Game update: 24/02/16

Who let the dogs out?! This is a barking mad update with the focus very much on man's best friend.

Notification for Puppy Love Crate

The Puppy Love Crate is a 24 gem investment, and upon the gamble you'll receive one of the prizes contained within. As is always the case with boxes, some of the items inside are better than others, and it's just your luck as to how satisfied you end up being.

Where do I start? There have been enough dog decorations introduced over the last few weeks for me to actually comment upon it, and now Storm8 have gone and dedicated an entire update to them! Given that my thoughts were largely negative, this is not a good thing. And I'm not alone in feeling that way.

For many players dogs have no place in the restaurant. They're a healthy and safety nightmare and in the real world would attract the inspector very quickly. However there are a lot of folks whose diner is a world of fantasy where anything goes. My place can be like that at times, and yet even I am disillusioned with doggy décor.

 Valentine's Day 2016

 17/02/16 Amore update
 16/02/16 Goals content report
 14/02/16 Showcase
 13/02/16 The Garlic Tree celebrates
 10/02/16 Goals
 10/02/16 Goals update
 03/02/16 Love boats update

What really gets me is the fact that players have explicitly said in recent weeks on the Storm8 Forum that they're not keen on the dog based content. Of course the likelihood is that the gamemakers have had this update in the pipeline for a good while, but that doesn't prevent a slightly bad taste in the mouth. Maybe they could have withheld it for a little while until the dog disdain died down? Perhaps it's not that simple.

Add to all this that there is a love aspect to the box and you've got my complete indifference to the whole thing. Valentine's Day is now 11 days ago and we've all moved on from our lack of cards. An argument can probably be made that I'm reading too much into the theme and there isn't actually a Valentine's connection, but given that today's Bakery Story update is blatantly Valentine's themed I don't think the case is too sure-footed.

So without even getting into the crate I'm shaking my head with disenchantment and my tail ain't wagging. But duty calls, and here's the teaser provided by the Storm8 Blog, which hopefully includes all the prizes:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

There are eight items shown here, which is often the total number of possibilities. Traditionally it would be nine, but a few recent boxes have offered one less, so that's what I'm running with! Here's my take on the distribution of the doggy treats:

First Prize

• Dog Park Date

Second Prize

• Doggy Date
• Puppy Love House

Third Prize

• Puppy Basket
• Puppy Love Trainer

Fourth Prize

• 'Puppy Toy Tower'
• 'Puppy Cuddle'
• 'Puppy in a Bucket'

As ever there is much uncertainty over this arrangement, so drop a comment if you find anything awry. Likewise if you discover the real name of any of the items do let me know!

This collection of prizes is just as underwhelming as I expected. The Dog Park Date is probably the only one that really appeals to me, no doubt because it has lots going on in it besides dogs.

But that's very much a barrel scraping statement, because this box really doesn't get me pumped up. None of the items are complete duds (I'm thinking along the lines of the tiny bookshelf in the Firefighter Crate) but at the same time none of them with the exception of the top prize are worthy of your 24 gems. Pretty disappointing stuff, especially given the apparent resurgence the game has had of late.

Part of that resurgence has been the return of special sales, amongst which have been some good old limited time offers. This week the Spring Garden is available for 56 gems.

Spring Garden limited time offer

This is the first prize from the Gardener's Chest, a much coveted box. It is a truly beautiful piece, and unlike the Valentine's pooches is ripe for the season. I can imagine quite a number of players splurging on this one if they've got enough gems to play with. It is expensive but I reckon this is one of the few occasions where the high asking price is somewhat fair. After all this is a glorious first prize.

And this isn't the only fancy deal in recent weeks. In addition to this and the Tulip Crate sale last week, each of the last two Fridays have brought wit Value Packs available to those on iOS devices. The first of these included the VIP Lounge.

Value Pack including VIP Lounge

This offer really threw me, simply because the VIP Lounge is such an old item. I believe it has only ever been offered once before, and that was as an LTO way back in July 2011 when you used to get the premium decoration for making a gem purchase. And with it being included in a Value Pack this time around that means we've still never had a chance to buy it using in-game currency!

Nevertheless it's good to see such an ancient item put in an appearance. I'd definitely like to see more of the stuff from 'back in the day' make a cameo, although preferably with a gem price tag rather than a real money tag!

This past Friday it was the Swedish Kitchen from the Swedish Gift box which formed part of a Value Pack.

Value Pack including Swedish Kitchen

Given that I already own this 4x4 beauty it's not that attractive to me, but I think there will be plenty of players who are tempted. I bought the Swedish Kitchen on Black Friday in 2013 (as opposed to lucking out in the crate) because I truly loved it. Indeed it would go on to be a key component of my kitchen area for a long time, so definitely one I'd recommend if you're willing to spend some proper cash.

The one downside to the return of these Value Packs is that they are still only available to those on iOS. We've waited long enough now for the game's developers to provide them on Android, so there are no excuses, unless of course there's something about the Android platform which prohibits that particular form of in-game promotion. But I feel that's unlikely. After all if it was the case someone from Storm8 would probably bring us that news since it isn't something we can give them abuse for!

So, to answer my initial question, it was Storm8 who let the dogs out, and they need to get straight out there with a leash to bring them back in! A dog themed box was right at the very bottom of my list of possibilities for updates, and it's being slotted right at the very bottom of my ranking of released updates. Not so much 'woof!' but 'grrrr!'