Mafia Wars: Free gift RM Crumpet is a lemon

Mafia Wars released a new free gift, the RM Crumpet, for players to send to their friends. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, and since we aren't paying anything in this case, it's no surprise this vehicle qualifies as lackluster. The RM Crumpet certainly won't be turning the heads of those looking for powerful weaponry, but it may appeal to collectors.

The vehicle boasts 19 Attack and 15 Defense making it a lower-end item. Nonetheless, it is free, so you might consider taking a break from sending red or blue mystery bags, and send your buddy a RM Crumpet. Thanks Zynga.

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Mafia Wars: Armory Property coming to New York soon

Mafia Wars Armory
Hot on the heels of the Las Vegas updates, Zynga will be adding another property to your sprawling array of New York real estate in Mafia Wars. Set to sit between the Chop Shop and the Weapons Depot, the Armory will be able to produce Defense items for your mafia.

Like the Chop Shop before it, the Armory will require a list of unannounced items to construct it. Unfortunately, these construction items will not drop from jobs or fights like the Weapons Depot or the Chop Shop. You'll have to ask your friends to gift you the parts or buy them with Reward Points.

This new piece of property will have 10 levels of progression and will be able to make one Defense item daily. Stay tuned to Mafia Wars as the Armory is scheduled to release later tonight!

Mafia Wars Las Vegas items now giftable, but not very useful

Mafia Wars Las Vegas
You know, Zynga could have really wowed us with the new set of giftable items the team alluded to yesterday in Mafia Wars, changing the way Trading was done to increase its usefulness. Unfortunately, a list of weapons, armor, vehicles and animals were made available for Trading that will almost certainly become obsolete once Italy hits by the end of this month. We expected Las Vegas job unlock and Collection items and to help the stragglers finish this content before everyone makes the big trip, but nay. (Though, we were right on target with Mystery Animals.)

Well, check behind the cut nonetheless to see what soon-to-be aged junk you can now gift along with official rules from Zynga and our explanation of how all this works.
Trading
Zynga needs to make up its mind on what's Gifting and what is Trading in Mafia Wars. To clear up the company's usual cryptic fashion and lack of desire to explain anything, these are items that are gifted to others from your own loot. Just click the "Gifting" button on the navigation bar, then click the "Trading" tab. From there, you can now gift items from Las Vegas loot and more, in addition to what was already giftable, directly from your loot to your mafia. Gifting like this thankfully doesn't affect your Free Gifting totals.

If only being able to gift dated items wasn't enough, there are three stipulations to this new feature. First off, if an item was bought for Reward Points, it cannot be traded. Second, unique items like boss fight and challenge mission rewards cannot be traded. Lastly, energy boosts of any kind cannot be gifted. Now that the official rabble is through, here's a full list of what can be gifted.

Vegas Weapons:

    Carver
    24k Chainsaw
    Biohazard
    El Escorpión
    Pump Shotgun
    Gilded RPG
    Belt Fed Shotgun
    Two Pair
    Precision SMG
    Range Finder Rifle
    Arcturion Assault Rifle
    Pitbull Sentry Gun
    Ripper Assault Rifle



Vegas Armor:

    Football Jersey
    Rhinestone Cowboy
    Reinforced Boots
    Reinforced Tuxedo
    Motorcycle Helmet
    Femme Fatale
    Ventilated Blast Cap
    Biker Leathers
    Police Riot Helmet
    Reinhardt & Otto
    Ares Power Armor
    Hopped-Up Thug
    Cooling Vest



Vegas Vehicles:

    Moving Truck
    All Terrain
    Road Tractor
    Sand Storm
    Highrise Sport
    Classic Convertible
    High Society
    Hard Four
    Dune Buggy
    Mojave Mike
    Performance Sports Car
    Goldsmobile
    X-22 Peregrine
    Foo Fighter
    Ballista Missile Launcher
    Amphiquad



Vegas Animals:

    Bison
    Bark Scorpion
    Bighorn Ram
    Gila Monster
    Diamondback
    Pronghorn Antelope
    Bighorn



Bangkok Animals:

    Attack Cobra
    Riding Elephant
    Komodo Dragon
    Forest Scorpion
    Chain Viper



Mystery Animals:

    Arabian Leopard
    Badger
    Buffalo
    Dingo
    Cassowary
    Piranha
    Electric Eel
    Kangaroo
    King Cheetah


It's unfortunate that more useful items weren't made available for trade like Collection and job unlock items, but these might be useful to players trying to get through the tougher boss fights and survive high-level fights in Las Vegas. But don't worry, it'll all be useless when we make the move to Italy. Hey, at least Zynga can always update it.

Mafia Wars Natural Disaster Crates have catastrophic loot inside

The Zynga team have added yet another set of Crates to Mafia Wars with Natural Disaster Crates. For 12 Reward Points each or 35 Reward Points for three (around $3 and $7, respectively), you'll have a chance at one of eight disaster-themed weapons, vehicle and armor. Like the usual loot crates, each Natural Disaster Crate will have a 60 percent chance of containing a common item, a 30 percent chance for uncommon items and just a 10 percent chance of holding a rare item.

Check behind the break for a full list of the items you can win by picking up a few of these new crates. Here's a full preview of what you have to look forward to finding inside the Natural Disaster Crates:

Landslide     Avalanche     Lightning Strike
Common Items (60 percent chance)

Tornado     Eruption     Famine
Uncommon Items (30 percent chance)

Tsunami     Earthquake
Rare Items (10 percent chance)
These new crates have cool looking items, but whether they're worth buying when more powerful items can be found in Las Vegas jobs alone should be taken under serious consideration. But hey, if you're a collector, there's no stopping you anyway.

Mafia Wars Love is Hard to Find: Everything you need to know

A new collection event has launched in Mafia Wars in celebration of the current Valentine's Day holiday, but as you might expect in the world of Mafia Wars, no event is full of light-hearted candy and roses, and this is no exception. The new event is called "Love is Hard to Find" and it has you collecting as many Broken Hearts as you can within a specific time limit (now sitting at around eight and a half days remaining).

You'll be able to collect Broken Hearts through a number of different ways, including receiving them as free gifts (or receiving them as free bonuses on your friends' wall posts), or as loot drops from Jobs, Fights, and Robbing. There are unfortunately limits in place for the number of hearts you can collect each day, as you can only receive 10 Hearts at most from each of the Jobs, Fights, and Robbing sources, while you can only receive 20 Hearts in total each day from the gifting method.

While Red Hearts are worth just one point in the overall collection feature, you also have a chance to come across special Golden Hearts, which count as five points. Find out what these points will earn you behind the break.

There are just four rewards up for grabs in this event, but each comes with some fairly decent stats. Here's a full rundown of the four items, including their Attack / Defense stats, and their prices.

Lovebird - Costs 25 Broken Hearts - 52 Attack and 36 Defense
Bullet Proof Heart (armor) - Costs 50 Broken Hearts - 42 Attack and 67 Defense
Total Eclipse (vehicle) - Costs 100 Broken Hearts - 76 Attack and 45 Defense
Cardiac Arrest (weapon) - Costs 150 Broken Hearts - 51 Attack and 89 Defense

If you'd like a quick boost in your Broken Heart count, you can purchase Hearts outright for 1 Reward Point each. As for the other methods, you have more than a week to earn these hearts, so keep asking your active Mafia Wars neighbors for help in receiving these Broken Hearts as free gifts. By the time the event expires, you should have at least enough for the Lovebird, if not the Cardiac Arrest item as well, which definitely shouldn't leave you broken hearted.

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

What do you think of the prizes in this newest collection event?

Mafia Wars: Catch up with triple mastery in Las Vegas and double loot from Fights

If you've fallen out of favor with Mafia Wars, and you aren't one of the "naughty" players that Zynga kicked from the game today, you'll be happy to know that Zynga wants you to catch up to your friends, or even pull ahead if you're a high-level player. They're allowing you to accomplish this over the next two days by offering two bonuses throughout the game. First, if you're a fan of the game's fighting mechanic, you'll earn double the loot from fights throughout this entire weekend.

The big news here though is the fact that until sometime next week (six days from now, to be exact), you'll be able to earn triple - yes, I said triple - the mastery points for completing a single mission in the Las Vegas portion of the game. Whether you've yet to step foot inside this virtual version of Sin City, or if you're just trying to finish off your last few missions, this triple mastery will have you doing so three times faster, meaning that you'll save tons of energy in the process! Who can argue with that?!

Have you already finished everything there is to accomplish in Mafia Wars: Las Vegas, or have you been waiting for such an event to catch up to your friends?