Game update: 19/02/14

It's time to get into the Olympic mood, with a wintery update revolving around snowsports.

Notification for Olympic update

Update: Android players need to download a new version of the app, Restaurant Story: Ski Lodge, to get this week's update. It's available here over on Google play.

There's not that much in the way of new content, but there are two recipes. Once again the update was late by several hours (I was on the verge of going to bed!) Nevertheless, here's the full list of items:

Tables:

• Ski - 3 gems

Chairs:

• Fur - 7,300 coins

Wall decorations:

• Snowboard Rack - 7 gems

Floor decorations:

• Ski Lounge - 65 gems

Wallpapers:

• Ski Slope - 1 gem

Counters:

• Ski - 42,000 coins

A very light update indeed. The Ski Lounge is the headliner, and comes with high expectations considering the massive cost. Unfortunately I'm just short of having enough gems to give you a preview of it, but considering the general trend of floor decorations which come with two walled sides, I'd expect this to be a 4x4 piece. And the 65 gem price is the fourth highest in the game, so I'd be demanding lots of detail on this one!

Update: I have now been able to preview the Ski Lounge! See here for more.

Elsewhere I quite like the Snowboard Rack. It's a very rare (and strange) case in the sense that it is technically attached to the wall but actually sits on the floor, and so could have passed as a floor decoration. I guess the game's developers wanted to have a new piece of wall decor to show off this week. For 7 gems you're getting a pretty cool item which would look good near the entrance door if you're looking for an 'out there' theme.

The Fur chair is one of just two coin items added to the market, and is really nice. It has a warmth about it thanks to it's orange and brown tones and the fur over the back means this chair would compliment a homely section well.

I'm also impressed with the new wallpaper. The Ski Slope is a pretty landscape wallpaper, and has been designed very cleverly by TeamLava. Because the tree is cut in half over each side of the wallpaper, it means that when you link two up, they join perfectly to form a complete tree. The conspiracy theorists among you may say that this is an attempt to encourage you to buy multiples of the wallpaper and thus part with your gems.

I'm not feeling the remaining two additions. The Ski table isn't worth parting with 3 gems for - the legs resemble half a sledge rather than two sets of skis! Then there's the Ski counter. At least it's for coins, but again the designers have hardly earned an Olympic medal here as I'm struggling to see the skis. Are they supposed to be stuffed into the counter? I'm totally lost on this one!

The counter along with the chair are the only coin items in this update. And with the solitary floor decoration being so expensive, this is an update very much orientated to those with lots of gems to burn.

But we can accrue four gems via the two new recipes on the Basic Stove:

New recipes on Basic Stove

My initial reaction is not regarding the statistics but regarding the presence of a drink on the Basic Stove. What gives? Surely it would have been sensible to put the Slopeside Cider on the Drink Machine? TeamLava logic reigns surpreme!

Looking at the numbers, the cider performs poorly compared to its fellow 4 hour recipes. Only five active dishes offer less portions for your hard work, while the profit of 1,060 coins is also at the bottom end of the scale. To emphasise how inferior the cider is, Smores (Basic Oven) can provide 3,700 coins profit in the same time period! The last key stat is the XP gain, which falls a touch under the average for this duration.

Moving on, you'd have to be feeling radical if you wished to cook the Slope Slammin Chilli beyond the mastery gems. On the portions front the chilli is the lowest yielder of all regular appliance recipes of 8 hour length. Meanwhile this is the sixth worst profit maker among the duration and its 84 XP is this time just above the average. However there are so many better options that once again we've got a dud.

So a small and late update, a focus on gem content, and a pair of uninspiring recipes. Not what I hoped for, but at least there are a few interesting items worth taking a look at.