Social City: Cornfield Terrain lets players build a maze of maize

After creating a full-blown Halloween theme park with all of the recent additions to Social City, how could you forget the cornfield maze? Playdom just added this new terrain item to the game that costs a pricey 10,000 coins per square, though each square does provide 1,000 Happiness and 40 XP.

And just think of the possibilities. You could create the cornfield maze of your dreams and watch as your townsfolk get lost in the mess of maize. Or you could create your own rendition of FarmVille right within Social City, but it's too bad you won't be able to harvest these crops. Better yet, why not create your own crop circles and really freak out your population Orson Welles-style?

Find our Halloween 2010 guide on FarmVille, Mafia Wars and more right here.

Wild Ones' Halloween Candy Mines and other weapons are deliciously destructive

Halloween Weapons
Wild Ones just got a bit more delicious with new Halloween-themed weapons to take into the Graveyard. These new items may play to the sweet tooth, but will deal a great amount of explosive or physical damage. Here's a list of what you can buy below:

    Candy Grenade: 15 shots per 16 Treats
    Antigrav Bubble: 50 shots per 16 Treats
    Trick or Treat Bag: 15 shots per 6 Treats
    Pumpkin Missile: 15 shots per 12 Treats
    Candy Mines: 12 shots per 1,800 coins
    Lantern: 15 shots per 12 Treats
    S'moreshot: 30 shots per 16 Treats


Of course if you're a member, you'll enjoy big old discounts on these items. But for those of you who aren't members, it looks like the Candy Mines are your only option without putting up lots of Treats. You can also take your chances on these items in limited edition Halloween Mystery Packs that can be found on the upper right corner of your Home Screen. While you salivate over consider picking up some Treats for these new weapons, check out this video of the Candy Mines in action.

Gardens of Time celebrates Thanksgiving with three premium scenes

Gardens of Time is getting into the holiday spirit this month, as Playdom has released a new Thanksgiving chapter in the game called "Turkey Time!" Unfortunately, this chapter is premium, meaning that it's only available for Gold. However, if you are willing to shell out 76 Gold to purchase it, you'll receive 280 Gold worth of content, including three scenes as just a start.

One scene is an outdoor nature scene, with a pilgrim on horseback, another is a farmland and barn, while the third is the Thanksgiving dinner table, ready for guests. As with other scenes in the game, these can be mastered by playing them repeatedly. As you play each scene, you'll unlock specific rewards for that scene. For instance, the outdoor nature scene offers you a turkey decoration, while the Thanksgiving dinner table scene offers you a pilgrim ship. If you can complete all three scenes to the four-star mastery level, you'll receive one final prize: the Red Farm House.

With the current price of Gold in Gardens of Time, this Turkey Time chapter is an investment of around $18 US, but if you love Thanksgiving, or simply love exclusive, themed content within the game, this is a package you'll definitely want to consider. The question now remains: will we see something similar released for Christmas in the game, or will that package be even more extravagant still?

Check out the rest of our Thanksgiving-themed coverage right here.

Will you purchase the Turkey Time Thanksgiving Chapter in Gardens of Time? Would you purchase it if it cost a large amount of Silver coins instead?

Disney-branded Facebook games coming in 2012, Playdom head says

Can we all just say, "finally?" During a panel named "The Rise of Social Games" at the f8 Facebook Developers Conference in San Francisco, Disney Interactive and Playdom head John Pleasants revealed that two to four Facebook games surrounding Disney brands will hit Facebook in 2012. The general topic of the panel was the fact that branded social games are taking off.

Pleasants was joined on the panel by Kabam CEO Kevin Chou, EA Interactive head Barry Cottle and Zynga CBO Owen Van Natta. Facebook director of games partnerships Sean Ryan moderated the panel with the preface that branded games will take over the Facebook platform. And he might be right: EA just released The Sims Social, Zynga will soon re-brand its new Adventure World with Indiana Jones and Kabam recently announced The Godfather: Five Families.

Playdom, which Disney acquired in July 2010 for a whopping $740 million, is ahead of the pack with two branded games on Facebook: ESPNU College Town and ESPN Sports Bar & Grill. Both games performed well, thanks to advertising through the ESPN TV network. While Disney owns the ESPN brand, notice how neither of those actually involve the insanely popular Disney characters we've come to love.

Honestly, we're surprised this didn't happen sooner. Consider this: Disney has its own cable TV channel through which it could, in theory, advertise whatever it wants. Pleasants didn't get into why it's taken this long for Disney to throw its cast of characters into Facebook games, but did reveal the power of the Disney name.

Gnome Town, which Playdom launched in the summer--and we enjoyed quite a bit--peaked at 530,000 daily players. But just plopping the Disney logo on top of the existing one made users more likely to spend in the game just through trust of the company's name, according to Pleasants. "We think it's an advantage, if you put game play first," Pleasants said.

It's comforting to hear this emphasized by these developers. (Kabam's Chou shared the same sentiment.) Branded games on Facebook are OK in my book, but the last thing anyone wants to see is the genre become a branding machine.

[Source and Image Credit: VentureBeat]

Are you on board with the growing trend of branded games on Facebook? Do you think developers will maintain integrity as the focus on branded content in their games intensifies? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment