Kim Kardahian Hollywood-August Update

The August update for Kim Kardashian Hollywood is here! Aside from a new location where we can film street fashion  shoots (alas, I have yet to be offered one by Simon and I don't have any new storylines), there is a reason to go house hunting: international locations for our reality shows! Each location gives us a new achievement (Big in Japan, etc), plus five of those locations are eligible for product placement deals. The best news about it though: Players can finally choose where they want to shoot from a pull down menu, instead of repeatedly asking Matthew until the location they want to shoot in comes up.

The new location, Havana, has three tappables for energy (the bike, the car, the crab), as well as a PopGlam outpost, a new $120,000 home, and Alejandro's. Alejandro's appears to have only one activity costing $75 (note: this is based on only two dates and there's a chance this information could be incorrect), so make sure you have a full energy bar before you head there.

The other notable part of this update is the Karl Lagerfeld shop in Paris has been replaced by Balmain, and new Balmain clothes are coming. Personally, I am dying for these thigh-high boots and am desperately hoping they're included:

There weren't too many clothes in the update. I was extremely happy to see the $750 shorts, since I was about to plunk down 35 K Stars for another pair. Some other notable additions:

Finally, there won't be a review this Friday. I've been working on a video for our coming YouTube channel and haven't devoted a lot of time to review new apps.

Kim Kardashian Hollywood: Second Marriage and VIP Weekend UPDATE: Confirmed!

Welcome back to Freemium Queen! Today's topic is remarriage in Kim Kardashian Hollywood.

Many KKH players get married fairly early on in their game. For those who haven't taken the plunge yet, here's a brief recap: The first marriage is the most expensive and time-consuming, with challenges that must be completed within a short window. After you become engaged, Kim invites you to her home and tells you to buy a dress. You then have your pick of two $9995, two 90 K Star, and one 120 K Star dress, plus three optional hairstyles at 50 K Stars each. But once you buy this dress, the clock starts ticking. Your wedding planner calls you and tells you that Crystal Fletcher and Chad Dylan Parker are going to snap it up unless you come up with $7500 in 24 hours. You will lose fans if you don't hand over the money. After you pay, you have some gigs to perform before the wedding. While you're performing these gigs, you can pay for items to decorate your venue--but if you don't decorate at all, there are no consequences. Once you are finished decorating, you can get married. After the ceremony, Maria calls you and tells you that nasty rumors are being spread about your union and you and your spouse have to do some more gigs within 24 hours. If you don't complete these gigs, there are no consequences, but you will miss out on the K Stars and rewards at the end of the challenge. TIP: You can tell Simon to call you back later when he calls you about other gigs. Then change screens and he will offer you the wedding gig (assuming it's marked "available soon").

For any player who has not married in their game yet, I would recommend not getting hitched until you have bought a private jet (120 K Stars) and a vehicle ($20000 and up), as well as 999 points' worth of Gold Star and Gold Heart clothing. If you're constantly scrambling for gigs and waiting for your energy bar to refill, having to date your spouse every day can feel like a burden. If you want to rid yourself of your spouse, either stop dating them (eventually they will divorce you, costing you fans) or delete them from your phone.

Which brings us to today's topic: remarriage. Find a new NPC or friend, fill up the relationship bar to 200 or more to trigger a proposal, and get engaged. Your wedding planner will call and ask you to look at the venue. You can then redecorate (or not) and buy a new dress (or not).

After the ceremony, Daisy (Kim's crazy British friend) will call and ask you and your new spouse to perform as her fairy tale couple. After two gigs (a photo shoot and an appearance), you will learn that you lost the film role to Crystal and Chad Dylan Parker.

This weekend will be a VIP weekend, where players can earn items by spending their K Stars. These images, found here, show what the girls can expect:

Kim Kardashian Hollywood July Update

Kim Kardashian Hollywood 5.2.0 was released yesterday (get it here) and this post will review some of the new elements:

First, let's look at the new location, Reykjavik, which sits next to Tokyo in the list. The tappables are the BENCH, the POTTED TREE, and the PUFFIN. The three new locations are Pop Glam Magazine, Blue Mist Spa (a dating site), and your own bar, the Ice Club. The Ice Club costs 50 K Stars and you get the chance to do a weekly three-hour gig as a bartender. You can also buy items in the club (DJ booths, etc) that will allow you to work more weekly gigs at the club. There is also a new polar bear pet.

Now let's look at the reality show shake-up. Your show will now appear on the list of top shows:

Note that KKH is awarding viewers for 8-hour tapings. I had a few 3-hour gigs done prior to the update which rewarded me with a few hundred fans on the A-E list and a similar number of viewers. This was enough to get me onto the top 500 when the reactions to the second or third gig was published.

Another large component of this month's update is the product placement. It seems that the way this will work is that you can have one show sponsorship deal at a time and they will place their product on a table in your home (you might have to buy the table if you do not already own it) and will reward you prizes based on that.

There were some smaller parts of this update. There are some new endorsements. Karl Lagerfeld has a boutique space next to Femme in Paris but it is closed as of 6.28.

And who is she?

There are also a few new clothing items: a hairstyle costing 25 K Stars and the following:

Kim Kardashian Hollywood: The Alvin Greene Quest

Kim Kardashian Hollywood has a lot of quests. One of the more expensive and involved ones is the Alvin Greene quest.

Sometimes in KKH, you meet people who require K Stars or energy. Alvin Greene requires both, so try to keep ten K Stars on hand during this quest. Alvin Greene is a big-shot producer who needs to be convinced that you're Hollywood material. You convince him by charming him (using either stars or energy bolts) and by doing appearances and small acting gigs.

As a general rule in Kim Kardashian Hollywood, when the option to use bolts instead of K Stars appears, using the bolts will simply give you another gig. Since there is no incentive to finishing the quest early, we would advise saving your stars.

Kim Kardashian Hollywood Achievements

Today on Freemium Queen, we’re going to discuss the Achievements in Kim Kardashian Hollywood.

Achievements are earned through routine activities.We're going to break them down below:

TREAT YOURSELF

Maxes out at 11. Earned by buying furnishings for your homes.

PET WHISPERER

Maxes out at 11. Buy pets.

ON A ROLL

Maxes out at 8. Five-star ratings for appearances.

GLAM 

Maxes out at 8. You can level this up by buying clothing, furnishings, homes, pets, and vehicles.

VANITY

Maxes out at 8. Earned by charming people and doing your makeup.

THE LOOK

Maxes out at 8 and gives you a Play Achievement. During photoshoots and modeling gigs, tap "smile with eyes" and other facial expressions.

HOTTIE STREAK

Maxes out at 8. Five-star ratings for photoshoots.

DAY JOB

Maxes out at 8. Work at Kardash and So Chic.

ALL ABOUT THE SWAG

Buy accessories. Items in your daily gift and other boxes count.

REAL RUN-IN

Maxes out at 8. Earned by answering questions when a reality TV crew surprises you on the street.

SPOTLIGHT

Maxes out at 8. Earned by tapping lighting-related bubbles on photoshoots and other gigs.

SOCIALITE

Maxes out at 8. Earned by mingling, chit-chatting, and other social activities at parties and gigs.

THESPIAN

Maxes out at 8. Perform acting-related activities like rough takes.

KEEP IT REAL

Maxes out at 8. Tap things like "start drama" on reality gigs.

FOODIE

Maxes out at 8. Tap food-related items at appearances, parties, and dates.

FLAWLESS ACTING; SCENE STEALER

These are both earned by achieving five-star ratings at acting gigs, but Flawless Acting counts reality shows, too.

REAL DRAMA

Maxes out at 8. Five-star ratings on reality shows.

PROFESSIONAL

Maxes out at 6. Purchase home furnishings and clothes that have gold stars.

PARTY PRO

Five-star ratings on parties.

ROMANTIC

Maxes out at 6. Purchase items that have gold hearts.

CATWALK PERFECTION

Five-star ratings on modeling gigs.

TOP OF THE WORLD

Buy tops, dresses, and jackets. Items in your daily gift and other boxes count.

BARFLY

Do alcohol-related activities. Buy drinks in bars, on dates, and at gigs.

CRIBS

Buy homes.

MY LIFE IS DOPE

Five-star ratings for appearances. I am not sure how this differs from "On a Roll."

LOVE

Tap activities like "kiss" and "deep conversation" on dates

GLAMORATI

Five-star ratings on photo shoots. I am not sure how this differs from "Hottie Streak."

SHOE ADDICT

Buy shoes. Items in your daily gift and other boxes count.

TO DYE FOR

Buy hair. Items in your daily gift and other boxes count.

FIERCE

Once you start your comeback quest, you earn this by performing a special action.

BIG SPENDER

Well, spend money.

SHOPAHOLIC

Buy bottoms (shorts, pants, skirts). Items in your daily gift and other boxes count.

LOVERS

Five-star dates.

HIGH ROLLER

Gamble at the casino.

CONNECTED

Add friends on Google Plus, Facebook, or Game Center.

THE REALEST

Five-star ratings on reality projects. I don't know how this differs from Real Drama.

LIFE OF THE PARTY

This must differ from Party Pro but I'm not sure how.

MODEL CITIZEN

This must differ from Catwalk Perfection but I'm not sure how.

STAR POWER

Invite VIPs to projects (call them to hang out first)

HOW I ROLL

Buy cars.

BUNDLE OF STYLE

Buy baby clothes.

CATWALK 

Supposedly, the only way to advance in this category is to choose the "Pivot" action during modeling gigs.

PARENTING

Perform childcare-related tasks.

Kim Kardashian Hollywood and Pets

Welcome back to Freemium Queen! Generally, we bring you a daily tip for the previous week's reviewed game. But since Find a Difference #15 is fairly self-explanatory, we will be bringing you a tip for KKH each day instead.

Pet ownership is quite rewarding in Kim Kardashian Hollywood--literally. Tapping your pets every four hours will bring you XP, cash, and energy bolts. Tapping the paw logo above the pet will allow you to take the pet with you (outdoors only). In addition, purchasing the pets in the first place will allow you to earn points toward the Pet Whisperer achievement, as well as adding gold hearts or stars.

An incomplete list of pets by location and cost:

This list will be updated in the near future as I play through.

Thursday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

This is the final tip that we will share from Friday's reviewed game, Shipwrecked: Volcano Island. The reviewer played the game up to Level 12 before uninstalling.

Although courage points are not displayed anywhere, you can see how many courage points purchasing certain items will give you. For example, purchasing a whale statue for 3,000 pieces of silver will yield 50 courage points. Although you may only have four helpers, you will still be told to purchase more and better houses in order to complete quests.

Wednesday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

Every day this week we will share a tip from Friday's reviewed game, Shipwrecked: Volcano Island.

After you purchase the Island Ship for 5 gold, you can visit Port Royale. (All of your helpers can be working on tasks on Volcano Island while you do this.) Once on Port Royale, you must help Esmerelda clean up and restore the devastated buildings. You do this by freeing two helpers. On Port Royale, your Volcano Island quests will not be visible in the side bar, but your Port Royale quests are visible when you return home so that you can see how much wood and other materials you need to complete the quests.

Tuesday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

Every day this week, we will share a new tip from Friday's reviewed game, Shipwrecked: Volcano Island.

Swords are extremely rare in S:VI and there are a limited number of ways to get them. When leveling up, you receive one or two. They are sometimes in the daily bonus. Very rarely, you can find them while clearing debris from the beach. Swords are needed to clear the jungle in order to find items for challenges and you cannot advance without them.

Monday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

This week at Freemium Queen, we are sharing a new tip from last Friday's reviewed game, Shipwrecked: Volcano Island.

After you finish building your lumberyard, quarry, kitchen, and other workshops, you can upgrade them by using silver and materials. These upgrades will take several hours of your helper's time, but will allow you to produce more items.

Sunday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

Every day this week, we will be sharing a tip from last week's reviewed game, RockYou's Shipwrecked: Volcano Island.

Volcano Island players should check their inventory frequently to make sure that they're not growing crops they cannot store. Unfortunately, this game has limits on most of the items users harvest. These items are used for crafting and users may become frustrated if they start growing things they cannot store.

Saturday's Tip - Shipwrecked: Volcano Island

Yesterday we reviewed RockYou Inc.'s Shipwrecked: Volcano Island. Every day this week, we will share a new tip for this game.

When you tap the roots, they will usually have snakes hiding in them. Tap the snakes before they head into the jungle for extra XP and silver.

Shipwrecked: Volcano Island Android Review

For this week’s #freemiumfriday, we take a look at RockYou Inc.’s Shipwrecked: Volcano Island. This game is part of a series that was purchased from Kiwi in 2015.

Shipwrecked: Volcano Island is an adventure game. You wash up on a beach and must find friends to help you build your new life on the island. You do this by building shelter, quarries and mills, and other buildings. Every time you open the app, there will be debris on shore for you to clear away (thereby harvesting wood, stone, coins, and other useful items). You will build houses, farm crops, and gather supplies by tapping buildings when they’re ready for harvest.

Leveling up is fairly simple. Large XP gains happen when you complete quests, but clearing away debris or growing 30 second crops will give you small boosts. Each new level brings new crops, buildings, and other items to the store. However, there is also a system in which courage points are awarded and you aren’t able to see how many you have or what prizes you will receive at the next level.

  

The characters are not customizable. You start out with Benjamin Robbins and must free the other helpers, Miss Violet (sometimes referred to as Lady Violet), Sir Squidbane, and Tad. There is also a store in which additional helpers can be purchased for gold. As there is no way to queue tasks, the characters will be idle after completing tasks.

 

The game asks you to place several buildings and plants as part of the quests, but it will let you move them. You may also store them or sell them for coins. If you are getting rid of a building that you were unable to complete during a limited edition challenge, you must wait until the challenge disappears from your list.

 

One bright spot is the ability for the player to decide what type of island they will have. A dojo, a sushi cart, and a doghouse for a shiba inu? A lavender-covered cottage, a fromagerie, and a French bistro? Players could also go medieval, all-American, Spanish, or other aesthetic possibilities. 

There are multiple forms of currency in this game. Swords are the rarest form of currency and are needed in all of the quests. Spirit is used to quickly complete actions or speed up the time needed to harvest from buildings. (For example, 200 bottles of spirit are needed to speed up 50 minutes.) Gold bars are used for some items in the store, including additional helpers. Be careful that you don’t accidentally tap away gold bars while viewing challenges! 

The game has several elements that might turn off casual players. The biggest frustration by far is that every quest requires you to use swords to clear the jungle (occasionally referred to as the forest), yet swords are very difficult to come by unless you purchase them. Most forays into the jungle leave you empty-handed, unable to advance in the quest. Multiple ongoing quests, including limited edition quests, can leave the player feeling especially annoyed when the jungle returns nothing. If the quest has expired without the building being completed by the player, there is nothing you can do but sell the partially constructed building. Multiple buildings in progress (those with the hammer logo below) are an eyesore.

 

Another frustrating area is the game’s social widget. You must add neighbors, but you have to choose them from a list populated by RockYou. It isn’t immediately obvious that users have new neighbor requests, so you may languish in the inbox of a user you have no way of contacting. The game limits how many neighbors a player may add at once—good spam control perhaps, but who is spamming a mobile app? Players may buy additional friend slots. The app will also refuse to allow you to add people who request you if you have made too many friend requests. In the opinion of this reviewer, this element would be vastly improved if the game utilized Google Plus.

 

You don’t really expect the dialogue found in freemium games to be brilliant, but the characters in this game tend to speak in ways that are stereotypical, even racist in some cases. It truly detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

 

Finally, the team challenges feel like participating in a school group project. These challenges generally take place on the weekends, which may be why so many team members are unable to perform the tasks in the time given.

Overall, the game feels like a knockoff of similar Zynga games, made purely for cash with very little craftsmanship. Volcano Island is not enjoyable as a free game due to the rarity and low success rate of the swords. If more swords were given for leveling up, the game might be a better time. As it is, this reviewer has uninstalled the game.

Shipwrecked: Volcano Island at a Glance

Category: Adventure

Developer: RockYou Inc.

Last updated: 15 February 2016

Is it worth playing? The difficulty in obtaining swords means that the game isn’t fun unless you pay. If you don’t mind that, then it is worth playing. Prices range from US$2.99 for 15 swords to US$99.99 for 1000 swords. The success rate of swords finding quest objects while clearing land has been about one in three in this reviewer’s experience. Extrapolating, a player may spend 60 cents to find an object from any of the quests they have been assigned at any given time.

What is the time commitment for this game? 10-15 minutes at a time. Because there is an element of the game that requires you to work on projects lasting several hours, this is a game that needs occasional checkups throughout the day. 

How long does it take for buildings and trees to be harvested? This ranges from 30 seconds to a day or more.

How intrusive are the ads?  There are frequent pop-ups for purchasing in-game currency, but no ads from external vendors.

How is premium currency earned? You receive one or two swords each time you level up, although there are occasional specials such as sword-bearing trees. Swords are sometimes received from the daily gift box. Other than that, there are the same shady-looking Tapjoy surveys that other games proffer. 

Top tip: Spend your swords wisely, because you won’t be seeing many more of them.

Does the game utilize Google Play Games? No. 

Does the game grant achievements? No.

What permissions does the app ask?