Google is getting ready to insinuate itself into the social games market with its new brand Google Games, which will include major titles like Farmville and Mafia Wars.

Recently, Google has been investing somewhere between $100M and $200M in Zynga, after having raised $500M in venture capital. When Google Games launches late this year, Zynga will be a major part of its debut.

According to TechCrunch:

Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga’s games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games.

According to the site, while Google’s investment in Zynga was completed, the actual partnership is still being worked on between the companies.

Google desperately needs this business arrangement to work if Google Games is to succeed. Aside from the stunning array of games Zynga owns, such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World and Fishville, Zynga also is the largest customer Paypal services; Google would love to have Zynga going through Google Checkout instead. Zynga is projecting $1B in revenue in fiscal 2011.

We’ll stay on this news as it happens.

G.I Joe Faceoff Game is now available on Facebook in conjunction with the DVD and Blu-Ray release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Facebook user’s can create their own GI Joe or Cobra character. The characters then face off against other Facebook characters in a battle.

The GI Joe characters are Duke, Snake Eyes and Scarlett. The Cobra characters are The Baroness and a Neo-Viper. Players can customize their character’s clothing, weapons, items and vehicles. The characters are ready to fight, once the customization is done. Players get to take on other Facebook users and see how their character stacks up. The winner of the battle gets 50 points and the loser loses 10 points. It is not bad enough that the loser loses the match they also lose points. It is a big incentive to win your battles.

The points can be used to purchase upgrades for the character. The upgrades include weapons, items and vehicles. The more winning games you can pull off the more upgrades you can afford, which should keep you winning games. The game does implement ranks so a strong player can’t just beat weaker players over and over again. Each rank achieved gives access to more upgrades.

If you are into GI Joe or just like customizing characters and face off against other players, check out GI Joe Faceoff Game.

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PopCap Games had great success with Bejeweled Blitz, so it should come as no surprise that PopCap has taken their next biggest franchise social with Zuma Web Connect. Zuma Web Connect is a social version of Zuma that will only be available on PopCap.com.

“Zuma Web Connect is our latest product to blend social features such as rankings and medals into our games,” said John Vechey, PopCap co-founder and all-around gaming wizard. “While Bejeweled, Peggle and more recently Plants vs. Zombies get most of the attention, Zuma has quietly been an ongoing hit for us on all sorts of devices and in almost every corner of the world. Zuma is enormously popular in Germany and Asia, for example, and is one of the highest-rated iPod games of all time.”

PopCap’s web site must get many many visitors a day, but will Zuma Web Connect be as popular as Bejeweled Blitz that is available for all Facebook users to play and challenge their friends? Guess we will have to wait and see if the game stays exclusive to PopCap’s web site or moves over to Facebook as well. Even though the game is only available on PopCap’s site, players are able to login to Facebook to see their friends scores on the game and to win medals. Seems they have kept the traffic on their site, but used Facebook connect features to extend the social angle of the game.

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King.com has announced they will be making games for both Facebook and the iPhone/iPod Touch platforms. Kalorie King and Mars Lives are the first two games coming to Facebook and Amazon Survival is the first game coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch. The games are a new business model for King.com as they extend into the social gaming market and the Apple App Store.

Kalorie King challenges players to get up and get healthy, virtually. The goal is to see who can burn off the most calories by catching falling vegetables and fruit. There are vitamins hidden in the falling vegetables and fruit that will increase player’s scores. Players can challenge their friends to a weight loss tournament to see who can lose the most amount of weight.

Mars Lives is a Massive Multi-Player Online Game (MMOG) that challenges players to be the first settlers on Mars. The players are the first humans to try to settle Mars and will face all the complications that come along with that feat.

Amazon Survival is a puzzle/matching game. The goal is to match the blocks to save the Amazon forest. There are two modes players can choose to play in, attack mode and survival mode. In attack mode, players match as many blocks as possible before time runs out. In survival mode, players have to make as many matches as possible before their energy runs out.

All of the games are suppose to be available today, July 14th, but I was not able to find Amazon Survival on iTunes, maybe it will be up there later today. The Facebook games are available to play today too, but I got an error when going to Kalorie King. It seems launch day for the games is not working out so well. King.com will probably fix the issues with time. If any of these games sound like games you would enjoy, go to the respected platform and check them out.

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LoudCrowd.com is a site for people who enjoy music and enjoy playing games set to music. The music is not bad, but it may not be to everyone’s taste. The music does fit the games, though. The point of the games is to get as many points as you can. 

Each game has a certain amount of points the player needs to attain. The game can be played more than once to attain all of the points needed. The points are accumulated until you reach the allotted point value. Once the point value has been reached, the player will get the prize. Each game has different prizes associated with them. The prizes are new music tracks, clothes for your avatar or shoes for the avatar.

Players gain points by spinning records. There is a paddle that rotates along the outside of the record and players have to collect dots as they fly from the center of the record. There are four different difficulty modes, beginner, skilled, expert and crazy. There are also bonuses that make your paddle bigger and hinderences that make the paddle smaller.

LoudCrowd provides a social network element, as well. Users have profiles they can create. The profiles allow users to enter a web site they have such as my space or twitter. All things that can show other people what you are interested in.

If you are into music and like games set to music, check out LoudCrowd. Players can create an account for free and hang out with other people who enjoy music games and music.