The town of Aravorn experiences stronger magic under the glow of a full moon and when you see a shooting star, a creature is born. It can be human, elf or demon. Each character will carry its own mysterious attributes. This is the setting for your new adventures in RPG Mac game Spirited Heart.

The play for Spirited Heart starts with you selecting your person for this play. If you choose a human, they are common in Aravorn with strength and toughness but lacking in charisma and dexterity. Sounds like a few humans I know. The elven race is thin and graceful, not suited for manual labor, but excels in concentration and dexterity. The demons are rare creatures with charisma and creativity but are shunned by the others so will try to hide their identity. Each character has their own advantages and disadvantages, and their destiny is different from each other. This game has a long playability factor due to the many choices. The decisions you choose will also determine the end result or fate of each girl. I chose the demon girl whose farmer parents found her under a tree and decided to raise her as their own. She spends her days with animals and nature, and her parents are worried about her personal growth and sends her to the next town, Triberg to find her own path. She is a strong person with faith, cooking and gardening skills.

You begin your tasks with a value of 5 in your skills, and it will change depending on the choices you make. Your attributes will be modified each week with the type of jobs you choose. Each month the rarely used attributes will decrease so be careful. If you pay someone to teach you a skill, the faster your attribute will increase. However, the cost will be higher, the higher the skill. From time to time you will have special events that can dramatically change your stats. Both your morale and health are very important for your well being. Taking breaks from work will help you in these 2 factors.

You must watch your budget for the money is needed for skills, and in addition, the triannual tribute to the king will tax your earnings. It can be as high as 44%! You must be in Europe because as high as taxes are here in the U.S., it’s not that high. You will have random encounters with men who may one day become your husband.

Spirited Heart is an engaging Mac game, and you get into the well-written storyline with its many options to vary your play. The game is similar to Cute Knight, but I think the anime-like graphics are much better in Spirited Heart. Also the game doesn’t abruptly end your play as it does in Cute Knight. However, the game comes to an end when you get married or 10 years passes. You will be 28. So under the full moonlight create some magic in the land of Aravorn.

Features of Spirited Heart:
-Many Storylines
-Choose Your Destiny
-Attributes and Skills

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Three Musketeers is a classic novel and now a RPG Mac game. The play starts with d’ Artagnan leaving home to pursue a life as a Musketeer. He travels to Paris to begin his training. He has a letter of introduction to Monsieur de Treville but it is taken from him during a scuttle with a rogue.

The game is to follow the yellow footprints for d’ Artagnan’s quests. You can veer off the yellow prints to search barrels and crates for loot and mana for health. The story is moved along in conversations and cartoon strips. You duel with just about everyone who challenges you. The main thing to remember when dueling is to wait to see your opponent sweat and then take them down. D’ Artagnan’s father had told him to never sell the horse he gave him, but to get money and avoid embarrassment (the horse is a different color than most horses) d’Artagnan sells it right away. Other methods of earning money is to take on quests that will pay you and sell your loot to the blacksmith. Some of the loot can be coins, peasant shirts, berets with or without feathers, collars and more. The blacksmith also will repair things, and he can sell you firearms. It’s important to collect the health potions in case you get injured in a fight.

You will eventually come across Athos (aura of mystery), Aramis (true calling is the priesthood), and Pothos (great strength). They will help you along the way. They like to party and play games so be ready for the side games. Tennis anyone? Cards and dice are also favorites of the musketeers. You will meet the evil cardinal and you will pursue the man in the purple outfit who stole your letter.

Your quests will take you all over France and England and back again helping good people and fighting the bad. You will encounter civilians and soldiers.

This RPG play follows the novel in a close adaptation. The artwork is simple and flat but works for this type of play. The game is easy enough for new and casual players without being frustrating like some other more difficult and violent RPGs. I never advocate not reading a book, but this game makes it very tempting not to read the original novel. Find out what happens to d’ Artagnan and his fellow musketeers. All for one and one for all.

Features of Three Musketeers:
-17th Century France and England
-Thwart Cardinal Richelieu
-Defend Queen Anne

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Travel back, back, back in time to the ancient times of the silk road. Set somewhere around the 13th century, Tradewinds Caravans is an exciting look at how traders made their living traversing the dangerous Silk Road. In order to bring the best and most exotic items from the Far East, travelers had to cross this ancient road, the only known way to China and beyond. Discover some of the items that made this a desirable profession despite the known risks which include brutal hikes and rampant thieves.

The game starts off with a quick tutorial that gets you prepared for choosing your own path. After completing the easy tasks, you can then choose one of six unique characters (you must unlock 2 of these through gameplay) and begin the task of becoming rich and famous. I chose a slave who worked for an important Venetian family. My job was to care for my master and help him help his warlord friend gain the political presence that would make his village a prominent stop along the road. This description is hardly enough to explain all there is to Tradewinds Caravans, though, as the game is really centered along the dialogue that the characters engage in. After discovering what tasks you must undertake, you buy supplies and guards to join your caravan. You can then travel to different parts of the Middle and Far East buying and selling to earn a profit.

I thought the idea of this game was really novel. The idea of taking this historical time period and making it an interesting and humorous RPG was something that I had never even thought of. The best part of the game, besides the funny dialogue, was the bartering and battling that took place in the marketplace and the road, respectively. The game also has a huge amount of villages and storylines, so replayability is basically limitless. I would give this game three and a half stars out of five.

Features of Tradewinds Caravans:
- Build a Powerful Trading Caravan
- 6 Unique Characters
- Dozens of Individual Storylines
- All new Weapons And Character-Specific Powers

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Westward III: Gold Rush is a Mac sim game with a little RPG built into the play. Like its predecessor Westward II, this new game is also grand in scale and play. Most sim play will limit your environment to a certain area, but Westward III follows the story line and moves the main character from one scene to another in order to progress logically in the game.

After you choose your hero character from 3 available people (Polly Hatchet unlocks the ranch, General Amos Cutter unlocks the gun shop and Shawnee Longfeather the tannery), the action panel so vital to sim plays will open up giving you details of your person, your goals and different tools needed to complete your jobs. The map on the lower right will quickly locate where you are, and if you click on the picture of your hero will take you directly to that spot. You can also zoom in and out depending on what you are doing.

You begin your play by dragging your hero to where you want your person to work or talk to another character. If you need wood for building, you drag your person to the log, the cursor will show an axe, and your person will go to that spot and start chopping wood. She/he will continue with the same activity until you move them to another location. If someone needs to speak to you, there will appear a question mark above his/her head. You will drag your hero to that person to find out what they want. The beginning of your game starts off in a limited area marked off on the map, and you help ranchers rebuild their land by building the barn, growing plants, and putting up tents. In order to do these quests you must have adequate supplies, food, water and gold. You get gold by either finding it in the massive landscape or by doing people favors and they will pay you.

After you have helped the ranchers all you could, you move on to another environment. It will bring you and one of the ranchers’ son to a snow scene where you may encounter rough people and ferocious wolves. In order to shoot an animal in defense or for food, you must drag your hero toward the animal and the cursor will change to a gun. This will begin the hero in a shooting mode. Much like a rpg game, you must look for things along the way. Also if your hero is hurt, you may have to wait a while until he/she recovers. There are many upgrades that will unlock as you go along and will help you develop your countryside.

The only problem I found was that at times it was hard to find exactly the right place to get your hero moving and doing the quests needed. Also it was difficult occasionally to move your people around to do the chores or jobs like setting up the tents, but it is not as hard as some sim/rpg plays so newbies can master the game with practice.

Westward III: Gold Rush is an awesome game full of action and adventures. It has different scenes to keep you interested, many activities to interact with, and you meet a lot of colorful characters like the gunslinger and the crotchety miner. I like the play better than the sim plays where they make you change diapers over and over or deal with impatient customers. This game did not have the big hoopla movie music introduction like Westward II, but it still is a good sim/rpg play for casual and diehard gamers of any age, and it will not disappoint. It keeps you moseying along the great landscapes finding gold and helping people in need. Have an exciting time playing Westward III: Gold Rush.

Features of Westward III: Gold Rush:
-New Environments
-Upgrades
-Enemies
-Unlock Secret Hidden Items

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Mac Global Warning is a different type of game. It’s difficult to identify what kind of genre it is. It’s easier saying what it is not rather than what it is. It is not a HOG or match play, and it is definitely not an action game. It is an original environmental rpg/sim/card game for anyone who is involved in saving the planet from, well, yourself. In order to avoid a landfill from being developed next to your home, you make choices in your life to help improve your outcome. I guess it is a realistic game of life for the environmentally conscious and those who want to learn more about being green.

It seems that picking your hero is an important and possibly critical choice to win this game. So I looked at the choices carefully. There’s Jerry the travel agent. He’s not in a very green business. The scientist is fresh out of college…..think toxic frat house. The kindergarten teacher is too frazzled to be conscious at the end of the day to think about cleaning up the earth. So I chose the museum curator the oldest and hopefully the wisest character and may know a thing or two about being environmentally sound. As in most rpgs you’ll find the details of each person: knowledge, compassion, naivete, charisma, health, finances, morale. You need to keep an eye on the upper left corner to make sure morale, health and finances do not fall. In addition, the environmental impact is listed on the upper right of the screen for waste, chemical, energy, co2, self-sufficiency, water and overall.

Each round is a week in the life of your hero. You choose the actions of your person from the work space, and with increased experience you will get to choose more cards. The outcome of your actions will be displayed on the left of the game board. Also helpful green tips are given at the middle top of the screen to live a better life. There are 104 rounds to complete your game. Each week will bring about new data about how your hero is doing. Press the arrow next round button to continue your play. There are encouraging comments about the choices you make and not so happy words for your mistakes.

The play gets engaging as you go from round to round or week to week because you get concerned about the choices you made the week before and how it will affect you. There’s a lot to read but most of it is information you can use to live a healthy and good life. The game itself is challenging and difficult to beat. I guess I had a lot to learn so I tried the game with another hero. The demo will let you try each hero for 20 rounds. The more I played, the more I liked it so give it a try and make an important impact on this green planet of ours. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 for a totally awesome and original game.

Features of Global Warning:
-104 Rounds
-Environmental Data
-Get Rid of the Toxic Dumpsite.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Tetala Island is where Chief Aruku reigns over her Hawk tribe. For many years there have been struggles and challenges for her people. Aruku wants to better the conditions for her village. The ancients have all known about the Tear of Heaven that can grant unimaginable wisdom and enlightenment to whoever possess this talisman. With this magical power, Aruku can improve the outcome of her tribe but in order to do so she must search every island in the vicinity and complete missions to find it.

To begin your play use the tutorial which will guide you through some of the aspects of this sim/rpg/hidden object/strategy game. It’s hard to say what it is with so many options available. The important thing to remember is to read all the stone guides since these are your hints in the game. If you do not read one, it will be highlighted in yellow. Another big item in your search is the tower. Build them to defend your troops and to see further. The buildings are important to put up by clicking on the hammer at the lower right hand side to get different types of people needed in your quest. There are hidden objects and gems to find everywhere you go. You may need to revisit an island for things you may have passed by or were not available at the time. There are tasks you must perform like finding boulders and using them to make a bridge, and quests to conquer for different people you meet along the way.

Guro of Wolverine is one of them, and he resides on Mushroom Island. On this island are mushroom-like enemies you must fight off to complete a task. You will find many hostile enemies on different islands. The crossed swords at the bottom of the screen will activate your troops into fighting. The magnifying glass will help you find some hidden objects. Also sometimes these items will pulsate to help you locate them. Another huge help is the mini map. You can get to a site on the island quickly by clicking on the spot you would like to travel to. In addition, the bad guys are in red so you can spot them easily. The difficult part comes in when you cannot see parts of the screen because of a black fog. These areas open up as you go along collecting needed items and accomplishing certain tasks.

Totem Tribe Gold with its interesting graphics will draw you into its story while playing the game. The more you play it, the more you get involved in figuring out the quests and puzzles in order to help Aruku and the Hawk people. Instead of keeping your villagers healthy like in other games, you have a goal and objective to reach through the many tasks and puzzles that are waiting for you on each island. So heed Guru’s words and find your sacred totems to complete just one of your many quests.

Features of Totem Tribe Gold:
-32 Locations
-Over 200 Missions and Puzzles
-Hidden Objects

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

What an appropriate name for a Mac sim, rpg, shooting game: Gunrox! This game is a free online turn based strategy game where you have a team of 3 soldiers against other opponents around the world. All you need to do is sign in as an user and you will be able to download easily onto your computer. Since the artwork is simple the loading is fast.

There are a lot of laws governing this play, but I’m sure most of the people did not read them. The laws are just your usual be a decent player or else get kicked off type of thing. The other long list of items is the weapons. This is where you might spend some money because they charge for the guns, bombs, rockets, traps, grenades and more. Each weapon or perk, as they refer to them, is rated as Action Points (AP) and will give data like damage, fire ranges in order for you to make up your mind to buy. There are over 30 different perks to use for different types of attacks. They get very creative with their guns: sawed off shotgun, sniper rifles, launchers. Some of the weapons will allow you to hit multiple units with an arc of fire. A tank would be helpful but I don’t think it’s available.

You take your troop of ragamuffins and make them into fierce fighting machines with an assortment of weapons to battle your enemies. There are many locales to explore from junkyards, city streets, snow covered places and tropical sites.

Your tactical skills will be challenged when you have to anticipate your enemies' every move and maneuver your troops to best beat the opposition. After each fight you get experience points that will move your soldiers to the next level. The more skills and perks you acquire will help you along in this game. The play is exciting because you do not know where your next attack will take place. The battles are fast and furious so you do not need a lot of time to block out. Whatever you do, do not quit out of the game when it is stressful or you will be branded as a quitter. Stick it out. All that can happen is you will be killed and float up to the heavens as an angel.

Well, that may not be all what happens because there are a lot of people on this game, and not all of them will be kind to you. They may be outright rude to newbies and the inexperienced if you try to join in on their game. If you fall in that category, try the game with a group of your friends to back you up. Create your own game with your buddies and have fun playing in this colorful environment. If you are good at this type of game, battle your way to the top and have an awesome time. Enkord has developed an all around action game with tournaments and artifact markets to enhance your play. Gunrox is a fun, fast and enjoyable play, and you will not need to have lots of time because the battles are full of action and are quick. Just choose your arms wisely, and you can keep the costs down, or if you have deep pockets, knock yourself out. Gunrox rocks! I give it a 3.5 for a good time.

Features of Gunrox:
-Over 30 Different Weapons
-Play Against People Around the World
-Free Game Download

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Mythical creatures and mysterious spirits have been around since the beginning of time and in every culture. There’s always a rumor of or belief in the unknown. Cave Quest will take you through a perilous search through snow covered mountains and caves in search of this unresolved tale of powerful beings known to reside in areas difficult to reach.

Cave Quest is a match 3 game with a role playing feel to it with many quests you must complete, hidden objects to find and mini puzzles to solve in a story about the unknown things. Isabella cannot contact her family and finds that her brother, Gabriel, went to the mountains looking for the fabled spirits and a castle buried deep within the ground. When he didn’t return, their parents both went looking for Gabriel. Now Isabella and her friend are in search for the trio high in the cold mountain caves above the village. The locals are not willing to help; perhaps they are all too aware of the dangers.

In the match 3 play you are Isabella and her companion moving toward your goal on the game board. You will see the tops of their heads moving as you clear matches of 3 or more of identical items in their way. Along the way you will pick up useful items to use for other things or pick up items that the shaman who will help you in exchange like aborigine masks. The ice pick you find will break the frozen path in order for you to continue making matches. Another form of the game is challenging one of the spirits to a matching duel, a staff to chase away the gloom, match coins to use to purchase power ups, or bring items to the bottom of the screen. The match games are varied and enjoyable. They are not difficult and you can quickly move on to other things.

The hidden object games are much faster and just as easy, but it will break up your main match 3 games. There is a hint button if you need help finding an object. In between the games you will encounter people and talk to them like in a rpg. The map will help guide you through places where you need to complete puzzles.

The artwork is a little more stylistic than a cute cartoon. It is good, and although most of the background is snowy white, it has intense colors that make the game fun to look at and play. The storyline is not deep or involved but keeps you moving along in the game in an interesting manner. With all the variations of the puzzles, although all very familiar, the entire game comes together nicely and makes for a great time.

Features of Cave Quest:
-Unusual Story
-Variety of Match 3, Hidden Object and Puzzles
-Spirits and Shamans

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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 more 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: 4 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

Catwalk Countdown is an unusual sim/rpg type of fashion game. It’s a little like visual novels with tasks to complete like Date Warp and Love and Order, but with a fashion twist instead of dating. However like those sim games you must balance your social life with your professional career.

You are working for Simone a person you cannot seem to please. She finds fault in everything you say or do, so why stick around being verbally abused? You quit and now must find another job you are going to love, but in the meantime you go to work for your uncle’s fabric shop.

The different locations you travel around New York City will bring you to making decisions that will determine your fate in this unusual game. You must balance your attributes such as Inspiration, Well-being, Collection and Reputation if you want to reach the top of the fashion industry so your choices will make a difference. This must all be done while working at the fabric store, completing your fashion collection (sketch, sew and pin your designs to show), schmoozing financial backers and industry bigwigs, handling any time based tasks requested of you and keeping your health by eating, drinking, sleeping and just having fun.

Any time there is a question mark over a character, they want to speak to you and many times you must choose your responses. You also decide where you go and what activity you choose but just remember you can’t keep going 24 hours a day and must eat and sleep or you’ll fall on your face. In addition you must make money to pay for rent, food and other activities so you must return to your uncle's fabric store to work and get paid for your tasks.

The more I got into this game, the more I wanted to figure out what to do with my day’s activities, and eventually make it to New York’s Fashion Week to show off my fantastic collection of clothes. Figure out the right path to take for a successful life, both personally and professionally. The characters are good, the artwork nice, and the game play although different from your usual sim game is fun and addictive. Try out the demo and see if you can make it to Fashion Week in this different and interesting game.

Features of Catwalk Countdown:
-Make Choices to Determine Your Future
-Balance Your Attributes
-Make it to Fashion Week

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Come with Kivi the Lumen on a wild adventure to save his world from foreign and dangerous enemies. Kivi's Underworld is an addicting game about a young warrior trying to save his race of Lumen people from the dreaded dark elves. He needs to leave his underground safe haven to rebuild the lost city of Defiance through dark tunnels and treacherous paths to bring peace and harmony to his people.

The story begins with Kivi, a young Lumen warrior, leading a disastrous and deadly mining expedition, and unfolding uncharted territories to uncover a mythical (or so they thought) race of dark elves. Kivi is the lone survivor who makes it back to his home only to find that no one will believe him about the elves. He is in a fight of his life and must do so alone. He needs to recruit Lumens and fight off the elves with limited lives and powers.

Kivi fights many enemies along his journey, including skeletons and zombies with fire mage, disguises and power-ups found along the way. Fighting in the game is very straightforward; you simply click on an enemy to perform a standard attack or right click to perform a special maneuver. To perform special attacks you must have mana which is regenerated as you walk around the game board or picked up from killing enemies. As you walk in the game and break open crates and barrels you will find magic power-ups to help you bash through crowds of enemies or avoid them through secret passageways. The range of extras can go from power strikes to bolts of lightning. There are lots of monsters, deadly traps, secrets to uncover and many different characters to choose from including different races of people with numerous story lines.

This slash and bash mac game is a follow up to Depth of Peril and reminds me of World of Warcraft and Runescape. This game has endless possibilities and hours of fun waiting for casual players with its ease of learning the moves or for the seasoned gamers looking for a high difficulty level to challenge their experience. The only negatives I found was the repetitiousness of the play and the sound and voice qualities. I give this game 4 out of 5 stars for its fast pace, exciting gameplay and interesting story lines.

Features of Kivi Underworld:

-Over 20 characters with different storylines
-Magical power-ups
-Lots of monsters, zombies and skeletons
-Deadly traps
-4 difficulty levels
-Great graphics
-Maps
-Easy to learn

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance” (Jane Austen) appears to be the theme of the visual novel/rpg/sim game Matches and Matrimony: A Pride and Prejudice Tale where the decisions you make will consequently reveal an ending. This dating game is based on 3 of Jane Austen’s classic books: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. This conglomerating of separate novels works seamlessly into a romantic game where you are in control of the endings and plays even in this time and age.

As in any novel it is separated into chapters. At the beginning of each chapter you as the second daughter (Elizabeth) of Mr. Bennet can change her name to whatever you like. You and your sisters are at the age of marrying and your mother is desperate for suitable suitors. You begin your week by selecting activities to pursue each day from Monday to Friday. Each activity will then either increase your attributes such as willpower, wit, talent, kindness, propriety, sensibility and energy or decrease them. If you choose to paint one day, your talent and sensibility will increase but your energy will decrease. In order to control which gentleman you end up with, you must develop the right character. Making sure your energy is sufficient is important for special weekend activities at the end of each chapter like a ball, dinner party or parlor discussion so be sure to factor in some rest every 4 to 5 days.

Be sure you save the game as you go along because it will come in handy if you should change your mind about a decision you made prior and wish to go back. The game will save after each chapter in case you forget to do so. This game also makes it easy for you to skip through parts of the novel you already have read.

Some of the eligible bachelors in this game are Mr. Bingley (your older sister likes him), Colonel Brandon (15 years older), and Mr. Darcy (dark and aloof but in the book he’s the one Elizabeth marries). Each character has different attributes you need to develop for a happy ending with him. If you know the novels, it may be easier to find the ending you want. There are 6 suitors to choose from and 9 different endings. You can go back and play all 9 endings for a long game.

The scenic backgrounds are static and the characters all well done and stylistic. When a person is speaking, they will be on the screen with one expression until the next scene. Somehow the muted colors represent an era long past and seems appropriate for the game. The music is repetitive but fits the theme of the story. Overall the game is different and entertaining if you are into dating sim games like Date Warp, Always Remember Me, The Flower Shop and Love and Order. Also if you are a Jane Austen fan, you may enjoy this game since it is based partially on her novels. However the developers of this game did take some liberties and changed a few of the characters so if you are a diehard Jane Austen fan, you may be offended but the game does capture a lot of the author’s charm and wit. The free download will give you ample time to decide whether you are into this type of genre. Find happiness in this game.

Features of Matches and Matrimony: A Pride and Prejudice Tale:
-Game based on Jane Austen’s Novels
-6 Eligible Bachelors
-9 Different Endings

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Styrateg is a science fiction role player game that takes place in an ancient alternate world. In this world there are demons and other subhuman monsters that inhabit the world. It is your job as a knight to help the king vanquish these monsters and try to return the kingdom to its prior state. Choose one of four different starting characters: Beranus the skilled warrior, Clath the elvish huntress, Madame Ogg the intelligent sorceress, or Theodorick the helpful monk. Each is strong in their own way, but also have weaknesses.

The game opens when you receive a letter from an old friend in a distant kingdom. There has been a terrible plague in the country and it has infected and mutated many of the citizens. Currently the king is fighting a war against evil magic and terrible creatures. The city of Cannachdun was overtaken by the horrible disease which has turned many of the people into "cruel unholy animals who feed on the flesh of their neighbors." No one has been able to figure out how or why this has been happening but it is your duty to help out your friend.

After reading this letter, you must go to the kingdom and find out the troubles that are plaguing the rest. The controls are easy, it is a point-and-click engine with controls on the side to determine which skill you plan on using. For example you can attack or heal depending on your skill set as well as many other options that become available as the game progresses. The game has more than sixty different quests to accomplish, and when you combine that with the different starting characters, the game provides for countless hours of gameplay.

I do like RPGs but would not classify myself as someone who plays a lot of them. This game reminded me of an old Final Fantasy, because it had a strong fantasy atmosphere. I like that idea of games like this and for me, story is one of the most important things when playing an RPG. The controls were sometimes a little confusing, as I wanted to enter a building and the character would not be able to. I also did not like how it operated in turns even when you weren't in battle. This became a little bit of a hassle when you had more than one character in your posse and had to move them over great distances, individually. Styrateg was a solid game, but could use a little bit of a tune up. I would give the game three out of five stars.

Features of Styrateg:
- An excellent RPG
- More than 60 quests through 20 unique levels
- Countless magical items
- Strong Fantasy Atmosphere

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The play begins with you selecting 2 characters, one a male and the other female. These 2 are a brother and sister team driving to a deserted hotel in a snowy isolated location high atop a mountain. Due to the snow storm the hotel is evacuated except for their father, the prominent Professor Burns. He calls Nancy to come quickly and rescue him, but before he could give her more information, the line goes dead. Once at the location, Nancy and Paul find the entire place deserted except for a lone dog, Sam. This is where the fun begins. You move your cursor around the grounds to find a key to enter the hotel. You need to look for things to use during your search and items for the health of Paul and Nancy. Food, rest and fun are needed to keep the characters going and searching for their father. For food, you can click on your character and drag them to the refrigerator to replenish, and they will go to the couch to rest when needed. Collecting the fish, lanterns, firewood will increase their fun scale.

There are other objects you find that need to be combined in order to use them. In order to turn on the TV, you need to find the remote control, but when you find the item, it’s out of batteries so you need to find those as well. You can combine them by clicking on both or by using the combine button at the top left. Some of the objects are locked in chests, behind safes or doors. In order to open these things you must find the item you’ll need to open them like keys, gears and other tools.

At the beginning of each level, you will be given objectives, goals or tasks to complete. These will be listed at the upper left corner to remind you of what you need to do. If you should get stuck, you can click on the hint bone at the lower left to get Sam to take you to what needs to be done and what to use from the inventory at the bottom center of the screen. The constant barking is annoying, but if you need the help, it’s there.

Throughout the entire game, you have many mini puzzles to complete. Most of the mini games are simple and should not be much of a challenge for anyone, but if you want to skip it, wait until the skip button fills up and exit the game. The mini games are trivia questions like what does the A on ABC stand for, spin the wheel to reveal a picture and other puzzles.

Each of your people will have their own skills that are needed in the game. Paul is more mechanical and strong while Nancy is a scientist and nimble. There are many entrances too small for Paul to fit through, but nimble Nancy easily fits through the gap. An annoying factor of this game is that once, Nancy squeezes through a crawl space, you have the option like in a rpg to decide whether she should enter or not. That part is okay, but in reverse when you need her at another location, you cannot click and drag her but you must answer another question whether to enter or not again. Since the game is a top-down view, you assume once she is in a spot, you can drag her out easily but that is not the case in this game.

Another irritating thing I found is the game will not let you string tasks together like picking up bones, lanterns, butterflies, etc. together. Once you click on your person and then on the object, you must wait until the task is completed before going on to another object. Other than those small annoyances, this game is fun to do solving puzzles and finding all your clues. The artwork is cute and colorful. It won’t stress you out (except maybe Sam’s barking) and the play is simple to complete for a relaxing time. I think since the game is fairly short, kids will be able to enjoy Great Adventures – Lost in Mountains as well.

Features of Great Adventures – Lost in Mountains:
-Many Objects to Find
-Over 15 Mini Games
-Mysterious Plot

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Now usually I do not play these type of games, but Harvest: Massive Encounter caught my eye and I decided to give it a try. My initial reaction to the game is that it reminded me a lot of the Starcraft or Diablo series. Although I have never really played these games, I know the idea is to create an army or civilization that is sustainable and able to survive enemy attacks. Harvest: Massive Encounter is the same objective, but instead of building battleships, you build defense turrents and missile silos to protect your harvesting. What you are looking to obtain are minerals in the rocks, that serve as money so you can expand your society. However, these harvesters need energy to run, so solar paneled units and orbs that pass the power are built to give the rest of the colony energy. Once these begin to run, you begin to get more and more money to expand to other rock formations nearby.

But just doing that would be way too easy (not to mention boring) so there are aliens that come to attack your humble harvesters. This is where you build defense mechanisms that work to prevent the spaceships from destroying valuable equiptment. The first level is pretty basic, but other levels include all kinds of wars and upgrades that are impossible to describe without experiencing the game firsthand. As the levels progress there are more and more things to build and aliens to avoid. In the opening screen, you choose from three different worlds, each with its own challenges and interesting features, like a water world or an ice land. There are also different challenges within each level, like Normal mode (which is self explanitory), Wave (where you avoid 10 different waves of enemies), Insane (where you build a base deep in enemy territory), Rush (where you build a base in a mineral rich area that is on the brink of war) and Creative (no aliens, only harvesting).

Although the makers of the game market is as, "Easy to Learn, Impossible to Master" I think it should really be seen as, "(Not so) Easy to Learn, Impossible to Master." This may just be my bias against these types of games but I was not interested by the concept. I mean I usually enjoy games like SimCity and Rollercoaster Tycoon, but this game didn't make sense to me. The sci-fi story was pretty cool, but other than that, it was not really worth my time. Maybe I just didn't give it enough of a chance, but Massive Encounter didn't really appeal to me. I would like to say that this game was fun and challenging, but I didn't think it was. I would give Harvest: Massive Encounter one and a half out of five stars.

Features of Harvest: Massive Encounter
-Control Massive Number of Units
-Uniques Strategy Play
-Energy Webs
-3 Planets to Explore

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Do you believe in reincarnation? Do you avoid stepping on insects since they could be your relatives back in a lower form to better their next life? Well, Soldak, the developers for the new Mac rpg Din’s Curse, do. The main character comes back to life to redeem his past corrupt and despicable actions.

In the game, Din the all mighty god verbally directs you, the low life who made major mistakes in your prior life, to get you to this indefensible position where you must justify and correct your misdeeds. As crazy as this setup seems, it works. You rally to the defense of your townspeople and fight to the death against the most ferocious of enemies. A terrific feature of this play is if you should die, Din will resurrect you to start again. Check out the descriptions of each bad guy on the website: http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/Monsters.html. Soldak has detailed every little thing in Din’s Curse. The major feature in this game is the randomization of the world. Each town has it’s own set of problems and quests for you to resolve. Each one is a surprise, leading to hours of play time for gamers from novice to hard core. Also you can play as a single player or co-op multiplayer action game.

The game is time dependent and whatever you choose to do will result in either dire consequences or increased reputation. You will be instructed to go and kill Barry the Beast before he starts a revolution. You need to heed the warning and take care of this matter right away. There are other instances where you can put off, but it can be dangerous to do so.

As in most rpg games you must keep track of your health bars on the upper left side of the screen. The stats are available for you to peruse when you get a chance, and choosing the class of your avatar and the skills are important to improve your outcome in situations. From the skill sets you can choose your person to be a warrior, rogue, priest, wizard, ranger, conjurer or create a hybrid from 2 skill trees from any basic class. The only problem with a hybrid is that you are limited to 2 choices and with a template you get 3. You right click to to assign the skills and up and down to change it to one of the other skills. If you think about it, there are a lot of characters you can create and play in all sorts of combinations in randomly created towns.

Every time you begin a new game, the quests and layout changes. Every new character you make starts off in a new town, another dungeon and different monsters to battle. You can set the level for your monster’s strength, but this will increase as you go higher in the dungeon. Start with 0 if you are new to this type of play and higher if you are an expert. The range goes from 0 to 24, but be forewarned there are a lot of enemies who will come at you.

Not only are you battling monsters and enemies, you must also collect your loot in order to advance in the game. I think the best part of Din’s Curse is the story and reading into what you must decide on when told to act and act immediately or something dreadful will occur. Any warnings should be taken seriously or you will suffer for it. Be careful to stop any fights between your enemies or they will gain levels and champion status when they kill other groups. In addition, watch out while you are in the dungeon because enemies can escape to the town and attack the people. If you rush back and save the town, you can keep your reputation, but if you are slow to move, townspeople can be kidnapped or killed and this will cause you to lose reputation. The only upside to killed people is you can search them for loot—morbid.

Completing all quests for a town will save it and earn you a chest full of loot from Din. After the fireworks, you can go back to the dungeon and explore more or start a new town.

There’s a lot to do in this rpg game. Flip a lever to cause an explosion, use a poison trap or make the roof cave in on your enemies. The artwork is retro simple with a little more color than their other rpg Kivi’s Underworld, but it does the job. The play will surpass the background scenery. There’s very little music at the beginning with strange sound effects that create the eerie atmosphere of the dark dungeons. Invisible barriers are troublesome and will block you from moving, but you can make your way in a different direction.

Make your choices wisely because your actions will have impact in this random world of monsters and warriors. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and read the text. There’s so much to do in this game from looking for loot to fighting lots of enemies, including moles who can cause serious damage. Have fun with Din’s Curse. It is intense and full of many different options for hours of playability.

Features of Din’s Curse:
-Randomization
-Lots of Fierce Enemies
-141 Class Combinations

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Not your typical RPG game. The name alone would throw you off, but it does catch your attention. It could be focused towards girls but anyone could play. This Mac game can both excite and frustrate you in its story line and play.

You are 18 years old and no longer able to stay in the orphanage where you grew up. With no relatives and nowhere to go you are lost in what to do. A fairy godmother type comes to you and tells you to find your destiny by holding on to your dreams. This is your quest, and it must be done by your 21st birthday. Initially you choose your birth month and by doing so, you choose a few characteristics that will shape your future. You travel to a town in which you must develop your personality and therefore determine your outcome or destiny.

Different characteristics are increased by exercising, training or taking classes. Classes are expensive and will take all your money, but you do need the lessons for specific skills such as magic and crafts. For combat you need to be trained, and must have the proper weapons and armor. Larger the weapons, higher your skill.

You go from site to site located on the lower right side of the screen, you are given choices to make, and whatever you select will form your destiny. Go to the town square and choose the activity you wish to participate in to form your fate. Choosing to pick pocket will lead you to a much different outcome than choosing to socialize and network with people.

Making money is not only important for your destiny but also for buying weapons and armor; the only things in the shop and for taking classes at the college. Those training sessions at the school is very costly, and the professors are not forgiving when you run out of money. There’s no financial aid at that school.

The slums and to the dungeons is where you should head when looking for more traditional RPG play. You must be prepared for the monsters (some are tamable, others are not). Search for items in the dark areas. Meet wizards, dragons and collect magical charm cards. Watching the calendar is important as is reading what everyone is telling you. Keep your health up along with your dream. Learn to make health potions. Every little thing will determine your destiny.

Cute Knight is a RPG play that some will love and others will hate. It is repetitious at many places and frustrating when the game suddenly ends your character making you work the rest of your pathetic life as a beggar or married to a handsome guy working at the library. Once you get into the dungeon the RPG play picks up quite a bit and is more interesting, however there’s very little action in this game so don’t expect an Avernum 5 or Kivi’s Adventure. The artwork is simple and the music annoying so make the best of it and turn off the music and overlook the cartoon characters. Dive into Cute Knight and control your destiny into a life of what you have dreamed about your entire life.

Features of Cute Knight:
-Choose Your Destiny
-Collect Magical Charm Cards
-Over 50 Endings

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Tradewinds Legend is not your usual RPG Mac game; it's a lot more. It is different from most games because you have many features of role-playing, managing finances, and merchandising in an intriguing tale of the ancient Arabian seas.

You choose your character from a cast of notorious traders or create your own person. You must have someone who is smart, wily, scheming and cunning. The sidebar will display your portrait, rank, finances, fleet size, pending tasks, your log, special items, and fleet’s cargo. All that will be needed on your many journeys through the Arabian seas.

The local Sultan or Prince will ask you to do tasks for him that will get you started on your adventure on the high seas, but first you must deal with moneylenders, bankers and suppliers. You cannot leave for foreign lands without securing financial assistance. You need to negotiate with moneylenders but be careful or you can find yourself in a lot of trouble. Keep your eye on the cost of supplies. They are different in each port. You must be a wheeler dealer in this game and must keep track of your finances and also your tasks.

In addition, you must be armed properly to fight off pirates on the open ocean. The battles with these bad guys get tougher as you proceed in the game so keep increasing your fleet and weapons. After buying supplies at one port, you can sell it for a profit in another location. Completing your tasks (always visit the palaces) will open more ports and your reputation will spread throughout the lands and skies.

Tradewinds Legend is a great game to play when you want a fun evening shooting pirates and getting the best deal on items. It will take a lot of thinking and figuring out plus battles with buccaneers on the seas. Take a chance with this different but interesting and entertaining adventure, action Mac RPG game.

Features of Tradewinds Legend:
-Trade and Battle Legendary Heroes
-Choose Character or Create Your Own
-Special Items
-10 Ports

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Winter Wolves has developed another exciting fantasy sci-fi visual novel with a role-playing, turn based combat system. The story is original and the battles are high charged. There’s a balance of mystery, romance and fighting to keep everyone on their toes. Every detail is revealed in their statistics and conversations.
You take on the role of a young attractive new recruit. You have a choice to make right away with the gender (either Lisa or Joshua Nelson). There are 4 character classes to choose from: Soldier, Guardian, Scout, and Psionic. If you played any rpgs, you know each characteristic can dramatically change the outcome of the story. In addition there are 3 modes of difficulties. If you are new to this type of game or a casual gamer, start with the Easy and work yourself up to Medium and Hard. You can change your modes any time in the preference screen. The game will guide you through the main moves and descriptions as you go along. Also your android will go over things with you. Conversations can be as quickly paced as you want, and you can review any text by paging down, up or using the mouse wheel. Quests are added throughout the game and can be viewed anytime with the middle icon pictured to the lower right of the screen.

Before each battle you will get an enemy screen where you can view the type of alien and their strengths and weaknesses. The battles are between you and up to 4 other people against the enemy. The turn based combat has you initiating the first move. The battle screen will display in the center the enemy and their stats at the top of the screen, and you and your team’s data at the bottom. When it is your turn to attack, your screen will be highlighted in orange with 6 options to use. All are different in the effectiveness of each weapon. If you should win then the experience points are divided among your people. There are many different types of weapons and armors but also there are other non-combat skills you can use like mind influence, explosives, science and sneak.

The other play in this game is your relationships with the other people. I chose Lisa as my hero and she has Michelle Lafleur as a roommate. Michelle is a little touchy and your relationship gauge will pop up and lower whenever she is upset with you. 0 is when she hates you and 100 is love. I’m always trying to please her but it is not easy. The conversation choices you make will affect your relationships. This gauge will affect your romance sub-plots but will not do anything when it comes to your fighting skills. Your relationships get more and more complex as you meet other recruits, the king and different people.

The map will help you move around easily from your dorm room to the training center and beyond. There are unknown sites you must get access through either dialogue or by solving a quest. Quests can be as small as finding information about your heritage to investigating the rumors about trouble on the planet.
Competition comes in when you find out there are only 8 openings for the Royal Guard and 320 recruits. Plus your immediate sergeant does not like you, but the commanding officer is very friendly. You must prove yourself in tests and actual battles. There are 6 romantic endings to this game; 3 for the female character and 3 for the male person.

There are so many options from choosing your gender, class, dialogues and your destiny, the battles against enemies and the fights with other people that will determine how the game will be played. It’s all up to you. If you don’t like an outcome, play it again differently by choosing the other gender and another class. Each story will offer up surprises depending upon your choices.

The battles are a challenge but are also fun and exciting at the same time. Keeping your relationships happy is also hard. The story line gets more and more intense as you go on to higher chapters in this suspenseful drama. The anime artwork is exquisite as always with great alien drawings. The instructions are clear and stats detailed. My only complaint is with the females standing with their hands on their hips in front of a commanding officer. Rebecca Fox the mean sergeant is strong and dynamic. Planet Stronghold is a great game with balanced story line and battling. Try their extensive demo and see for yourself.

Features of Planet Stronghold:
-40 Different Enemies with Bosses
-Quests and side quests
-Over 50 hours of Gameplay
-Different Stories Based on Your Choices
-6 Romantic Endings

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars