FarmVille LE English Countryside Decorations: English Windmill, Green Creek, Flowery Well & More

A series of seven new decorative / building items were released in FarmVille this evening, with all seven being available in the current limited edition English Countryside item theme. All of these items can be purchased for either your Home Farm or your second farm, but remember, if you want the same item on both farms, you'll have to purchase two.

To start, there are two new buildings to purchase, in the form of the English Town Hall and the English Windmill. The Windmill is actually the more expensive of the two items (presumably because it animates), costing 20 Farm Cash to the English Town Hall's price of 15 Farm Cash. You'll gain a whopping 1500-2000 experience points for purchasing these items, so there's definitely some added incentive to do so if you even remotely like the look of them.

Meet us behind the break for a look at the true decorative items made available this evening.


For the new decorations, there are five items to choose from, with only one costing Farm Cash. That item is the Green Creek, which costs 18 Farm Cash, and features an animated, dark blue creek running through a bit of forest. This item carries on in the theme of items that look to contain a much larger scene than their footprints might otherwise indicate, as there's a lot going on in such a small space.

Some of the coin decorations are just as pretty, although definitely not as complex. There's a Flowery Archway that costs 20,000 coins, a Flowery Well (my favorite of this release) that goes for 80,000 coins, and then two general decorative items - the Hay Pile and Stone Bench which will set you back 2,000 and 10,000 coins each, respectively.


All of these items will be available in the game's store for the next two weeks, so shop fast to make sure you can stock up on all of the decorations you may ever want or need while they are still available. Now if you'll excuse me, my virtual pocketbook is screaming for a shopping trip, and I am going to oblige.

Which of these new decorative or building items is your favorite? What other English Countryside items have you been looking forward to but haven't seen yet?

Game of the Day: Nertz Solitaire

The Game of the Day funky card game that harks back to a simple time! Nertz Solitaire: Just like traditional solitaire, build piles of cards in ascending and descending order. Win by scoring the most points and getting rid of your Nertz pile before your opponent.
Click --> Play Nertz Solitaire

Important side note: Just by playing The Game of the Day you will be entered into a monthly drawing to win a FlipCam HD. You don't need to do anything else, just play! The more you play, the more chances you have to win. For more information on the Game of Day check out the official Game of the Day hub.

FrontierVille Granny's Home Goals: Everything you need to know

The Ponderosa Lodge wasn't enough, I guess. Now, Granny has come to FrontierVille, and she wants an even bigger house to stay in. But in order to score the Adobe Bricks needed to complete the Fancy Cabin upgrade (which seems to only appear in the Market after completing the Lodge), you must complete two sets of tasks for old g-mom. Just don't question why Granny would want an even bigger place. Don't worry, the "Granny's Home" series is almost too easy. Find out for yourself after the break.

1. Granny's Home

    Clobber 1 Snake
    Clobber 1 Bear
    Place the Fancy Cabin


Granny's RockerOf course, finding Snakes and Bears is as easy as clearing debris and chopping down trees, respectively. The Fancy Cabin upgrade will be in the Market to place, though its price is unknown as of this writing. (If you couldn't already tell, this information just recently leaked, so details are scarce.) Finish this mission and 500 XP and a Varmint Surprise await you.

2. Granny's Rocker

    Craft or have 4 Saltpeter
    Craft or have 40 Planks
    Tend 40 Cotton


The 4 Saltpeter are obtained through the Manure Collection, as almost everyone should know, which of course is completed by tending to animals and beating up varmints. In other words, it's going to take a while. The 40 Planks can be crafted in the Wagon for 7 Wood and 250 coins a piece, which will cost 280 Wood and 10 thousand coins total. The 40 Cotton will cost 24 thousand coins and take three whole days to harvest. For completing this Goal, a Granny Rocker, 1,000 XP and 20 Adobe Bricks are yours.

[Source and Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Have you gotten this far in the Cabin Goals already? What do you recommend for completing them the fastest?

Mark Cuban releases new hoops game on Facebook - BattleBall

Mark Cuban, serial entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Schell Games, just announced the release of a new basketball game on Facebook. BattleBall lets users custom create players (pick their clothes, basketballs and backboards) and then take on their fellow Facebook friends on the virtual court.

"BattleBall is taking the love people have for basketball and channeling it into the virtual world," Cuban says. "You can compete with your friends and swat their jumpers into the stands without breaking a sweat. My character has great calves too."

Get a sneak peek at the game below, and read the full review here.



In the meantime, give BattleBall a try for yourself and see what you think. Play Battleball on Facebook now >

Image credit: Facebook

BattleBall on Facebook: Explosive graphics, but where's the game?

"Boy, that sure is a nice tech demo," I thought to myself as I watched lithe street ballers destroy backboards with shattering force in BattleBall's preliminary matches. Standing as one of the few basketball games on Facebook, BattleBall was developed by Schell Games and backed by Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. While the game makes impressive use of the Unity 3D graphics engine, BattleBall sadly does nothing to explore the power of three dimensions. In fact, this game could have easily been presented in Flash-based 2D and absolutely nothing would have been different. Well, the explosions would be less prominent.

But should that be the basis for the quality of a game? Absolutely not. There are plenty of games on Facebook that make effective use of the Unity engine like Milmo and EA Sports PGA Golf. They do this by allowing players to navigate the space and interact with objects in that space. BattleBall does none of that, yet presents its scenarios in flashy 3D graphics and animation.

BattleBall in action
Now, that isn't to say that it looks bad. In fact, this game looks amazing on Facebook. The amount of depth on the court and the details of its surroundings is certainly an accomplishment. (Especially considering its on a platform not even meant for gaming.) But as soon as you begin a shoot-out with an opponent, it's completely out of your hands. Your customized avatar, based on the equipment you provide him through the in-game store, will simply go through the motions. Whether or not your player thwarts your opponents' attempts or sneaks past the opposition to make a reverse dunk--and deplete its health bar--is entirely up to his level and whatever special equipment he has on.

I use the words "your player" because, in reality, you're not an active participant in the explosive dunk mongering. Even correctly timing certain abilities like "Dunk" or "Swat" during the sequences would have introduced some engaging gameplay. It's strikingly odd that the game includes achievements considering none of them would be the result of your skill. Rather, the achievements are more like milestones or tallies of inevitable happenings. As you increase in level, you will gain access to new environments, which are surely a treat to look at, but don't touch!

BattleBall dunk
Well, you can't anyway, so don't worry about it. Aside from the ability to play with your friends asynchronously every few hours and the impressive graphics, BattleBall simply doesn't bring anything new to the table where it counts most in games that revolve around the thrill of competition: gameplay. With such slick animation, BattleBall could be the ultimate basketball game on Facebook, if it introduced deeper interactivity. If you want to help ensure that happens by sticking around, give BattleBall a shot--it has potential in the truckloads.

Click here to play BattleBall on Facebook Now>

Have you tried BattleBall yet on Facebook? What type of gameplay do you want from a sports game on Facebook?

FrontierVille promises faster loadtimes, but actually playing is still painfully slow

This week, FrontierVille rolled out a new feature that is designed to help the game load faster. Basically, the game will store some of its files on your computer's hard drive, which will enable it to load faster.

While this seems to do the trick, actually trying to play the game has been a lag-filled affair that has me starting and restarting my browser, trying to play the game in different browsers and checking to make sure I don't have too many programs (like TweetDeck or Photoshop) running in the background at the same time.



The lag was especially apparent when I finally decided to ride my new horse for the first time. The only phrase that came to mind was 'WTH?' when I watched my lil pioneer and her trusty steed zig-zag ever so molasses-like across the screen.

I did a cursory Google and FrontierVille forum search for 'FrontierVille lag fixes' and came out empty-handed. In the past, I have heard that using Google's Chrome browser will help matters slightly, but I want to know -- when will a more permanent fix be available?

So -- have you been noticing a major lag in the game while playing? Have any tips on how to make FrontierVIlle run faster/more smoothly?

Cafe World Mother's Day Goals: Everything you need to know

Update: Parts 6-8 of the Mother's Day goals have been released. Click here to pick up where this first set leaves off.

In honor of Mother's Day this weekend, Zynga has released a new set of goals in Cafe World celebrating mothers everywhere. Specifically, our friend Amelia needs help finding the perfect gift for her own mother for Mother's Day, and you're just the person to help her out! Thanks to the new Goal Manager, you'll be able to find this set of goals even if it doesn't appear automatically (although it should) - just look out for the three roses with the "1" next to it, and you'll be good to go.

The first mission is called the Perfect Gift, and it starts you off slowly.

Spice 5 Neighbors' Stoves
Serve Belgian Waffles 10 Times
Get 3 Hugs and Kisses

If you haven't guessed already, the Hugs & Kisses are this event's RSVP, meaning that you'll only be ask the same friend to send you an additional Hugs and Kisses item once every 46 or so hours, rather than everyday. As for the Belgian Waffles, they can be cooked for 200 coins and are ready to serve in two hours. For finishing this first goal, you'll receive the World's Best Mom Certificate. The rest of this goal series becomes a bit more complicated. While there are supposed to be eight full goals in this mission series, according to Di's Mingle Network, only the first five are currently available. The extra three goals will likely be released sometime this weekend, and we wouldn't be surprised if a Catering Order came along with it. At any rate, we can see help you get through the first five goals, so let's continue, shall we?

Part II of VIII asks you to ask your friends to send you some nice table-setting decorations, along with serving another dish.

Ask for 5 Flowers
Serve Eggs Benedict 8 Times
Ask for 5 Candles

The Flowers and Candles can be received by simply asking your friends to send them to you, which is convenient, as you'll be able to complete the third task - cooking Eggs Benedict - while you wait for them to arrive. The dish costs 300 coins to cook and takes six hours to prepare. For finishing this goal, you'll receive Mother's Day Flowers. Slowly but surely, Amelia's present is coming together!

In Part III of VIII, you'll unlock your first new recipe for this mission series.

Ask for 5 Touches of Mother's Love
Ask for 7 Candlesticks
Serve Bacon and Eggs 10 Times

Bacon and Eggs and can be cooked for 1,000 coins, and take nine full hours to prepare. Your first new dish is the Breakfast in Bed, which costs 1,500 coins to cook, and takes 12 hours to finish.

For Part IV of VIII, you'll unlock the second of three new dishes currently available, but of course, you'll have to work for it first.

Get 6 Hugs & Kisses
Ask for 7 Red Sugar Cubes
Serve Herbed Halibut 15 Times

Herbed Halibut costs 700 coins and takes one day to complete. As for the Hugs & Kisses, any extra items that you earned at the beginning of this mission series should carry over, so you may not to ask for more, but if so, just ask your friends (again) and you'll be able to move on. Your second new recipe is the Mother's Day Feast, which has stats matching that of the Herbed Halibut - it's ready to serve after a full day of cooking, and costs 700 coins to prepare.

This brings us to Part V of VIII, the current stopping point of this mission series. It will see you putting you last new recipe to work, and will reward you with yet another new dish to serve in your cafe.

Get 8 Hugs & Kisses
Serve Mother's Day Feast 20 Times
Ask for 8 Pink Sugar Sprinkles

The third free dish is the X's and O's Cookies, which may only take 30 minutes to prepare, but costs 1200 coins to cook.

Again, this is (as of this writing), the ending point of this mission series, but with the game clearly labeling this mission series as having eight full parts, we'll make sure to keep an eye on things and will update this space when you can move onto parts six-eight.

Fleck brings social gaming (and zombies) to Google Maps and Facebook

Ever wonder what it would be like to grow trees, build houses, plant flowers and interact with other real world players all on top of Google Maps? No, I hadn't really thought of that either, but the people at Self Aware Games sure have. They've brought their idea to life via Fleck, a new browser-based game that's currently in beta at Fleck.com. Fleck can be signed up for independently, or you can connect to the game via Facebook to easily start playing in less than 10 seconds. It should be noted that Fleck is technically available to play as a game on Facebook by installing the App, but I found the experience to be much more enjoyable when not confined to the small play area on Facebook. You can also play the game on your iPad.

Fleck's gameplay can be most easily thought of as a combination of MMO and the established Facebook social game. You'll enter into a real-time environment populated by dozens or even hundreds of other real-world players, depending on your geographical location, and can then interact with both those players, and the surrounding environment through a variety of activities. The novelty behind Fleck is the game's world - the real world, as seen through Google Maps. That is, each environment in the game represents a real world place, but rather than seeing a completely animated background, filled with static buildings or plant life, you'll see the white lines of streets, green shaded areas representing parks or forested areas and so on - just as though you were looking up a general location via the Google Maps service.
This isn't to say that animation isn't represented here, but that all happens in the foreground. Rather than simply looking at these plain map sections, you'll be able to plant flowers or trees in 3D to make the world come to life digitally. Like in other social games, you'll need to water plants often or they'll die and wither. In fact, all of the major social gaming elements are here. You have both a stamina and a health bar, and XP meter that fills as you complete tasks (watering or harvesting plants or trees and so on), and will unlock new items to purchase in the store as you level up. There are even free gifts to send to your friends, like new flowers that they may not have unlocked on their own otherwise.

While your actions in Fleck are your own, your alterations are seen by all players, just like the world of an MMO. In this is the beauty of the game. Due to its Google Maps backdrop, you can literally travel anywhere within the United States or Canada, so long as you know an address. This allows you to stand on top of your own real-world home, planting flowers on the nearby streets, or, will even let you travel to what may be a particularly shady part of your real-world neighborhood and make it a better place - at least within the game. You can even travel to landmark locations, such as the Statue of Liberty or the Space Needle, without knowing the address, by just typing the name of a particular landmark into the Travel bar.

One of the first places you'll likely visit is your home address, which is encouraged through the game's ample Quest system. You'll be able to place a small house on any particular address in the game, so this only makes sense. Doing so gives you an automatic spawn point whenever you next login to the game. These quests will also introduce you to the many, many features and various platform integrations available in Fleck.

For one, there's a real-time chat window where you can talk to other players, and there's also the ability to connect your Twitter account to your Fleck profile to send themed tweets. In addition, say you've found a particularly pretty area of the map and want to take a picture of it. There's a button for that too - automatically taking and posting a TwitPic if you've allowed for the connectivity. Are you a Yelp fan? Businesses may even pop-up on your map, allowing you to read that real-world business's Yelp reviews, or allow you to purchase the building in-game for coins. While this may be a lot of cross-promotion, none of it seems forced, allowing you to use as much or as little of it as you please.

Oh, and did I mention there are zombies? Every now and again, you'll come across a grave stone in the middle of a map's area. These don't seem to correlate one-to-one with real world cemeteries (that would be a bit too creepy, I think), but once you find one, you'll be able to start a new zombie battle mini-game. The Zombies of fleck are unlike anything I've seen - bright purple mounds of hair that chase you around the map or spit at your from afar. Your character will automatically shoot at the undead, but you need to click around the map to move and avoid being lunch.

Gallery: Fleck


With everything Fleck has to offer, along with its simple novelty, I've found myself pretty hooked right from the start. For the technologically minded, that have Twitter, TwitPic, and Yelp accounts (and so on), or just for those that would like to take a look at places like Disneyland or your local Zoo from a different perspective, Fleck should at least be given a once-over. If you're not won over by its charm, then I guess that just leaves more zombies for me to kill instead.

CityVille Hardware Store upgraded to actually become useful

When the Hardware Store was released in CityVille last month, many players quickly went from excitement to annoyance at the fact that A) You had to use 35 building materials to build it and B) It never really released enough bonus building materials when collected from it, even though we were assured building it would be worth while.

That all has changed with this week's update, however, with Zynga offering two changes. The first will help those that simply stopped before they ever really got started, by removing the requirement to collect any additional building materials to finish your Hardware Store's construction. That's right, even if you had never asked for one of these items from friends, the next time you log into the game, you'll be given the ability to name your automatically completed building.

What's more - we have now been guaranteed to receive some kind of building material (no specific types or order in which they will be found was released) each and every time we collect from the Hardware Store. The Hardware Store takes 160 Goods to operate, so you can collect from the building as often or as little as you'd like, depending on your Goods supply or how many other businesses you have "open" at once. At last - a basically free and easy way to earn building materials without having to bug friends!

CityVille: Help US Tornado victims by purchasing Blueberry crop

Zynga is doing its part to allow its many users to help those victims of the recent tornadoes that devastated the Southern United States by offering a new crop in CityVille for a limited time. The crop is the Blueberry - specifically the "Tornado Relief Fund Blueberries" - and they are available to purchase for 5 City Cash per square. As usual, this low price allows you to plant as many or as few squares of the crop as you want, depending on how much you'd like to donate. Blueberries grow instantly, giving you 275 Goods per square harvested.

Like other donation crops previously released, 100% of the purchase price of blueberries will go to Zynga's partnership with Save the Children to help those in need. However, your chance for donation is slim, as Blueberries will only be available to plant for a single week before they leave the store. If you've been waiting for Zynga to release a way to help the recent tornado victims in CityVille, now is the time so act fast!

Will you purchase Blueberries in CityVille to help those who suffered the terrible tornadoes in the Southern US?

The CityVille Beach expansion is coming after all, Edgar says

Oh, Edgar, you sure know how to keep us on our toes. Zynga could very well unlock the Beach area in CityVille this summer, according to what the in-game character Edgar has to say after players complete the recent Bridge Goals. Soon after players on the forums finished the Platform Bridge and perhaps established a few new businesses or homes, Edgar has appeared. And now, thanks to forum contributor Mark_R, we have this image.

Atop a massive crane with a construction crew and beach supplies beneath him, Edgar says, "We're going to be rich and friends from everywhere will visit! The real estate is perfect for your first hotel, and eventually an entire resort. It's going to be a very fun and busy summer!"

So, there you have it, folks. It looks like the Beach will open up after all, and we'll be there when it happens to reap the benefits with a sprawling vacation resort. (However, we still don't know whether this will be a full expansion or just another content update.) It'll be like going to The Shore--it's a Philly thing--without paying an arm and a leg for a hotel stay. That said, color us excited.

E3 2011: Playfish hee-haws in 'Risk: Factions' debut trailer

Last week at E3, Playfish debuted a trailer of their latest Facebook title, Risk: Factions, a game that looks to be setting itself up as competition to Zynga's latest hit, Empires & Allies. But unlike E&A, which borrows heavily from another Zynga game, CityVille, Playfish's game is spun off of a platform game by its parent company, Electronic Arts. And also unlike E&A, Playfish is definitely after a different demographic than Zynga.

So while a carrot-chomping donkey with 'Bad Ass' tattooed on its rear doesn't exactly scream 'grizzlied, battle-hardened space Marine', if you're a fan of the critically acclaimed StarCraft II (made by Blizzard, the same folks who created 'World of Warcraft'), then Playfish has you in on the joke.

Even if the Playfish spoof is pretty funny as a standalone sequence, if you want to fully appreciate the silliness, I recommending seeing the original StarCraft II trailer here.

CityVille Pigeon Invasion: Everything you need to know

CityVille Pigeon Invasion
Hey, just be happy this isn't as serious as how Hitchcock envisioned it. Pigeons have invaded CityVille, and it's up to you and your City Hall employees to put a stop to it the old-fashioned way, rampant friend requests. However, this is a timed event, so you'll only have 24 hours to get rid of those pigeons for some sweet rewards like 10 thousand Coins, 40 XP or three Zoning Permits. Luckily for you, we're experts at winged-rat removal. So, join us behind the break to find out how to put an end to these pests.

CityVille Pigeon IconBefore we get into how to get rid of these pigeons, let's iron out a few details. First, you must be Level 15 and have at least one City Hall to be eligible. These Goals can only be completed once, and if you have multiple City Halls the most recently built one or the one with the most crew will become infested. And finally, if you've had Samantha run a few City Hall positions up until this point, you'll have the option to fill those positions with real friends (which we highly recommend). Now, to out-pester those pests with some friend power.

When you collect from your City Hall, there will be a chance to see an icon with a pigeon on it hovering over your building. This, of course, means your City Hall has been invaded by pigeons. Click on the building, and a menu will appear titled "Major Pigeon Invasion." Do not click "Start Mission" until you're absolutely ready, as you only have 24 hours to complete this. (A Level 3 City Hall gets 48 hours.)

When you see the below window, it's time to ask your friends for some help. Just click the "Post Help Request" button, which will post a News Feed to that friends' wall, but also will place a pigeon icon next to your face on their Neighbor Bar. This is especially helpful if your friends have email alerts or News Feed posts turned off. Your rewards by the time the 24 or 48 hours is up will increase depending on how many friends help you out, and the number required increases with your City Hall level.

Major Pigeon Invasion

Rewards:

    Prize Level 1: 10,000 Coins
    Prize Level 2: 40 Experience
    Prize Level 3: 3 Zoning Permits


Keep in mind that rewards stack, meaning if you make it Level 2 or 3, you will receive the rewards for the previous levels as well. Then, the waiting game begins, but you can track which rewards you've already won in the Goal window before the timer runs out.

CityVille Pigeon News Feed
Responding to a help request is a simple as combing your News Feed for posts from your friends (and clicking the words "Help Out") or clicking on friends' icons on the Neighbor Bar that are adorned with that pigeon icon. Then, you'll be taken to your friend's city where you'll have to click on their City Hall. Next, find your name and simply click "Help Friend." When the Goal is finally through, you can share extra rewards with every staff member that helped out.

FrontierVille: Bear Collection no longer offers Animal Ready Boosts

Update: This seems to have been reversed, as the Bear Collection once again reads "One Animal Ready Boost." Thanks Zynga.

For months now, FrontierVille players have been stockpiling items from the Bear Collection so that they could turn that collection in time and time again for Animal Ready Boosts. These Boosts would then work to make every animal (not in a storage building) ready to be fed again, thus greatly speeding up the process of raising a baby animal to adulthood without having to wait the technically required amount of time for them to become hungry on their own.

Imagine our frustration then, and even downright shock, when discovering that Zynga had changed the rewards of the Bear Collection from this very, very useful Boost to something far more disappointing: One Clothing and two Cow Ready Boosts. That's right - regardless of how many Bear items you've saved, or how many Stuffed Bears you have on your land to spawn collectibles, the entire collection is now rendered basically useless. I hope you had been keeping up on trading in your Bear Collection as soon as you completed it, as you're now left with the option of purchasing just single animal Boosts from the General Store for Horseshoes.

Just like that, we've lost this great system of animal growth, but perhaps with enough public outcry, the FrontierVille team will see the error in their ways and change things back. We can only hope so.

FrontierVille Bug Report: The Case of the Disappearing Animals

While some bugs and glitches in FrontierVille can actually be large enough to negatively impact the way we play the game, we've discovered another bug that's just downright head-scratching. When logging into my Homestead, I scanned to my livestock area only to find a large empty space in the middle of my injured and mystery animals. My Spring Bears had completely disappeared from my land!

I hadn't sold the Bears, and I hadn't moved them to another area on my Homestead; they had simply vanished, without a trace. Thinking that a simple refresh of the game might fix matters, I was left to discover that while my Spring Bears had returned, my entire collection of Lynxes had now disappeared instead! Refreshing the game a second time seemed to fix matters, but only temporarily, as I've continued to discover missing patches of animals when logging in at different times over the past few hours. I suppose the fact that refreshing often makes them reappear makes this a bug that we really shouldn't worry about, but it is something to keep in mind all the same. Don't panic and start buying additional Cows, Goats, Mules and the like, if they start "disappearing" as well - save those coins for something else.

If this bug becomes any more widespread, or looks to cause some actual damage to our games, we'll make sure to update this space.

Nintendo goes Wii U trademark crazy, will U and I enjoy these games?

Now that we know a great deal about Nintendo's upcoming tablet console, Wii U, it's time for some good old speculation. That's about all we can do with the news from Siliconera that the Mario creator has registered trademarks for a number of Wii game brands given the "U" treatment like "Wii Sports U, " "WiiWare U" and 23 more potential projects. Take a look at the list in full:

    Wii U + logo
    Mii U
    Wii Fit U
    Wii Sports U
    Wii Music U
    Wii Party U
    Wii Play U
    WiiWare U
    Wii Balance Board U
    Balance Wii Board U
    Wii Wheel U
    Wii Zapper U
    Wii U Fit
    Wii U Music
    Wii U Party
    Wii U Sports
    Wii U Play
    Wii U Ware
    Wii U Balance Board
    Balance Wii U Board
    Wii U Wheel
    Wii U Zapper
    Wii Speak U
    Wii U Speak
    Shield Pose


Alright, so some of these are obvious, not to mention that it's entirely possible that Nintendo simply registered these to avoid other companies hopping on the coattails of its good name. (Though, we're surprised these didn't come about sooner.) However, don't you think Nintendo would be, well, dumb not to release "U" versions of its crazy successful Wii-branded games and controllers? And besides, we've already seen tech demos for a bunch of these trademarks in tandem with the Wii U's 6-inch tablet like the Wii Balance Board and Wii Zapper connected to a Wii U controller.

And that "Shield Pose" trademark was actually the name of one of the demo's Nintendo showed at this year's E3 event. So, there's definitely a possibility that, since Nintendo went so far as to trademark it, that it could be included as a mini game in something like "Wii Play U." But that's all these trademarks are at the moment--possibilities. We know, 2012 cannot come soon enough.

[Via Kotaku]

What do you make of this list of Nintendo trademarks? Do you think it's just Nintendo squatting to keep other companies out, or that some of these might lead to actual Wii U games?

FarmVille Sneak Peek: Tasty Truffle Trees joined by Merens Pony

You know, I think there's a reason why advertisers have fallen in love with FarmVille. After looking at these Truffle Trees in this next Sneak Peek, I (and probably you) just can't help but crave something sweet. There's not much information available on these upcoming fudge-filled pieces of foliage.

However, FarmVille Feed guesses that they'll release with an extension of the Parisian Theme. Like most trees, and this is just a guess, these will probably release through Mystery Seedlings and later into the Market for Farm Cash.

As for this adorable Merens Pony, which will also likely be part of an extension to the Parisian Theme, as these doe-eyed horses reign from the Pyrenees mountains in southern France (and Spain). However, Horses have been released outside of a theme plenty of times, like the random Dartmoor Pony gift many of us received recently. Well, until you can see these items in-game, enjoy the pretty pictures.

Merens Pony
Truffle Trees
[Image Credit: FarmVille Feed]

Which of these two unreleased items are you more excited about? How badly do you want a truffle right now?

FarmVille Pic of the Day: This maze doesn't beat around the bush

In case you missed it, yesterday I featured a farm that was almost completely covered by a massive hedge maze. But while it looked aesthetically pleasing, it wasn't the hardest maze to complete. So if you haven't solved yesterday's featured FarmVille maze farm, I suggest you go check it out now.

Otherwise, I invite you to solve this new maze. Cotopaxi's labyrinth was nicely spaced and had a nice square design. Today's featured FarmVille maze, while not as pretty, is just plain difficult. Also, it doesn't look like the farm artist ever finished the maze. All that open space must have originally been for the hedge maze, but the starving artist ran out of money. Imagine how hard the full sized maze would have been...

Unfortunately, as of posting this FarmVille Pic of the Day, I still have not solved this puzzle.

Have you been able to solve today's featured FarmVille maze?

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

Try Fruit Ninja for free on Android before it dices up Facebook

Look, we know Fruit Ninja is coming to Facebook (and Kinect, mind you) soon enough. But if you've yet to try it, do yourself a favor and correct that now. After minutes turned into hours of slicing juicy digital fruit with the tip of my finger on (my friend's) iPad, I can't say I've had a better time with a mobile game. And, for the Android fans out there, you're in the best of luck, as developer Halfbrick announced that Fruit Ninja is available for free on the Android Market. Forever.

Pocket Gamer reports that, like Zynga games Hanging with Friends and Words with Friends, its razor sharp game will now be ad-supported. That means, in lieu of a price tag, Android players can enjoy the game for zilch--but with a dash of adverts. And better yet, the game includes Classic, Zen and Arcade modes. (Well, that's like ... the whole game, right?) Pretty much.

Look, if you haven't downloaded the game after reading two paragraphs on it, there's pretty much no excuse for it. The game just entered its alpha testing phase on Facebook, so you have a while to get addicted adjusted.

Click here to download Fruit Ninja for Android free >

Have you downloaded Fruit Ninja on Android yet? Um, why? Do you think the game will be as much of a hit on Facebook as it is elsewhere?

Empires & Allies is down for the count (for some), Zynga is on the case

No, Empires & Allies isn't down in fear of your reign of terror across the populous. However, according to community manager General Dogsworth, the game is not loading for a small amount of players. While he says that Zynga is working on a solution, but the main issue still has yet to be resolved as of 10:52 a.m. PST, or just under an hour ago as of this writing. Here's Dogsworth--ahem, General Dogsworth's--statement in full:

"LATEST Update 10:52am: There was a brief Amazon server outage this morning which caused additional players to be unable to load their Empires. This has been resolved. Work on the original issue, however, is still in progress. Update 7:20pm PDT: Work on the issue is still in progress! Update 4:34pm PDT: We have isolated the problem, and are actively working to fix it. We will update this post as we know more! A small number of players are currently unable to load their Empire! The game will load to about 90% and then the screen will stall, preventing them from entering the game."

However, the game is working just fine and dandy for me. Then again, Zynga did say the number of people affected is small, but just how small. We want to figure that out, so why don't you answer one of our handy polls:

Is Empires & Allies not loading for you?
Yes, it's so annoying! I just want to invade some more.No, actually. My reign of terror is just fine, thank you.I haven't been on today to notice.Wait, people play this game? (Yes, about 45 million.)
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Have any idea or guess why E&A might be down? Want somewhere to vent?

Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips: A Characters Guide

And you thought CityVille Hometown was full of character. When it comes to sheer volume, Zynga outdid itself with Empires & Allies cast of goofballs behind the massive weaponry you destroy. Let's just put it this way, Game of Thrones is to premium TV what Empires & Allies is to Facebook games. It's tough to keep up with it all, but we're here to help. Here's everything you need to know about every character thus far in the game (Click the images for larger views):

Allies:

Scarlett -- Scarlett is essentially the main character in Empires & Allies. She's the Frontier Jack or CityVille Samantha to this game, meaning she is your tour guide throughout. This is the first character you'll enjoy the presence of in the game, and likely the last face you'll see before logging off at night. While she's just an adviser, she clearly has some personal investment in the outcome of this war.

Mac -- Formally known as McCann, this military engineer is all about building things. (Did the nickname give it away?) This character seems to appear whenever Goals involve building a new structure. So, whenever you see his icon appear in the left of your screen, you can expect to build something whether it be industrial, residential or military. He's also in charge of expanding your Empire, so veteran players have seen this fella' a lot. (He's kinda' built like a Mac Truck, huh?)

Scarlett     Mac     Sarah     Cross
Left to Right: Scarlett, Mac, Sarah, Cross

Sarah -- Another of your advisers, Sarah handles everything housing. Whenever you see her icon appear in your list of Goals, you know housing will be involved for whatever reason. Well, mostly to buy and build it. Okay, that's about all she's there for.

Cross -- This is one hard dude. Cross is the military adviser for you in the game. Whenever a Goal involves military action like campaign battles, it's Cross that will guide your way. Wait, he kinda looks like Sgt. Maj. Johnson from Halo. (I see what you did there, Zynga.)

Steele -- This is actually your first Neighbor in the game, not Scarlett, which would have been tradition. He essentially teaches the player all about friend relations and, more importantly, invasions. It's this guy you have to thank for your tyrannous playing habits.

Mercenaries:

This type of character isn't your normal NPC, really. It's just a shell of a character to represent a bonus power-up during battle. It gives a nice feel to choosing a power-up. However, Mercenaries almost always cost Empire Points, or are featured as rewards from within the game. More powerful mercenaries unlock naturally as you progress.

Cougar     D-Day     Echo     Flygirl
Left to Right: Cougar, D-Day, Echo, Flygirl

Ace (Level 10, 5 Empire Points):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    EMP I


Flygirl (Level 11; 6 Empire Points; Available After Battle 6 of Mercadia I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I


Cougar (Level 25; 11 Empire Points; Available After Battle 8 of Pacificor I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I
    Poison Gas I
    Field Repairs II
    Explosive Ammo II
    Air Strike II
    Missile Attack II
    Hunker Down II
    Target Jammer II
    Accuracy II


D-Day (Level 14 Mercenary; 8 Empire Points; Available After Battle 8 of Isla Azul I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I


Foxtrot     Salty     Slick     Stonewall
Left to Right: Foxtrot, Salty, Slick, Stonewall

Echo (Level 20; 10 Empire Points; Available After Battle 7 of Pacificor I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I
    Poison Gas I
    Field Repairs II
    Explosive Ammo II
    Air Strike II
    Missile Attack II


Foxtrot (Level 35 Mercenary, 13 Empire Points; Available After Battle 8 of Avaron I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I
    Poison Gas I
    Field Repairs II
    Explosive Ammo II
    Air Strike II
    Missile Attack II
    Hunker Down II
    Target Jammer II
    Accuracy II
    Evasion II
    EMP II
    Poison Gas II
    Field Repairs III
    Explosive Ammo III
    Air Strike III


Salty (Level 10; 5 Empire Points; Available After Battle 5 of Cape Pleasant II):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    EMP I


Slick (Level 30; 12 Empire Points; Available After Battle 8 of Tranquility Cove I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I
    Poison Gas I
    Field Repairs II
    Explosive Ammo II
    Air Strike II
    Missile Attack II
    Hunker Down II
    Target Jammer II
    Accuracy II
    Evasion II
    EMP II
    Poison Gas II


The Admiral     Wingo
The Admiral and Wingo

Stonewall (Level 15; 9 Empire Point; Available After Battle 9 of Lobster Bay I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I
    Poison Gas I


The Admiral (Level 12,; 6 Empire Points; Available After Battle 7 of Reef Haven I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I


Wingo (Level 13: 7 Empire Points; Available After Battle 8 of Teramar I):

    Field Repairs I
    Explosive Ammo I
    Air Strike I
    Missile Attack I
    Hunker Down I
    Target Jammer I
    Accuracy I
    Evasion I
    EMP I


The Dark Alliance:

Kai Tana -- This master of the katana (get it?) is the second boss in Empires & Allies. You must fend her off from the Mercadia, and defeating her unlocks The Ripper.

Jada Bombs -- While this character looks as if she was ripped out of a blaxploitation flick, she's not to be messed with. The third boss in the Campaign Mode, Jada Bombs attempts to control the Reef Haven. Whooping her unlocks the The Honey Badger (look it up on YouTube, and you'll get it).

Baron Crashalot     Beau LeChomp     Captain Krunsch     Dirk Mollman
Left to Right: Captain Crashalot, Beau LeChomp, Captain Krunsch, Dirck Mollman

Captain Krunsch -- The first boss in the entire campaign, this guy looks right out of the Goonies. Can someone say, "Sloth?" You'll crush his attempts at taking over Cape Pleasant, and score yourself The Butcher. I guess he's also a knock on Captain Crunch cereal.

Baron Crashalot -- Just by this guy's name, you can already tell he's a terrible opponent. This wimp protects Teramar, but making him crash a lot will unlock The Bandit, a slick fighter jet. Though, not until later on--this is the fourth boss of the game.

Gina and Tina Graves -- These two weirdo ... zombie-looking gals rule the fifth encounter zone, Isla Azul. After defeating the voodoo vixens, you'll receive a tank called The Hammerhead.

Professor von Helman -- Basically the mad scientist of this strategy game, von Helman attempts to scare the Lobster Bay into submission. Spook him off, and The Nightmare, a ghoulish zeppelin, will be yours.

Jada Bombs     Kai Tana     Kung Fucious     Malady Burns
Left to Right: Jada Bombs, Kai Tana, Kung Fucious, Malady Burns

Dirk Mollman -- This subterranean creeper is the seventh boss in the game, and beating him out of Pacificor will unleash the Penetrator tank on your enemies.

Malady Burns -- The eighth boss of the game, Malady Burns is like the Harley Quinn (Batman, anyone?) or this game. Sticking her with one of those poison needles will unlock the Reaper battleship.

Beau LeChomp -- The ninth boss in the game, this seemingly French man of the Louisiana bayou is occupying the Tranquility Cove. Give him a smack around to unlock the hovercraft, The Guillotine.

Professor von Helman     Sgt. Dan O'Might     The Dutchess     The Eel
Left to Right: Professor von Helman, Sgt. Dan O'Might, The Dutchess, The Eel

The Eel -- This super secret spy protects the Avaron, the 10th group of islands on the campaign map. Uncover his secrets in battle and unlock the Black Widow fighter jet.

Sgt. Dan O'Might -- This guy seems to love when things go boom. Make his explosives go boom in his face on the 11th area, the Blister Reef, for The Jackal, a new Ground unit.

Kung Fucius -- Now, this guy might put Jackie Chan to shame. This nunchaku-wielding kung fu master runs the Ithmar section of islands. Break his focus across 35 battles to win the The Cutthroat, a new battleship.

Tina and Gina Graves     The Raven     Viper
Left to Right: The Graves Twins, The Raven, Viper

The Dutchess -- This is Raven's (the leader of the Dark Alliance) girlfriend--freaky. Boot her out of the San Topaz island in the 13th stage for a new Ground unit called The Executioner.

Viper -- Geez, why didn't Zynga just grab the rights to Rambo? Viper runs the 14th area of the game, Corte Marino, and gives up The Cobra, a Ground unit.

The Raven -- The ultimate villain in this game. The 15th and final fight against the Dr. Evil of sorts of Empires & Allies is fought on Skull Island, and his defeat (?) will unlock Then Raven, and impressive battleship, not to mention a major spoiler.

[Source and Image Credit: Empires & Allies Wiki]

Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips right here.

Which within this laundry list of characters is your favorite? Do you characters in your social games?

Empires & Allies Air Force Research Labs: Everything you need to know

And with that, the trio of unit upgrade buildings in Empires & Allies is complete. While we've been given the ability to upgrade both ground troops and even naval troops over the past few weeks, the Air Force is just now getting into the upgrading game, as the Air Force Research Lab is now available to build in Empires everywhere (that is, if you can actually get your Empire to load - yikes!).

You'll be greeted with a new goal upon logging into your Empire, which will simply have you placing an Air Force Research Lab on your land and whacking it three times to finish its construction. Once that's complete, you can start researching upgrades on the various air units that you've currently unlocked to build in Hangers. That is, even though you can eventually upgrade a Stealth Bomber, for instance, you wouldn't be able to research any upgrades for it until level 47.

You should be pretty familiar with the upgrading process by this point, but if not, here's a recap. You'll first need to research each particular unit type (Vintage Fighters, Zeppelin Airships and Vintage Bombers being the first three) by collecting items like Upgrade Blueprints, Welding Kits, Ejector Seats and so on, with different items being required for different units. Once you have collected all of these items, you'll finally be able to actually upgrade your units, giving them increased damage and accuracy, reducing the time it takes to build them, etc.

You can only upgrade one particular stat at a time, and each upgrade takes some time to complete. It's worth it though, as you'll be able to carry over these upgrades automatically to all units of that type that you currently own, along with any you happen to build in the future. If you're looking for that extra edge against a story-based opponent, or even just looking for a better chance when invading friends' Empires, upgrading your units is a pretty good way to go. Now that you're able to upgrade your Air Force units, on top of ground and naval units, you're ready to build the best army yet, so get out there soldier!

Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips right here.

Do you actively use your other Research Labs? Will you actively upgrade your Air Force units as well, or have you not noticed a difference / improvement in other kinds of troops that you've upgraded?

PlaySay uses Facebook friends as language lessons to get you to 'Hola'

Following its debut at TechCrunch Disrupt, the giant startup launch conference in San Francisco, PlaySay is now playable for budding linguists and aspiring polyglots on Facebook.

Founder Ryan Meinzer, who has already acquired over $570K in funding, as well as a partnership with McGraw Hill, came up with PlaySay while trying to learn Japanese in Japan. Right now, PlaySay is only teaching Spanish. But Meinzer wants to use players' Facebook friends as social lures to spread interest in non-English languages.

PlaySay does this with random Flickr photos (under the Creative Commons license) and tagged photos of your Facebook friends. This part of it works like flash cards. You'll look at photos and get asked questions en español, such as, "Is your friend in this photo?", "Which friend is this?" or "Is this a photo of a girl?" Not very sophisticated stuff, but when audio is included, the potential for tougher lessons grows.



You can also post a status to Facebook via PlaySay, and then friends can click on it and get a small quiz about the meaning of what you posted. Meinzer's logic is, "Your Facebook friends are your new classmates. Check ins, status updates and pictures are your course materials." Basically, he's banking on your most curious and nosy friends to go the extra mile.

Trivia and quiz games aside (e.g. Who Want to Be a Millionaire), there really aren't any educational Facebook games right now. At one point, I fantasized that Crowdstar's Happy Aquarium or Zynga's FishVille would actually teach people about real aquarium-keeping because both use virtualized real fish in their games, but no dice. Instead, Zynga flailed in the tank with things like Fish Battle Arena.

Gallery: PlaySay

One downside to PlaySay's reliance on tagged photos is that people don't always tag photos that have them in it. And sometimes, friends tag other friends onto something to circumvent privacy settings or to just get their attention. Hence, I got asked by PlaySay, "Is one of your friends in this photo?" while I was shown a photo of a sneaker, and then told I got my answer wrong when I said the sneaker wasn't my friend. All Facebook beta game launches undergo some buggy rite of passage, but PlaySay will have to anticipate problems that no bug fixes will solve. Mind you, it's not that I particularly want them solved, because seeing that sneaker was actually pretty darn funny.

To keep track of PlaySay's development follow its official Facebook fan page.

Click here to play PlaySay on Facebook now >

How important do you think it is to learn another language? Would you like to see more educational games on Facebook?

Dunkin' Donuts pushes its brand with a free Sims Social Lawn Chair

Dunkin' Donuts strikes again in The Sims Social. On top of all the free fan gifts from Playfish and EA rolling out daily on the game's official fan page, the American coffee-and-donuts chain has chipped in for the first Sims Social-branded virtual item in the form of an exclusive Dunkin' Donuts Lawn Chair.

To get the chair, you've got to 'like' the official Dunkin' Donuts Facebook page here and then head over to the section of the page titled "DD & The Sims Social".

Owning the lawn chair adds 250 points to your house value, which is a modest, but no small amount. It also sells for 15 Simoleons, which is chump change, but hey, free furniture! And lastly, the chair comes with a bit of extra animation.

Just click on the chair, and your Sim will get the option to "Sit" or "Drink Dunkin' Donuts Coffee". So kick back, and watch your Sim lie down on the chair to sip from a steamy cup.
Dunkin Donuts Sims Social Lawn Chair
Do you enjoy branded goods in games? Do you think it makes them more realistic?

Pioneer Trail Ice Shed: Everything you need to know

Just days ago, we saw the launch of the Potting Shed in Pioneer Trail, and now we've seen another "shed" added to the game. This one, the Ice Shed, will allow you to "keep your milk cold," while receiving Critter Milk for free everyday. You'll unlock two new animals via the construction of this building, and will also have a couple of goals to complete along the way. Here's a complete guide to the Ice Shed, so get our your hammers and get ready to build! Note: This feature may not be available to all players as of this writing.

Once this update rolls around to you, you can either place the base right away, or you can purchase it from the store at a later time if you choose to finish some other tasks first. Once you place it, you'll need to gather plenty of building ingredients: 10 each of Rivets, Sheet Metal and Warm Gloves, along with 15 each of Ice Boxes, Saw Dust piles and Insulation. These final three items are earned through individual gift requests sent to friends, while the former trio are earned through general news feed posts.

Once built, your Ice Shed will give you access to free Critter Milk everyday when collecting the building's Daily Bonus, and you'll also receive a free Dairy Cow (that goes by the name of Daisy) once you finish the building's two goals:

Milk Cooler

    Place Ice Shed
    Tend 25 Adult Cows
    Collect 15 Blocks of Ice


You'll need to ask your friends for the Blocks of Ice, as you might expect. For finishing this first of two goals, you'll receive 500 XP, 1,000 coins and a single bottle of Critter Milk.

Stockpiling

    Tend 15 Neighbor Goats
    Tend 15 Pigmy Goats
    Collect 15 Glass Milk Bottles


Again, you'll finish this collection task by asking your friends to help you, while you'll need to visit at least three neighbors for all of those regular Goats. As for the Pygmy Goat, it becomes available to purchase in the store once you've completed your Ice Shed. If your friends beat you to it, it looks like you can tend their Pygmy Goats instead. Finish this goal and you'll receive 800 XP and the Daisy Dairy Cow that I told you about earlier.

All told, this is a fairly simple and straightforward building project and goal series (albeit probably a bit time consuming), so just make sure to take a few seconds out of your day to ask for these building pieces and you'll eventually finish both off.

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

What do you think of the Ice Shed in Pioneer Trail? What other sorts of items would you like to receive free from buildings, if not Critter Milk?

Cafe World 2 Year Anniversary Winston's Royals Goals: Everything you need to know

I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, chefs (I really do), but it looks like there's a new goal series - actually, an entire event - now taking place in Cafe World celebrating the game's two year anniversary. Via this (apparently first?) goal series, you'll be helping Winston prepare a feast fit for a King, because you are indeed cooking for Royals (our anniversary celebration includes a vacation to Britain). There are new dishes up for grabs in these goals, and if you can finish them all within the next 18 days, you'll have the ability to repeat them to earn all of the dishes therein. Yes, that's right, two of your favorite things are present here - repeatable goals and a time limit. While I know that not all of you out there are opposed to such things, there are plenty more who are, so we'll try to help you through these goals at least once with our guide.

Winston's Royals 1

    Ask for 3 old British Recipe Cards
    Spice 6 of your own dishes
    Place the High Table Tea Party


First, the High Table Tea Party is a new building project that we'll have a guide for as soon as possible and you can check out our guide to building it right here. In the meantime, don't panic about the spice task; if you have any extra Salts or Peppers lying around, just use those. Meanwhile, as your friends for the Recipe Cards. Finishing this goal gives you five Travel Passes. These are a huge element of this event, as they'll give you a chance to win real-world prizes like trips "around the world," or in-game items like Stoves and Cafe Cash, and you'll have the ability to collect literally hundreds of them throughout the entirety of this event.

Winston's Royals 2

    Ask for 4 British Postcards
    Collect 2 Anniversary Collection Items
    Serve 10 French Onion Soups


French Onion Soup can be served after four hours. Meanwhile, the Anniversary Collection comes with five new items that you can earn by using spices on your dishes. Finishing this goal gives you 10 more Travel Passes.

Winston's Royals 3

    Ask for 6 Old British Recipe Cards
    Spice 10 Neighbor Dishes
    Serve 15 Angel Fruit Cakes


Angel Fruit Cake takes 8 hours to cook. Also, when visiting your neighbors, make sure to spice cooking dishes, and not just stoves. It's possible the latter would count, but there's always a chance that it won't. Better safe than sorry, no? Finish off this third goal and you'll earn - you guessed it - more Travel Passes, 15 to be exact.

Winston's Royals 4

    Ask for 7 British Postcards
    Serve 2 Dishes with the Pastry Station
    Serve 25 Gem Cakes


Here's where things get a bit complicated, as you'll have to worry about cooking dishes on your stoves and in the Pastry Station. If you've yet to build your Pastry Station, here's a complete guide to doing so. As for the Gem Cake, it takes 12 hours to prepare. Finish off this goal for 20 more Travel Passes.

Winston's Royals 5

    Ask for 10 Old British Recipe Cards
    Serve 18 Chocolate Creme Brulee
    Complete the High Tea Party Table


Chocolate Creme Brulee is a specialty coffee drink found in the Coffee Machine. You will need to have hired Becky the Barista in order to unlock it. For finishing off this last goal, you'll receive a whopping 500 Travel Passes along with a Mystery Prize in the form of a new recipe. This new recipe will most likely be Yorkshire Pudding, although there are three others that might appear in random order as you repeat the goal series. These are the Bangers and Mash, Shepherd's Pie and Salmon Mousse.

As we mentioned before, Winston's Royals looks to be just the first of many goal series available in this two-year anniversary event. While it's unclear whether or not the 18 days applies to just Winston's Royals, or to the entire event, we do know that we'll eventually travel to other countries and unlock other rewards. In the meantime, here's a complete checklist of the "British" tasks you can complete, which can be found in your own game at any time (click on the airline ticket in the right-side menu).

Good luck completing these goals and earning all of the rewards in time!

What do you think of the Winston's Royals goals and the two-year anniversary event as a whole?

Cafe World High Tea Table: Everything you need to know

As we told you earlier today, the High Tea Table in Cafe World is but a small part in a much larger event in the game celebrating the two-year anniversary. Within this celebration are sections split into different countries, with the first destination being Great Britain. As part of the goal series for this section - Winston's Royals - you'll need to build the High Tea Table, so we're here to help you figure out how to do just that.

The High Tea Table's base can be added to your cafe for free by looking under the Specials tab of the Functional menu. Once placed, you'll have the expected task of gathering multiple building ingredients with your friends' help. You'll need eight Fancy Tea Pots, 10 Delicate Teacups, six Silver Platters and 6 sets of Cream and Sugar dishes. Only the Fancy Tea Pot is earned through a general news post - you'll need to gather the other three items either using Cafe Cash or by sending out individual requests to your friends for help.

Once completed, this table has more of a function that simply looking pretty, as it gives you extra mastery points when serving "British" dishes. Remember, you can sort your Cookbook by nationality, so if you're looking to quickly master some dishes, go for these British offerings as you'll earn +1 point of extra mastery each time you serve a British dish with this table out and active in your cafe.

What do you think of the High Tea Table? Are you looking forward to serving high tea to the "Royals" in your cafe, or are you tired of endless building projects?

CityVille Neighborhoods: Everything you need to know

Check out our CityVille Neighborhoods Goals Guide right here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do you think of the Neighborhoods feature? Is the space you saved substantial enough to warrant building them?

CityVille Neighborhood Goals: Everything you need to know

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

Neighborhood Watch!

    Build a Neighborhood
    Place 2 Residences into a Neighborhood


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

Block Party

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


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

Movin' On Up

    Unlock Block 2
    Fill Block 2


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

Welcome Wagon

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


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

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

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

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

Survey: Nearly 20 percent of social game fans are brand new gamers

And you claim to "dabble" in FarmVille and the like--we're onto you. A new survey by Bejeweled Blitz maker PopCap and Information Solutions Group found that 68 percent of social gamers play said games at least once daily. That amounts to 81 million players, while a still-impressive 49 million (41 percent) report playing social games multiple times daily.

The survey was completed by 1,201 people (801 in the U.S. and 400 in the UK) who reported playing social games more than 15 minutes a week. All in all, according to this survey, social games are on the rise, but you already knew that. What's important to note is that 17 percent of all social gamers have never played a video game before. (According to the survey, they're mostly 50 plus women.) While much smaller than you might have imagined, it's without a doubt that the genre has literally created a new breed of gamer.

As these new social gamers continue to invest themselves in their favorite Facebook games more traditional companies will undoubtedly attempt to garner their attention. Of course, these folks will have different expectations of what a video game actually is, and therefore change how games are made ... perhaps across the board.

And, according to the survey, more folks between 18 and 29 years old are playing social games, who have more likely than not played video games before. When new demographics crop up in any industry, they're almost immediately targeted. The social games movement will be no different, and color us intrigued to see the results. Click here to see the full survey.

Do you consider yourself a new breed of gamer, or one that's simply taken an interest to social games? How do you think social games will continue to change video games across the board?

CastleVille: Zynga's next 'Ville' is now live on Facebook

FarmVille and CityVille-maker Zynga's next new game, CastleVille, is now live on Facebook. The game is best described as FrontierVille meets Medieval Times, and the goal of the game is to build your kingdom by completing missions, exploring new territories and helping friends do the same. If you've played other Zynga games, this will feel instantly familiar, save for a few new enhanced features. Whether that's enough new stuff to get (and keep) Facebook gamers interested remains to be seen.

Click here to play CastleVille now & stay tuned for our first impressions and getting started guides.

Psst! Want to make new friends to play CastleVille with? Head over to our new CastleVille "Add Me" page for details on how to do just that.

You'll only find Ford's 2013 Escape through a sweet triple-word score

The next thing we think of when thinking SUVs certainly isn't word games, but we'll bite. Zynga has announced that Ford Motor Company will reveal its 2013 Ford Escape through Words With Friends starting tomorrow, Nov. 15, on Facebook. Social wordsmiths in the U.S. will get to play a larger version of the game along with actress Jenny McCarthy live.

Again, not seeing the connection, but we'll humor it. From what's gathered in the announcement, Jenny will play Words With Friends on a giant game board in Los Angeles tomorrow from 8 to 9 p.m. EST at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Players from around the country can tune into the live game as an online broadcast through the Ford Escape Facebook page and Ford's Livestream page, and submit their own word choices to Jenny.

"We're always looking for fun ways to celebrate and give back to our players," Zynga With Friends GM Paul Bettner said in a release. "Creating a huge, live game, and pitting our players against Jenny on a single day is going to be a lot of fun, and we're excited Ford has helped put our game up in lights."

The whole promotion is reminiscent of Toyota's recent Social Network Racer, which was designed to unveil the company's new concept car. It's still unclear how exactly playing Words With Friends will ultimately reveal the brand new compact SUV in just an hour (not to mention what Jenny McCarthy has to do with it), but you'll just have to play along tomorrow to find out.

Do you plan on tuning in to the see the brand new 2013 Ford Escape through a life-sized Words With Friends session? What do you think of Zynga and Ford's method of revealing the car?

Simplehuman Facebook game delivers squeaky clean fun and prizes

If brushed nickel sensor pumps and liquid soap refills rock your world, then you need to check out "Made for Each Other", a Facebook advergame created by Hello Design to promote Simplehuman's latest soap products. Best known for their stainless steel, foot-activated trash cans, Simplehuman is a Canadian maker of household goods, designed to live up to their company motto of "tools for efficient living".

Launched today, Made for Each Other is a memory game where you click to match tiles in the quickest time possible. Examples of winning matches are ketchup and french fries, a bear and honey, needle and thread, salt and pepper, et al.

A timer at the top right of the game lets you know how long you've been playing. When you've matched everything, you have the option to share your score with friends.
Simplehuman prizes
Twenty-five exclusive prizes are being offered for the 25 fastest players. You can see the leading 25 players on the game's leaderboard, along with how fast they are. As of this writing, Ryan Skipple holds an amazing lead time of 8 seconds and 43 milliseconds. The slowest players average about 12 seconds each. (My fastest time so far has been 18 seconds.)
Simplehuman Leaderboard
While there's no telling how long the game will stick around, the giveaway contest will only last until November 21. Players still on the leaderboard by 9:00 p.m. PT of that date will be declared the winners. For the full details of this promotion, click here. To play, you must first 'Like' the Simplehuman Facebook page.

Click here to play Simplehuman: Made for Each Other on Facebook now >

Have you ever won anything from a Facebook game before?

Could games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft work on Facebook?

Who knows (and definitely not at the moment), but Facebook's European head of gaming partnerships Julien Codorniou hopes "every successful game that exists on PC, consoles, should come on the Facebook platform at some point." According to PocketGamer.biz, Codorniou made the forward-looking remark during this year's Social Gaming Summit in London.

The European mirror to Facebook's Sean Ryan did, however, point out what's keeping the industry from getting to that point. Simply put, the rampant copycatting needs to stop. As PocketGamer.biz's Will Wilson put it: 'Please stop making FarmVille-style games, we've already got enough, thanks.' Codorniou went on to praise games like Social Point's Social Empires for sourcing its inspirations elsewhere, like the popular Age of Empires PC strategy franchise.

And while Codorniou wishes for the best games on consoles to also hit Facebook, he knows where the immediate future is. "We believe the mobile web platform is the future for the gaming industry," Codorniou concluded. "Bet on mobile, HTML5. This is really the future of gaming for us."

Alright, so you know that already. But let's stop and think for a second: Could the best of traditional gaming really make it to Facebook? Well, we're certainly getting there. From advancements in the Unity Player and Flash Player (the primary tool for making Facebook games) to the Unreal Engine arriving on Facebook, we're inching ever closer to that reality. These types of games on the web are simply an eventuality--the audience for them, however, is far from that.

Do you agree that mobile is the future of social gaming? Will hardcore or traditional games ever have a place on Facebook?

PETA wags the finger at Nintendo for Mario's taste in furry power-ups

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has chosen a peculiar target for its next pro-animal campaign. You all likely know him quite well: Super Mario. The organization has created a highly suggestive Flash game that essentially calls developer Nintendo out for what it claims is a message that says it's OK to skin animals and wear them as suits.

You could also say this for Mario's less popular Frog Suit, but that just wouldn't have the same sting as "Mario Kills Tanooki." That's the title of the game, which throws players behind the controls of--literally--a skinned tanuki. You can probably already guess the game's objective: Capture Mario ... who happens to be flying away with your fur coat. So much for subtleties.

"Tanooki may be just a 'suit' in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur," the PETA game's website reads. "By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur."

The timing of Mario Kills Tanooki is spot on, as Nintendo just released Super Mario 3D Land in which the plumber's famous Tanooki Suit is a prominent feature. Frankly, we've never seen a more menacing Mario than within PETA's interactive call to arms in defense of the tanuki. Now, you gotta' wonder how the organization would feel about this guy.

[Via Kotaku]

Have you played the Mario Kills Tanooki game? Do you think Mario's famous Tanooki Suit might send the wrong message to Nintendo fans?

If Pawn Stars works on Facebook, Storage Wars will feel right at home

What the hey, let's throw Parking Wars on their too while we're at it--oh, never mind. It's official, folks: Now that Storage Wars has made it to Facebook after just a single season on A&E, reality TV has staked its claim in social gaming. The game based on the popular--though, we can't understand why--TV show hits Facebook today as the second season premieres tonight on A&E. (With Pawn Stars still kicking, this is A&E's second Facebook game.)

In Storage Wars on Facebook, players join animated versions of characters from the show in high-stakes bidding wars on things in folks' storage units. Players travel around the world in-game to bid on various relics with virtual cash in order to earn more digital bucks to bid on more things. It sounds like a boring vicious cycle, but ultimately players will go all-in for Wanted Treasures that come with huge profits.

"Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that," said A+E Networks SVP of Games Kris Soumas in a release. "We've put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development."
Gallery: Storage Wars on Facebook
Based on these first screen shots, the game looks to pack numerous storage units with items to bid for inside. More importantly, however, players are guided through the game with none other than quests, or folks craving for Wanted Treasures. But what about our Wanted Treasure, Mario Kart on Facebook?

Click here to play Storage Wars on Facebook Now >

Are you a fan of Storage Wars on A&E? What do you think of the rampant growth of branded games on Facebook?

Social game startup Pangalore makes HTML5 games look good

Let's just get something out of the way: HTML5 gaming on Facebook and mobile hasn't exploded because, frankly, most of the early HTML5 games look like high school programming class projects. Pangalore, a startup based in Seoul, South Korea and San Jose, Calif., looks to change that with HTML5-based social games that both work across platforms and are actually a treat to look at.

Today, the company launches its first two HTML5 games--ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire--for Facebook, iOS and Android devices simultaneously. (Players can also play these games from their smartphone's web browser.)

The former of which is a puzzler presented in colorful, semi-realistic crayon and paper mache-style artwork. Players must use predetermined colored blocks in various shapes to fit them inside of a larger shape, like, say, a giraffe. Of course, players are scored for how long it takes them to fit the pieces within the larger shape, and for how many changes made before it's complete.

Everything from the music to the textured artwork in ArtFit is top notch, which is surprising for an HTML5 game. (However, it's important to note that animation isn't a particularly impressive component to neither this game nor Wild West Solitaire.) Players can invite their friends to compare scores with and source hints for tough puzzles from, which you'll incessantly be reminded of.

Gallery: Pangalore Games on Facebook

While the latter, Wild West Solitaire, looks wonderful, its animation is rather choppy, a likely limitation of HTML5 games. (Not to mention its artwork is terribly reminiscent of Blue Fang's take on The Learning Company's The Oregon Trail.) The game is a variation on Solitaire in which players must clear numerous stages of cards by clicking them in either standard or reverse numerical order. Doing so quickly and without fail earns combo points, and each stage is a representation of the Oregon Trail.
ArtFit in action
Each stage in the game culminates with a target practice of sorts in which players click badges in succession similar to the Solitaire portion of the game. The more badges you can put a dent into before the dynamite goes off, the more badges you'll collect, which are needed to access the next stage. Players can compete Wild West Solitaire's weekly tournaments as well, which rank players based on their scores. Of course, you also need friends to provide you with more cards to play with in story mode.

Aside from the annoying, constant requests to add friends and somewhat unnatural animations, ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire are two of the most visually impressive HTML5-based Facebook games we've seen to date. More importantly in Pangalore's case, however, is that these games are linked via Facebook. This means players can pick up where they left off on in, say, ArtFit on Facebook through their iPhone, and later continue their progress made on the iPhone back on Facebook.
Wild West Solitaire
Pangalore calls this "Universal Play," and during a demo of the two games, CPO Doyon Kim tells us that it's the developer's core mission. While Kim admits that the games are asynchronous, like nearly all social games, Pangalore is more concerned with allowing its players to enjoy games like ArtFit everywhere they are. Two more HTML5-based social games, Pop Candy and Bubble Prince, are due out before the end of the year, according to Kim.

But Kim also took the time to show us another game built using the Unity Player for decidedly more hardcore or traditional audiences. The game, which has yet to even receive an official title, is essentially a more visually robust FarmVille, but set in a medieval world. Players will create their own farming village, which is to support their character's quests slaying monsters and rescuing damsels. While we were only shown a knight class, Kim tell us that more character options that fit into the high fantasy theme will be available when the game launches simultaneously on Facebook, iOS and Android in early 2012.
Wild West Solitaire in action
Pangalore's strategy is twofold: Make games for the average Facebook gamer through HTML5, and hit up the supposedly growing hardcore gaming audience on Facebook with more visually robust games through Unity. (Notice how Flash--the normal method of creating social games--is avoided altogether.) Then again, Pangalore's approach comes back to a single motivation: Make games that people can play from wherever they are.

Click here to play both ArtFit and Wild West Solitaire on Facebook Now >

What do you think of the growing movement toward HTML5 games? Are you the type of gamer that wants to have their favorite games wherever they are?

Facebook strategy games match PC quality ... from back in the day

"We see the emergence now of companies on Facebook who are building what they'd call a core game," Facebook games platform head Gareth Davis said to GamesIndustry.biz in an interview. "Games targeted at people who played PC games back in the day, strategy games. They're at the quality level now of those PC games."

Considering these games are being created in 2011, we're not sure whether that's a compliment or a complaint. This isn't to say that games like Kixeye's War Commander or Edgeworld by Kabam aren't impressive in their own right. However, if Davis is referring to classic real-time strategy games for the PC like StarCraft and Command & Conquer--you know, games that allowed for real-time multiplayer matchmaking and control of individual units on the battlefield--then we'd have to disagree.

Davis's ultimate point is that new genres are blooming in the Facebook games space for growing niche audiences, like hardcore strategy gamers (from the late '90s?). Jokes aside, new niches in Facebook games are certainly cropping up, and that can only mean more diversity from the tired FarmVille formula. For instance, Entertainment Games is aiming directly at our parents with its first Facebook game, Retro World.

"So we're seeing this broadening now of the kinds of games and audiences and you can be very successful, creating different types of games and you can make a lot of money doing it," Davis told GI.biz. "We're seeing a real maturing of the eco-system as people figure out the right opportunities and go after them." If this means an end to the rampant propagation of the 'Ville species, then count us in.

[Via IndustryGamers]

Do you think strategy games on Facebook come close to the classics? What other niches do you think Facebook games could cater to?

Bejeweled 2 to bedazzle Kindle Fire along with Scrabble, Monopoly et al

The Kindle Fire could approach "Blazing Speed" before it's even released. (Get it? No? Ah, never mind.) EA Mobile has announced that a number of its mobile social game properties (and one rather "hardcore" game) have been pushed to the Amazon Appstore for Android and optimized for the upcoming Kindle Fire tablet.

Namely Bejeweled 2, Monopoly, The Game of Life and Scrabble will be available when the Kindle Fire launches. But those three games are also joined by Tetris (which is damn near everywhere) and survival horror hit Dead Space. When Zynga announced that Words With Friends would hit the Kindle Fire, we wondered whether that was a sign that the device might be hot on social gaming.

Now that versions of two of the most addictive Facebook games to date will be featured on Kindle Fire, we're certainly getting warmer. No, wait, that's just our credit cards burning holes in our wallets.

"EA is proud to be part of Kindle Fire," EA's Bernard Kim said, according to Social Times. "On Kindle Fire, we're offering some of the world's most popular titles with incredible gameplay and breathtaking graphics that anyone can play and enjoy anytime, anywhere." Does "incredible graphics" mean we'll finally get to see those wooden word tiles in HD, grains and all?

Do you plan on picking up a Kindle Fire when it releases? Could the device prove to be a hotbed for mobile social gaming like the iOS lineup has?

Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter goes live on Facebook

Released previously only in a private beta, Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of Neverwinter has now officially gone live on Facebook. Developed by Atari and set in the Neverwinter realm, the game already has 166,000 monthly players from its time in beta, but if you'd like to join them, here's a taste of what you can expect.

When first starting Heroes of Neverwinter, you'll be allowed to create a character using either set templates of a Fighter, Wizard, Cleric or Rogue (each with their own stats and specialties), or can create a custom character to customize your gender, stats, class, race and more. In this, the game can immediately start out being as complex or as straightforward as you like.

Upon launching into the game proper, you're met with a story of amnesia and will be introduced to Edrick, a scout that was guiding you on your way to Neverwinter before a pack of Goblins knocked you unconscious. Through this introduction, you're told of Neverwinter, a place of hope and civilization that has survived the Ruining, and that you had originally wanted to travel there to purchase a home and earn your fortune. With this as a base, you're sent on your way.

Movement is achieved on a grid, with this turn-based game automatically allowing you to move at the beginning of each turn. When commanding a party, you'll be able to complete multiple actions, including attacking or opening your inventory with each character before needing to manually end their turn and start over with the next character. Once each "adventure" in the game is complete, you'll receive experience points for the battles you won and the tasks you completed in the process. For immediate prizes, you'll sometimes be able to loot your fallen enemies, selecting a prize from a list of ten. You can choose randomly from ten cards, or can use a potion to reveal items before you choose.

In terms of actual combat, you'll have a wide variety of options, depending on the classes of characters in your party. You might be able to attack an enemy from far away, eliminating them before they ever become a threat, or surround an enemy with multiple characters, giving everyone a combat advantage. There's enough strategy here to keep more hardcore players satisfied, but the initial sections of gameplay are incredibly simple and work well to help an unfamiliar player get up to speed.

Gallery: Dungeons & Dragons Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook


Back in Neverwinter proper, you can access a variety of buildings including the Adventure Board where you'll accept new Adventures (Adventures require energy and have multiple difficulty levels), the Tavern where you can purchase energy potions or Adventure boosts to your stats, the Trade house where you'll purchase similar potions or new equipment items, and even your own home, which you'll be able to fill with treasures as you complete different achievements or tasks within the game (collecting a certain amount of gold, for instance).

That being said, the main focus here (understandably) is in the Adventures themselves. There are plenty of them to undertake, each with an additional focus on bringing your friends in to help you (early on, it's entirely possible to fail even the most basic of Adventures by simply going it alone). The lore within the game is presented through text boxes at the beginning and end of most scenes and encounters, and will likely satisfy current D&D fans. Still, this isn't the first game of its kind of Facebook, so hopefully the D&D name alone will help draw more followers into the fray.

Will D&D Heroes of Neverwinter win over the "Zynga" crowd with its fairly in-depth, and somewhat slow-going gameplay? Likely not, but there's plenty of content here for fans who go out specifically in search for it.

Play Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook -->

Have you tried Heroes of Neverwinter on Facebook? What did you think of it?

Chinese Couple Sells All Three Kids to Play Online Games

A young Chinese couple has sold all three of their children in exchange for money to play online Nick jr games at Internet cafes, reports a southern Chinese newspaper.

According to Sanxiang City News, the couple met in an Internet cafe back in 2007 and bonded over their obsession with online video games.  A year later, the parents — who are both under 21 — welcomed their first child, a son.  Days after his birth, they left him home alone while they went to play online agame at an Internet cafe 30 km away.

In 2009, Li Lin and Li Juan welcomed their second child, a baby girl, and came up with the idea to sell her for money to fund their online game obsession.  They did so, receiving RMB 3,000 (less than $500), which they spent entirely shortly after.  The couple then proceeded to sell their first child and got 10 times as much for him — RMB 30,000, or about $4600.

Upon having their third child — another boy — the parents followed in their previous footsteps and also got RMB 30,000 for him.

They were finally turned into authorities when Li Lin’s mother found out what her son and his girlfriend had done.

When asked if they missed their children, the parents answered, “We don’t want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money.”

Sanxiang City Newsreports the couple didn’t know they were breaking the law.

Official Pokemon Game Coming To Smartphones

The Pokemon Company is set to bring an official Pokemon Online game to smartphone devices, marking the first time that an official Nintendo-copyrighted app will be available on the iOS and Android.

Called Pokemon Iie Tap (rougly Pokemon: Say Tap?), the app appears to be a rhythm game where players “tap on Pokemon indigo trading cards to the beat of a song from the anime,” according to a translation by consumer video game site GamesRadar.

According to the game’s official announcement, it will be available for most iOS devices, as well as Android devices running version 2.1 of the platform.

Though this is the first iOS or Android application to carry an official Nintendo copyright, it is not the first mobile app of any kind: a Pokemon mobile phone game called Pokemate was released in Japan in 2006.

Though it is a rarity, Nintendo does have a history of releasing official games on platforms that are not its own, including a promotional Flash game to promote its Tingle character.

A release outside of Japan has not been announced.

Nick Jr., MTVN expand in Asia

Rugrats and music fans in Singapore and Malaysia will be able to tune in to “Dora the Explorer” and 24-hour music videos, docus and concerts with the launch of Viacom’s Nick Jr. and MTVN HD in the territories in coming weeks.

Nick Jr Games. will bow on Singapore’s Starhub from May 18, while MTVN HD will air on Telekom Malaysia Berhad’s HyppTV in Malaysia from June 1.

Nick Jr. will be available on the StarHub TV’s Kids Basic Upsize Group, while MTVNHD will be available to existing StarHub TV’s Entertainment Basic Group customers who are subscribed to the Basic HD Upsize group.

TM will offer the two channels a la carte to its subscribers on HyppTV, Malaysia’s newest pay TV service.

The services will roll out to the rest of the region at a date to be announced.