Games.com Blog: “Show off your Treetopia talents with new leaderboard” plus 17 more

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• Show off your Treetopia talents with new leaderboard
• PetVille releases final four Space Struggle lost toys
• Wild Ones offers premium membership for monthly fee
• Show your support for South Africa in Island Paradise
• YoVille Group Buying: purchase YoCash items for YoCoins
• Microsoft Kinect: What does it mean for social games?
• Getting Ahead with the Mob Wars Calculator
• Playfish MIA from Electronic Arts' big E3 press conference
• Hotel City: Unlock new Exclusive NYC themed rooms and backgrounds
• FishVille's Gulf Coast Turtle helps Audubon raise awareness and funds in oil spill
• Happy Pets doubles the fun with new Twin and Coin Idols
• Happy Pets: Own an Apple Tree for Free Daily Coins and XP
• Social City's Gala Raffle: Win past decor and Limited Edition buildings
• Tiki Resort: Hire a cabana boy to tend your island
• Happy Aquarium: Walrus Referee and Football Seal join the team
• FarmVille Unreleased Lemon Balm Market Stall & Lemon Balm Bushel
• FarmVille Unreleased Oats Crop, Mastery Sign, Market Stall, & Bushel
• FarmVille Island Buildings: Tree Village, Island Resort, & Island Shanty

Show off your Treetopia talents with new leaderboard Posted: 14 Jun 2010 07:53 PM PDT Treetopia released something pretty integral to the game in the form of a new leaderboard screen. This leaderboard updates every 7 days with new information about who the top Treetopia players are at any given time. There are three separate leaderboards, one for "Likes", one for "XP, and one for "Quests Done". When you visit a friend's Treetopia, you are given the option to click "like" on that Treetopia. Likes are a pretty good indicator that someone has done a good job of decorating and growing their tree. On the leaderboard, you are also given the option to go see these different leaders. We think this is pretty neat, because if you've ever wanted to see what a level 39 player's Treetopia looks like - now you can. The top player currently has 38,000 quests completed! We're not sure how that's possible, but that is one dedicated Treetopia player. In addition last week, new soccer items were added to Treetopia, and a new newspaper screen now displays all of the latest news. Check out the screenshot below to see what a max level player's Treetopia looks like.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

PetVille releases final four Space Struggle lost toys Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:54 PM PDT Filed under: PetVille Earlier this month, PetVille launched a new set of lost Space Struggle toys, beginning with the first four in the set. Tonight, the final four have been added to the game. These adorable space toys are quite clearly modeled after Star Wars - and the four latest released toys are mirror images of R2-D2, Yoda, Boba Fett, and Darth Vader. These toys are found randomly in treasure chests that can be found in your neighbor's pet's homes. Once found, you are prompted to post a notice on your wall telling your friends that you found the toy. This means that in order to actually obtain these pets, you'll have to scour over your friend's wall postings to find a friend who has found and posted about the toy you're looking for. This Space Struggle set includes 8 lost toys in total, which can be used to decorate your pet's home. How close are you to finishing your PetVille Space Struggle toy collection? Which ones are you missing?   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Wild Ones offers premium membership for monthly fee Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:33 PM PDT Filed under: Wild Ones In a bold and surprising move, Playdom's popular social game Wild Ones has announced a premium subscription option. This new membership requires a monthly fee of 99 Facebook Credits (roughly $9.90 USD) and provides many benefits over being a free member. This is of course, completely optional, but does make a lot of sense if you're someone who has spent a little bit of real life cash in Wild Ones. Let's take a peek at the benefits: Premium "Members Only" items - Can you imagine having exclusive items that your friends don't have? 50% experience to leveling - This is a huge benefit. If you can level up 50% faster for becoming a member, this is a huge incentive to join the membership fee. Increased coin earnings - For anyone who is stuck slowly grinding away coins, this may be a way to get them quicker. Buy premium items with coins - If this is what it sounds like, you would be able to buy items that are typically priced in Facebook Credits, for coins. We're not sure what to think. On one hand, one thing that sets Facebook games apart from other forms of gaming entertainment is their free-to-play nature. While this is optional, this could definitely upset some folks because anyone who pays will have a substantially better gaming experience. We think $9.99 is quite the hefty price as well, especially when compared with large scale immersive MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft. On the other hand, this could be a great option for traditional game players who would rather pay a flat fee to enjoy all the content rather than paying for items a little at a time. As expected, players on the official Wild Ones forums are irate. What do you think about this new membership fee?   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Show your support for South Africa in Island Paradise Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:22 PM PDT Filed under: Island Paradise Island Paradise is really going all out for the FIFA World Cup 2010. So far, the popular island farming game has released avatar costumes, a World Cup trophy, and flags to represent the different countries - and now they've added to this collection with a pair of items to honor South Africa. South Africa is where the World Cup is held this year, so it's only fair to show support to the nation for hosting the gigantic sporting event. Available in the Island Shop are two new items for coins, a set of Djembe Drums, and a Zulu Shield. Djembe Drums are a very popular drum in Africa, intended to be played with the bare hands. You can have your own set in Island Paradise at level 10, for 1,500 coins. Zulu are the largest tribe in South Africa with 10-11 million people, and you can have a Zulu Shield for 5,000 coins (if you're level 13 or above).   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

YoVille Group Buying: purchase YoCash items for YoCoins Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:10 PM PDT Filed under: YoVille We gave you a little preview of YoVille's new Group Buying feature already, and tonight they have rolled this new feature out live to the world. Group Buying allows you to opt in to receive YoCash items for YoCoins, and a discount of 50%. In order to get the discount, 100,000 people need to opt-in to this discount. If that many people sign up, you will receive an email letting you know that you're eligible to make a purchase at a discount. The available items in this first round of Group Buying are: Enchanted Animated Fountain - 500 coins, formerly 12 YoCash Enchanted Hot Springs - 600 coins, formerly 12 YoCash Luxury Min Pin Plush - 400 coins, formerly 6 YoCash Yolex - 500 coins, formerly 10 YoCash Black Hobo Purse - 350 coins, formerly 7 YoCash As of this writing, just over 58,000 people have already signed up for this offer. It will expire in 22 hours, so make sure to visit the promotion's page, sign up, and then share it to your wall to encourage your friends to join in. Do you think the YoVille Group Buying offer will get to 100,000 within the time allowed?   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Microsoft Kinect: What does it mean for social games? Posted: 14 Jun 2010 02:00 PM PDT The more traditional video games world has been growing progressively more social in recent years. The Nintendo Wii has turned gaming from a solitary activity to a family affair and Microsoft's Xbox Live has allowed gamers to connect with fellow joystick jockeys in ways that haven't been possible before. Now Microsoft goes even more social with its new gaming device -- Kinect. Formerly known as Project Natal, Kinect is, at its core, a motion sensor camera that connects to the Xbox 360 and then lets your body act as the controller. At an over-the-top event, complete with Cirque du Soleil acrobatics, we saw some of the very first games for this device in action -- almost all of them catering to more than one player. Kinect has a Wii Sports clone, Kinect Sports, a driving game called Kinect JoyRide and another game named Kinect Adventures, but the one that stands out the most is Kinectimals, an animal simulation game, where you adopt a virtual pet, teach it tricks using motion and voice commands, play games with it -- all using nothing more than this high powered camera. The animal reacts to your movement, and, in general, seems aware of your presence. For instance, if you hide from your virtual pet, it will come looking for you. It's like having a stuffed animal come to life. Speaking of stuffed animals, those will be integral to the game. You will be able to buy Kinectimals-branded stuffed animals in stores or online, and then scan them using Kinect, and they will magically appear onscreen. Think of it as a Neopets for Xbox 360. There will be 20 collectible animals in all, and you will also have the option to buy virtual items to care for your pet via the in-game store. You'll be able to set up play dates with friends pets online, and your pet will be rewarded with items for exploring the game's universe, unlocking new areas along the way. The other interesting part of this is how Kinect will be used to navigate through the Xbox menu and other non-gaming apps on the device. Microsoft showed off how you can use voice commands to play a movie, chat with friends via video ad watch ESPN on demand, but we're curious to see how this will apply to the social networking apps on the device -- Facebook and Twitter. Specifically, Facebook games. Right now, there's still no word whether FarmVille or any other Facebook games will be playable on Microsoft's console at any point in the future, but mixing gesture and/or voice controls with tending to a virtual farm or building a virtual city could offer a unique twist to the social games we know and love. From what we've seen so far, the console world doesn't exactly seem ready to embrace the millions of FarmVille players out there, but we're certainly seeing 'social' continue to be a bigger part of gaming whether it's on Facebook or an Xbox 360.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Getting Ahead with the Mob Wars Calculator Posted: 14 Jun 2010 01:52 PM PDT Looking to get ahead in Mob Wars? There are several tips and tools available to help you advance more quickly. One of the newest entries is the Mob Wars Calculator coming to you from Sal the Foot's Mob Wars Guide. The concept originally started with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet from Jester Nim and was later taken over by Craig Goley with even later maintenance help from Melissa Keays. Now that Craig abandoned his spreadsheet, Steve Lugon, aka Sal the Foot, offers a reworked spreadsheet recoded by Mark Williams. What does the Mob Wars Calculator offer? A quick and easy way to determine what items for your armory you need to buy and sell and what properties are best to optimize income. As your mob grows in size, you want to keep them well armored but want to keep upkeep costs down so your income and thus your bounty increases. By utilizing the calculator, you'll get easy help on what to buy next and when to sell items. As cash flow permits you to buy new and better items and you get more freebies for helping other mobsters, finishing heists and completing boss battles, the spreadsheet will remind you to sell off the old unneeded items that require upkeep. And, on the property side, you'll see what are the next best properties to buy for the highest return on investment, thus optimizing income. For those familiar with one of the earlier spreadsheet versions, you no longer have to manually enter in your stockpile. Instead, by just copying and pasting the stockpile into the four magic spreadsheet cells, the spreadsheet automatically detects what you have. It is that quick and easy now to upgrade spreadsheet versions as new toys become available in the game.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Playfish MIA from Electronic Arts' big E3 press conference Posted: 14 Jun 2010 01:24 PM PDT At the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, also called E3, publishers get together to show their wares to the press and other members of the game community. Basically, if you pay attention to this event, you'll have a pretty good idea what big games will be coming out the rest of the year. So imagine our surprise when we went to the big Electronic Arts press conference, and there was a bunch of hullabaloo over high-action gun toting games such as Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, Battlefield Bad Company Vietnam, and even a quick nod to EA Sports best-selling Madden football game series, but ne're a mention of FIFA Superstars on Facebook, or any other game that EA's recently acquired social gaming company Playfish might be working on behind the scenes. There's been rumors flying that there will be a Madden or Need for Speed game on Facebook, but nothing was confirmed or denied at today's big press event. What gives, EA?   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Hotel City: Unlock new Exclusive NYC themed rooms and backgrounds Posted: 14 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Hotel City Hotel City has spent a good several weeks teasing us with their new backgrounds. Players first saw the Night time background in action with the game's first-ever flags release. Today, you can see the Playfish's Bellboy Hotel has hit the big time with their new, New York background (pictured above). Along with these new backgrounds are exclusive, themed rooms already furnished with the latest furniture and decor. But unless you're willing to shell out Playfish Cash, decorating your hotel with the new themes isn't going to be easy. Hotel City has paired up the two backgrounds into the Night and New York packages. The Night package costs 50 Playfish Cash, while the NY one costs 66 PFC. (NOTE: If you're willing to be patient and collect "luxuries" to earn these packages, the PFC price will go down as your luxuries collection increases.) To get the New York package, you need 33 "Luxury Items" -- fifteen Broadway tickets, ten "1st class airline tickets" and eight cups of "Hot green tea". You can only get the Broadway tickets by collecting them from the wall posts of your friends, or by visiting the hotels of neighbors sporting the icon of a little brown shopping bag tied with a yellow ribbon. When you get a Luxury Item, you can post on your wall to share it. These can also be gotten by generous friends who gift you. The Night collection works pretty much the same way, but it requires only 25 Luxury Items -- fifteen Gold Watches and twenty "1st class airline tickets." While it's a lot of work, these new backgrounds look good enough to be worth it. I should mention that the niftiest thing about these is that they're not entirely static images. While you scroll across a hotel's street, you get a noticeable shift in perspective. Anyway, we expect more backgrounds to roll out soon. So what is Hotel City's next planned stop? SAN FRANCISCO!   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FishVille's Gulf Coast Turtle helps Audubon raise awareness and funds in oil spill Posted: 14 Jun 2010 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: FishVille Images of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continue to inspire a great deal of anger and heartbreak, but many people also offer hope by helping clean up the mess left by the spill. Zynga's FishVille and the Audubon Society have paired up this week to raise funds and awareness with their new Gulf Coast Turtle. The Turtle came out last week and can be found under the "Creatures" tab at the in-game store. This Turtle is only available for the next 4 days. Zynga is promising to relinquish 50% of the Turtle's sales to the Audubon Society and players have the option to pay either 25 or 200 Sand Dollars for it. Sand Dollars can be bought from the "+ Add Sand Dollars" tab on the top of the game window. A set of 25 Sand Dollars cost $5 USD, and while there's no set of 200, you can buy a set of 240 Sand Dollars for $40 USD. A new Baby Gulf Coast Turtle has also shown up in the game, which can be adopted via Facebook Wall posts, to help spread the word.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Happy Pets doubles the fun with new Twin and Coin Idols Posted: 14 Jun 2010 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Happy Pets Like the old Doublemint gum commercials, two new Limited Edition idols at the Happy Pets store have players seeing double -- the Twin Idol and Coin Idol (image above). Technically, there are four new idols in the store since both idols come with 3-day and 7-day versions. And yes, this means that not only are the idols for a limited time only, but so are the perks that these idols bring with them. Coin Idol doubles the amount of coins you earn from cleaning and petting, while Twin Idol promises that you'll "get twins from every successful breeding." (NOTE: This doesn't mean that you'll get twins each time your pets breed. For that, you'd need the Love Potion or the Love Idol which you can get by clicking on the "Breed" button after clicking your pet.) The 3-day Coin Idol costs 28 Facebook Credits (or $2.80 USD), while the 7-day costs 52 FB Credits ($5.20 USD). Finally, the 3-day Twin Idol goes for 40 FB Credits ($4 USD), and the 7-day version costs 76 FB Credits ($7.60 USD).   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Happy Pets: Own an Apple Tree for Free Daily Coins and XP Posted: 14 Jun 2010 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Happy Pets Under the "Goods" tab in the Happy Pets store, there's now a "Harvest" category selling an Apple Tree for 3,750 Coins. Purchasing this tree will gain players 300 XP. The tree itself promises to deliver 125 Coins and 25 XP every 24 hours. Apples Tree can be placed in the rooms and yards, but not in the attic. If you upgrade using coins, then your tree goes "under construction" for that time period. That means you'll miss those daily bonuses. A new leaf icon on the top of your screen will let you know how many trees you're allowed to palce in an area. This amount is determined by the number of pets you're allowed to have. A great thing about this tree is that it can be upgraded. Upgrading the Apple Tree to Tier 2 requires 7 days and 7,500 Coins. But if you do, then the tree will earn you 250 Coins and 50 XP every 24 hours. There are 4 Tiers to the tree in all. Check out the handy chart below to see the costs and benefits. Apple Tree Level Upgrade Cost Instant Upgrade Cost Daily Coins & XP Harvest Upgrade Time Tier 2 7,500 Coins 36 Facebook Credits 250 Coins & 50 XP 7 Days Tier 3 11,250 Coins 44 Facebook Credits 375 Coins & 75 XP 9 Days Tier 4 15,000 Coins 50 Facebook Credits 500 Coins & 100 XP 11 Days   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Social City's Gala Raffle: Win past decor and Limited Edition buildings Posted: 14 Jun 2010 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Social City Players who click the "Build" menu can now participate in Social City's new Gala Raffle to win buildings and decorations that are no longer available in gifts or up for sale at the store. This new feature seemed to have quietly rolled out last week and the response among fans is pretty positive. One excited player described the raffle as "kinda fun, but also kinda dangerous." How? Well, the raffle is divided into three categories. The first category offers Limited Edition attractions and discontinued giftables. The second offers Limited Edition residential buildings. Both of these require City Bucks, or Social City's form of premium cash, to make your spin. The first one requires 8 City Bucks, while the second needs 5. For $4.99 USD, you can get 55 City Bucks. So this is going to cost real world money, and what you get is luck of the draw. But the third category uses virtual coins to work. Even at 50,000 Coins per spin, it's as good as free. Right now, that raffle's offerings include premium-level Japanese style buildings and the discontinued giftable Sakura Paths.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Tiki Resort: Hire a cabana boy to tend your island Posted: 14 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Tiki Resort Ringing the icon of a hotel styled desk bell on the left side of your Tiki Resort game will allow you to summon Dan the Automator. Dan is a new game feature that promises to collect money and charms from your attractions, pick up trash, and tend your pets. He comes with a chart that'll let you to see just how much work he's done by how many things he's collected on his shift. Dan has two shifts you can set him up on. A 15 min. shift requires 25 Coconut Drink Charms, while a 3-day shift goes for 39 Facebook Credits, or roughly, $4 USD. Coconut Drink Charms increase the walking speed of your tourists, leading them to visit more attractions, which means they'd spend more. You can buy a set of 50 at the in-game store for 149 FB Credits, which is approximately $14.90 USD. So unless you've got an attraction that generates that charm, the 15 min. shift isn't Dan's best deal for you.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Happy Aquarium: Walrus Referee and Football Seal join the team Posted: 14 Jun 2010 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Happy Aquarium Zack the soccer-playing lion cub is now joined by Russ Referee and Diego the Football Fan in Happy Aquarium. Both Russ and Diego are animated critters that cost premium currency to buy. Russ taps his foot, blinks his eyes, and blows his whistle. While Diego is more like Zack, and carries a hot pink soccer ball on his head with which he performs tricks in the tank. Russ is also a Limited Edition character, so if you've got 24 Pearls or 20 Facebook Credits (the equivalent of $2 USD), you should grab him ASAP, cause he won't be sticking around the shop forever. You can find him under "Specials!" star tab, under the subcategory "Premium", while Diego is with Zack in the "Tank Mates" tab, and goes for 48 Pearls or 40 FB Credits ($4 USD). Given the game's recent premium currency increase for leveling up, these characters should now be easily affordable for high-level players.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FarmVille Unreleased Lemon Balm Market Stall & Lemon Balm Bushel Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Thank you to FarmVille Freak Farhan for finding these unreleased FarmVille Lemon Balm Market Stall & Lemon Balm Bushel. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FarmVille Unreleased Oats Crop, Mastery Sign, Market Stall, & Bushel Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Thank you to FarmVille Freak Farhan for finding these unreleased FarmVille Oats Seed, Oats Mastery Sign, Oats Market Stall, & Oats Bushel. This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

FarmVille Island Buildings: Tree Village, Island Resort, & Island Shanty Posted: 14 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT Filed under: Farmville Three new limited edition Island themed buildings became available with tonight's FarmVille update. The Tree Village, Island Resort, and Island Shanty can all be purchased with farm cash or coins during the next 12 days in the FarmVille Market. FarmVille Island Buildings (June 10th 2010): Tree Village - 42 FV$ Island Resort - 36 FV$ Island Shanty - 55,000 Coins This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.   Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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