For a whopping 50 Farm Cash, or just under $10, players can transform the area surrounding their farms into a number of new landscapes.
Let me repeat that: For about nine bucks, these Horizons will change the look around your farm ... and do diddly squat to your actual farm functionally. The new landscapes include Beach, Desert, Fall, Green and Snow themes.
But if you zoom way out from your FarmVille game right now, you'll notice that Zynga has already improved the look of your farm's outskirts both Home and on the English Countryside. At that point, you may as well save up for Platinum Mastery Statue.
FarmVille Landscaping Themes
If you're a completion freak looking to add the finishing touches to your Beach farm, then by all means go for it. For those folks who would rather spend their hard-earned cash on, say, something useful like more Fuel--more power to ya.
Do you like the cosmetic changes Zynga has made to FarmVille? Would you ever pay for even more cosmetic changes?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Kabam on Edgeworld's release and what battles lie ahead [Interview]
Edgeworld
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
[Image Credit: Kabam]
What are you impressions of Edgeworld so far? Are you excited about the upcoming Territories feature coming to the game, and what else do you hope to see from developers like Kabam?
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
[Image Credit: Kabam]
What are you impressions of Edgeworld so far? Are you excited about the upcoming Territories feature coming to the game, and what else do you hope to see from developers like Kabam?
Backyard Monsters creeps up on Yahoo! Games through Viximo
Who knows, maybe there are as many hardcore gamers on Yahoo! Games are there apparently are on Facebook. Viximo, a company that works with social game developers to get them onto new platforms, announced that Kixeye's Backyard Monsters is now available on Yahoo! Games. Backyard Monsters pits players against one another in all-out warfare with various monsters.
The game was Kixeye's first "hardcore" strategy game on Facebook, and has since become its most popular with 3 million monthly players and 760,000 daily players, according to AppData. Backyard Monsters allows players to create their own home base to defend from other players using numerous turrets and laser weapons against encroaching monsters. Of course, players can then retaliate with baddies of their own for resources and general bragging rights.
Backyard Monsters is far from the first Facebook game to make the leap to Yahoo! Games. A number of Zynga games, including Mafia Wars and FishVille, have taken the plunge along with EA's social version of Scrabble. While it makes sense for developers to expand beyond Facebook, we can't help but wonder how Yahoo! Games stacks up against Facebook games in terms of players.
Since its flagship game, Kixeye has focused entirely on strategy games for Facebook and other networks. Most recently, the company released War Commander, a strategy game with strong similarities to the Command & Conquer PC game series. And, considering Kixeye CEO Will Harbin thinks most social games suck, we're sure more "hardcore" games are in the oven.
Are you a fan of Backyard Monsters? How about games on Yahoo! Games? What do you think of the growing amount of strategy games on Facebook?
The game was Kixeye's first "hardcore" strategy game on Facebook, and has since become its most popular with 3 million monthly players and 760,000 daily players, according to AppData. Backyard Monsters allows players to create their own home base to defend from other players using numerous turrets and laser weapons against encroaching monsters. Of course, players can then retaliate with baddies of their own for resources and general bragging rights.
Backyard Monsters is far from the first Facebook game to make the leap to Yahoo! Games. A number of Zynga games, including Mafia Wars and FishVille, have taken the plunge along with EA's social version of Scrabble. While it makes sense for developers to expand beyond Facebook, we can't help but wonder how Yahoo! Games stacks up against Facebook games in terms of players.
Since its flagship game, Kixeye has focused entirely on strategy games for Facebook and other networks. Most recently, the company released War Commander, a strategy game with strong similarities to the Command & Conquer PC game series. And, considering Kixeye CEO Will Harbin thinks most social games suck, we're sure more "hardcore" games are in the oven.
Are you a fan of Backyard Monsters? How about games on Yahoo! Games? What do you think of the growing amount of strategy games on Facebook?
With new 'Social' update, Xbox.com wants you to play more with friends
Say what you will about Facebook games, but you have them to thank for nifty stuff like this. Microsoft has announced incoming changes to Xbox.com that will reflect the upcoming Xbox 360 Dashboard update. Namely, Microsoft touts "Social", the new version of "My Xbox" that places a major focus on what's new with your friends, rather than what's new with your Xbox.
The new Social section of the website should launch within a few days, and will be the first place players can find the previously-teased Beacons feature. This allows players to place "Beacons" on the games that they wish to play with others. Basically, Beacons are a way of saying, "Hey, I really want to play this game with you," but to all of your Xbox Live friends at once. Players can have up to three Beacons active at a time, and can attach custom messages to them.
The new Social page will serve as the new homepage of Xbox.com for those already logged-in to the service. Taking on the Microsoft-coined "Metro" design found on the new Windows Phone (and soon the new Xbox Dashboard), the Social page features all the most important updates to the Xbox universe up top in compact boxes. Down below, however, is where Xbox.com begins to look a lot like the games you play on Facebook.
Xbox.com Social
The rest of the Social page is dedicated to what your friends are up to on their Xbox 360 consoles from what games they've played recently to what games they're playing right now. (It appears to be broken down by the games you own.) Players will be able to send messages to one another, as well as check out what Beacons they've posted. Xbox.com is beginning to look a lot like Facebook, no?
[Via VentureBeat]
Have you been looking for easier ways to play games with your friends on Xbox Live? What else do you think traditional game consoles and platform can learn from social gaming?
The new Social section of the website should launch within a few days, and will be the first place players can find the previously-teased Beacons feature. This allows players to place "Beacons" on the games that they wish to play with others. Basically, Beacons are a way of saying, "Hey, I really want to play this game with you," but to all of your Xbox Live friends at once. Players can have up to three Beacons active at a time, and can attach custom messages to them.
The new Social page will serve as the new homepage of Xbox.com for those already logged-in to the service. Taking on the Microsoft-coined "Metro" design found on the new Windows Phone (and soon the new Xbox Dashboard), the Social page features all the most important updates to the Xbox universe up top in compact boxes. Down below, however, is where Xbox.com begins to look a lot like the games you play on Facebook.
Xbox.com Social
The rest of the Social page is dedicated to what your friends are up to on their Xbox 360 consoles from what games they've played recently to what games they're playing right now. (It appears to be broken down by the games you own.) Players will be able to send messages to one another, as well as check out what Beacons they've posted. Xbox.com is beginning to look a lot like Facebook, no?
[Via VentureBeat]
Have you been looking for easier ways to play games with your friends on Xbox Live? What else do you think traditional game consoles and platform can learn from social gaming?
Zynga launches new fan appreciation program, are you a Z.I.P.?
Zynga either really loves its players or really, really doesn't want them to leave. (We'd go with a bit of both.) According to Mafia Wars Loot Lady, the creator of FarmVille has started yet another fan appreciation program: the Z.I.P., or Zynga Important Player, Program. (Remember the Platinum Purchasers Program?) If you were one of the lucky few selected to be a Z.I.P., then you've already received an email inviting you to the club.
The program grants only the most dedicated of Zynga fans with "exclusive Zynga goodies, limited edition items for your favorite games, and best of all, the chance to play new games early. Before your friends. Before your family. Before anyone," the introductory email reads. According to Mafia Wars Loot Lady, the first game players will score early access to is CastleVille.
Z.I.P. members will receive a special code in the email that they must use to gain access to the program, which is attached to the email address the invitation was sent to. Our guess is that this program is to reward players who have stuck with Zynga for a long while now, and more importantly, to keep them coming back (and, we imagine, putting up the cash).
Don't feel too bummed about not being included, because we don't even have this early of access. Besides, we have a full preview of CastleVille that you can check out right here. And try to remind yourself that you probably weren't chosen because you have better things to do than play Zynga's games incessantly. Sorry, that was kind of mean--we're just bitter.
Did you get invited by Zynga to be a Z.I.P.? What do you think of programs like this?
The program grants only the most dedicated of Zynga fans with "exclusive Zynga goodies, limited edition items for your favorite games, and best of all, the chance to play new games early. Before your friends. Before your family. Before anyone," the introductory email reads. According to Mafia Wars Loot Lady, the first game players will score early access to is CastleVille.
Z.I.P. members will receive a special code in the email that they must use to gain access to the program, which is attached to the email address the invitation was sent to. Our guess is that this program is to reward players who have stuck with Zynga for a long while now, and more importantly, to keep them coming back (and, we imagine, putting up the cash).
Don't feel too bummed about not being included, because we don't even have this early of access. Besides, we have a full preview of CastleVille that you can check out right here. And try to remind yourself that you probably weren't chosen because you have better things to do than play Zynga's games incessantly. Sorry, that was kind of mean--we're just bitter.
Did you get invited by Zynga to be a Z.I.P.? What do you think of programs like this?
iPhone, Android games make more cash than PSP, DS combined
But iPhone games aren't real games, right? Real or not, games on iOS and Android devices could generate more revenue than games on both the Sony and Nintendo's portable games combined in 2011. Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, found that handheld consoles like the PSP and DS collectively generated $2.2 and $1.6 billion in game revenue in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
That was far more than what iOS and Android games made, but Flurry projects that's all about to change in 2011. The firm expects Sony and Nintendo to generate just $1.4 billion in handheld game revenue in 2011. iOS and Android games, however, are expected to reel in a whopping $1.9 billion in game revenue. This could be the first time mobile games make more cash than their more traditional counterparts.
Keep in mind, however, Flurry is making projections--a buzz term for educated guesses--based on the previous 10 months. Regardless, the fact that iOS and Android gaming may have gobbled up nearly 60 percent of the mobile/portable gaming market in just two years is mind-blowing. We all knew that mobile, especially freemium or free-to-play, games were going to be huge, but growth like this is unprecedented.
Flurry study
This news comes as Nintendo repeatedly refuses to enter the mobile gaming space in fear of jeopardizing its hardware sales. Not to mention the Mario maker looks to report its first loss in 30 years. With numbers like these, we can't wait to see what 2012 looks like not just for mobile gaming, but for the PS Vita and 3DS.
[Via TechCrunch]
What do these numbers say to you about social gaming as well as Nintendo and Sony? How long before Android and iOS completely overtake their more traditional competitors?
That was far more than what iOS and Android games made, but Flurry projects that's all about to change in 2011. The firm expects Sony and Nintendo to generate just $1.4 billion in handheld game revenue in 2011. iOS and Android games, however, are expected to reel in a whopping $1.9 billion in game revenue. This could be the first time mobile games make more cash than their more traditional counterparts.
Keep in mind, however, Flurry is making projections--a buzz term for educated guesses--based on the previous 10 months. Regardless, the fact that iOS and Android gaming may have gobbled up nearly 60 percent of the mobile/portable gaming market in just two years is mind-blowing. We all knew that mobile, especially freemium or free-to-play, games were going to be huge, but growth like this is unprecedented.
Flurry study
This news comes as Nintendo repeatedly refuses to enter the mobile gaming space in fear of jeopardizing its hardware sales. Not to mention the Mario maker looks to report its first loss in 30 years. With numbers like these, we can't wait to see what 2012 looks like not just for mobile gaming, but for the PS Vita and 3DS.
[Via TechCrunch]
What do these numbers say to you about social gaming as well as Nintendo and Sony? How long before Android and iOS completely overtake their more traditional competitors?
Monday, December 12, 2011
FarmVille Gift Box Expansion: Everything you need to know
If there were ever one fundamental error in FarmVille's design, it's the low inventory limit placed on your Gift Box. Now though, that is far less of an issue thanks to Gift Box Expansions. It's not clear whether this expanded Gift Box has already hit every users' farm, or if we'll need to wait for it to roll out over time, but Zynga has given us a complete rundown of how this Gift Box expansion changes things - mostly for the good.
First and foremost, your Gift Box now has two different limits. Whereas before, the limit was technically 500 items (granted, there were plenty of ways to go above that, but we won't go there), now, the overall limit is 5,000 items. That's for total items, regardless of duplicates, meaning that you could have 1,000 Special Delivery Boxes, 1,000 Fertilize Alls, etc., until you reached the 5,000 item limit total.
As for the other limit, this comes in how many total unique items you have. This limit is 500. To give this one an example, you could have 500 different items, only having one of each, in your Gift Box before being unable to technically accept more. You could have one Red Calf, one Special Delivery Box, one Cow, one tree, and so on. The second you added a duplicate item to the list (say, two trees instead of one), you will then only be able to hold 499 other unique items. Of course, the possibility that someone would ever reach 500 unique items before clearing it out is pretty far fetched, but I digress.
Overall, this means that your new gift box works on a "whichever limit is reached first" system, and it will start to delete items (or whole groups of items) if the limits are crossed, based on rarity. If you happen to have 1,000 Mystery Seedlings in your inventory, for instance, along with 499 unique, rare items (Fuel, Love Potions, Instant Grows), you will have reached your 500 unique item limit. As the game judges your Gift Box based on item rarity or value, these Mystery Seedlings are at the very bottom of the list. If someone then gave you an Unwither Ring, which is arguably the most rare item of all, all 1,000 of your Mystery Seedlings would be deleted, simply to give the Unwither Ring a slot in your Gift Box.
Here's an example list of item rarity, starting with the least rare and going to the most rare, straight from the game's official forums:
Gift-able items, coin price items (SDBs, seedlings, watering cans)
Non-consumable, non-LE coin items (haybales, fences)
LE coin items (themed coin decorations)
Consumable LE items (Captiol One Quick Grow) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
Non-consumable cash items (Unwither Ring, Platinum Mastery Statue) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
Consumable cash items (Fuel, Love potions) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
As you can see, there are whole groups of items that can never and will never be deleted from your Gift Box, regardless of how many times you breach the 500 / 5,000 total item limit(s). However, those items in the first three categories are fair game, so make sure to periodically clear out your Gift Box, just like you probably do now, to save yourself from losing all of those freebies.
What do you think of these new Gift Box item limits? Do you think they're fair, or should Zynga simply make the cap unlimited and be done with it?
First and foremost, your Gift Box now has two different limits. Whereas before, the limit was technically 500 items (granted, there were plenty of ways to go above that, but we won't go there), now, the overall limit is 5,000 items. That's for total items, regardless of duplicates, meaning that you could have 1,000 Special Delivery Boxes, 1,000 Fertilize Alls, etc., until you reached the 5,000 item limit total.
As for the other limit, this comes in how many total unique items you have. This limit is 500. To give this one an example, you could have 500 different items, only having one of each, in your Gift Box before being unable to technically accept more. You could have one Red Calf, one Special Delivery Box, one Cow, one tree, and so on. The second you added a duplicate item to the list (say, two trees instead of one), you will then only be able to hold 499 other unique items. Of course, the possibility that someone would ever reach 500 unique items before clearing it out is pretty far fetched, but I digress.
Overall, this means that your new gift box works on a "whichever limit is reached first" system, and it will start to delete items (or whole groups of items) if the limits are crossed, based on rarity. If you happen to have 1,000 Mystery Seedlings in your inventory, for instance, along with 499 unique, rare items (Fuel, Love Potions, Instant Grows), you will have reached your 500 unique item limit. As the game judges your Gift Box based on item rarity or value, these Mystery Seedlings are at the very bottom of the list. If someone then gave you an Unwither Ring, which is arguably the most rare item of all, all 1,000 of your Mystery Seedlings would be deleted, simply to give the Unwither Ring a slot in your Gift Box.
Here's an example list of item rarity, starting with the least rare and going to the most rare, straight from the game's official forums:
Gift-able items, coin price items (SDBs, seedlings, watering cans)
Non-consumable, non-LE coin items (haybales, fences)
LE coin items (themed coin decorations)
Consumable LE items (Captiol One Quick Grow) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
Non-consumable cash items (Unwither Ring, Platinum Mastery Statue) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
Consumable cash items (Fuel, Love potions) WILL NEVER BE DELETED
As you can see, there are whole groups of items that can never and will never be deleted from your Gift Box, regardless of how many times you breach the 500 / 5,000 total item limit(s). However, those items in the first three categories are fair game, so make sure to periodically clear out your Gift Box, just like you probably do now, to save yourself from losing all of those freebies.
What do you think of these new Gift Box item limits? Do you think they're fair, or should Zynga simply make the cap unlimited and be done with it?
CityVille Reverse Bungee Attraction: Everything you need to know
Yet another attraction has been added to CityVille's growing list, with this one being the most extreme yet. If you're afraid of heights, you'll want to avert your eyes, as a Reverse Bungee attraction is now available to build in your game. The Reverse Bungee is the most expensive of the Attractions released thus far, costing 15,000 coins in the store, and it also takes the most time to run through a complete cycle.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, however, let's take a look at its construction. Once you place the base in your city, you'll need to spend eight energy to complete its frame. From there, you'll be asked to staff the building with just eight staff members. Sure, that might take a bit to find eight friends that want to help you out, but think of how long an item collection event usually lasts...
Either way, once you've finished the construction of your Reverse Bungee, you'll be able to put it into business. A single, complete cycle takes an entire day to complete. Before now, the longest running time of any attraction belonged to the Ferris Wheel at eight minutes, so this definitely blows that one out of the proverbial water. As for earnings, you'll earn at least 2,000 coins, but have the potential to earn up to 10,000 coins with each cycle, depending on how many guests "visit" the ride.
For having such a long run time, the Maintenance period hasn't been extended to match, as it takes just two days (keep in mind, other attractions take three days). Of course, you can also throw some Wrenches at the Reverse Bungee (collect the Wrenches from your friends) to make that "cooldown" period go by even faster. Just remember that you can only post one request for Wrenches at a time, and that all attractions pull from the same pool of Wrenches (unfortunately).
As more and more attractions are released into CityVille, we'll make sure to let you know (and will let you know if the Wrench mechanic is improved). Keep checking back with us!
Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, however, let's take a look at its construction. Once you place the base in your city, you'll need to spend eight energy to complete its frame. From there, you'll be asked to staff the building with just eight staff members. Sure, that might take a bit to find eight friends that want to help you out, but think of how long an item collection event usually lasts...
Either way, once you've finished the construction of your Reverse Bungee, you'll be able to put it into business. A single, complete cycle takes an entire day to complete. Before now, the longest running time of any attraction belonged to the Ferris Wheel at eight minutes, so this definitely blows that one out of the proverbial water. As for earnings, you'll earn at least 2,000 coins, but have the potential to earn up to 10,000 coins with each cycle, depending on how many guests "visit" the ride.
For having such a long run time, the Maintenance period hasn't been extended to match, as it takes just two days (keep in mind, other attractions take three days). Of course, you can also throw some Wrenches at the Reverse Bungee (collect the Wrenches from your friends) to make that "cooldown" period go by even faster. Just remember that you can only post one request for Wrenches at a time, and that all attractions pull from the same pool of Wrenches (unfortunately).
As more and more attractions are released into CityVille, we'll make sure to let you know (and will let you know if the Wrench mechanic is improved). Keep checking back with us!
Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.
CityVille: Halloween Monster Ship shows up in city waters
While we've already been given a preview image of some of the items or at least monsters we'll be seeing in CityVille come Halloween, now, an in-game item has launched as well. If you look below your bridge (or, out on the water below where the bridge would be, west of the Beach), you'll see that a Halloween Ghost Ship of sorts has anchored in your water! It's full of monsters, but from what we can tell they appear to be friendly.
For whatever reason, the monsters have been kicked out of their former home(s) - probably because they were scaring too many of the villagers, and dealing with constant flaming torches and pitchforks is hard work - and we'll have to give them a new city to live in. Now, this could mean a few things. It could be as simple as us being able to purchase themed homes that would be fitting for a Frankenstein Monster or a Mummy (Dracula also appears to be floating there). Or, perhaps this is far more complicated, seeing us build a Haunted House or some sort of other collection event, where we'll need to collect Halloween-themed goodies to help give the monsters either a new place to live, or enough supplies to take their ship to another city (I'm going way back to the winter holiday season of last year for the idea of a collection event - remember the Christmas Tree?).
Personally, I'll do everything in my power to help these guys out, especially if it means they find a permanent home in my city. I hope they won't ship out after October 31, but we'll make sure to give you a complete rundown on how you can also help these ghouls once the feature officially launches.
Check out the rest of our Halloween coverage right here.
In the meantime, help us speculate about this upcoming release in the comments. Will we be able to build graveyards, haunted houses or pumpkin patches in our town for Halloween? What sorts of items do you hope are released?
For whatever reason, the monsters have been kicked out of their former home(s) - probably because they were scaring too many of the villagers, and dealing with constant flaming torches and pitchforks is hard work - and we'll have to give them a new city to live in. Now, this could mean a few things. It could be as simple as us being able to purchase themed homes that would be fitting for a Frankenstein Monster or a Mummy (Dracula also appears to be floating there). Or, perhaps this is far more complicated, seeing us build a Haunted House or some sort of other collection event, where we'll need to collect Halloween-themed goodies to help give the monsters either a new place to live, or enough supplies to take their ship to another city (I'm going way back to the winter holiday season of last year for the idea of a collection event - remember the Christmas Tree?).
Personally, I'll do everything in my power to help these guys out, especially if it means they find a permanent home in my city. I hope they won't ship out after October 31, but we'll make sure to give you a complete rundown on how you can also help these ghouls once the feature officially launches.
Check out the rest of our Halloween coverage right here.
In the meantime, help us speculate about this upcoming release in the comments. Will we be able to build graveyards, haunted houses or pumpkin patches in our town for Halloween? What sorts of items do you hope are released?
CityVille: Eco items go for round two in the store
Last week, I predicted that we'd see an additional set of Eco-themed items released in CityVille other than the small set we saw launch then. Turns out, I was exactly right. Additional green-friendly / green-living items have been released in the store, allowing you to take your love of the planet and fill your town with the same state of mind (I'm sure your citizens would thank you for it, if they could). Let's take a look at the new items that are available.
Solar Panel House (Residence)
Costs: 30 City Cash
Population: 290-560
Rent: 94 coins every hour
Bike Share (Business)
Costs: 40 City Cash
Required: 305 Goods
Supplies: 1,648 coins
Marshland (Decoration)
Costs: 4,500 coins
Payout Bonus: 8% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 8% to Eco theme
Organic Tomatoes (Crop)
Costs: 4 City Cash per plot
Harvest Time: Instant
Produces: 360 Goods per square
First Star of Mastery: 3 harvests
Water Purification Plant (Community Building)
Costs: 80 City Cash
Allows: Raises max population cap by 7,500
Wild Life Park (Decoration)
Costs: 27 City Cash
Payout Bonus: 27% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 27% to Eco theme
All told, there still aren't as many decorations in this theme as I personally would have liked, and I know most Mayors are going to be upset by how many items cost City Cash, but tale comfort in the knowledge that these items will still be around for 11 days. In that time, Zynga very well could release even a third set of Eco-themed items to the store, perhaps that time ones that go for coins. We'll make sure to let you know if that happens.
What do you think of these new Eco / Green items? Did you purchase all of those released in the first wave, or are you just getting into the swing of things now?
Solar Panel House (Residence)
Costs: 30 City Cash
Population: 290-560
Rent: 94 coins every hour
Bike Share (Business)
Costs: 40 City Cash
Required: 305 Goods
Supplies: 1,648 coins
Marshland (Decoration)
Costs: 4,500 coins
Payout Bonus: 8% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 8% to Eco theme
Organic Tomatoes (Crop)
Costs: 4 City Cash per plot
Harvest Time: Instant
Produces: 360 Goods per square
First Star of Mastery: 3 harvests
Water Purification Plant (Community Building)
Costs: 80 City Cash
Allows: Raises max population cap by 7,500
Wild Life Park (Decoration)
Costs: 27 City Cash
Payout Bonus: 27% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 27% to Eco theme
All told, there still aren't as many decorations in this theme as I personally would have liked, and I know most Mayors are going to be upset by how many items cost City Cash, but tale comfort in the knowledge that these items will still be around for 11 days. In that time, Zynga very well could release even a third set of Eco-themed items to the store, perhaps that time ones that go for coins. We'll make sure to let you know if that happens.
What do you think of these new Eco / Green items? Did you purchase all of those released in the first wave, or are you just getting into the swing of things now?
FarmVille: Mini Stonehenge, Short Palms and Hanging Chilies back for Farmer Appreciation Week
If you've got 115,000 coins to spare in FarmVille, then I've got a trio of items you'll want to check out in the game's store. As part of the ongoing Farmer Appreciation Event, we've seen the re-release of three formerly retired, formerly exclusive decorations to the game's store. Here's a look at all three, so get those (virtual) wallets ready!
Mini Stonehenge
Originally Released: Earth Day 2010
Costs: 100,000 coins (formerly 12,000)
XP Gained: 1,000
Sells for: 5,000 coins
Short Palms
Originally Released: Southwest Event 2010
Costs: 10,000 coins (formerly 2,700)
XP Gained: 100
Sells for: 500 coins
Hanging Chilies
Originally Released: Southwest Event 2010
Costs: 5,000 coins (formerly 3,500)
XP Gained: 50
Sells for: 250 coins
As you can see, each of these three items has had a price increase (a significant one, in the case of the Mini Stonehenge) from the first time they were released in the store. While that might seem rude or "greedy" on Zynga's part, remember that these items used to be retired, and we had no guarantee of ever seeing them again. If you'd like to take your second chance at these items, now's the time, regardless of how much more expensive they are now.
This is especially true when you consider the items' time limit in the store: just under 11 hours, as of this writing. At that time, the items will go back into retirement, and we'll only have to wait and guess (without holding our breath) as to when they'll come back... if ever.
Will you purchase any of these Farmer Appreciation Week items in the store? What other items would you like to see re-released before this week / feature ends entirely?
Mini Stonehenge
Originally Released: Earth Day 2010
Costs: 100,000 coins (formerly 12,000)
XP Gained: 1,000
Sells for: 5,000 coins
Short Palms
Originally Released: Southwest Event 2010
Costs: 10,000 coins (formerly 2,700)
XP Gained: 100
Sells for: 500 coins
Hanging Chilies
Originally Released: Southwest Event 2010
Costs: 5,000 coins (formerly 3,500)
XP Gained: 50
Sells for: 250 coins
As you can see, each of these three items has had a price increase (a significant one, in the case of the Mini Stonehenge) from the first time they were released in the store. While that might seem rude or "greedy" on Zynga's part, remember that these items used to be retired, and we had no guarantee of ever seeing them again. If you'd like to take your second chance at these items, now's the time, regardless of how much more expensive they are now.
This is especially true when you consider the items' time limit in the store: just under 11 hours, as of this writing. At that time, the items will go back into retirement, and we'll only have to wait and guess (without holding our breath) as to when they'll come back... if ever.
Will you purchase any of these Farmer Appreciation Week items in the store? What other items would you like to see re-released before this week / feature ends entirely?
Cafe World Dinner at the Shelter Catering Order: Everything you need to know
A new catering order has launched in Cafe World, that asks you to take care of those (virtual) citizens that are a bit less fortunate. You'll be heading down to the shelter to cook up a warm, wholesome meal. As you're feeding a pretty large group of people (in theory), the cooking tasks in this particular order are pretty steep. Here's a look at this newest catering order, so you'll know exactly what to expect going in.
You'll need to serve French Onion Soup (a four-hour dish) a whopping 400 times, Basil Finger Sandwiches (a six-hour dish) 125 times, Mini Crab Cakes (a nine-hour dish) 75 times and Summer Jambalaya (a six-hour dish) just three times. This Summer Jambalaya is earned by completing the Slow Cooker Goals, so you can either go back and finish those in order to unlock this one, or just ask a friend to cook those three servings for you - it's not that much, after all.
While none of these dishes come with a particularly long cooking time, the French Onion Soup might pose a problem simply due to the bulk amount you need to cook. Remember to bust out some spices, or to check your gift box for any extra servings before you panic. Hopefully, those two methods alone will help you squash the biggest portion of that 400 total. If not, you can bring up to 14 of your friends in on this order with you; with their help, and a five day time limit, you will hopefully be able to complete this entire order in time.
Rounding out the requirements are two collectibles. You'll need to collect 15 Ladles and 15 Blankets, with each item being earned by asking your friends to send them to you.
If you can manage to complete the entire order within five days, you'll receive the top rating of three-stars, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Sausage and Lentil Stew recipe. Remember, you must finish with three stars to receive this new recipe, so feel free to cancel the order and start over if you haven't finished it by the five day mark. As for finishing withing 5-7 days, you'll receive the two-star rating, 10 Catering Points, 5,000 Cafe Points and 125,000 coins, while finally, finishing at any point after the first week will give you a single star, 5 Catering Points, 3,000 Cafe Points and 75,000 coins.
If this order only have a three day time limit, I might be more concerned about our ability to finish it in time, but with two complete extra days, and enough hard work and dedication, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to finish it in time. Good luck!
Have you started working on the Dinner at the Shelter catering order, or are you more focused on goals than these catering jobs?
You'll need to serve French Onion Soup (a four-hour dish) a whopping 400 times, Basil Finger Sandwiches (a six-hour dish) 125 times, Mini Crab Cakes (a nine-hour dish) 75 times and Summer Jambalaya (a six-hour dish) just three times. This Summer Jambalaya is earned by completing the Slow Cooker Goals, so you can either go back and finish those in order to unlock this one, or just ask a friend to cook those three servings for you - it's not that much, after all.
While none of these dishes come with a particularly long cooking time, the French Onion Soup might pose a problem simply due to the bulk amount you need to cook. Remember to bust out some spices, or to check your gift box for any extra servings before you panic. Hopefully, those two methods alone will help you squash the biggest portion of that 400 total. If not, you can bring up to 14 of your friends in on this order with you; with their help, and a five day time limit, you will hopefully be able to complete this entire order in time.
Rounding out the requirements are two collectibles. You'll need to collect 15 Ladles and 15 Blankets, with each item being earned by asking your friends to send them to you.
If you can manage to complete the entire order within five days, you'll receive the top rating of three-stars, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Sausage and Lentil Stew recipe. Remember, you must finish with three stars to receive this new recipe, so feel free to cancel the order and start over if you haven't finished it by the five day mark. As for finishing withing 5-7 days, you'll receive the two-star rating, 10 Catering Points, 5,000 Cafe Points and 125,000 coins, while finally, finishing at any point after the first week will give you a single star, 5 Catering Points, 3,000 Cafe Points and 75,000 coins.
If this order only have a three day time limit, I might be more concerned about our ability to finish it in time, but with two complete extra days, and enough hard work and dedication, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to finish it in time. Good luck!
Have you started working on the Dinner at the Shelter catering order, or are you more focused on goals than these catering jobs?
The Sims Social celebrates Halloween with Werewolves vs Vampires week
Halloween has finally come to the Sims Social, but it comes with both good and bad news, all revolving around a single word: Twilight. If you love the Twilight series, vampires or werewolves in general, you'll probably love these new items. However, if you'd prefer more traditional Halloween decorations, like cute pumpkins, mummies or Frankenstein monsters, you'll be left hoping that EA/Playfish will add more items before Halloween comes and goes.
As for those items that are currently available, they come in a "Werewolves vs Vampires" theme. To start, you can choose from various clothing items to make your avatar look like one of the three main characters from the Twilight films, or you can stick to decorating your home. Here's a complete rundown of the new items in the game's store - I hope you've saved your Simoleons and SimCash for the occasion!
Note: These basic furniture items (tables, cabinets, chairs, etc.) are available in two color themes, but the items' designs and prices are the same. We'll only list one of each pair of items for your reference.
Trans-Van Lucy (Chair - Buildable)
Costs: 500 Simoleons
House Value: $350
UndyingClassics BC (Bookshelf)
Costs: 19 SimCash
House Value: $2800
Fun Stat: 3
UndyingClassics Bl (Chair)
Costs: 19 SimCash
House Value: $2800
UndyingClassics BT (Side-table)
Costs: 25 SimCash
House Value: $3700
Trans-Van Banquet (Dinner Table - Buildable)
Costs: 700 Social Points
House Value: $1900
Trans-Van Fang (Armchair - Buildable)
Costs: 1650 Simoleons
House Value: $1600
Trans-Van Type O (Sofa - Buildable)
Costs: 900 Social Points
House Value: $2650
Sleep Stat: 3
Trans-Van Rest (Nightstand - Buildable)
Costs: 200 Social Points
House Value: $450
Trans-Van Vlad (Round Table - Buildable)
Costs: 600 Simoleons
House Value: $450
Cthulu's Mirror (Buildable)
Costs: 900 Simoleons
House Value: $800
Trans-Van Harker (Armoire - Buildable)
Costs: 850 Social Points
House Value: $2450
AfterLifestyle (Coffin Bed - Buildable)
Costs: 1750 Simoleons
House Value: $1650
Sleep Stat: 11
AfterLifestyle +1 (Coffin Double Bed)
Costs: 79 SimCash
House Value: $11,700
Sleep Stat: 11
Wallpaper Tear
Costs: 75 Social Points
House Value: $150
Bloody Bouquet
Costs: 175 Simoleons
House Value: $100
Deathly Bouquet
Costs: 175 Simoleons
House Value: $100
Trans-Van Lamp
Costs: 6 SimCash
House Value: $900
Vampire Ward 1/2
Costs: 166 Social Points
House Value: $350
Vampire Ward 2/2
Costs: 125 Social Points
House Value: $250
Bottle O' Blood
Costs: 175 Social Points
House Value: $400
Ancient Tomes
Costs: 175 Social Points
House Value: $400
Garlic Still Life (Painting)
Costs: 1,250 Simoleons
House Value: $1350
Blood-Soaked Rug
Costs: 675 Social Points
House Value: $1850
AfterLifestyle Ember (Fireplace)
Costs: 49 SimCash
House Value: $7250
Trans-Van Desklamp (Buildable)
Costs: 1,900 Simoleons
House Value: $1700
The Poison Thorn (Painting)
Costs: 1,150 Social Points
House Value: $3,300
Trans-Van Standing (Floor Lamp - Buildable)
Costs: 2,900 Simoleons
House Value: $2,300
Numica RIP C (Kitchen Counter - Buildable)
Costs: 350 Simoeons
House Value: $250
Numica Stake (Kitchen Counter - Buildable)
Costs: 350 Simoleons
House Value: $250
It's For Awoooo (Phone)
Costs: 9 SimCash
House Value: $1350
Fun Stat: 3
Social Stat: 3
In addition to all of these items, there's also a Haunted Easel that costs 750 Social Points and must be built with friends. This particular item does allow you to raise a Haunted Easel painting skill, and as you earn more and more Skill Points, you'll unlock access to various themed paintings in the store.
What's more, the outdoor section of this theme is absolutely massive, containing various sections of metal fencing, shrubs, broken wooden fences, gargoyles, tombstones, dead trees and more. Items go for Social Points, Simoleons or even SimCash, so make sure to browse through this lengthy selection of items to find things you might enjoy having outside.
Finally, remember to look in the Build menu as well, as this theme contains a few window and door items, plus four wallpaper tiles and a treasure trove of floor tiles. Again, there are items there for any budget, so keep browsing long enough and you'll likely find something that will interest you.
Unfortunately, that's the entirety of the Halloween-themed items in the Sims Social thus far. I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed we're not seeing Jack-O'-Lanterns, cute flying ghosts or anything else that might be considered happier than scary, but hopefully, with a few weeks left before Halloween, we'll receive that sort of a theme as well. You can be sure we'll let you know if we do.
Check out the rest of our Halloween coverage right here.
What do you think of these Twilight-inspired Werewolves vs. Vampires items? Would you be satisfied if this was all of the Halloween items we see released, or do you want more classic items as well?
As for those items that are currently available, they come in a "Werewolves vs Vampires" theme. To start, you can choose from various clothing items to make your avatar look like one of the three main characters from the Twilight films, or you can stick to decorating your home. Here's a complete rundown of the new items in the game's store - I hope you've saved your Simoleons and SimCash for the occasion!
Note: These basic furniture items (tables, cabinets, chairs, etc.) are available in two color themes, but the items' designs and prices are the same. We'll only list one of each pair of items for your reference.
Trans-Van Lucy (Chair - Buildable)
Costs: 500 Simoleons
House Value: $350
UndyingClassics BC (Bookshelf)
Costs: 19 SimCash
House Value: $2800
Fun Stat: 3
UndyingClassics Bl (Chair)
Costs: 19 SimCash
House Value: $2800
UndyingClassics BT (Side-table)
Costs: 25 SimCash
House Value: $3700
Trans-Van Banquet (Dinner Table - Buildable)
Costs: 700 Social Points
House Value: $1900
Trans-Van Fang (Armchair - Buildable)
Costs: 1650 Simoleons
House Value: $1600
Trans-Van Type O (Sofa - Buildable)
Costs: 900 Social Points
House Value: $2650
Sleep Stat: 3
Trans-Van Rest (Nightstand - Buildable)
Costs: 200 Social Points
House Value: $450
Trans-Van Vlad (Round Table - Buildable)
Costs: 600 Simoleons
House Value: $450
Cthulu's Mirror (Buildable)
Costs: 900 Simoleons
House Value: $800
Trans-Van Harker (Armoire - Buildable)
Costs: 850 Social Points
House Value: $2450
AfterLifestyle (Coffin Bed - Buildable)
Costs: 1750 Simoleons
House Value: $1650
Sleep Stat: 11
AfterLifestyle +1 (Coffin Double Bed)
Costs: 79 SimCash
House Value: $11,700
Sleep Stat: 11
Wallpaper Tear
Costs: 75 Social Points
House Value: $150
Bloody Bouquet
Costs: 175 Simoleons
House Value: $100
Deathly Bouquet
Costs: 175 Simoleons
House Value: $100
Trans-Van Lamp
Costs: 6 SimCash
House Value: $900
Vampire Ward 1/2
Costs: 166 Social Points
House Value: $350
Vampire Ward 2/2
Costs: 125 Social Points
House Value: $250
Bottle O' Blood
Costs: 175 Social Points
House Value: $400
Ancient Tomes
Costs: 175 Social Points
House Value: $400
Garlic Still Life (Painting)
Costs: 1,250 Simoleons
House Value: $1350
Blood-Soaked Rug
Costs: 675 Social Points
House Value: $1850
AfterLifestyle Ember (Fireplace)
Costs: 49 SimCash
House Value: $7250
Trans-Van Desklamp (Buildable)
Costs: 1,900 Simoleons
House Value: $1700
The Poison Thorn (Painting)
Costs: 1,150 Social Points
House Value: $3,300
Trans-Van Standing (Floor Lamp - Buildable)
Costs: 2,900 Simoleons
House Value: $2,300
Numica RIP C (Kitchen Counter - Buildable)
Costs: 350 Simoeons
House Value: $250
Numica Stake (Kitchen Counter - Buildable)
Costs: 350 Simoleons
House Value: $250
It's For Awoooo (Phone)
Costs: 9 SimCash
House Value: $1350
Fun Stat: 3
Social Stat: 3
In addition to all of these items, there's also a Haunted Easel that costs 750 Social Points and must be built with friends. This particular item does allow you to raise a Haunted Easel painting skill, and as you earn more and more Skill Points, you'll unlock access to various themed paintings in the store.
What's more, the outdoor section of this theme is absolutely massive, containing various sections of metal fencing, shrubs, broken wooden fences, gargoyles, tombstones, dead trees and more. Items go for Social Points, Simoleons or even SimCash, so make sure to browse through this lengthy selection of items to find things you might enjoy having outside.
Finally, remember to look in the Build menu as well, as this theme contains a few window and door items, plus four wallpaper tiles and a treasure trove of floor tiles. Again, there are items there for any budget, so keep browsing long enough and you'll likely find something that will interest you.
Unfortunately, that's the entirety of the Halloween-themed items in the Sims Social thus far. I have to admit that I'm a bit disappointed we're not seeing Jack-O'-Lanterns, cute flying ghosts or anything else that might be considered happier than scary, but hopefully, with a few weeks left before Halloween, we'll receive that sort of a theme as well. You can be sure we'll let you know if we do.
Check out the rest of our Halloween coverage right here.
What do you think of these Twilight-inspired Werewolves vs. Vampires items? Would you be satisfied if this was all of the Halloween items we see released, or do you want more classic items as well?
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