Saturday, February 11, 2012

FrontierVille blooms with new colorful flowers

Life in the Wild West is starting to look more civilized every day. Among the thorns, weeds and wildflowers, virtual pioneers can now outfit their property with colorful flowers -- both in pots and the free-growing variety.
frontierville flower pot,

   

I personally prefer the free-standing flowers over the uber-coloful ones in the pot, but either way, it's nice to get new decor for our newly tamed piece of land.

frontierville flowers

If you have images of any of the new flowers on your property, send them to me at libe@games.com and I'll feature them here.

What do you think of these new flowers?

FrontierVille's new garden accoutrements: Stone Border, Thin Cobblestone, Bird House

Along with a series of decorative flowers, the game's Market has also been populated with a Thin Cobblestone and Stone Border and a blue and orange Bird House. No time like the present to turn your frontierville home into a landscaped piece of art.

What do you think of the new garden items?

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Mafia Wars big bang: Less than 100K visits before armored truck goes boom

Update (11 p.m.): Mafia Wars will be blowing up an armored truck on Thursday, August 19th at 6:00 pm PST.

Update: The 10 million mark has been reached (!), but still no announcement as to when the truck will be blown up. Stay tuned.

We'll soon see if the Mafia Wars marketing team makes good on the promise -- that after 10 million players logged into play Mafia Wars Las Vegas -- they would drive an armored truck into the Nevada desert, pack it full of dynamite and blow it up.

Right now, the player count is less than 100K away from 10 million -- and it took a little over two weeks to hit this target. That means we can expect the big kaboom to happen relatively soon, and, you'll be able watch it all go down on mafiawars.com.

Happy Pets new Random Cat and the Price of Being Unique

Happy Pets Random Cat notice
Happy Pets Random Cat is unpleasedWow, 150 Facebook Credits for a Random Cat is akin to $15 USD! Can anyone be that determined to own the most unique kitty on Happy Pets? And just to make it clear, the Random Cat isn't as random as you forking over the $15 for whatever appears. You get to click the randomizer as many times as you want until you settle on a kitty that doesn't look like a glop of colorful goo and cobbled together by a mad scientist.

Right now, the jury is out on how good this option is. Because for 150 FB Credits, you can just get a cat with features you do like, and perform your own mix-and-match for free, which is what the game is set up for anyway.

I think Crowdstar would've made more people happy and still made some money if they put the Crowdstar Cat up for sale, instead of re-releasing for free it to promote their Gamebar. (Not that I'm complaining about that! Cause I'm glad I got a second chance at it.) it might even be better if they gave this option for horses or dinosaurs. They're so new, there's currently a dearth of designs for those animals.

FishVille Flash Sale offers discounts for today only

FishVille has launched a sale today that offers 20% of Sand Dollars, discounts on premium items in the FishVille store, and also a points system that allows you to unlock exclusive fish by purchasing Sand Dollar items. This sale only lasts for another 4 hours as of this writing, so you'll have to hop aboard quick if you want a chance to partake in the sale.

Here is how the sale works. When you log in to FishVille, there is a button for the Flash Sale on the left side of your screen. If you click this button, you will see a button to gain a 20% discount on Sand Dollars. There is also a Reward Earning Meter that shows your progress towards unlocking the special fish. These fish have been available exclusively in the past, so they are rare but not brand new to the game.

In the Store, the prices have been slashed on plants, decorations, and creatures that cost Sand Dollars. Almost all of these items have received discounts ranging from 10% - 20%. Even the new Bayou themed items are included in the sale!

Log in to FishVille to take part in the Flash sale for the next four hours only.

InstantJam taps into Rock Band and Guitar Hero lovers on Facebook

Yesterday, our sister site Joystiq reported that InstantAction has just debuted a "Rock Band-style music game" called InstantJam onto Facebook.

We last heard of InstantAction in March, where the company hoped to revolutionize online gaming by giving games the versatility and portability of YouTube videos. InstantAction's embed technology would allow people to play games without the need for logging into games portals or sites like Facebook, in a way similar to how viewers can place and load YouTube videos anywhere on the web.

At the time, the company's passenger for this flagship project was The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition, which set sail on the Facebook seas for $9.99 USD back in April. But now, it seems that InstantAction is sold on developing its own online music game.

But the company isn't exactly blazing a new trail here -- similar games such as Foo Brew's JamLegend and Acclaim's RockFREE were reported closed last week. What InstantJam promises are special features, such as using songs from your computer and synching up with iTunes and Amazon to let you purchase music. You can also hook up a guitar controller to play the game instead of using a keyboard.

Facebook users can click here to check out the game, but be warned, the title is currently in closed beta, so there's a waiting list to get in. For those without Facebook, you can get a visual tour on InstantJam's official website.

Treasure Isle heats up with new Volcano Isles maps

Treasure Isle Volcano Isles map
It has been awhile since Treasure Isle released plain old regular maps, so players should be excited to see that a new set of seven volcano-themed maps have been launched today. These new maps are named the following:

Burning Phoenix - 15 Island Cash
Imp Fort
Old Gem Mine - 10 Island Cash
Phoenix Roost
Jeweled Palace
Fairy Castle - 5 Island Cash
Wrong Turn!

Players will be disappointed to see that three of the new maps require Island Cash to unlock, but that is the nature of these types of games. A post on the Treasure Isle Official Forums has explained that the new maps contain Phoenix Gates that need to be unlocked. These gates can be unlocked by digging up Phoenix Feathers in the Fire God Mountain, or buy purchasing them for 5 Island Cash each. It's interesting that gems don't seem like they will be important in these new maps, especially with the new Gem Mine that has been released.

What do you think of the new Volcano Isle maps?