Summer Puzzle Collection Item Coming Soon To YoVille

This is an official post by Zynga's Platinum Ninja.

We've got a brand new summer inspired Puzzle Collection Item coming very soon! Check out a sneak peek of this Llama Floaty Collection item! Let's run through how to get your hands on these Llama Floaty Puzzle Pieces and how to share puzzle pieces with your friends!

How Do I collect a Llama Floaty Puzzle Piece?

Image

yoville collections mystery box

To receive a Llama Floaty Collection Puzzle piece you will need to open up Collection Mystery Boxes(Free Gift) or Click in on Mystery Box Collection Puzzle Feeds.

If you receive a Collection Mystery Box you will get the chance to receive a puzzle piece when you open these. To open these items place them in your room and click open or go to your inventory, click on the item and then click open.

Keep your eyes out for the following feeds. Once you find one make sure to click on "Get a Random Piece" and if you are one of the first to click in you will receive a puzzle piece.

* Please note that this Collections Mystery Box and Mystery Collections Feeds will be giving out Enchanted Puzzle Pieces, Luxury Puzzle Pieces, as well as Llama Floaty Puzzle Pieces. So there is the chance you can receive all of these different puzzle pieces when you click through these feeds or open this Collections Mystery Box*

How to Share a Ll

ama Puzzle Pieces with my Friends?

Image

You can share these Puzzle Pieces with your friends by sending them Collection Mystery Boxes or posting a Mystery Collection Puzzle Feed.

After you receive a Llama Floaty Puzzle Piece you will be prompted to "Share" this opportunity with your friends, make sure to click share and this will be posted on your friend's walls to click in on.This will give them the chance to click in and get a puzzle piece to add to their collection

Make sure to share these with your friends as well as send them some Collections Mystery Boxes as well! And don't be shy and ask for some in return :)

Just like all the other collection puzzles you will have to collect each puzzle piece to complete the puzzle. Once you do you can redeem this item and it will appear in your inventory! Hope you enjoy and we'll let you know when this new collection puzzle item is live in game!

- Platinum Ninja

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge

FarmVille Japanese Buildings: Sushi Shop & Japanese Gazebo

FarmVille introduced a new Japanese inspired theme with tonight's June 17th update.

There are two new limited edition Japanese inspired buildings- The Sushi Shop and the Japanese Gazebo.

You can purchase these two buildings during the next 19 days with farm cash only.

    Sushi Shop – 42 FV$
    Japanese Gazebo – 18 FV$


What do you think of the new Japanese inspired theme? Will you purchase these buildings for your farm?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Japanese Decorations: Hot Springs, Koi Fish Pond II, Falling Blossom, Onigiri Statue, Cherrywood Statue, Japanese Trellis & Japanese Fence

    farmville japanese fence     farmville japanese trellis
Lots of new limited edition Japanese themed decorations have hit the market. These decorations can be purchased in the FarmVille Market with farm cash or coins during the next 19 days only.

farmville onigiri statueJapanese Decorations (Released June 17th 2010)

Farm Cash:

    Hot Springs – 32 FV$
    Koi Fish Pond II – 36 FV$
    Falling Blossom (decorative tree) – 6 FV$


Coins:

    Onigiri Statue – 20,000 coins
    Cherrywood Wall – 6,900 coins
    Japanese Trellis – 25,000 coins
    Japanese Fence – 5,000 coins


What is your favorite Japanese decoration?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille New Tiki Decorations: Tiki Bridge, Active Volcano & Tiki Surfboard

With tonight's other updates, FarmVille added a few more limited edition island Tiki themed decorations. The Tiki Bridge, Active Volcano and Tiki Surfboard can be purchased in the FarmVille Market during the next 8 days only.

FarmVille Tiki Decorations (Released June 17th 2010):

    Tiki Bridge – 24 FV$
    Active Volcano – 36 FV$
    Tiki Surfboard – 10,000 Coins


Which new Tiki decoration is your favorite?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Adds More Country Flags to the Market: England, Cameroon, Belgium, Ghana, South Korea, Netherlands & Nigeria Flags

It has been awhile, but with tonight's June 17th update FarmVille has added new country flags to the FarmVille Market.
farmville netherlands flag     farmville ghana flag     farmville nigeria flag
These new flags will be permanent market fixtures meaning there is no expiry time. If you are farming in the following countries, you can now purchase your country's flag for 16 FV$ and proudly display it on your farm. farmville south korea flag

    England Flag – 16 Farm Cash
    Cameroon Flag – 16 Farm Cash
    Belgium Flag – 16 Farm cash
    Ghana Flag – 16 Farm Cash
    South Korea Flag – 16 Farm Cash
    Netherlands Flag – 16 Farm Cash
    Nigeria Flag – 16 Farm Cash

Mafia Wars Las Vegas opens the velvet rope for VIPs only

Mafia Wars Las Vegas is officially open for business for VIP players, i.e. virtual mobsters who scored early access to the game by collecting Chip Racks as gifts from friends and then trying their luck to get in. If you are a VIP, then it's time to head to Vegas, baby! Developing...

Did you get into Mafia Wars Vegas yet? What do you think? If you got 'em, send pictures to libe@games.com, and they'll be featured here.

Big Fish's Everest: Hidden Expedition ascends to iPad

Hidden object games, generally adventure games with puzzles that require you to find objects hidden in an environment (think Where's Waldo, but with lush environments and relaxing music) is one of the most popular casual game genres on the market. And Big Fish Games makes some of the best hidden object games out there, with brands like Mystery Case Files and Hidden Expedition under its belt.

Today, Big Fish announces the release of Everest: Hidden Expedition for iPad. In the game, which has already been released for PC and iPhone, you tackle a virtual version of Mount Everest by making your way through 30-some-odd hidden object games as you climb to the top. Mountaineer Ed Viesturs (remember the Everest IMAX movie? he was in that), doles out advice along the way, and as a bonus, the game includes real-life photos from Viesturs' Everest climb. There's a single-player mode and a competitive multiplayer mode where you can flick snowballs across the screen to slow down your opponent's progress.

Everest: Hidden Expedition HD is available for $6.99 starting today on the iTunes App store. Race ya to the top!

Note: Image above is from the PC version of the game.

Sorry, vamps, City of Eternals will be getting no more updates

City of Eternals, the vampire-themed role-playing game on Facebook, isn't exactly getting the stake, but in a talk at Casual Connect conference in Seattle, ohai founder Susan Wu says the MMO won't be getting any more updates. Wu says the game, which has roughly 4K users according to its Facebook page, is serving as a "test case" for the company's next projects, including the already announced Project Unicorn Parade.

Looks like there haven't been updates to the game for some time, and players seem to be catching on. On the City of Eternals Facebook fan page, one player writes:

    "I'm sorry to use this tone, but ive been quite surprised about what happened this last week in the game. Sth like two of the best players leaving, one of whom has alone spent more ohais than half of the players altogether. I dont think we were ever told that buying ohais was a way to finance another project and get in time the game we like neglected... of late i really have the impression your only concern is the development of the new project, whatever the other consequences."

Another player writes:

    "Saddened that y'all aren't actively present anywhere on this game anymore but I do still dig it. Hope to SEE an Ohai presense and active interest again soon."

Here's a longer rant from yet another CoE player 'Calan' on the game's official message boards.

This highlights the importance thinking before opening your wallet to buy virtual items in a game that might not be around for long. It's also a call to game developers to do a better job of communicating these changes to devoted players and possibly consider giving some form of compensation to big spenders, also called 'whales,' so they don't feel ripped off, pissed off and swear off social games altogether.

Penny Drop: New Facebook 'social game' helps players save money

Penny Drop FarmVille $10 Game Card
While a majority of us Facebook gamers can't be "Super Whales", if this study is right, we're going to have collectively spent $1.5 billion on social games by the year 2014. So with all the recent talk about spending, we were surprised to run into a self-described "social game" that promises to help players save money instead, and that game is Penny Drop.
Red Mango Founder Game Notice
First reported by Inside Social Games in March for its fundraising partnership with Kiva, Penny Drop, a Facebook app designed by the San Francisco-based Yazooli (formerly known as CircusPop), landed on our radar today after the founder of the global frozen yogurt business Red Mango, announced there was a "game" that could help froyo fans save money on food and drinks at the store.
Red Mango Founder Game Wall Post
Sounds like another avergame right? But Penny Drop is different from anything we've seen before. Because it doesn't target just one product. It accommodates them all. Moreover, Penny Drop doesn't simply promote products, it sells them via deals and "Gold Tokens", which are the game's premium currency.
Drop Penny Friends
Every three hours and five minutes, your regular currency, "Blue Tokens", will replenish itself like an energy bar. You need these tokens to click and spin down the price for an item you want. You can also get Blue Tokens by sending some to your friends via the "Send Tokens" page. Inviting friends will get you "Gold Tokens", which can be used to pay for shipping and handling charges or to increase the discount of your item. As you play on, you unlock the ability to send larger amounts of tokens.
Penny Drop Gold Card
Also, the more times people view an item, the lower the price of the item gets. But the price only drops a penny per person, hence, the name of the game. A live feed on the bottom of the game shows you exactly what other players are looking at. You also get a stats bar to check you progress.
Penny Drop iTunes Card
So does Penny Drop deliver on its promise? All signs point to yes. It's certainly got the social aspect of addictive Facebook games down pat. But I think the gaming aspect is a bit dubious, unless you're a fan of slot machines. To check it out yourself, log into Facebook, click here, and allow the app. You may also have to fan the pages of your favorite products before you can to start playing.

FrontierVille Water Decorations make a summer splash

frontierville water decorations
Just as the summer heat was starting to get the best of us and our frontier towns, FrontierVille has released a line of refreshing water decorations.

Unfortunately, the most desirable items cost Horseshoes leaving us non-spenders with little to work with. Nonetheless, the water decorations are pretty cool, so continue reading to see a complete listing of the update.
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations     frontierville water decorations
frontierville water decorationsWatering Can - 500 Coins, 5 XP
Swimmin' Hole - 2000 Coins, 20 XP
Ducky Hot Tub - 18 Horseshoes, 108 XP
Geyser - 15 Horseshoes, 90 XP
Frontier Fountain - 20 Horseshoes, 120 XP
Bird Bath - 750 Coins, 7 XP
White Bird Bath - 750 Coins, 7 XP
Waterfall - 55 Horseshoes, 330 XP
White Frog Pond - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP
Iron Fountain - 200 Coins, 2 XP
Hot Tub - 18 Horseshoes, 108 XP
Frog Pond - 25 Horseshoes, 150 XP

Many of the water decorations are only available for a limited time so head over to FrontierVille soon to check them out. My personal favorite is the waterfall, the rainbow in the back is an excellent touch. Plus, all the tall grass and dried out animal carcasses make my frontier town feel extremely dry and arid. Any one of these water decorations would do wonders to remedy the situation, but the waterfall does it the most beautifully.

Zoo World releases new simple Zoo Missions

Zoo World Missions
Zoo World has been releasing new features at a rate that is much slower than the other games that are its size, but that hasn't been stopping it from growing to huge proportions. Today, the game has released missions that allow players to take part in fun little activities that will earn them prizes. To access the missions, click on the gold heart on the game's toolbar beneath your zoo. Every player starts out with one mission, to rescue the Stranded Teacup Pig. To rescue the pig, simply post to your wall. If 10 friends click on the wall post, both the friends who help and the person who asked for help will earn the Teacup Pig.

Friends can help with a mission one time per day, and help a total of 5 friends per day. The missions are unlocked sequentially, so you have to rescue the teacup pig before you can continue to the next mission. In addition, you can only post to your wall once every 8 hours (which is a limitation by Facebook's Terms of Service). The missions also have a time limit - the Teacup Pig mission has to be completed within 7 days or you will have to start over.

So far, we're not impressed by these "missions". They are nothing more than wall postings to require clicks from friends - which is a tired mechanic that we're seeing all too often in these games. Perhaps you disagree and enjoy the Zoo World missions?

Treasure Isle launches first set of Asian Isles maps

Zynga's popular treasure hunting game Treasure Isle has released another new set of maps today, and these ones have an Asian theme. The name of this set is the Rising Sun Run, and it contains 7 new maps that can be explored. Like the previous set of maps, three of these new maps do require Island Cash in order to unlock, which is a bummer. The new maps are the following:

Fuji Isle
Snowy Glade
Sacred Shrine
Tanuki Forest
The Master Artist - 10 Island Cash
Peaceful Monastery - 20 Island Cash
Sushi Shack - 16 Island Cash

In addition to the new maps, a new collection is also available. The new collections are:

Samurai Gear
Silk
Necklaces of Power
Origami
Fetching Flowers
Necklace Parts
Geisha Ornaments
Instruments
Bonsai Trees
Sushi
What do you think of these new maps? Are you finished with all of the other maps yet?

FarmVille Birthday Cakes: Baked by Fans, for Fans

FarmVille Freak Julia's Birthday Cake
FarmVille Freaks love FarmVille and many celebrate their birthdays with a FarmVille themed birthday cake.

We like to feature these sweet creations from time to time on FarmVille Freak and share with all of you.

Here are some of the latest birthday cakes sent in by FarmVille Freak Julia Rogers, FarmVille Freak Rachael and FarmVille Freak Pragun Jain. Happy Birthday!
FarmVille Freak Julia's Birthday Cake II
FarmVille Freak Rachael's Brownie Cake
FarmVille Freak Pragun's Birthday Cake I
FarmVille Freak Pragun's Birthday Cake II
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Special Delivery Box

FarmVille Special Delivery Location
There is a new free sendable Special Delivery Box that debuted last night in FarmVille.

The Special Delivery Box can be sent to all your recently active FarmVille neighbors and friends. Inside the Special Delivery Box you can find useful items that you need specifically like building parts or collection items.

The Special Delivery Box is not a replacement of the free Mystery Gift which will remain available.
FarmVille Freak Keto-Farmer'S Special Delivery Box
This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille.com New Exclusive Gifts: Blue Bench, Cement Planter, Tropical Planter, and Arjuna Tree

The FarmVille.com exclusive giftables have been updated with new gifts in rotation.

These new giftables include:

    Blue Bench
    Cement Planter
    Tropical Planter
    Arjuna


The only way that you can send these free gifts to your FarmVille neighbors is through accessing FarmVille via FarmVille.com.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

Cafe World kicks off anniversary by giving everyone 1 free Cafe Cash

Cafe World is kicking of its one-year anniversary by giving away 1 Free Cafe Cash to anyone who clicks this link: http://zyn.ga/18R. Well, what are you waiting for? Start clicking!

Crowdstar's It Girl having a Spending Spree Giveaway today

Are you enjoying the new Crowdstar game, It Girl? This game is a shopaholic's dream, with seemingly endless opportunities to buy new clothing and accessories and then compete against other fashionistas for the top "It Girl" spot. Today, at 4:00pm Pacific Time, they are throwing a big party.

Anyone who logs in between the hours of 4-7 p.m/ PST will be automatically entered into a drawing to win exclusive prizes from It Girl, such as new outfits. You don't need to play for the entire time, but simply log in during those hours to be eligible. For those of you on the East Coast, this will be from 7-10 p.m. EST. Sounds like they're looking for a good stress test of their servers, which hopefully means the game is improving its performance.

So far, 600 people have RSVPed for the event on Facebook.

Mafia Wars Free Property Upgrade returns for this weekend only!

Zynga is releasing yet another free property upgrade this weekend in Mafia Wars, and this time it makes a little more sense. A tipster to the Mafia Wars Maniac noticed the same banner image used in the promotion before and included the date on his task bar to prove that this is, in fact, happening this weekend on September 25 and 26.

While the first time around was a welcome freebie if a little pointless, this one comes just after the new Armory property has been released. If you haven't built yours yet, now is the time to take advantage of a free upgrade. Remember, this is a single upgrade for one property only, so choose wisely (pick the Armory).

FarmVille maker Zynga sets its sights on Android phones

As if FarmVille wasn't ubiquitous enough with 50-some-odd million players on Facebook, the farming game is also making the jump to new platforms. There is, of course, the PC version, then the iPhone and iPad versions, and based on these new job listings, it looks like Zynga has set its sites on conquering Android phones and devices next.

From the job listing:

    "Zynga is looking for strong software engineers to join our growing Mobile team! You'll be responsible for owning the development and architecture of both our up-and-coming as well as existing current hits. Are you ready to put your ideas into games that will be played instantly by millions?"

Based on the fact that this person will focus on 'up-and-coming as well as existing current hits,' I'd say it's would be a safe bet that Zynga's flagship game, FarmVille, will make the leap first. After that, your guess is as good as mine. We're still patiently waiting for other Zynga games -- like FrontierVille and Cafe World -- to arrive on iPhone, as well as a mobile Mafia Wars that connects with the Facebook version of the game.

Update (12 p.m.): Zynga declined to comment about its Android ambitions.

Mafia Wars Old City Bonus grants double mastery on jobs (for some)

A bonus that grants double mastery and extra cash for doing jobs in Mafia Wars' original cities is now live. Called "Old City Bonus," Zynga is rewarding players for finishing up loose ends in cities like New York and Bangkok, says the Mafia Wars Maniac. Completing jobs in these two cities right now will grant double the mastery and lots of extra cash, but not everyone has been invited to the party.

For some players, this feature simply doesn't exist yet. Our first guess is that this bonus is only open to players who either have access to or have mastered Las Vegas, hence the name "Old City Bonus." For someone that hasn't even visited Las Vegas yet, New York and Bangkok aren't exactly "old cities." As of his writing, it's uncertain whether this bonus applies to Cuba or Moscow. If you're one of the lucky few, enjoy increased mastery and more dough for visiting your old stomping grounds.

Cafe World and Coca-Cola: Free caffeine for all through Oct. 27

Cafe World Coca-ColaStarting today through Oct. 27, online chefs in Cafe World can send their friends a free Coke. Zynga has (sort of) ramped up its in-game promotions over the past few weeks and not even Cafe World is safe from the rampant advertisements. Gifting the Coca-Cola item to your friends will provide them with 60 servings of the dangerously delicious drink to dole out to their customers.

Unfortunately, like the FarmVille-McDonalds promotion before it, this limited time gifting event is nothing more than a slightly interactive advertisement. While we know Halloween is right around the corner, this event had so much more potential. Even a new appliance to build like a Coke vending machine that dispenses the drink for customers would have been more interesting. Nonetheless, enjoy the beverage while it lasts as it won't even be here for a whole week. After this is through, who knows what Zynga game will get the ad treatment next. How about giftable Marlboro cigarettes in FrontierVille? Wait, that's a terrible idea.

FarmVille sprouts on iPad (Psst! It's a lot like the iPhone version)

FarmVille maker Zynga has finally released an official iPad version of its popular Facebook farming game, and it's exactly like the iPhone version, but with better looking graphics.

The FarmVille iPad app can be downloaded for free in the App store, and like the iPhone version, you can use the touch screen to tend your crops. Also like the iPhone version, you only have limited access to certain functions on your farm -- you can plant and harvest crops, decorate your farm and visit friends but you can't do all of the little extra activities, such as send your pigs hunting for truffles or create items in your crafting building.

I've gotten to where I use the iOS version of FarmVille to tend to my crops and accept gifts. Using the touch screen to plant and harvest crops with the swipe of your finger is pretty fantastic. Then I jump back to the Facebook version to do everything else.

We're keeping our pitchforks crossed, in hopes that Zynga will figure out a way to translate the full Facebook game to mobile, so we can truly tend to our virtual farm wherever, whenever.

ESPNU College Town and Windows 7: Get techie with Microsoft-themed items

This week's update to ESPNU College Town brings a very familiar face to your campus: Microsoft's Windows 7--unless, of course, today is your first time using a computer. Playdom teamed up with the folks in Redmond, Wash. to bring you some brand(ed) new items like a Windows 7 Tech Lab, a new Windows-themed All Star player and a football venue event sponsored by the company. With Bing joining forces with Jay-Z, rumors spreading about Microsoft looking to eat up CrowdStar and now another traditional social games ad promotion, it should be safe to say that Redmond is fairly serious about social gaming.

Find more details on these new items after the break.
ESPNU Windows Tech Lab
First up is the smoothly designed Windows 7 Tech Lab building, which for 11,000 coins will provide you with 70 XP and 700 coins periodically. With a name like "Tech Lab," you'd think this would be an academic building, but we'll gladly take some extra coinage.

Windows Sprint Challenge
Next is the Microsoft-sponsored football event, "Spring Challenge." For 7,000 coins, this 18 hour event will score players 12,000 coins and 600 XP. Sure, this is an interesting spin on the standard themed item promotions, but we can't begin to wrap our minds around what running has to do with Windows.

Dave Friendly and Windows 7
Last but certainly not least is the Windows 7-themed All Star, Dave Friendly. For 14,000 coins, this All Star football player is one of the most balanced All Stars in all of ESPNU. Not to mention that at 15 available plays, Friendly could very well be the best football All Star that coins can buy.

Happy Pets' Vampire Pets transform like day and night (literally)

In an attempt to set a spooky scene for Happy Pets, CrowdStar has done it in the only way it knows: more pets, of course. With Vampire Pets that transform depending on the time of day (go ahead, you guess when), the studio might have outdone themselves when it comes to nifty-looking pets to show off. As per usual, there are limited quantities of these rare pets and they each range from 56 to 68 Facebook Credits, or $5.60 to $6.80, respectively. Here's a full list of the vampiric critters you can buy:

    Vampire Triceratops: 56 Facebook Credits, matures in 14 days, feed every 21 hours
    Vampire Dog: 58 Facebook Credits, matures in four days, feed every 12 hours
    Vampire Bear: 58 Facebook Credits, matures in seven days, feed every 16 hours
    Vampire Unicorn: 68 Facebook Credits, matures in seven days, feed every 16 hours
    Vampire Dragon: 68 Facebook Credits, matures in 14 days, feed every 21 hours
    Vampire Cat: 62 Facebook Credits, mature in three days, feed every eight hours


Watching them change from a pathetically pale cream color to a deep black with spots of crimson red (and the eyes!) is actually somewhat off-putting. Oddly enough, during any other season that would be considered an insult.

Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook will never make games

Let the speculation cease. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured right with Zynga CEO Mark Pincus) said today in a press conference that his company will never make games, Venture Beat reports. The conference was surrounding sFund, a new, $250 million strong venture capital fund backed by Facebook, Zynga and a handful of other wealthy companies to help get social media and gaming start ups off the ground.

This news doesn't come as much of a surprise considering how much Facebook must be raking in through Facebook Credits, which is something that would be in its best interest not to mess up. Not to mention the recent efforts made to make Facebook a better place for games (define better). Zuckerberg's statement essentially solidifies his company's position in the grand scheme of social gaming: a platform.

It makes sense for Facebook to play nice with its developers like Zynga, Playfish and CrowdStar who have all been forced in one way or another to take on the currency. If there's one thing Facebook doesn't want to do in this situation, it's to ruffle their feathers anymore than it already might have. Who knows, once those five-year deals are through Facebook Credits could be the only currency available in your favorite games--all the cool kids are doing it.

FarmVille New Decorations: Fair Market, UFO Ride, Harvest Table, Pony Ride, & Fair Fence

It's FarmVille update time, and in tonight's update, we see the release of one new building and four new decorative items.

The building is the Fair Market, available for 300,000 coins from the Buildings section of the game's store. If you're willing to make such a large splurge on the item, you'll receive a handsome 3,000 experience points as a reward - not too shabby if you're looking to quickly level up (and potentially unlock new crops).

Meanwhile, the decorative items come in the form of three Country Fair items, and one Thanksgiving theme item - the first we've seen released this year. The Country Fair items are the UFO Ride, the Pony Ride, and the Fair Fence. As you'd expect, an individual piece of Fair Fencing will cost 5,000 coins, while the UFO Ride and Pony Ride cost 20 Farm Cash and 250,000 coins, respectively.

Meet us behind the break for a look at another item that stands apart from the rest.

Finally, the new Thanksgiving theme is being kicked off with the release of an item veteran players will remember from last year's Thanksgiving celebration, although the price has definitely changed. The item is the Harvest Table, and this year, it comes at a price tag of 20 Farm Cash. Last year, the table cost just 3,000 coins - ouch! Regardless of whether you're a veteran or a new player, if you want the item, you'll have to suck up the high price (of find a generous friend that will buy one for you), but it does sting all the same to see such a price hike from last year to the present.

FarmVille Biplane can now instantly grow trees

FarmVille biplane
In tonight's FarmVille update, a new feature was added to your biplane - the ability to instantly grow all of your trees! Previously, the biplane was only for instantly growing all of the crops you planted to maturity, but you can now pay Farm Cash to have your biplane make all of your trees harvestable again. To access this feature, you simply go through the main menu just how you did before, except now you will see the following screen:
FarmVille biplane
You can then check or uncheck Crops or Trees and preview how many Farm Cash it will cost you to use the biplane to instantly grow your crops and trees. This is a pretty handy feature that will definitely be put to good use from time to time!

FarmVille: New Thanksgiving costumes to play dressup with

FarmVille has released a new set of costumes for you to wear to your Thanksgiving party or dinner. While three of them are actually sweatshirts, they're still pretty costume-like because you're probably not going to want to wear them after the holiday is over. The first item is a Pumpkin costume, which will cost you 20 Farm Cash. We would have loved to see this one in time for Halloween, but we'll take it. This costume gives you 700xp as well for purchasing it, which is definitely not shabby.

The other three items are all different color variations of the same sweatshirt emblazoned with a turkey silhouette. The available colors are green, orange, and yellow. Each sweatshirt costs 5 Farm Cash and gives out 175 XP for purchasing them. All of these outfits will only be available for 19 more days, so you'll want to buy them before we get much closer to December.

Cafe World Turkey Deep Fryer: Everything you need to know

Use our Turkey Deep Fryer gifting links to finish that deep fried turkey by Thanksgiving day!

Cafe World has just released a fairly exciting new feature, the ability to build your own Turkey Deep Fryer. Just in time for the holidays, this Deep Fryer will apparently allow you to deep fry a whole turkey, and you'll also get to watch Cafe World mascot Amelia deep fry her first turkey. So far we don't know what the benefit is to deep frying a turkey in the game, but as soon as we finish our deep fryer we should know.

When you log into Cafe World, a popup will prompt you to start building your Deep Fryer. Once you click to start building, you can then place your unfinished deep fryer somewhere in your cafe. Leave editing mode and the screen above will pop up asking you to collect materials from your friends to build the Deep Fryer.
The Turkey Deep Fryer requires 5 Large Cats, 10 Metal Skewers, 15 Oil Canisters, and 10 Propane Tanks. Each of these materials can be purchased for 2 Cafe Cash each, or you can ask your friends for them. If you ask your friends, this will not generate a wall post, it will send requests to your friends that need to be accepted on their Games Dashboard. This means it will probably take a bit longer for you to finish the Deep Fryer.


Once you have built your Deep Fryer, you'll have access to the the new Deep Fried Turkey recipe. This recipe gives out 400 servings, is ready in 8 hours, and earns you 1200 total coins and 127 Cafe Points. It's important to note that this recipe will be cooked on your actual deep fryer, and not on one of your stoves. This means you can only cook one at a time, and because they take 8 hours it will take forever to master this recipe. Also, you will get to watch Amelia cook her first turkey. Considering that deep flying turkey is a very dangerous situation, we hope Amelia takes the proper precautions and doesn't set your cafe on fire!

Baking Life: New autumn items available now

Baking Life has released Thanksgiving and autumn themed items in two separate batches, and some of these decorations are too cute for words. There are new recipes, gifts, furniture, and even an apron. Let's take a peek at what is new in the game for Thanksgiving!

For decorations, there are plenty of options for you to decorate your bakery with. There are four different styles of autumn flooring to buy, including circles and leaves in various fall colors. There are two new kind of full walls with autumn wallpaper, and two matching pony walls. For wall decor, you'll find an Autumn Wreath and an Autumn Coat Hanger to hang on the wall, and there is a super cute table and chair set (pictured to the right). Finally, a free-standing cornucopia is quite the delight.

For recipes, you'll find a new Pumpkin Pie recipe for levels 22 and up. This is a 9 hour recipe that gives out 2640 total coins. There is also a Turkey Pot Pie available that takes 18 hours and gives out 4500 coins. Both of these items are available to gift to friends as well.

Finally, there is also a new Turkey Apron available for 7500 coins, which couldn't be much more adorable.

CityVille Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide

cityville cheats getting started guide
Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

It's time to set out on another adventure and travel to the far away lands of CityVille. Zynga's new city-building game puts you at the head of a small country town. After becoming mayor, you'll construct businesses, spread franchises, build homes, and even do a little farming. CityVille is full of great features, but this can often be a little overwhelming. Fortunately, our CityVille Cheats & Tips: Getting Started guide aims to help your city quickly develop into a budding metropolis.

Continue reading to check out our brief CityVille Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide to help you get started building your own city.

Getting Started
cityville cheats getting started guide
CityVille uses the standard XP, Coins, Cash, and Energy formula found in most Facebook games. You use up Energy doing tasks around your city, and you gain XP and Coins from completing these tasks. Get enough XP and you'll level up. Leveling up opens up new businesses, houses, decorations, and more for you to build in your city. Finally, Cash can be bought and is used to buy premium items, services, and to opt out of sending requests to your friends.

However, CityVille does mix things up by including Goods. Before you can collect Coin payments from your businesses, you must use Goods to stock up your store, so it's important to have a strong supply. Goods can be obtained through shipments and by harvesting crops (more on that later).
cityville cheats getting started guide

Houses & Community Buildings
In CityVille, you'll need to construct houses in order for your city to grow. Building houses will allow more people to move in, and allow you to collect more housing payments. However, your city has a maximum population limit, and as your city's population approaches the max, the citizens will get progressively unhappier.

To raise the maximum potential population, you have to build Community Buildings such as a City Hall or a Post Office. In addition to using up some Energy, these buildings require several of your friends to help by becoming employees. The alternate option is to pay 1 Cash per every position you need filled.
cityville cheats getting started guide
Businesses & Franchises
Constructing businesses is crucial to the prosperity of your CityVille City. Businesses, once unlocked, must be built and stocked before they can start making money.

A business can be turned into a franchise by building it your friends' towns. Once you have a chain going, you can build the franchise HQ in your own town and start collecting extra Coins. You are paid more based on the number of stores your franchise has opened. Collect your bonuses at the HQ.

Complete Goals & Collections
Like other popular Facebook games, CityVille is loaded with goals to complete. Completing goals rewards you with a variety of extra Coins, XP, Energy and other surprises. At the beginning, goals are often tasks that you would be doing anyways. So when getting started with CityVille, it's best to do everything based on what goals you currently have, to get those added rewards.
cityville cheats getting started guide
While in CityVille and working on your town, special items sometimes pop out of buildings. These items make up collections. Collect one of each of the five objects from the same set, and you can trade them in for XP, Energy, Coins and more.
cityville cheats getting started guide
Farming & Shipments
CityVille also allows you to work the land. Farming is one of the ways you'll be able to maintain a constant supply of Goods. Build farm plots on the land, plant seeds, and harvest crops to receive XP and precious Goods. As always, make sure to harvest those crops on time.
cityville cheats getting started guide
The other way to earn the Goods that stock your businesses, earn you coins, and keep your town running, is by using shipments. After getting started and completing various goals, you'll be allowed to make shipments with the train. Shipments either allow you to buy or sell Goods from neighboring towns. The larger the transaction, the longer the train will take to return. As you progress through the game, new modes of shipping will become available for even more ways to collect Goods.

Neighbors & Friends
In CityVille, to turn your town into an urban metropolis, you're going to need a horde of friends to help you. Friends can be used for almost every task. When visiting a neighboring town, you'll be able to harvest crops, water seeds, collect rent, and help local businesses. As mentioned above, you can also create franchises and send trains to your friends' cities.

Another great tip is to watch your friends' walls and your Facebook news feed. Your friends are bound to post notices to their walls offering free XP, Coins, and Energy which can be extremely valuable when getting started with CityVille.
cityville cheats getting started guide
The world of CityVille has a ton of features and they can be overwhelming at first. Keeping track of goods, opening franchises, and collecting rent, all on a limited Energy supply can be incredibly difficult. So although our CityVille Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide covered many of the basics, check out our CityVille Cheats & Tips: Energy Guide for even more detailed CityVille help.

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Playboy Party on Facebook: Make Hefner proud of a never-ending bash

Playboy Party loading screen
While we're unsure as to how many people would want to share their Playboy experience on Facebook, the new Playboy Party by Dublin-based Jolt Online hopes to test that. In this surely NSFW social game, players will assume the role of a "playboy." With connections to hilarious celebrity parodies and a growing list of Playboy playmates, your job is to throw the ultimate party. And did we mention that this party never stops? Ever?

Check behind the break for more about this sexy social game, but be warned: potentially NSFW (Not Safe For Work) images await.

Playboy Party in action

Playboy playmate photoAfter customizing their playboy or playgirl, players will start immediately in the party with the initial task of filling up the drink bar and turning on some new tunes, both of which are done with the click of a button. These two, well, resources need to be maintained at all times to ensure that your party is at 100 percent coolness, which is displayed via a convenient meter to the right of the screen. Filling up your drinks uses coins while getting new tunes to play expends Energy. Refill both of these resources by greeting and throwing out new guests as well as leveling up.

That's all well and fun, but things escalate from their rather quickly. In order to get more guests to attend your party you'll have to invite some V.I.P.s. Through the cell phone icon on the task bar, you can invite playmates you've unlocked through leveling up (pictured right... obviously). While their avatars all look identically unappealing in the game world, these are real-life Playboy playmates, some of which come with exclusive photos and legacy covers from Playboy Magazine.
But using the same cell phone can also dial the numbers of some hilarious celebrity parodies (pictured below) such as Leslie Loman and Madame Blah Blah. Unfortunately, all they really do is stand there and look not-so-pretty--in-game. Both inviting guests and faux celebrities costs coins, which again are restored by greeting and throwing out guests. But let's talk more about throwing out guests.

Playboy Party Celebrity Guest
From time to time, players will encounter an unwanted stereotype such as a Nerd, Paparazzi or Frat Boy. Throwing these guests out promptly rather than greeting them will result in coins and the overall safety of your bash's coolness factor. Guests can also get wasted, forcing you to remove them. But only the stereotypically unwanted guests will appear in your Pranks menu, which can be found by clicking the jack-in-the-box icon. You can then send these losers to your friends' parties to put a hitch into their ongoing celebrations.

Playboy Level-Up
Players can gift each other decorations, Energy and other items as well as buy them from the game's store. Premium decorations and other boosts are bought through Playboy Cash, Playboy Party's paid currency. As players progress they'll be able to increase the size and look of their party through a selection of items for coins and Playboy Cash. Oddly enough, it's almost impossible to run out of Energy, which is used to do almost everything in the game (it replenishes some every few minutes), though if it does you can easily get more from friends' gifts or through the store for Playboy Cash.

The game doesn't blow minds visually nor does its gameplay, but the draw here from the start was clearly intended to be the playmate photos and legacy magazine covers. To be honest, you don't need much else other than that to attract a legion of sex-crazed men.

Click here to play Playboy Party on Facebook Now>

FrontierVille Buildable Snowman: Everything you need to know

A new Winter Holiday item has appeared in the FrontierVille store today, and it comes in the form of a buildable Snowman. The Snowman is able to be built over time and then customized with the help of friends. We have all of the details you need to know about this new holiday item, so meet us behind the break to find out how you can add a touch of snowy magic to your frontier.

The Snowman base can be purchased from the FrontierVille store for 100 coins (95 coins, if you have learned the "Rithmatic" class in the School House, which gives you a discount on coin items in the market.

Once placed, you'll need to "tend" your tiny snow pile three times, each time receiving one of the three balls that makes up a Snowman. This costs just a single energy to tend the Snowman one time, so three energy in all.

Your snowman will come equipped with what appears to be lumps of coal serving as the buttons that run vertically down his "chest" area. From there, you'll work on finishing the Snowman in the same way that you would finish a building in the game, by collecting various ingredients with the help of friends.

Here, you'll need to collect 4 each of Coal, Carrot Noses, Top Hats, Wintery Scarves, Snowman Pipes, and Buttons. Three of these items (the Coal, Carrots and Hats) are earned by posting requests on your wall asking your friends to click on the wall post to send you the item (and receive one for themselves in return). Meanwhile, the Scarves, Pipes and Buttons are earned via the reverse gift requests method that has you sending an individual gift request to your FrontierVille neighbors to see if they will accept them, thereby giving you the item you need.

Luckily, even if you help a friend through a gift request, you will still receive a like-item in return, as a thank-you gift for helping them out. This should ensure that most users finish the Snowman quickly, and without too much difficulty.

Once completed, the Snowman can be customized just like you can customize other "building" objects in the game, in order to make your Snowman look unique when compared to those of your friends.

The Snowman will only stick around until the snow melts in FrontierVille, so build him fast before you lose your chance! (Note: The Snowman is apparently on a slow roll-out to users, so if you don't have access to buying one in the store just yet, be patient, as we're sure you'll receive your chance soon).

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.

Facebook redesigns application and game Gift Requests (again)

In a move that is sure to infuriate Facebook users of all ages, Facebook has redesigned the look of the game and application gift requests page yet again, making it actually more difficult (or at least more time consuming) to ignore gift requests sent from friends than seemingly ever before.

Visually, things have changed as well. While game requests are still separated into groups according to the game they correspond to, the overall look of the requests are now more blocky, showing a miniaturized game logo next to each and every request, rather than the tiny symbol that used to represent games - the Horseshoe for FrontierVille or the Hamburger for Cafe World, as examples.

While these are just visual changes, the ability to block application invites, or simply ignore requests on a one-by-one basis is now entirely changed. An "Accept" button still rests next to each and every request, so that you can accept them in whatever order you please, but now, to ignore the request you must make additional clicks - First click on the new X button and then click on "Ignore" from the drop-down menu that appears. This is also where you'll find options to ignore requests from a particular user, or block a game from sending you requests altogether.

These changes are minor, but if you're the kind of gamer that takes advantage of the various "Messaging" centers within Zynga's games or even games like Playfish's Restaurant City, and then only comes back to the actual gift requests page to clear out used or expired requests, you'll find your task to be much more time consuming than it used to be.

NightClub City celebrates Tron with avatar clothing promotion

With Disney's acquisition of Playdom earlier this year, many might have assumed that the only "Disney" presence we would seen in Facebook games would be in those coming from Playdom itself, but that assumption has been proven wrong this week as Booyah! and Disney Interactive Entertainment (Disney's video game development studio) have partnered to bring a multi-tiered Tron: Evolution promotion to NightClub City.

While Tron-themed parties, and even a "Tron City" club location will be coming to the game soon, so far, the promotion sees users being offered a chance at 8 free avatar clothing items (four for boy avatars and four for girl avatars) if they watch a trailer for Tron Evolution: The Video Game.

Each time you watch the trailer, which lasts around 30 seconds, you'll earn a single item from the set of eight. This means that you'll need to watch the trailer multiple times in order to gain access to all of the items, but since the trailer is so short, and can be muted entirely and still count, it doesn't really take that long, or cause that much of an inconvenience to collect them all.

When all is said and done, you'll walk away with a free shirt, pants, shoes and hair piece that will make your avatar look like they've walked right off of the set of the movie (or out of the game).

FarmVille: Reindeer now available through Feed Trough

For those of you that like collecting Animal Feed for your Animal Feed Trough in FarmVille, you'll appreciate the fact that Zynga has now added a new animal to the list of those available animals that will randomly walk into your small barn. The animal is the Reindeer, which has been released a free gift earlier this year, but was first seen as a full animal release in FarmVille during last year's Winter Holiday celebration.

As the Reindeer is currently unavailable to purchase in the store, and you weren't playing the game last year, you'll want to make sure to take advantage of this opportunity. You'll need to collect 20 bundles of Animal Feed to activate your Trough to draw an animal in, and you can earn feed by having your friends send it to you through gift requests, or by earning it through clicking on friends' wall posts.

Since this is a Holiday related animal, it is possible that the Reindeer will only be available to find in the Trough for a limited time. Yes, the Turkey from Thanksgiving is still available, but do you really want to take the chance of losing out on a Reindeer just because you waited too long to collect Animal Feed? No, I wouldn't either.

Make sure to fill that Animal Trough and good luck finding a Reindeer on your own farm!

FarmVille Snowman / Snowball Fight: Everything you need to know

Recently, we showed you some leaked images from FarmVille's as-of-then unreleased Snowman and Snowball Fight activities that would be coming to FarmVille this holiday season. Well, the time is now for these features to go live, as the Snowman and Snowball Fight features have now begun rolling out to users across the game.

You'll know that this feature has launched in your game when you visit your farm and see the large pop-up like the one above. This lets you know the basics of the feature - you'll be able to visit your friends' farms and start a snowball fight with them. When your friend retaliates (throws a snowball back), those snowballs will start to form enough of a mound for you to build your own Magical Snowman.

For all of the details concerning this new event, meet us behind the break. To start, simply click on the "Okay" button on the pop-up at the top of this post, and then wait for your game to switch into Placement mode. This allows you to place a very small pile of snow on your Farm. Think of this pile of snow as the beginnings of a wonderful Snowman, or as the base for any one of the previously released "Buildables" in the game. From there, you'll be able to share the news that you're building a Snowman with friends.

Your Snowman will need to be constructed using various building materials. In the first step of the construction (there seem to be four stages of completion in all), you'll need to collect 10 Piles of Snow, and a single Snowman Scarf. You can collect these items by clicking on the "Ask for more" button associated with that particular item.

From there, you'll see a window like the one below, where you can post on individual users walls (the available list of users is randomly generated by the game) with a request to send you either Snow or a Scarf. Unfortunately, this will limit your progress, as you can't choose the individual friends that you'd like to ask, and out of the three people I personally could choose from, only one actually plays the game. It's presumable that many users will end up with the same sort of situation in their own games.

Luckily, there is another aspect to this feature, which comes from the actual Snowball Fight portion of this event. Once you have the Snowman on your farm, you can visit your neighbors' farms to see a new window appear asking you if you'd like to throw a snowball at that friend. This is done by simply clicking on the "Share" button, watching the animation of the flying snowball, and then posting a news item to that friend's wall alerting them that you've hit them with a Snowball.

Your friends can then retaliate, creating a true snowball fight - nay, war, sending snowballs back and forth amongst friends for the duration of the event.

As you collect snowballs, your Snowman will grow through four stages of completion: He will start as a Pile or Snow, and then move into Smiling Snowman, Dapper Snowman, and eventually Dancing Snowman stages. Once completed, it's assumed that the Snowman will actually dance, just like Frosty the Snowman from the classic children's story.

So what are you waiting for? Don't you want a Dancing Snowman on your farm? Start throwing Snowballs at your friends and build your very own Snowman while you can!

Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash from Coca-Cola promotion

Keeping the tradition of free Farm Cash in FarmVille going, Zynga has launched a new cross-promotional activity with Coca-Cola, that can be found underneath the FarmVille gameplay area. This isn't the first time we've seen Zynga partner with Coca-Cola, as a Cafe World promotion was launched back in October.

At any rate, this newest FarmVille promotion will see users earning 2 free Farm Cash for completing a short activity. To begin, simply click on the Sponsored Link window, as seen at the right of this post (here is the link of the activity, if it never loads on your own game - if it doesn't work for you, then you'll need to wait for the activity to appear on your own account).

A new window will load, where you'll see a short trailer for this activity - you'll see six locked bottles of Coca-Cola, and when you click on them, you'll see game tips about FarmVille (basic tips concerning game elements like upgrading vehicles or visiting neighbors), and you'll then be allowed to submit your progress and are offered a free coupon that you can send to your friends via the official Coca-Cola Facebook fan page.

You must click on the button within the promotion to launch the fan page in order to finally earn your 2 free Farm Cash, which will then be added to your account in the game (if it doesn't show up automatically, a simple game refresh should force it to appear.

Official FarmVille Podcast (12/17/10): Pig Pen Expansions, Winter Countdown details

In this week's official FarmVille podcast, FarmVille Community Manager Lexilicious gave users a sneak peek at some of the upcoming features that will be launching in FarmVille in the coming days and weeks. Here's a recap of this week's details.

First, Zynga will soon be launching a Greeting Card contest. Similar to the Baking Contest, this Greeting Card contest will ask aspiring artists to create a FarmVille themed card (either in the real world, or through Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, or another photo editing program). The prizes for this contest will be 1,000 Farm Cash, 1 million coins and any limited edition FarmVille item of your choice. We'll be sure to give you all of the details of this contest as soon as it launches (presumably on the forums).

Another upcoming feature will be the introduction of Pig Pen expansions. These expansions will allow you to upgrade the capacity of your Pig Pen from 20 to 40 pigs. As a result, you'll be able to hold more slop, and send more pigs truffle hunting at once.

The New Year's Party feature that we gave you a sneak peek of last week has also been officially confirmed. This will be a social event, with the more friends you get to attend resulting in better rewards. Some of these rewards include new crops, new clothes for your avatar, and a new pony.

Sometime after December 25, a Winter Countdown will begin. Each day you login, you'll be able to ask for and give an item from FarmVille's old Winter Holiday theme to/from friends. If you unlock all 12 of these items (that is, login each and every day and participate for that 12 day time period), you'll receive a special, apparently exclusive animal as a prize.

Finally, Lexi confirmed that the FarmVille team is hoping to add the coin purchasing option for the 28x28 land expansion to the game sometime after the new year. There was no announcement as to how much it would cost, but she did confirm that the team was working on it.

For those that love listening to the FarmVille Podcast in full, you can check it out at the top of this post. The next FarmVille podcast is scheduled for release on January 7, and we'll make sure to bring you all of the details therein after it is released.

Cafe World Treats for Kids Catering Order: Everything you need to know

Zynga has teamed up with Save the Children, an organization working to stop childhood hunger, for their latest Catering Order in Cafe World. The Catering Order is called "Treats for Kids," and while you can complete the order without actually taking part in any sort of charity or donation, the game will provide you with an opportunity to donate to cause, along with offering you some pretty nice incentive to do so.

The Catering Order can be found as the very last order currently available in your "Catering Business" Menu. There are five tasks that need to be completed therein (cooking three dishes, and collecting two items), and you'll have three days to complete the order once you start in order to receive the 3-star prize, which includes unlocking access to a brand new recipe.

Want to see how your donation to Save the Children can affect this Catering Order? Meet us behind the break for all of the details.

First and foremost, as we said, you can complete this order without donating anything to charity. However, if you choose to donate, you'll be taken outside of the Cafe World gameplay screen, where you can donate a single $5 gift. In doing so, you'll be given a free, limited edition "Save the Children" trophy, in the shape of the organization's logo, and you'll receive a 'head start" on this Catering Order, as one of the tasks will be completed for you automatically (no mention was made as to which of the five steps that would be - we're hoping it would be the largest).

Either way, the Catering Order can be completed by serving three dishes and collecting two collectibles. The three dishes are the Triple Berry Cheesecake (a 12 hour dish), Chocolate Cream Pie (10 hour dish) and Pumpkin Pie (12 hour dish). You'll need to serve Triple Berry Cheesecake 123 times, while Chocolate Cream Pie and Pumpkin Pie need to be cooked only 54 times.

While you're cooking, you'll need to collect 10 Ribbons and 10 Mini Santas. Both of these are done by clicking on the "Ask" button next to that item and then choosing the individual Cafe World neighbors that you think would be most likely to help you.

You can only bring five other people (by default) into this mission with you, for a total Catering Crew size of six people, including yourself. That being the case, this will probably end up being one of the more difficult orders, so we'd like to remind you that you don't have to accept the order before you start cooking dishes. Your best bet would be to set all of your stoves to cook Triple Berry Cheesecake 12 hours before you'd like to start the Catering Order. Then, you'll have your own head start to finishing the job, as you've saved yourself 12 hours of cooking time.

With a three day time limit for a 3 star rating, 12 hours is a long time indeed. If you can manage it however, you'll receive 3 Catering Points, 2,268 Cafe Points, and 51,030 coins, along with unlocking the new Homemade Almond Toffee recipe. If you can finish within 5 days total, you'll receive 2 stars, 2 Catering Points, 1,620 Cafe Points, and 36,450 coins. Finally, if you simply finish the order at anytime after five days have elapsed, you'll receive a single star, 1 Catering Point, 972 Cafe Points, and 21,870 coins.

Since this catering mission has to do with a real world charitable donation, we'd assume that we won't be around forever (as most events like this in Zynga's games tend to expire after a few weeks). Either way, make sure to start this mission soon if you'd like the best chance of success, and it is likely that the sooner you start, the more likely it will be for your friends to also work on the mission, thus allowing you to coordinate your efforts and stand a chance of finishing within the three day time limit.

Zynga publishes Mafia Wars 2 comic, sets the stage for Las Vegas intrigue

Mafia Wars 2 has remained a mystery since the word leaked in January. The only follow-up the public has gotten from Zynga is last week's 'badass' trailer. But the game's official fan page announced a Mafia Wars 2 digital comic last night, titled with the game's much bandied about tagline, "Being Bad Never Felt So Good". The comic presents the glamorous yet dangerous world of the game, which is set in Las Vegas, and drops just enough exposition for the reader to meet the cast -- including whose shoes players will be stepping into once the game launches.

This eight-page comic was created by UDON Entertainment, a Canadian comics studio that specializes in Asian-inspired art, lending the story a manga flair in the character designs and paneling layout. UDON (named after the Japanese noodle) isn't a new entrant in games comics either. They're best known for their work with major Japanese games maker Capcom, drawing and publishing comics and artbooks for the Street Fighter series.
Mafia Wars 2 characters
So far, Zynga seems intent on keeping quiet about Mafia Wars 2's gameplay (except for the fact that it'll be a "vast 3-D world"), but they've been very big on establishing the game's world and its characters, the latter of which actually have detailed backstories available on the official website. A focus on characters and narratives is a rare thing in Facebook games. The last time this was done, and to a much greater extent, was Qunify's CLASH: Rise of the Heroes, which is heavily based on superhero comics. One of Zynga's developers, Mike Humphrey, has said that "I'm really looking forward to finally seeing how Mafia Wars 2 is received; it's unlike most games on Facebook right now, and I think it pushes the envelope of what people can expect from games on the platform." Let's hope they keep pushing until the day of the launch.

To check out the comic yourself, click here and follow the directions to 'Like' the game's official Facebook fan page.

RockYou partner Peak Games raises $11.5M for social game projects

For those of you (like myself) who are kind of tired of seeing the western world dominate Facebook games, this news should come as breath of fresh air. VentureBeat reports that Istanbul-based company Peak Games has raised $11.5 million and purchased two companies in efforts to become a power player in Facebook games. The developers in question, Umaykut and Erlikhan, were bought in what Peak Games calls "talent acquisitions." Sound familiar?

This move speaks to the rapid growth of Facebook games in regions like Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, Mexico and South America. As we already know, Peak Games will work with growing publisher RockYou to distribute and localize its games in those regions. At the moment, Peak Games is the 18th most popular developer on Facebook, according to AppData, beating out notables like CrowdStar and Digital Chocolate in daily players.

Its most popular internally-created game is Okey, a social puzzle board game. And if you count its fans across all social networks including Facebook, Peak Games welcome 4 million daily players and 16 million monthly players, according to VentureBeat. Peak Games has made a name for itself in localizing social games from national companies for its audience, which is the the fourth largest on Facebook.

"Our goal is to be the dominant provider of games for emerging markets," Peak Games CSO Rina Onur, told VentureBeat. "The growth has been huge in the last six months. These regions are growing super fast and they are very hungry for games."

Facebook gaming is huge in regions other than the U.S.--companies like DeNA and Gree in Japan, Tencent in China and wooga in Europe are testament to that. But what we're more interested in is seeing creators like Peak Games create successful games for a global audience. Perhaps an injection of cash (from Hummingbird Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital and an anonymous strategic investor) and talent will make that happen--Peak Games has an office in San Francisco, after all.

Entertainment Games looks to revive soap operas in Facebook games

FarmVille may have killed the daytime soap opera, but it seems like soaps might have their heyday after all. Langhorne, Penn.-based Entertainment Games announced that it hired Michael Fairman (pictured below), a leading expert on daytime soaps (bet you didn't know such a job existed, eh?) to help the company develop a soap opera game with Heyday Games.

Working toward this announcement, the company has been surprisingly busy. Entertainment Games bought social games maker Heyday Games in late June. Then in August, the company changed the name it's had since 1992. Two weeks ago, the company struck a licensing deal with intellectual rights management firm CMG Worldwide to use pictures of celebrities for some "retro-based social game for Facebook, Google+, mobile devices and the open web."

Aside from admittedly banking on nostalgia, there are a few clues as to what type of game the company looks to make. Entertainment Games wants to harness Fairman's two decades of experience in the industry. The company wants his help to create a game that Entertainment Games's CCO F.J. Lennon says will "deliver a ground-breaking social gaming experience that both the gaming and soap opera industries will take note of."

Michael Fairman soap opera expertSince Facebook games came along, games and daytime soaps had been inadvertently at war over the same audience, namely, 25 to 54-year-old women. Unfortunately for soaps fans, Zynga's "television audience destruction machine" won the battle over All My Children and One Life to Live. But Entertainment Games isn't the only company looking to capitalize on this obvious demographic.

In an effort to generate more revenue, UK soap opera Coronation Street was turned into a Facebook social game called "Corrie Nation". Unfortunately, the game didn't last a year before it was taken down for a complete rehaul, with ATV network looking for a new game developer to take on the job. With soap operas dying and the first (and only) Facebook soap opera game ever made, out of commission, you'd think that no one would bother with another attempt, right? Well, here comes Entertainment Games, Inc. to prove us wrong.

From the sound of things, soap operas can find new life after television as Facebook games. On top of that, they're going to return vying for the same demographic as they once did against Zynga, but this time, they'll be on the same playing field.

Bubble Saga maker King.com hires Microsoft exec as marketing head

Can none resist the dollar signs allure of Facebook games? King.com, maker of Facebook game ports like Bubble Saga, announced that it has hired ex-Microsoft exec Alex Dale as its chief marketing officer. Dale joins King.com after overseeing Microsoft's marketing efforts on products including Bing, Internet Explorer and Windows Phone.

"We have made several strategic hires recently in an effort continue this growth and even take it one step further, becoming a clear leader in the space," King.com co-fonder and CEO Riccardo Zacconi said in a release. "We are confident that Alex will be instrumental in helping us further grow our global user- and partnership-base and are thrilled to have him on board."

Dale joins a list of executives that have found themselves in the social games space. Sean Ryan, director of Facebook games partnerships, was at one time the CEO of now-defunct social network LiveJournal. Zynga head of mobile games David Ko comes from Yahoo, and most recently Flickr founder Stewart Butterfield moved on to make his own social game, Glitch.

King.com, which most recently launched Bubble Witch Saga on Facebook, now joins the ranks of companies like Zynga in its willingness to source talent from other industries. And King.com says in the announcement that Dale will be at helm of the companies global expansion. It seems that the company is looking abroad to reach the top five game makers on AppData--it sits pretty at number seven with just over 17 million monthly players.

Zynga Mobile Chief: Mobile is a 'new social gaming frontier'

Everyone else is right there with ya, big red. During an interview with The Guardian, Zynga Mobile SVP David Ko said, "We believe that mobile represents a new social gaming frontier. We've always said we want Zynga to be the best content creators in the world, and we are platform agnostic." More and more Zynga fans expect to play its games on their phones and tablets, which wasn't exactly where CEO Mark Pincus's heart was many moons ago.

Regardless of whether Zynga has been creating mobile games since Zynga Poker hit iOS devices in 2008, it was only the advent of Facebook Connect that motivated the company to dig deeper into the platform. From that we got games like FarmVille and CityVille Hometown, neither of which are feature-complete versions of their Facebook counterparts. (The latter of which is a different game entirely.)

Now, The Guardian reports that Zynga is looking to take advantage of mobile devices' key features like cameras and accelerometers in future games. And tablets appear to be a big deal in Zynga HQ--Ko told The Guardian the company was "very bullish" on the idea. And HTML5, the emergent web coding language that's been touted as the proverbial messiah for cross-platform social gaming, is something Ko admits the company is interested in.

"HTML5 is interesting, although I do feel it is early," Ko told The Guardian. "With those acquisitions, you can see into our thinking in this area a little bit." (Ko there is referring to companies like Newtoy and Dextrose.) Zynga already released one game through HTML5: Mafia Wars Atlantic City.

However, HTML5 games have yet to achieve the complexity of, say, Hanging With Friends, which Zynga just released on Android devices. Regardless, all eyes--including Zynga's--are on those 4-inch screens that rarely leave your side. And with companies as unlikely as Capcom making buku bucks on mobile games, you can bet Zynga is a' hustlin'.

FarmVille Valentine's Day Theme Showcase [Video]

Confirming the FarmVille Sneak Peek we brought you earlier today, Zynga has released a FarmVille Valentine's Day Theme Showcase video on their official YouTube channel. The video shows off just a handful of items that will be released presumably later this month and on into February, to celebrate the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday.

Seen from our Sneak Peeks are the Tunnel of Love, the Heart Sheep, the Hot Pink Duck and the Heart Cow. There are two new items included as well, including a lovely silver fountain that has two Swans perched at the top. The fountain of course animates with water falling over the top. The other item is a stationary gazebo, surrounded by some greenery in the form of bushes and what appears to be small flowers.

As usual, there's no telling when these items will officially launch in the game, or how they will be made available (purchase in the store, Mystery Game, free gift, and so on). It's presumable that most of these items will be released to purchase in the store, so save up your Farm Cash and your coins if you want to make sure you can purchase them all.

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Animals: Bear Cub & Willow Ptarmigan

With the release of the Cupid's Castle in FarmVille, you may have thought that Zynga was ready to transition completely from the current Winter Wonderland theme into one for Valentine's Day, but in that assumption, you would have been incorrect, as tonight marks the release of yet another set of Winter Wonderland limited edition items in the game's store.

With this update comes the release of two animals: Bear Cub, and WIllow Ptarmigan. Not to be confused with the Kodiak Cub that was released as part of the Holiday Tree event back in December, this Bear Cub is a re-release of an item that was available way back in February/March of 2010, during the California limited edition theme. This Bear Cub was then re-released as part of a Mystery Game back in August of last year. If, for whatever reason, you missed out on claiming one of these bears the last two times it was made available in the game, you can now pick it up from the store for 22 Farm Cash. That's the same price as in the California Event, so at least there hasn't been any sort of price increase there.

The Willow Ptarmigan, or Willow Grouse, as it is more commonly called, is a cute, chubby little bird that is the state bird of Alaska, which explains its introduction to the theme here (as this Winter Wonderland theme has been filled with items inspired by Alaska). The Willow Ptarmigan is available to purchase for 12 Farm Cash, which isn't a bad price, considering the fact that it is a new animal to the game, and limited edition at that.

Both of these animals will be available in the game for the next 13 days. We assume that the Valentine's Day theme will be launching in full in the very near future, so it might be smart to purchase these guys now, before the store becomes filled with all things red and pink.

FarmVille Winter Wonderland Items: Gift Shop, Baby Seal, Klondike Train & More

In tonight's FarmVille update, we see the release of a whole slew of building and decorative items in the game's marketplace. These items all fit into the current Winter Wonderland / Alaskan inspired limited edition item set, and come in the form of two new buildings, along with some new decorative items (including the train that we brought you a sneak peek of earlier today).

The two buildings are the Gift Shop and the Totem House. The Gift Shop is a coin-only item, but it's definitely one of the most expensive items we've seen, being priced at 500,000 coins. Granted, you do receive 5,000 experience points when purchasing the house, which is a great incentive, but the price seems too high for most farmers (including this farmer) to bite. Meanwhile, the Totem House costs 25 Farm Cash. You'll receive half of the experience points as with the Gift Shop, at just 2,500. Both of these buildings will be available in the game for the next 13 days.

Next come the decorative items, of which there are quite a few. Meet us behind the break for a look at these new decorations, including the new Klondike Train set.

There are three basic decorations (those not dealing with the train) available to purchase, with two of them being available for coins. The premium item is the Baby Seal, which costs 20 Farm Cash. This is an animated, decorative animal only - not available to harvest from, and you'll see why as soon as you see the item - this is a baby seal alright, but a baby seal sitting atop an ice flow in the middle of an arctic pond. It's a fairly cute item though, such as it is. The standard decorations are the Husky Statue and the Multidirection Sign, which are available for 100,000 and 20,000 coins, respectively.

Finally, the Klondike Train set comes in four pieces, not including the "Snowy Track" pieces that are once again available in the store (they are available for the same prices as when released as part of the Winter Holiday limited edition theme at the end of November). The train itself can be built using the engine itself, the "Klondike Train" item, which is available for 20 Farm Cash, and then adding on either Fuel Carts or Klondike Cars for 120,000 coins each. Once you've made your train to your desired length, you'll be able to add the caboose, or Klondike Cart item, which is available to purchase for 7 Farm Cash.

All things considered, this does seem like a doable situation for someone looking to build a complete train set on their farm, especially if they have friends that would be willing to gift them either the Klondike Cart or the Klondike Train as a gift, thereby saving the Farm Cash cost. Either way, these train pieces, along with the other decorations released this evening, will be available to purchase in the game for the next 13 days. That gives you plenty of time to redesign your farm, if necessary, to fit your new train track.

FrontierVille: 50 Horseshoe prize returns for New Years Resolution missions

Apparently, Zynga does pay attention to users, at least when it comes to giveaways of free Horseshoes in FrontierVille. After the outcry concerning the many changes of Horseshoe prizes for finishing the New Years Resolution goals (see below), the developer has decided to scrap all changes and go back to the way things were at the beginning - finish all six New Years Resolution goals before January 31, and you will receive 50 free Horseshoes.

For those that weren't with us earlier this month, the rundown of events was as follows: At the start of the month, all users were promised the same deal - finish the missions and receive 50 Horseshoes. Almost instantly after their release, Zynga changed the event so that only those who finished before January 14 would be the lucky recipients of 50 Horseshoes, while the January 31 deadline was changed to 20 Horseshoes. The backlash surrounding the change (users felt, understandably, like they were being ripped off), has resulted in this (hopefully) final change.

As a special note, if you were one of the users that only received 20 Horseshoes, because you have finished all six missions, but it was sometime between January 14 and today - don't panic - Zynga will be sending you another 30 Horseshoes to get you up to the 50 Horseshoe prize along with everyone else.

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Pink Unicorn, Pink Bubblegum Trees, Pink everywhere

    Pink Unicorn     Pink Bubblegum Tree Sign
Things could get a lot more pink on the farm. FV Fan has just found a few new items that, if released, will likely make it in time for this year's Valentine's Day theme in FarmVille. A new horse, the Pink Unicorn, could be landing soon as well as a brand new Pink Bubblegum Tree. Sorry, fellas, this theme is not for you. (But if you like pink, even better!)

The Pink Bubblegum Tree, if released soon, will be the third tree crop or tree released just weeks. And considering Valentine's Day is a little less than a month away, there's surely more where this came from. Stay tuned for when (or if) even more pink invades the farm.

FrontierVille: Hank's makeover gets mixed response; what do you think?

Another set of Goals in FrontierVille is through for the super fans and Hank just got a brand new look. After creating a Barber Shop and completing the Goals attached to it--along with Hank's own mission of self improvement--the General Store manager will never be the same. In fact, FrontierVille forum moderator Miss Marme put out a poll on the forums asking players what they thought of the new Hank.

While a majority of the voters claim to like his new look, the comments tell a vastly different story. So much so that even one user, BeetleQueen, created her own mock-up of what she thinks the new Hank should look like. The general tone of the responses in the four-page thread is, for lack of a better word, the heebie-jeebies. Honestly, I'd have to agree. Just a question: Does the Barber Shop do underground cosmetic surgery on the side?

"Don't like it... The artwork for the "New Hank" doesn't blend with the rest of the artwork for the game, especially the other NPCs and player avatars," forum user JP323 said. "It's too refined and chiseled while the rest are more cartoony/caricaturized." I was under the impression that Hank just needed a haircut and a shave--not a restructured jaw line, a new chin and a nose job. Sure, we all thought Hank was a little creepy before, but this new look might take the cake.

FarmVille Model Farm is nothing but a big old Farm Cash shop

Model Farm
Well, if that isn't a tad underwhelming. Featured in a previous Sneak Peek post, the Model Farm feature in FarmVille could have been anything. It had the potential to be a brand new feature where players could build the farms of their dreams or plan new layouts before making real arrangements. Instead, the Model Farm is nothing more than a preview of what's already available in the Market.

Upon visiting the Model Farm, you'll notice that nearly every item has a price tag. Of course, this is because each item in the Model Farm is available for immediate purchase. In fact, clicking each item opens up the same preview window found in the Market. We imagine the Model Farm will periodically be updated with new items as themes come and go.

Sure, players get a daily bonus item or coins for visiting and it's cute to see all of these decorations hanging out together, but shopping was fine where it was. Especially since the Market got a recent makeover. Be sure to give a visit to the Model Farm daily for those extra bonuses, but don't stay long unless you're packing some serious Farm Cash.

Doom creator John Romero commited to social games, signs RockYou deal

The co-creator of Doom, one of the most violent video game franchises ever, is officially hooked on social games. John Romero and Tom Hall have signed a deal with social game publisher RockYou to create a new game for Facebook with their new studio, Loot Drop, VentureBeat reports. The duo, who previously founded id Software and worked with (and started) several traditional game studios over the years, are leaving the land of big-budget PC and console games behind.

Romero recently struck gold with developer LOLapps in creating Ravenwood Fair, which enjoys over 5 million players even through an almost crippling privacy scare. Romero said that his goal with Loot Drop and RockYou is to push the boundaries of social games with creative game design, according to VentureBeat. The studio's first deal with a third-party publisher is good for one game that RockYou--who just bought Playdemic last week--will fund and publish. Romero hopes the game will come out in the summer.

Romero feels that the social games industry is strong enough to support an independent social game studio like Loot Drop that employs a team of eight, VentureBeat says. Based in Austin, Texas, Hall will serve as Loot Drop's studio head and game designer. Romero will not work as chief executive of Loot Drop, but will leave that job up to Robert Sirotek who has released 150 games over 26 years through his company, Sir-Tech.

"We are not interested at all in going back to the normal game industry cycle where it takes years to do a game," Romero said to VentureBeat. "This audience is unbelievably massive, and we are very early in its history. I feel like it is 1981 again, and the industry is ready for an explosion of creativity." With an impressive track record in both traditional and now social games, Romero and Loot Drop could be the ones to inject even more life into the social games industry.

FarmVille: Goji Berries return, thank your fellow CityVille neighbor

Say what you will about Zynga, but they've been doing well on making good on their promises recently. Just like Zynga said it would, the company has brought Goji Berries back to FarmVille. The previous deal Zynga made with its fans was if CityVille gained another 100 thousand players, it would reintroduce the famous crop to FarmVille.

And just like that, Goji Berries are back for another 17 days. The crop costs 15 coins to plant and harvests in 16 hours for 126 coins and 2 XP. Not a bad investment at all, if you ask me. Even if you've already mastered the Goji Berry, it's tough to find another 16-hour crop with such high yield. So, set those 16-hour alarms and enjoy the bountiful XP harvest while it lasts.

CityVille Cheats and Tips: House Chart

There are over fifteen different houses in CityVille, all with different rents, collection times, and populations. For casual CityVille players, it may not matter what houses they build in their cities. However, more dedicated CityVille players are always thinking of new ways to make their city more successful, and choosing the best houses can be a major part of that. Fortunately, thanks to Chaotico at the CityVille Forums and our CityVille Cheats & Tips House chart, I can tell you everything you need to know before purchasing a house in CityVille. Cost, collection time, rent, population, size, coins per hour and rankings; our House Chart has it all!

So stop wondering what the best house in CityVille is, and continue reading to find out for yourself. If you're looking for our CityVille Businesses Chart, click here.

Note: This chart assumes you will be playing constantly: collecting rent immediately as it becomes available. So while the Country Home is the most efficient in that sense, it also requires you to collect rent every five minutes.
Name     Cost     Population     Rent     Collection
Time     Coins
Per Hour     Overall
Ranking     Size
cityville house chartCountry
Home     600     30     10     5 Minutes     120     1     4x4
cityville house chartFamily
Townhouse     400     20     100     4 Hours     25     2     4x4
cityville house chartCozy
Cottage     200     10     50     1 Hour     50     2     3x3
cityville cheats house chartLake
House     10 Cash     90     180     2 Hours     90     3     3x3
cityville cheats house chartTerraced
Brownstone     2,500     70     150     8 Hours     18.75     3     3x3
Name     Cost     Population     Rent     Collection
Time     Coins
Per Hour     Overall
Ranking     Size
cityville cheats house chartSuburban
House     800     40     180     18 Hours     10     3     4x4
cityville cheats house chartUpscale
Condos     8,000     110     52     1 Hour     52     4     4x4
cityville cheats house chartModern
Chateau     1,500     60     200     1 Day     8.33     4     4x4
cityville cheats house chartLoft
Apartments     1,000     50     220     2.1 Days     4.37     4     4x4
cityville cheats house chartColonial
Chalet     10,000     120     158     8 Hours     19.75     5     3x3
Name     Cost     Population     Rent     Collection
Time     Coins
Per Hour     Overall
Ranking     Size
cityville cheats house chartRanch
House     6,000     100     189     18 Hours     10.5     5     4x4
cityville cheats house chartApartment
Complex     4,500     90     210     1 Day     8.75     5     4x4
cityville cheats house chartStylish
Contemporary     3,500     80     240     3.1 Days     3.23     6     3x3
cityville cheats house chartSkyscraper
Condos     500,000     150     105     4 Hours     26.25     7     4x4
cityville cheats house chartSprawling
Mansion     15,000     140     195     18 Hours     10.83     8     6x3
cityville cheats house chartHotel
Suites     12,500     130     231     2.1 Days     4.58     9     6x3
If you're curious how Chaotico decided on the rankings of the CityVille houses, check out this expanded chart.

FarmVille Fairy Tale Decorations: Prince Frog's Pond, Bean Stalk, Small Mushroom & More

As we told you even early this morning, a new wave of Fairy Tale items has been released in FarmVille, containing some of the items that we predicted would be released this weekend. There is one new building to purchase, along with five new decorative items, giving everyone a little something to choose from, depending on their budget.

For the new building, you can now pick up the Fairy Tale Cottage for 15 Farm Cash. For that price, you'l receive 1500 experience points as a reward, and a building that looks like yet another Gingerbread House that you can add to your farm (that is, if you've been playing the game long enough to see the others being released in the past). This building is a fairly small one, so the equally smaller price seems to fit.

Meet us behind the break for a look at the new decorations that are now available.
As for the decorative items, surprisingly enough, only one costs Farm Cash. That item is the Prince Frog's Pond, which costs 15 Farm Cash. You'll receive 1500 experience points for purchasing this animated item, that has a frog prince sitting on a throne at the edge of a small pond (emphasis on small).

Meanwhile, the coin items are the giant Bean Stalk, which costs 100,000 coins, a Large Mushroom costing 10,000 coins, a single portion of Lollipop Fence priced at 5,000 coins, and a Small Mushroom, also costing 5,000 coins. Again, this is a rare case when so many decorative items are released for coins (and relatively cheap price points at that), so if you're at all interested in adding a touch of whimsy and make-believe to your farm, I'd highly suggest looking into purchasing some of these items.

All of these decorations, and the Fairy Tale Cottage will be available for the next two weeks. We'll be sure to let you know if more Fairy Tale items are released in the meantime, so make sure to keep checking back.

Zynga teases new CityVille Factories, Active Buildings and more

In a recent community outreach post on the CityVille forums, Zynga community manager Mayor Max hinted at several features that are en route to the city-builder. Apparently Zynga is quite pleased with its work on the Visitor's Center and claims that more "Active Buildings" are coming to CityVille. Our guess is that we'll be seeing more buildings that more functions than providing coins and XP. Again, the company teases Factories and says they will be "zero-emission" and produce ... something.

Well, let's just hope it's more than just Goods production, because that would be pretty boring. Retail-themed quests, buildings and decorations are on the way, but don't we already have plenty of those? Let's hope Zynga thinking of something like, say, a mall? In addition to their never-ending quest to stamp out every little bug and glitch, the CityVille team explains a few recent changes.

Factories
The increase to Expansion costs is said to be for gameplay balance, but weren't they already expensive with little return? This will make expansions even more difficult to obtain and less rewarding, a baffling change if you ask me. Money has never been an issue for the mayoral pros, but it's the small return on expansions that scared many away. I'm not sure what balance this will bring, but we'll see soon enough.

On a lighter note, players will soon be able to rename their Businesses and Cities, according to Mayor Max. Zynga hints at two exciting features. Soon, we'll be able to create a bridge over that river to the southeast, expanding our cities even further. Finally, a big change is on the way for Franchises. We're not sure what needs to be changed, but you should be excited nonetheless.

Which of these changes or features would you like to see first? What would you like to see in CityVille that wasn't mentioned?

FarmVille Valentine's Countdown Day 12: Dogwood Tree and Purple Cow

Why are there two items in today's edition of the FarmVille Valentine's Countdown, you ask? Because it's the 12th and last day, silly. Today marks the end of a long journey filled with simple prizes, few of which have anything to do with Valentine's Day, which has been through for a week now. Today's prize is the Dogwood Tree decoration, but for completing the entire countdown a Purple Cow is yours.
Purple Cow
This regal-colored, heart-laden bovine would fit nicely with your green UFO Cow. Just click on the heart icon on your game screen and then the "Ask/Share" button. After someone gifts you a Dogwood Tree, you'll also receive the Purple Cow along with the option to share one with your friends. Finally, we can move on from the most divisive holiday of the year and to one that everyone (oddly enough) can celebrate: St. Patrick's Day! (One can dream, right?)

[Source and Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Did you complete the Valentine's Countdown? Aside from the Purple Cow, what was your favorite prize?

FarmVille Scam Alert: Beware Falabella Foal News Feed Posts

Falabella Foal Scam
If this recent surge in FarmVille scam artists doesn't take weekends, why would they rest on President's Day? FarmVille Freak has found yet another scam popping up in players' News Feeds. This time, promises of a free Falabella Foal have been made, but all that's behind them is a whole lot of malware. However, the scammers have done quite a job at covering their tracks.

There are no typos to be found in the initial post. Yet, clicking on the offer leads to a page titled "FarmVille Bonus." If you've gotten this far, do not click any further. There is no free Falabella Foal, and remember to be careful when clicking on FarmVille News Feed offers. If you've fallen victim to a FarmVille scam, be sure to scan your computer for malware and to change your Facebook password. FarmVille Freak warns that associating yourself with scams could result in your account being suspended by Zynga. And since there doesn't seem to be an end to this increase in FarmVille scams, we'll be all over them.

[Image Credit: FarmVille Freak]

Have you fallen victim to a FarmVille scam? How do you think Zynga should handle these issues?

Zynga Game Cards available in Latin America; no siestas for FarmVille

Zynga Game Cards
After CityVille was stealthily made available in Portuguese by Zynga, the company decided it was time to make that transition complete. With the help of Mentez, a Brazilian social games publisher based in Miami, Fla., Zynga Game Cards are now available in Brazil, according to VentureBeat. Later, Zynga Game Cards will expand across Latin America and into Mexico with its new Brazilian friends. This was made possible through Paymentez, Mentez's social games payment platform represented by kiosks scattered throughout retail stores and Internet cafes in Brazil. But, why weren't credit cards enough?

According to Mentez CEO Juan Franco, the Brazilian people do not own or use credit cards like Americans do (i.e. poorly). In fact, Franco claims that there is fewer than one credit card to every Brazilian resident, which pales in comparison to our love for the plastic. However, pre-paid cards are popular in the country, which Zynga is well aware of. Social gamers in Brazil can go to a Mentez kiosk, pay up in cash, bank transfers or local online credit cards, and be on their way with a Zynga Game Card.

The Mentez payment system provides its service to millions of Brazilian social gamers, and now Zynga is in on the fun. It seems Zynga is looking to do everything it can to nab that coveted title of "Most Valuable Game Company in the World." But if anything, this shows Zynga's increasing international savvy in localization in several forms. It's one thing to get foreign audiences to play your game, but it's another entirely to get them to pay.

Gamesville puzzler 'Super Chef Full Boil' offers cash and prizes

One look at that name, "Gamesville", and it's hard not to ask yourself if it's got something to do with Zynga. After all, Zynga has so many 'villes on Facebook -- FarmVille, FrontierVille, CityVille, and that Zynga Lotto usuper, RewardVille, which isn't even a game! But Gamesville is actually a company that was born long before the world had heard of Zynga. Even its motto, "Wasting your time since 1996", proudly brandishes its seniority, and now, Gamesville has arrived on Facebook.
Gamesville Super Chef Full Boil
Super Chef Full Boil is Gamesville's first Facebook game and despite its looks, I can tell you it's not another Bejeweled Blitz clone. If you like puzzlers, I guarantee that this game is going to entice and frustrate you because you're going to see it as Bejeweled Blitz, but if you play it as Bejeweled Blitz, you'll lose. I thought I was going to be a natural, but my mind isn't properly mapped for it. Basically, the goal of the game is to eliminate blocks on the board, but the method's tricky. You have to selectively click on an area, where all four corners of the grid you've picked out, all have the same symbol. Do that, and the area is eliminated.

But aside from that novelty and decent background music, this game lacked serious 'oomph' in the graphics and animations department. Where's the passion? The roaring crescendo of cascading blocks? The nearly seizure-inducing bursts of lightning and color? Thematically, it's an odd game with an odd title because everything that isn't screaming Bejeweled Blitz is screaming that it's a cooking game. The playing field really needs to get a bit more lively to sucker in those of us who like eye-candy and explosions. In the meanwhile, Gamesville has something else that'll make you stay.
Gamesville Prizes
Since the beginning of its creation, Gameville's deal was to be an online casual games portal that offered real cash or tangible prizes to dedicated players. Right now, there are daily, weekly, and monthly drawings on the site for up to $100. You can also get money by accumulating GV Rewards and trading those in for goods, but you'll need to register as a member of Gamesville to do that. As a Facebook player, you can send your questions and comments on their official Facebook page or their blog.

Play CityVille for instant access to Mafia Wars Brazil - Our first look

If you've been disappointed by the closure of both Mafia Wars Cuba and Moscow, perhaps the new release of Mafia Wars Brazil will cheer you up. If you've fallen out of playing Mafia Wars, or if you've never even begun, you'll be invited to do so the next time you play CityVille via a pop-up like the one above. Apparently, this is one offer we won't want to refuse - yikes!

If you accept, you'll be given instant access to Mafia Wars Brazil, which is apparently only available to certain players as of this writing (like those that take advantage of the CityVille invitation). Once you make your way into Brazil, you'll see that the new expansion comes with all new jobs, properties, items and more, just as you'd expect from any proper Mafia Wars expansion.

We've got a full look at what this expansion contains, so meet us behind the break.

Mafia Wars Brazil is perhaps the most technically impressive of the game's expansions, with a streamlined user-interface. Each of the location's five districts are unlocked to you one at a time, by completing missions in the district before, and as you do jobs, you'll see a lot less clutter crowding the screen. You'll start in Rio de Janeiro: Centro, which contains 11 separate jobs, each of which comes with their own detailed image, rather than there just being an image for every few jobs.

You'll still see how may energy points you'll need to complete each job, and how many experience points and Real (this expansion's currency) you'll receive for completing each job, but that's it in terms of information. If you need to purchase items (weapons, animals, vehicles, etc.) in order to be eligible to complete the job, this will be shown to you once you click on the "Do Job" button, and you'll be able to instantly purchase the needed items and move on, without moving to the store and back again.

In Brazil, your Mafia plays a new and special role in your activities. You'll see a Crew line at the top of your Jobs page, and you'll be able to activate Crew members in one of four categories: Jobs, Fighting, Robbing, and Properties. Depending on which positions you activate (which can only be done once every 18 hours), you'll be able to earn special bonuses while completing the accompanying tasks.

Their are eight different Crew "jobs" that can be activated (that is, roles that your crew can play - not jobs that require energy). Here are their bonuses:

Strategist - Twice the Job Mastery for the next 20 Jobs you do
Lockpick - Twice the loot for the next 20 Jobs you do
Mercenary - No stamina used for your next 50 fights
Marksman - Double attack power for your next 50 fights
Scout - Finds properties that have special collection items for your first three Robbing screens
Arsonist - Guaranteed success of robbing your first three properties on your first three Robbing screens
Taskmaster - Twice the Real earned from your properties
Guardian - Protects your properties from being robbed while in Brazil for a span of 18 hours

Properties have also been changed in Brazil (when compared to some other locations), requiring you to collect building parts to upgrade your businesses/properties to the next star-level, rather than just spending a large sum of money to do so.

Each time you complete the first wave of jobs in a new District in Brazil, you'll receive a special item, and will unlock the next District, but you can of course always stay in your current location and work on maximizing your Mastery on those jobs to the four-star level.

Brazil comes with new properties, new weapons, animals, vehicles, achievements, and one-time use loot items. There's a ton of content here to look at and play through, so make sure to login to CityVille and activate your pass to Brazil, if it isn't available in your game by default.

Have you tried Mafia Wars Brazil? What did you think of this new expansion? Is the streamlined interface working for you, or do you prefer to see more details about your jobs as you complete them?