Comments for Margrave: The Blacksmith's Daughter Collector's Edition.

Hi there,
It seems that the second CE for this week is not The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle Collector's Edition after all but the 4th Margrave Game.
The Margrave games have come a long way since the first instalment that had endless repetitions of HO scenes and tasks to complete (a more modern MCF Huntsville IMHO) but it was looooooonnnng.
The 2nd “Lost Ship” was more “modern” in its approach in that it had more of an adv feel about it.
The 3rd instalment Curse of the Severed Heart (first CE version of this franchise) was a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed releasing the souls of the shadows through the cards. (I haven’t played this game recently, but I did note that this was fun and different at the time).
So now we are to solve the riddle (?) of the Blacksmith's Daughter. I have seen at least one favourable pre-release report, so I am hoping that this game also gets the from others .... or at least a trial and if it is basically boring.
I always appreciate the effort of developer's who try to not just enhance (take note ERS), but better their games with each new release. I hope this is the case with this game.
Cheers

Hi!

Wow, I haven't played the whole demo in a long time. I really like how colorful this game is, and the majority of it is rather soothing. I'm not sure how other people will feel about it, but I'm loving it. There's lots of weird puzzles, and the game writes down the important bits for you so that you don't have to draw your own diagrams, which is nice. I hated the card part in the Curse of the Severed Heart, but it's not bothering me in this version, and I like the weird dream vision explanations afterwards.

Even with the main girl's somewhat annoying voice, I think this one is a purchase.

Hi Imberis,
Thanks for the positives with this one.
As is often the case, my evening meal is waiting and I must away.
I hope it is "happy gaming all" in the meantime.
Cheers

From the screenshots, looks like we're in for a lot
of Gold. Better than the gray or blue haze IMO.

Could anyone tell me the name of the first Margrave game?
This one will only make three for me and I can't see
another listed under "Margrave.

I really hope this game is better than the last one. I actually enjoyed the first two in this series although I never bought them and I've never seen the first one on mac just PC. I did however buy the Curse of the Severed Heart CE and her voice made me insane. Its a CE i've never finished but since I did like the first two in this series, I will give it a try.

joyce2121 wrote:
Could anyone tell me the name of the first Margrave game?
This one will only make three for me and I can't see
another listed under "Margrave.

The first one is "The Secret of Margrave Manor" (PC only, I think), see here:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/3521/the-secret-of-margrave-manor-game/index.html

joyce2121 wrote:From the screenshots, looks like we're in for a lot
of Gold. Better than the gray or blue haze IMO.

Could anyone tell me the name of the first Margrave game?
This one will only make three for me and I can't see
another listed under "Margrave.

Hi,

The first game is called 'The Secret of Margrave Manor'

K

I think this is the first time I've had a song being sung in the opening credits. Nice :-)

Just hope the games is good too!

I am really happy to see this released. I was fortunate enough to beta test it quite awhile back and absolutely enjoyed it. I just played the demo and got so wrapped up that I forgot to take a look at the SG to see how many chapters it has. This is one that will truly "agitate the little gray cells most adequately"! The mini-games are quite unique and imaginative, but do have skip buttons. I think a lot of us are in for a great time with this one!

joyce----there is also an enhanced edition of "The Secret of Margrave Manor" available but not here at BF----yet.

What a great game! I love it. HOS are very good and the puzzles are good. It's give me a smile and I like that. Pitty you can't jump with the map.

And I bought the game.

I absolutely love the game, love the puzzles and love the HOGS.

But I am not sure I can listen to her over the top so blooming cheerful, condescending twee voice for the whole game.

I just wanted to say that - as has been established by Customer Services - it's not our fault, if fault is the right word to use, when some of us don't get widescreen with some of the developers' games, it's the programming of the game that doesn't include all makes of computers.

I remember when one developer's games no longer worked on my Win7 computer. They just didn't have an answer, but I kept at it, and finally they bought the same make I have and voila... they had the same problem as I had. Finally we found out what was needed to make the games work on my new computer. They found that it was their programming that prevented my specific type of laptop (well, what's inside) to be able to play older games.

So anyway... I do get widescreen with most developers' games that are offered in widescreen, but there is the odd one here and there that just won't do it.

I mean, if an old "World Mosaic 4" game from Fugazo (they always work for me) gives me widescreen, then these new games should do the same.

I think that in future I will just not mention anymore whether I get widescreen or not. It's easier for me, because then I won't have to continue to explain the same thing again and again. LOL

Not actually played this yet as have been finishing Northern Tale (what a cute game!). But I just had to comment on this, snipped from cbtx's review:

Sorry devs, maybe it's time for Edwina to take a long, long rest. Maybe she could go explore the puppetshow in Joyville and discuss tired,old series of games!

It's just the funniest thing I've ever read in this forum

Oh Valdy, Please don't stop ranting or raving. I so love your reviews. I don't contribute much since 'Big brother' took over and stopped the original comments and rants and frequently kick out related stuff in reviews. I'm also ticked off when comments disappear down the order and are not fixed at beginning as they are a great part of reviews for me. I always demo games regardless but still love the reviews.

That said Valdy, re black bars issue. I have NVidia and I went to controls and checked desktop settings for full screen instead of aspect ratio and I have no black bars now.
I had this problem in a Vogats game recently but that's another saga.
If this helps it will be small reward for the great pleasure of your reviews.



Oh! and I just bought after 9 mins of demo but can't be bothered to go to reviews.
I feel like I'm at home here.

DragonLadyOz wrote:
always appreciate the effort of developer's who try to not just enhance (take note ERS), but better their games with each new release. I hope this is the case with this game.
Cheers

I personally will always love ERS. To me their graphics can't be beat and in all honesty I don't see repetition. I will always buy their CE's. The one dev that is totally repetitious is [Removed by Moderator] They have nothing nothing but cardboard cutouts.

Elirana wrote:Oh Valdy, Please don't stop ranting or raving. I so love your reviews. I don't contribute much since 'Big brother' took over and stopped the original comments and rants and frequently kick out related stuff in reviews. I'm also ticked off when comments disappear down the order and are not fixed at beginning as they are a great part of reviews for me. I always demo games regardless but still love the reviews.

Hi Elirana

No, I mean I won't mention anymore that I don't get widescreen when it's offered. I will still continue to write reviews though.

That said Valdy, re black bars issue. I have NVidia and I went to controls and checked desktop settings for full screen instead of aspect ratio and I have no black bars now.
I had this problem in a Vogats game recently but that's another saga.
If this helps it will be small reward for the great pleasure of your reviews.

I use Win7 with an ATI Radeon graphics card. I have a laptop, and don't have a desktop setting that tells me I can switch anything around nor is there anywhere an "aspect ratio" to be found on my laptop. I know that some people have that option, but I don't have it on my computer. And changing the resolution manually doesn't work either. I tried it all.

Edited to add that I DO get widescreen with many of the developers though. I get widescreen with Fugazo, as I said, and with the Elephant Games devs and with those who made the "The Agency of Anomalies" games and many more. In fact, I usually mention that I get widescreen in my reviews when I do get it. And sometimes I see other gamers who don't get widescreen when I get it. So it works both ways.

So it's not that my laptop won't give me widescreen, no matter what. It's just with certain developers where it doesn't work.

This seems as if it will be a good game...but not CE for me.

It is taking me a bit of time to get used to the "game play" as far as inventory items and whatever-the-other-items are called. The puzzles are different which is good although it took me a while to understand exactly what to do with one of them. I do not care for voices in a game so if I am given clues by listening to them I guess I will remain "clueless". Some of the H0 scenes are difficult as it is hard to see something that is partially hidden or the same color as the background. I like H0 scenes that "enhance" a game...not ones that just take up time to lengthen game play. I cannot seem to click through some of the dialog - again, maybe because some clues will be given?

The graphics are simply beautiful!

I will go back and play more of the demo to help me decide whether to buy the game now or wait til later if it is released as a SE.

Thanks, _DD_, Kamana, for the game name;
and especially cbtx for both the post and the PM.

I was only looking for it under M. I see the series didn't
start with Margrave as the first word.

Liked the first Margrave, hated the second (I kept rooting for the bomb to go off) and very much liked the third, which I've played a couple of times. I'm on the fence with this one...that is, whether to get the CE or wait for the SE. I'm interested in the story and want to know what happens, but I do wish Edwina wasn't so blasted chirpy. I don't think much of the map, either. Ah...decisions, decisions.