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Sink or Swim? Happy Aquarium vs. FishVille

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-06T19:00:00+00:00

Boasting 24 million active users, Happy Aquarium is clearly the big fish to beat on Facebook. Now Zynga's dropped its hook to see if it can catch that many and more with the just-released FishVille. To test the waters, we decided to fillet both into categories to see which aquarium game swims... and which one sinks.

Eye Candy

Add fish, water and glass and you have a viable fish tank. Happy Aquarium's starter tank is barebones as players use coins to add plant, coral, rocks and other submergible treasures although five different sand colors are free. FishVille's basic tanks feature a eye-catching background and a must more simplified list of tanks accessories. While we were going to give the category to FishVille because Happy Aquarium's eye-pleasing backgrounds are purchased with Pearls (earned but easier to buy with real money)... but FishVille's backgrounds are "Coming Soon." Happy Aquarium takes the candy by offering one awesome feature, full-screen play.

Winner: Happy Aquarium

Feeding

Fish need food to grow and both games deal with those morsels in very different ways. Happy Aquarium requires players to purchase food whereas FishVille offers the ultimate in fish buffets, free food. If you like feeding fish all the time, FarmVille is for you. But we like Happy Aquarium's 3 Day Feeder option that lets us kick back to watch and sell fish instead of feeding them all the time. But that options comes with a real price... you have to buy it with real money.

Winner: FishVille

Buying Fish

Selecting fish is never an easy task. Will they thrive? How long until they mature? How much can I sell them for? All are obvious questions. Happy Aquarium takes the less is more approach here by merely showing off the fish you can buy and how much it will cost. FishVille decided to answer all the big questions right up front as it lists the fish's name, time to maturity and how much money it will sell for.

Winner: FishVille

Selling Fish

Fish mean profit and making sure you make the most money and experience points is essential to continued growth. Yet this is where Zynga's FishVille packs in all the info you'll need to know before selling your fish.

Winner: FishVille

Fun

While FishVille is newer, the gameplay is a bit closer to real fish tanks. You feed the fish, they swim around and you repeat the whole process again until you sell them or they die. But Happy Aquarium has a fin up on its competitor by allowing you to tap on the glass, coaxing two fish to mate and a training mode where you avoid water hazards for coin and points (and gets better as you teach them tricks).

Winner: Happy Aquarium

The Verdict: FishVille

Despite Happy Aquarium's clear dominance of the Fun category, FishVille feels like the result of Zynga really understanding the parts of its older games and how to make them better. Is this verdict set in stone? No way. CrowdStar really has a great product in Happy Aquarium, one that with a few refinements, might turn Zynga's next big tuna into chum.

P.S.: I'd like to gave props to Zynga for supplying this week's best way to humiliate a co-worker. I'm sooo going to make this into a T-shirt for the Christmas party.

Play FishVille on Facebook >>
Play Happy Aquarium >>

Related Stories:
- FishVille or FarmVille: Which Will You Play?
- FishVille - First Look Video!
- FishVille Bubbles Up on Facebook

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Cranberries and Squash Seeds Land in FarmVille

Libe Goad — 2009-11-06T18:26:00+00:00

New seasonal crops are ready to be planted and harvested in FarmVille -- cranberries, pattypan squash and acorn squash. Sounds like we're getting ready for Thanksgiving...

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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Mario (Yes, That Mario) Makes a Cameo in FarmVille

Libe Goad — 2009-11-06T18:00:00+00:00

Mario, yes the Mario from Nintendo's famous Mario Bros. games, has been popping up on many farms in the Facebook game, FarmVille. It's nothing official, mind you, but creative players have been using crops and the multi-colored hay bales to create their own rural homage to all things Mario.

We scoured the Web to find almost 30 different Marios that users created. See them all in the gallery below -- then try your hand at making your own Mario. Then, post your pic on the official Games.com fan page and we will post them on the blog.

http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=767091&pid=767090&uts=1257468458

http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf

Super FarmVille Mario Art

Nintendo mascot Mario invades FarmVille! Click to see everyone's favorite plumber in over 25 farms. >

Super FarmVille Mario Art

FarmVille players have been creating Mario using hay bales (and other items) in the game. If you have your own Mario creation and it's not included in this gallery, please send it to editors@games.com.

[Via FarmVille Official Forums]

Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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New Games This Week - Inca Ball, Kelly Green Garden Queen and More.

Larry C — 2009-11-06T17:39:00+00:00

NEW Free Online Games:

Inca Ball - (web, puzzle)

http://www.games.com/game/inca-ball/
Launch into the valiant quest for the treasures of the ancient civilization.

Many Balls - (web, puzzle)

http://www.games.com/game/many-balls/

Guess how many balls are on the screen.

Kelly Green - Garden Queen (web, time management)

http://www.games.com/game/kelly-green-garden-queen/

Build a buzzing organic nursery in Kelly Green Garden Queen, a spunky and unique time management game that blossoms with every season!

NEW Downloadable Games:

Find all new download games a our Download Game Hub

Trapped

Mr. Jones' Graveyard Shift

The Tudors

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FishVille or FarmVille: Which Will You Play?

Libe Goad — 2009-11-06T16:38:00+00:00

The makers of FarmVille have released a brand new simulation game on Facebook -- FishVille. Instead of virtual farming, FishVille puts you in charge of a fish tank, where you can raise and sell fish, and decorate your tank with a variety of themed items from an in-game store. The question is: will this new Facebook game make people put down their virtual hoes and pick up a fish net instead? Vote in the poll below.

Related Stories:
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Play FishVille on Facebook Now >

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FishVille - First Look Video!

Larry C — 2009-11-06T16:33:00+00:00

Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Cafe World have released their newest game - FishVille. This game promises to be a hit just like Zynga's previous efforts, even though it's still in it's infancy. We took a video of our first few moments playing the game, and you'll almost instantly see some familiar gameplay elements from both FarmVille and Cafe World.

Will fish tank simulators be the new farming game? Time will tell.

Related Stories:
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FishVille Bubbles Up on Facebook

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-06T16:04:00+00:00

Back in October, Games.com reported that Zynga, known for games such as FarmVille, YoVille, and Cafe World, had trademarked the term "FishVille." Today, the company launched the game based on the trademark. Just as Facebook players are enjoying the new found popularity if Happy Aquarium, My Fishbowl and Fish World, it seems like the Zynga's late to the party.

Similar to other games in the aquarium games genre, FishVille tasks the player with buying eggs, feeding hatched fish and selling them. In our first few minutes of the game, we've already seen a few differences. First, smaller fish require more constant feedings (two times in five minutes), and while hungry fish show their needs via thought bubbles, other fish may eat the food before it before it floats down. Thankfully, food is free.

Similar to the gameplay of Zynga's Cafe World, players go to the store and purchase eggs for various types of fish that take various lengths of time to mature. Once matured, scooping the fish is all that's required to get paid. Experience Points, used to level up in the game, is gained by adding new eggs and selling fish. One nice new feature we noticed is the ability to operate up to three fish tanks at a time.

Even with FishVille's relatively late arrival, it's worth checking out, especially for players of other aquarium games that feel slow in comparison.

Related Stories:
- FishVille Bubbles Up on Facebook
- Poll: FishVille or FarmVille?
- Video: FishVille First Look

Play FishVille >>

http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/11/06/zynga-launches-fishville-how-big-will-this-virtual-aquarium-game-get/

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Mafia Wars Tips & Hints: Eight Ways to Get Experience Points

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

Early on, new players of Mafia Wars discover the true value of experience. While the first few levels are easy to pass through, jumping up in later levels means that players have to wait a day or sometimes several times before they get enough experience. With a complex game like Mafia Wars, there are several strategies and places where you may have not considered looking for additional experience points.

1) Do Jobs

The most obvious way to earn experience points in Mafia War is by using up your energy to do jobs. The obvious strategy here is that if your goal is to level up, using the lowest amount of energy to gain the most experience points is what you should do. Of course, use the remaining energy points for other jobs that you haven't mastered yet.

2) Help Friends with Jobs

As your mafia list grows, friends and contacts will often send updates to your Facebook wall in order to ask for help with their jobs. While you only have a short time before others help (only 25 friends can accept the offer), helping will give you several experience points for little effort.

3) Be a Maniac
If you've already chosen to be a mogul or fearless type of character in Mafia Wars, you're going to want to skip to #4. But if you haven't started playing yet, or you're already playing as a Maniac, you'll be happy to know that Maniacs earn one new energy point every 3 minutes (versus 5 minutes for the other types). More energy means you can do more jobs.

4) Choose a Fearless Friend for Wheelman Position

When building your Top Mafia, put a Fearless player in the Wheelman position (the higher the level, the better). By doing so, you'll use up to 11% less energy when doing jobs. There's an added perk here as well, this will also increase your chances of completing a jobs without using any energy.

5) Choose a High Level Player for Your Mastermind

Continuing on the Mafia building hint, selecting one of your mafia who's completed the most jobs to be your top mastermind can give you a higher level of experience per job.

6) Vault a Collection

Looting helps grow your defense and attack scores but all those odd items that seem to have no use, they're usually part of a Collection. If you gather all seven of the odd items in a Collection and vault it, you get an experience bonus.

7) Fights

For lower level players, fights really matter. As they only offer between 1-6 points per 1 Stamina point, fights won't really help to make up that 200 point gap that you'll need in order to level up but for players with a lot of stamina points, lots of health (or money to heal), fights can help make a difference. There's one negative here. Fight too often or if you keep hitting the fight again button, you're going to make enemies. And if they snuff you, you can lose just as many experience points.

8) The Hitlist
Reserved mainly for higher level players, the Hitlist is where players place a bounty on a player and other players, looking to kill, attempt to gain points. While players can gain up to 44 experience points for being on a Hitlist, the practice is rife with loopholes as teams will change their character's status name to something that makes them appear weaker. Lower players in search of points, try to kill them, only to lose out.

Play Mafia Wars on Facebook >>

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Happy Birthday to You, Sebastien de Halleux!

Libe Goad — 2009-11-06T15:33:00+00:00

If you're not familiar with Sebastien de Halleux, he's the co-founder and COO of Playfish, the company responsible for such games as Pet Society, Restaurant City, Who Has the Biggest Brain? and more. Today, November 6, also happens to be his birthday.

According to his bio on the official Playfish Web site -- he worked at Nokia and Macrospace LTD, helping both companies translate their services into dollars. He has a civil engineering degree from Imperial College London and lives in San Francisco. Sebastien also enjoys snazzy cocktails and has earned the moniker as the "most handsome man in gaming,"

Join us in raising a toast to Sebastien -- without you, we'd know a whole lot less about poo (in Pet Society, of course).

Related:
Watch Sebastien in action in our AOL GameShow videocast >

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New Duds for Cafe World Chefs

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-06T15:00:00+00:00

Decking out your Cafe World chef adds an extra little bit of you to your burgeoning food empire. Now the Cafe World team has added several new clothing options that players of the Facebook game can use to cater their chef to their tastes. From a traditional waiter outfit (also available in yellow, blue, green and red) to new eye wear including slotted red glasses to a mystery mask, the new options look to make your favorite preparer of food into a veritable fashion palette.

Play Cafe World on Facebook Now >

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FarmVille Introduces the Garden Shed

Angela Morales — 2009-11-06T13:31:00+00:00

Late Thursday night, Farmville released a round of new updates. Although none of these updates included the highly anticipated 22 x 22 and 24 x 24 land expansions or the much needed Vaulting system, one new feature seemed to temporarily pacify the Expansionists.

The Garden Shed, a new functional building, was introduced to the FarmVille Market as another building with purpose. The Garden Shed joins the Dairy Farm as the two current buildings that do more than just decorate your farm. It can be purchased for 30,000 coins or 30 FV$.

If you are wondering why you haven't seen the Garden Shed it's because only a select group of FarmVille users currently have the privilege of accessing the Garden Shed and its features. So what can we expect from the Garden Shed?

The Garden shed combines several features making it the most functional item in FarmVille. First, it allows you to save "perfect bunches" of flowers. While harvesting crops of flowers, you will be notified that you've harvested a "perfect bunch". You may save up to 30 bunches. In addition to storing these flowers, you may also choose to use them to decorate your own farm or gift them to your FarmVille neighbors! Finally, for those that do not have a Garden Shed or do not want to store perfect bunches, there will be an option for you to post a notice into your Facebook newsfeed which will make the flowers available to your neighbors in the same way that adoptable animals work.

For now, Expansionists and Team Vault will have to wait as Zynga continues to work on these issues and makes promises of "Coming Soon."

Angela Morales, aka the FarmGoddess, runs FarmVilleFreak.com, a blog covering news, tips and other info about the Facebook game FarmVille.

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Bejeweled Blitz for iPhone: Exclusive First Look!

Libe Goad — 2009-11-06T09:00:00+00:00

Bejeweled Blitz, the addictive Facebook game that gives you one minute to match as many colored gems as possible, is headed to the iPhone. The mobile game includes Facebook Connect, so you'll be able to log in and then show off your sweet gem-matching skills by posting high scores on your Facebook page.

We got our hands on the Bejeweled Blitz iPhone update early and after extensive hands-on testing, are happy to report that it works seamlessly with the Facebook version of the game. It also has the same high production values expected from any official Bejeweled game -- a lush soundtrack, good-looking graphics and over-the-top sound effects, including -- our favorite -- a chain of bro-tastic explosions at the end of every round.

The iPhone version also includes all of the same power-ups -- score multipliers and laser gems -- vital to pushing your score to unbeatable heights. Your high scores will automatically show up on the leaderboard in the Facebook version, and you'll be able to post brag notes on your Facebook page anytime you score a metal in the game (see example below). We were impressed to see our new high scores appeared in the Facebook version's leaderboard in real time, as well as our brag notes.

Bejeweled Blitz, officially announced today, is not a standalone game. The gem-swapper is actually an add-on to the existing Bejeweled 2 for iPhone, and will be available starting ~~next week~~ as soon as Apple says 'go' ("Coming soon," a Popcap rep says). If you already own Bejeweled 2, the Blitz add-on update can be downloaded from the app store for free, and if you don't, you can buy it for $2.99 at the app store and Blitz will automatically be included.

This is the first time that PopCap has created a game that will work across platforms, something that other social game companies, such as Zynga, have not managed to pull off yet. We'd love our iPhone version of Mafia Wars to work just as seamlessly with the Facebook version, and vice versa. We expect Bejeweled Blitz is just the beginning of being able to play our favorite social game whenever, wherever.

Related Stories:
Bejeweled Blitz Tips: Six Ways to Bust Gems Like A Pro

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Daily Wrap: FarmVille Cow Cake Found; Twlilight Movie Invades Habbo

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-05T19:00:00+00:00

Write, play, write, play, that's all I ever do. Thankfully, I have a plan to cut out the boring half of my day... work. So here's the days most interesting social gaming news from all the corners of the Internet that, when studied, will make you the trendiest person at work... tomorrow.

- The cake lovers at Zynga got pictures of another elaborate cake. Inspired by the company's most popular game, FarmVille. The story around the cake gives it a real global feel with a group of players from the four corners of the globe. Shipping slices of that cake must have been pricey. (Zynga)

- The film series Twilight turned a group of teen vampires into pop idols. With the second movie in the series, Twilight: New Moon, teens can expect to see and hear about flick before it arrives on November 20, 2009. They'll also get to play too, as the teen-focused online gaming site Habbo will be add movie-themed rooms, virtual goods including a dreamcatcher, a piano and the Volturi crest. Look for those items in Habbo, starting tomorrow. (New Media Age)

- Green is the new black nowadays as gamers are looking to save the planet, save money and save themselves. Soon, there could be an app for competing to see who's greener. Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril, which makes Smart Grid technology, says that his company is already working on an Eco Warrior game with a "well-known" California-based developer that will let players earns virtual rewards for real world conservation. Might be real funky to add that to my Facebook page, "Micheal is 33% less efficient today!" (GreenBeat)

- How bad did iPhone/iPod Touch players want an action online fighting game? Eliminate Pro from ngmoco (best known for its other games Topple and Rolando) hit 500,000 downloads. While the game is free, you can only play so much each day as your energy gets used up. Want to play more? Then you can buy more energy. Yeah, sounds like a drug deal if it wasn't so much fun to play. (Casualgaming.biz)

- Zombies might be the "in" thing but there are millions all over the world who still pay to live out their digital lives as an Orc in World of Warcraft. Now, a little part of social gaming is coming to WoW. Players will now be able to purchase in-game pets through the Blizzard Store. Only two pets are currently available for $10 each. There's a Paris Hilton joke in here somewhere... (Inside Social Games)

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Buy and Sell Boyfriends in the New Sorority Life Update

Libe Goad — 2009-11-05T15:07:00+00:00

Listen up, Sorority sisters. Have you ever wished that you could use a J Crew catalog to buy clothes, shoes and a perfect boyfriend? While that's not likely to happen in real life, you can now buy and sell boyfriends in Sorority Life for MySpace and Facebook.

To acquire a new boyfriend (for yourself and the rest of your housemates), hit the Glam tab at the top of the screen. Once you arrive, scroll down to the bottom of the page, where the boyfriends are listed. We're at level 8, so we had two options to pick from -- Fletcher the Frat Boy and Serge the Foreign Exchange student. These boyfriends each cost $600 and in addition to providing your sorority with arm candy, also add to your overall charm and popularity scores, which are vital to winning fights against rivals.

If you're tired of having too many boys around -- you can simply sell off your boyfriends for half the cost -- $300. We've seen other boyfriends out there as well (which cost a lot more), so we're assuming that means you'll unlock more options as your influence grows.

All this talk about buying and selling boyfriends sounds a little ... wrong, amirite? Then again, we'll do whatever it takes to be the queen bee of the sorority social scene.

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How to Play Sorority Life on Facebook and MySpace

Play Sorority Life on Facebook Now >

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Sad, Loney Unicorns and Dinosaurs Wander into FarmVille

Libe Goad — 2009-11-05T14:25:00+00:00

We've been hearing a lot of chatter about unicorns and dinosaurs wandering around in FarmVille. Much like the black cat, ugly duckling and other creatures before it -- you'll be able to adopt these creatures once your friends find them on their farms.

Below -- a screengrab of one of the first unicorn sightings. We've only heard rumors about the dinosaurs. Have you found either of them yet? Let us know the details!

Related:
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- Let Them Eat (FarmVille) Cake!
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Play FarmVille on Facebook Now >

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Halloween Crates Selling on Mafia Wars

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-05T14:00:00+00:00

In what seems like the never ending Halloween Loot Event for Mafia Wars on Facebook, the team issued a final loot deal that may, finally, end Halloween.

Zynga's now made Halloween crates available through the Godfather for 20 rewards points each or 55 reward points for three. As it goes with crates, you have a 10% shot at getting a rare item, 30% chance at getting an uncommon item and a 60% chance of getting a common item. Don't have enough reward points? Then you'll have to talk to the Godfather about buying more.

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Offerpal Ditches Potty-Mouthed CEO

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-05T13:10:00+00:00

When you're asked a question by TechCrunch's founder Michael Arrington, one would imagine that pausing, collecting your thoughts and answering the posed question in an intelligent manner isn't a hard formula to follow. Yet, when Offerpal's CEO was asked by Arrington about her company's dealings with scam offers during last week's Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco, Anu Shukla referred to his insights as "sh*t, double sh*t and bullsh*t."

The reply, which caused a firestorm of questions from tech and financial reporters who started questioning the value of every virtual goods company, has its first victim. As of yesterday, Shukla was replaced by George Garrick, former CEO for gaming site Mochi Media. While a press release announcing Shukla's replacement fails to indicate her new role with the company, Offerpal Media's updated management page still lists her as a founder of the company.

Of course, Arrington had given the Virtual Goods Conference goers a heads up as he lambasted several of Zynga's real deals for virtual goods offers as "ScamVille." Zynga's CEO agreed with Arrington's points and immediately removed those "scam" deals from games like FarmVille, Roller Coaster Kingdom and Cafe World.

Even in the virtual world, actions are still stronger than words.

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Spore Islands on Facebook Launches Today

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-05T10:53:00+00:00

Spore's next evolution is taking place on Facebook as Spore Islands launched today. The game, which officially launched today, strips down the PC/Mac game and sticks to the basics: evolve to survive.

How's that done? Players create a creature of their own design, then place it on an island to see how it fares against other wild creatures. These survival of the fittest scenarios, called Observations, test the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages of the creature. If the creature outlives the others during the 150 turn Observation (during which, you cannot control your creature), then its well-evolved to that island. If your creature dies, Spore Islands will offer up suggestions on how to use each day's 12 DNA points to alter its attributes. These changes also change the look of your creature. For instance, increasing the creature's "threat-detect" gives it multiple eyes as "food-detect" makes a single eye.

Oddly, each block of attributes (metabolism, senses, strength and life) are a game within itself as the player has to balance out a maximum of 12 points between each attribute's three categories (for instance, food has reproduction, lifespan and weight categories). Trial and error with Observations definitely adds a level of challenge and while new players get several Observations to start with, they'll only get a single new one every four hours. Thankfully, there's also a social challenge as friends can test their creatures on your island and an easy option to island hop over to theirs.

We did have questions and Caryl Shaw (Senior Producer at Maxis) and Frank Lantz (Creative Director at Area/Code) were more than happy to answer our pressing Spore Island questions.

Spore Islands is drastically different from other Spore-inspired efforts that we've seen on Facebook. Why the change?
Caryl Shaw: In the past, Spore has focused on using Facebook to educate people about our PC game. With Spore Islands we actually wanted to create a social game based on Spore that was fun and used the opportunities for connecting with your friends that Facebook offers.

Frank Lantz : We wanted to take the essence of Spore - creating and evolving your own creature - and find an expression of it that was "native" to the social setting of Facebook.
While the game is set to be fun, there's clearly a slant towards observable evolutionary changes that make creatures more suited to an environment, food sources and competitors. Does that mean that there's a bit of an education angle here too?
Shaw: We didn't consciously set out to put an educational slant in the game, but as with developing Spore for the PC there were bits of science that contributed to how the simulation would play out. They kinda snuck in while we were making a fun and compelling game.

Lantz : The central idea of the game is adaptation to the challenges of a changing environment. The game is definitely not educational in a traditional sense but it does reward you for wrapping your head around some of the concepts related to real-world ecosystems and real-world evolution.

Once a creature is created, players set them off into an observation where there are 150 turns. Why 150?
Shaw: 150 ended up feeling about right. When it was set to 300, I used to have time to go get a sandwich so that seemed too long. We spent some time tuning the number so that it gave the player enough time to observe the interactions and understand how their statistics impacted the behavior of their creature.

Lantz : Each observation is like a little "horse-race" where you see your creature design decisions play out. They need to be long enough to allow for different kinds of strategies to work and for cool and surprising events to occur, but short enough that you can do one, tweak your creature, and do another one, all within a light, 5-minute play session.

Can you describe what types of special abilities players will gain as they level up?
Shaw: Players will be able to unlock abilities that give their creatures' additional benefits during observations - things like the ability to earn double points for picking up Sparks (Party Animal) or gain efficiency eating (Iron Belly). There are 12 abilities available for players to unlock at launch - and we may release additional abilities in content updates.

Lantz : We wanted abilities that help amplify certain creature design strategies - like twin litters, which lets you lay two eggs instead of one, works well with a creature that has high reproduction.

What's the reasoning around 12 points in each of the creature's attributes? Will higher levels add more points?
Shaw: Again this was an area where we experimented with the numbers and landed somewhere that we feel is both manageable and still interesting to manipulate. We decided to keep the points capped at 12 in order to provide interesting gameplay that players would be able to work with - so even if you get higher up in the leader boards, the points you spend on attributes will remain the same.

Lantz : We wanted to capture the idea of trade-offs, you can't improve everything across the board, an elephant can't reproduce as quickly as a fruit fly, but they're both viable solutions to different environments.

As with many other social networking games, will there be a pay-for-play component where players will be able to purchase new islands, new accessories or evolutionary enhancements?
Shaw: Players can earn DNA as time passes, but we will also allow players to buy additional DNA in the game that will allow them to evolve their creature's statistics or personalize their creatures with hats and markings.

Lantz : You can buy DNA to speed up your evolutionary process, but it's still about making smart choices, so you can't just buy your way to victory. But as with everything in Spore, you are shaping your creature around style, not merely function. Buying DNA allows you to be deeply expressive with your creature, and that expressiveness is what social networks are set up for in the first place.

While players can change the climate of their island, players are only able to create and change their creatures. Will there be future options that allow players to alter the evolution of their island?
Shaw: We will continue to update the game and will be paying close attention to what players want over time. It might be new content, island customization or other new features that come from player feedback.

For hardened players of Spore on Mac and PC, what do you think they'll get from playing Spore Islands? As such, what might Spore Hero players gain from playing?
Shaw: The thing that I like best about playing Spore Islands (and I'm definitely a hardened Spore player having been on the team for almost 5 years) is that I can send my creature off to play with my friend's creatures. I have been going back and forth with my Associate Producer Meghan all week - she evolves the Bobbinator and overtakes me on my Island and then I update Killer (my creature) and clobber her back. It's been really fun to play Spore with someone else.

Lantz : It's all about the social interaction. One of the coolest things about Spore is the way it integrates user-generated content, in Spore Islands the user-generated content is the gameplay - you're always adapting your creature to stay one step ahead of your friend's creatures, and they're adapting their creatures to stay one step ahead of you.

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Diner Dash Arrives on Xbox Live on November 18

Libe Goad — 2009-11-05T10:47:00+00:00

Diner Dash, the classic time management game starring on-the-go waitress, Flo, will be arriving on Xbox Live on November 18.

In additional to the traditional aspects of the game -- Flo serves countless customers without them getting PO'd and leaving the restaurant in a huff -- the new game will have a multiplayer component where two Flos can either work together or go head-to-head to see who can collect the most cash by the end of the round. We can only imagine the reality show spin-off where two seasoned waitresses compete to 'Be the Next Flo.' There will also be an eight-person Team Dash multiplayer game as well.

Other big changes in this new Diner Dash? Flo and friends are rendered in high-definition and the game will, obviously, have a new control scheme designed specifically for the Xbox controller. The game will also support voice chat -- so you'll be able to talk to your friends as you work together (or against each other) to build Flo's restaurant empire.

Of course, our big question is -- will the male-dominated Xbox 360 owners suddenly start missing quality time with their more traditional 'hardcore' games because their girlfriends, wives, Moms, etc will be hogging the machine while trying to improve their Diner Dash scores? We'll see when the new and improved Diner Dash arrives on Xbox Live in the next few weeks.

Don't Know Diner Dash? Play It Now on Games.com

Diner Dash
Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue
Diner Dash: Flo on the Go
Diner Dash: Hometown Hero

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Daily Wrap: FarmVille's Studded Chest Implant; There's 100K Apps for That

Micheal Mullen — 2009-11-04T17:42:00+00:00

Don't have the time to search the web to find the best gaming news? Neither do we, so we boil down the best and make you a nice daily wrap so you (and we) can go back to playing Cafe World, Vampires, Pet Society and FarmVille.

- Proclaiming your undying addiction to FarmVille is already apparent to your Facebook friend list. Now, there's a new and stylish way to proclaim your dedication to farming with a new series of crystal-studded shirts via the handmade marketplace called Etsy. If you dig it, KarmaCrystal's Shop offers six female shirts with different FarmVille messages. At $24.99, it's the perfect compliment to any farmer's overalls.

- Apple's App Store, the digital storefront that supplies all those nifty "there's an app for that" apps for iPhone and iPod Touch owners made it to 100,000 available apps. With nearly a quarter of those apps being games, it's safe to assume that more will be on the way. (Joystiq)

- Using your voice in social games might just be the next big innovation for social network games. While Vivox announced its first application to enable just that a few weeks ago, another social vocal application company named Blabbelon says that its ready to start the shouting competition. Considering that voice applications proclaiming innovation and integration with video games and social games isn't new, we're not going to proclaim an early winner in an application category that's still several whimpers away from a shout. (VentureBeat)

- After Zynga tossed "scammy" deals that were available in many of the company's games, MySpace is beating Facebook to the potential "scam ban" in social networking services as its CEO updated his company's terms of service with "All MySpace users are entitled for a safe, scam-free application experience." Facebook changes are bound to come soon, bad news for scammers. (Business Insider)

- Destined to become a new tool for getting game lovers into theaters, Warner Bros Pictures launched an online multiplayer game called 221B that promotes the December release of the company's new film, Sherlock Holmes, which releases December 25. The game, created by social gaming firm Hide& Seek is played out over eight chapters that lead up to the beginning of the movie. Might this be the new trend? (New Media Age)

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