Tips, news and reviews on FarmVille, Mafia Wars and a host of other Facebook games. Posts with category Tips and Tricks FarmVille giftable holiday presents -- collect them all Posted Dec 7th 2009 5:30PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games FarmVille holiday items have started rolling out en masse, including five new giftable presents that you can give to friends. Sixty of these presents can be stored in the holiday tree, and then can be opened starting December 24. Read more about the FarmVille holiday tree in this post. farmville-giftable-presents To check out your gift inventory on your Holiday Tree, click on your tree and select 'Look Inside' from the drop-down menu. Then you'll be able to check out your entire gift collection and wonder what's hiding in those pretty packages. farmville holiday tree If you're having a hard time getting 60 gifts for your holiday tree, you can beg friends to send you more by publishing this notification on your Facebook page. To publish the note, click on the holiday tree and select the 'Ask friends for presents' on the drop-down menu. Then, wait for the flood of presents to begin... farmville holiday cheer Related Stories: FarmVille Holiday Tree Growing Guide More on FarmVille Play FarmVille on Facebook > * * Permalink * Email this * Add Comment FarmVille cheats & tips: How to grow your FarmVille holiday tree Posted Dec 7th 2009 4:00PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games, Farmville Just about the same time many people go out and buy their Christmas tree, FarmVille introduces one that you can plant on your virtual farm and ... here's the strange twist ... store presents inside so it will grow up big and tall, kind of like this gigantic tree residing in NYC's Rockefeller Plaza. farmville-holiday-tree-plant 1. Plant Your Tree First, locate your tree. You can find your tree by clicking on the Christmas Tree icon on the left hand side of the screen (see pic above), which will open the game's gift box, which is where your tree is located. Alternately, just click on the gift box icon, and locate your tree inside. To plant your tree, click the use button on the tree and place it on your farm. Your virtual farmer will wander over to the tree and proceed to 'build' it, which takes a few seconds. farmville add presents to your tree3. Add Presents to Your Tree To make your sapling grow big and strong, you'll need to store presents inside of it. FarmVille presents are new giftable items -- meaning you can only get them from your friends. The tree can hold 60 presents in all, and for each set of 20 presents, the tree will grow larger and gain additional decorations. 4. Open Your Presents Between December 24 to January 7, you will be able to open the presents underneath the tree. There haven't been any hints as to what those presents will be other than "special surprises," so we're certainly looking forward to see what we'll be harvesting from our tree in a few short weeks. Related: More on FarmVille Play FarmVille on Facebook * * Permalink * Email this * 8 Comments PetVille Getting Started Guide: How to Make Cash Fast Posted Dec 3rd 2009 7:30PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games, PetVille PetVille might let you take care of an adorable animal, but -- like most social games -- the game's all about collection coins that can be used to improve your animal's overall welfare (not to mention its house and clothing options). The new game from Zynga launched on Facebook on December 2, and while we're sure they have plenty more bodacious features in store for the game, here's a few ways you can make cash fast in the game. 1. Clean Your Neighbor's House Visit neighbors daily to help them clean up their pad neat and tidy, and in exchange, you'll be rewarded with "love points" aka experience points and cold hard coin. To help neighbors clean, you simply need to find five items lying around the house and then click on them. Once clicked, they'll disappear and turn into coins. Never thought cleaning a friend's house could be this fun ... or profitable. 2. Refresh Wilted Flowers When you arrive at your pet's house, you'll notive a vase filled with wilted flowers. To change out the wilted flowers, click on the vase and a pop-up menu will offer a selection of flowers to choose from. Different flowers cost different amounts and take varying amounts of time to wilt. 3. Feed Your Pet in a Timely Fashion In our previous How to Feed You PetVille Pet post, we went over the nuances of food. Basically, some foods will keep your pet satiated longer than others, whether for a matter of minutes or for a few days. If you refill your pet's food bowl in a timely manner, you will be rewarded with coins, aka a Kibble Time Bonus. 4. Feed Your Pet Treats ... Often Like FarmVille and other games, there's a gifting option in PetVille, where you will be able to give and receive treats. Once you get these treats, feed them to your pet, and not only will your pet do somethng amusing -- like juggle -- but you will get different coins, more of them the more valuable the treat. 5. Visit Your Neighbors Until You Run Out of Energy Unlike other social games, where you can only visit your neighbors once a day to reap any financial rewards, PetVille lets you go back again and again. Once you show up at a neighboring pet's house, you'll be able to greet them with a high five, dance, tickle and more. And, of course, once you do that -- you'll be rewarded with money. There's one caveat: you can only keep revisiting neighbors until your energy runs out, then you'll have to wait -- Mafia Wars style -- until it's replenished again the next day. 6. Wash Your Pet, and Other Pets, Too Just like real-life pets, PetVille animals get dirty and need to be washed. Once you start the game, you're supplied with a bar of soap. Click on the bar of soap to pick it up, then rub it over your pet to get the lather going. As your pet gets cleaner, you'll start racking up coins (and experience points) for your due diligence. You can wash other pets when you visit their houses for a few extra coins as well. Right now, you can go back to the same friend's house over and over, and get a few coins everytime you give them a scrub -- so keep making repeat visits to keep racking up cash. Related Stories: PetVille vs. Pet Society: Which One Looks Cuter? PetVille Getting Started Guide: How to Feed Your Pet PetVille: The Devil (and Joy) is in the Details Breaking News: PetVille Launches on Facebook Rumor: Zynga's Next Big Game is PetVille Play PetVille on Facebook > * * Permalink * Email this * 1 Comment PetVille Getting Started Guide: How to Feed Your Pet Posted Dec 3rd 2009 3:00PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games, PetVille That's right, there's another game on Facebook begging for your attention -- PetVille. The brand new game from Zynga -- best known for their runaway hit FarmVille -- puts a virtual pet in your charge. Your goal is to keep your pet fed and earn coins, which can be used to buy new items for both your pet and his/her house. Getting started in PetVille is a relatively simple process, provided you already have a Facebook account. After logging into Facebook, visit this URL to get to the game. After customizing your pet, you'll need to learn how to feed your pet. 1. Start by clicking on your pet's food bowl, which is located in your pet's house. 2. Select which type of food you'd like to feed your pet. Keep in mind that different types of food will keep your pet fed for different amounts of time. Also note that you can change the look of your pet's food bowl in this menu as well. 3. Once you feed your pet, you will get a Kibble Bonus (of a certain number of coins, depending on which food you bought) which can be used to purchase more food, items for your pet and its house. 4. Important: if your pet runs out of food, and you aren't around to refill the bowl, then your pet might run away. Don't worry -- you're pet's not gone for good, you'll just have a pay a nominal fee to get it back in action. 5. When you start the game, you'll have access to a few different flavors of food, such as grape, peppermint, raspberry and banana -- which will keep your pet fed for 2 minutes to four hours. As the game progresses and your pet levels up, you'll be unlock more foods that can sustain your pet for several hours or days at a time. Check out the entire list of foods and how much they cost and how long they'll last after the jump. (This will be a running list for now, if you have any additional information, please let us know in the comments below). Continue reading PetVille Getting Started Guide: How to Feed Your Pet * * Permalink * Email this * 6 Comments Giftable Soldiers (and an Elf Gnome) March on FarmVille Posted Dec 2nd 2009 6:30PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games While we're still busy packing away all of our Harvest-themed items into FarmVille storage, the team has already started rolling out Xmas themed items, such as reindeer and, now, giftable soliders and an adorable Elf Gnome that will make any farmer squeal with glee (OK, maybe just me). farmville giftable soldiers Soldiers come in white, green and red variety, and they're actually quite tall, so they really stand out once you place them on your farm. Get a better idea of how large they are by checking out these two red soldiers standing guard of my two reindeer below. farmville soldier Then, of course, there's the elf gnome (which you can sell for 175 coins), but I placed mine right next to my golden gnome so it doesn't feel lonely. farmville elf gnome hangs out on the farm in farmville Play FarmVille on Facebook > * * Permalink * Email this * Add Comment Pet Society Holiday Fish: Learn How to Catch Them All Posted Dec 2nd 2009 4:30PM by Libe Goad Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Social Games, Facebook Games, Pet Society Pet Society fishing aficionados can kick off the holiday season by acquiring the new Holiday Fish Biscuit in the Cash Store, for 4 Pet Society Dollars a pop. Once you have these in your possession, you can take your special Xmas bait to the pond and try your hand at catching 16 wacky fish with names like the Santa Sackfish and the Elffish. pet society holiday fish biscuits As a word of warning, just because you buy 16 Holiday biscuits, doesn't mean you'll collect all of the fish. Some are more difficult to catch than others, and you're likely to end up with duplicates. Even if you wear the pro fishing gear, you'll still catch more of one fish the others. One player on the official Pet Society forums says they used 22 biscuits to catch them all, which means they spent 88 Playfish dollars (roughly $15) for the pleasure. To say can be an expensive endeavor is an understatement. Below, check out a complete lineup of Holiday fish, image courtesty of Pet Society auteur ner8kl, who's already caught them all. pet society holiday fish From left to right: First row: Rudolfish Colourful Bobblefish Elffish Sockfish Giftwrappedfish Second Row: Mince Piefish Xmas Puddingfish Snowmanfish Robinfis