FIFA Superstars: Everything you need to know

Fifa superstars
EA Sports' FIFA Superstars has finally arrived, and just a week after going live, the soccer game already has 30,000 users. FIFA Superstars is accessible to all soccer fans whether they've played video games before or not. Like Gangster City, Playfish's other recent title, FIFA Superstars focuses on simple gameplay and fleshes it out with unique components and high production value. The result is a game that is deep, enjoyable and compelling.

Continue reading as we run through everything you need to know in order to successfully play FIFA Superstars.
fifa superstars
Start up FIFA Superstars and you'll hear music gnarly enough to get anyone ready to take on the gargantuan role of soccer team manager. After the brief load time, you'll be prompted to create your team and run through a tutorial. Finally, you'll come face to face with the home screen, the heart of FIFA Superstars. There is a ton of information on this screen, so we're going to break it down so you can begin training your team. Although the game may seem confusing at first, you'll see it is quite simple and you'll be winning matches and scoring goals with the professionals in no time.
fifa superstars crest
Home Screen
The first thing to do when you reach the screen pictured above is edit your team's crest. Click the crest at the top left of the screen and you'll be able to choose from a number of emblems, colors and nations.

Centered on the screen are the players currently selected to start in upcoming matches. Along the left hand side you have the options:

    Play - Allows you to choose a league and play matches.
    Manage - Where you can swap out players and change formations.
    Trade - Mysterious feature that is coming soon.
    Stadium - View the current training regiment, stadium facilities and coach. Make sure to buy stadium upgrades to earn more money, experience, and training from everything you do.
    Training - Choose a training regiment to keep your team in top form.
    Store - Purchase new players, coaches, stadium upgrades and match credits.


The bar along the top of the home screen also gives you important information such as your team's rating, your experience, your match credits and your current amount of coins.
fifa superstars buying players
Team Management
Your team's overall skill rating, shown in yellow at the top right of the home screen, is a combination of training and talent. Talent, shown at the top left of each player card and when rolled over, is predetermined and cannot be changed. To better your team's talent you must buy all new players. Click the store or manage button, then click players. Three tiers of player packs are available:

Bronze Transfers - 10,000 Coins or 8 Playfish Cash
Silver Transfers - 25,000 Coins or 20 Playfish Cash
Gold Transfers - Unlocks at level 10 or 60 Playfish Cash

The better the transfer pack the better players you'll receive. Each pack contains five random players from the tier you selected. After receiving new players, you can head to manage from the home screen and swap out players into their appropriate positions. Depending on the make up of your squad, you may want to change formations to reflect that. For example if you have a lot of great defenders, change your formation to 5 - 3 - 2 so more of your better players can play at once.
fifa superstars manage
Note that you can also sell players from this screen. Be careful, while you'll never need substitutes during a game, remember that if you switch formations in the future, you may end up needing a player you sold for a mere 200 Coins.

Training
Unlike talent, your training stat is not set in stone. Your training stat is left up to you and because training makes up your overall rating, it's important to keep your team in top form. If your team is well trained, you may have a higher overall rating than a team with more talent and as a result, be able to defeat them.
fifa superstars training
To begin training your team, click the training button on the home screen. Training is a combination of your Current Base Training (which increases every time a training regiment is completed), your Facilities (training equipment purchased at the store), and your Coach who can increase your training by 20 points.

To increase your base training, select one of the regiments. When the specified amount of time finishes counting down, you will gain that amount of training. Unlike FarmVille and its withering crops, FIFA Superstars will not penalize you for failing to see the training through. It will give you your training points whether you are playing or not.

It is possible to have up to 100 base training. However, don't think because you've maxed out you're training it's going to be smooth sailing all the way through the Barclays Premier League. Whenever your players are idle your training will begin to decrease, so it's important to sign in every day and have your team train to stay competitive.
fifa superstars match
Matches & Leagues
To earn money, gain experience and rank up in FIFA Superstars, you're going to have to play matches. To play matches, you're going to need match credits. Every time you play a game, a match credit is subtracted from you. There are several ways to refill your match credits. First, you are given a match credit every six hours, so you can just wait for them to refill. You also receive match credits when you level up. It is also possible to ask for and to send credits or mystery gifts to your friends (which may include match credits in addition to players and coins). Finally, you may purchase more match credits in the store for Playfish Cash.
fifa superstars leagues
To set up a game, click the play button from the home screen. You'll be prompted to select on of the following leagues:
fifa superstars barclays bremier league
2010 FIFA World Cup - Coming soon.

Premier League - Raise your overall rating enough and you'll be able to take on the teams of the Barclays Premier League such as Manchester United and Arsenal. (As you can see at the right, my mighty team defeated Blackpool.)

League Matches - This is what you'll select most often as you complete and advance through the various leagues until you reach the elite Superstar League.

Friendly Matches - This league lets you play with your friends. Select it then select a friend to challenge and play. You can only play each friend once every day. These matches don't cost match credits.

Once a league has been chosen, choose a team you wish to play. It's always a good idea to make sure your overall rating is higher than the opponents if you want to win. Instead of wasting your precious match credits when the odds are against you, either take on an easier team, train, or buy players and come back later. Once you've chosen a team, click play, a match credit is deducted, and the game is underway.

After a match has begun, the player has two options: watch a long series of cutscenes as the game plays out or skip straight to the final score. The way the game works is all based on stats and positioning. Throughout the game players will try to dribble other players, pass the ball, and shoot. FIFA Superstars compares the talent and training of the two interacting players and decides which one will be victorious.
fifa superstars
For example, my striker Hughes is on offense with the ball and encounters defender Maire. Because Hughes has higher stats and training, he was able to successfully leave "Amaud Maire standing!"
fifa superstars goalkeeping
Another example is shooting on goal. Enemy midfielder Toner, was able to break through my defense and get a shot on goal. Goalkeeping also works in a similar fashion to offense play. The match up this time is between my keeper Fejzic and Toner. Depending on the players' talent and training, the shot can either be saved or reach the back of the "potato sack."
fifa superstars goal
This continues until time is up and the final score is announced. Proportionate to the difficulty of the challenge and the outcome of the match, you will receive experience and money.
fifa superstars final score
Calling all Footie Fans
Whether you call it soccer or football, it makes no difference. FIFA Superstars revolves entirely around the sport we love. With the current scarcity of sports games on Facebook, we hoped the soccer simulator would begin to fill the hole in the social network's game lineup.

Despite our excitement, we would love to see more Facebook friend integration (perhaps in the trading feature coming soon). In addition we'd like some interactivity, especially in the matches themselves, allowing players to further influence the outcome. Finally, our last complaint is that we just can't get enough of it! The match credit system makes us wait for days just to get my team out on the pitch for just a few minutes!

However, in the end, beggars can't be choosers, and we're certainly relieved to finally see quality in a genre that has been struggling to produce a hit. Despite the game's relatively slow start, the FIFA World Cup is around the corner, and we're hoping to see FIFA Superstars catch on.

Click here to play FIFA Superstars>

Restaurant City Crazy Shopping Week starts tomorrow, save some coin

Monster RobotYou better start scrounging underneath those booths, tables and chairs as Playfish is about to unleash a serious sale in Restaurant City. Starting tomorrow, Nov. 23, in honor of the looming Black Friday, players will get a second chance at some of the items they might have missed from past events in Crazy Shopping Week.

Items like the Potwasher from Tuscany Week will be available for one day only in Maggie's Boutique during the sale for Playfish Cash. Check in daily to see what each day's limited edition, classic item awaits. Better yet, every day a new set of other previously released items (though, standard edition) like the Monster Robot and Teppenyaki Grill will be on sale for up to 75 percent off at Maggie's Warehouse for both coins and Playfish Cash.

Our precious ingredients won't be left out either. This week, the list of available ingredients to choose from will be boosted to six, which players can buy for both coins and Playfish Cash. However, once the sale ends on Nov. 30 the list of ingredients for sale will bump back down to three and these limited edition items will be gone forever. Well, probably until next Thanksgiving Week, but who knows what will have been released by then? Check out what's available all week and start making some cash now if you want to take advantage of all the upcoming deals.

Internet safety expert accuses The Sims Social of promoting cybersex

I hope you packed some dry clothes, because we're about to lead you down one slippery slope. (Zing!) Charles Conway, self-proclaimed UK-based Internet safety expert and editor of Scam Detectives, alleges that EA and Playfish's enormously popular The Sims Social promotes cyber sex between children and adults (fat chance). And it's all thanks to The Sims Social's Woo-Hoo feature.

While playing the game, players can build asynchronous relationships with one another that can quickly grow into romantic relationships. Ultimately, those relationships will draw the players' avatars closer and can result in them having Woo-Hoo. And like any social activity in the game, players are rewarded Social Points for this that they can use to buy new items.

"Even if Facebook did verify the age of it's users (which it doesn't), at what age does it become acceptable for a child to engage in "virtual sex" for rewards," Conway asks. "Does it ever become acceptable? Isn't sex for rewards the very definition of prostitution? How is playing this game different to children having "cybersex" in a chatroom?"

The list of questions goes on. Sure, Woo-Hoo in The Sims Social is an allusion to having sex, but the "sexual" act displayed is arguably far from lewd--way less provocative than what children have access to on basic cable. More importantly, Woo-Hoo does not allow players to directly communicate within the game in real time like a chat room would.

"When 40% of kids admit that they have Facebook 'friends' that they don't know in 'real life,' there's a real risk of a predator using a game like this to build a relationship with a child that could lead to real world abuse," Conway writes. However, what is not pointed out is that all social relationships requested between The Sims Social players--including romantic ones--require the consent of the player from the start and at every stage of advancement.

If a player feels uncomfortable during any point of the "relationship," they can halt its progress. As for Playfish and EA restricting adult content (which suggestiveness is debatable), there are a number of Facebook games that arguably promote drug trafficking, serial murder and nearly genocidal manslaughter. Maybe it's time for Facebook to meet with the ESRB and PEGI.

Do you think that Woo-Hoo in The Sims Social promotes cybersex or prostitution? Would you agree with a rating system for Facebook games like one that exists for traditional games?

Make the ultimate The Sims Social party house for Facebook fame and...

Well, just fame, really. (No fortune to see here, sorry, folks.) The Playfish team's first ever Spotlight on Design contest in The Sims Social is about to end on Nov. 30, so you have only two days left to create the ultimate party house in-game. The biweekly contest began on Nov. 16, and the winner will have their prized home featured on The Sims Social fan page for all to see.

All players need to do is remodel their home under the loose guidance of the contest theme, submit a picture of their work on the Playfish forums here and wait for the Playfish team to decide which pad is the coolest. Of course, any evidence of a screen being doctored by Photoshop or another image editor will disqualify you.

In that case, and judging from homes like the one above, this will be a tough challenge for players that refuse to spend money or are of a lower level. At any rate, it looks like a fun way to get those creative juices flowing after nearly a week away from much critical thought. So, throw the hat in for a chance at Facebook fame through The Sims Social. (Though, some Facebook fortune would be nice too, guys.)

[Image Credit: Elusive Lunar]

What do you think of The Sims Social now that the game is months old? Have you already entered in this contest, or do you plan on entering

The Sims Social: Celebrate the last days of summer with new Summer House theme

With the mass popularity of the Sims Social on Facebook, it's no surprise that Playfish / EA are continually adding new decorative items to the game's store, allowing you to personalize your home in new ways. Specifically, this week sees the launch of a "Summer House" theme of items, with items being available for your living room, bedroom and even outdoor areas. There are also plenty of decorative items here to take a look at, so we'll do our best to give you a complete guide to these new items. Check them out!

SolTrain Cubic (Shelving Unit)

    * Costs: 35 SimCash
    * Value: $5,150


SolTrain Chair (Buildable item)

    * Costs: 2,250 coins
    * Value: $1,800


SolTrain Kingsize (Bed)

    * Costs: 79 SimCash
    * Value: $11,700
    * Sleep Stat: 11


SolTrain Rays (Lamp)

    * Costs: 3 SimCash
    * Value: $450


BasketCase Travel (Requires Level 30)

    * Value: $350


SolTrain UV Lite

    * Costs: 12 SimCash
    * Value: $1,750


BasketCase XL (Requires Level 30)

    * Value: $600


SolTrain UV XL (Lamp)

    * Costs: 22 SimCash
    * Value: $3,250


Summer Tones (Painting - requires level 30)

    * Value: $750


Woody Divider (Requires Level 24)

    * Value: $1,300



SolTrain BagelUp

    * Costs: 5 SimCash
    * Value: $750


Woody Boxout B (Kitchen cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)

    * Value: $1,650


Woody Boxout L (Kitchen Cabinet - requires Level 26 - Buildable item)

    * Value: $1,650


SolTrain Panama (Outdoor Bed)

    * Costs: 49 Sim Cash
    * Value: $7,250


SolTrain Snug (Buildable item - requires Level 30)

    * Value: $2,200


Palm Tree

    * Costs: 1,750 coins
    * Value: $1,650
    * Happiness Stat: 3
    * Social Stat: 3


SolTrain Parasol

    * Costs: 59 SimCash
    * Value: $8,700


SolTrain Swing (Buildable item - requires Level 30)

    * Value: $4,850
    * Sleep Stat: 3


UltiMax Top Deck (Stereo)

    * Costs: 59 SimCash
    * Value: $8,700
    * Fun Stat: 5


In addition to all of these items, there's a full set of windows available in the Build menu is a new "Alpine" theme, which consists of a dark tan, almost orange colored frame. Four flooring options are available for either Social Points or (at most) a single SimCash per tile, and the theme is rounded out with a "SolTrain Beach" wallpaper that costs 55 Social Points per square.

As with previously released themes, these Summer House items don't appear to be limited edition; rather, they should be available permanently in the game's store. That being the case, you should be able to save up coins, or Social Points, or have time to purchase SimCash long into the future to create this theme in your home as far into the future as you like. If we see this change, we'll make sure to let you know.

What do you think of these Summer House items in Sims Social? What kinds of items would you like to see released next in the game? Sound off in the comments.