FarmVille gift alert! Some attractive colored flags have appeared as new giftable items. You can pass along yellow, blue, green and red flags (they're more like pendant flags rather than flag flags) to your FarmVille besties, then they can use them to add a little color to their respective farmscapes. They also flutter oh so gently, so if you pretend hard enough, you can almost feel that cool country breeze on your face.
Starting today, you'll be able to put your seasonal goodies and whatever else into storage on your virtual farm. When you log into the game, you'll see a tiny red barn icon on the left hand side of your screen. Click it and you'll be immediately taken to see the new storage options. Basically, all of those barns and sheds that have previously been just for looks will now hold those extras that might be cluttering up your farmscape.
Storage options come in large and small; you can buy a red barn for 30K coins and use it to store up to six items. A shed costs less -- 700 coins -- and can be used to store two items. The rest of the storage options (and, frankly, the better options) will cost you real-life cash. Barns that store 20 items run for 27 FarmVille dollars, and a pink shed that stores 15 items costs 22 FarmVille dollars. IMHO, it's worth spending a little cash for some extra space, especially if you are a power farmer, i.e. someone who obsessively logs in every day to play (like me).
Question: Do you think there are enough storage options for people who don't want to pay FarmVille dollars for them?Leave a comment below.
A new mystery box has appeared in FarmVille -- a pink box that costs 16 FarmVille dollars (roughly $5) and when opened, reveals a surprise inside. The boxes will only be around until So far mystery boxes have yielded surprise items from the lukewarm (striped rest tents) to the super hot (as in, our very own manor).
These new Pepto-Bismol pink boxes include some groovy prizes including a Zen Garden and an Animal Float that looks like it's prepped and ready for a FarmVille Thanksgiving parade.
Below is the complete list (so far) of the pink mystery box items and how many experience points you earn with each of them.
Animal Float
XP Gained: 250
Sells for: 1,250 coins
The float looks ready for parading, complete with a cow, duck, pig and, of course, turkey made of flowers.
Water Tower
XP Gained: 250
Sell for: 1,250 coins It's a tower. With water. Probably the least impressive mystery item in this batch.
Carousel
500 XP The carousel looks great, and it's animated!
Zen Garden
XP Gained: 300
Sell for: 1,500 co The animated Zen Garden is like, totally, Zen, but your farmer can't actually use it. Bummer.
Silver Streak Trailer
150 XP
Donkey 500 XP
We don't have pics (or all of the info for) the Trailer and Donkey yet. If you have them -- please email them to us at editors@games.com, and we will post them here (and give you credit, of course!).
I binged on seven of these new mystery boxes -- and four of them were water towers. I like water and all -- but there's a limit. Fortunately, I also picked up the Animal Float, Carousel and Zen Garden. Viva la mystery boxes!
Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook is taking the dude world by storm. While Bejeweled 2 and Bejeweled have always largely attracted the females, the Blitz is taking the Bejeweled to the boys. Even the name, "Bejeweled Blitz" appeals to men - when I hear the word Blitz, I think of linebacker coming off the corner to sack a QB or maybe some cool World War II documentary covering the Blitz on England.
I don't know what secret sauce Popcap Games is using (maybe the same they used with Plants vs. Zombies, which was just nominated for a dude-tastic Spike TV Video Game Award), but here are five reasons every man should play Bejeweled Blitz.
UPDATE: Popcap games loved the post so much they were kind enough to send me a reply.
They thought of another awesome reason for dudes to play Bejeweled Blitz.
6. Smack Talking
From the time we're little dudes, men always talk smack. You know, an "everything you can do, I can do better" type of thing. Bejeweled Blitz addresses those manly needs for one-upmanship (see, even that word has 'man' in it) with Jewel Jabber, a messaging system that lets you send taunts to friends on Facebook.
5. Lots of Game Stats
Guys love numbers and showing we know things. Bejeweled Blitz feeds that need by letting you dive into your game numbers and compare your stats with other players. It's almost like playing fantasy sports, except it has got more diamonds than your average baseball game.
Big news for Happy Pets on Facebook -- when you adopt a pet, you can now choose whether its male or female. Previously, the cats genders were already decided, so --- just as an example -- all white cats were male and black cats were female. Why does this matter? Because players like to have options, and pet obsessives (like myself) want to re-create my real-life pets in the game...
Anyway, I'm glad to see Happy Pets developers are listening to player suggestions, which might help explain the exponential growth in this game's popularity since it launched in early November. Then again, maybe it's the fact that you can adopt adorable fluffy kittens.
Seems like there's a whole lot of turkeys roaming around FarmVille these days and we wanted to clear up any confusion.
First, there's the limited edition Baby Turkey (on the left in the pic below), which you can buy in the FarmVille Market for 7 FarmVille dollars. After three days, the baby turkey transforms into a full-grown turkey (see second pic below). Then after two days, the gobbler can be harvested for turkey feathers (for 80 coins).
Then, there's the Wild Turkey (on right in both pics), which can only be adopted from friends who find them, lost and scared, on their farms. Like the regular Turkey, the Wild Turkey can be harvested in two days for turkey feathers (for 80 coins).
Houston, we have a problem. Restaurant City on Facebook has been invaded by giant mushrooms, thieving penguins and more disasters! The horror!
Actually, these new invasions are part of a way to rake in a little extra coinage when visiting other friends' restaurants. When you visit, you'll find your friends' restaurant has one of these problems (see below for examples) and you have to solve it for them by clicking on the penguin/bear/fire to make them go away. After a few seconds, the problem will disappear, and you're rewarded with 10 coins.
So far we've helped friends scare away penguins, skunks, bears; stop fires and leaks and get rid of gigantic mushrooms invading the garden (all to the tune of 10 coins per good deed). Previously there was no incentive to visit friends' cafes other than once (which would win you a first-time visit ingredient, after that, nothing), so it's nice to see that more social aspects -- with rewards -- have been incorporated into Playfish's restaurant simulation game.
A new batch of scared, bewildered and lost animals have arrived on FarmVille. This go-round, wild turkeys seem to be wandering onto people's farms. Sure, they might be happy to be adopted, that is, until it's time to cook Thanksgiving dinner. We'll have to wait and see what we'll be able to harvest from this turkey (Tofurkey, anyone?). Update: once the turkey is ready, you'll be able to harvest turkey feathers (rather than drumsticks) -- a nice, safe choice that will not offend animal activists.
Farmers will be busy this morning -- not only have Chicken Coops and mystery eggs come to nest in our farms, but the much talked ab out 22x22 land expansion is now available as well. The new Big Ole Plantation can be purchased for 250,000 coins (provided you have 20 neighbors) or for 30 FV Cash. Next land grab for farmers will be the 24x24 Mighty Plantation, which is "coming soon."
Along with Chicken Coops, FarmVille also introduces the FarmVille Mystery Eggs. While adding chickens to your new coop, you will randomly find mystery eggs (white, brown, black and golden) which you can share with up to five friends. What's inside these eggs? More chickens (!) and better yet, different colored chickens.
A special tip: the more chickens you add to your coop, the more mystery eggs you'll be able to collect. The note in the game also says that the more variety of chickens you have in a Coop, the better quality your eggs will be. So, keep an eye on your Facebook feeds and collect as many mystery eggs as possible.
A week or so ago, FarmVille introduced Dairy Farms, which let busy farmers milk 20 cows at once. At the time, the powers behind the game promised that those cow factories were just the beginning of utilitarian buildings in the game.
They made good on that promise because starting today, FarmVille includes new Chicken Coops, which will allow you to collect eggs from 20 hens as once. The new Chicken Coops can be received as a gift or purchased from the FarmVille Market for 5,000 coins. The Coops can be harvested on one day and sold for 250 coins. Note: you're only allowed one Chicken Coop on your farm at once; if you receive more than one, the additional Coops will magically transform into chickens once placed on the farm.
Once you buy a Chicken Coop, you'll occasionally find mystery eggs that you can share with your FarmVille buddies. More on that here. Keep farming that chicken!
A second round of mystery boxes have made an appearance in FarmVille, and this go-round, it seems like what's hiding inside offers more bang for your FV buck. The boxes, located in the Decorations section of the Market, cost 16 FV dollars (roughly $4) and contain more exclusive items, such as a manor, large pond, extra fuel for your farm vehicles and white owls.
When the first mystery boxes appeared in October, virtual farmers groused about the lackluster items -- a fire pit, a striped rest tent -- hiding inside. Looks like the powers that be heard the complaints loud and clear, and the situation seems to be rectified.
Speaking from personal experience, we bought two mystery boxes this morning and uncovered (drumroll, please) a sweet white manor and a large pond, both worth far more FV dollars than the 16 FV we paid for them. Huzzah!
Did you buy the new mystery boxes? Are they worth the cost?
Some say the kitchen is the most important room in a house, but Pet Societyholics know the closet is the true heart of a fashionista's home. Where else do you spend so much quality time with yourself as you ponder the question, "What will I wear today?"
Organizing a wardrobe is one of the most difficult design challenges in Pet Society, but we'll show you how to build a fabulous closet worthy of Stella McCartney.
We've been writing up tons and tons of posts on Cafe World and the shear amount of things we've written is enough for us to round up the top posts on Cafe World.
Posted below are our most popular Cafe World posts over the last 30 days. Bookmark this page for easy access to our most popular cheats, tips and hacks for Cafe World.
Please help us provide you the best Cafe World tricks we can. What else can we help you with or what questions do you have for us. We'll do all we can to get the best information we can for Cafe World
Bejeweled Blitz, the Facebook version of PopCap's popular gem-swapping game -- gives players 60 seconds to score as many points as possible before the time runs out. The kicker is -- matching three games of the same color or more isn't second nature to everyone -- so if you're a slow on the draw and want to beat your friends' high scores, these six tips (courtesy of the game's official Facebook page) will help you go from a match-three newbie to a jewel-busting junkie.
1. Try to keep your speed bonus up at all times. With a maxed-out speed bonus every move is worth 1250 points!
2. Multiplier gems apply not only to matches, but also to your current speed bonus. For example, with a x3 multiplier, each match made with a full speed bonus would be worth 3750 points. So once you've established a respectable multiplier, maintaining your speed bonus is extremely valuable.
3. Keep an eye out for bigger matches. Look for the opportunity to match 4 or 5 gems. This will create Hypercubes, Flame and Star Gems. These special pieces are instrumental in creating large explosions, which will earn you lots of points, more chances at extra Multiplier Gems and will help mix up the board, potentially making it easier to find new matches. Lost opportunities mean lost points.
4. Matches made lower on the board are more likely to generate cascades. If you're finding it hard to make matches lower on the board, try creating and using a Hypercube or Star Gem.
5. When you earn a Hypercube, don't waste it on the first color you see. Try to use it to on the color with the most gems on the screen. Or if you have any multiplier gems on the screen, consider matching it to the color of that gem.
6. The score chart provided on the Game Over screen is a great place to discover strategies of your own. Make sure you take the time to review this chart for your highest scoring games to learn the secrets of your own success.
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We've been writing up tons and tons of posts on Cafe World and the shear amount of things we've written is enough for us to round up the top posts on Cafe World.
Bejeweled Blitz, the Facebook version of PopCap's popular gem-swapping game -- gives players 60 seconds to score as many points as possible before the time runs out. The kicker is -- matching three games of the same color or more isn't second nature to everyone -- so if you're a slow on the draw and want to beat your friends' high scores, these six tips (courtesy of the game's official Facebook page) will help you go from a match-three newbie to a jewel-busting junkie. 
Are we missing big news on your favorite game? Help us out! Email us at editors@games.com.