FarmVille Pic of the Day: Myhomefarm23's angular English countryside

Today's featured farm was created by FarmVille Forums member, Myhomefarm23. This FarmVille English Countryside plot is a great example of intelligent farm design. Sure it's a farm art masterpiece, but it's also functional!

Myhomefarm23 went about creating this absurd tree design without a single orchard, laughing at anyone who squishes their beautiful trees into storage bins. Breathtaking rows of fruit trees line the path leading up to the Eiffel Tower located at the center of the farm, creating a truly spectacular effect. Not only that, but if you look closely, where there isn't trees, the farm is full of animals! This, folks, is an exceptional sheep and pig breeding design. If harvested consistantly, this farm could turn a huge profit! Just looking at this excellent farm makes me wish I was Myhomefarm23's neighbor, just so I could reap some of the rewards :)

I just hope Myhomefarm23 has plenty of Farm Hands and Arborists saved up or they're in for a lot of clicking!

What do you think of this great English Countryside design?

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!

Tagged bulks up for a bout with Facebook, acquires WeGame

The imminent battle between Facebook and Google+ over social games domination has a potential, scrappy third contender. People often forget about Tagged, the San Francisco-based social network with a considerable 100 million plus users. Video games, our favorite thing to talk about, might change all that, as the company announced that it has purchased WeGame.

WeGame is a cross between a social network for gamers in vein of services like Raptr and an online store with digital copies of games. Of course, terms of the deal weren't disclosed, and it's unclear exactly how the social network will make use of its new gaming network-meets-game store.

This news is especially striking considering the fact that Tagged already offers social games to its users. In fact, the company hired former Pogo VP Andrew Pederson to oversee its social gaming efforts. Perhaps that venture hasn't produced results, or Tagged simply looks to further bolster its social gaming efforts. Unfortunately, we currently haven't a clue.

According to TechCrunch, Tagged will reveal the details of how WeGame's technology will be incorporated "in the coming months." The company in question is run by a mere four employees, so we imagine there is a good amount of automation going on there, something Tagged could be looking to take advantage of.

It's also worth noting that WeGame is heavily skewed toward the hardcore crowd, offering a number of games for sale that only fans of franchises like World of WarCraft might recognize. That said--and this is pure speculation--Tagged could be looking in a completely different direction than Facebook is and Google+ appears to be: the proverbial Call of Duty player. Hey, if the social network has found strong enough of a niche to thrive in the shadow of Facebook, perhaps it has found another.

Are you either a Tagged or WeGame user? What do you think of Tagged picking up another games service when it already offers games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

CrowdStar, others dock in Sibblingz Spaceport for mobile social games

If we haven't driven home yet that mobile will be massive in the future of social games, we clearly haven't done our job. Luckily, news like the fact that Sibblingz has signed on It Girl creator CrowdStar and a number of other developers to use its Spaceport service helps us make good on that.

TechCrunch reports that--in addition to CrowdStar--BitRhymes, IKIGames, LuckyLabs, Fortune Planet and DeezGames have signed on to use Spaceport to create mobile versions of their Facebook games. Spaceport is Sibblingz's cloud-based game development platform that allows developers like CrowdStar to create mobile games that work on both iOS and Android devices.

Essentially, it allows developers to create a mobile game once and have it run on multiple mobile devices. The platform makes use of coding languages like Javascript and HTML5, but neither of which are known for making robust or fully-featured games on iPhones or Android phones. However, Sibblingz claims that games built on Spaceport feature an app-like experience.

What Sibblingz means is that, while these games are built using simpler code languages, they will perform like, say CityVille Hometown by Zynga. That game was built using tools specifically for iOS devices and is thus more visually impressive and feature-rich than mobile browser games. However, according to TechCrunch, developers can even create games specifically for iPhones and iPads through Spaceport.

Sibblingz also says that developers can make games for Facebook's worst-kept secret, Project Spartan--an initiative to bring Facebook to mobile devices through browsers using HTML5 complete with full-featured apps and games--through Spaceport. Jeez, on paper it sounds like Spaceport can do anything but make the cash flow.

Regardless, what's important to take away here is that social game developers realize that mobile is where it's at. Frankly, it's one area where clear winners have yet to be defined, much unlike Facebook (ahem, Zynga and EA). At this point, anyone could come out a winner on mobile, and perhaps the companies that embrace cross-platform game creation like CrowdStar will have the upper hand.

Do you think these developers have a chance at winning the mobile race these social game creators are running with Spaceport? Who do you think will ultimately win the mobile social gaming war? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Mafia Wars 2: Like Facebook fan page to unlock prizes in final game

While little is known about Mafia Wars 2 in terms of it's actual gameplay, we do know that prizes are being offered for users that Like the game's Facebook fan page. If this entire promotion looks familiar, it's because EA/Playfish pulled this one during the Sims Social pre-launch hype, and now we're seeing it again here.

Either way, we know that there will eventually be nine prizes available to unlock, although only seven of them have been revealed. These prizes are limited to varying (increasing) amounts of Likes, and will be unlocked in the final game upon launch if we reach those milestones in time. Here's the complete rundown:

Black Mohawk Hair - 20,000 Likes
Casino Row T-Shirt - 50,000 Likes
Graffiti Wall - 100,000 Likes
Skull Bandana - 250,000 Likes
Animated Lions - 500,000 Likes
Tribal Tattoo - 1 million Likes
Stripes Baseball Cap - 1.5 million Likes

Two additional prizes have yet to be revealed. So far, the fan page has only gained 70,000 Likes, so we've only managed to unlock the Black Mohawk Hair and Casino Row T-Shirt as prizes. Since the game's announcement is so new, and the hype train has barely left the station, I'd imagine we'll see that number climb slowly at first, and then monumentally as the game comes closer and closer to launch. And once we find out what those final two prizes are, we'll make sure to let you know.

Are you excited about Mafia Wars 2? If the game doesn't offer any incentive for users to switch from the original to this new version, will you? Sound off in the comments.

Earn 4 free FarmVille Farm Cash in Capital One promotion

At this rate, perhaps we should just rename FarmVille "Capital OneVille." Why? Yet another cross-promotional activity has launched in the game, allowing users to walk away with 4 free Farm Cash. Unlike the Capital One farm and goat, or even the Capital One free gift that can be sent to friends, this promotion is found where most other free Farm Cash promotions are located: underneath the FarmVille gameplay area.

This promotion is a fairly lengthy one. Once you launch the activity window, you'll need to watch a full Capital One trailer, and can then answer some quiz and survey about what you've seen or the Capital One brand in general. Don't worry - these "quiz" questions are incredibly easy, and if I had to make a guess, it likely wouldn't matter which way you answered; you'd still likely get the Farm Cash at the end.

After manually answering one fill-in-the-blank question, the activity will finally be complete, and you'll be the proud owner of 4 free Farm Cash. This is double the amount of Farm Cash we normally see released in such promotions, so at least it excuses a bit of the additional time it takes to complete this particular activity. As usual, you'll want to complete this promotion as soon as you see it pop-up underneath your game; there's no telling when it will expire, and you will have missed your chance.


Have you seen the Capital One promotion appear under your gameplay area in FarmVille? What will you do with your four free Farm Cash? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Come Ashore Goals: Everything you need to know

As part of today's launch of the Lighthouse Cove farm in FarmVille to every farmer that's interested (whether they paid for admittance or not), a new goal series has been launched in the game, allowing even those new players a chance to become acquainted with their new farm, while also earning prizes. There are six goals in this new series, and they're limited edition, being available for the next seven days (or just a week).

Come Ashore!

    * Get 3 Piles of Hay
    * Harvest 10 Chandler Blueberries
    * Improve the Cove to Level 1


You'll need to earn the Piles of Hay by asking your friends to send them to you. As for the Chandler Blueberries, they take eight hours to grow, so even though you're not required to grow very many, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be done with this one quickly. As for the Lighthouse Cove, you can repair it by collecting Logs, Stones and Steel Beams. For finishing this first goal, you'll receive 100 XP, the Restaurant, a Red Tractor and 2,500 coins. Hopefully you haven't already purchased a Restaurant for your new farm, as this will of course be worthless.

A Beach to Walk on

    * Get 6 Supply Boxes
    * Harvest 45 Darrow Blueberries
    * Place the Restaurant


Hopefully, if you are one of those users that placed the Restaurant before receiving these goals, it will automatically detect that it's present on your farm and complete this task for you. As for the Supply Boxes - you guessed it - just have your friends send you some. Darrow Blueberries, meanwhile, take just four hours to grow. Finish this goal and you'll receive 200 XP, a Sailor Cow (a cow in an adorable little sailor's hat and "tie"), a Yellow Seeder and 2,500 coins.

A Quick Tour

    * Harvest Lighthouse Cove
    * Complete 1 Wildlife Habitat
    * Make the Creamed Corn Recipe 1 Time


The Creamed Corn recipe is made inside the Restaurant, and it requires three Butter & Sugar Corn, three Tarragon and one Pepper Bushels. The Butter & Sugar Corn and Tarragon crops are new to the Lighthouse Cove farm, while you might already have some Pepper bushels on hand from your other farms. As for the Wildlife Habitat, you're given the frame of one for free when landing in the cove, and can then complete it by gathering Fence Posts, Shrubs and Grazing Grasses. Check out our complete guide to the Wildlife Habitat right here. Once you finish this third goal, you'll receive 300 XP, a White Cedar Tree, a Blue Harvester and 2,500 coins.

After finishing these first three goals, you will have walked away with a complete farm vehicle set (save for the Combine) that will allow you to complete all of the farming tasks required on your new farm. Of course, you can always purchase a Combine Chassis from the store for that three-in-one farming convenience, but at least you'll have these vehicles to rely on while you're waiting for the Vehicle Parts to pour in.

Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of these Lighthouse Cove goals? How far have you made it into the trio? Sound off in the comments.

DC Universe Online: Pound on bad guys for free starting next month

If you've always wanted to try out Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe online (on either PS3 or PC), but didn't want to pay actual money to do so, you'll be happy to know that you'll soon be able to access "the entire game" for free starting next month. As reported by PCWorld, this switch to a freemium pricing plan will still allow users to purchase premium content, but all of the open world gameplay, missions, game updates and patches will be free.

To be specific, DC Universe Online will have three different levels of access. The first and completely free level, gives players access to create just two characters and join a league with other players. From there, the Premium level of users requires that a player spend at least $5 in real money in the game's store to be given that Premium player status for life. This gives them access to larger inventory space, the ability to create more characters and the ability to trade items with others. Finally, if you still want the subscription plan, you can be a Legendary player, paying around $15 a month for access to even more character and inventory slots, along with access to the game's DLC packages at no additional cost. There are plenty of other differences between the three gameplay levels; head over here to check them out.

DC Universe Online is just the latest of many once entirely paid-sub games to go free-to-play in some form. While the most noteworthy case has arguably been World of Warcraft's free-to-play setup for users up to level 20, this is just another case where social and casual players are given an opportunity to break away from Facebook simulators and jump into the world of true MMOs. While the two worlds are (for the most part) entirely different, a bigger selection is definitely not a bad thing.

Will you try out DC Universe Online when it goes free-to-play next month? Let us know in the comments.

CityVille Rose Garden Goals: Everything you need to know

While summer may quickly be drawing to a close, CityVille hopes to keep the summer fun alive by letting us have a place to grow beautiful flowers. Appropriately enough, this new "building" is called the Rose Garden, and you'll place it in your city when completing the first of four new goals that go along with it.

Garden State

    * Place Rose Garden
    * Plant a Rose in the Garden


The Rose Garden is a 4x4 structure that works similarly to the Zoo, in that you'll only be able to display three flowers on the outside of the garden, but can actually leave more of them inside. To start, you'll receive a single flower for free (that's right - this one doesn't need to be built at all after placing it in your town): a White Wild Rose. Once you look inside the building, just click on the Plant button and you'll be able to "feature" that rose as one of the three that show up on the outside. Once you finish these two (simple) steps, you'll receive 160 coins as your reward.

A Late Bloomer

    * Ask friends for 3 Shovels
    * Have 3 Gardens in your City
    * Water your Gardens 5 Times


Gardens can be watered once every 18 hours, and yes, you can have more than one in your city. In fact, you'll need to have three before you can finish this goal. Your second and third Rose Gardens would cost 50,000 coins in the store, but luckily, you can also purchase Small Rose Gardens (a smaller version of the regular Rose Garden) for just 8,000 coins. These do count for the completion of this goal. As for the shovels, you'll be able to post a general news item to your wall asking for three. Finishing this goal gives you Sculpted Tree.

It's Showtime!

    * Get 10 Rose Bushes
    * Have 1 Rose Collection item from the Garden Collection
    * Place one Rose Garden Gate in your city


To earn additional bushes, you'll go into your gardens (as seen above) and then click on "Ask for flowers" to ask your friends to send you some bushes. Finishing this goal gives you 32 experience points.

Comin' Up Roses

    * Ask friends for 4 Vases
    * Have 7 Roses Planted in your Gardens
    * Have an upgraded Flower Kiosk


As it looks like each garden can only display three flowers, you'll need to have flowers in at least three Gardens to reach seven. As for updating your Flower Kiosk, you can find our guide for doing just that right here. Finishing this final goal gives you a Roses Fountain.

We'll make sure to let you know if other kinds of gardens are made available in the build menu in the future, but for now - have fun growing and displaying all of those roses!

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Rose Garden feature in CityVille? What do you think of these goals? Sound off in the comments.

Zynga gives free rides to FarmVille Lighthouse Cove starting today

FarmVille Lighthouse Cove screen
Oh, you patient ones. Now is finally the time to see if waiting in the freebie line was worth it. For those FarmVille players that declined to fork up 55 Farm Cash ($10 USD, to be exact), the Lighthouse Cove expansion will be available to all starting today. We assume, as with all changes or major releases by Zynga, that this release will be a slow roll-out.

Just like players did early last week, they will hop on a sail boat to a New England-esque coastal farming village. Unfortunately, the area has been ravaged by a brutal storm, and Brenda--the town's resident widow--has enlisted you to help restore it. You'll slowly level up your Lighthouse by repairing the lighthouse, dock and more through quests.

However, free players will not receive the exclusive quests and items given to those who put up the dough. Regardless there looks to be a ton of content here with a larger focus on building a village than simply farming crops. For instance, you'll have fewer plots to farm on that unlock over time in Lighthouse Cove, though those crops yield far more coins, XP and Mastery.

In addition to farming, you can harvest the Cove once its restored for ingredients to use in Restaurant recipes like clams and lobster for dishes like New England Clam Chowder and Lobster Rolls. Another interesting change with FarmVille LC in comparison to its first expansion, English Countryside, is that all quests will be timed this time around.

Gallery: FarmVille Lighthouse Cove
And that includes the bonus quests, courtesy of Brenda. Because quests were persistent throughout FarmVille EC, it was easy for friends to speed ahead or slip behind one another in their progress. "It was harder for players to work on the same thing in English Countryside," FarmVille GM Nate Etter explains.

FarmVille Sailor CalfDuring an early look of the game, Etter told us that the team was going for "a FarmVille meets Martha's Vineyard style." "Players seem to love water, which was a major source of inspiration for Lighthouse Cove," Etter recalls. "I think we're constantly listening to players, [and] that will govern where FarmVille will go."

So, while you're enjoying the serene orange glow and brisk autumn breeze of Lighthouse Cove (imagination, people), try to think up where you would like to go next, and take it to the Facebook page or forums--they're all ears. As for why the second expansion was released early to players who paid Farm Cash, a Zynga representative told us, "We have so many passionate players, that we wanted to offer them a first look at the game."

Well, patience has its payoffs, my friends. Namely, it saves you money. So, enjoy that peace of mind, and increase that peace in FarmVille's Lighthouse Cove. Good things come to those who (choose to) wait--that's especially because we have a bevy of content to get you through your first several hours in FarmVille LC. Enjoy.

Did you pay to get into the FarmVille Lighthouse Cove Early? What do you think of all the new content so far? Sound off in the comments. 3 Comments

FarmVille: Visit the Capital One farm for a free Capital One Goat

As we told you earlier this week, Zynga has officially launched a three-part cross-promotion with Capital One that sees the brand returning to FarmVille (and also making an appearance in CityVille and the Pioneer Trail). For FarmVille, we see the Capital One farm being added to our neighbor bars, and an incentive being offered for actually visiting said farm.

Once you visit the Capital One farm (don't worry if it doesn't show up in your friends list; an in-game prompt will appear allowing you to access it), you'll find that you don't really need to do anything here, except take in the scenery and click on the "Help Out" button that quickly appears. This sees the Capital One Goat (you'll know it's him as he's wearing sunglasses) harvesting crops and boosting animal storage buildings before being given to you as a gift.

What's more, if you agree to visit the Capital One Facebook Page, and then "Like" it, you'll receive one free application of "Capital One Grow," or instant grow for your farm. On top of this, there's also a Capital One Gift available to send to your friends on the FarmVille free gifts page, that can contain all sorts of goodies, so make sure to send some while you can. It will only be available to send for the next nine days.

Any and all of these prizes will appear in your Gift Box when you return to your farm, so make sure to check them out!

What do you think of this newest Capital One promotion? Will you save your Capital One grow for a Double Mastery event, or will you use it right away? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille Mexican theme expands with Statue of Independence, Cantina and more

As promised, here we are again with news of more Mexican Independence items that have been added to CityVille's store. You know, I honestly thought that this would be a one-time release, but leave it to Zynga to release more items even after the holiday in question has passed (this holiday being the Mexican Independence celebration). There aren't as many items here as in the original release we told you about earlier this week, but there is a new crop here, if you happen to be into that sort of thing.

Statue of Independence (Decoration)

    * Costs: 36,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 12% to surrounding businesses and residences; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items


Cantina (Business)

    * Costs: 3,800 coins
    * Requires: 95 Goods
    * Supplies: 640 coins


Quince Anos Party (Decoration)

    * Costs: 12 City Cash
    * Payout Bonus: 12%; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items



Fine Arts Theater (Community Building)

    * Costs: 80 City Cash
    * Allows: 7500 citizens added to maximum population cap


Agave Crop

    * Costs: 5 City Cash per square
    * Harvest Time: Instant
    * Supplies: 450 Goods per square planted
    * First Star of Mastery: 3 Harvests


See? There aren't as many items in this release, but luckily, we're given plenty of time to purchase them either way. You'll have 12 days to do your shopping for these new items (the original section of this theme is down to a 10-day time limit), so just make sure to go shopping eventually before these items do actually expire.

What do you think of these newest CityVille Mexican-themed items? What sort of cultural or geographical theme would you like to see released next? Sound off in the comments.

The Sims Social: Country meets chic with Country Kitchen items

Is it just me, or is decorating our houses one of the best things to do in the Sims Social? I know I could personally spend plenty of time rearranging furniture in each room, only to ripe it all out and start over again, and to help us do that with even more themes is a new Country Kitchen theme that has launched in the game this week. These country kitchen items bring in all sorts of shades of brown and ivory, and it's one of the most complete themes we've seen released in the game yet. Here's a rundown of what to look out for in the store to make this theme complete in your own home.

Plate Collection

    * Costs: 4 SimCash
    * Value: $600


Perfecto Fruitbowl

    * Costs: 4 SimCash
    * Value $600


Vintage Wines

    * Costs: 6 SimCash
    * Value: $900


RuralU Deluxe C (Kitchen Counter Piece)

    * Costs: 10 SimCash
    * Value: $1500


RuralU Deluxe (Kitchen Counter Piece)

    * Costs: 12 SimCash
    * Value: $1750


Antiquitate Deco (Wall Sconce)

    * Costs: 3 SimCash
    * Value: $450


19th Century Lamp

    * Costs: 10 SimCash
    * Value: $1500


19th Century Pot (Flowers)

    * Costs: 19 SimCash
    * Value: $2800


Antiquitate Oil

    * Costs: 325 Social Points
    * Value: $700


Basinuate Marble (Sink)

    * Costs: 12 SimCash
    * Value: 1750
    * Clean Stat: 5



FrancoFaux Chaise (Buildable item)

    * Costs: 225 Social Points
    * Value: $500


Cereal Shelf

    * Costs: 250 Social Points
    * Value: $550


19th Century Mat

    * Costs: 19 SimCash
    * Value: $2800


Clox Fruitful

    * Costs: 350 Social Points
    * Value: $800


RuralU Trove (Wall Cabinet Piece)

    * Costs: 600 Social Points
    * Value: $1450


RuralU Charm (Wall Cabinet Piece)

    * Costs: 800 Social Points
    * Value: $2050


FrancoFaux Tableau (Buildable item)

    * Costs: 800 Social Points
    * Value: $2050


RuralU Latch (Hutch - Buildable item)

    * Costs: 1100 Social Points
    * Value: $3100


G King Counter (Center Island - Buildable item)

    * Costs: 15,000 Social Points
    * Value: $21,250
    * Happiness Stat: 3


Normanity Chair (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)

    * Costs: 450 Social Points
    * Value: $1050


FrancoFaux Cafe (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)

    * Costs: 650 Social Points
    * Value: $1600


Normanity Sofa (Living Room Furniture - Buildable item)

    * Costs: 700 Social Points
    * Value: $1750
    * Sleep Stat: 3



In addition to all of these items, there's also a Cooking Skill vent hood called the SuxDelux that's available to users that have reached a Cooking Skill of 40 or higher. This item has a value of $3650.

In the Build Menu, you can also find a selection of new windows in the same matching dark wood color, ranging in price from 750 coins for the RealOak 2 Pane to 6,000 coins for the RealOak 5 Pane. If you want the window in the picture above, with the quaint ivory curtains, that will set you back a whopping 39 SimCash. Along with this, there are five new wallpapers and three new floor tiles to round out the theme.

There's no listed time limit on any of these items, so if you don't have enough Social Points or SimCash available to buy them now, you should be able to save up and purchase them well into the future. Still, if you want to get your hands on these items while they're fresh, I really couldn't blame you. I just hope your kitchen is big enough to hold them all!

[Final Image Credit: Playfish/EA]

What do you think of these Country Kitchen items? Are you more of a modern fan, or do you like country / southwestern items? Sound off in the comments.

The Sims Social: Claim your free Pogo Arcade Machine

While you may already be the proud owner of one or two Arcade Machines in the Sims Social, if you're like me, you'll always be ready for one more - especially if it's free. Such is the case with this new goodie, a Pogo branded Arcade Machine, spotted by BadgeHungry. The single link to claim your reward has apparently been going around for about a week, but hasn't been heavily advertised. It does, however, still work (as of this writing).

To claim your free Pogo Arcade Machine in the Sims Social just make sure you're logged into your Facebook account and click on this link right here. This will take you to Facebook, where you'll be told whether or not your claim attempt was successful. Once in your house, the Pogo Arcade Machine will go into your storage, where you can then freely place it anywhere in your house (or even outside).

As for interactivity, the machine allows you to do two things: Play Games (no energy required), and "Redeem Tokens at Pogo." This link will let you earn 25,000 free tokens on the site, but unfortunately, doesn't come with any free Simoleons back in the Sims Social. But hey, we've walked away with a free Arcade Machine; it's that all we could really ask for?

Have you already claimed your free Pogo Arcade Machine? What other sorts of goodies do you hope come to the Sims Social? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille: Playa del Rey Apartments add plenty of population at a high price

As tends to be the case with limited edition item themes in CityVille, the current Mexican theme of items has received a new, limited edition residential building by the name of the Playa del Rey Apartments. These apartments cost a whopping 75 City Cash to add to your town, but are highly detailed, with tons of architectural interest, and even some palm trees (you know, if the way your town looks matters as much as the stats themselves).

Once you purchase the Playa del Rey Apartments, you'll have a house with a starting population of 2,350 residents, that can be expanded through random boosts all of the way up to 4,350 citizens. You'll earn 451 coins in rent every day, if you remember to collect from it, and you might even be able to place this one in your apartment-centric Neighborhood, if the folks at Zynga remembered to program that option in (we're working on discovering if that's the case).

Remember, as this one is limited edition, your opportunity to purchase one will only be around for the next 11 days. After that point, it's likely we'll see a new limited edition item theme launch in the store, with its own set of expensive housing units, and we may never see this one again. Shop now if you really want it.

Will you purchase a Playa del Rey Apartments for your town? How much is too much for a business or residence in CityVille? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille Mystery Game (09/18/11): Livestock animals come to the farm

In tonight's FarmVille update, we see a new round of animals hit the Mystery Game, with this week's theme (understandably) revolving around the new Livestock Pen released just last week. That means that for the price of 20 Farm Cash per dart, you can play this week's game to walk away with six (potentially seven) animals that can be stored, and subsequently bred (if you're lucky) inside that very Livestock Pen.

Here's the rundown of this week's animals:

Arapawa Island Pig
Barbados Sheep
Berkshire Pig
Dutch Landrace Goat
Girgentana Goat
Valais Goat

While you're not guaranteed to receive all six of these animals in the first six darts you throw, keep in mind that if you can manage to "win" all six during this week's game (again, that will be an incredibly pricey endeavor, even if you're really lucky), you'll walk away with a seventh, free prize: the Clun Forest Sheep.

Remember, these animals will only be around a single week. Whether or not they'll ever be re-released is anyone's guess (although, I will admit the possibility is likely), so if you don't want to wait to see if that possibility comes true, make sure to try your hand at this week's Mystery Game while you can.

Which of these prizes would you most want to win by playing this week's Mystery Game? What animals did you actually win? Share with us in the comments!

CityVille Neighborhoods: Everything you need to know

Here we go, mayors. A new feature has been launched in CityVille that will help one of the biggest concerns I personally have with the game (and I know I'm not alone). A new Neighborhoods feature has launched to players above level 30, with at least 620 population, that will allow you to move homes (including high rises) into smaller areas to save space. This feature, you guessed it, is similar to the Mall feature, but here's a complete rundown of how this works for homes.

First and foremost, yes, you can have more than one Neighborhood in your town, and there are different types of Neighborhoods depending on the kinds of homes you'd like to store. Gated Communities cost 10,000 coins and store up to 15 Family Residences. Uptown Estates cost 15,000 coins and store 15 Apartments and finally, Palm Towers cost 20,000 coins and store 15 Vacation Home.

For our example, let's say you wanted to build a Gated Community in your town. You'd go into the store to purchase the base, as seen below, and would then need to whack that base six times to build up the frame.

From there, you'll instantly have access to two storage spots, of a possible five on the first "block," or "floor," if we're comparing this to the Mall. To fill these spaces, simply click on your empty Neighborhood and then click on "Fill" under one of the empty spaces. This will cause all of the buildings that can fit inside to glow. Click on one and voila! It's stored inside your Neighborhood, which will change shape and complexity as new buildings are added to it.

To unlock additional space inside your Neighborhoods, you'll need to ask your friends to staff extra spots, as seen above. The rate of one user per one storage slot isn't bad, really. Once your first block is full, you'll have to go through the process of asking for building materials to open up the second block. In our particular example of the Gated Community, you'll need five each of Red Bricks, Crossing Signs, Roof Tiles, Cement and Lumber. These are earned either by purchasing them outright with City Cash, or by asking your friends to send them to you.

When you've unlocked your second block, the process will repeat (and so on until you've unlocked and filled all three blocks, with more building materials being required the second time). Again, at first, these Neighborhoods may be incredibly space-consuming, but once they're full, you'll find them to be fairly space-saving, especially if you choose to place the largest homes in each category into storage. Don't worry about losing their stats, though, as you'll be able to collect rent as normal while they're inside. That is, you'll be able to click on your Neighborhood, and will then be asked to spend a larger amount of energy to collect from all "ready" buildings inside, just as you collect profits from your Mall.

All told, these are some fairly time consuming building projects, but if you're willing to go through with building them (and have plenty of friends around that are willing to help you out), you'll end up saving tons of space for future purchases, whether residential in nature or otherwise. We'll make sure to let you know when other kinds of Neighborhoods, for other kinds of homes are released, so keep checking back with us.

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Neighborhoods feature? Is the space you saved substantial enough to warrant building them? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille Neighborhood Goals: Everything you need to know

To go along with the launch of the new Neighborhoods feature in CityVille, there's also a goal set to complete as well. If you remember, these Neighborhoods allow you to store homes for easier bulk access, and also just to generally save space (a huge factor in the game to this day). This goal series starts with one called Neighborhood Watch! (or, "On the House," if you prefer), which sees you simply placing a Neighborhood into your town to get used to the feature.

Neighborhood Watch!

    * Build a Neighborhood
    * Place 2 Residences into a Neighborhood


As we told you in our guide to Neighborhoods, they come in three varieties (currently) and range in price from 10,000 to 20,000 coins, depending on the kind of home you are trying to store (basic residences, apartments or vacation homes). Once you complete the construction of the Neighborhood, you'll be given these two storage spaces for free, so just fill them up and complete the goal! You'll receive a cute Garden Gnome decoration as a prize.

Block Party

    * Ask for 6 Neighborhood Event Posters
    * Place one more Residence into your Neighborhood
    * Place a Garden Gnome Decoration


Luckily, there's a "Place" button right next to this final task, so you don't have to search through your inventory to find the Garden Gnome manually. In the meantime, you'll need to ask a single friend to help you open up that new slot in your Neighborhood so that you can store your third residence. Finally, the Event Posters can be earned by posting a general news item to your wall. For finishing this second goal, you'll receive a Family Home residence, which gives you 90-170 population.

Movin' On Up

    * Unlock Block 2
    * Fill Block 2


As we told you in our guide, to unlock the next block of your Neighborhood, you'll need to collect building materials with the help of friends. Once you've unlocked the second block, you'll also need to gather more staff to unlock the final slots on that block, and then fill it completely with homes. Finishing this goal gives you the Neighborhood Watch item, a watch-tower that takes up a 2x2 area on your land and provides a 5% bonus to surrounding buildings.

Welcome Wagon

    * Ask for 8 Neighborhood Bake Sale Goodies
    * Build a second Neighborhood
    * Fill one Neighborhood


This goal will likely take you the longest to complete, as it requires collecting even more building ingredients than before, and even more staff to completely fill one neighborhood to its max of 15 houses. Finishing off this final goal of the series gives you the Deluxe Tree House.

All in all, these goals don't really require rushing, but as I'm sure most of you will likely want to build Neighborhoods for your own space-saving plans, you'll eventually finish them off with time.

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Neighborhood feature in CityVille? Do you like the rewards for these goals? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille says Viva Mexico! with new Mexican themed items

To celebrate Mexican Independence, Zynga has launched a full theme of Mexican themed items in CityVille this afternoon. These items range from small decorations to large landmarks, so we'll make sure to give you a complete rundown on these items to know what to expect. Keep in mind, while they do have a longer time limit than usual at anywhere from 12-14 days (the usual being a week), they will eventually vanish from the store, so do some shopping sooner, rather than later. Here's what's available:

Ice Cream Cart (Decoration)

    * Costs: 5,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 3% to surrounding businesses and homes; bonus 3% to Mexico themed items


Guerrero Residence (Home)

    * Costs: 40 City Cash
    * Population: 600-1200
    * Rent: 296 coins every 18 hours


Sombrero Store (Business)

    * Costs: 6,800 coins
    * Requires: 170 Goods
    * Supplies: 1,024 coins


Garcia House (Home)

    * Costs: 13,500 coins
    * Population: 120-240
    * Rent: 18 coins every five minutes


Watch Tower (Decoration)

    * Costs: 24 City Cash
    * Payout Bonus: 24%; bonus 24% to Mexican themed items



Mayan Pyramid (Decoration)

    * Costs: 72,000 coins
    * Payout Bonus: 12%; bonus 12% to Mexican themed items
    * Not Limited Edition!


Morelos Fort (Community Building)

    * Costs: 70 City Cash
    * Allows: 2,000 citizens added to max population cap


Hacienda de Dolores (Home)

    * Costs: 65 City Cash
    * Population: 1850-3650
    * Rent: 451 coins every 3.1 days


House of Churros (Business)

    * Costs: 40 City Cash
    * Requires: 305 Goods
    * Supplies: 1648 coins


On top of all of this, there's also a Mexico Mystery Crate available for 40 City Cash that contains one of four items: the Morelos Fort, Hacienda de Dolores, Guerrero Residence or House of Churros. Sure, you'd get two items from this crate at a discounted price, but remember that there's no guarantee you won't receive duplicates when purchasing more than one crate. That is, if you're going for both the Hacienda and the Fort, you may very well end up with two House of Churros instead.

Either way, we'll make sure to let you know if other items are added in this Mexican Independence celebration theme, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's a one-time-deal.

What do you think of this new theme of items? Which ones have you purchased for your town and which ones will you skip? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille Livestock Pen: Everything you need to know

While we may already have a place to store our Sheep and Pigs, a new Livestock Pen has launched in FarmVille this evening giving you even more room to do just that (on top of storing other kinds of animals, of course). This Livestock Pen allows you to store animals like Goats, Alpacas and Llamas (on top of your Sheep and Pigs) but unfortunately won't let you store any Sheep or Pig that you've created or received by breeding.

As usual, you'll be given the frame to your first Livestock Pen the next time you login to the game. From there, you'll need to collect some building materials, including 10 each of Water Pumps, Wires and Steel Beams. Yes, these Steel Beams are the same items you need to collect for the Lighthouse Cove repair project, so you'll need to prioritize which item you'll place these materials into first.

Once you've finished building the Livestock Pen, you'll be able to browse all of the animals that can possibly be stored inside by looking at the interior menu and then browsing through the 19 pages of animals inside. You'll be given a Red Goat for free when completing your Livestock Pen, and will then have 19 more spaces to fill with animals, for a full capacity of 20 as of this writing.

In terms of breeding, remember that you only need to have one of each kind of animal in your Livestock Pen in order to trigger "breeding." The cribs that you'll receive from your own Livestock Pens are guaranteed to be one of the animals currently placed inside, but when claiming them from friends, they can either be rare or common animals that can also be stored inside. To be specific, orange cribs contain common mystery babies, while purple cribs contains rare animals that may even include former limited edition animals that cost less than 15 Farm Cash when originally released in the store. As with other mystery babies, the common babies take 10 Animal Feed to grow, while rare babies take 30.

All in all, this new Livestock Pen is the fifth of seven eventual animal breeding habitats we'll see released in the game. While we don't have any specific details about what the next two buildings will be, we'll make sure to let you know what they are once they release in the game.

Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Livestock Pen? Do you think there was a need for another building that could store Sheep or Pigs? Sound off in the comments.

FarmVille Livestock Pen Goals: Everything you need to know

To go along with tonight's launch of the Livestock Pen in FarmVille comes a set of goals (what, you didn't they we'd get away without them, did you?). These goals are of course sheep, goat and llama themed to go along with our new animal breeding building, so read on for how to complete these goals as quickly as possible (and of course receive your rewards).

Farmin' Ain't Easy

    * Get 8 Farmer's Overalls
    * Place 1 Livestock Pen
    * Place 4 Whitewash Fences


Whitewash Fences cost just 300 coins per square, so spend the 1,200 coins on four and then delete them as soon as you're done with this goal. As for the Farmer's Overalls, you'll need to ask your friends to send them to you. Finish this first goal and you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Grey Mouflon Goat.

These Boots Were Made for Farmin'

    * Get 8 Pairs of Farmer's Boots
    * Buy 3 Barrels
    * Harvest 5 Sheep


Barrels cost 125 coins each, so at least this is another cheap expensive just to finish the goal. Gathering the Farmer's Boots is another task for asking your friends to help. Finishing this goal gives you another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and one White Llama.

Perqs for the Talent

    * Get 8 Wool Blankets
    * Complete the Livestock Pen
    * Harvest 50 Vegetables


Luckily, it doesn't matter which of the vegetable crops you grow, so just pick something you have yet to master, or the shortest growth-time vegetable to finish this one off. As for the Wool Blankets - you guessed it - ask your friends to send them to you. As for completing the Livestock Pen, you can check out our guide to doing so right here. Finish off this goal to earn 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.

Hay-Ho the Dairy-O!

    * Get 8 Piles of Hay
    * Harvest the Livestock Pen
    * Harvest 75 Flowers


Again, it doesn't look like it matters which kind of flower you harvest, so just pick the lowest harvest-time building and you'll be able to move on. Ask your friends for the Piles of Hay and eventually you'll finish this one off, being rewarded with 50 XP, 2,500 coins and Flower Sheep for your efforts.

Keeping Up With Baby

    * Get 8 Livestock Tags
    * Raise a Livestock Baby
    * Harvest 90 Fruit


Remember, common Livestock Babies take 10 Animal Feed to grow, while rare babies take 30. Once you finish this goal, you'll earn another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.

Get Oat!

    * Get 9 Oat Sacks
    * Master White Llama to Level 1
    * Harvest 100 Vegetable Crops


Again, plant whatever vegetable you like just to be done with this one as quickly as possible. As for the Oat Sacks, you might be lucky enough to have some extras on hand from the first set of Lighthouse Cove goals, but if not, just ask your friends to send you the Sacks that you do need. Finishing off this last goal in the series gives you 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Black Laxta Sheep.

Luckily, we're given a full two weeks to work on these goals, so if you have others that you need to clear off your plate first, feel free to do so without worrying about these expiring as well.

Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of these Livestock Pen goals, or the Livestock Pen in general? Sound off in the comments.

Here we go, mayors. A new feature has been launched in CityVille that will help one of the biggest concerns I personally have with the game (and I know I'm not alone). A new Neighborhoods feature has launched to players above level 30, with at least 620 population, that will allow you to move homes (including high rises) into smaller areas to save space. This feature, you guessed it, is similar to the Mall feature, but here's a complete rundown of how this works for homes.

First and foremost, yes, you can have more than one Neighborhood in your town, and there are different types of Neighborhoods depending on the kinds of homes you'd like to store. Gated Communities cost 10,000 coins and store up to 15 Family Residences. Uptown Estates cost 15,000 coins and store 15 Apartments and finally, Palm Towers cost 20,000 coins and store 15 Vacation Home.

For our example, let's say you wanted to build a Gated Community in your town. You'd go into the store to purchase the base, as seen below, and would then need to whack that base six times to build up the frame.

From there, you'll instantly have access to two storage spots, of a possible five on the first "block," or "floor," if we're comparing this to the Mall. To fill these spaces, simply click on your empty Neighborhood and then click on "Fill" under one of the empty spaces. This will cause all of the buildings that can fit inside to glow. Click on one and voila! It's stored inside your Neighborhood, which will change shape and complexity as new buildings are added to it.

To unlock additional space inside your Neighborhoods, you'll need to ask your friends to staff extra spots, as seen above. The rate of one user per one storage slot isn't bad, really. Once your first block is full, you'll have to go through the process of asking for building materials to open up the second block. In our particular example of the Gated Community, you'll need five each of Red Bricks, Crossing Signs, Roof Tiles, Cement and Lumber. These are earned either by purchasing them outright with City Cash, or by asking your friends to send them to you.

When you've unlocked your second block, the process will repeat (and so on until you've unlocked and filled all three blocks, with more building materials being required the second time). Again, at first, these Neighborhoods may be incredibly space-consuming, but once they're full, you'll find them to be fairly space-saving, especially if you choose to place the largest homes in each category into storage. Don't worry about losing their stats, though, as you'll be able to collect rent as normal while they're inside. That is, you'll be able to click on your Neighborhood, and will then be asked to spend a larger amount of energy to collect from all "ready" buildings inside, just as you collect profits from your Mall.

All told, these are some fairly time consuming building projects, but if you're willing to go through with building them (and have plenty of friends around that are willing to help you out), you'll end up saving tons of space for future purchases, whether residential in nature or otherwise. We'll make sure to let you know when other kinds of Neighborhoods, for other kinds of homes are released, so keep checking back with us.

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

What do you think of the Neighborhoods feature? Is the space you saved substantial enough to warrant building them? Sound off in the comments.

Club Penguin fires a salvo of fun with Puffle Launch for iPhone [Video]

Parents, secure the iPhones and iPads. If Club Penguin isn't going to slide onto Facebook anytime soon, we'll take the next best thing: the iPhone. Puffle Launch, first released as a mini game within the kids world of Club Penguin over a year ago, launches onto iPhone tomorrow, Sept. 15. The game, which will be available for the paltry price of $.99, puts players in control of Daredevil, one of the many Puffles available in the existing Disney-owned web game.

Just like in Club Penguin, kids can fire Daredevil from a cannon, careening into obstacles and collecting Coins. Better yet, those Coins can be transferred to kids' existing Club Penguin accounts to buy new items from the web game's store. As players advance through the game's many daring and dangerous aerial courses, they will eventually have to face the Crab Boss.

According to a Club Penguin representative, Puffle Launch is already played by 150,000 kids daily, and a new Puffle is adopted every second in the kid-friendly virtual world. (That amounts to more than 20 million of the little balls of love adopted in 2011 already!) With statistics like that, color us baffled as to why Club Penguin has yet to hit Facebook, especially considering the amount of preteens that are already active on the social network.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Club Penguin's expansion beyond its little home on the web and onto new platforms (aside from Nintendo's stable of consoles). Check out the game's trailer below, but you might not want to show the kids just yet, unless you're willing to buy it on every iOS device in the house.


Are you excited that Club Penguin has finally made it to iOS? Where or how else would you like to see the Club Penguin franchise go? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Yesn's flower bouquet forest

After featuring Hemi 426's zoo farm yesterday, I decided to feature something a bit more abstract today. Yesn's FarmVille tree bouquet is exactly that. Yesn seems to have thrown out the structure, thrown out the organization, and settled with a very organic, fun, and ultimately beautiful design.

If you've ever read any of my FarmVille Pic of the Day posts, you know I love seeing art created with items other than the usual hay bales. I'm especially fond of tree art, and this is an excellent example of how to flawlessly execute it. I'd say this FarmVille design is on the same level as the fire-breathing dragon and giant Lady Gaga, two tree art masterpieces. In addition to the wild design, the arrangement of flowers itself is very nice. Yesn seems to have worked hard to ensure the bouquet doesn't feature any flower repeats, each one is unique.

Great job Yesn, and here's to hoping you have plenty of arborists!

What do you think of Yesn's FarmVille flower arrangement?

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!

Kinect Sports: Season Two ready to win big this holiday season

Last year's enjoyable launch game, Kinect Sports, was a critically acclaimed showpiece for Microsoft's motion sensing camera. It was so good, that consumers snatched up over three million copies, prompting the billion dollar company to green light a sequel.

The result, Kinect Sports: Season Two, appears to be every bit as good as its predecessor.

Rare's latest features six new sports to enjoy, each one more addictive than the last.

The game's most impressive activity, Darts, almost perfectly mimics the real deal, minus the occasional finger prick and the numerous holes in the wall.

Players stand in front of their televisions, hold an imaginary dart and watch as an on-screen hand appears. From there, it's as simple as making a throwing motion to send that dart to its intended location.

Matches support up to four players offline and one-versus-one via Xbox Live. From there, everyone competes to reduce their individual scores from 501 to zero.

More interesting, though, is Pop Darts, one of Season Two's three Challenge Play Modes that let users send high scores to friends via Xbox Live. Here, the object is to pop as many balloons as possible before time expires, where destroying said balloons adds precious seconds to the clock.



Another sport, Skiing, provides a more intense workout, as players pull into a tuck position and lean right or left to pass through gates. Similarly, they can fire up this event's Challenge Mode, Downhill Dodge, and tackle progressively difficult courses, jumping and ducking over obstacles to outscore their opponents.

Baseball, meanwhile, has a Challenge Mode all its own in the form of Homerun Hero, allowing gamers to blast pitches out of the park. On top of that, they can compete against the computer/other players in a more traditional three-inning game.

As for Golf, players should expect to retire their Wii Remotes, as the Kinect Sports: Season Two iteration is without question superior. Up to four players can hit the links, choosing between different clubs and taking practice swings before sending their golf balls into orbit.



The coolest feature is the ability to place one's hand over his or her eyes, prompting the game to offer a bird's eye view of the course.

Rare also put Nintendo's Wii Tennis to shame with a more advanced offering, where wannabe stars step into balls (on offense and defense) before hitting them with imaginary rackets, instead of just standing still the whole time.

Finally, there's American football. Although we don't expect it to replace Electronic Arts' Madden NFL anytime soon, Rare has done a great job capturing the thrill of being a quarterback and throwing a long bomb to a wide open receiver, or running in place to take the ball 100 yards to pay dirt. Quarters end too quickly, but at the very least, it's cool kicking field goals and dodging defensemen.



To compliment this impressive package, Rare included more mascots as well as 300 plus voice commands that put further distance between players and those plastic controllers. In fact, they can control much of the experience without pressing a single button.

Although there's still work to do (we encountered a couple minor glitches), Kinect Sports: Season Two should not only compliment its prequel, but surpass it. Most importantly, the game's a lot of fun, and further proof that Microsoft's Kinect has a bright future.

Gallery: Kinect Sports: Season Two (Xbox 360)

Kabam on Edgeworld's release and what battles lie ahead [Interview]

Edgeworld
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.

Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)

We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?

We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.

The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.

We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.

What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?

One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].

But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.

Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?

Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.

Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.

We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.

Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.

Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.

Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open

During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.

"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."

As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.

However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.

"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."

[Image Credit: Kabam]

What are you impressions of Edgeworld so far? Are you excited about the upcoming Territories feature coming to the game, and what else do you hope to see from developers like Kabam? Sound off in the comments. 3 Comments

CityVille Doggie Daycare Upgrades: Everything you need to know

Sometimes, we forget about the citizens of CityVille that aren't the people. And that's OK, because they don't really matter Zynga looks to remind us with the next big Community Building upgrade: the Doggie Daycare. This Community Building, released back in April, will grant you a boost in population and don a palette swap once upgraded.

However, you must be at least Level 18 to access the new Doggie Daycare. Once you reach that point, you'll notice that the building has a green arrow floating above it. Click on the Doggie Daycare to open its upgrade page. Here are all the items you'll need to upgrade the Doggie Daycare:
Ugrade Doggie Daycare
Doggie Daycare UpgradedUnfortunately, it looks like you'll have to ask you friends for each and every one of these items. Zynga claims you can also post the requests to your News Feed. Once you receive one of each item, we imagine you can also post the items to your Wish List. Once you acquire all 25 items, you can click "Finish Building" to boost the Doggie Daycare's allowed population to 540.

For the Level 3 Doggie Daycare, you'll need to ask for the same items using the same process. But this time, you will need eight of each item for a total of 40. This will boost the building's total allowed population to 1,080, and give it a fresh look. Now, you can forget all about the puppies of CityVille all over again--we kid ... sort of. Poor guys.

[Source and Image Credit: Zynga]

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Have you started upgrading the Doggie Daycare yet? What do you think of how Zynga handles building upgrades in CityVille? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

Angry Birds is the top game on Google+ Games, Rovio exec says

Angry Bird explosion
Where else will the Angry Birds crash land into and dominate? Nintendo 3DS? Xbox 360? Your scientific calculator? Who knows, but according to All Things Digital, Rovio SVP of brand advertising and analytics Wibe Wagemans said yesterday at the Mobile Future Forward conference in Seattle, Wash. that Angry Birds is the number on game on Google+ Games.

Granted, that's out of all 16 games on the platform right now, but some of those games were put there by the likes of major social game creators like Zynga, Wooga, EA and Playdom. Wagemans, formerly an executive on Microsoft's Bing team, went on to say that Rovio has grown faster in the past two years than companies like MySpace, YouTube, Amazon and Skype. He also said, "We are now the fastest-growing consumer brand in history," ATD reports.

When you think about it, though: Not only is the Angry Birds game on nearly every gaming platform under the sun, but the little wingless cartoons and their amorphous green piglet enemies have been transformed into plush toys, t-shirts, board games, cook books, a feature film--need I go on?

During his talk in Seattle, Wageman revealed that Rovio welcomes over 120 million monthly Angry Birds players across the myriad of platforms the game is available on. Simply put, the western world is hooked on Angry Birds (it's science, remember?) and soon so will the East, if Rovio has any say in it. Sure, that's less than half of the 273 million or so monthly players Zynga caters to on Facebook alone, to which Wageman said, "We haven't even launched on Facebook yet." Oh ... oh, no.

[Image Credit: FuckYeahAlbuquerque]

Are you one of the 120 million or more devoted Angry Birds fans? Do you think Rovio could compete directly with Zynga when Angry Birds launches on Facebook? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment

Survey: Bejeweled Blitz could sharpen old noggin in baby boomers

For the young, and now the old, it looks like PopCap games are good for everyone. In a survey of over 10,000 U.S. residents conducted by researcher Susan K. Whitbourne, Ph.D., 47 percent of older adults who play Bejeweled Blitz regularly reported feeling sharper while performing tasks.

Whitbourne, a psychology researcher at University of Massachusetts Amherst, presented her findings at this year's American Psychological Association's (APA) convention in Washington D.C. According to PopCap, Whitbourne believes that Bejeweled Blitz could be a viable platform for improving cognitive skills in older adults because it involves several of the skills that have been shown the be improved after playing video games.

Designed to see whether Whitbourne's inklings checked out, the survey found that 22.4 percent of participants aged 65 and over found their ability to see patterns improved. A small 23.9 percent of the same group reported that they could perform timed tasks more quickly after playing the game regularly. While the survey consisted of 10,331 adults aged 18 to 80-years-old, 41 percent of those were 50-years-old and over (and 83 percent total were women). And it's worth nothing that over 78 percent of participants reported to have a college degree.

Nearly half (47.5 percent) of adults aged 50 and older said that they paid no attention to the 60-second countdown timer in Bejeweled Blitz, and 52.9 percent of those 65-years-old and over reported the same reaction. Both groups of older folks were less likely than those 18 to 24-years-old to report feeling anxious because of the timer. Overall, a whopping 66.4 percent said that the game's multiplier gems were positively motivating.

Whitbourne's findings were well-received by some at the convention, like Dr. Walter Boot, director of the Attention and Training Lab of the Department of Psychology at Florida State University. "I believe the work Dr. Whitbourne and her colleagues are doing, using Bejeweled Blitz, is both critical and exciting, and that more research like this needs to be done exploring not only the types of games that bring about cognitive benefits, but also the types of games older adults are willing to play and why," Boot said. "The best cognitive aging intervention in the world is useless if older adults aren't willing and able to engage in it."

Of course, PopCap has a vested interested in the various applications of its hit games. But these findings are interesting, nevertheless. Well, there you have it: It looks like PopCap games like Bejeweled have become the proverbial Coca-Cola of the games industry--not only are they delicious fun, but they're good for you, too!

Do you believe that games like Bejeweled could be good for your cognitive health? What games do you or older folks in your life play to keep the brain in tip-top shape? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment

Adult Swim Games Arcade brings some shock and awe to Facebook

Robot Unicorn Attack -- the most magical game of all time -- and its darker twin, Heavy Metal, now have company as their developer, Adult Swim Games, has finally decided to launch a stable of their games on Facebook yesterday.

Adult Swim, a cable network (on the same channel as the Cartoon Network) known for dozens of high-quality absurdist and shock comedy shows, runs a games portal that houses over a hundred absurdist and shock comedy online games. (However, there's no overlap between the two in terms of content. That is, you're not going to get a Robot Unicorn Attack show, or a Venture Bros. game, no matter how badly you want one.) Now a fraction of that portal is accessible via Facebook.

To give you an idea of what you'll be walking into, they've got titles like "Five Minutes to Kill Yourself Wedding Day", "Amateur Surgeon", "Pole Dance Party", "Death Row Diner", and "Radioactive Teddy Bear Zombies". Of course, Robot Unicorn Attack is also there, but it's only linked there, since it was released last September as a separate app.
Adult Swim Games Arcade view all games
This new arcade app currently contains 21 games categorized along 6 genres: Action, Adventure, Twitchy, Shooter, Puzzle, and Classic. If you're wondering what "Twitchy" means, it describes games where reaction time is of utmost importance.
Adult Swim Games arcade
Unlike your usual new Facebook game launch, all of these games have stood the test of time on the Adult Swim Games website. However, the arcade app itself is currently in beta, so if something breaks or you've got a kerfuffle, shoot them an email at games@adultswim.com.

Click here to play Adult Swim Games Arcade on Facebook now >

Do you find Adult Swim Games disturbing or awesome? Have you ever seen an Adult Swim show? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments

Cafe World Cook for the Crafts Show Catering Order: Everything you need to know

A new catering order has launched in Cafe World this afternoon, asking you to create some "artistic" dishes to feed the folks at the local Crafts Show. To be specific, this catering order is called "Cook for the Crafts Show," and you'll have three days to finish these five tasks in order to earn the three star rating (and a new recipe).

For the cooking tasks, you'll need to serve Fish N Chips (a two-hour dish) 200 times, Pita and Dolmas (a four-hour dish) 60 times, and Pumpkin Pie (a 12-hour dish) 60 times. Ok, so maybe those dishes aren't incredibly artistic, but I guess we can't expect much. With the longest cooking time dish being just 12 hours, this one doesn't look to be too terribly difficult, especially if you have some neighbors that can help you cook these short-timed dishes frequently throughout the day. Speaking of which, you'll have the chance to add up to 13 of your friends to this order to help you, so keep that in mind.

In addition to these cooking tasks, you'll need to collect five Yarn and five Painting Easels by asking your friends to send you these items. If you can finish all of these tasks within the first three days, you'll receive the three-star rating, 15 Catering Points, 7,500 Cafe Points, 200,000 coins and the Crafty 3-Bean Salad recipe.

While you may not receive the recipe for the two or one-star ratings, here are the details for those.

Two-Star Rating (finish within two to five days)

    * 10 Catering Points
    * 5,000 Cafe Points
    * 125,000 coins


One Star Rating (finish after the first five days)

    * 5 Catering Points
    * 3,000 Catering Points
    * 75,000 coins


As usual, you can start this order at any point in the future, so don't feel rushed to start it right away. Still, if you have a lot of friends that are hardcore players, you might want to try to finish this one sooner, rather than later, so you can "guarantee" that you'll receive their help.

What do you think of the requirements for this new catering order? Sound off in the comments.

CityVille Ferris Wheel Attraction: Everything you need to know

A third attraction has launched in CityVille this afternoon, being available to users level 25 and above, and this one is one of the classics: the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel base is available to purchase from the store (click on Businesses and then on the Attractions tab) for 7,500 coins.

Once you place the base, you'll need to whack it seven times to finish its frame. From there, it's a fairly standard item collection process, requiring the following ingredients:

    * 4 Carriages
    * 4 Light Bulbs
    * 4 Cement
    * 4 Turnstiles
    * 4 Control Boxes

The Carriages, Light Bulbs and Control Boxes are earned through general news posts that you'll post on your wall, while the Cement and Turnstiles are earned through individual requests sent to friends.

After the Ferris Wheel has been completed, you'll be able to start it into motion. It will stay running for eight minutes at a time, and can earn anywhere from 1500 to 6000 coins per operating cycle. Of course, after it runs, you'll need to either wait a substantial amount of time for maintenance to complete automatically, or ask your friends to send you wrenches to speed up the process.

Keep in mind that building this new structure is voluntary, and it is rather large, if you're lacking a lot of extra space on your land. Still, if you're looking to retain some of that summer fun all year round, make sure to build this one! I'm sure your virtual citizens will enjoy it!

Check out the rest of our CityVille Cheats & Tips right here.

Will you build the Ferris Wheel in your town in CityVille? Which attraction would you like to see released next? Sound off in the comments.