Cradle of Persia Review

Adventure, Match | Posted by Meg
Aug 18 2010

Cradle of Persia 8

Cradle of Persia a match 3 objects to destroy Mac game is different with building of Persia, one building at a time. You could say it is a little like a sim play with you making matches to build housing, getting supplies and feeding your villagers. Like Cradle of Rome that Cradle of Persia 10preceded Persia, both are entertaining and fun to play.

When you make enough match 3s of like items, you will have enough money to buy your first building. Once you start your villages, the people will begin to come and it is up to you to make food matches to feed your clan. Unlike Cradle of Rome you make matches by Cradle of Persia 9chaining like objects together instead of swapping. The object of this play is to break all the marble tiles by making matches over them. Like other match games you have chained blocks you must also make matches over in order to break the links.

Cradle of Persia is not original or different from other plays, but is a good Mac match 3 game. I can play these games for hours. They are that addictive, and the building of your empire is entertaining and fun to see expand and grow. The match game is relaxing even though Cradle of Persia 2there is a water jug measuring your time. The artwork is good and music appropriate for the scenes. I like playing this game for what is is – a match 3 play for casual players and children.

Features of Cradle of Persia:
-7 Historic Epochs
-100 Levels
8 Special Bonuses
-Masterpieces of Ancient Persia

Rating: ★★★½☆

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Plan It Green Review

Sim | Posted by musicaltrack
Aug 17 2010

planitgreen

Plan It Green, what a clever and current name, I initially thought. Then my second thought about this game was of some boring environmental game that would no doubt put me to sleep immediately and lecture about how wasteful I am. However, I was completely wrong! Plan It Green, besides the double entendre, is a fun and inventive game that actually makes taking out the recycling fun. Moreover, the game is generally focused on making the town of Greenville more “green” but it feels more like a game of SimCity than in your eye environmental improvement exercise.  Can you see Al Gore on stage lecturing about buying energy units?

The game has two game options: Campaign mode and Free Play mode. Campaign mode is the main story and as you finish saving districts in Greenville as the new mayor, you unlock the districts to play in Free Play. In Free Play you do not have the goals to meet like in Campaign mode. The game begins in a semi-tutorial and helps you along the way as you proceed. There is a task bar for each level and when you perform all the tasks listed, you move on in the latter mode. These tasks vary from upgrading houses to make them Plan It Green 1more eco-friendly to building parks and recreation for citizens. There are different areas in which you can work as well, like the town center (where you focus on businesses) and the industrial sector (where factories and clean energy are the priorities). Some of the ecologically correct upgrades are solar panels, water reclamation system, recycling bins and eco gardens.

As I said before, this game really reminds me of a SimCity game that has gone green. What is most important is to finish all your goals in the allotted number of days. Personally, I felt like the time limit the game presented was a little too pressing, but it did help the game continue on a good pace. The fact that there were sometimes vague goals (like raise green awareness to 20%). It was a good
game with a definite agenda at forcing children to relate to a green community. Overall I would give Plan It Green four out of five stars.

Features of Plan It Green:
- Improve 8 Neighborhoods over 45 Levels
- Pick the latest eco-upgrades
- Create a Green City

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle, Seek and Find | Posted by Meg
Aug 16 2010


Cassandra, a psychic, is brought together by fate with Violet who returned her mystical ring. Not only did Violet become a close friend when she found out Cassandra does mystic readings, she asked her to find her missing brother, Michael, for her in Mac hidden object game Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The fifth Son of Nostradamus. Is the title long enough?

The play is to find objects in the scene listed along the bottom of the screen. The blue words require the use of inventory items to complete the task. The objects are easily found in each scene pertaining to the story, but if you need hints, there are plenty to choose from. Each hint will cost you a percentage of the blue liquid in the flask to the right of the screen. Each hint must be unlocked before you can use them, but are very powerful when you have the opportunity to access them. The first and most powerful hint will cost you 90% of the liquid, but will pinpoint the object. The Area Spell will only take 50% and will outline the general area of your object. The Magic Wand uses 80% and will turn the crystal ball into a compass when your cursor is close to the object, the sphere will get brighter. The fourth spell is Photo. It will use 70% and will show you the shape of the object as it is in the scene. Slide Show spell will show you the outline of the object. The crystal ball will also show you the number of tasks completed and the number of task still needed. A word of warning: the hint flask will drain if you click on too many false items.

The HOG is packaged nice and orderly in files. There are tabs with items (shows the objects you need to find), inventory (items found and can be used for tasks) and objectives (goals). The journal at the lower right side will outline Cassandra’s journey in this search.

The varied HOGs are the usual search for many items in a scene. Also incorporated in the same picture will be finding a number of the same items or performing many tasks like cooking soup, making pizza and salad. Another scene is to find pairs of like, but not exactly identical, pieces. You may need to find 2 artworks or cooking instruments. There’s also finding outline objects.

In addition to the well done scenes, there are a lot of mini games and puzzles to do. Upon meeting Nostradamus, he performs a magic act for you. There are solitaire games to reveal magic numbers. The numbers will lead you to different places to search for more objects and clues. In a street scene you click on the transportation and that will take you to a mini puzzle like Traffic Jam to clear cars out of the way so the bright colored car can drive through the mess. In addition there are jigsaw and logic puzzles to do.

Cassandra’s Journey 2 – The Fifth Sun of Nostradamus, like the title, has a lot going for it. There are many levels with interesting scenes with many objects to search for, and it is full of tasks and puzzles. It is put together in somewhat of an orderly fashion and with a mystery to solve. The artwork is beautifully crafted. I don’t remember the music, but it must have been good since it did not deter you from the game. It has everything you would want a HOG to have and more. Try it out for a good, solid HOG.

Features of Cassandr’s Journey 2 – The fifth Sun of Nostradamus:
-Interesting Story Line
-Many Mini Puzzles
-Hours of Play

Rating: ★★★★☆

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Agatha Christie: Peril at End House Review

Hidden Object/I Spy, Puzzle | Posted by Meg
Aug 14 2010

agatha-christie

Download Agatha CristieBuy Agatha Cristie

Agatha Christie, murder mystery novel and movie fans will enjoy this clever hidden object Mac game. This game will get you involved in the detective work by rewarding you with clues when the different levels are solved. There are more puzzles within this hidden object game to help break up the searching for clues/objects.

It is set in St Loo a small village on the coast of Cornwall, England in 1927. Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective, is called to End House to investigate murder attempts on Miss Nick Buckly the owner of the estate. It is your job to find the culprit by finding items on the grounds and in the house in order to stop any deadly deeds.

From the map of the estate of End House showing the landscape and various rooms in the house, you are to go from room to room and areas outside to uncover any and all clues of solving this mystery. Click on the gold colored section to begin your investigation, and it will reveal an area full of objects and clues to find. Poirot will give you a list of items, and you have 25 minutes and only 5 hints to go over the room and discover the objects. Some of the things are not relevant to the crime, but others could be useful for solving the mystery. In this hidden objects game you not only find the item, but sometimes you must move the object around the game board.

After finding all the pieces on the list this investigation is over, and you will be rewarded a clue card. This is a statement from a suspect or colleague who may or may not help you. These cards are stored in the clue room to be read without a time limit later in the game.

Bonus rounds between levels will offer more clues to your investigation. For example, after finding scraps of newspaper in the garden, you must put the torn pieces like a jigsaw puzzle back together so you can read the pertinent article in print in order to receive another clue.

After playing through 13 investigations and uncovering clues, you will come to the end of the game and will review all the clues and testimonies and hopefully be able to reveal “whodunit”.

The hidden object part of the game is relatively easy at first but gets more difficult further into the game. The hints are helpful, but there are only 5 of them per investigation so you have to use them carefully. I wasted 2 hints looking for an item that was off the page and not visible or reachable. I had to shrink the screen in order to see the location of the object. Another thing to watch is clicking on everything to find a hard to see item, because you will be penalized 30 seconds off your time. However, the 25 minute time limit is more than enough to search for most of the things on the list.

I don’t usually play hidden object/I spy games unless there’s another draw attached to it, and this one had the right one for me, Agatha Christie. Anyone who has read her novels or who likes I spy puzzles will really enjoy spending some time working and solving the Peril at End House. Also the music is very good and appropriate to the time period.  So get to detecting and catch the criminal while having fun at the same time.

Features of Agatha Christie: Peril at End House:
-Objects to discover
-Puzzles
-13 Characters
-25 Different Rooms
-Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Novel
Rating: ★★★½☆

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Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey Review

Adventure, Hidden Object/I Spy, Seek and Find, Sim | Posted by Meg
Aug 13 2010


Pearls are a central theme in both Mac match 3 games Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Fate and Journey, and that’s a good thing in my book. I cannot have enough pearls in my jewelry box. In the sequel Ariadne is saved and reunited with Theseus, but alas, life is not so easy for these two lovers of ancient Greek mythology.

Theseus is sent to ward off the Amazon invasion, but gets captured instead. Now Adriadne must venture out and save Theseus. She implores the gods to help her on her journey, and Aphrodite offers to assist her in return for gifts to repair her tattered temple.

In order to get Aphrodite gifts you play a match 3 or more similar objects game. You begin by matching tiles with pearls to release them, and as you travel along the path to get closer to Theseus, you get different types of match plays to earn. At the market place you match purses of gems to be first in line for the goods. The purses do not swap so you have to figure out how to get other items lined up to make the match.

There are many power-ups you get for making combos. The emerald will destroy tiles horizontally and the topaz will do the same diagonally. The onyx will eliminate tiles horizontally and vertically, the quartz will make the same type of item of one kind disappear, the celestial sphere will destroy tiles around the selected tile and the caduceus’ staff will shuffle tiles surrounding a tile. You either make matches or bring items down to the bottom of the screen to collect them. When Ariadne needs to have her fortune read, you must bring down cards. If you see coins appear on the board, you must click on them quickly to collect them. They only appear for a short time. If you see tiles with 2 items, you can match this tile with either of the items.

Aphrodite will also grant Ariadne gifts like the porter who will escort her through shortcuts on her journey for awhile. Along the journey, you will play hidden object games to collect more items. These HOGs are quite simple, but they do break up the match plays. After earning gifts for Aphrodite, you will play a sim type of game by placing these gifts in appropriate locations in and around the temple. Move the piece around the board until you see the outline of it appear and place it at that location.

The main plays are the match 3 games. You can either play the Adventure and follow the story of Ariadne or play Ariadne’s Loom where you bring the ball of yarn down the board to complete the needlepoint picture on the left. The play is similar to the Adventure except you do not follow the story or play the mini games.

Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey is very similar to the first game, but with added games like the HOGs and the sim games. Both of these games are simple and not much of a challenge so if you are looking for a difficult game, this is not the one. However, you can play it timed in order to up the ante a little, but if you want a easy, relaxing fun day, try playing this colorful match game with added side games.

Features of Trial of the Gods – Ariadne’s Journey:
-2 Modes to Play
-Hidden Objects
-Restore Aphrodite’s Temple

Rating: ★★★½☆

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