Top Ten SCEA Home Value Items for February
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
These are the items that I consider are the best value for the month, and I’ll tell you why I think so for each item or package. This isn’t a list of my favorite things for the month; some of them I didn’t purchase and won’t for various reasons. Some things I bought aren’t on this list. They’re not always the least expensive item(s), either. For example, a $4.99 estate that’s just another pretty box – and does nothing and has nothing extra – is less of a value than a $9.99 estate that may include furniture or a game or other features, such as EOD or the ability to swim or fly, or a variety of these attributes. By the way, I’m not including free items, as their worth is more than obvious. Although these items are numbered, it’s not meant to be a top value to least value list, but rather my value choices for the month overall. I also didn’t try to choose one of each type of item, such as estate, locomotion, furniture pack, clothing item, et cetera. If I had, this would have been a somewhat different list.
1. Granzella’s City of Flowers Penthouse “Wonders of the World” for $3.49. I’m not going to pretend that this is the last cost associated with this estate, but it could be all that you spend, if you choose. This estate offers some features that we’ve come to enjoy in our estates, such as diurnal control and music that you can also control. It also offers some unique and unusual features, such a working shower, and the ability change the walls and floors and lighting in each room, separately. What makes this space such a great value is that it is the basis for making an estate seem almost unique to yourself, not only by what furniture items and pictures you add there, but by other items such as the carpets, drapes – which you can also open and close – and fixtures you can purchase in various colors, to add and change throughout the six-room space.
2. Granzella’s Built-in Kitchen 5-piece Set for $1.99. It’s hard to go wrong with a price of just under $2.00 for five pieces of furniture and Granzella didn’t go wrong. For this pack, you can count on style, fit and usefulness. There are other kitchens offered in Home, such the original one from LOOT’s Ghostbusters series to VEEMEE’s luxury set and they all have something to offer, but for the best value, this is the set to buy. The pieces include upper cupboards, except the corner oven unit which has a hood and the one piece that is a full-height cupboard itself. The set also includes a sink and two counter units, with two styles of upper cabinets. The set is charming and the pieces fit together smoothly, which is wonderful. You can also place items on the stove or counters which is a great asset.
3. Any one of Konami’s Fashionista Clothing Items from $.99 to $1.49. You’ll notice that my third value item is actually a lot of items and that it does not include the long gold dress, which sells for a bit more. I don’t believe there is value in paying more for an item on Home because it is gold colored, even though yellow is my personal favorite. However, the other items offered in this line are wonderful. They have great prices, styles and choices, as I wrote in my article on them, “Konami News for the Ladies”.
4. Lockwood’s Drey Noir Furniture Ultimate Bundle for $5.99. This unique set offers thirteen pieces, which are seven furniture items and six accessory items. That’s a lot of pieces and a lot of style for just under $6.00 and that’s value. I especially love that the bookcases are full and you don’t have to either leave them bare or search for small items to use on the shelves, worrying about your furniture count all the while. This pack has a unique style and yet I think it will fit in most spaces where you want to set up a home office or an old fashioned business office.
5. Granzella’s Soaring Broom for $1.99. I love locomotion items, dances and gestures for Home; who doesn’t? But when I buy them, I look for their worth, not just the ones that are “new this week”. I hope you look carefully and consider value before you buy also. The Soaring Broom item may have been a bigger hit if it was brought out in October, but it’s a great little value item. For the price you receive the broom and three ways to ride it – astride, side-saddle and what I think of as “surfer” mode. Funny and fun!
6. nDreams’ Stick People for $1.99. If you like the unusual in full body costumes, you’ll want to check out these items because there are a lot of choices and they’re just plain fun to look at and wear. They’re offered in 16 colors such as two shades of blue, orange and pink and patterns such as rainbow, zebra and leopard for both males and females. Bundles of all 16 colors and patterns, plus a special gold stick person are also offered. If you really like this outfit and want to switch out your look now and then, pick up one of the bundles for $4.99, which is a great price.
7. Juggernaut’s Bramblenook Farm for $6.99. We’re all fairly tired of the “pretty but nothing much happens there” estates. Once you decorate them and maybe show them to a few friends, that’s it – unless you get a chance to enter a decorating contest. That’s why we love most, if not all, of the new estates that offer more. There have been quite a few now, but the one that was most requested was a country estate where we could farm. That’s just what the guys at Juggernaut have given us. There are a variety of activities here, such as growing plants and raising animals; a brand new way to gift friends (where the clever let them work a little for their gifts!); and more changes to come in the future. The games even have small items to purchase to speed them up, for the impatient type.
8. Game Mechanics’ Contender Stock Car Bundle for $4.99. These stock cars are sold for $1.99 each, so the bundle is really quite a savings. If you’re a racing fan and/or you’ve been looking for something to put in the driveway of the mansion garage, the street at Carla’s Coffee shop, or the garage of the Luxury Racing Box, these items may well be just what you’re looking for. They come in your choice of four colors, black, blue, purple and red. Be sure to sit in them and try out that engine!
9. Konami, Intellivision, Sony or Atari Game Cabinet for $1.49. Each of these developers offered one or more games at this price in the month of February. Each game offers the possibility of hours of gaming fun and some of them have additional items such as shoes, tee-shirts, or helmets included. Some of the cabinets have reward items, also. At this low price, you might want to pick up several and set them out for your friends to play when they visit, also. One person I know purchased them all and made a gaming arcade.
10. nDreams’ Mega Animation Bundle for $9.99. Yes, there’s a $10.00 item on my value list for February. Whether we should be paying for new dances and gestures and animations is the subject for a different article or discussion. However, as long as they are being brought to us by third-party developers we will be paying for them, if we want them. My suggestion is you look for the greatest worth before you buy. This bundle offers four dance packs, including Legends and Toprock and four gesture packs, including muscles and insults for both genders combined. As each of these eight packs are sold separately for $2.99, this complete bundle has a lot of value for what you receive.
Frankly, I was surprised to find so many items from Granzella on my list for the month, as I’m not used to thinking of them as a value developer, but one that is actually more expensive than average. It seems they make enough items and vary the costs enough, that they do offer great value with a lot of their items. I think all of the developers do their best to offer value to us, but as I always say, value for each person differs. If you don’t buy estates and decorate them, spaces and furniture would hold little worth for you, as an example. If you’re not familiar with any of the items on this list or if you feel you might be interested, I strongly suggest you look them over and consider a purchase or two.
P.S. — Thanks for the $10.00, Sony! It let me splurge a little.
March 21st, 2013 by Kassadee Marie | 3 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
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What I love about this concept is that it’s a great cross-section of content that just about every Home user who has ever spent a dime in Home will buy, and proves that a low price doesn’t equal good value. It’s the content that comes with the price that’s king.
I’ve bought eight of the ten items, and I’m delighted with all of them. The Granzella broom is especially appropriate with Pottermore coming soon. It even has an “exhaust” of magical sparkles. Time to organize our Quidditch teams?
One advantage for the curtains & rugs you might buy for the “Flowers ” space is that you can use them as items in any space AND if you install them in “Flowers” via the Settings menu they don’t reduce your item count there. I like! Also, room can be changed individually.