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.

Click here to play Mafia Wars>

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.

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?

Is Zynga about to rock Facebook with a new music game?

FarmVille maker Zynga purchased the Boston-based Conduit Labs, the creators of Super Dance and Music Pets on Facebook, on August 17. Neither of these games reached critical mass on Facebook (and in fact, Music Pets and Super Dance are now both officially closed), but this does seems like a possible indication that the Big Z is preparing to kick off the music game revolution on Facebook.

Think about it -- some of the the most popular social games outside of Facebook are music games. For years, many iterations of Rock Band and Guitar Hero have brought groups of people together to jam out on plastic instruments to hits from the past several decades. The games have brought in billions of dollars, and have helped make games more accessible to the masses. We've seen this music phenomenon translate fairly well onto iPhone with Tap Tap Revenge, Rock Band for iPhone and several other games, but we haven't seen a music game rock the Facebook gaming world.

That's starting to change, though. Booyah's Nightclub City, a nightclub simulation game that features dance music from real-life indie artists, broke into the top 25 Facebook games this past month. Heatwave's Platinum Life Web Edition, a hip-hop superstar sim game with licensed music and cartoon likenesses of real-life artists like Ludacris, has also been growing at a steady pace. The Las Vegas based Instant Action just launched a beta of its new music game Instant Jam -- a Guitar Hero clone that lets you play along to music in your personal digital library.

No one is better situated than Zynga to create a music game using the talent at Conduit Labs (now renamed Zynga Boston), launch it and then crank it up to 11 using the all-powerful game cross-promotion bar that sits atop FarmVille, Mafia Wars and all of Zynga's other wildly popular games, which means millions of guaranteed eyeballs for any new game.

Of course, this is all wild speculation, but just in case Zynga is on the hunt for a few ideas, these are mine: Mafia Wars: The Musical and The FarmVille Follies. What those would actually be like, I don't know -- I'll just leave it to the pros at Zynga to fill in the blanks.

Treasure Isle: Davy Jones' Locker doubles as storage and decor

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: 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!

More FarmVille Halloween items sneak into the game

FarmVille has been updated tonight, and the shop is now featuring a few more Halloween items to add to the existing items with a spooky theme. What a surprise for your Thursday night! Of course, we already have a list of the new items for you so you can decide if you want to buy these Halloween items before they leave the game when the season is over. Without further ado, here are the new Halloween items!

Caramel Apple Tree - 5 Farm Cash
Count Duckula - 14 Farm Cash
Candy Corn Home - 38 Farm Cash
Pumpkin Tower - 18 Farm Cash
Giant Spider Web - 8 Farm Cash
Spooky Bush - 4 Farm Cash
Witch Scarecrow - 80,000 coins
Cat-O'-Lantern - 40,000 coins
Plant Monster - 30,000 coins

Right now, many players are reporting that the game is getting stuck at 98% and will not allow them into the game. We do not have screenshots of the new items for this reason. A few players have reported that they were able to get in to the game just fine, but the forums are filled with posts from angry FarmVille players who want their farm.

FarmVille brings back in-game gifting (hopefully for good this time)

The long awaited in-game FarmVille gifting center has finally gone live! The center can be accessed by simply clicking on FarmVille Requests in the upper right hand corner.

farmville in-game requests




The in-game gifting center is much quicker than accepting and sending gifts through the Facebook Game area. For example when your neighbors request an item, sending it is now only one click. After accepting a gift you do have the option to return it in-game through the regular Facebook pop-up window.

farmville gift requests

You can also access your other Zynga game requests with a simple click.

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

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.

FarmVille My Mastery function tracks farming prowess

farmville mastery page
farmville my masteryFarmVille has placed a new button in our toolboxes. Under the Ribbons menu, you can now find a button for Mastery. The icon pictured at the right has three stars and will bring up a new page titled: My Mastery.

The new function will show you all your crop and tree mastery levels, all in one simple window. Unfortunately, most of my crop mastery levels are super low, making this page a bit demoralizing. As you can see, I usually just stick to Watermelon farming (Yum!), so my own My Mastery page is pretty boring at the moment.

I think it's great that FarmVille has adding more stat tracking features, but there are bigger fish to fry. What FarmVille really needs is some much needed performance improvements.

Zynga versus DeNa : A new challenger approaches, ready... fight!

    Zynga
While Zynga has been the king of the social gaming ring in the U.S. for some time now, across the Pacific social gamers answer to a different ruler: DeNa. The Tokyo-based Japanese social gaming company has amassed $336.4 million just this quarter and aspires to over $1.4 billion in total revenue by the end of the year, Gamezebo reports. Compared to Zynga's expected $700 million, according to Softpedia, DeNa is quickly on their way to ousting the current social games titan.

Not to mention that DeNa claims to make 30 times more revenue per user than Zynga, which basically means that players within the Japanese network on average spend that much more than players of Zynga games. Gamezebo speculates that the reason why DeNa would frame its quarterly earnings like this is because the company is more than willing to take Zynga head on as the number one social games creator around the globe. And we can't blame it when the current wearer of the crown is buying up studios left and right in the U.S. and internationally. Not to mention Zynga has also made large investments in Japan, which DeNa surely finds more than threatening.

Though, DeNa isn't scot-free; just this year the company took Ngmoco, a U.S.-based mobile gaming company, under its wing. With both players aiming for the same territory (i.e. the world), it looks like the battle for social gaming supremacy isn't going to take place in just U.S. pipelines, but in tubes and cellular towers around the globe. The year before the end just got even more interesting.de

FarmVille New Co-Op Farming Job: Candy Canes for the Kids

If you're one of the many FarmVille players that have purchased the Candy Cane permit to grow Candy Canes to help support the UCSF Benoiff Children's Hospital, then you might want to take a look at a new Co-Op Farming job that was released in association with this limited time charity crop.

The job is called "Candy Canes for the Kids" and it asks you to grow 1000 Candy Canes within a 3 day time limit. Three days gives you the bronze medal, while finishing the job in less than a day will earn you the Gold medal, and a Candy Cane Sheep as the reward.

If you're interested in tackling this job with a few of your friends, you'll all need to start within the next 13 days and 3 hours, from the time of this writing, before the job expires, likely for good.

FarmVille New Winter Holiday Items: Dancing Snow Lady, Winter Cafe, Candy Cane Cow & Much More

In tonight's FarmVille update, Zynga has expanded the Winter Holiday theme by leaps and bounds, adding a new series of animals, buildings and decorations to the game's store. Some of these items we've seen coming via Sneak Peeks, while other are brand new.

Meet us behind the break for a complete look at these new items.

First, the animals. There are two new animals available to purchase, and they come in the form of the Snow Goose and the Candy Cane Cow. Both are premium items, meaning that you can purchase them either for your own farm, or you can make them an early holiday present by sending them to a friend. The Snow Goose costs 16 Farm Cash and can be harvested every 2 days, while the Candy Cane Cow can be harvested once per day and can be purchased for 24 Farm Cash.

In terms of new buildings, there are also two new items to choose from. These buildings are the Toy Shop and the Winter Cafe. The Toy Shop is a premium item, available for 20 Farm Cash, while the Winter Cafe is available for 250,000 coins.

Finally, we come to the decorations, with five new items to choose from, three of which are premium. The first is the Dancing Snow Lady, a very animated snow woman that shakes her snow-hips to music only she can hear, and can be purchased for 20 Farm Cash. A Mrs. Claus Gnome and an Eggnog Fountain round out the premium options at 18 and 15 Farm Cash each, respectively.

The other two items are the Pink Holiday Tree, which is priced at 80,000 coins, and the Holiday Planter (full of three colors of Poinsettias) which costs 5,000 coins.

All of these items are marked with a time limit of 23 days from this writing, giving you plenty of time to not only purchase these fun decorations, but also have time to enjoy them before the holiday season ends.

Zynga Poker now available on Android devices

Back in November, we told you that Zynga's Justin Cincolo had revealed that Zynga Poker would soon be coming to Android devices everywhere, and the time for that launch is now. That's right, everyone with an Android device will be able to head into the Android Market and download a free copy of Zynga Poker, that can be instantly connected with your Facebook account to allow you to play a quick hand (or 50) on the go, no matter where you happen to be at the time.

To be clear, the app is free, and requires you to sign in with Facebook in order to play. From there, you'll see all of your Facebook friends that have also been playing the game (either recently or in the past), whether they've been playing it on Facebook proper, or on another Android device. From there, you can jump into a room, take a seat at a table, and start betting on hands, just as you would from a traditional desktop computer. How neat is that?!

If Zynga Poker is as successful as other Android, or even iPhone releases that Zynga has launched in the past, this may potentially open up the door for other Zynga games to be launched on the service(s), so make sure to download the game on your Android device to show the developer some support!

Do you plan on playing Zynga Poker on your Android device?

FrontierVille 12 Days of Christmas Goals: Everything you need to know for Day Three

With nine days behind us in this long, arduous series of FrontierVille Goals known as the 12 Days of Christmas, we arrive at Day Three. In "On the Third Day O' Christmas," players will have to make lots of chicken soup. On a completely unrelated note, you'll first have to fulfill three items on friends' wish lists. It doesn't seem as if there are too many stipulations to this portion of the Goal, meaning that if one friend has three different items in their wish list that you can fulfill, sending one of each of those items will fulfill this requirement.

Secondly, you will need three Chicken Drumsticks, which are found at random while tending to Chickens. And remember, these are part of the Chicken Collection, so do not turn them in as you attempt to complete this Goal no matter how tempting the 4 Energy reward is. Lastly, it's back to the begging as you will need 10 Chicken Soup Recipes and only your friends will have them. Finish this and enjoy 3,000 coins and three Chickens. Alright, being rewarded with items we could have used in the Goal is getting tired, but the extra coins ain't too shabby. Not to mention that you're now one step closer to that elusive Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Find the rest of our Holiday 2010 coverage right here.

Have you started this Goal yet? Have any tips of your own to make this go along faster?

Zynga's Adventure World gives Facebook the Indiana Jones treatment

Going on a trek with your buddies down the Pioneer Trail is a hoot and all, but how about something more ... adventurous? Adventure World, Zynga's next big Facebook game, will give you just that. This brand new Zynga game will launch soon with what appears to be a slightly new take on what Facebook games are all about.

We already know, based on the action-packed trailer below, that players will journey through multiple tropical, volcanic and even ancient environments with their friends. Wild beasts, traps and puzzles will be thrown at eager adventurers as they traverse what looks to be a litany of detailed, animated locales.

Speaking of animation, look at what these explorers are doing: climbing ropes, triggering traps and leaping around levels. This game already looks more action-packed than possibly even Empires & Allies--and I didn't see one tank in that trailer. (And is that the voice of Duke Nukem, John St. John, narrating?)

More questions completely different from these will be answered in the coming weeks on Adventure World's Facebook page. Until then, sit back and enjoy the cel-shaded, '30s comic style characters run and jump around what looks to be Indie Jones's stomping grounds. Soon enough, we'll have more than just a trailer to show you about Adventure World.


[Video Credit: Zynga]

Are you excited to dive into the mystery and intrigue of Adventure World? How do you think this game will do compared to its existing Facebook games?

FrontierVille Bess Goals: Everything you need to know

Finally, the time has come to reveal probably the most hyped character in all of FrontierVille's short history: Bess. As it turns out, she's kind of a freeloader. With nowhere to stay, it's up to you to prepare a place for Bess to live for a while... like your Barn! In here very own set of Goals, Bess comes to the homestead after having "her heart broken by a two-timin' rodeo clown." But before you begin working with Bess, Zynga reports that you must have a Barn built already and have started the "Get Ready for a Baby" Goal.

Bess
The first Goal, titled simply "Here Comes Bess," is fairly simple. All you need is to have one thousand coins, 20 planks and to move 10 Cows. (Pro tip: Moving the same cow 10 times has the same effect.) If you don't have 20 Planks, you'll have to spend 140 Wood and five thousand coins crafting them in the Covered Wagon. Finish this Goal for a reward of 25 XP and three Cows.

Find out how to complete the rest of Bess' Goals after the break.

Late as Usual
The second Goal in the series, "Late as Usual," is even simpler than the last. Seriously, this shouldn't take more than a minute. Just hire one friend from your Friends List on the bottom half of the screen, buy one Lunch for 165 Food and customize your Barn once. And that's it. For completing this Goal, you'll be 75 XP and 75 coins richer.

The third and final Goal of the series "Sure Beats Wrasslin' Steers fer a Livin'," which is probably true for both Bess and us pioneers. It's in this Goal that we discover something special about Bess: she can help around the homestead. Much like your spouse and kids, Bess is a controllable character that can do chores as well as the rest of them. Well, as far as clicking glowing things goes. But on with the Goal (pictured below).

Sure Beats Wrasslin' Steers for a Livin!
First, give Bess one chore to do--feed the animals, tend the fruit trees or anything, really. Second, sell one Cow and lastly collect 10 Milking Stools, which is business as usual (ask your friends). Finish this Goal for a sweet 75 XP and 25 extra Energy. Alright, Bess might be a freeloader, but at least she works for it. With Valentine's just around the corner and Bess sending this letter before her arrival, expect to see a lot more of her in future events.

FarmVille Green House Cube: Sorry, it's for iPhone, iPad only

Another FarmVille iPhone, iPad-only item hits the market -- a Green House Cube with a rainbow apple tree and a few flowers inside. The Green House Cube costs 25,000 coins (you gain 250 XP when you buy it and earn 1,250 Coins if you decide sell it) and just in case you were wondering if this thing has some other function than just sitting and looking pretty -- well, it doesn't. But, if you're a big fan of the Apple Store that sits in the middle of Manhattan (see pic below), maybe you'll want to give this virtual replica a special spot on your farm.

FarmVille Disco Pony grooves back onto the farm for limited time

Missed your chance to break it down this New Year's Eve in FarmVille with the Party Barn? Zynga feels for you (sort of), so it brought back the Disco Pony to the game for a limited time. Once the grand prize for throwing the greatest New Year's party your farm has ever seen, the Disco Pony is available in the Market for 24 Farm Cash for the next 14 days. However, those who earned it the hard way might not be too thrilled about it being for sale. You have two weeks to save up for this dancing fool, so get to it, jive turkey.

Will you be taking advantage of this second chance at bringing serious cool to your farm? If you already have one, do you feel like you've been gipped of an achievement?