Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

********************************************************** **** HOW TO OBTAIN A MAJOR GAME UPDATE - WORK AROUND **** ********************************************************** Many people are posting that they are unable to play this game as of today because the game asks you to click on a button to download the update. This link is meant for the Google App Store and not the Amazon App Store. If you are using any version prior to 5/31/14 version 1.7.77 on a Kindle or through the Amazon App Store, you need to REMOVE/DELETE the game completely from your device. I also ran into issues with the cloud trying to download the old app, so I deleted it permanently from my Amazon App cloud (by signing in directly to Amazon through a web browser and not the Amazon App store or my device's app management features). DO NOT WORRY - Your last "online" game-play will NOT be lost. Once you download FarmVille 2: Country Escape again, you may have to run through part of the tutorial until it asks you to log into Facebook. After you log into Facebook, you may be instructed to FORCE CLOSE/FORCE STOP this app and then re-enter the app. This app does not exit cleanly and in order for it to register your device to your Facebook account it needs to be restarted after you FORCE STOP it. This should solve most of the problems Kindle/Amazon players are having with regards to Zynga's system-wide update across multiple platforms. ********************************************************** (updated app review below - June, 9th, 2014) I have struggled with the review of this game app for a few weeks now. Constantly trying to be honest and open minded. It has taken a while to catch onto this new kind of game-play where experience is earned from filling orders or quests only. Simply growing any crop when you want will not earn you experience and only cause your inventory to become crammed to such a capacity it's like a puzzle getting it back into a functional state. If you are a fan of Farmville 2 on Facebook, then you will likely be a fan of this little app. I have a Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and found this app ran very smoothly without any freezing or crashing. The app itself can actually be played offline, and it will save itself to the Zynga cloud servers the next time you connect to the internet. It did not always exit cleanly however they have since implemented an exit feature you activate from your device's home icon and using your back button. Playing this game offline is a very nice feature - allowing one to still perform actions on their farm until they can access the internet. So taking Farmville 2 Country Escape on a road trip or camping (etc) is a viable option. Obviously you will miss out on some content (marketplace, co-op, friend gifting and help) while offline. But you won't miss out on tending to some farm functions that might ready to be repeated or altered for long times, thus saving you waiting x amount of time after you get online. The music and sound FX can also be muted individually. Storage/Inventory capacity is currently a large issue. I suspect this might be one of the game's features that will be looked into and changed. Water is unlimited, so waiting for wells to replenish is no longer a factor. One issue I have with storage is items used to expand your barn (nails/shovels/padlocks) are counted against your inventory capacity. At a capacity of 110, in order to expand your farm you will need 5 padlocks, 11 nails, and 4 shovels.... 20 items in all. That's a huge chunk of your storage capacity held up until you get all your items, and often you'll exceed the needed number for example nails by several, yet still need 2 more padlocks. Players are unable to destroy partial amounts of an inventory item, you're sort of held hostage and your game-play actually slows down considerably in this situation. I have learned not to "seek" out barn expansion items until I'm ready to dedicate myself to that one goal. Trying to multitask barn expansion with completing progression quests is sure to frustrate you. Currently there are issues when it comes to being able to buy and sell in the marketplace and some players have noted that their items just are not selling even though their prices are marked the lowest. I too personally have experienced this and question the implementation of such a narrow random selection of prospective buyers/sellers when there is no "banker" like vendor in which you can sell everything to, as one would when playing the PC version (Facebook). It is also frustrating trying to buy a specific item and the 20 global sellers available to you do not have one for sale all day long. Although this random list refreshes every 5 minutes, it still hinders a player in a mobile app that is likely to be used for a minute or two here and there throughout the day as time permits. This is definitely a welcomed addition to my Kindle app collection and despite the few flaws regarding the app being a complete pig on memory and power I still think it deserves serious consideration. This app will not permit multiple players to play on the same device. Once you sign into Facebook with the app, it will be permanently be linked to that account. If you do this to a phone and a tablet, both will be linked to the same email account. The only way to switch Facebook accounts after that, is to remove the app completely from your device and then download it again. Run through the beginning part of the tutorial until it asks you to link to a Facebook account. It will then pull up your last saved game from ONLINE play. The game has a very high requirement for memory. But this should come as no surprise to anyone that has played FV2 on a PC. Just keep this in mind if your device scrapes the bottom of the barrel when it comes to operating apps effectively. The GREED FACTOR from the developer of this application is out of line. The pressure to have users of this app invest money into an app that it becomes almost unplayable without IAPs (well maybe more of a struggle running uphill). If you're lucky enough to score some free apps that offer Amazon coins during a promotional weekend with the Amazon App Store, then making IAPs isn't so bad. I grabbed 1,000 coins this past Memorial Day Weekend and then used those coins to buy Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for 6.99 because they were giving away 2,000 coins with each purchase. Each coin is worth 1 penny. I ended out having 2,300-2,400 Amazon coins without having to spend a dime. So keep your eyes open for special offers of Free Amazon Coins if you really love FV2. The game becomes much more enjoyable with the investment of In-App purchases but in all honesty you shouldn't need more than $10-20 worth of keys if you use them for crafting stations/crop plots only. I would suggest not using them to speed up time as most of the time when I have tried this, I have not obtained a "rare" item when I used the maximum appropriate farm hands. Stability issues have improved, and considering the game does become much more enjoyable with some IAPs, I am increasing my previous rating to 4 stars. If you're allowing a child to use this app, ensure that your device's settings require a password to make IAPs. A single IAP can range from as little as $.99 all the way up to $99.99. The game gives the feeling of still being it's beta stage. A sense is felt that changes could occur to the entire marketplace or as additional content is added. Chat content is restricted to your Co-op chat (group of 50 players that form a cooperative and work together) with tiny text messages limited to 64 characters. Chat between your Facebook friends that are not in your coop is not possible within this app. Adding Co-op members to your Facebook friends is also not easily done without sharing your real profile information over the Co-op channel. Currently the only information shared to other players in this game is your first name and last initial. So unless your Name is "Ice T", I doubt anyone will figure out who you really are. Using this app in conjunction with your Facebook/PC Farmville 2 game is great (assuming you play that too) because you are able to send up to 15 water every 12 hours back to your PC farm. You PC/Facebook is also able to send up to 9 non-special raw items to your mobile farm every 12 hours. Even if you don't like the mobile version at least it can still be used as an easy way to gift 15 water to yourself without having to beg Facebook friends to send you water.