***FINDING THE APPLICATION***
The application is really easy to find, I'm sure nearly everyone on facebook has been sent requests from people who use farmville, I know I'm always bombarded with requests, how-ever less now then I used to be. You also also find the application in facebook if you start typing in 'Farmville' in the search bar, this will bring up the application where you can join, along with your other friends. Once you have joined and use the application this will be save in facebook and will be on your bookmark page on facebook so you can find it quicker.

***THE AIM OF THE GAME***
To create a big farm and earn money/points by harvesting various different types of tree's, harvesting crops and selling them, making recipes and collecting items that animals produce such as egg's and milk. Each time you collect or harvest thing you will gain more points and when you have a certain number of points you will move up a level and gain more experience points. Bascially you need to keep your farm running smoothly and carry out some of the tasks given to you, either by your friends or by farmville itself. You earn cash the more crops you harvest and the more tasks you complete on your farm the more experience you will earn as well. This helps you to get better rewards and to get limited items which people on a lower experience level can't get.

***PLAYING THE GAME***
When you start playing the game it's very basic, you will get given a small farm (this can get bigger the more neighbours you add). You will need to plough some of the land and then plant crops and watch them grow. When you decide what plant you want to go, either flowers, fruit or vegetables it will tell you how long it takes for the crops to grow. This cna be anything from 2hrs to about 3 days. You need to keep note of this otherwise if you go back to your crops too late they will have withered and will no longer be any good, menaing you have to plant all the crops again. There are various animals you will be given and will need to build places for them to live.

I have been playing farmville on and off for about 3 years. I don't play it every day, and never go on it at the weekend, which is probably why a lot of my friends have got a higher experience level than me. If you have friends on facebook who are also playing the same game you can add them as neighbours and they can send you gifts or requests of items they need to build or complete a task. You can also ask them for specific gifts as well. My farm is quite large and I have lots of animals sorted into their different pens. I also have about 7 orchards for all the different types of tree's and I have completed a lot of the recipe tasks as well as collecting items, in order to trade them in for rewards. You can buy various different things for your farm which includes vechiles such as tractors and seeders, wood cabin's, houses, buildings, tree's, fences and other things to make your farm look how you want it. Some of the items you can buy using your farm cash which you earn by harvesting and selling crops. Other items you will need to buy using your money which you need to transfer or pay using your bank/credit card. Items vary in price, and this is something I have never done as Im not really into the game that much to spend my money on it.

When playing the game I tend to go on it to plant some crops and will then log off and check on it the following day to then harvest the crops. This isn't a game you could spend hours playing as you need to leave it to enable the crops to go and for people to send you items/gifts. There will be certain items you need for buildings such as bricks, nails, wood, tin sheets and other items. These items can be sent to you, or again you can purchase them. I'm not sure what experience level you can reach but one of my friend's has managed to get upto 100 and I'm currently on 86. Obviously the more crops you plant and the more items you buy on your farm the quicker this will go up.

Along the bottom of the game screen it will show your list of friends who are your neighbours on farmville, on here you can see what level each person is upto. You cna obviously tell from looking at this the people who play the game a lot and people who play the game once in a while.

***GRAPHICS/SOUNDS***
You can hear the sound of the animals on your farm which does get annoying so I actually turned the sound off when playing. The graphics are fairly good, and are quite sharp without any distortion or anything looking blurry. I don't really think they can improve the graphics as it's fine how it is. Maybe if the game was different then they could improve the grahics slightly. You will notice that some of the items on your farm move, these cna include windmills or the animals may move. Sometimes this isn't always the case though as sometimes the application can run slow or have problems. I have seen other games with better graphics, how-ever as this is just a free application on facebook and it's not paid for this doesn't bother me too much.

***OVERALL OPINION***
I like these types of game, and do play this daily. It's definately not a game I can play for hours and I actually get quite annoyed with the amount of requests I get sent for this game, how-ever you can turn off/ignore the requests by going into the settings on your facebook page. The application does seem to have a lot of problems, this can vary, but often the game will freeze or it will say the game is out of sync and needs refreshing. This is quite frustrating as this happend quite often and stops you from playing the game, which can mean the crops you have planted will wither anyway. lots of my friends used to play this game but not many play it now as I don't think they can really bothered. This is a little bit addictive as i like to progress in the game to get better things and to get further than my friends, so I also find this game a little competitive too. If you have the time and you like these types of game then give it a go.


(review may also appear on ciao)