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Friday, 9 July 2010

Gears of War Video Review

Metro 2033 Video Review

Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar

Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar

Farm Frenzy 3 has finally outworn its welcome. After four spin-offs, it seems pretty clear that the developers have run out of ideas. Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar brings little new to the table, and plays almost identically to every other game in the series. In fact, aside from a few visual differences, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between Madagascar and its predecessor, Russian Roulette.

It seems that series star Scarlett's previous adventures have left her drained and in need of a vacation, so she decides to go on a self-guided tour of Madagascar. Unfortunately, since she doesn't have a tour guide, it's not long before Scarlett finds herself lost. She stumbles across an animal reserve, but finds even more bad news, as all of the animals are sick. Using her farming skills Scarlett decides to help out the reserve by raising as much money as she can.

The story is about the only place you'll find much new in the game. And like the rest of the series, is largely unimportant. Aside from the introduction and the occasional cut-scene -- which consist of comic book-style panels featuring wildly inconsistent art -- you'll hardly ever actually interact with the narrative. Instead, it serves as a goofy set-up loosely tying together the events of the game. Read full story...

Memorabilia: Mia's Mysterious Memory Machine

Memorabilia: Mia's Mysterious Memory Machine

Have you ever moved into a new place, only to find that the previous occupant left something behind? In the hidden object game Memorabilia: Mia's Mysterious Memory Machine, the item in question isn't a lamp or a coffee maker of dubious distinction, but a machine that allows you to read people's minds.

You could use such a wonder to fight crime or farm secrets, but instead you decide to help your neighbors find the treasures they can't quite seem to find. Each neighbor has misplaced something dear to them, like a book of recipes or ribbon, and also has an item of which they're particularly fond. You'll get a brief dossier on your client telling you what to look for before they hop into the gizmo and let you prowl through their grey matter. Their memories come up as a hazy collection of transparent objects stacked haphazardly over each other, and you'll have to sort through the clutter to uncover the memory that will tell you where the loot is.

Some of the items on the list of objects you'll need to find are marked with a star – find those and you'll uncover a piece of memory that, when assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, reveal the location of your client's missing goodie. You could just go for starred items first and blaze through the level in seconds, but for the best bonuses, make sure you find everything on the list. Keeping your client happy is also important and delivers yet another bonus; to keep them smiling, perform well by finding items quickly, finding their favorite kind of object, or not clicking incorrectly. Read full story...

Super Smasher

Super Smasher

Who doesn’t love a good carnival game? Super Smasher takes one of the most well-known casual game fixtures and adds a bunch of colorful panache all around it to create what is ultimately a solid product.The vast majority of gameplay in Super Smasher involves one task: click on targets that appear on the screen. Click on as many as possible, and do so as fast as possible, to earn the highest score. The simple concept and the ease of the point-and-click interface make the game easy to just pick up and play, which is one of its strongest qualities.

The game revolves around a large board game-style board. The board is divided into different sections, each section representing a different style of play. Players must make their way through each section before they are allowed to advance to the next game type. All the games have the exact same target-shooting mechanism, but they are presented in different ways – one of the games involves shooting peas at balloons, one involves shooting pies at people, etc.For example, in the balloon game, players use a blowpipe to shoot peas at the balloons, which is achieved by simply clicking on the balloons as they scroll across the screen. Players should also be on the lookout for bonus tokens that appear, increasing their score, as well as valuable blowpipe upgrades that make the peas shoot out faster or makes targeting the balloons easier. Read full story...