New Scaratings

"Voodoo Whisperer, Curse of a Legend" (2011) is a game that came in a four pack bundle called "Gogii's Diamond Edition". I picked it up at WalMart for $9.99 today. I've played it for quite a while, and so far it is as good as anything that "Big Fish Games" puts out. The stupid hidden object screens are few and far between. The game is much more of a problem solving game, that involves a lot of logic, sometimes thinking outside of the box, and hunting around many rooms and places to pick things up that you need. So far it has not had many puzzles to solve.



Here's some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G45IEiD070Y

The other games on the CD are: "Princess Isabella, Return of the Curse", "Empress of the Deep 2, Song of the Blue Whale", and "The Clumbsys 2, Butterfly Effect". I haven't tried any of these yet, but when and If I do, I'll tell you what I think of them.

Getting too late for me tonight so...



...... Goodnight gamers, I'm going to bed.

(Belated edit: I finished the game today. It was a good game, and I would recommend it to those, who like this type of game. However, the ending was a little disappointing when your heroine, Lillian, is pushed into a well by an evil spirit. Then the evil spirit closes the well with a stone lid, and the game ends with "To be continued.")

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"The game is afoot."

"Empress of the Deep II" came on "Gogil's Diamond Edition 4 Pack" CD. I started and finished it today. It's a pretty good game, and much of it is fairly easy. However, all of it is not easy, because what you need to do with things you find, and where to use them is often hard to figure out.

I would guess that there was an "Empress of the Deep I", and after I finished the game it said, "To be continued", so there must be an "Empress of the Deep III" out there, or coming soon.

I think this is a game worth playing. The stupid hidden object screens are few and far between, but some of the things you need to find on these screens are extremely hard to find.

Here's some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kq_aAndgtE

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"The game is afoot."

"The Clumseys II, Butterfly Effect" is one of the qames on "Gogii's Diamond Edition 4 Pack". The other three games were pretty good, but this one stinks, and I cannot recommend it to anyone, unless they want to play a game that throws stupid hidden object screens, after stupid hidden object screens at them ad infinitum. Many of the hidden objects you need to find are almost impossible to locate. It does have some puzzles you need to solve, but they are stupid also.

The only redeeming factor about this game that I can think of, is it does teach some history of inventions. (I actually leaned some stuff from this game, that I will more than likely forget, before the sun rises tomorrow morning.)

Here is some video from the beginning of the game;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hrgealwgU

p.s. I believe that "Big Fish Games" has bought "The'Clumsys II" from "Gogii" to add to their every growing stable of games.

Anyway, the time has come for CLOUDY to log off. To make Liljol happy this is a different sign off, without the old guy wearing a night cap, and carrying a candle.

Here's a link to Roy and Dale singing 'Happy Trails":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEqUyNaSdv

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"The game is afoot."

"Princess Isabella II, Return of the Curse" came on Gogii's Diamond Edition 4 pack. Technically it is a hidden object game, but there are very few stupid hidden object screens. Yes, you do have to find things, but you find most of them as part of traveling around and playing the game. The game throws some new tricks at you, which are a little confusing at first, but once you figure them out, it becomes a lot of fun. It is primarily a problem solving game, with some puzzle solving too. I wouldn't recommend "Princess Isabella" to someone, who has never played this type of game before, because it is pretty darn tough. However, I highly recommend it to those, who have played ones like this before. They will enjoy the challenges it throws at them.



Here are two links to some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B62hE5wkKw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFmWo5NFBxo

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"The game is afoot."

"Ravenhearst" sucks. It is nothing but boring hidden object screens, one after another, with some puzzle solving every once in a while.

The game's hidden object screens hide many of the things that you need to find, where it is nearly impossibe to find some of them. The puzzles you get wouldn't be so bad, if they gave you some idea of what you have to do to solve the them. The introduction to the puzzles only gives you a vague idea as to how the puzzles work and what to do.

It is a timed game. If you don't progress fast enough, time can run out on you, and you will have to replay that level from its beginning. The game just gives you a limited number hints that you can use on each level, and when they are gone, you are on your own, if you get stuck.

I cannot recommend this game to anybody.

Here is a short video of this pathetic game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riWdYB0c9tA

p.s. At this time there are two sequels to "Ravenhearst", "Return to Ravenhearst" and "Escape from Ravenhearst". I don't have the sequels, so I cannot comment on them.

It has become too late for me, so...



............. Goodnight I'm going to bed.

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"The game is afoot."

"Dark Parables, Rise of the Snow Queen" is another "Big Fish" game. I have barely begun playing it, but so far it looks like a good game, where the hidden object scenes play only a minor part. I would guess that it will be mostly a problem and puzzle solving game.

Here's some video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qag_Uf8fc8M

(This is just the beginning. I am sure that there is much more to come. I will add to this post as I play it farther.)

(Belated edit: I finished the game today. It was a little bit of a disappointment. There were too many dumb hidden object scenes. Many of the puzzles forced me to hit "skip" because they would take forever to solve, and there was very little problem solving. I'm not saying that it isn't a game worth playing. It's just not one that I can give a high recommendation to.)

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"The game is afoot."

"Grim Tales, The Bride" is another "Big Fish" game. I have only checked out the very begining of it out so far, but I think it will be a fun and challenging game. Yes, you will run across those dumb hidden object scenes every once in a while, but other than having to find something in them that you will need to solve problems, I don't think the hidden object scenes will take up a significant portion of time playing this game.

Here is some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbHENSFqaJk

(After I've completed the game, I will post more about it.)

(Belated edit: I Finished the game today. My earlier optimism turned into disappointment. The game has a few too many dumb hidden object scenes for my liking. It is way overloaded with puzzles to solve, and most of them aren't fun. Problem solving, which I like, played a very minor role in the game. Besides the puzzles, many of which I skipped, the biggest part of this game is remembering in which room or area a lock needs to be opened by some object that you find that will fit it. It wouldn't be so bad, if there weren't dozens of rooms, and the objects to open the locks are never found nearby. When you are stuck, the game does give you the option of hitting a hint button, that tells you where you need to go next, but hitting that button repeatedly is like playing it with a walkthrough. The game isn't terrible, but I cannot give it a very high recommendation.)

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"The game is afoot."

As much as I don't like creating parallel threads, I just discovered that I did.

The thread is simply called "Computer Games", and I forgot all about it when I started the "Computer Games New and Old" thread. Here is a quick link to find it.

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=376

DANTE, is there some way that thread can be moved over and added to the "Computer Games New and Old" thread, where it belongs? If it can be moved, I think it would be a step in the right direction to clean up one of many unneccesary threads on the "Scaratings". It is only two pages long.

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"The game is afoot."

"NiBiRu: Age of Secrets" (2005) is a game I've had sitting around for a long time, but never played. I just started it this evening, and it looks like it might be fun and challenging. (There are ABSOLUTELY NO STUPID HIDDEN OBJECT SCREENS in the game!) I haven't gotten very far into the game yet, but so far, so good. One thing I have noticed, is that after you have visited a "hot spot" that seemed meaningless the first time, once you've advanced a little, going back the the same "hot spot" might be of importance.

........

Here is a link to a short video of the game's beginning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX3lqOBQc0I\

Anyone ever play this game?

p.s. I think you can pick this game up for less the $4.00 on the Internet.

(Belated edit: I've gotten farther into "NiBiRu". Actually, I have made it into the mine. This is definitely a game where you have to go back and forth between things and people that did nothing the first time you clicked on them, or talked to them, but will do or say things that are of importance, after you have discovered something else. I will give you this game spoiler, because I think the picture of the upside down cat on the desk is a terrible clue to getting the password for the second computer you encounter. The password to the second computer is the password to the first computer you got into spelled backwards. One thing that annoys me about this game is that you cannot get your character to run anywhere, by double clicking. He walks everywhere you want him to go.

I know that there must be dozens of you computer gamers following this post. Don't worry I'll keep you updated as I get farther into the game, and discover more. )

Here are two more videos of game play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WifmmJYgU_4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arDVb87Z4J0

(Another belated edit: For any of you who might play this game someday, be advised that many of the "hot spots" are very small and easily missed. Another tricky thing this game throws at you is that after you think you have done an exhaustive search of an area, and that there is nothing left there to do or find, you may be wrong. After you have accomplished something new in the game, new "hot spots" can appear in areas you thought you were finished with. I should also add that there will be things in your inventory that need to be combined, but the game will not allow you to combine them, until you are at the right place at the right time. )

Here's another video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwEoa_jtTzA

("Mayday...! Mayday...! Any aircraft this frequency... Over..." I was cruising through the game, and thought I was about to finish it, when for the first time the game threw a real puzzle at me. For the life of me, I am stumped. At first it seemed pretty simple, but it ain't. I did the cowardly thing and consulted a walkthrough for the puzzle. It only told me things I had alread figured out, and said something like, "Good Luck." "Good Luck"...? Hell, I need a cheat, that tells me step-by-step what to do. Worse yet, this is an older game, that doesn't offer you the "skip" option, when you get stuck on a puzzle. I almost never give up, and will continue to bang my head against the wall on this puzzle, until I finally figure out the trick. When I do, I will post a step-by-step solution to it. Here is a picture of the final solution to this freaking, God damn puzzle:)



(Good luck getting all of the red balls on top, all of the green balls on the right, all of the yellow balls on the left, anf all of the white balls on the bottom. They don't start out that way.)

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"The game is afoot."

"F.A.C.E.S." (2011) is a very good "Big Fish" game. It doesn't have too many dumb hidden object screens. The game is mostly puzzle and problem solving. It is a tough game, and will have you running all over the place, not only to find things, but trying to figure out where to use them and how. I will admit to hitting "skip" on a puzzle or two, because I can't stand those puzzles, where clicking on a ring moves two rings instead of just the one you clicked on, while you're trying to get things lined up. I haven't finished it yet, but at this point I think I'm safe in giving it a high recommendation, if you like this type of game.

...................

Here's some video from the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OayZlBfqnsc

(Belated edit: I finished the game earlier today. It was fun, fair, and challenging to the very end. If you have the Collector's version of the game, once you have completed "F.A.C.E.S", the menu will offer you a bonus game to play, which is pretty good too. It is a continuation of the game. Yep, I finished the bonus game today also.)

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"The game is afoot."

I popped into AGD Interactive's site to see if they've any more King's Quest games. Not yet, but there was a link to gog.com, which offers about 450 old titles at $10 or less (including all 8 KQ games). The search function didn't find the term "gog", so I'm sure the proprietors will apologize if it's been posted previously to this thread

http://www.gog.com/en/catalogue for an alphabetical list. Note that I haven't yet tried to make a purchase, so I have no feedback to offer

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

PENGWN, what a list...! I scanned it, and found maybe 10 or 15 that I either have sitting on my shelf, or have played in years gone by.

If you buy something there, let us know how it works out.

Keep up the good research work.

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"The game is afoot."

I picked up four new "Big Fish" games today. They are:

"Hallowed Legends: Samhain"
"Hallowed Legends: Templar"
"Surface: Mystery of Another World"
"Witches' Legacy: The Charleston Curse"

So far I have only installed them on my computer, and have yet to play them, but when I do I'll comment on them.

(Both of the "Hallowed Legends" games came together on a single CD for just $9.99. The other two were Collector's Editions, and though they cost more, I think they are worth it for all of the extras in game play they provide, and the other bonus stuff they have.)

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"The game is afoot."

I finished "Witches' Legacy: The Charleston Curse" (2012) today. It is a very good game for those, who like puzzle and problem solving. There are some hidden object scenes, but they are interspersed far enough apart that they never become an annoyance. I skipped a few of the puzzles, but most of them are doable, with a little patience. I highly recommend "Witches' Legacy: The Charleston Curse" for those, who like this type of game.

.......... ..........

Here's some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoziyLxy3fc

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"The game is afoot."

I finished "Surface: Mystery of Another World" (2012) today. It is a very good game for those, who like problem and puzzle solving games. I had to skip a few of the puzzles, because they were too hard, but I solved most of them. Problem solving in this game is a challenge. To solve problems, you will wind up backtracking to find things you might have missed, and when you have your inventory full, you will need to try all sorts of things to find the right thing to use to move on. Some of the things that solve problems are quite a surprise, when they work. The game has dozens of rooms and places, and trying to figure out where to go to go back to find or use things will keep you very busy, as you find yourself lost and can't remember where you saw something twenty minutes ago.

The hidden object scenes are few and far between, but they throw a new twist into hidden object scenes. Everything you need to find is not always there, and you have to use something from your inventory with something in the hidden object scene to create it. If you don't have it in your inventory, you have to go hunt for it back through dozens of places you have already been, or worse yet places you haven't gotten to yet.

It's a tough, challenging, and fun game, and I highly recommend it for those of you, who like to use your brains to figure stuff out.

.......... ......... ..........

Here's some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKmv27JnMas

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"The game is afoot."

I finished "Hallowed Legends: Templar" (2006 ?) today. It was extremely tough, and I am ashamed to confess that I skipped a bunch of the puzzles, and cheated by hitting the "Hint Button" more times than I care to admit. However, I finished it, and can say that this is a great game for pros, who have played this type of game before. It is extremely challenging, and will have you running all over the place to find things you need, or places to go to find where to use them. Once again the dumb hidden object scenes are few and far between, and they often require you to use something from your inventory to complete them. Sometimes you will not already have the thing in inventory, but you have no way of knowing this until you have racked your brains trying everything you can think of, and finally realize that you have to exit the scene, and go hunting for something that you don't have. Some of the things you need to do are logical, and sometimes they aren't, so I resorted to trying everything I had in my inventory or every hot spot I incountered. If you try to finish this game without skipping any of the puzzles, or using the hint button, it is more than likely that you have a month of racking your brains ahead of you, before you complete it.

.....

Here's some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bB2BCS597o

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"The game is afoot."

"The Dracula Files" (2010) sounded like it would be an exciting game to me. I've had it for a couple of years, but had not played it until yesterday. What a disappointment, it was nothing but wall-to-wall hidden object scenes, with a few puzzles between levels. There was virtually no problem solving. It repeatedly punishes you with lousy, static cartoon scenes, with needless dialog, that try to create a story, in a humble attempt to make this miserable game seem interesting. However, it just drags the boring torture out.

I am ashamed to admit that I played the game to the end. DO NOT EVER BUY THIS GAME, OR BOTHER TO PLAY IT, EVEN IF YOU GET IT FOR FREE. IT TOTALLY SUCKS!

p.s. I'm not going to bother to paste any screen shots or video this game. Watching test patterns would be more interesting.

p.p.s. I should say that the game did have two puzzles, which were pretty good. They both involved a small chessboard game with six knights (3 black and 3 white) that you had to maneuver to opposite ends of the board. They were the only good things about the game.

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"The game is afoot."

So you're saying . . . The Dracula Files bites?

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

PENGWN, what would I do without you...?

My hat is off to you for your wonderfully funny reply. For a while I thought I was adrift alone on this thread, since BrandyB disappeared. I greatly appreciate and enjoy your humorous words of wit.

Yeah, this game not only bites, it is bloody awful. Take a stake through the heart, before playing this batty game.

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"The game is afoot."

..........

I finished "Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life" (2009) today. (Originally it was a "City Interactive" game, but it has been gobbled up by "Big Fish" games.) It is a very long game, with NO STUPID HIDDEN OBJECT SCENES. It is entirely a puzzle and problem solving adventure. The early going ain't easy, but the challenges are fair, and most of you will be able to get to Cairo on your own with logic, out-of-the-box guessing, and stick-to-itiveness. (There is one exception to this in Venice, where you need to give a couple in the square an autographed book. The problem is that you cannot just take your pen in inventory and autograph the book. You can only sign the book at one spot near the entrance to the building. Even then, you have to figure out to right click the book out of inventory and open it to be able to autograph it.)

When you get to Cairo, it starts to get a little tougher. There is a water flow puzzle in the market square, with a gazillion valves, that finally forced me to go to a walkthrough, and I would suggest that you do the same thing, unless you are in Folsom Prison, doing twenty years, and have nothing else to do.

Bimini Island isn't too bad, but there are two things I will help you with. Every scene in the game gives you a "?" button, that shows you where all of the hot spots are that you need to check out. However, I think there is a glitch here, where you need to find an obscure cable lying on top of a box to get the electricity turned on for the blimp hanger, that doesn't show up as a hot spot. Also, after the Count tells you the combination to the safe back on the yacht, you have to enter April as "04" instead of just "4".

Entering the correct course into the blimp's computer is virtually impossible. Even using the walkthrouh, it still took me about 20 minutes to get it right. I strongly advise that you be a coward, cheat, and not try to figure this puzzle out on your own, unless you are in Folsom Prison, doing twenty years, and have nothing else to do. (Did I alread say something like this before?)

When you arrive at the final level on the mysterious island, where the Tree of Life is, you will run into two EXTREMELY difficult puzzles. They are getting the windmill running, and figuring out how to process the fruit in the ancient altar-like thing. The walkthrough gave me some idea how to start the the windmill, but I finished the puzzle by guessing. The altar-like fruit processing puzzle is worse. When I finally got to the last step of aligning the three rings, the simple walkthrough solution for the puzzle wouldn't work for me, so I resorted to a tedious and time consuming approach of trial and error that eliminated all of the wrong combinations, until I finally found the correct one. I won't give you the details, but once you figure out that each ring has only eight repeating pictures of symbols, you should be able to come up with a way to solve the puzzle.

Here is some video of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNNDvf8FvvM


THIS IS AN EXTREMELY GOOD GAME! I GIVE IT MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION FOR THOSE, WHO LIKE TO TEST THEIR ABILITY TO LOGICALLY FIGURE THEIR WAY THROUGH DIFFICULT PUZZLE AND PROBLEM SOLVING CHALLENGES!

A few more comments on the game:

1- You must have the CD in the drive for the game to run.

2- You must save your progress manually. There is no automatic save, when you exit the game.

3- There is no "hint" button, other than the "?" button, which shows you hot spots.

4- There is no way of bypassing puzzles you are stuck on. There is no "skip" button.

5- Most of the dialog has little to do with playing the game other than making the story more interesting. You can reduce the time it takes to listen to the dialog, by left clicking on each line as soon as it pops up. However, you need to be a little careful about doing this, because at least once in the game there is a vital clue in what the Count has to say, (There may be more, but I'm not sure.) and there is no going back to hear it again, once you have left clicked it to oblivion.

6- To make Sylvie run instead of slowly walking to a destination, double left click on where you are sending her.

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"The game is afoot."

"Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale" (2011)

I wasted my time today finishing this stupid game. It is nothing but dumb hidden object scenes, with a few dumb puzzles thrown in. The game takes a long time to finish, because it has so many rooms to search through. I cannot recommend "Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale" to any true gamers.

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"The game is afoot."

"Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allen Poe Conspiracy" (2009) is nothing but a hidden object game, with a few doable puzzles thrown in every once in a while. Even if you can't figure the puzzles out, you can solve them all through trial and error. The hidden object scenes are pretty easy, but they give you a final list of one or two things to find that cannot be found without using things from your inventory. Moving your cursor across the screen until a hot spot shows up, will tell you where they are. Sometimes you have to use more than one thing from your inventory in combination to find the last few things.

This might be a good game for kids just starting out on this type of game.

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"The game is afoot."

I have a question or two or so for the people who follow this thread

I have two kids, one boy and one girl, and a niece, all three who are in the age range of 10-13. They are very good at figuring out XBox and PS3 games, and play a lot of iPod games. The ipod games seem to be short-time-span. My son likes shooting games, war related, or easy adventure. The girls are...well....girls....not as much on the xbox, and I think they are more into young lady things.

Are there any PC games that could be recommended for age range 10-13? Perhaps games that might help with social studies, history or georgraphy? Problem solving games are okay, but not sure if kids these days want those. I think they like action games, continuous action, live movement vs stop-and-think. Would like to have them play games and learn at the same time.

Suggestions?

"Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" (1985) comes to mind. (Don't let the 1985 release date scare you off. It has been re-released in a format that will run on today's computers.)

Check out what Wikipedia has to say about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_in_t ... andiego%3F

There are several more versions of this game on different topics, such as "Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?".

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"The game is afoot."

I've seen the carmen sandiego games before, and I think they might be a bit young for my step son. Not necessarily too young for a 12 year old, but these days kids go for more games that are more advanced than what came out in 1985. I'm kinda curious about a civil war related game that you described to me, and if you find it in your archives, I'd like to give it a try