Apple iPad Will Help the Future of Browser-Based Gaming

As usual, Apple’s newest piece of hardware, the iPad, is quite impressive. With a sleek 10″ touchscreen, this netbook-rival device will quite possibly be (or maybe is even already) an eyesore and a hot commodity for gamers.

According to Trip Hawkins, the president of Digital Chocolate (a video game developer based in San Mateo, California), the iPad will change the portable gaming market. The market for games and gaming will expand as individuals who were not big gamers in the past start playing browser-based games through social networking sites (like Facebook) and/or downloading games from the App store.

The base price for a 16 GB Apple iPad with wi-fi capabilities is currently $499, but maybe in the future when demand is high enough, the price of a unit will decrease. For an Apple iPad with the same amount of storage in addition to 3G capabilities, the base price is $629. If you’re interested in checking out some of the features of the device, visit Apple’s website.

Farmville Releases New Giftable Mystery Gifts

Farmville has recently released a new giftable item – the Mystery Gift. It reminds me of Farmville’s Christmas presents, except the prizes are not Christmas-themed. To open a Mystery Gift, you must first click on your gift box and click on the “use” button for the gift. This allows you to put the present on your farm, and from there, you can click on the present and then on “open” to open it. The present will disappear in a few puffs of purple smoke and sparkles. This process is irreversible, so make sure you really want to open your Mystery Gift before proceeding.

Various items can be obtained from opening these Mystery Gifts. I got four Mystery Gifts today and the prizes I got from opening them include (in this order): 1 Farm Cash, Hot Air Balloon (yay),  1/5 Fuel Refill (yuck), and a Goat Topiary. Other prizes that are available through the Mystery Gift giftable include other topiaries, different capacity fuel refills, 20 XP, and various Farmville animals and trees.

Farmville Continues to Gain Popularity, Creates Haiti Relief Fund

Farmville is making quite the profit these days and is starting to engage in some philanthropic efforts to help those in the rest of the world that are not as fortunate as their counterparts in the United States.

Most recently, the folks over at Zynga have integrated a function into the browser-based game Farmville (as well as Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker) that allows its players to donate to the Haiti Relief Fund, whose main purpose is to help those who have experienced suffering from the earthquake that recently occurred in the area.

Farmville players can help in Zynga’s donation efforts by buying some White Corn in the game. This item (seeds) costs 25 Farm Cash, but literally 100% of the funds collected will go to the Haiti Relief Fund to help earthquake victims. What a great initiative that Zynga has put out there… I wouldn’t be surprised if this started a new trend for charitable donations by other online gaming companies.

Howzat Multiplayer BBG is Glitch Free But Lacks in Social Networking

Like India’s Cricket T20 Fever, Howzat is another browser-based cricket game. Howzat is a straightforward game and is purely multiplayer, i.e., you can’t play against the computer (although you can play in practice mode). The game doesn’t seem very innovative — although it performs fairly well — and doesn’t feature much social networking and interaction, even though it is recognized as a “social” game.

In Howzat, gamers play in cricket matches to earn experience points, which can be used to upgrade teams. The two skills that each player starts off with are batting and bowling… simple enough. Players can select whether they want their avatar to be left or right-handed… again, pretty straightforward.

One of the seemingly few social aspects of the the game is that players can invite their friends to play (they also earn points by doing this). Players can also share their teams on Facebook. Howzat also features leaderboards, forums, and social communities, which are pretty standard of social networking games.

Via CricInfo.

Echo Bazaar Browser-Based Game Provides Unique Experience

Set in Fallen London, the browser-based game Echo Bazaar features a combination of elements of tabletop gaming, RPGs, social networking, and Victorian England, and is touted for its unusual and compelling storyline. Echo Bazaar’s appeal lies in its robust mythology and deep backstory, which players will discover bit by bit as they play through the game.

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Echo Bazaar, keep reading for an interview with the pair of creators behind the mysterious and addictive game. Alexis Kennedy is the Chief Narrative Office, who built the website and created the bulk of the content and Paul Arendt is the Creative Director, who designed the website and created all the artwork.

Part of what makes Echo Bazaar so enjoyable is its rich mythology. How did you decide upon the location of Fallen London? Which came first, the setting or the gameplay?

Alexis Kennedy: The gameplay. Echo Bazaar was originally a much smaller, very different game – a sort of predictive market in guessing what phrases people might use on Twitter (market=Bazaar, Twitter=Echo). It was basically intended to fund and get press for Prisoner’s Honey, our next project.

I added some flavor about a subterranean market and asked Paul to draw some icons in his spare time. But the game was turning out very dry, so I kept adding narrative elements and eventually we went the social RPG route, and then it all got rather out of hand.

Paul Arendt: It wasn’t even London, originally. It was this very unspecified place and time deep under the earth. But Alexis would explain it to people, and they would just go, ‘Wot?’

AK: So we thought, well, we’ve stolen the flavor of Victorian London, why not steal the whole city? I’m glad we did.

Echo Bazaar feels very much like a tabletop game. Were they an influence on its creation?

AK: You’ve uncovered my sordid past. Twenty-five years behind the GM screen, man and boy. I stopped when I realized I was never going to finish any other projects when all my energy was going into running games. Nigel Evans and Chris Gardiner, who’ve contributed content, are also veteran tabletop gamers.

PA: A tablewhat game?

AK: Paul is a grown-up.

What were some of the inspirations for the art style or storytelling style? (Books, movies, other games, etc.)

AK: Mervyn Peake, Lemony Snicket, Tim Burton, Kipling, Machen, Wilde, Moorcock, Gaiman…

PA: I bloody hate Tim Burton! You just can’t do cartoon-Gothic-horror-with-period-stylings any more without someone yelling “Tim Burton!” at you. If anything, the look of Fallen London was more inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. Spooky but silly, serious but camp. Gary Oldman in a top hat and sunglasses is never far from my mind. I’ll second Peake as well: his drawings are amazing. The big Echo Bazaar banners were more than a little influenced by Braid.

AK: People keep bringing up China Mieville, but I always think he’d despise us for being so very far from gritty.

PA: We get a lot of people name-checking Lovecraft too, but we’re more comic horror than cosmic horror really.

AK: I can’t properly deny either of those though. Paul and I also both play a lot of CRPGs. Planescape: Torment is a long-time inspiration, of course. I realized a week before launch that I’d accidentally stolen one of the better jokes from there, and hastily took it out before anyone noticed.

Via TheEscapist.

Mafia Wars is Another Popular Facebook Browser-Based Game

The concept of a mafia often encompasses a sense of mysteriousness, danger, and excitement, so its no wonder that there are many video games based on it. Zynga’s Mafia Wars  (hosted on Facebook) was one such game that capitalized on this. The game wasn’t the original prototype of this type of gaming, but of the existing mobster-themed browser-based games on the market, it indeed had a noteworthy execution (not to mention a large number of players).

Recently, there was an expansion to the game. Players can now expand their “criminal empire” into international lands including Cuba, Moscow, and Bangkok. Later this year, this geographical expansion will include Las Vegas in the United States. If you’re interested in checking out this free-to-play browser-based game, click here.

Via Games.

More Fuel Refills Found in Farmville Mystery Eggs During Free Fuel Week

Is it just me or are Farmville players more likely to get Fuel Refills as a result of hatching Farmville Mystery Eggs during Farmville’s Free Fuel Week?

Recently, when I’ve been hatching Farmville White Mystery Eggs and Uncommon Brown Mystery Eggs, I’ve been finding more 1 Fuel Refills than usual and when I just hatched a Rare Black Mystery Egg, I received 10 Fuel Refills — woo!

Is anyone else experiencing this or has Farmville just decided to be nice to its farmers (but perhaps not so nice to the environment)?

Also, don’t forget to visit your farm on a daily basis to be able to collect your free Fuel Refills. Make sure to check out our periodically updated Farmville Rumors page for more info on this and other Farmville rumors.

Want to Get Rid of Your Farmville Holiday Tree?

The holiday season’s unfortunately over and the Holiday Tree may no longer seem so fitting on the Farmville scene. Players have been wondering how to get rid of it and the answer’s simple and straightforward. Just delete it.

Personally, I think the Holiday Tree makes your farm look nice and colorful. It’s sad that there’s no way to put your Holiday Tree in storage, but if you really don’t want to keep it on your farm, the only thing you can do about it is delete it. Just click on the delete tool in the bottom right-hand corner of your Farmville window and then click on your tree to delete it. Be sure that you want to do it because once you delete an item, you won’t be able to get it back.

Farmville Chicken Coop Coin Bonus

Farmville has been introducing new things players can do with their friends’ chickens lately, namely feeding them. Chickens that are fed are rumored to have a greater chance of producing eggs, which players can then share with their friends. I’m not sure what the stats on this Farmville bonus are though, or if there is actually an increase in the chance of your chickens laying eggs if your friends feed them.

While I was harvesting my chickens (in the Chicken Coop) today, I did not find any special chicken eggs, but I did get a golden coin bonus from “some extra nice eggs.” I’ve never seen it before, but I’ll take it.

Now that 2010 has just started, maybe Farmville will have some new or special items or events for its farmers, such as finding special and rare items when hatching chicken eggs that are found on a friend’s farm. We’ll definitely keep you posted on any unique things we encounter, and feel free to share with us anything you find.

Farmville Free Fuel Week Starts Today

All you Farmville fans out there who own tractors, seeders, and harvesters in the game are probably super excited that today is the start of the Farmville Free Fuel Week.

To get free fuel, players must visit their farm today. Players will be able to obtain an entire free tank of gas. Woo! If you’re worried that you won’t be able to get free fuel because your tank’s already full, don’t be. Players who already have a full tank (that allows them to plow, seed, or harvest 150 plots of land) will automatically be upgraded to a tank that’ll allow them to farm 300 plots of land.

During Farmville’s Free Fuel Week, players will also be able to give free fuel to their friends. 1/5 of a tank (enough to farm 30 plots of land) can be shared with a friend by clicking on the icon of the fuel tank in the upper left-hand corner of the game window. Sharing fuel with your friends doesn’t affect the amount of fuel that you have left in your own tank, so if you feel like spreading some Farmville love, click on the icon to post the free fuel to your Facebook page.