What happened to Avalon is not pretty. The wicked sorceress Morganna zapped all the gorgeous landscape of its beauty, serenity, and cast dark spells over the countryside. After defeating her in a battle to the end, Evelyne the protector of Avalon must now cleanse the realm to bring it back to its once glorious past. Where is Merlin when you have work to do and need him?

The game is to match tetris-like pieces to the runes on the board to match 3 or more of the same color runes in a row either vertically or horizontally. Use the right mouse button or the space bar to turn or rotate the grouped rune tiles. In order to get a spell, you need to line up 4 or more runes. The spells will help you clear the board. The level is complete when you fill the different color rune vials listed at the top left. At the center of this you will see the next set of runes coming up. This will help you think ahead so you can align the runes properly and efficiently. Below this on the left side you will find the timer and the spells you can use on the board. In each level the game board has a different configuration with different colored runes and patterns.

There are 3 modes of play from Quest, Quick Play and Time Attack. You choose the one you want to play according to your mood at the time. If you do not complete a level in time in the Quest mode, you can either skip it or retry it. This mode is very relaxing, but the Time Attack is not as forgiving. The music is soothing and Evelyne with her encouraging comments is calm, but can get a little annoying over and over. At times the cursor got stuck, but mostly it moved smoothly on the board.

This match 3 is a twist to the regular games and it will be slowly addictive as you play. The artwork is great and the music may be too effectively relaxing, but you can turn it off. Enjoy the 100 fun levels with 6 amazing power-ups in a fantastic fantasy setting. Help poor Evelyne clean up the mess in Runes of Avalon 2.

Features of Runes of Avalon 2:
-Tetris like Pieces
-Relaxing Match Play
-Fantastic Artwork

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Looking for an exciting adventure in the medieval woods of fantasyland? Try playing Eschalon Book 1, an old time RPG, epic Mac game in the style of Wizardry, Ultima and Might & Magic. This game will draw you into their incredible world of monsters, mysteries and action.

The game begins with you awakening in a destroyed home somewhere in the woods. You have no memory of who you are, where you are , what is happening, and what happened to you to be in this state of confusion. In fact, you don’t even know there’s a current war going on all around you so you start looking around and walking to find and click on objects and notes to discover what happened.

Notes found from an unknown benefactor reveals that your situation is not accidental and you may have caused it on yourself? But, why? Your quest for answers will take you across many lands, down dark dungeons, up against enemies and combating missions assigned to you from various people or from  notes from your benefactor; some of which will take you away from your main quest and branch out into sub quests.

To play this game you click on items such as barrels, buckets, chests, wells to collect your inventory of  torches, ropes, potions, weapons, shields, and special rings. You also need to acquire points to get experience so you can level up to be a stronger person. Of course, there is the ever important red health potion you drink to regain your strength. To fight monsters and evil things you must continuously click to beat them off. Some of you may not like this form of fighting but get used to it because there are a lot of enemies and monsters to conquer.

You will need strategy, skill, magic and the right weapon to win in this game. So customizing the right character and skills are important. There are many options to choose from and it can get very confusing at the beginning.  Keep at it and you will figure everything out.  Your decisions will differ your play each time so you can get a lot of use out of this one game.

My main complaint about Eschalon book 1 is there are no female characters to choose from the list of male warriors. In addition, setting up the game and following the story line is somewhat confusing but by starting the play, you get the main gist and feel of the game. Otherwise, the game is your typical RPG story set in medieval times, finding needed items, and traveling through many different lands fighting dozens of monsters and enemies.

Anyone who is into RPG will enjoy the many hours it takes to play this fun game. You can’t go wrong with it so try playing Eschalon Book 1 and search for answers while experiencing action and adventure when you have a few hours to kill.

Features of Eschalon 1:
-Hours of game play
-Dozens of monsters
-Main and sub quests
-Hundreds of items

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars