FrontierVille Sneak Peek: The Oregon Trail Timed Goal, 'Oregon, Ho!'

FrontierVille's Orgeon Trail
You read that right, fellow pioneers. Zynga could be going all English Countryside on FrontierVille as early as May with the Oregon Trail expansion around the corner. FrontierVille Info found exactly how it will be introduced: a leaked Timed Goal known as "Oregon, Ho! (Or On the Trail)." You might have noticed how often the fan site has made predictions concerning the The Oregon Trail, and they've finally paid off. Check behind the break for details on how this mission might pan out.
Oregon Trail Ho Timed Goal
FrontierVille Info has found a few details on the new Timed Goal, but nothing has been confirmed by Zynga and its subject to change. The new Timed Goal will have players completing these three tasks:

    Collect Nine Pages from the Medical Journal
    Watch FronterVille's Oregon Trail Video
    Collect Ten Snake Bite Kits


You can imagine that the pages from the Medical Journal and the 10 Snake Bites will be friend gifts or part of a larger mission, but what's most important is the second requirement. Soon, it appears that Zynga will release a trailer for the expansion, so you can imagine this is serious stuff. If this was just another content update, there would be no reason for the developer to release a trailer and force you to watch it--this expansion is going to be big.

While I would like to see something new, I can't help but expect this to be identical to FarmVille's English Countryside, but out West. FrontierVille Info reports that the Timed Goal will expire May 31, which points to the first or second week of May for this mission to release. Keep your fingers crossed that we're right.

[Image Credit: FrontierVille Info]

Do you think that this information is enough to expect that the Oregon Trail is coming soon? What do you think the new expansion will be like?

Zoo World 2: Will this sequel breathe new life into RockYou's zoo game?

When interest starts to wane in a Facebook game, most creators will launch a big, fancy in-game feature designed to keep players coming back for more. And, it seems to work, at least for a while. FarmVille got a big boost when it rolled out a second farm set in the English Countryside and FrontierVille's upcoming Pioneer Trail expansion will likely do the same.

RockYou's taking a different tact with its zoo simulation game, Zoo World, which was one of the most popular games on Facebook about a year or so ago. Instead of launching a big add-on to the game, RockYou rebuilt the game from the ground up and launched it as a sequel -- Zoo World 2 -- which is now live on Facebook.

A side-by-side comparison of the two Zoo Worlds shows that the new game has amped up the graphics and has built in more ways to customize your zoo to your liking.

zoo world 2

rockyou zoo world

Pretty graphics aside, Zoo World 2 also runs much faster than its laggy predecessor and employs a new energy system, meaning it now costs energy to feed and breed animals and to harvest kiosks for cash. Like any other Facebook game that uses energy, once it runs out, it will refill over time or there's the option to pay real-life cash to fill it up on the fly.

There are still plenty of similarities between the two games, such as the ability to harvest and breed animals and a series of quests, which direct you to do things like 'Buy 1 Animal' and 'Breed two babies,' and help drive the game forward.

Right now, the original Zoo World is still alive and kicking (go here if you want to play it), and there's no word yet whether RockYou plans to keep it around, or if it will eventually be phased out in order to drive players to the newer game. In the meantime, we'll see if Zoo World 2 has what it takes to put this zoo simulation game back on top of the Facebook gaming charts.

FarmVille: English Countryside 28 x 28 land expansion now available for Farm Cash

At the end of May, Zynga launched the ability for FarmVille farmers to expand their second farm in the English Countryside to 26 x 26 for 100 Farm Cash. Now just a few short weeks later, another expansion has been launched, before this past 26 x 26 expansion has even been made available for coins!

The 28 x 28 land expansion is called the English Domain, and its price is even more ridicul-- err, even higher than the last. You'll need to shell out a whopping 140 Farm Cash for this expansion, as there's no other way (currently) to expand to that level for "free." Unless you have a very generous friend that's willing to buy this much Farm Cash for you, you're looking at over $15 for a single expansion, and that's only if you can purchase the required Farm Cash during the current 40% off sale. If you miss that, the price for 140 Farm Cash jumps up to over $26!

That's a downright huge price tag, and I'm personally very interested in seeing how many people actually go through with the cost. Hopefully the number is low, so Zynga will feel better about releasing coin versions of both of these expansions sooner, rather than later. We'll make sure to let you know if and when they do.