FarmVille on iPad: Doesn't look great, but beats playing it on iPhone

After playing FarmVille on iPhone, I couldn't resist booting up the iPad and give the app a whirl. The verdict? The graphics look fuzzy (as expected since they're blown up twice the size of what they are on iPhone), but other than that, it's a better overall experience. Why? Simply because the iPad touch screen is bigger. It's easier to move around your farm as well as harvest trees and animals smooshed together in an effort to make more room for crops. Since the iPad runs slightly faster than the iPhone 3GS, the entire game is smoother and the loading times are cut down significantly.

I asked a Zynga rep if an iPad-ready version of FarmVille is on the way, and was told that "that can not be confirmed at this time." That, of course, leads me to believe that one is in the works, and it's only a matter of time until we'll all be finger farming with crystal clear graphics on the iPhone's bigger brother.

FarmVille can be downloaded from the App Store, just go here. You can also download the game directly on your iPhone/iPod or iPad by going to the App Store App, searching for 'FarmVille' and then downloading the game for free.

Facebook Game Cheats & Tips: How to mass accept game requests

If you're anything like us, your Facebook requests page is absolutely out of control with everything from gifts, help requests, page suggestions, group and event invites, and neighbor requests. Sometimes, we log in and look at our requests page and simply turn away because the thought of clicking accept and back on each one of these requests makes us want to cry. If this sounds familiar, there is actually a solution that can help you out: The Facebook Mass Accept Requests tool.

Facebook Mass Accept Requests is a Greasemonkey script for Firefox that will allow you to "accept all" on your page of requests. Once you have this browser addon installed, it will add checkboxes beside each one of your requests so that you can choose to accept whichever ones you like. After that, clicking a simple "accept all" button will automatically go through and accept all of these gifts. In some games, it can even send back a reciprocal gift.

This doesn't work for all games 100% of the time, so your results may vary. It is known to work well in FarmVille, Farm Town, and FishVille. Other apps that don't work too great are Mafia Wars, Cafe World, and Social City. You may have to try your favorite game and report back and let us know which work and which do not.

Installing a Greasemonkey script is actually pretty simple, as long as you have Firefox installed. Greasemonkey is a simple browser extension that you can install by clicking here. After you have installed Greasemonkey and refreshed your browser, install the Facebook Mass Accept Requests script by going here. Click the install button and it will now be loaded. Simply go to your Facebook requests page and you should now see a new "Accept All" button. Give it a try.

Gamestop promoting Facebook game with free game giveaway

With downloadable and web-based games taking up an ever-bigger chunk of the video game market, many brick-and-mortar game retailers are struggling to adapt their business models to a coming new world order that might not need their services. Case in point, game mega-retailer Gamestop, which first dipped its toes in the social gaming waters with its late 2009 acquisition of web-game maker Jolt Online. Now, Gamestop is throwing its weight behind Jolt's latest release, Gangsta Zombies, with free in-game cash and a "free games for a year" contest.

Gangsta Zombies, a Mafia Wars clone with some slick production values, has already attracted nearly 200,000 monthly users since first coming online in early June. Despite this, Gamestop official announced the game's launch only yesterday, alongside its promotional plan for the game. That plan involves giving away free game cards in stores and selling $10 pre-paid cards, both of which allow players to buy in-game items. Store visitors can also enter to win a year of free games from Gamestop, which the company defines as $1,000 worth. I wonder if you can use that money on Farmville cash cards...

So, social gamers, will this kind of promotion get you to step away from your computers and actually visit a brick-and-mortar retailer like Gamestop? Would you change your mind if they were promoting a different game?

Wrestling star Paul Heyman working on social fighting game

The San Diego Comic-Con may be mecca for all things geeky, but it's not exactly the center of the universe as far as social gaming is concerned. So we were a bit surprised to learn that former ECW owner and WWE Smackdown lead writer Paul Heyman used the conference to announce a new social fighting game, planned for later this year.

The project, which Heyman is working on in partnership with Jeff Katz's Geekweek, is being described as "a new online fighting league featuring a hybrid of pro wrestling, mixed martial arts and boxing." Players will be able to create their own fighter in any of these disciplines and work their way up the tournament ladder via turn-based battles, gaining new abilities and customization options as they go.

Katz also promises "a host of star performers - past present and future - from the worlds of wrestling, MMA and boxing" will be available as purchasable downloads. Though Katz didn't mention which star performers had been signed, specifically, pro wrestling stars Samoa Joe and Shane "Hurricane" Helms were reportedly on hand for the Comic-Con announcement, suggesting their likely involvement. "The thinking here is that one ring + three disciplines = endless dream matches," Katz writes.

The game will be coming to Geekweek.com, smartphones and "the obvious social platforms" by the fourth quarter of this year.