PetVille is rolling out a new way to make a few extra coins in the game -- the Happy Neighborhood bonus. The bonus works like this -- the more neighbors you wash and clean up after, the bigger the bonus you'll be able to collect each day.

Each pets' happiness level will be indicated by an icon (see image below) at the bottom of the screen. The green icon means the pets are happy, the yellow icon less happy and the red means the pet is unhappy. Naturally, that means the more green neighbors you have, the larger the reward. This change is clearly designed to encourage you to get as many friends as possible to play the game, which can be good or bad, depending on how many of your friends are willing to oblige and how many block you for spamming them with yet another game request.




Another change that is rolling out which shows you how much care a neighbor's pet needs, without having to visit its house first. Hover over a neighbor's picture and a small pop-up window will appear with two meters that will tell you how dirty a pet is and how much trash has accumulated in its house. This will be a nice change, since it's annoying to wait for a neighbor's house to load, only to find that there's not cleaning up to do.

Some other changes that are semi-related to this new feature are coming as well. Cleaning up a larger house will be rewarded with more coins, but houses will have less trash, so it'll be easier to get the 'All Clean' bonus faster. Also, some neighbors' houses will be messier than others, and will accumulate trash throughout the day, so you can visit and clean up more than once a day.

Looks like this is all designed to have us visiting friends (and cleaning) more often, but if that means we get more of that oh-so precious coin, we're at the ready, virtual dustpan in hand.

Do you have the new Happy Neighborhood bonus yet? Does it make the game better?

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Happy Pets adds two new furry friends to the in-game store -- the orange Lunar Dog and Lunar Cat. Both pets arrive just in time for the Lunar New Year, aka the Year of the Tiger (hence the tiger-striped cat and -- maybe -- the orange coats?) and will be available for a limited time.

These two pets cost 18 Facebook credits each (roughly $2), and while they're adorable -- they don't seem to be that much different than the rest of the cats and dogs, outside of that neon orange hue. To that point, we don't recommend spending real-life cash for these little guys, unless you're an aspiring rare pet collector or just prefer your furry pals to look as much like Cheetos as possible.

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If you're not a fan of Restaurant City's official Facebook fan page, we recommend becoming one as soon as possible. Why? Because someone behind the scenes is going wild, rewarding fans with free ingredients left and right. Last week, we picked up a free orange and Dragon fruit, and today, a free mango.

Why all the fuss about these free ingredients? Well, they aren't exactly easy to come by and buying them from the in-game store costs a pretty penny.

The mango is especially in hot demand right now since it's a key ingredient in the limited edition Magic Potion in the Drinks section of the menu. To make the Magic Potion, you need to acquire mango, wasabi, sausage and oregano. We're not sure what the 'magic' part of this potion is other than the fact that it'd require some serious trickery to make us actually drink a liquid made from these ingredients. Then again, we probably wouldn't eat a levitating ball of bacon either.

Get your free mango by clicking this link, also located on the RC Facebook fan page. While you're at it, click to get a free dragonfruit and free orange. Happy cooking!

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The FarmVille podcast this week revealed that puppies will finally be making their way to the game. Puppies won't be like the other animals that mostly stand around and wait to be harvested. Instead, these will be more like pets, and virtual farmers will be able to name them, watch them grow up and teach them tricks.

We've been hearing related rumors for months now, so it's good to hear that FarmVille's finally letting the dogs out. It also makes sense that FarmVille would include man's best friend because the company who makes this game -- Zynga -- was named after the CEO's dog. There's a fun factoid you can use to impress your friends and family, no?


Other upcoming items include the ability to find fuel on your friends' farms, and more opportunities to share fuel with friends. Dunno about you, but we've almost exhausted that huge supply of fuel we scored from our Christmas Tree gifts and were starting to panic. More fuel can't come soon enough.


Other things of note: FarmVille Game Cards arrive in Target, Best Buy, Wal-mart, 7-Eleven and Gamestop on February 22, Limited Yellowstone- and West Coast-inspired items will arrive in the store this week and limited edition Lunar New Year Crops are available (bamboo and lotus, available at level 10 and 30 respectively).

If you want to check out the rest of the podcast, play the video above or head to the official Zynga forums for the full podcast transcript.

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This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The FarmVille Moose recently got a minor change.

The Moose's "Brush Moose hair" function has changed into "Brush the Moose, eh?".

I like that FarmVille is getting more creative with the function naming because just "brushing hair" for every new animal is kind of lame.

Note: The Moose was available as part of the Yukon set of limited edition themed items and is now retired.

What do you think ?

This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.

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