Happy Pets doubles the fun with new Twin and Coin Idols

Like the old Doublemint gum commercials, two new Limited Edition idols at the Happy Pets store have players seeing double -- the Twin Idol and Coin Idol (image above). Technically, there are four new idols in the store since both idols come with 3-day and 7-day versions. And yes, this means that not only are the idols for a limited time only, but so are the perks that these idols bring with them.

Coin Idol doubles the amount of coins you earn from cleaning and petting, while Twin Idol promises that you'll "get twins from every successful breeding." (NOTE: This doesn't mean that you'll get twins each time your pets breed. For that, you'd need the Love Potion or the Love Idol which you can get by clicking on the "Breed" button after clicking your pet.)

The 3-day Coin Idol costs 28 Facebook Credits (or $2.80 USD), while the 7-day costs 52 FB Credits ($5.20 USD). Finally, the 3-day Twin Idol goes for 40 FB Credits ($4 USD), and the 7-day version costs 76 FB Credits ($7.60 USD).

FishVille's Gulf Coast Turtle helps Audubon raise awareness and funds in oil spill

Images of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continue to inspire a great deal of anger and heartbreak, but many people also offer hope by helping clean up the mess left by the spill. Zynga's FishVille and the Audubon Society have paired up this week to raise funds and awareness with their new Gulf Coast Turtle.

The Turtle came out last week and can be found under the "Creatures" tab at the in-game store. This Turtle is only available for the next 4 days. Zynga is promising to relinquish 50% of the Turtle's sales to the Audubon Society and players have the option to pay either 25 or 200 Sand Dollars for it. Sand Dollars can be bought from the "+ Add Sand Dollars" tab on the top of the game window. A set of 25 Sand Dollars cost $5 USD, and while there's no set of 200, you can buy a set of 240 Sand Dollars for $40 USD.
Adopt the FishVille Baby Gulf Coast Turtle
A new Baby Gulf Coast Turtle has also shown up in the game, which can be adopted via Facebook Wall posts, to help spread the word.

Hotel City: Unlock new Exclusive NYC themed rooms and backgrounds

At the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, also called E3, publishers get together to show their wares to the press and other members of the game community. Basically, if you pay attention to this event, you'll have a pretty good idea what big games will be coming out the rest of the year.

So imagine our surprise when we went to the big Electronic Arts press conference, and there was a bunch of hullabaloo over high-action gun toting games such as Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, Battlefield Bad Company Vietnam, and even a quick nod to EA Sports best-selling Madden football game series, but ne're a mention of FIFA Superstars on Facebook, or any other game that EA's recently acquired social gaming company Playfish might be working on behind the scenes. There's been rumors flying that there will be a Madden or Need for Speed game on Facebook, but nothing was confirmed or denied at today's Hotel City has spent a good several weeks teasing us with their new backgrounds. Players first saw the Night time background in action with the game's first-ever flags release. Today, you can see the Playfish's Bellboy Hotel has hit the big time with their new, New York background (pictured above). Along with these new backgrounds are exclusive, themed rooms already furnished with the latest furniture and decor.
Hotel City Night View Collection
Hotel City New York Collection
But unless you're willing to shell out Playfish Cash, decorating your hotel with the new themes isn't going to be easy. Hotel City has paired up the two backgrounds into the Night and New York packages. The Night package costs 50 Playfish Cash, while the NY one costs 66 PFC. (NOTE: If you're willing to be patient and collect "luxuries" to earn these packages, the PFC price will go down as your luxuries collection increases.)
Hotel City New York Luxuries
To get the New York package, you need 33 "Luxury Items" -- fifteen Broadway tickets, ten "1st class airline tickets" and eight cups of "Hot green tea". You can only get the Broadway tickets by collecting them from the wall posts of your friends, or by visiting the hotels of neighbors sporting the icon of a little brown shopping bag tied with a yellow ribbon. When you get a Luxury Item, you can post on your wall to share it. These can also be gotten by generous friends who gift you.
Hotel City Luxury Item Wall Post
The Night collection works pretty much the same way, but it requires only 25 Luxury Items -- fifteen Gold Watches and twenty "1st class airline tickets."
Hotel City Night Luxuries
While it's a lot of work, these new backgrounds look good enough to be worth it. I should mention that the niftiest thing about these is that they're not entirely static images. While you scroll across a hotel's street, you get a noticeable shift in perspective. Anyway, we expect more backgrounds to roll out soon. So what is Hotel City's next planned stop? SAN FRANCISCO!
Hotel City San Francisco Teaser

big press event. What gives, EA?

Playfish MIA from Electronic Arts' big E3 press conference

At the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, also called E3, publishers get together to show their wares to the press and other members of the game community. Basically, if you pay attention to this event, you'll have a pretty good idea what big games will be coming out the rest of the year.

So imagine our surprise when we went to the big Electronic Arts press conference, and there was a bunch of hullabaloo over high-action gun toting games such as Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, Battlefield Bad Company Vietnam, and even a quick nod to EA Sports best-selling Madden football game series, but ne're a mention of FIFA Superstars on Facebook, or any other game that EA's recently acquired social gaming company Playfish might be working on behind the scenes. There's been rumors flying that there will be a Madden or Need for Speed game on Facebook, but nothing was confirmed or denied at today's big press event. What gives, EA?

Cafe World: Lightning Super Stove now easier to build

Lightning Super Stove Cafe World
It's a regular occurrence that Zynga ends up "nerfing" their collection/buildables, making them easier over time. They did it with the Cafe World Spice Rack, and the Super Stove, after all. Now, the Lightning Super Stove is easier to build and requires less pieces in order to complete.

Previously, the Lightning Super Stove took 10 of each piece, or a total of 40 parts. Now, the Tesla Coil only requires 7 parts, and the Flux Switch only requires 8 parts. For those who aren't math gurus, this brings the total savings down by five. Whether you were planning to collect all of the parts or by them with Cafe Cash outright, it helps that Zynga have given us a break on the requirements. Perhaps something new to build is coming soon? What could it be?

The Lightning Super Stove makes all of your cooking 10% faster, plus it removes the need to do any ingredient sub-steps, therefore making cooking a quicker and more enjoyable experience.

FishVille dives down to the Deep Sea abyss

Atlantis is coming to an end in FishVille, therefore all of the mysterious items will be leaving the store to make room for the new Deep Sea theme. In addition, the Pearl Stash will be leaving as well, so those of you who have been hoarding your precious pearls should probably consider trading them in before it's too late. So far, there are only a handful of Deep Sea items, and here is the list:

Fish:

Black Angler - 12 Sand Dollars
Black Devil Angler - 10 Sand Dollars
Decor:

Brisingid Starfish - 5 Sand Dollars
Sunken Propeller - 31,250 coins
Submarine Wreck - 312,500 coins
Green Anemone - 10 Sand Dollars
Deep Sea FishVille
This won't be the last of the Deep Sea items in FishVille. Keep an eye on Games.com - The Blog for the latest releases!

Happy Pets Dino Den and Dinosaurs let players create their own Jurassic Park

happy pets dino den
Happy Pets has unleashed a new set of animals to inhabit your homes. Only these animals have been extinct for millions of years. That's right, dinosaurs are now available at the Happy Pets store for purchase. The best part is, though the Dinos don't come cheap, most of them can be bought with Happy Pets Coins.

Continue Reading to see all the new dinosaurs and discover how to own one. happy pets dino den

Owning a dinosaur in Happy Pets requires a few steps, the most important being the Dino Den. The Dino Den costs 800 Coins in the Happy Pets store and is a crucial requirement for buying a dinosaur.

Once you buy it you'll need to collect 80 parts to finish its construction. Ten torches, cement bags, hammers, drills, rocks, rivets, I-beams, and shovels are required. To get these parts, you'll need to enlist your friends, asking them to send you the various parts (pictured below).

You may also skip that process and complete the Dino Den instantly for 320 Facebook Credits.
happy pets dino den
Once complete, you'll receive a free Green Triceratops and finally unlock the ability to purchase Dinos. While there are just two different species: the T-Rex and the Triceratops, they are available in a variety of colors including once with a rather familiar head of hair. See below for prices.
happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur
happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur
happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur
happy pets dinosaur     happy pets dinosaur        

    White Triceratops - 37,795 Coins
    White T-Rex - 37,795 Coins
    Grey Triceratops - 39,795 Coins
    Grey T-Rex - 39,795 Coins
    Brown Triceratops - 41,795 Coins
    Brown T-Rex - 41,795 Coins
    Red Triceratops - 58 Facebook Credits
    Red T-Rex - 58 Facebook Credits
    Black Triceratops - 38 Facebook Credits
    Black T-Rex - 38 Facebook Credis
    Teal Triceratops - 68 Facebook Credits
    Teal T-Rex - 68 Facebook Credits
    Mr. T-Rex - 52 Facebook Credits (We had a chuckle when we saw Mr. T-Rex sporting Mr. T's famous hairstyle.)


I think the dinosaurs make for a pretty swell addition to Happy Pets. It's definitely worth making the effort to finish the Dino Den just because in the end, it's all free! Sure it'll take a little effort, but imagine having a T-Rex stomping around, blowing fire among your dogs and cats. Crazy stuff. Head over to Happy Pets to check it out for yourself.

Click here to play Happy Pets>

FarmVille iPhone App update boosts speed and improves performance

farmville iphone app update
The FarmVille iPhone application has received an update addressing some of the issues plaguing the older version.

Continue reading to see a list of the improvements.

The FarmVille iPhone app updates are as follows:

    Optimizations to allow large farms to load better.
    Fixes for users having issues loading their farm.
    Performance improvements for older devices.
    Support for multitasking (for iOS 4.0 users).
    Better organized gift area.
    Bug fixing.


Before the update, the FarmVille iPhone app was slow, choppy, and overall, provided a pretty terrible gaming experience, especially on older devices. As seen in our demo video, FarmVille ran at a snail's pace running on an iPod touch. Fortunately, Zynga is well aware of the performance issues being suffered by players on slower handheld devices. FarmVille players with larger, more extravagant farms had it the worst as the game struggled to load their massive amount of items and land.

We're definitely relieved to see most of these troubling issues were tackled in the FarmVIlle app update. Hopefully now it plays more smoothly than ever. In addition, we're pleased to see the support for multitasking, letting able players take breaks from the grueling farm life without closing the app.

YoVille Summer Theme ends with a final item update

The final collection of Summer Items has arrived to YoVille. YoVille players can now decorate their Summer gardens with may flower pots and flower pyramids. And if you are planning to go camping, backpack, folding furniture and sleeping bags were also added to the Furniture Store.

Complete your Summer Rooms with these new items. All pictures and prices are after the link. Thanks to Spiralda and Nik for the fast update!


yoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer themeyoville summer theme
This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

YoVille Pool Collectibles now available

yoville pool collectibles
New Animated Collectibles and the last of the Summer items are available now in the YoVille Furniture Store. Your Pool Party will be a hit! Dive into the pool with the Animated Collectible Diving Board (29 YoCash) or slide into the water with the Animated Pool Slide (31 YoCash). There is also a Summer Baby Pool (17,950 Coins) for the kids!

This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.

Cafe World: Head outside and expand your business

Cafe World has expanded cafes by adding a free outdoor area for all players. You can now decorate both the indoors and the outside of their restaurants with new roofs, decorations, and items.

To get started, head outside by clicking the Go Outside button at the bottom left of the screen. After stepping out, you'll see your cafe from a whole new angle. Unfortunately, you'll also find it's not the most beautiful building from the outside. Not to worry though, Cafe World has also released a ton of goodies to spice up the exterior of your cafe.

Continue reading to see the new Cafe World outside feature.
cafe world outside
When you arrive outside, you'll be guided through a short tutorial showing you everything the Cafe World outdoors has to offer:
cafe world outside
You'll want to put a new roof on your cafe. There is a wide variety and though some are very expensive, it's one of the most crucial and most dramatic improvements to the outside of your cafe.
cafe world roofs
My personal favorite is the jungle themed roof featuring a built in volcano. If that's not totally nuts, I'm not sure what is. Besides who said roofing had to be boring?
cafe world outside     cafe world outside
cafe world outside
Next, add some greenery to your cafe's outside. Planted right on a busy city intersection, your customers could definitely benefit from some nice relaxing plants in your garden.
cafe world otuside
cafe world outside
Finally, Cafe World has provided a ton of other ways to decorate the outside part of your cafe. Walls, windows, doors, paths and other items are all available for you to personalize your cafe the way you see fit.
cafe world outside
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We think the expansion to the outdoors was a good move on Cafe World's behalf. More than ever, players now have the ability to make their cafes something really special and unique. Both the inside and outside of your cafe can be tailored to your personality. Not to mention, a ton of the new outside items are available for coins rather than Cafe Cash, letting everyone do a little landscaping for free.

Also, we're super curious to see what this new catering feature has in store (hinted at above). Keep checking back in with The Blog for the latest Cafe World news. You can be sure we'll post on any updates regarding the upcoming catering truck.

Click here to play Cafe World>

Is there anything Zynga can do to reverse FarmVille's downturn?

While things may outwardly appear to be full of happiness and light in the world of Zynga's FarmVille – the game celebrates its (official) first birthday this month, and is, by far, the largest Facebook game on the site, sitting at around 62 million users – when you compare these figures to those found last March, which saw the game peaking at over 83 million players (32 million of which played everyday), that happiness and light turns bleak with sadness. But what is it, exactly, that has caused the game to lose over 21 million players in the span of around four months?

We've speculated about the cause of FarmVille's player loss – the game is, for the lack of a better term, hemorrhaging players, losing 4.4 million players in April, and 7.7 million users in May, as two recent examples – but no one, solid conclusion can be drawn for why players are leaving.

The downturn officially began in March, when Facebook cut-off third party notifications, meaning that, from that point forward, Zynga had to scramble to amass an email distribution list of every player that had ever added the game in order to be able to stay in constant contact with them. Aside from simply annoying players, who may feel that giving out their email address is an attack on their privacy, this meant that Zynga's amount of "spam" messages to players was immediately, and drastically cut. For the most casual FarmVille players, perhaps this lack of constant "Play our game!" reminders was enough for them to forget about the game.

Other arguments could be made as to why players are leaving – FarmVille grew exponentially through the winter months, and dropped when the weather turned, so could the simple fact that people are spending more time outdoors have anything to do with it? Perhaps it was the previous level cap of level 70 that turned long-time players away, as they felt they had nothing left to accomplish in the game. Financially speaking, could it be Zynga's seemingly growing reliance on Farm Cash – more and more limited edition items are being released that can only be purchased through such means – that has made players turn tail and run, rather than be tempted into spending real money on virtual items?
farmville downturn
Whatever the reason, according to the latest AppData figures, the trend doesn't really seem to be slowing, as the last month (from June 13 to July 13) shows the game at a loss of 3.7 million players. Granted, this is a far cry from the 7.7 million lost in May, but each time the app gains in users – FarmVille gained 300,000 users from July 5 to July 6, as an example – it drops just as many, or even more, within a matter of days. To our previous example, by July 8, the app had lost 400,000 players, more than 100,000 more than those that joined just days before.

While we could spend hours speculating as to why players are leaving the game, perhaps the better question to ask is, "What can Zynga do to reverse the trend?" Surely the gaming developer has been thinking the same, but, outside of a promotion with 7-Eleven that put the game's logo all over the convenience stores' shelves (and offered free in-game items to those that purchased said branded products), it doesn't really seem like they're doing anything to stop it.

We don't work for Zynga, but perhaps if they took a look at a few of our ideas – the ideas of folks who actively play the game – they may be able to stop the bleeding.

First, while it may be hard to prove scientifically, it's common knowledge that people love free things. Offer users a free incentive, other than fuel (which can be found in numerous other ways, also for free), and perhaps they'll take a few seconds to load the game to receive said free item. Make it a good freebie, like a free run of the FarmVille Biplane (which instantly makes crops ready to harvest), or even some free Farm Cash, and users will play the game long enough to perhaps fall in love with it all over again.

Speaking of Farm Cash, where other Zynga games (run by separate teams) like PetVille and Cafe World frequently offer sales or discounts on premium currency packages ("Buy Cafe World Cash and receive 20% more for free!"), FarmVille very rarely, if ever, discounts Farm Cash packages. Perhaps if users were able to receive a few more Farm Cash for their purchase, they would be more willing to pull out their real-world wallet to purchase Zynga's virtual items.
farmville downturn
If they chose not to go that route, one major thing Zynga could do would be to lower the cost of Farm Cash items in the first place. While they would end up spending the same amount of money in the long run, why would a player want to spend $10 on a single item, when they could spend $5 on two different items?

Additionally, the many, many features of the game that require a specific amount of neighbors, or to be a specific level need to be changed. A lower level player will find that the game can actually border on the boring side of things, as they haven't leveled up to the point of being able to afford a Tractor, Seeder or Harvester, resulting in their clicking on each crop individually, which can take a substantial amount of time, especially on lower internet speeds. They can't participate in Co-Op Farming, which means they won't have a chance at that feature's exclusive items. They can't expand their farm without a specific amount of neighbors either, which means they can't add enough crops to their farm to quicken their leveling up and thus get them closer to being able to participate in the aforementioned features (of which they are many more). It's a vicious cycle, and it is perhaps the biggest argument a player could have about the game.
farmville downturn
Another argument comes from the speed of leveling up, which is quite slow, compared to other Facebook games. While games like Social City and Restaurant City offer slow leveling cycles as well, they don't have as many features locked to lower level players, so the impact is felt less. While, to Zynga's credit, there has been a leveling tweak that was said to make leveling up an easier process in the game, unless a player has 24 hours of everyday to dedicate to the game, they will still find the process to be a slow one. Why spend the better part of a week trying to level up once in FarmVille, when you can level up three or four times in a competitor's game in the same amount of time?

On a completely different note, the FarmVille for iPhone app has been incredibly successful amongst players who own iPhones and love the idea of being able to farm anywhere they go. But with its limited functionality, the novelty may very quickly wear off. Zynga needs to get people to play the game more, not less, as the less they play, the less desire they will have to play in the future, as they become distracted by other things. To that end, Zynga could (and probably should) add more exclusive, and even free, items to the iPhone app – items that can't be found anywhere else, to give players (who, generally speaking, love to collect things by default) more incentive to keep playing, if only to make sure they have one of every new item available.

Speaking of which, while Zynga has already re-released some previously retired limited edition items as permanent additions to the game's store, they would do well to release more of these items to the public. As the game grows, new players will visit their friends' farms and will probably be quite jealous of the many limited edition (but now retired) items they see there. Once they find out that they can't have them, they might be disappointed to the point of giving up on the game because "I'm being punished for not adding the game sooner." Perhaps Zynga could create a "FarmVille LE Item Re-Release Extravaganza" in the game's store, letting users spend coins on some of these items, like holiday items, and users will flock to the game in the hopes of completing collections they once thought were lost to them.

Just as we could discuss the reasons for FarmVille's downturn for hours without end, so too could we develop ways that Zynga could reverse the trend. Will we see the developer take any of these actions in the future? Only time will tell, but for now, make sure to join in on the discussion in the comments below or in our forums. Whether you're a long-time FarmVille player, a completely new player, or even if you're one who used to play but has now given up – we want to hear from you. What do you think Zynga can do to stop the loss of players in the game? Or, better yet, if you quit the game, why did you do so, and is there anything Zynga can do to win you back?

This post originally appeared on Frisky Mongoose.

Happy Pets adds Honey Parrot adoptable pet

Today, Happy Pets have announced that there is a new adoptable pet available in the game - the Honey Parrot. This parrot is a beautiful rich shade of yellow and has a big adorable beak. While there isn't actually a real bird named a Honey Parrot, we still think this is a fine addition to the game.

To claim a Honey Parrot, it's the same as any other adoptable wall post animal. A friend will discover the lost parrot in their room, and will be able to share the parrot with friends on their wall. If you want to be the proud owner of a new Honey Parrot, you'll just have to be the first one to click on the wall post. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, as long as you're quick you'll do just fine.

Do you have a Honey Parrot yet? How adorable are they?

Treasure Isle to give out energy for visiting neighbors

Treasure Isle energy by visiting neighbors
Treasure Isle sure has been shaking things up lately, and this is no exception. Today, on the Treasure Isle Diggers Anonymous fan page (an official page run by Zynga), the game has announced that soon you will be able to get +1 energy for each friend you visit. This is a major change to the game, because any player who has a lot of neighbors will be able to replenish their energy and play the game longer.

We're sure that there will be a maximum amount of energy you can earn per day, and you can probably only get an energy bonus the first time you visit a neighbor per day. Either way, this is yet another way that gameplay can be lengthened and players can enjoy exploring and digging longer without having to wait until their energy recharges. Also, if you were a player who often bought Energy Packs with Island Cash, you may no longer need to spend nearly as much with this new change.

So far, we don't know when this is coming down the pipe. We'll keep you updated with all the latest Treasure Isle news, so stay tuned!

Do you approve of this change? When do you think it will be released?

Pet Society releases buildable Roller Skate Car

Pet Society is a game that we don't cover too often here, but it's awfully popular. Over 13 million players enjoy this game, which makes it one of the most popular Facebook games. Today, Pet Society has released a new buildable item in the Pet Workshop, which is a Roller Skate Car. This new Roller Skate Car is silly, fun, and just a little bit crazy - but that's okay! It's still cute.

To make the Roller Skate Car, you have to get the help of 20 friends. To do this, open up the Pet Workshop and click on the car. You can then either post a wall post asking your friends for help, or you can buy the item outright for 25 Playfish Cash. Once you've posted the wall post, 20 friends need to click on the link in order to help you unlock the prize.

The other items currently available in the Pet Workshop include the Hot Air Balloon, Playhouse, Party Invitation, and Magic Warrior statue.

Playdom launches City of Wonder, a Civilization-themed city game

City of Wonder
Playdom is whipping out games left and right these days, and hot on the trails of Fanglies and Market Street is a Civilization-themed city builder named City of Wonder. This game just launched today, so now is your chance to hop in and be one of the first to try out this brand new title.

If you're not a big fan of Social City, you probably won't love City of Wonder. The game is an improvement on the original, but uses the same core mechanics and has a familiarity that Social City fans will feel right at home with. The main goal is to build a city, research technologies, and become wealthy. Players have "goods" which are basically similar to the contracts in Social City. Players research new technologies and have advisors that tell them which ones to pick. Researching new technologies unlocks different decorations and buildings. Population is increased just how it is in Social City, and everything else feels just about the same. Visiting neighbors gives bonuses when you find your 'embassy' within their city.

While I haven't had the chance to dig in too deep yet, there does seem to be some interesting new game ideas. Once you reach level 5 you can take part in "expeditions", which we suspect are for attacking and trading. There are also "Legends" which appear to be characters that give you bonuses such as faster research time. We'll be covering this game more in depth in the future.

Want to be one of the first to try out City of Wonder? Play it on Facebook now!

Treasure Isle releases purchaseable coins, makes mistake

Treasure Isle released an update tonight, and included the ability to purchase coins for Island Cash. We covered this last night, however it didn't pan out exactly how we predicted. The original Treasure Isle wall post said that soon players would be able to "trade coins for cash". Typically, this would lead us to believe that you're trading in coins and getting Island Cash in return. Apparently, the post was incorrect and was actually stated backwards. Released in Treasure Isle is now the ability to buy coins with Island Cash, so the exact opposite of what we wrote.

Treasure Isle moderator Kaerie posted the following in this thread:

    We've just got word that this was posted backwards accidentally (the blast has been removed now).

    It's actually going to be coins for cash, not cash for coins.


This was a simple miscommunication on Treasure Isle's part, and we got all excited about it. It really didn't make sense anyway, so this isn't a huge surprise. The players, however, are quite upset about the inaccuracy.

Are you upset by the results, or was this just a simple forgivable typo?

FarmVille German Themed Decorations: Majestic Fountain, Beech Tree, Market Table Set, & Porcelain Vase

   
Lots of new Limited Edition Germany themed items including a Majestic Fountain, Beech Tree, Market Table Set, and Porcelain Vase debuted tonight in FarmVille.

You can purchase all of these LE decorations in the FarmVille Market during the next 13 days only.

FarmVille LE Germany Decorations (Released: September 16, 2010):

* Majestic Fountain – 22 FV$
* Beech Tree – 4 FV$
* Market Table Set – 22,000 Coins
* Porcelain Vase – 7,000 Coins

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille German Themed Buildings: German Home & Tailor Shop

   
Continuing with the Limited Edition Germany theme, FarmVille released two new buildings tonight that includes the German Home (Previously Unreleased item) and the Tailor Shop.


You can purchase both of these buildings in the FarmVille Market during the next 13 days.

FarmVille LE Germany Buildings (Released September 16, 2010):

* German Home – 36 FV$
* Tailor Shop – 34 FV$


This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

FarmVille Reitpony trots into the Market for 13 days only

A new pony has trotted into the FarmVille Market -- a limited edition horse called the Reitpony. If this pony looks familiar, you're not seeing things -- this horse has been featured on a new German-themed loading screen this week and was also revealed earlier this week as an unreleased item, listed as the Riding Pony.

The Reitpony will be available for purchase for the next 13 days only (and, yes, there is also a Reitpony foal).

Reitpony
Released: Sept 16, 2010
Cost: 24 Farm Cash
Sell for 84 coins
Harvest time: 3 days

Fun facts about the real-life Reitpony: 'Reitpony' translates into Riding Pony. This breed of pony was created for national and international horse riding competitions for childen and teens. The goal was to create a pony with the 'competitive athleticism of a riding horse.' Source

reitpony in real life

FarmVille: Re-gifting now applies to building materials and more

Earlier this week, we noticed that we were able to re-gift unwanted FarmVille Mystery Gifts, now it looks like that re-gifting feature has been added to building supplies as well. To get rid of these items, click the purple Re-Gift button, select how many you want to give away, then post them to you Facebook Wall.

farmville regifting

And I was just about to ask everyone what they planned to do with their leftover building materials.

Mafia Wars Dublin Challenge Mission kicks off this weekend

Last week, we became the kingpens of Bollywood in Mumbai; this week, it's time to pack our bags and head to Dublin. In the new Mafia Wars Dublin Challenge Mission -- your goal is to, put simply, "Destroy your rivals and become the real power broker in Dublin."

From what I can tell so far, Dublin seems like it will work just like the previous Challenge Missions. There are three Chapters will be unlocked over the course of three weeks. Every time you finish a chapter, you will earn special Dublin Loot, in this case:

mafia wars dublin rewards

Chapter 1 Reward -- Bodyguard: 52 A, 63 D
Chapter 2 Reward -- Weapon: 84 A, 59 D
Chapter 3 Reward -- Animal (a Horse 67 A, 111 D)



Instead of London Passports or Film Reels, you'll have to collect Pints of Stout to get your jobs done. You will be able to collect 5 stout every 24 hours from the Mission screen or collect is as loot that will drop randomly from fights, jobs, robbing and other nefarious activities. You can also purchase them from the Marketplace.

mafia wars my crew

Another way to get extra Stout is by adding new members to your Crew. Every new person you sign up with earn you an additional 5 pints a pop.

This event kicks off this weekend, so I highly recommend you start stocking up on Pints of Stout and recruiting new Mafia members as soon as possible. See you in Dublin.

FarmVille Halloween Limited Edition Item Showcase [Video]

If you're a FarmVille fan, you know that limited edition Halloween items have been flooding the game's in-game market, many of which cost Farm Cash. Most of these items are also animated (admit it -- they're pretty hard to resist) and you can see them in action in the video above.

Find more stories on our 2010 Halloween Guide for FarmVille, Mafia Wars & more.


Bookmark this site!

Games.com launches Game Finder Facebook app

Can you tell which 'Cafe World' link you should click to get to the actual game? How many times have you thought you were going to a game and ended up on a random fan page instead?

That's where Game Finder enters the picture. This new Facebook app from Games.com is designed to help you find your favorite social games (or discover new ones) without the confusion. To search, simply go to http://apps.facebook.com/game-finder/ and type in the game of the game you're looking for. Your search results will lead you directly back to the game and not some random page.

facebook apps games.com But wait; there's more. Our goal with this app is to also help you make it easier to discover new Facebook games, and -- for now -- you can do that by browsing through games by the following genres: Virtual World, Card Games, Role-Playing, Action & Arcade, Word, Board and Other. You can sort by Most Popular, Alphabetical and New to take a peek at different games as well.

facebook browse games

We'll be tweaking this app with some more nifty ways to help you discover new games. In the meantime, head to Game Finder to play and discover new Facebook games.

Oh yeah, don't forget to sign up to win a Games.com branded Snuggie. We wear them at work all of the time and they are perfect for when it's cold but you need your hands free to play games. Winner!

ESPNU College Town's Jay Arrera reveals how TV might help social games grow [Interview]

ESPNU College Town
ESPNU College Town, released just over 30 days ago, has already amassed over 2 million monthly users and released two major content updates introducing Facebook Credits, baseball, softball and myriad new items. Regardless of the Playdom pedigree, social game growth is in a weird limbo where companies will take a step forward only to take two more back. So, it begs the question: how? ESPNU College Town's Senior Producer Jay Arrera tells us how Playdom managed to attract a few million college sports fans in less than 60 days (hint: lots of TV advertisements) and how the studio plans to keep them coming back for more.

What was the inspiration behind ESPNU College Town and why use the ESPNU brand specifically?

ESPN actually approached Playdom. The company had recently launched Social City in the spring of this year, it did very well and actually received the Game of the Year Award at GDC Online. ESPN were big fans of the game and they approached us and said, 'We have an idea for someone to be an athletic director, we've seen that you made a really popular game in the social game space.' We formed a partnership where ESPN would work with Playdom on multiple titles and this is the first title in that series.
ESPNU Campus
ESPNU might be one of the most traditionally advertised Facebook games to date with TV spots found on ESPN. Why is it that you went with this approach to get the word out there?
That was definitely ESPN's drive. Facebook games are traditionally advertised only on Facebook, but part of it was that we wanted to attract ESPN's audience through the strength of their brand. They wanted this to be a game that was played by their audience and so we wanted to bring new users to ESPN's brand and ESPN wanted to bring new players to Facebook. I think we've succeeded; we've seen an increase in traffic from both ESPN.com and their related fan pages. But also we've got a lot of people playing this game who have never played a Facebook game before. Or they've heard about Facebook games, but nothing but bad things about them and are really enjoying and totally addicted to this game now.

What do you think has contributed most to ESPNU's insanely fast growth in just the past month?
I think it's the passion for college sports, specifically their alma mater. What's an important feature for us is to have people able to identify with a real-world school and with that they bring all of their passion, pride and rivalries. People are very competitive with their [school] rivalries. They're also really enjoying the campus-building portion and being able to make their campus look like how they remember it or wish had it ever been.

Going off of that, have you found trouble finding new players in the face of Facebook's recent changes to discovery and Groups?
I wouldn't say we're having trouble finding players, but it's changing the tactics we're using to get the word out. And that's one of the reasons we're really excited about this partnership with ESPN so that we can try a bunch of different advertising mediums that we haven't used before and see which ones are most effective and which ones aren't. The changes to Facebook have absolutely impacted our ability to use channels that we've used in the past. So, we're definitely getting creative.

ESPNU Cross Promotion Social City
How successful have the cross-game promotions been for ESPNU? Is that something that Playdom plans to continue in the future?
I think we'll do it on a case-by-case basis. It worked really well for this game because we were attracting an audience that was very interested in the specific niche we were going for with U.S.-based college sports fans. So, it was very effective for capturing that audience. We'll see how it performs in other games where we're trying to go more broad appeal or even a tighter niche.

What are your thoughts on the approach of other popular sports Facebook games like Madden NFL Superstars and FIFA Superstars? Was there ever an interest in creating more interactive Challenge games during the game's development?
That was one of the first things we discussed as in the design for the game and we had the very deliberate decision to not make this into a hardcore sports simulator. We've seen a number of games on Facebook come out with that approach and they've generally not done well. There is a very different audience on Facebook that are going to be interested in that fantasy simulator-there is definitely a core audience that is into that and they do well enough for that audience, but it's not a broad appeal. Playdom's approach with this particular game is very much so to make it appeal to as wide an audience as possible, that is engaging for casual users as well as fun for someone who is really passionate about their sports.

ESPN has their brand on the line and they wanted to make sure that sports fans were still getting the full sports experience. A lot of that is done by making a lot of activities to do in the game so that if someone just wants to build a college campus, they can experience the entirety of the game just doing that. If someone wants to be extremely competitive and play out in one or multiple sports either in their conference or against their friends, they can do that too. So, it was definitely a deliberate design decision to have a lot of different gameplay options for different audiences.

I'm sure there have been countless comparisons between ESPNU and Social City, so aside from Challenges, what else do you feel differentiates this game from Social City? How about in the future?
Obviously the Competitions and the sports are the big differentiations. One of the things that was pleasantly surprising to us is that most of the players of ESPNU College Town had never played Social City. So, while some of the gaming press have said, 'Wow, it looks just like Social City," that's because Social City was very effective. And now we have an entirely new audience and they're really enjoying the game mechanics as is. They're just as invested in it as Social City players are. Some people play both games and others just play ESPNU College Town; we're really happy with that.

Challenge Mode
Are there any plans in the future to further differentiate the two games or is this as far as it goes?
Oh no, they will continue to differentiate. Playdom has also recently released City of Wonder and some people say that it's very similar to Social City-that game has its own life now, its own audience and its own theme. ESPNU College Town will continue to do the same and we are already reacting to player-requested items and features; some of the recent releases have been because of player feedback. This game has its own audience and we will deliver on that feature list now.

While we're on it, now that the foundation has been laid for ESPNU, where does Playdom take the game from here?
Well, we're still growing the game, so we're still very much in the early part of what we want to do with the game. We're still doing everything we can to get the word out and getting friends to compete and share with their own friends; that's our primary goal right now. We are continuing to work with the player vs. player competition because it's very popular. So, we've got a lot of features coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for those changes. As you saw, we just added baseball and softball-there's a lot of college sports out there. We've also got a lot of ideas with ESPN about how to tie in the real world with the virtual world, so you can look forward to more tie-ins there.

The game was perfectly timed with the college football season, but what plans does Playdom have to keep ESPNU relevant in the future when the 2010-2011 football season is through? Will other sports take prominence as the seasons pass?
I think you'll see that as we go along. The best answer I have is that ESPN has made it their art to keeping sports alive 365 days a year and that's what they bring to this game. The ability to be not just a seasonal game, but something that is a collegiate experience year round.

Last but certainly not least, what tips or advice do you have for ESPNU players to get an edge on the competition?
Upgrade your academics! People joke that Academics don't play any effect in the game, but that is absolutely incorrect. That is how you build your student enrollment and how you get a competitive edge in competition. Also, it helps to have a better team, so having better All Stars you absolutely will improve in your Competition. Those two things are probably the most important.

It's been a lot of fun--if you actually look in the Playdom forums, there's tremendous discussion amongst the players trading tips. Also, Playdom actively participates in the forums too, so that's a great place to go to if players are looking for the edge.

Cafe World Jack-O-Lantern invites spooky guests to your cafe

Cafe World Jack-O-Lantern
We haven't seen a full collection of Halloween decorations in Cafe World yet, but Zynga have given us some spooky-themed fun to get the ball rolling. If you log in to Cafe World tonight, you will be greeted with an offer to place the Jack-O-Lantern in your cafe. Once placed, it looks like a pumpkin that is half buried in the ground, and has a tooltip saying "Carve Me!". Clicking on the pumpkin will bring up the above window that allows you to request parts from your friends to carve your Jack-O-Lantern.

The Jack-O-Lantern is a little pumpkin man that will summon Halloween-themed guests into your cafe. Players so far are reporting that the guests aren't too obvious, but they will be named things like "Dracula" and "Werewolf". To carve a Jack-O-Lantern, you need to collect 8 each of Knives, Spoons, Markers, and Candles. You can also by Knifes/Spoons for 1 Cafe Cash, and Markers and Candles for 2 Cafe Cash. The finished pumpkin product is storable, so you can put him away when Halloween season has come to an end. For those who want instant gratification, you can also purchase the Jack-O-Lantern for 20 Cafe Cash.

Zoo World developer RockYou suffers massive layoff

RockYou, one of the top 10 Facebook application developers, has laid off a huge portion of their staff today, according to TechCrunch. RockYou is most known in the social gaming space for their title Zoo World and their new game Toy Land, but have also achieved massive success with their Birthday Cards application. The developer, based out of Redwood City, California, has stated that this layoff was a restructuring of the company in order to support their new direction of solely creating social games. Though the article at TechCrunch reports that less than half of the company was laid off, a commenter who claims to be one of those who were let go today has stated that the number was closer to 70% of the company. (Edit: A source from RockYou has contacted us to correct this statement, saying that it was actually around 30%, mostly engineering and not game development.)

RockYou has raised over 125 million dollars in funding to date, and has almost 24,000 monthly active users across all of their applications. With all of the buzz around acquisitions, funding, and positive growth for social games, it's disappointing to see a major loss like this for one of the largest Facebook game companies. A quick glimpse at the jobs page on the RockYou website shows over 25 jobs available, most in the areas of Product Management, Engineering, and Marketing.

Digital Chocolate offers sneak peek at newest Facebook game - but what is it?

Digital Chocolate has been on an absolute roll recently, releasing three new games on Facebook just last week (two of which, Hollywood City and Vegas City, are Millionaire City clones - the third, Island God, is not). And while they haven't launched another game just yet, they are apparently going to quite soon, as this morning, we received an image from the developer detailing their newest game.

We weren't given a name, a genre, or any details other than this picture. All we know is that the game will be coming "very soon."

That being the case, help us speculate in as to what this game could be about - a WoW-style RPG? A text-based game in the same vein as Mafia Wars?

[UPDATE]: We've been given a tip as to what the title of this newest game might be, as there is an as-of-this-writing empty sub-forum on the Digital Chocolate forums that pertains to a game called "Ninjas Rising." Now, we have no official word as to whether or not this will be the actual name of the game, but in the interest of full disclosure, there it is.

Zuma Blitz: First round preview beta now open!

For some time now, we've known that PopCap was going to be bringing their hit, marble-breaking game Zuma to Facebook in a version similar to the tremendously popular Bejeweled Blitz. Now, the time has come for some very lucky players to get in on the first preview beta round of the game.

The preview beta can be found by heading over to the game's official page on Facebook, adding the application to your account, and then clicking on the "Play" button to play at least one, one-minute round of the game. This will apparently lock you into the game throughout this first preview beta, but the catch is that only the first 15,000 people who attempt to enter will be allowed.

For more details over the gameplay in Zuma Blitz, meet us behind the break.

We were one of the lucky ones to land a spot in the beta, and can say that the game functions much as you would expect. You'll have one minute to clear as many marbles as possible, by creating a match of at least three like-colored marbles.

Two chains are on screen at once - one coming from the top of the screen, and the other from the bottom. Certain marbles will be multipliers, meaning that if you make a match with said marble, your score will increase 2x, 3x, and so on, just like in Bejeweled Blitz. Furthermore, if you create a gap in the chain and then earn Gap Bonuses (create a match by shooting a marble through the gap in the chain), you'll earn even more points, on top of those earned for simply making matches one right after the other, creating a normal "Chain."

Unlike Bejeweled Blitz, the game has a leveling system allowing you to level up as you play and earn points. This will unlock power-ups, like those that give you extra time to shoot marbles, as but one example. You'll be able to compare your score with those of your friends on a leaderboard as well.

We'll be sure to bring you more coverage of this exciting new Facebook game as it becomes available, but for now, make sure to take a chance at joining the beta!

Social City: Earn 90 City Bucks in magazine trial promotion

Long time players of Playdom's Social City will know that it's pretty difficult to earn City Bucks in a completely "free" fashion, that is unless you own an iPhone or Android and can take advantage of the app-exclusive offers.

For internet-only players, the opportunities for loads of free City Bucks are hit or miss, but a newest offer might actually be something worth looking into. For a limited time, users can sign up for two free, two-month trial subscriptions to two magazines (from a list containing: People, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, or Time magazines). When doing so, you'll earn a whopping 90 City Bucks as a reward. Note: the offer can be activated via the Newspaper's Financial News page.

Now, there is a catch with this, but luckily, it's nothing too sinister. When signing up for this offer, you will automatically be entered into the magazines' auto-subscription renewal services, meaning that after your two month trial of each is up, your subscription will be renewed automatically, and you will be charged the appropriate regular subscription price. However, it stands to reason that if you closed your free trial accounts before the two months was over (or, say, immediately after receiving your City Bucks), that you could avoid spending any real money on the deal.

Pet Society Arabian Nights theme will make you feel like Aladdin

Cue Aladdin soundtrack: Arabian nights, like Arabian days, more often than not, are hotter than hot, in a lot of good ways.

Arabian Niiiiiiii---- Erm, excuse me. I got a bit caught up in this week's newest Pet Society theme. If you haven't guessed from my trip back through great Disney animation, Playfish is celebrating Arabian Nights this week with a slew of new items available to decorate both your pet's home and your pet.

The theme contains outdoor items like the giant Oasis Palm Tree, Palace Fountain, and even a buildable Treasure Cave. This item can be purchased outright for 30 Playfish Cash, or you can build it with the help of 10 friends. Moving indoors, you'll find more items perfect for both the Palace and the Market - dining tables, market stalls, ceramic pots, and even a large Palace Throne, that will set you back 5,000 coins (but is oh so pretty and gold).

Don't want to spend 5,000 coins on a throne? Then why not spend your money on some nice clothing items for your pet, including the Arabian Princess outfit (850 coins total - three pieces), and the Arabian Prince outfit (900 coins total - also three pieces) that looks almost identical to that of Aladdin in the movie of the same name. For those with girl pets, you can even splurge on the Arabian Princess's Wig (read: Jasmine's wig) for 1,100 coins. If you love Disney and Pet Society, this is a great way to go about showing it.

Finally, even Abu has been given a nod in this week's theme, as a new Monkey Petling is available to purchase for 22 Playfish Cash.

For a full look at all of the newly available items, check out the Pet Society Blog.

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Thanksgiving food items, plus Fruit Cake

It looks like this year's Thanksgiving celebration in FarmVille will be absolutely huge, as we've come across five more images pertaining the holiday, the holiday feast in particular. There's also an image of Fruit Cake, but we're assuming that will wait until closer to Christmas.

At any rate, above you'll see images (from left to right) or the unreleased Leaf Candle (perfect for decorating the dinner table), Stuffing, Casserole dish, Spiced Cider, an "All Food" picture, and the Fruit Cake itself.

While there is no guarantee that these items will actually make it into FarmVille, it is nice to see that Zynga is at least thinking about making this year's theme quite an expansive one.

[Via FarmVille Latest]

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

PopCap hosts Bejeweled 3 live video chat at 5:30 EST

Been dying to get a closer look at the casual game most likely to get you fired from your job? Neglect your social life? Make you dream about gems falling from the sky? I'm talking about Bejeweled 3, of course, and creator PopCap is holding a live video chat 5:30 EST, which you can view right here.

PopCap's Editorial and Social Media Director Jeff Green says they'll answer your questions live and if you can't make it, they'll post the entire chat on YouTube and Ustream later so you don't have to miss a thing.

Bejeweled 3 officially arrives on December 7 online and at retail, and this new rendition of the game will have everything that a devoted Bejeweled fan expects, and more, including a kooky new Zen mode that lets you play at your own pace, while relaxing music and positive affirmations play in the background. It's true!

CityVille Cheats & Tips: Getting Started Guide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play CityVille on Facebook >

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

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

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

Playboy Party in action

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

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

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

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

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

Click here to play Playboy Party on Facebook Now>

FrontierVille Buildable Snowman: Everything you need to know

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FarmVille Grey Goose now available to purchase in the market

In an interesting move, Zynga has released the Grey Goose formerly given out as a bonus for purchasing FarmVille Farm Cash to the market as a "regular" premium item.

Earlier this week, if you had taken the opportunity to purchase any Farm Cash package, this Grey Goose would've been give to you for free, but as that was a limited time opportunity (that has since expired), if you want to get your hands on this interesting bird, you'll have to pay Farm Cash, to the total of 16 Farm Cash, to be exact.

It's also interesting to see the Grey Goose listed as a limited edition item - part of the new Winter Holiday theme of items. While the Goose doesn't scream either Winter or Holidays for that matter, we'll give Zynga the benefit of the doubt on this one.

You've got 14 days to add this Grey Goose to your animal collection in the game, so make sure to take advantage of its release while you can.

FarmVille Winter Holiday Decorations: Lighted Train, Candy Gate, Arch & Fence

What better way to begin the winter holiday celebration than to purchase some new decorative items in FarmVille? There are four new decorations, to be exact, with most of these items allowing you to create a completely separated, yet themed area on your farm this winter.

First, though, there is the Lighted Train, a individual item that costs 22 Farm Cash. If you have the Lighted Gift Box from last year's celebration, you'll recognize the design of the train (which comes with the engine, one car and a caboose connected), as it is bright blue, with animated flashing lights that make it appear as though the train is moving, just as the Lighted Gift Box flashes lights on its ribbon.

The other items are those I spoke of earlier - those items that will help you truly set your other Winter Holiday items apart, in the form of fences and other dividers. It should be noted, though, that these items will be familiar to those who were playing FarmVille at this time last year, as they were available then as well. The items are the Candy Gate, which costs 7 Farm Cash, the Candy Arch, priced at 2,000 coins, and a single piece of Candy Fencing, which costs just 800 coins.

Take special note of the Candy Fencing price - normally, themed pieces of fencing cost at least 5,000 coins per square, so this is a definite bonus for those who want to create an expansive Winter / Christmas themed area on their farms this winter.

Mafia Wars Don's Dinner - Invite your friends for a "wild" good time

While Thanksgiving may be over in the real world, it is still days from completion in the world of Mafia Wars, as Zynga has announced the launch of a small feature in Mafia Wars entitled "Don's Dinner."

This feature will pop up the next time you log into the game, and will be available to complete for almost the next four days (give or take a few minutes). The event is simple - your task is to invite nine of your friends to join you at Don's Dinner. This is done by posting invites directly to your mafia members' Facebook profile walls. You can do so by clicking on the Post Invite buttons you see under the "Pick Mafia to Invite" section. For a bit of clarity, our screenshot above has been altered to protect our neighbors' privacy, but in your own game, there will be a friend's name and profile picture above each "Post Invite" button.

Once you successfully invite nine friends (that is, once nine friends click on the invite on their walls), you'll receive a free "Wild Turkey" animal item. This Wild Turkey has some really impressive stats, especially when considering how little you actually need to do to receive it. If you have lots of active mafia members, you'll receive this 79 Attack and 65 Defense point animal in no time flat - it's a good thing too, as there are only a few days left before this bird, and the event, fly away for good.

RockYou CEO steps down as part of company restructuring

TechCrunch has reported that Lance Tokuda, CEO of RockYou, has stepped down from his role in the company. RockYou are best known for their Birthday Cards application and social game Zoo World, but also have several other successful applications on Facebook such as Hug Me and Pieces of Flair.

Tokuda will be staying with the company, but is changing to a new role in which he is working on 'innovation and strategic initiatives'. This is all part of the corporate restructuring that has taken place after the company laid off around 30% of their staff in mid-October. Tokuda bas been a CEO and founder of RockYou since January of 2006 and clearly has played a big role in the company's success up until now.

Mafia Wars Private Zoo: Everything you need to know

Zynga hinted at the release of a Private Zoo in Mafia Wars for a short while, but has finally come through with releasing this new property in the game. The Private Zoo can be thought of like the Armory and Weapons Depot, both of which are found under your New York set of properties, except that instead of producing Armor (defensive items) and Weapons (offensive items), respectively, you'll now be able to "acquire" animals from around the world that will help fight on your side.

You can find your new Private Zoo by heading into your Properties bar while visiting Mafia Wars New York. As you might expect, the Zoo has a level, and yours starts out at just level 1. You'll need to collect various items to level up your Private Zoo and subsequently unlock better animals, so meet us behind the break for all of the details on how to go about that.

For starters, your Private Zoo can eventually end up reaching level 10, depending on how much work you put into collecting the ingredients necessary to upgrade it. For instance, to upgrade your Private Zoo the first time (from level 1 to level 2), you'll need to collect three each of five different ingredients: Aquariums, Big Cages, Bird Cages, Feeding Troughs, and Terrariums.

These can be earned either as loot drops from completely jobs (a fairly rare outcome), or you can ask your friends to send you these ingredients by clicking on the "Ask for More" button associated with a particular item. This will allow you to publish a news item to your wall asking your mafia members to send you that item. Unfortunately, this isn't a situation where you can ask individual friends for items, as that would make this process far easier. As it stands, you'll only be able to ask for help once every 12 hours.

Either way, you can boost your current upgrade progress at any time by simply purchasing ingredients outright for 1 Reward Point each. For the sake of argument, the total upgrade for level 2 would cost 15 Reward Points, if you wanted to purchase it without waiting for any of your friends to help you whatsoever.

And so the story goes - you'll collect more and more ingredients to upgrade your Private Zoo more and more times, each time unlocking new species of animals that can be created in your zoo, just like you create weapons and armor. You'll need to have Animal Feed on hand to "create" the animals, which become progressively stronger with the rise in levels. Here's a full look at what's available to build, and when:

Level 1 - Fennec Fox - 25 Attack and 36 Defense points
Level 2 - Spur Tortoise - 26 Attack and 43 Defense
Level 3 - Philippine Eagle - 48 Attack and 31 Defense
Level 4 - Bobcat - 42 Attack 49 Defense
Level 5 - Secretary Raptor - 51 Attack and 40 Defense
Level 6 - Brown Recluse Spider - 53 Attack and 41 Defense
Level 7 - Tiger Shark - 50 Attack and 48 Defense; +3 Attack points
Level 8 - Black Mamba - 45 Attack and 52 Defense; +1 Skill Point
Level 9 - Gharial - 48 Attack and 57 Defense; +3 Defense points
Level 10 - Warthog - 62 Attack and 50 Defense; +20 Health

While you may laugh at the inclusion of a spider on that list, being from the Midwest myself (their primary location), I can tell you that they are no laughing matter, as bites from a single spider (no matter how rare) can lead to tissue death, scars or worse - now, aren't you glad that you can have these guys on your team, rather than the enemy's?

Back to the topic at hand, for animals at levels 7-10, you'll need to have more than just regular Animal Feed to create these animals, as you must also have Exotic Animal Feed on hand. Exotic Animal Feed can only be earned by receiving it from friends as a gift. It will not drop as a loot item from jobs or fights.

As with other buildings, your Private Zoo will general some generic Animal Feed every 18 hours, which can be collected and added to your stash, so if you ever do run out, but also don't have the energy available to do some jobs in the hopes of receiving Feed as a loot drop, you can always come back when the time is right and collect from the Zoo again.

Let us know what you think of this new Private Zoo. Have you already upgraded your Weapons Depot and Armory to level 10? Will you do the same with your Private Zoo, or do you think the animals that can be created inside just aren't worth it?

Earn 2 free FarmVille Farm Cash in GE promotion

At this rate, Zynga might start releasing new free Farm Cash activities in FarmVille before we can even tell you about the last, as just earlier this evening, we brought you news concerning the new Step Up 3 cross-promotion that will allow users to earn 2 Free Farm Cash, and now, not even a day later (as a matter of fact, merely hours later), we see the launch of a new promotion with GE which offers another 2 free Farm Cash for users that take a few minutes to participate.

As usual, this promotion can be found by clicking on the "Sponsored Link" window that now sits at the bottom of the FarmVille game page. Once you click on the link, a new window will appear, where you'll be asked to upload a photo fitting into one of three themes: Light, Wind, and Water.

You'll see a large "Upload" button, which will take you a page where you can "donate" one of your photos. You can voluntarily do this, as donating a photo that GE deems appropriate for the theme will result in an charitable donation on your behalf. However, once you click on the Upload button, you'll see the famous "You've earned for Farm Cash" text in the top right corner of this new window.

Whether or not you choose to actually upload a photo, simply close this new window and your Farm Cash total in-game should automatically go up by two. If not, a quick refresh of the game should do the trick of adding the Farm Cash to your account.

If you like free Farm Cash - and who doesn't - keep checking back with us, as we'll make sure you're the first to know when new opportunities arise.

FarmVille Festive Cow will make its grand appearance ... soon

The official Zynga Inc Facebook fan page just reached 1 million fans, and as promised, the FarmVille Festive Cow will make an appearance on our farm in the not-too-distant future. There's no word yet on when this wreathed cow will appear and how it will appear -- the hint we've heard so far is that "this special present is under your Holiday tree in FarmVille." Stay tuned.

[Via FarmVille Cows Fan Page]

Game of the Day: WikiLeaks: The Game

Today's game of the day is a bit of a departure for us -- something with fewer cats and more of a political slant.

In WikiLeaks: The Game, you play Julian Assange, and his mission is to steal information from President Obama's laptop. How do you do that? Wait until President Obama falls asleep and then reach over his desk to plug in your USB key and start downloading information. If the President wakes up and catches you in the act, it's game over.

Can you steal all 300,000 secret files from the President without getting busted?

Click here to play WikiLeaks: The Game

FarmVille New Year Animal: Disco Ball Sheep

If you're like me, and like anything bright, shiny, or animated in FarmVille, you'll be just as thrilled as I am to know that Zynga has launched an item that fits into all three of those categories. The Disco Ball Sheep is now available in the FarmVille marketplace as part of the limited edition New Year item theme.

What makes this item so great isn't just its shiny "wool" that makes the sheep look like it's a disco ball - it's the fact that you can... wait for it... purchase it for coins! Yes, after releasing animal after animal to the game's store that could only be purchased for Farm Cash, Zynga has mercifully priced this item for coins. Sure, its price tag of 140,000 coins isn't necessarily a bargain, but if you're a player that simply refuses to spend premium / real currency in FarmVille, this will definitely allow you to celebrate the New Year in style.

The Disco Ball Sheep can be harvested from every three days, and you'll receive 28 coins each time you do so. You'll receive 1,400 bonus experience points for purchasing the sheep, which will be available in the game for just 10 days.

Find all our New Year's coverage right here.

What do you think of the Disco Ball Sheep? Do you like this animal more than others that have been released in the game?

FarmVille Disco Ball Tree makes an appearance in the market

For quite some time now, we've been investigating the appearance of the mysterious Disco Ball Tree in FarmVille. We had seed reports of the tree showing up randomly as a Mystery Seedling, even before any other New Years themed trees had been released, and we were then put under the assumption that the Disco Ball Tree is the level 2 tree from the Confetti Tree, which was released at the beginning of the week. But what if someone didn't want to wait for their Confetti Tree to spawn a Disco Ball Tree Mystery Seedling?

Luckily, there is now a solid answer for that, as the Disco Ball Tree has finally been released as a standalone item in the FarmVille marketplace. Unfortunately, if you'd like to add this lovely tree to your land, you'll need to be willing to pay 15 Farm Cash. Once purchased, however, you can harvest the tree every two days, and you'll receive 150 coins for doing so. You'll gain just 15 experience points for purchasing the tree, but as any tree-lover in FarmVille can tell you - you don't purchase the trees for the experience point bonuses.

The Disco Ball Tree will be available in the game's store for the next 15 days, but luckily, will be available as Mystery Seedlings long after if you choose to hand onto your Farm Cash for the time being. One final note - the tree can be mastered, with the first star of mastery being available after 75 harvests, if that's something that will sway your decision in purchasing one.

Find all our New Year's coverage right here.

FarmVille New Years Items: Fireworks I, II, III, & New Year Gnome

As part of tonight's FarmVille update, we've seen the release of four new decorative items in the game. All four of these items fit into the current New Year theme of limited edition items, but unfortunately for those that like to save their Farm Cash, all of these items are premium.

What's more, three of the four items are Fireworks, meaning that they are one-time use items that will disappear from your farm once launched, after showing you a pretty virtual fireworks show in your game. The Fireworks are labeled as Fireworks I, II, and III, and all three cost 3 Farm Cash each. It seems a bit unreasonable for Zynga to charge Farm Cash for a one-time use item, but luckily, there are ways to receive free Fireworks this year, as friends can post them on their wall as they complete stages in the New Years Party Barn event.

The other new item is the New Year Gnome, which will be a big hit with Gnome collectors. He's a cheerful little fella that's ready to party, as he comes equipped with a noise-maker and confetti, and a price tag of 18 Farm Cash. You'll receive 1,800 bonus experience points for purchasing the Gnome, if that makes you more likely to purchase him.

All four of these items will be available in the game's store for the next 10 days, so if you can't play FarmVille on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day proper, you'll be able to throw a post-holiday Fireworks show within your game to keep the party going.

Find all our New Year's coverage right here.

What do you think of Fireworks in FarmVille? Are they worth the cost, since you can only use them once, or would you rather save your Farm Cash for permanent decorative items or buildings?

FrontierVille 12 Days of Christmas Goals: Everything you need to know for Day Two

On the Second Day O' Christmas
Just two days remain in FrontierVille's 12 Days of Christmas Goal series and, oddly enough, things are getting progressively easier. "On the Second Day O' Christmas" requires three simple, almost menial tasks, of pioneers. First, you're to visit two Neighbors. While you're there, tend two of your Neighbors' Pigs and clean up two Debris while you're at it.

And that's it. No, we're not kidding. This could very well be one of the easiest Goals in the game, which is odd considering we're one Goal away from being done with Christmas once and for all in FrontierVille. Come to think of it, you could probably finish this Goal in five minutes. You'd imagine that Zynga would start to end the holiday with a bang, but a break from gift requests and cross promotions never hurt anyone. Complete this Goal and a not-so-well earned 1,000 XP, one "Tend Here" Sign and one Fruitcake are all yours. But we're not out of the woods yet. Check back tomorrow to find out what the final Goal of this series has in store for the frontier.

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

Create on Facebook: This fun physics game forgot you have friends

Create in motion
Most Facebook games are littered with suggestions, pop ups and missions to guide you along in your progress, which certainly serve their purpose well. But not Create. The most recent Facebook game launch by EA, Create is a modified release of the puzzler with the same name currently available for all major consoles, PC and Mac. Tailored specifically for Facebook, this physics-based puzzle game provides players with the tools required to complete each level, but it's hands-off after that. While achieving real time physics on Facebook is certainly impressive, leaving the guesswork to the player soon becomes a double-edged sword.

Find more of our impressions of Create after the break.

Create Dashboard
Essentially, Create is a Rube Goldberg machine on Facebook. Your goal in each level is to, using the tools you're given, guide a soccer ball so that it hits its bulls eye target, making its way through hula hoops along the way for bonus points. However, getting into the meat of the game is rather confusing as Create will always load in sort of a hub world called the Dashboard. It's here that players can create as many soccer balls as they wish to play around with, check their best times and high scores and see how their friends are doing with their own creations. There is also a global list where creators can put others' balls through their own solutions to the game's puzzles. To start, you're given one ball, so just click "Go!" and choose any of the four puzzles.

This is where the fun begins... sort of. In each puzzle, there is a general path players will have to take to reach the target, but it is entirely up to them on how to approach it using the game's five tools. (In other words, this is a thinker.) These items include balloons, which will not float until an object, preferably the ball, make contact with its string. Players can also make use of orange bumpers which will repel any object that comes in contact with them at a high speed in the opposite direction. Suspended fans can also be used to propel the ball while boxes and see-saws serve of malleable platforms, though the see-saws somehow defy gravity. There's no limit to the amount of tools that can be used in any given puzzle, but clutter will be your worst enemy.

Create in motion again
Designed specifically to take advantage of Intel processors, the physics in Create are surprisingly smooth considering it's all happening in real time on Facebook. However, they can easily be broken. So far, I've found that certain items won't respond to gravity if placed in strange places, but who knows what other ways there are to break the system.

While the game's physics are certainly impressive--not to mention that it's refreshing to see a social game that requires critical thought--it's tough to call Create a social game. There seems to be little reason that this game is on Facebook other than the fact that it's a popular platform at the moment. Having friends in the game doesn't effect any portion of gameplay nor is there an incentive to continue logging in, which is something social games in their current state need to thrive. Though, it's doubtful that EA had that in mind to begin with when porting Create to the platform.

And perhaps I'm somewhat rusty when it comes to puzzle games, but Create doesn't exactly lend itself to the instantly gratifying gameplay of most social games. If your experience is anything like mine, you're going to be cracking at some puzzles for quite a while, which one could imagine the average social gamer just doesn't have time for on their lunch break. But if you have an extra minute, try something a little different than your average 'Ville and give that brain some exercise.

Click here to play Create on Facebook Now>

Have you tried Create on Facebook yet? What are your impressions of the game? Do you think these types of games have a place on the platform?

Arab Facebook game Happy Oasis hopes to end Islamic extremism

Now, that's a social game for social good. Happy Oasis, created by Jordan native Suleiman Bakhit, looks to nip Islamic extremism in the bud, the BBC reports. Bakhit made the game, which launched this week to 59 thousand players, in hopes of providing a role model for Arab children who might otherwise be persuaded by extremist views.

While studying at the University of Minnesota in the U.S, Bakhit was attacked by four men shortly after the 9/11 tragedy because he was an Arab, the BBC reports. Bakhit, instead of turning to bitterness, decided to educate Arab kids back home in Jordan through positive comic books, and later Facebook games like Happy Oasis.

His comic books--like one about a female Arab secret agent that dispatches extremists--sold 300 thousand copies alone, prompting Bakhit to the web where 30 million Arabs use Facebook every day. Now, Bakhit looks to take the comic books (and we hope the Facebook game) to Pakistan, where issues of extremism are growing.

"I realized that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple--'We are not all terrorists'," he told the BBC. "Print media is dying but there are 30 million Arabs on Facebook so I thought about making social games with the same message," Bakhit said.

'Social games for social good' has been a tag line for many a developer. Many Facebook game creators like Zynga offer the power of their audience to make major donations to victims of natural disasters and the like. However, this could be one of the first attempts to use social gaming to alleviate a social issue as divisive as extremism in the Middle East. If this becomes an answer to the growing social problems in that part of the world, it's not just another win for Facebook games, but for the Arab community.

Japan's Gree, OpenFeint invade U.S. mobile game shores this summer

Zynga, EA (and PopCap), Rovio: Prepare your defenses. One of Japan's leading mobile social game networks, Gree, plans to storm the beaches of the U.S. mobile gaming scene this summer, TMCnet reports. The Japanese company, which recently bought San Francisco-based mobile game network provider OpenFeint plans to release the first of its games on U.S. shores this summer. However, it's not as easy as you might think.

"We're starting everything from scratch in this market, even hiring," Gree VP of marketing and sales Sho Masuda told TMCnet. This is because regardless of Gree's experience with mobile games or the skill of its developers, there are inherent differences in the preferences of Japanese mobile gamers and those in the states, according to Masuda.

The VP added that Gree games will be made available for free on the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace, but will be supported through micro-transactions, which Masuda claims 15 to 20 percent of mobile gamers partake in. (Yeah, maybe in Japan.)

And according to TMCnet, Gree games may be ad-supported as well--just like the recent free version of Hanging with Friends. By November, Gree plans to have at least a few games available in the U.S. Prepare for an epic battle this summer in your smartphone, and not just in Infinity Blade.

Hardcore PC games become Facebook games in a cinch with Overwolf

Well, sans the Neighbor Bars and arguably incessant gift sharing. Overwolf, an Israeli start up company and service, adds a social layer to existing hardcore PC games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. It does this through a free download that allows gamers to post their achievements and milestones in-game to social services like Facebook, Twitter and Skype without having to leave the game.

While GamePro notes that existing services like Steam and Raptr allow players to communicate in-game, Overwolf seemingly turns every hardcore game into, well, a social game. (Not to mention it has support for in-game email and web browsing as well.) But hardcore gamers have hardcore social tastes, so players can record video clips and post them to Facebook and other social channels, again, without leaving the game.

"Publishers are looking for ways to ignite the viral potential of online games, but integration has been difficult, especially with all of the demands of operating live titles," said Overwolf CEO Uri Marchand. "We're offering a way to add this functionality with zero effort required on the publisher's side. We've been getting amazing feedback from gamers telling us they love Overwolf, and it's a great way to engage friends and share their gaming life with their real lives, which has the effect of bringing more users into online games."

With major companies like Activision releasing social networks for their own games like Call of Duty Elite--and Xbox 360 having cross-game social features since its launch--the desire to share is certainly there. And as publishers and start ups alike begin to notice, the lines between Facebook game and hardcore game continue to blur. Services like Overwolf are only the beginning, so it might not be long before the word "social game" becomes moot.

Here's the official Google Games logo, thanks to Google+ source code

Man, you can't hide anything on the Internet anymore, can you? Okay, so we already knew that the Google Games effort is 100 percent happening, thanks to some nerdery at Engadget that found clues referring to it in the recently released Google+ (essentially Google's answer to Facebook) source code.

However, in that same source code, TechCrunch has found a direct link to the official Google Games logo, courtesy of a tipster. Better yet, that tipster found some interesting bits of code that reveal what could be a social gaming service (as if it would be anything else):

    /_/games/getGameFriends
    /_/games/getActivities
    /_/games/postToStream


While none of this is particularly shocking, we'll take all the confirmation of a worthy opponent to Facebook's games platform we can get. And don't think this will be some tacked-on feature to Google+. Earlier this year, the company posted a job offer specifically for its not-so-secret games project.

Google Games
And before that, Google has reportedly invested in numerous Facebook gaming companies including Zynga--not to mention it has already acquired gaming talent like Slide. Will the ultimate social gaming battle be between platforms Facebook and Google rather than creators like Zynga and EA? Our bet is in on both, and we have ringside seats.

Respectable research firm Doritos finds women like games more than sex

We've all heard the chocolate gag, but this is just ridiculous. Doritos--you know, Nacho Cheese?--found during a survey of 2,052 people for its upcoming Facebook game, Doritos Dip Desperado, that women like video games more than sex. Well, at least that's how we're (and everyone else is) spinning it, because crazy statistics like this are fun ... and its Friday.

According to the survey, 49 percent of women admitted to playing "online games," though as GamePro points out: It's not made clear whether these women are bombing cities in Call of Duty or building them up in CityVille. We're going to go with the latter. Regardless, this number is just 1 percent below men, meaning a whole darn lot of folks have their eyes glued to some screen, somewhere.

Of the 49 percent of video game femme fatale, 84 percent said they enjoy gaming sessions, compared to just 70 percent who said they enjoy love making, whoopee, boinking, what have you. (Women also reportedly enjoy games more than having a bath and shopping.) Now, here's the clincher: 23.1 percent of women, according to Doritos, spend more time online playing games than men, who came in at 22.3 percent. Dudes, we know you're digging on Halo more than FarmVille, but maybe it's time you joined the lady--ain't no shame in trying something new.

Activision Blizzard 'methodically investing in mobile and social gaming'

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
Can this love-hate relationship between veteran games publisher Activision Blizzard and Facebook games end now? VentureBeat reports that, during an analyst meeting, Activision CFO Thomas Tippl said that the company is "methodically investing in mobile and social gaming projects." Tippl also went into how the publisher could make a whopping $1.25 billion from new projects that seek new, non-traditional sources of revenue like micro-transactions and in-game purchases. You know, like Facebook and mobile social games?

However, there seems to be a major disconnect in the company's overall ideology between executives, unless Activision is simply telling the right folks what they want to hear. Recently, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg said, "Valuations of some of the companies in that space are out of whack," to Bloomberg at this year's Gamescom event in Cologne, Germany. In the very same interview, Hirshberg hinted that the Call of Duty (pictured) pusher is looking into social games.

And before then, Hirshberg said during the 13th Annual Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum that, "Call of Duty has more players who pay-to-play online than any Facebook game, and our players pay more per player on average than any Facebook game."

What's even better is that before Hirshberg came to hardcore gaming's defense, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick outright revealed that "a lot of work is being done on Facebook games" within the company. Now, it's completely fine for traditional publishers to get into new distribution models than your tried, true and tired retail stores--just look at, well, everybody else.

However, it seems that at least some Activision Blizzard folks are entering Facebook and mobile games kicking and screaming, based on what Hirshberg has been saying compared to his colleagues. (Though, neither Kotick nor Tippl sound particularly thrilled about the whole ordeal, either.)

That said, the publisher would definitely benefit from a more unified--and a little more chipper, eh?--message if it wants to convince Facebook and mobile gamers to hop on board. And based on the way Activision Blizzard has been talking about its social game efforts, we just can't wait to see these games.

Smurfs' Grabber latches onto iPhone, iPad with its puffy, white claws

At this point, mobile gamers are blue with Smurf fever after what I like to call "The Summer of the Smurf." To ring out this smurftastic summer with a bang is yet again Beeline Interactive, Capcom's mobile games arm, with Smurfs' Grabber. Released today--for free, mind you--to App Store, Smurfs' Grabber puts players in control of a giant mechanical Smurf arm in what amounts to a grab machine.

Well, a grab machine with a purpose: It's your job to not only grab as many ingredients from the ground within the allotted 60 seconds you have for each session, but to grab the right ones for a series of potions and other items. Between rounds, you can turn in these items in various quantities and combinations to unlock prizes, namely your fellow Smurfs. These Smurfs bring special powers into your gameplay sessions like dropping presents for bonuses or providing extra XP to level up.

As you continue to grab items, you'll notice that the gameplay is bit more complicated than your standard grab machine. The ingredients have a tendency to do as they please, and will rearrange themselves randomly as you attempt to grab them. So, you can likely already imagine that timing is crucial in Smurfs' Grabber. But don't worry, you'll get to improve your grabbing skills across three differently-themed grab machines with Papa, Smurfette and Greedy Smurf.

Smurfs' Grabber in action
The game doesn't have any Facebook features to speak of--though, they're coming soon--but is integrated with Apple's Game Center to spur some competition. Better yet is the promise that, after a future update, you will be able to grab items in Smurfs' Grabber for your village in Smurfs' Village (yo dawg), Beeline's first Smurfs game. While the game isn't much more than an adorable time-waster at the moment, it could become far more useful to you Smurfs' Village fans once the update arrives.

Again, this smurfable (what?) game is free-to-play, but is supported by in-game purchases, a point Beeline makes terribly clear in the game's description on the App Store. A notice even appears the first time you boot up the game, warning you of the many facets of in-app purchases. Remember, parents: iPad games with mommy and daddy only!