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fromFun fact: A Griffin has the head of an Eagle and the body of a lion, only females have wings, males have spikes. They have a unique ability to find gold in the mountains which they use to make their nests!
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Maggie Cook has been working undercover infiltrating the Dragon Clan for months now, and she has finally discovered the horrible truth of their nefarious plans. The Clan possesses important components of a very powerful Almanac, an artifact that when intact, can allow pure evil to rise to power once more! The race is on now, to find the 7 Relics of the Armament. The Dragon Clan desperately needs the artifacts to resurrect the evil Odessa, and Sarah knows all too well that if she doesn't find the artifacts first, the world will be at their mercy. (if you're not first you're last Bobby!)
I've always enjoyed the ongoing saga between the Griffin Order and the Dragon Clan as Sarah follows her father's footsteps to become a vital part of the secret Order. I've seen "gadgets and helpers" come and go, throughout the six previous games, but I must admit, I slightly gasped in horror when Shadow Breach introduced the Bracelet of Fire :( and in the first scene at that! It seems that once a gadget is released in one series game, the others follow their lead, and now every game has some variation of a magical bracelet, wbtw can't be removed. (why not call it the shackles of fire or burning handcuffs?)
If the bummer bracelet isn't enough to deter you from playing, the over-abundance of blue and purple haze just might. I don't understand why devs are pouring on the paint lately, this dev has always had amazing, life-like graphics, using "in your face" colors aren't going to make the game more memorable, well actually, it does, but not in a good way! The only redeeming quality this game has is interesting CE bling. There are Collectible Scrolls, one in each scene, available in 3 different categories, Creatures, Nature and Artifacts, and each scroll has a brief description of the item. There are also 25 Morphing Objects as well, however, the objects in question are a little too large and morph a little too fast, which make them too obvious. There are also 7 Relics to find which is actually related to the story itself, relics of the Armament, so this may be a feature included within the SE version as well?
The Hidden Object Scenes are varied with Interactive List Finds, and Fragment Finds. The HOP's are scarce in the demo which gives one the impression that this game is more of a puzzle adventure than a hidden object game. The scenes are fairly clear but lack pizzazz, perhaps because the scenes themselves aren't in interesting areas, or the items to find and related interactions aren't interesting? You can opt to play a Pair Matching game where you turn over two cards at a time to find identical pairs. Once again I'll ask: "why don't they offer an alternate mini-game instead of the HOP & an alternate HOP instead of the mini-games?" It would be even better if they gave you a choice of say 3 to pick from, such as a M3 game, a Solitaire game, or a Mahjong/ Mosaic game. Even cooler, a jigsaw puzzle that was available in small, medium or large sizes! These devs could even team-up with devs from those genres (such as the "penguin" series or the dev who offers all the jigsaw games without naming names wink-wink) This would be a genius marketing strategy and would pique the interest of HOPA lovers and the various puzzle genres!
The Mini-Games are very simplistic and many of them are related to symbols. Because there is a "gadget" Bracelet of Fire, there are repetitive games associated with its use, and most of them are related to symbols and runes. Below are brief descriptions of some of the games you'll encounter during the demo:
1) Repeat the sequence of symbols on drawers x3. 2) Swap tiles to complete the image. 3) Place colored gems together to equal the swatch when mixed. 4) Place colored runes onto the same colored gems in a story. 5) Drag lock parts to the correct positions. 6) Drag Armament parts to the correct areas in a book. 7) Use arrows to navigate through a map according to oral clues. 8) Adjust the numbers on tumblers according to math equations. 9) Find and place the correct symbol shown in 3 sections. 10) Swap symbols to connect related pairs.
This Collector's Edition version has 15 Concept Art pictures, 15 Wallpapers, 9 Music Soundtracks, re-playable Movie Videos, Hidden Object Scenes, and Mini-Games, 12 Skill-based and 20 Story-based Achievements to earn, 25 Morphing Objects, Collectible Scrolls with descriptions (8 Creature Scrolls, 8 Nature Scrolls, 8 Artifact Scrolls) 7 Relics to find with the Bracelet of Fire that will restore the Armament, 5 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter and a built-in Strategy Guide.
THE SECRET ORDER GAMES AVAILABLE Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average
1-New Horizon SE only (December 17-2011) 2-Masked Intent (March 17-2013) 4.3 3-Ancient Times (April 26-2014) 3.9 4-Beyond Time (March 21-2015) 3.5 5-The Buried Kingdom (May 21-2016) 4.4 6-Bloodline (June 17-2017) 4.0 7-Shadow Breach (May 26-2018) n/a
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This is another disastrous Match 3 game that definitely has no replay value, in fact, I couldn't handle more than 5 minutes of the demo!
You can choose to play in a Timed mode, Limited Moves or Relaxed mode of difficulty. There are refillable Boosters and 30 different Upgrades available throughout the 100 available levels if you can endure it that long!
In a nutshell, you are tasked with making matches of at least 3 identical Fruit Pieces, and you get powerups when you make large matches. I hate Match 3 games that don't allow you to make matches until all tiles finish falling or doing their booster thing. It's bad enough that there are Limited Moves, but when a game is timed and you can't make matches quickly, that's just plain annoying...and a definite NO for me!
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We have been getting some really bad Time Management games lately, but this one deserves an award! (and I don't mean a "good" award) Does BF have a category for "Worse Time Management Game Of The Decade"? If they don't, I nominate the category, so I can nominate this game to be right at the top of the heap.
The first choice I had to make was choosing the graphics from fastest to beautiful, so since I have a new wicked fast computer with the best graphics card on the market, I chose Beautiful....the first time. I say the first time because I'd soon discover some issues. My next choice was to choose my language from several flags available and then type in my name, smooth sailing so far. Next up, enter the name of my city....sailboat meets a small wave... because no matter how many attempts I make, it just wouldn't accept an M, it accepted any other letter, but every time I tried to type an M, it just left a blank, so now I live in a city with several spaces and no M's.
Moving on, I'm asked to type in my Language (hope there's no M's) didn't I just choose that on step # 2? Now I'm asked to choose "New" game or "load" naturally I chose new game. Now I'm asked to choose my difficulty preference, Easy-200K, Medium-100K or Hard-50K. (I'm assuming this means how much money you get to start out with?) My sailboat hits a huge rogue wave... game freezes and I can't make any more choices with or without M's, actually, (I chose ctrl-alt-delete and closed the game) Re-boot...back on course.
Finally, my sailboat docks at the pier and I'm ready to start building my Mall Empire! There certainly is a lot going on here, lots and lots of confusing options that seem rather... let's just say boring. Hold left mouse button and drag the screen to move it, Hold right mouse button and drag the screen to zoom it, Click on the Cash Register and drag here, click Design icon and drag Shelf there, Select Shelf to buy this product, drag a little here, drag a lot there.
Not only do I have to fill my mall with uninteresting items and tasks, but I have to take care of transportation, like Taxis, Subways and even the Bus routes. You're constantly getting messages for this and that. This isn't virtual reality fun, this is Corporate headache material!
There are 40 Achievements to earn. Wow! Are any of the awards for enduring this game 10 minutes or longer? How about an award for not getting carpel-tunnel from all the clicking and dragging?
A mysterious plague casts a dark shadow on the people of Persia. The young apothecary Tara must discover the cause of the illness before it's too late!
THERE'S NO GOOD OR EVIL-THERE'S ONLY POWER AND GREED
PostedMay 25, 2018
pennmom36
fromCobras & snakes in general are deaf and have poor vision, this is why a snake charmers flute is long and wide on the end, so the snake is merely "following" what he sees, not mesmerized by what he hears!
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If you were to take the last 100 new releases from the "Big Guys" developers and put them all together, they wouldn't be able to hold a candle to this single game, Persian Nights! Artifex Mundi deserves a round of applause and a standing ovation for the ingenious creativity of this masterpiece!
This game has everything going for it, gorgeous graphics, an intense plot, creative tasks and features, likable characters, and puzzles and HOP's. There are no collectibles, no morphing objects, no annoying helpers, and no hoops to jump through, but trust me, this is such a strong game entertainment-wise, none of those things are needed! Yes, there's a Talisman gadget with somewhat repetitive mini-games, but it works for this game. Not only does this game adhere to logic, but it also proves that you can hold onto an important inventory item, such as a knife, throughout the game without any ill-effects!
The Hidden Objects Scenes are clear, the objects are identifiable, and they are presented within creative locations. I wish they were actually "hidden" or blended into the scenery like they were in the good old days of HOPA yesteryears past, but that seems to be a technique long abandoned.
The Mini-Games are decent with legible directions, but unfortunately, there are repetitive games associated with the use of the Talisman as well as the Apocathary recipes you'll be concocting throughout the game. Below are brief descriptions of some of the games you'll encounter during the demo:
1) Find 3 hidden symbols on each page during the story. 2) Choose the Sphere that doesn't have the same symbols. 3) Repeat the sequence of Spheres that light up. 4) Click Spheres to turn them all blue. 5) Rearrange blocks to clear an unobstructed path for the key. 6) Move figurines along tracks to their logical slots.
The bottom line is, this game is one of the best Standard Edition versions to come down the pike in a very long time. In reality, it could hold its own against any Collector's Edition version of late. It may not have the CE bling, but most of the CE's offered today would be worthless without its bling, enjoy!
fromA Mansion and a Manor are the same thing, US calls them Mansions UK calls them Manors. An Estate actually refers to the land or property of ones estate.
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The original Haunted Manor games were "old-school" but cool, and I own every one of them. Unfortunately, the dev who created the first 3 games has passed into virtual heaven, and now the "big guys" have taken over, and not very successfully in my opinion.
I must admit, I was really intrigued by the storyline of a class reunion as a scavenger hunt that takes place in the Covington Mansion located on a remote island. Oh, the possibilities are unlimited now baby! I was immediately disappointed in this game, the endless pointless conversations, bland hazy graphics with few details, painstakingly turtle-speed camera pans that can't be sped up, and worst of all, one of the brightest, cheeriest "haunted manors" I've ever seen. What a shame, if the game's plot doesn't match visually, there will be a huge disconnect, making it difficult to relate. This game has a very similar storyline to Tales of Terror: House on the Hill, but at least that game has creepy graphics!
The Hidden Object Scenes are unappealing and make no attempt to hide the objects. It's impossible to miss the objects when there are only 10-15 objects to look at. There are Interactive List finds, Silhouetted Shape finds and Picture finds in the demo itself, and of course, in this Collector's Edition version, each scene has a Morphing Object to discover.
The Mini-Games are actually not bad, but the instructions are very confusing at times. Below are brief descriptions of some of the games you'll encounter during the demo:
1) Drag horizontal and vertical sections to restore the picture. 2) Connect lines from the inner disc to the X spots w/o crossing. 3) Use directional arrows to guide icons to highlighted slots. 4) Swap discs to match the clue shown.
This Collector's Edition version has 8 Wallpapers, 8 Concept Art pictures, 9 Music Soundtracks, 8 Movie Video Cutscenes, 17 re-playable Hidden Object Scenes, 15 re-playable Mini-Games, a Souvenir Room for 20 souvenirs, 13 Achievements to earn, 11 HOP Morphing Objects, 3 Collectible Cats, 36 Hidden Owls, 5 Main Chapters +Bonus Chapter.
HAUNTED MANOR GAMES AVAILABLE Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average Rating
1-Lord Of Mirrors (March 25-2010) 4.3 2-Queen Of Death (November 20-2011) 4.5 3-Painted Beauties (May 24-2014) 3.2 4-The Last Reunion (May 24-2018) n/a
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Cubis Kingdoms is a fantastic 3D Match 3 game that requires strategy to win. I love that I have to plan my moves carefully, so I don't get stacks and stacks of cubes filling up the board until I run out of moves!
I wasn't willing to shell out the big bucks for the Collector's Edition version, and although it took a long time to be released, I'm glad I waited for this Standard Edition version! The CE version has 50 bonus levels which are a plus, but other than Wallpapers, Concept Art, Music, and Avatar pictures, nothing is offered that constitutes paying double the price, but that's just my personal preference.
This is a Limited Moves type of Match 3 game that you play on a checkerboard, by shooting 3D cubes of 7 different colors, representing the 7 Elements. You can shoot the cube (and switch to the next cube if desired using the icon on the bottom right) from any column or row along the left and bottom sides, when at least 3 cubes of the same color collide, they will be removed. Cells that are highlighted, (color specific) indicate that a new cube will appear there on the next turn, which can cause the cubes to stack upon one another if a cube lands on the highlighted cell without making a match.
The goal is to make a specific number of matches of specific colored cube Elements as shown, within a specific amount of moves. Once you have met the level goals, you can continue to make matches to clear the entire board, if you have enough moves remaining to do so. You can earn up to 3 Stars per level, and any level can be replayed. The gameplay is easy to figure out, but not so easy to master, especially when obstacles are added that can't be moved, such as Stone Blocks, Cats, Frost, Tar, Holes, and Portals!
As you progress, Power-Ups are added such as Lightning Cubes, which will remove all cubes of the same color, once included within a match, Phoenix Eggs, Cube blasting Ermines, Turtle Shells to fill holes, and Raven Fire. (sounds epic doesn't it?)
If you clear all cubes from the board, you will earn a bottle of the Elixir of Life. Throughout the Level Map, there are Phoenix Icons, that will awaken by turning Orange once you have acquired enough Elements. To release the curse trapped within the Phoenix Totem, you will need to use the Elixir on the totem, which lifts the Dark Fog and frees the animals and plants in that area of the map, and you can slightly interact with some of those animals too.
CUBIS GAMES AVAILABLE (on BF) Title***Release Date***Average Rating
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Professor Xiao had been working on a Space-time continuum theory for quite some time, only to hit a brick wall dead-end every time. He nearly gave up on the project altogether, when an unfortunate tragedy killed his brother and his wife, leaving behind their only daughter Sophie. The Professor soon realized that Sophie was no ordinary 13-year-old child, she was a child prodigy! After earning her Masters-degree, Sophie was able to solve the problems the Professor couldn't, and they were on the verge of a major discovery when something went horribly wrong. Blackhill is now engulfed in a strange and ominous mist, something evil lurks within The Mist Over Blackhill, something deadly!
I was asked whether or not I wanted to take Elf with me on my investigation! Okay, I'll admit that some helpers are annoying and unnecessary, but we're talking about Elf! Mystery Trackers and Elf are one and the same and he has been by my side since Black Isles, YES I want to take Elf with me! MT is a series that I fell in love with immediately. I didn't discover this series until Four Aces was released, and I loved it so much, I played the previous games back to back. One of the reason's I loved it was because there's something about Elephant's graphics that give you a certain feeling or realism, a sense that something bad has happened, a creepy vibe in an abandoned town. I also loved the CE Morphing Objects and hope they never do away with this staple feature!
With that being said, I have a couple of legitimate gripes with Mist Over Blackhill, one story-related, the other Collector's Edition related. As far as a CE version, the abundance of bling is good (although I'm not going to humiliate Elf by dressing him up as a baby or forcing him to play bongos) but 3 small chapters, really? No re-playable puzzles or HOP's, really? Now as far as the storyline goes, they broke the number one cardinal rule in a truly frightening plot, NEVER SHOW THE MONSTER! (especially if the monster is a black cartoon fog monster!) Wouldn't it have more of an impact if you DIDN'T know what was lurking in the fog? If victims were snatched by unseen forces and you never knew when and where? (btw the answer is yes)
The Hidden Object Scenes are varied with Silhouetted Shape finds, Morphing Object finds, Keywords in sentence finds, finding 3 bottles to open up the Interactive List finds, and Combination finds where you find items that are the result of 2 pictures combined (watering can + seeds = a plant or flower) and there are small Zoom Zone HOP's where you search for 6 items in a Zoom Zone. I found some of the scenes to be blurry and some items unrecognizable, especially when trying to figure out what pictures were on the combo drawings.
The Mini-Games are my favorite kind, for the most part, I love the "tinkering" type puzzles where you set gauges and tinker with lights etc. Below are brief descriptions of some of the games you'll encounter during the demo:
1) Replicate the pattern of lights shown, 1 affects others. 2) Rotate center crest and slide outer frags to complete crest. 3) Swap tiles to create a path that allows current to flow. 4) Rotate discs until all dots fill the holes. 5) Press buttons to arrange the voltage shown on the clues. 6) Swap tiles to match the pattern shown. 7) Swap tokens w/direction/moves to guide tile past wolf tiles. 8) Swap images to restore the picture.
The Collector's Edition version has 8 Wallpapers, 8 Concept Art pictures, 4 Music Soundtracks, a Secret Room, an Album to assemble 4 puzzles with 32 collected Picture Fragments, 19 Achievements to Earn, 24 Morphing Objects, 12 hidden Elf Outfits (Musician, Cook, Writer, Baby, Santa Claus, Ninja, Soldier, Clown, Magician, Astronaut, Athlete, Firefighter) 3 Chapters +Bonus Chapter and a built-in Strategy Guide, enjoy...and say YES to ELF!
MYSTERY TRACKERS GAMES AVAILABLE Title***Collector's Edition Release Date***Average Rating
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Abandoned at the doorstep of the orphanage when she was just a baby, Jane had only a few clues to search for her father, a casino chip from The House of Azara, and a torn card. Strangely, the Azara casino has re-opened its doors for the first time in 25 years, and Jane knows this is the time to search for answers. The answers don't come easily, however, when Jane realizes she's just entered a life or death tournament. Will this bet pay off, or payout?
This is a fantastic game with a really cool and somewhat original storyline, but it is similar to Deck of Fates. There is a gimmicky Casino Lens feature where you scan the room for unseeable objects the naked eye can't see. I could do without that feature, but it's not too intrusive, There's another gimmicky feature of Cards that somehow give you special powers such as strength. You get the cards from the poor unfortunate players that lost the game, and each card is related to their personality traits. Your sidekick is an adorable Corgi and I kinda liked him! There are 50 Hidden Joker's Scepters to find in this CE version, usually two per scene.
The Hidden Object Scenes are mostly Interactive List finds, but they are located in interesting places and the objects are well blended. There are also Keywords in sentence finds and technically the Casino Chip lens games are more of a HOP than a mini-game puzzle. There are no alternative games offered.
The Mini-Games are creative, unique, and most are downright fun, however, they are all gambling-related with cards, dice and casino chips, so if you don't like gambling, even virtually, you may want to pass on this game. Below are brief descriptions of some of the games you'll encounter during the demo:
1) Slide cards to correct slots by dragging them along tracks. 2) Drag lines through matching symbols to remove all tiles. 3) Drag tokens to correct slots. 4) Use directional arrows to place all 4 tokens in the middle. 5) Scan room with Casino Chip to find symbols shown. 6) Rotate and place dominoes to match values on the board. 7) Adjust levers to complete the image. 8) Choose sturdy rope segments, niches & crystals to climb. 9) Choose any dice to fill 4 slots before your opponent. 10) Reach a score of 20 or higher to beat the dealer.
The Collector's Edition Version has 6 Wallpapers, 15 Concept Art pictures, 4 Screensavers, 6 Music Soundtracks, 35 Movie Cutscene Videos, 11 re-playable Hidden Object Scenes, 14 re-playable Mini-Games, 15 Achievements to earn, 50 Hidden Joker's Scepters, 3 Main Chapters + Bonus Chapter and a built-in Strategy Guide, enjoy!
EDGE OF REALITY GAMES AVAILABLE Title Collector's Edition Release Date Average Rating
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Normally this dev offers some challenging clutter games, but this one seem super easy. I breezed through the demo with plenty of time remaining on each level, and earned 3 stars on them as well!
The object of this game is to remove items from a heaping pile of junk. There are only two modes of difficulty offered in this version, a Timed mode, or Timeless, I'm not sure why they didn't offer the Hard mode of difficulty in the last couple f games? The Challenge levels have returned, after every fourth level. You can play these challenges in any order, which includes a Match 3 game, A Pair Match game where you flip over 2 cards at a time to try to find matches, and a Clutter game which has two piles of clutter, and you drag the items one by one, from each heaping pile until you find and remove all matching objects.
Some levels may require removing two identical objects, groups of three identical objects, removing objects that either has two or three of the same objects, match a big item to its small counterpart, dragging items from a heaping pile to find matches, or remove one object in color, it's match without color.
Crystals can be removed with a single click, and this will make the Hint option recharge faster. After a few Clutter levels, you get to assemble a different type of puzzle such as a Jigsaw or Slider type, which will give you an extra hint. If you don't use a hint, you will receive extra points, and you get points for any remaining time you may have.
I think I'll pass on this version, I have all the others in this series anyway. This is a good game for beginners though.
GAMES IN THIS SERIES Title***Release Date***Average Rating
1-Spirit of the Ancient Forest (June 29-2017) 4.2 2-A Plot Story (September 21-2017) 4.0 3-Witch's Tales (October 31-2017) 3.7 4-Dream Walker (December 15-2017) 3.1 5-Hiddenverse: The Iron Tower (February 7-2018) 3.6 6-Hiddenverse: Tale of Arianda (May 15-2018) n/a
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Here we go again, with another cutesie Match 3 game by Intersol. These games are created and designed as free to play games on Facebook, and then offered to us for 6.99? All of the features are similar from game to game, and all of them seem to be based on Limited Moves, although it does have a Relaxed Mode option.
I do somewhat like the shifting board feature this game has, where sections of the board move with every match made because it does add a bit of challenge. There are the usual obstacles and the usual bonuses when you make Large Matches of 4 or more which adds a Bonus Power-up to the board that is color specific, Bombs, Directional Bombs and all of one Color Removers origami birds. As you progress, Boosters become available to use at your discretion, such as +5 Extra Moves. You are given a few freebies with each new Booster, but the tutorial forces you to use one of them to give you a visual explanation, and I didn't find an option allowing you to turn off the tutorial.
Bottom line is, if you've played any of these Match 3 games by this dev, the only thing that's different is the theme.