Game update: 10/12/12

Let it snow, let it snow, let it SNOW!

Notification for Christmas 2014 goals update

Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, and there is a new set of goals to give everyone the perfect opportunity to deck the halls. Before we get too overexcited with the presents, let's take a look at the list of new content:

Tables:

• Ornament Table - 6 gems (LTO)
• Ornament Ball - 40,500 coins (LTO)
• North Pole Table - 25,000 coins

Chairs:

• Ornament - 4,000 coins (LTO)
• Ornament Ball - 2 gems (LTO)
• North Pole Chair - 4,500 coins

Wall decorations:

• Sleigh Bell Garland - 9,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Holiday Tree* - 40 gems
• North Pole Sign - locked by goal
• Christmas Reindeer - locked by goal
• Reindeer Grove - locked by goal

Wallpapers:

• Ornament - 5,000 coins (LTO)
• Snowy Field - 4,500 coins

Floor tiles:

• Reindeer Tracks - 2,500 coins

Appliances:

• Frost Fountain - locked by goal
• North Pole Oven - locked by goal

Counters:

• Ornament Ball - 6,800 coins (LTO)
• Sleigh Counter - 15,000 coins

Boxes:

• Holiday Box* - 18 gems

(*) Not listed as new or as limited time.

There's lots of stuff on offer then! Sprinkled among the items specific to the goals, there are a number of pieces which are from previous Christmases and are back for a limited time. These are available to all players, while the brand new content (including the goals themselves) is unlocked at level 12.

Let's start the analysis with those returning items. The 'ornament' styled tables, chairs and counters are back which is great news because I think they all look fabulous!

Notification for limited time Christmas decoration re-release

The Ornament Ball table and Ornament Ball counter are both already housed in The Garlic Tree since I love their design. Unfortunately the third component, the Ornament Ball chair, is 2 gems each so isn't as affordable as the table and counter which come for coins. Plus it has a completely different appearance to its fellows. I still don't know why TeamLava didn't opt for a mini bauble for the chair!

The other set of limited time offers is the Ornament Table and Ornament chair. I believe these are originally from 2011, but have made a re-appearance more than once at this time of year so must be popular. I do like them both in that they have the happy holiday colours you'd expect for festive cheer, although the 6 gem price tag attached to the table is clearly a turn-off.

The last ornament returnee is the Ornament wallpaper. It's a quality wallpaper and at a decent price is well worth consideration. Being picky I'm a little annoyed at the inclusion of the snow at the top and bottom - this leaves the wallpaper in limbo. Is it for outdoors or indoors? Without the snow it would be going straight into my cosy section, but with the snow I'm not so keen.

Now, although that covers all the decorations listed as LTOs above, there are a couple of other additions which are not totally new, and they're not even listed as new! The Holiday Tree is from deep in the past, and is found deep in the floor decorations tab for 40 gems. I'm not interested since I've got the Snowy Christmas Tree and the White Christmas Tree already, but this is the classiest tree of them all and would look the bomb in a sophisticated setting.

The other anomaly is the Holiday Box. It's available at 25% off, but there's no timer as of yet to indicate when that deal will expire, nor when the box itself will leave the market.

Holiday Box limited time offer

The Ice Castle is advertised as the first prize - this is such an old and rare box that I cannot recall ever seeing the castle before! It would cap my wintry outdoor area beautifully, but would no doubt require me to throw away a lot of gems. From what I've seen this box doesn't have any particular theme like some of the other festive crates (for example the removed Gingerbread Gift Box) which may put some off, but then again the zaniness of Christmas decorating means this might not be so important.

If you open the box then feel free to leave a comment with the name of the item you procured and its rank. With enough information we might be able to draw up a distribution list!

The re-releases aren't all covered yet! The Stuffing and Prime Rib are back again having been made available for a few days at the end of November.

Prime Rib and Stuffing on Basic Oven

This is great news since the small window they were unlocked for first time around was too short to make it possible to cook both dishes to mastery, even with the standard maximum of 18 appliances. Now they're back we've got a second chance.

They're not placed at the start of the Basic Oven's recipe list so you'll have to do some scrolling. The Stuffing is between the Countdown Cookies and Pepperoni Pizza, while the Prime Rib is sandwiched by the Bacon Roasted Turkey and Sweetie Pie. Again though there's no clock to tell us how long we've got. Normally I'd recommend committing all resources to the cause, but with the goals starting today as well, I'll leave it to you to decide how to go about your business! It could be that these foods (and the two items covered earlier) are all here for the long haul and will be removed along with the rest of the festive content in January, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The other Christmas goal recipes from 2011 are still to have their padlock removed at all - I'm still very hopeful that will come by the end of the month.

Finally we get on to the stuff that is all-new! I'll save thoughts for the goal content for the traditional report in the coming days, but there are still a few bits and pieces which can be bagged openly. The North Pole Table and North Pole Chair are both nice. They use exactly the tones you'd expect, with a rich red contrasting with white. The striped pattern links them to candy canes, a staple of Christmas. The covering of snow may be irritating to the bots (especially on the chair!) but this helps make it easier to work them into an outdoor zone. And if the game's developers were to re-release the North Pole LTO from 2013 I'd be straight in there as there's a brilliant combination to be had!

Perhaps surprisingly, the counter added with these goals isn't of the same format. The Sleigh Counter is somewhat tacky if I'm honest, but fortunately for the gamemakers I have no problem with tacky at this time of year! The golden stars and green bauble on top of the counter look pretty naff, but I'm still channelling some Christmas spirit from this one, so it can't be that bad!

To the walls, and the Sleigh Bell Garland is a wall decoration for 9,000 coins. I'm not feeling this one really - the green parts look underdeveloped and I'd have liked to have seen a little bough of holly included. Having invested in a large number of the Holiday Lights in previous years, I will stick with them when it comes to adorning my walls for the season.

The Snowy Field is a wintry landscape which is befitting for any outdoor section. I've already replaced the Snowflake wallpaper from last week as this one gives that snowy ground at the bottom, allowing a nice merging with the snowy floor I'm deploying.

Did I mention a snowy floor?! The campaign for snow is over, with a snowy floor tile available for coins! In all honesty the Reindeer Tracks is not perfect - I really wanted some plain snow that I could splash my imagination on, but I'll take it all the same. The paw prints aren't too emboldened, so I'll almost certainly drop them into my outdoor area at some point.

That's all the content freely available to purchase covered. All that remains are the items which are locked, and to obtain them you'll need to work through the goals.

Introduction to Christmas 2014 goals

These goals get off to a very tricky start, with one of the components needed for building the first appliance being a new part which cannot be gifted. The only way to gather them is through sending out requests via the appliance's construction box, which is very sneaky! I'm concerned that there may be an error with this, since over in Bakery Story there are also new parts but they have been included in the gift list. However the Melon Seeds which were required for an appliance in the Spring goals earlier in 2014 were not giftable, so it could be a very successful attempt to increase the challenge!

Update: The inability to gift the first goal part was indeed a glitch! This has now been rectified with the part appearing at the start of the gift list.

For more information (as I get it!) on the goals, click here.

So if there wasn't before, there's definitely a feeling of Christmas flowing around the community now. And things just get even better if you're on Android, with a Christmas edition released this past Monday.

Splash screen for Restaurant Story Christmas 2014 edition

I'm not sure that there's anything different on offer in this seasonal version, although any Android users out there can feel free to weigh in if that's not the case. Otherwise I suggest holding off for the gem reward for downloading which should appear over the next few days.

Whatever platform you're playing on, there's a festive buzz going around! Ho ho ho!