Airport City - Free to Fly

You may have tried Airport City - Free to Fly on Facebook. It's a rather smart game, and gameplay is excellent in many ways.

Purpose of the Game
You administer a small airport, and the goal of the game is to create all the surroundings of an airport - in fact the entire city. This is based on your own and neighbor planes landing in your airport, earning you money from delivering either passengers or fuel to airplanes visiting your airport.

The game works pretty well, but there are some aspects that are rather annoying. When you buy buildings, you have to ask for items before you can finalize the buildings, or buy special cash using REAL MONEY.

If there is anything that can truly provoke me, then it's the constant focus on money in Facebook games. You can't build much in some games before the money aspect sets in. It's like having a big money sign in FRONT of your shop before customers even come in the door...

Certainly a nice game, but be mindful that pilots start their resting period AFTER you have cleared their landing. So if you leave the game - many of us sleep at night :-) - you end up locked for some hours if you don't have many friends playing Airport City - Free to Fly...

Goodbye, FarmVille 2

In continuation of the last article "FarmVille 2 - Slower Than Ever Before", I now made a conscious decision this morning as a result of the ongoing "please update your flash player" welcome screen.

All programs are already up-to-date, and I find it rather annoying that this error presents itself on numerous screens all over the place. Friends have been frustrated when this came up, and each time I could just repeat the same advice. Try updating, and if it keeps coming up, delete the game.

Well, today, it was my turn to delete the game...

FarmVille 2 Slower Than Ever Before...

It is kind of surprising to watch the game FarmVille 2. They keep adding features, and the game is slower than ever before... Stop developing crazy movies, and start focusing on improving the speed of the game.
This is a typical case of game overload. When you fail to optimize your code [and servers], then gameplay will suffer in any Flash game.
I hope Zynga is listening...

Another Quick Status Update

Today I want to give you a quick status update.
In Mafia Wars I have reached level 665
In Mob Wars I have reached level 837.
In Criminal Case I have reached level 43 - and well on my way towards completely solving case #12.
In FarmVille 2 I have reached level 53 - all animals are well fed, friends have been visited, and numerous gold medals have been achieved in recent animal shows.

Have fun out there. :-)

War Commander - Cheaters Destroy This Gameplay

War Commander is a relatively new game on Facebook. You build resources for your own depot, and this is done by harvesting oil and metal. A somewhat slow process which has apparently tempted many into cheating. And cheaters have indeed destroyed much of the gameplay. Even when you're just minding your own business, you get attacked by people who in no way could have gained their levels through serious harvesting.

It is promised that cheaters are kicked out, but nothing happens, and many gamers are discussing this in the lower left corner chat. Sector 49 is filled with people who don't play fair game.

For me this has caused me to seriously consider dropping the game, and I think many others will do the same - thus giving cheaters (who never buy credits, mind you) to take over even more of the game.

It is a kamikaze strategy for the company behind the game, so RIP War Commander...

A Quick Status Update

Today I want to give you a quick status update.
In Mob Wars I have reached level 814.
In Criminal Case I have reached level 36 - and well on my way towards completely solving case #9.
In Mafia Wars I have reached level 660 - and well on my way in the latest addition to the game play, South Africa.
In FarmVille 2 I have reached level 46 - all animals are well fed, friends have been visited, and a recent gold medal was reached in the recent animal show.

Have a nice weekend everyone. :-)

Some Games Appeal to Some People

It's quite fun to hear people talking about games on their computers. Some people LOVE one game, and others detest it. Some are strategists, others just want some fun during a short break. Truth is: some games appeal to some people, and others for other people.

Some friends of mine LOVE World of Warcraft - I can't get the needed overview or set myself into that world of phantasy.

Even if I spent the next year testing their wonderful methods they reveal on blogs, in forums etc, it would never be a game for me. It would just be a system of consuming time.

This is ecactly the same thing with a game such as Criminal Case, at times. I like the initial investigation, the solved murder mystery, and suddenly you have the boring aspect of any case, extra investigation.

In my world, you should be able to move on to the next case WITHOUT having to run through the same lanes earning your points for some minor aspect. I go for the full five stars in each lane, and then I had hoped I didn't have to run through it again.

Gameplay IS different for all people.

I remember the good old days of Wolfenstein, Doom and all the nostalgic games of that starting era. Much has happened since, and in this short journey though the world of gaming there is one thing that further bugs me - the functionality of Flash. Flash-based games are wonderful in the sense that they can be played through your browser. But they certainly require something of servers.... Zynga games often hang, and it's a real pain in the backside when that happens.