Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn frontierville. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn frontierville. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 2, 2012

Paradise Life: New game feels a bit too familiar to be a paradise

Ice Break Games seem to be creating better and better games with each effort. Their first title, Ranch Life, never really took off. Their second game, Cafe Life, currently has almost 2.7 million monthly players. Now they're trying again with Paradise Life, a game that feels just a little too familiar to Zynga's FrontierVille to be declared an innovative success for social games.

Paradise Life is literally FrontierVIlle on an island setting. You have your own island, and on it you have to clear the growth, harvest plants, build structures, fish from ponds, and even defeat villains in the exact same way as FrontierVille. You have your energy meter which controls all actions within the game, your food meter which allows you to buy meals from the store (which convert into energy), favor points (such as reputation in FrontierVille) that are awarded for helping on your friend's islands, a questing system the follows the template FrontierVille has created, family members and the ability to unlock them, collections, wishlists, you name it. In fact, some of the interfaces are so similar that it's a blatant copy of Zynga's hit wild west game.
Paradise Life

Zynga have received such a bad reputation in the past for cloning other games by smaller developers and making them into huge successes. It's actually kind of ironic to see the same thing happening right back at Zynga to FrontierVille, which was Zynga's first original design. However, it remains to be seen if Paradise Life will prove to be a success for Ice Break Games, as it doesn't appear to do anything to better Zynga's design. Zynga's success has come from taking the ideas that other people come up with and making them more polished and better suited to a social game audience. Paradise Life is clearly an identical clone with a fresh island setting.


Don't get us wrong, the game is cute and well done. It's polished more than Cafe LIfe, and feels really great to play. The avatars are very cute, the colors are bright and inviting, and it's so much of an exact copy of FrontierVille that we're sure it will see some residual success because of that. However where games like Ravenwood Fair have iterated on a successful design like FrontierVille and made a new unique fresh-feeling game, we can't help but feel like Paradise LIfe brings very little of worth to our selection of games to play.

Thứ Hai, 30 tháng 1, 2012

FrontierVille 12 Days of Christmas Missions: Everything you need to know for Day 7

Merry Christmas (to all those that celebrate) - if you've got a few moments this holiday, remember that a new daily mission has been released in FrontierVille as part of the 12 Days of Christmas mission event.

For the VII mission, you'll need to complete three tasks - visit 7 neighbors, eat 7 Fruitcakes, and collect 10 Dried Fruit. For visiting neighbors, you won't have to actually do anything once you get there - just visit. Fruitcakes can be received as free gifts from friends, and Dried Fruit can be collected from friends. These jars will be consumed once you finish the mission.

You can unlock any of these tasks with Horseshoes if you'd like to skip them - perhaps if you don't want to wait for your friends to help you collect Dried Fruit, since they will probably be busy with their own family celebrations today, as an example.

As a reward for completing the mission, you'll earn 700 experience points and 7 Sheep. You'll be able to share a single Fruitcake with your friends as a wall post as well. This fruitcake will help them finish their own mission, so be sure share one with them.

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

FrontierVille 12 Days of Christmas Missions: Everything you need to know for day 6

If you've been able to regain enough energy from the festivities of yesterday, make sure to head into FrontierVille for a few moments to tackle today's newest mission in the ongoing 12 Days of Christmas event.

On the Sixth Day O' Christmas asks players to complete three tasks:

Tend two neighbor horses
Have one Mule Feedbag
Craft Six Presents

These first two tasks are fairly simple - simply find two friends that have a single horse, or a single friend that has more than one horse and then tend to those horses. It doesn't matter if you end up feeding or grooming the horses, as these both count as "tend" actions. As a reminder, Neighbor Jack has a Horse, if you can't find any on your friends' homesteads.

The Mule Feedbag is a part of the Mule Collection, and if you don't have one, you can always place the item on your wishlist and hope a friend has an extra to spare. Finally, crafting Presents can be done inside the general store - each Present requires 2 Ribbon and 5 pieces of Cloth to create (for a total of 12 Ribbon and 30 Cloth needed to finish this portion of the quest, if you don't already have any Presents on-hand).

The rewards for completing this mission are a free Mule and 600 Coins. You'll be able to share a Fruitcake with friends once you've completed it.

Make sure to check back with us tomorrow as we take a look at Day 5's mission!

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

Thứ Hai, 9 tháng 1, 2012

Wishful Features: Tools as a free gift in FrontierVille

How many times have you had this situation? You get a new mission in FrontierVille - you have tons of food, animals to sell, trees to chop down - the works. You think you're set for whatever Zynga can throw your way, and suddenly, you realize that the quest calls for having a certain number of Tools, that you likely don't have.

What do you do in this situation? The default response is to do nothing, since we are currently unable to flat out give a Tool to another user in the game, and therefore your friends can't simply send you some Tools when you need them from their own inventory. As many of you already know, you can only earn Tools by being hired by one of your friends to work on their homestead. After they hire you, it's an entirely voluntary (read: easy to skip) extra step that your friends must go through to post a free Tool to your wall.

What if your friends think you don't want the Tool? What if they simply don't like spamming friends' walls? What if the post has been sitting, hidden on your profile for so long that you forget to click on it and it expires? As you can see, there are a lot of "What if" situations that can arise when talking about something that really should be quite simple.

Instead of personally begging your FrontierVille neighbors to hire you on their land, and then to share the Tool with you on your wall, Zynga should update the FrontierVille free gifts page to include this highly valuable item. There's no sense in a player being stuck on a mission due to something that is entirely out of their control (that is, they can't control who their friends hire at any one point in time), and then losing out on the appropriate rewards because they simply couldn't finish the mission in time.

Perhaps with time, Zynga will come to understand this fact as well, and we'll be sure to let you know if and when they do.

Thứ Bảy, 7 tháng 1, 2012

FrontierVille: Beans energy item released as free gift

If you've grown tired of eating the same old meals in FrontierVille, then why not head over to the game's free gifts page and take a look at the new energy item that has been released just today? The new meal is a pot of Beans, which can be sent to your friends in the same way as any other free gift. When your friend uses the item from their inventory, they will gain 7 points of energy. While the Breakfast food item used to offer 7 points of energy as well, it has now been changed to offer 10 points, so the Beans take its place in the line.

As of this writing, the Beans can't be purchased from the store, so the only way you can get ahold of these are by receiving them as a free gift. There's no telling whether or not these Beans will only be available for a limited time, so ask your friends to help you stock up now if you'd like to have some on-hand for the long haul.

What do you think of this new energy item? Would you rather Zynga release items worth more energy points?

FrontierVille Kissing Tree: Everything you need to know

It looks like the love triangle / saga between Hank, Fanny Wildcat, and Bess in FrontierVille will finally be coming to an end this Valentine's Day, and you'll be there every step of the way, literally shaping the way things unfold. There are not one, not two, but a whopping four new missions sets available in FrontierVille - but there's a catch. You'll need to choose which pairing of these three characters that you'd like to see actually play out. That is, you'll be able to choose whether or not Hank ends up with Bess or Fanny, or if both ladies decide to ditch Hank altogether and just spend time with each other.

All of these mission sets revolve around a new building project called the Kissing Tree. The Kissing Tree is slowly rolling out to users even as we bring you this guide, so keep checking your game to make sure it hasn't launched in your store. It can be purchased for 500 coins and 10 Wood. You'll need to help the tree grow with "whacks" that really equate to you watering the tree so it reaches full size. You'll need to do this five times.

Once you help the tree grow to its full size, you'll need to collect a group of items to finish "building it" just like every other construction project in the game. Meet us behind the break to see how that's done.

Clicking on the Kissing Tree will open up the "finishing menu," where you'll see that you'll need to collect 52 items in total - 10 each of Whittlin' Knives, Bear Hugs, Ropes, Swing Planks, and Screw Eyes, and just two Boxes of Chocolates. Why only two boxes? Because in order to receive those boxes, you'll need to send requests to users that are not playing FrontierVille. Since that will likely turn this entire event sour for most users, you can also feel free to skip that portion of the tree's construction by spending Horseshoes.

Otherwise, the Whittlin' Knives and Bear Hugs are earned through general wall posts asking all friends to help, while Ropes, Swing Blanks, and Screw Eyes are collected via individual gift requests sent to those friends that you think would be most likely to help you.

Once the tree is built, you'll be able to use the tree to select Hank's partner in the game. This will be an individual choice for you alone to make - it will set into motion the particular mission set that you'll need to complete (after the trio of introductory Kissing Tree missions) for the rest of this event. As of this writing, you will be able to start a new romance for a couple in the game, or simply go forever with the same couple choice, but we're not sure if Zynga will remove that option in the future.

Whichever choice you make, you'll have five missions to complete for any particular pairing (Hank and Bess, Hank and Fanny, or Fanny and Bess). Experience points, coins, Food and more are at stake regardless of which couple you pick, so this really is a case where you should probably simply choose the couple that you'd most like to see wind up together in the long run and move on from there.

We'll be sure to bring you all the news about this new feature as we have it, so keep checking back.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day 2011 coverage right here.

In the meantime, let us know what you think of this new Kissing Tree "building." Which couple will you choose to develop a romance in your own game?

FrontierVille Kissing Tree Goals: Everything you need to know

As we told you earlier, the Kissing Tree is a new construction project in FrontierVille that will see you building a kissing tree, and then choosing how to play out the current love triangle between Hank, Bess, and Fanny Wildcat on your homestead. Before you can get to the romance between your chosen couple, however, you'll need to complete a series of three goals - titled simply the Kissing Tree Goals - in order to get to that point in the first place.

The first goal, "Let the Good Vibes Grow," has you building your Kissing Tree and helping a few neighbors out with their crops (this is a time when Victory Gardens will come in mighty handy).

Place the Kissing Tree
Clear Two Thorns
Unwither Ten Neighbor Crops

For all of the details about the new Kissing Tree (which is available to purchase from the store), check out our complete guide. For crops, you'll simply need to head to your neighbors' homestead and unwither any 10 crops you find, regardless of type. Doing this will reward you with 100 XP. You'll be able to share a free Unwither Crops Boost with your friends.

Part II of III, called "A Swing and a Kiss" asks you to complete three more tasks, one of which may very well already be completed for you at the start of the mission, depending on how often you turn in your completed collections.

Feed 20 Sheep
Have or Get One Pillow
Collect 10 Breath Mints from Friends

The Pillow is part of the Inn Collection, and if you already have one on your account, you won't have to earn another one - this step is already completed for you. Breath Mints, meanwhile, can be earned by posting a general request on your news feed. Finishing this second of three Kissing Tree goals will reward you with 50 XP and one Red Rose collectible from the Red Rose crop collection. You'll be able to share 25 Cloth with your neighbors.

Finally, Part III of these new missions will actually see you picking your chosen couple for their romance on your Homestead.

Harvest 30 Red Roses
Move 20 Cows
Select a Couple to Begin a Romance

You'll be able to use your fully built Kissing Tree to select the couple that you would like to have a romance in your game. Again, your choices are Hank and Bess, Hank and Fanny, and Bess and Fanny, and your choice will unlock a different five-part mission series, depending on your choice. Meanwhile all you have to do is move a single Cow 20 times in order to complete that step. Finally, Red Roses can be harvested after 1 day and 12 hours. Finishing this final step will reward you with 50 Reputation Hearts (50 points towards your next Reputation level - not 50 Reputation levels) and one White Rose collectible from the White Rose crop collection. You'll be able to share 10 Reputation Hearts with your friends.

And there you have it - the introductory steps necessary to unlock your chosen couple's romance quest line in your game.

Check out the rest of our Valentine's Day 2011 coverage right here.

Which couple will you choose for a romance in your game?

Thứ Sáu, 6 tháng 1, 2012

FrontierVille St. Patrick's Day Event: Pot of Gold has goodies inside

    Green Fountain     Leprechaun Statue     Festive Table     Keg of Green Beer
And here we thought that inconspicuous Pot of Gold in FrontierVille was merely a decoration. But after digging some more thanks to a tip from Games.com reader Barbara (and the folks at FrontierVille Info), we found the Pot of Gold acts as a Mystery Crate of sorts. Not to mention the Pot of Gold is available through multiple methods, meaning you have a chance at collecting everything that's inside. Join us behind the break to find out what these treasures hide and how to get them fast.

First of all, here's what you have to look forward to when opening up a Pot of Gold:

    Green Waterfall
    Green Fountain
    Leprechaun Statue
    Festive Table
    Keg of Green Liquid


It's also said that players have found Boosts, XP and coins inside the Pot of Gold too. Getting your hands on a Pot of Gold is far from complicated, but no one said it was easy:

    Complete the St. Patrick's Day Collection
    Finish the St. Patrick's Day Celebration Goals
    Clobbered Leprechauns drop them at random


Alright, so some of those methods overlap a bit, but you will receive one for completing the series of Goals, but that's terribly inefficient. The number one easiest way to amass Pots of Gold? Like we said in a previous post, just plant a field of 100 or more Clovers and the Leprechauns should come pouring in. Then, all you need to do is clobber away and see the Pots of Gold pile up. And don't worry about the cost--Clovers cost only 10 coins and harvest in five minutes, so there's nothing stopping you.

[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Find the rest of our St. Patrick's Day Coverage right here.

Have you found all five Pot of Gold decorations yet? What do you think is the best method for collecting them all?

Thứ Năm, 29 tháng 12, 2011

FrontierVille too slow? Try Zynga's hard drive install

Goodbye, Pony Express. Hello, Transcontinental Railroad! Has FrontierVille been running slower than a pack mule? Zynga is offering a hard drive install for disgruntled players that claims to improve performance. Even with all the performance enhancements recently, the game still runs like a snail in molasses purely because of all the content introduced to the game weekly.

How does it work? Well, Zynga will install nonessential FrontierVille files like sounds and artwork into a folder on your hard drive. Then, every time you boot up the game on Facebook, it will load these files locally from your computer rather than over the Internet. This, in theory, will boost the loading speed when not only jumping between homesteads and initially loading the game, but while moving around the environments as well. However, the speed boost has yet to be offered on our end, so sit tight for our impressions.

In the meantime, FrontierVille Info reader Alexander Cain says that he won't touch the optional installation with a ten-foot pole. ""Zynga wanting to put crap on my hard drive? I can't stand them as they are already, I said 'no' this this, there is no way I will ever trust this company to place items on my hard drive," said Cain. "I don't care how fast the game will run, this company will never see one byte or bit of data on my computer." Well, it's probably a bit too late for that considering recent trends, but he raises a valid point. Who knows whether this will allow Zynga to see even nonessential data on our machines--is that worth a faster FrontierVille?

[Source and Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Do you plan to accept the hard drive install from Zynga? Do you think Zynga is overstepping their bounds with this offer, or is it all in the sake of a better game?