Game update: 02/12/15

Snow is falling, all around me...

We're into December, and that means that Christmas is fast approaching. We're wasting no time in getting groovy with the festive content this year, with this update commencing what will hopefully be a month full of glorious Christmas stuff.

Here's a list from Santa of the items added...

Tables:

• Wreath Table - 4 gems

Chairs:

• Merry Chair - 6,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• Candle Window - 14,600 coins

Floor decorations:

• Candy Cane Float - 18 gems
• Holiday Party - 22 gems
• Cheery Cart - 9,000 coins
• Cozy Fireplace - 32,000 coins

Appliances:

• Holiday Stove - 28,200 coins

So in all that's eight fresh items, including an appliance. As has become standard in recent weeks and months, there's something missing which leaves the update looking a little sparse. In this case it's a new wallpaper, floor tile and counter which are absent, resulting in a shorter list than we've been accustomed to in the past.

Let's focus on what is included though, and you can get a good look at the offerings via this image borrowed from the Storm8 Blog:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

Before we go any further, allow me to clarify some of the décor shown in this snap. The two wallpapers in use are the Snowy Scene and Starry Sky, both of which come at 1 gem each. Meanwhile the two floor tiles are the Frontier Floor and Tea Cup Tile, each available for coins. Then there's the counter displayed which is the Sleigh Counter, a 15,000 coin buy.

I always find the sneaky inclusions of content not actually involved in the update a little cheeky, but at least in this case all the stuff is still available to buy in the market.

Right, let's get down to it and check out the Holiday Party. It's the centrepiece of this update, yet the price is actually quite fair. For 22 gems you're getting a 4x4 sized item which includes four bots enjoying some festive snacks and a dodgy rendition of some old Christmas songs. I really like how disorganised this decoration is - there's stuff cluttered all over the floor and tinsel draped haphazardly over the sofa. Just the kind of mess you'd see in my house on Christmas Day!

And yet I'm not entirely satisfied. I think my concerns stem from the brightness of it. Yes, Christmas is a happy time and lots of colour plays into this, but I tend to associate Christmas with only some colours - particularly red, green, gold and silver. These should be the primary colours for the season, and yet there's too much blue and yellow in here for my liking. It's a harsh criticism, but I'm still tending the bruises of Black Friday so am feeling merciless!

Despite my grumblings I do have to raise a glass to the Christmas tree in the corner. The changing tone of the green really helps give a more three-dimensional effect, and the rendering of both the tree and tinsel conveys a nice and bushy finish. Even the baubles with their spots of light are well done, leaving me wishing I could purchase the tree on its own!

What I will certainly be buying is the Cheery Cart. A trolley crammed with bottles of alcohol and gifts, this is a cute addition. The baubles (or are they lights?) dotted around the sides provide the cheeriness, and at only 9,000 coins this is a an easy choice. Those who are well familiar with my restaurant will know I try to directly replace existing decorations during the special seasons, and here I envisage the Cheery Cart being a perfect substitute for the Cheese Cart.

There's more to cheer about with the Cozy Fireplace too. Not just a plain old fireplace, this item includes a couple sitting on a rug in front of the fire. She's clutching a glass of chocolate milk I reckon, while he's reading from a book with blank pages. There's something strangely likeable about the guy's hooded top and track bottoms - is he just in from a tiring Christmas Eve run?! The fireplace is well decorated with typical Christmas trinkets, and for once I'm even pleased with the sparkles that have been added. Usually I despise these, but for the magic of Christmas I think they're perfectly acceptable!

The only downside to the Cozy Fireplace is that I already have the Holiday Fireplace. It's a piece I really love and I can't envisage myself not using it when I get round to a spot of decorating. And since I doubt there's going to be scope for me to use two fireplaces, it may be that despite it's charm the Cozy Fireplace misses out.

The last of the floor decorations up for inspection is the Candy Cane Float. It's more an American term, but would I be right in saying that a float is like an element from a parade that moves along? The only direction I expect this 'float' to move in is upwards! Obviously we have a bunch of balloons shaped to look like a giant candy cane, and it doesn't appeal. The 18 gem price tag is the main turn-off, but I guess if you have some of the other balloon based content already such as the Balloon Animals guy, then there may be scope for blowing up this one.

To the walls, and the Candle Window provides a snowy backdrop. Inside there's a couple of candles complete with garland to enhance the Christmassy feeling. It's a decent enough item, but I still prefer the Snowy Window (albeit for gems) and Cabin Window (removed). At least it is affordable I suppose.

We finish off the standard stuff with the Wreath Table and Merry Chair. The table is expensive at 4 gems each, and doesn't really excite me. I'm not sure what the small spots around the top are supposed to be but they're out of focus enough to pass for mucky fingerprints! The chair does however get a thumbs up thanks to its relative simplicity. It's just a nondescript white chair with a red and gold ribbon wrapped around it, but that yields an elegant result. I've still not decided how I'm going to go about my decorating, but if I do have any posh areas this chair may well be involved.

One addition to go, and that is the Holiday Stove. This appliance needs building, and will require 5 Mallets, 5 Iron Presses and 5 Ornament Ball Knobs to put together.

Ornament Ball Knob

The last of these is the latest new part (or more precisely the latest new knob) so get busy with those part requests!

In terms of appearance the Holiday Stove looks pretty ordinary, and I'm quite fine with that. There's often a tendency for Christmas cookers to be slightly ridiculous looking (the Chestnut Roaster and Cocoa Maker, I'm looking at you!) but this stove will not stand out silly in your kitchen section if you house one.

Here are the three recipes found on the Holiday Stove...

Holiday Stove recipes

Sorry, Artichoke Cheese Dip?! You won't be finding that on my table at Christmas dinner, but at least the Candied Walnuts and Holiday Pretzels are relevant to the season. In some ways I actually sympathise with Storm8 a little on this matter - this is the fifth or sixth Christmas they've covered in Restaurant Story and they must be at the point where there's very little in the way of festive dishes not yet released.

Let's have some ratings...

Artichoke Cheese Dip
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	4	3	7	8	4.3

Candied Walnuts
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	4	3	10	8	4.6

Holiday Pretzels
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	3	5	10	8	5.1

Not too much to ring the bells for there. The dip's numbers are very similar to some of the other recent 2 hour additions such as the Slime Soup (Lab Stove) and Crimson Cups (Vamp Fountain). The walnuts are distinctly average, with four other dishes having exactly the same profit and portion figures. And not good ones at that.

At least the pretzels are unusual in that they are 7 hours in length. It's only the 16th food in this duration from a pool of now 560 recipes. Sadly the statistics are quite mediocre, but I guess we've come to expect that!

So the Christmas period is underway in Restaurant Story. It's worth noting that last year the first truly Christmas update didn't come until the goals in the second week of the month, and we only ended up getting two such updates. But there was also the big festive sale the week before Christmas which warmed our hearts.

Considering that Halloween was similarly sparse last year but was covered more wholly this time around (minus a sale!) I'd expect there to be significantly more Christmas themed updates in 2015. But whether we get a special sale or not is very much up in the air.

I think it's fair to say that we're all still reeling from the huge disappointment that was Black Friday 2015. I always try to set my expectation levels low in case it's an anticlimax, but even I was left feeling really let-down by the whole experience. Of course I've already spilt my thoughts on the day's events, but I do encourage you to head over to the Storm8 Forum and read my post which dissects the Black Friday debacle. This comment focuses more on the business side of things and why it was not only the players who suffered because of the lack of sales. There's also some great insight from other players can be found in that thread too.

A few of my neighbours will be aware that it's not just the events on Black Friday that have me bristling right now, but also something that happened with that forum post. A while after it was published, it was removed! It had seemingly vanished into thin air, leaving me both confused and riled. It turned out that because I included a short link to the blog at the end I was breaking forum rules.

In some ways this is understandable as it is true that posting outside links on the Storm8 Forum is prohibited. But I felt that having put the effort into piecing together such a long and hopefully thought-provoking post the inclusion of a link which would offer further comment on the same topic could be allowed. Apparently not. And I was also told to edit my forum signature since it included a link here too! All in all I'm just not a happy restaurateur right now!

Hopefully my mood will improve when the time comes to deck the halls and usher in the snow! I plan to set to work on my Christmas decorating tomorrow, and look forward to adding further goodies in the coming weeks!