The Sims Social Vacation Homes whisk Sims away to Littlehaven Shores

The Sims Social Vacation Homes
Can we just say that you guys totally called it? Take your Sim on a vacay in the biggest feature to hit The Sims Social yet: Vacation Homes. Playfish plans to launch the feature tomorrow, Feb. 23, starting with a tropical location known as Littlehaven Shores. Once players reach Level 10, they can visit Littlehaven Shores and build their Sim's home away from home.

Each player will enjoy their very own, fully-customizable version of Littlehaven Shores, which offers a decidedly equatorial theme. Every beach house comes packing the bare necessities--a sink, toilet, kitchen counters and more--but will have its own shop filled with exclusive items to decorate the place with. The shore homes will also come with their very own quests to complete and skill items to master.
The Sims Social Littlehaven Shores
Of course, players will be able to navigate between their original home and Littlehaven Shores, their second home. (From the sound of it, Vacation Homes will work much like travel does in, say, FarmVille between players' various farms.) Vacation Homes will not stop at Littlehaven Shores, as Playfish plans for this feature to be a series.

Even more Vacation Homes will be added in the coming weeks, Playfish tells us. (And now that it's out of the top five, that could be just what The Sims Social needs.) Until then, expect to enjoy Littlehaven's luxurious side starting tomorrow. Players will get to check out Bella's Vacation Home as early as 12 a.m. GMT and venture into their own Littlehaven Shore later in the morning.
The Sims Social Vacation Homes couple
Are you psyched to see more of Vacation Homes in The Sims Social? What do you think of this as the next big feature in the game?

Halfbrick unleashes a Fruit Ninja licensing frenzy with fruit snacks, shirts and more

Back in December, Halfbrick released a duo of Fruit Ninja plushies for fans of the mobile game. Now, the real world Fruit Ninja frenzy is set to take over store shelves with a wide variety of products, ranging from clothing to phone cases. Halfbrick today announced that it has partnered with plenty of known names to bring licensed products to worldwide shelves.

"Fruit Ninja continues to be one of the most popular apps in the world, with a nearly 2-year run on the Top 10 Paid App lists worldwide. Working with partners to create Fruit Ninja products has always been part of our long-term plan, but we have been very selective, both in choosing our partners and in approving their products. The end result is a strong coordinated product line-up that will start hitting shelves this week and later this and next year," said Shainiel Deo, Halfbrick's CEO via a company press release. "For the first time, we're creating characters and personalities around the fruit that players slice through. I'm confident that the Fruit Ninja community will love these products."

With partners like Mattel, Basic Fun and Bioworld Merchandising, fans can expect to soon be able to purchase Fruit Ninja themed handbags, accessories, board games, phone cases, calendars, fruit snacks, stickers, posters, sleepwear, t-shirts and even pajamas. With so many items in the works, 2012 looks to be the year of Fruit Ninja, and we'll make sure to let you know when you can start picking up some of these items at a store near you.

What do you think of the idea of all of these Fruit Ninja products? Would you wear a Fruit Ninja t-shirt, or cover your iPhone in a Fruit Ninja themed case?

CityVille: Storage Warehouses can now hold up to 115 items

If you're running out of (or are completely out of) storage in CityVille, you can now upgrade your storage capacity by four times, to a new maximum capacity of 115 individual items. You can double, triple and eventually quadruple your storage via the "Contain Yourself" goal, which has three tasks:

    Ask for 8 Deadbolts
    Quadruple your Storage to 115 Slots
    Place 20 Items into Storage


The Deadbolts are earned via a general news item posted on your wall. To increase your storage capacity, you'll need to ask for a variety of building materials for each level. To upgrade from 24 items to 50 items, for instance, you'll need 12 each of Plastic Bins, Combination Locks, Shelves, Bungee Cord and Rolling Carts. These items are earned by asking your friends to send them to you, or by purchasing them for Farm Cash.

If you finish the three tasks in this goal, you'll receive 500,000 coins and 5 Zoning Permits. So, not only will you earn plenty of additional storage spaces in your Warehouse, but you'll also receive plenty of coins and a little help in expanding in the process! Good deal, right?

What do you think of the Storage Warehouse upgrades in CityVille?

CastleVille: Craft an Energy Totem for a higher maximum energy

If you find yourself running out of energy too quickly in CastleVille, you can now do something about that (a little something, anyway) by crafting an Energy Totem for your Kingdom. The Energy Totem is a new recipe in the Workshop that takes almost 47 hours to complete. It will boost your maximum energy by three points, but (as you might expect) it requires quite a few items to actually create.

    40 Stone Blocks
    30 Gold Bars
    15 Fairy Dusts
    10 Iron Picks


The Fairy Dusts can be earned by asking your friends to send them to you. The Stone Blocks can be earned in the same way, or you can craft them (also in the Workshop) using six Stones each. The Gold Bars require two Stone Blocks and four Alchemist's Powders to craft, and finally, the Iron Picks require four Wood Logs and one Iron Bar for each. That's tons of crafting (or tons of Crowns, if you choose to purchase these items), but if you stick with it, you'll eventually be able to create your very own Energy Totem for your Kingdom.

As of right now, there's no in-game notice telling us that we can only have a single Energy Totem in our Kingdoms, but I would assume the item is limited in some fashion. After all, if users could craft an endless amount of totems, they'd never have to pay real money for Energy potions, and we know that simply can't be the case. Once we figure out the limit for Energy Totems (if it's more than one), we'll make sure to let you know.

Will you work on building an Energy Totem for your Kingdom, or do rarely run out of energy while you play?

FarmVille Carnival Items: Caribbean Trumpet Tree, Favela Home and more

Tonight's FarmVille update is a huge one, offering a slew of new items in the game's Carnival / Mardi Gras limited edition item theme. If you're an animal or tree collector, I hope you've saved up some Farm Cash, as you're definitely going to need it here. Here's a complete look at the newly released items.

Trees

Caribbean Trumpet - 6 Farm Cash
Big Caribbean Trumpet - 12 Farm Cash
White Trumpet - 6 Farm Cash
Big White Trumpet - 12 Farm Cash
Headdress Tree - 8 Farm Cash
Giant Headdress Tree - 14 Farm Cash

Animals

Headdress Ewe - 16 Farm Cash
Headdress Horse - 26 Farm Cash
Headdress Cow - 20 Farm Cash
Big Headdress Ewe - 18 Farm Cash
Headdress Llama - 14 Farm Cash
Headdress Chicken - 20 Farm Cash
Boxer - 2 million coins

Buildings

Favela Home - 15 Farm Cash

Decorations

Carnival Fountain - 10 Farm Cash
Samba Dancer - 12 Farm Cash
Feather Fence - 5,000 coins

Avatar Clothing

Carnival Costume - 7 Farm Cash
Samba Dancer - 7 Farm Cash

These items will be available in the FarmVille marketplace for the next two weeks, so make sure to go shopping sooner, rather than later, before the party leaves for another year.

What do you think of this large selection of Carnival and Mardi Gras themed items?

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes moves the franchise to the free-to-play arena

Electronic Arts has announced a new installment in the Warhammer Online franchise that brings the series into the free-to-play landscape. Under their Play4Free heading, BioWare and Electronic Arts have announced Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes at Gamescom, which will launch sometime this fall.

Taking the PvP (Player vs Player) arena combat from Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Wrath of Heroes will allow players to mix and match the game's many heroes, forming combinations that best fit each player's style and each individual encounter you may face.

With the main focus being on the PvP Arenas, you'll find plenty of them when the game launches. For one, you can enter into three-team combat of up to 18 players (six players per team), as players are separated between three different races. We'd assume that at some point, you'll be able to use real money to better outfit your characters, or perhaps even purchase new heroes, but for now, all we've been told is that the game will be free to play and that you can sign up for access into the game's beta on its official website.

We can't promise that everything in Warhammer: Wrath of Heroes will be free, but if you're like me, you're up for trying anything "free" at least once. We'll make sure to let you know when you'll have that chance later this year.

Are you a big Warhammer Online fan? Will you try to get your friends to play this new game with you now that the experience will technically be free?

Virtual City Playground for iOS looks like HD CityVille ... on your phone

So, CityVille Hometown is great, but I get the feeling some fans were looking for something more like the actual web game. It looks like G5, a Stockholm, Sweden-based developer of mobile games for iOS, might bring the goods. Virtual City Playground, a free version of the original with a much more social twist, is set to hit the App Store this Aug. 25, Pocket Gamer reports.

The game will allow players to create and cultivate their own city on an enormous scale in pseudo-3D, isometric graphics. The game will guide players much like Zynga's city-builder does, but offers support for far more friend interaction through Game Center Support and Facebook friend challenges.

Your job, essentially, is to grow your city by populating it with homes and businesses that grow off of one another all the while being supplied by agriculture, like any old city game. This updated version also brings an in-game currency, completing that old quarter pit feeling. That's right, Virtual City Playground is 100 percent free to play.

Virtual City Playground
However, to speed things up, players will have the option to purchase 85 of the game's quests, if they really can't wait. The game could be the city-builder of scale you've been looking for, but check the trailer below to see what we mean:


[Image Credit: Pocket Gamer]

Do you think that you'll pick this up for your mobile city fix when it releases? How do you think this game will do in the face of CityVille Hometown?

The Sims Social, Gamescom's 'Best Browser Game,' lives on Facebook

While EA and Playfish London have officially set The Sims Social live at this year's Gamescom (with a show award, to boot), we're going with "lives," because the game technically already lived. Alas, despite a shoddy launch and some unfortunate down time, this gem of a Facebook game has launched to nearly 5 million players. Even counting since its downtime (and "open beta" issues), The Sims Social has grown exponentially in the past week, gaining about a whopping 3 million players in that time, according to AppData.

I'd hate to speak too soon (no I don't), but these look a lot like Zynga numbers. Could the big red bull dog have finally met its match, the biggest casual gaming brand long before FarmVille? It's quite possible, especially considering what players say the game could imply for the future of the genre.

"When we created The Sims Social, it was important for us to incorporate the deep gameplay nuances The Sims Studio has perfected and leverage what Playfish does best – develop compelling, cutting-edge social-gaming experiences," Playfish London GM John Earner said in a statement. And based on these explosive numbers, it looks like the players might agree. If The Sims Social keeps growing at this rate, it could catch up with Zynga's top games in a few months.

Gallery: The Sims Social on Facebook

The game already has branded partnerships with companies like Dunkin' Donuts, so it's clear how serious EA is about this game. Between what seems to be a hit on Facebook and a hit machine in the bag for possibly $1.3 million, maybe the Madden guys can hang with the FarmVillers, after all.

Click here to play The Sims Social on Facebook Now >

Are you part of The Sims Social yet? Do you think this game has a chance at competing on Zynga levels?

PopCap study: Play games with your kids, they'll be better for it

Man, there's nothing like a feel-good study to cheer you up on a Friday. PopCap Games, creator of Bejeweled and Zuma Blitz for Facebook, has helped in a study by Goldsmiths University that finds some comforting results for gamer parents, at least. According to the study, one in five parents said that playing computer games has helped their children develop a better understanding of technology.

While the organization does not reveal the exact number of participants, it goes on to report on findings that a third of parents believe gaming has increased their kids' concentration and that 53 percent believe that casual video games have improved their kids' problem solving skills. And the kids want more, apparently, as 27 percent of parents reported that their children attempt to borrow their smartphones to play casual games on.

"These findings are important because they highlight the social benefits of playing videogames," said Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Reader in Psychology at Goldsmiths in a release. "Previous research has tended to look only at the individual effects of video games, but in the era of social networking games appear to play a vital role in enhancing social relationships. The fact that both parents and grandparents are using games to connect with their children and grandchildren, and quite successfully, suggests that video games can improve social skills and make a key contribution to both effective parenting and child development."

Well, there's your educated, scientific opinion, so take it or leave it. Keep in mind, however, this survey comes from the help of a company that may have interest in this particular market (with all due respect, of course). For those of you who hand the toddler the iPad or the Wii remote every once in a while, more power to ya. (Besides, a two-year-old with an iPad is YouTube gold.)

Have you ever played video games with your kids? What effects do you think playing with your kid could have on his or her development?

Angry Birds worth at least as much as FarmVille, Rovio exec says

The Mighty Eagle has dollar signs in its eyes, as Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka said recently to Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio that his company is worth several billion dollars, MSNBC reports. And by, "several million," Vesterbacka means somewhere in the FarmVille range--he noted to estimates that Zynga was worth $20 to $25 billion (which sounds a bit inaccurate to me)--according to MSNBC.

But Bloomberg recently reported that the Angry Birds creator was worth at least $1.2 billion, and this valuation would mean Rovio is 100 percent viable to compete with Zynga. I've never read it being discussed seriously, the two being competitors, but perhaps those talks will start now. Rovio could be the second major company of the new age of publishers to combat the first. (And here we thought the birds were looking to get bought.) Rovio is looking for 1 billion users, and fast. Perhaps Zynga was more of a motivation to the birds than previously imagined.

"We are not selling though - unless somebody offers enough," Vesterbacka was quoted saying in the interview published on Thursday, according to MSNBC. The exec went on to say that Rovio plans to list on the New York stock market within three years. If Rovio can enter new territory with the Angry Birds and take full advantage of the freemium model, then there is no reason it can't be a viable competitor to Zynga.

The more Rovio attempts to introduce the Angry Birds to new media (and sources of revenue), the further it will inch toward defeating Zygna, which only is within a single, though massive market. What I'm getting at is to warn you that there is more swiping and harvesting in your gaming future where the first three years of it came from.

[Via Zap2It]

Do you think Rovio could really be worth around $11.5 billion? If true, how do you think Zynga will respond, and which mode of gaming will come out on top?

Parking Wars 2 brings Philly's ... charms to light in Facebook gaming

We have a fine city here, Philadelphia. But, a lot of that beauty has to grow on a person, and that can take years. So, to warn folks of our city's charms before they decide to visit the City of Brotherly Love, Majesco presents Parking Wars 2 for Facebook. The creator of franchises like Cooking Mama (also on Facebook!) and the Zumba Fitness games is looking to cash in on Facebook.

Based loosely on the hit A&E show of the same name--you know, the one that shows just how awesome it is to drive in my hometown? (To dispel any misleading, It's horrific.) The game launched this week, Inside Social Games reports, and has since reached over 34,000 monthly players and just over 1,500 daily players.

The game tasks players with parking cars on their friend's streets and keeping track of when to move each car and where to move them to in order to maximize points. At this year's E3, we left Parking Wars 2 feeling like it was too reliant on other friends, perhaps. And while it sounds (and sort of is) a bit boring, a slick presentation, sharp '50s style and matching tunes keep it interesting.

Parking Wars 2 in action
When players leave a car in a spot for too long or park illegally, their friends can ticket them there for parking illegally. Players level up by correctly parking and removing cars in a timely fashion. Then, they can purchase new cars that are worth more points when parked correctly. You can then buy items to boost the value of your cars, as well as for extra bonuses to ticketing vehicles. If you're a fan of watching people bicker about parking on TV, then perhaps this is your game, but I like to escape from reality, thanks.

Click here to play Parking Wars 2 on Facebook Now >

Are you excited that Parking Wars is back in action on Facebook? Do you think this sequel will do better than its predecessor?