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| Notification for photography themed update |
This week's in-game update is all about photography, with a range of new content about cameras. It can all be found at the start of each tab in the market, but here's a concise list of the additions all together...
Tables:
- Camera Lens - 5 gems
- Camera Stool - 8,000 coins
- Vintage Cameras - 14,000 coins
- Photo Booth - 6 gems
- Camera Lights - 4 gems
- Old Fashioned Camera - 10,000 coins
- Camera Planter - 12,000 coins
- Photo Wallpaper - 2 gems
- Retro Photo Floor - 300 coins
- Camera Counter - 16,000 coins
And furthering the cause is a teaser on the Storm8 Blog:
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| Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog |
We didn't get a sneak peek last week at all, so it's good (and relieving) to see the teasers return. But when it comes to the analysis of the actual content, I'm less committed in my feelings.
There are some decent items in there, of that there is no doubt. The Photo Booth is just 6 gems, and has a really stylish appearance. The union of black, white and pink gives for an elegant finish, and this is only furthered by the long tassels hanging from the curtain and the plush cushion inside. It looks great, and yet I am concerned - how are you supposed to use this piece in a restaurant? Maybe you can just about get away with having it in your entrance area, but for me it's a bit of a stretch.
The other floor decoration which is for gems is also on the cheap side. For 5 gems the Camera Lights is yours. But I'm not going to be bagging it - essentially what we have here are two cameras making the base, and a strange grey shape forming a lampshade. A quick search reveals to me that there is a type of flashlight which consists of a light being attached to the top of a camera, but this portrayal is so ropey. It's made to look like a lampshade, with the whole thing as high as most décor. This is likely to be intentional, and it just leads to an awkward and unappealing item.
The Old Fashioned Camera is much more realistic, with a proper vintage camera attached to a tripod. Again though there are concerns when it comes to placing it in a diner. However we can use our imaginations, and perhaps this will prove a very useful decoration to own when celebrity guests come to eat?!
The Camera Planter is the last of the four floor decorations introduced, and I'm tempted to say it's even worse than the Camera Lights. Here we have a dull box with the image of a camera shoved on the front, and inside a bunch of red and green flowers which are sparkling with menace. You could try claiming that this is somehow related to camera flashes, but I'm just not having it. The gamemakers have come up with a right duffer here!
Luckily we get back on track with the Vintage Cameras for the wall. The old school stuff seems to work best, with this piece depicting some gadgetry of yesteryear on wooden shelves. It's a victory for simplistic décor - there's nothing too flashy (ahem!) about this. It's not overpowering, and I like that. It's place in an eatery is again questionable, but at least this one can cannily be put up on the wall without drawing too much attention. It's a nice wall filler.
In contrast the Photo Wallpaper is a real eye-catcher. The orange background is the main cause of this, although the slanted snaps on the wall don't exactly help. I feel like there are tons of ways that Storm8 could have gone about designing a photograph themed wallpaper, and they came up with this?! It's not a great show, although I did enjoy taking a close look to see what each of the photos were!
On the other hand observing the images in each snap on the Retro Photo Floor won't take long. Each tile is a polaroid, and a blank one at that. I mean come on, how on earth are we supposed to utilise this tile? It's essentially just a black and white floor, but with the black square not centred, you'll end up with a very uneven and disorderly result when placing many of it adjacently. But in fairness, the price does deserve a mention - at 300 coins I reckon this tile matches the Elegant flooring as the cheapest ever to be added.
Unfortunately one low price means another high one. At 5 gems a time, the Camera Lens table is daylight robbery. It's massively overpriced, but also massively oversized for the object it's portraying. There's a good job been done of colouring the lens itself, but the writing printed around the edge make this a very specialised table. The only use I can think of is if you wanted to create a huge camera over your floor with tiles - then you could use the Camera Lens as the... camera lens!
The Camera Counter is not a great deal better, with that glint along one of the edges immediately meaning points off. It actually looks a little like an appliance, so I guess it could be handy for kitchen zones. Meanwhile the Camera Stool can be dropped into any number of surroundings. The nondescript nature of it again catches my attention - sometimes the game's developers just need to disengage and keep it simple!
There's one last point of note in this update, and that comes in the tab on the far right, where the Mystery Mail box is on sale for a limited time.
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| Notification for Mystery Mail sale |
As is the way every fortnight, this crate is 50% off, meaning it costs just 12 gems to take a dip. As with the Woodland Box deal two weeks ago, this is one of the very earliest crates in the game. And perhaps it's the most random and zany of them all. The only characteristic connecting the prizes as far as I can tell is the use of bright colours.
Otherwise there's all manner of items in the mix. The Supply Shelves and Refrigerator are both very appealing, but that's more than counterbalanced by the Fish Butler and Frog Butler which, despite being small and niche, are third prizes. I won't be gambling here - instead I'll keep waiting for Storm8 to start hitting my box wishlist!
There is another sale was to be had last weekend if you're on iOS, and this one guarantees a specific decoration.
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| Ice Cream Parlor Value Pack |
The Ice Cream Parlor is the top prize in the Ice Cream Crate. It has actually been available out of the box once before - that was in the wonderful Christmas sale in 2014. So in some ways it's a shame to see the gamemakers opt to offer an item which has had an airing away from the lottery of the crates previously. Nevertheless, it's a good seasonal choice with plenty of players now transitioning into summery layouts.
So in truth it's a second straight update that I'm not digging. The photography theme, although original, doesn't come anywhere near challenging the quality of the high end dining stuff we had for several weeks. Some actual bots wielding the cameras would even have helped improve the standard, but instead we get a camera lampshade! Despite all this, there are one or two good captures to be had, but not as many as is required to make the update a 'success'.
With next Wednesday being the third of the month the odds are we'll be taking in new goals this time next week - here's hoping for something a little more homely in a restaurant, and maybe even summery!
Feel free to have a look around Fleet Street for use of the new update :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd love your opinion about it.