Game update: 16/09/15

We've been waiting for it, and now Autumn has landed in Restaurant Story!

There are a wide selection of floor decorations up for grabs, but there is a rather serious caveat - they come in a crate. The Fall Harvest box is a 24 gem investment and will give you one of eight possible prizes.

Notification for Fall Harvest

It goes without saying that seeing another box is a disappointment, but I'm still somewhat pleased as there was no Autumn update whatsoever last September. A box was inevitable at some stage this month, so at least it's something appealing within. On the flipside, there's a risk that this will be the solitary Autumn update, which would clearly be a bit of a blow. I'm hopeful it won't be though, even if we have to wait for the lead-up to Thanksgiving in November for more.

Let's focus in on this box then. You can get a good look at all the prizes on the Storm8 Blog:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

Before we proceed any further a quick word on a few of the items shown above: the girl in the dress is the Poppy Princess from the Poppy Crate; the divider next to the door is the Poppy Divider from the same box; the partially shown piece on the left with the headphones guy and picnic basket is the Central Picnic from the New York goals.

In my view there are some real beauties included in this box. But before we start dissecting the merits of the crate as a whole, here's a possible distribution list for the items:

First Prize (1% chance)

• Fall Harvest

Second Prize (10% chance)

• Jam Stand
• Fall Wagon

Third Prize (35% chance)

• Apple Tree
• Veggie Stand

Fourth Prize (54% chance)

• Scarecrow
• Harvest Wheelbarrow
• Harvest Basket

Thanks to those who provided details of the official names of some of these items!

Overall the real drawback here is the value of each prize versus the cost of the box. Only the Fall Harvest is really worth the 24 gems, although I must admit it is a seriously cool piece. At first I thought the stand itself was all you got but the notification confirms that the farmer and his bucket are also included. Presumably 4x4, I'm really impressed by the range of colour and attention to detail. If you're lucky enough to get hold of this one I'd recommend also considering the Farmers Market Stand to make a truly brilliant market area.

But the rest of the stuff available in the Fall Harvest is less enticing, not least because there doesn't appear to be a 3x3 decoration in there. Mind you there is a question mark over the Fall Wagon on the far right - if you look really closely there's something just cut off the side of the image which may be part of the wagon, potentially making it an unusual 3x1 item.

Despite the lesser attraction of the lower tiered prizes, I'm still intrigued by this box. Even before the teaser, I had been thinking deeply about the possibility of doing a gardening theme in my outdoor section in Spring (yes, I'm thinking that far ahead already!) and this box only fuels that fire. The overriding theme here is obviously Autumn, but I think you could easily fit any of the prizes into a gardening layout.

Putting aside the value of the individual items, they're actually quite good. The Jam Stand, 'Harvest Wagon' and Veggie Stand are all heavy on detail and like the first prize have a great range of colours and tones. Meanwhile the Harvest Wheelbarrow and Harvest Basket are decent fillers.

The two prizes which I'm less pumped for are the Scarecrow and Apple Tree. The Scarecrow is a fine idea but is really poorly executed - it looks like Phoebe has had her legs chopped off and been mounted on a wooden stick! Definitely an element of laziness at play there from the game's developers! But as my neighbour Whipped Cream has pointed out, it would be a nice addition to your Halloween decorating.

The Apple Tree is just underwhelming for me. It's nothing more than a tree with a basket wedged underneath - where's the spark! Plus there's the green floor included which regular readers will know is a personal turn off of mine. Let us choose our own flooring!

So all in all it's a reasonable box (as boxes go!) If I do end up pushing ahead with a gardening set-up when Spring rolls around then this box may well get an opening or two. Having said that there's a wealth of other options which are certainly of better value, so perhaps I won't! But it's nice to have the choice!