Gustav is cute. That's the best I can say about this really boring game.

No sale.

40 minutes into the demo, and the music is annoying. The pictures themselves are okay, but I'm going to have to mute it.

I'll probably get this game, but the music isn't as good as the last one.

I'm just glad that now there's a way to see the background behind the puzzles.

I bought the game, and am now on level 6. It's a bit on the ho-hum, seen-it-before side, but the music is relaxing, the puzzles are fun, the artwork is nice, and that's basically all I ask of these games - good puzzles and relaxing music and a garden that isn't full of weird stuff that doesn't fit the theme.

grannyann_ wrote:Gold is when you have no mistakes.

What's wrong with not making mistakes?

I'm a stickler for perfection, so if there's even one mistake I will do it over.

cottoncandy2 wrote:I'm getting bored with these now. Once you learn the secret to getting gold it's just same old, same old. I'd like to see them made harder, like bigger grids or something.

What gold? You solve the puzzles and every time you complete a level a new thing is added to the garden.

I think the grids are big enough. I've seen 20x20 grids and the numbers are too small for me to read and the squares are too small to count.

Granted, there's not any new thing with this one; it's a fantasy garden like so many others, but the music is sufficiently relaxing, and that's all I ask of these games - puzzles that are not too hard and not too easy, a nice garden, and nice music.

Majestyx12 wrote:I haven't figured out how to use the quote yet. I try to use it and it has all of their review instead of a sentence. I would also be happy to have a Thanksgiving one.

My apologies. I made an error in the code. It should be this way:

[quote=Poster's Name]Text you want to quote[/quote]

If you give it a try this way, it should work properly (again, don't type the "[code]" parts).

Majestyx12 wrote:I haven't figured out how to use the quote yet. I try to use it and it has all of their review instead of a sentence. I would also be happy to have a Thanksgiving one.

You can highlight and delete the part of the other person's post that you don't want to have in your own post. Just keep the part of it that you do want. You can either use the "delete" button on your keyboard or highlight the text and press CTRL+X (don't press the actual "+" key; the X has to be pressed while the CTRL is still pressed). This will delete the part of the quoted material you don't want.

Or you could type it out using BBCode: [quote=Poster's Name]Text you want to quote[/Poster's Name]

Make sure you get all the square brackets and slashes in the right place or it won't work properly.

Valdy wrote:

Valkara wrote:Something I meant to mention before that actually does annoy me about this game: There are numerous scenes where the family is outside - at the tree farm, at the gas station on the way to Pinecreek Hills, at church... the wind is howling in the background, everyone else is wearing winter jackets (one woman at the church is bundled up in a heavy parka)... but the family is in shirtsleeves! No jackets, no toques, no mittens, no boots! I had to check the mom's footwear at the gas station to see if she was wearing shoes or sandals (shoes, fortunately for her feet).

This is something that people in warm climates might not notice, but to those of us who live in the northern regions (ie. Canada, where I'm looking at the snow coming down as I type), something like this is ludicrous. I remember thinking that this family must be polar bear changelings, or something. I realize it would cost more to design outdoor winter wear for these characters, but it would be a good thing, as seeing people in shirtsleeves in weather that's obviously cold enough for the background characters to bundle up just takes me right out of the story and into annoyance.

Valkara, I have spoken to the developer about this over 2 years ago. I don't care for the flimsily dressed people in their winter games either.

I have also notice that there are a lot of the same people, and not only in this game, that have been there before. They are even in the same position, but just in different scenes. Although, I did see a few of the same scenes as previously as well, just slightly altered.
Would be nice if they could give us something really new. Springfield must be as large as the state of New York from the many places there are in this town.

Agreed. And something else: The new house the family moved into this time is the same house that the previous family in this game series lived in - in another town! So the only way to reconcile this is to assume the same company built the same style of house in both towns. Otherwise, I have to assume that the first town changed its name and was mysteriously picked up and moved to the physical location of Springfield (which is apparently just a stone's throw away from Pinecreek Hills National Park, going by the map).

cljmovies2 wrote:I noticed a long time ago in the other games that the characters in the back ground would be all bundled up in coats, hats and scarfs and the main characters would be without coats in the snow. And even sometimes the back ground people would be without coats. Which never made sense to me. One of the things I didn't like about version 8 is that I think too many of the backgrounds and scenes from the other versions had been used and changed just a little bit. It just didn't seem as original as all the other versions had been. That was a lot of the fun of playing the other versions. Seeing the new scenes. They were fresh and new. The scenes in version 8 where older scenes with a few new additions added to it. Am I the only one who is a little disappointed with Christmas Wonderland 8?

I had replayed the entire series during the previous week or two (discovered that I'd missed the first 3, so had to get those), and finished up #7 just the day before #8 came out. So the series is fresh in my mind, and you're right. A lot of the same people show up, sometimes in the same positions they were in when they were at Pinecreek Hills in the Park Ranger games.

This cartoon-people-with-no-winter-clothes isn't just a problem in this game series. If you ever read Archie comics, you'd notice that frequently the characters weren't wearing gloves or mittens during winter, and a lot of times they would just have on a long-sleeved shirt with a scarf to denote that it was cold out. To someone who lives on the Canadian Prairies, that is just ridiculous, and tells me that somebody from a warm climate must have composed the pictures.

I don't know where the Christmas Wonderland creators are from, but the series is set in a region of the U.S. where they really do get cold, snowy winters. I guess I can forgive the fact that these people have not changed their clothes in years (maybe they have multiple copies of their outfits or run them through the laundry every other day), but there's just no in-story justification for the main characters not to wear coats and hats outside in the winter.

gertie23 wrote:Finished it just over 2 hours. Nothing new really, except it's 'good' to see they finally have a father. I don't remember ever seeing him in any of the others. And what happened to Grandma, they were talking about taking a tree to Grandpa & Grandma's house but no Grandma in the scene, maybe she is where Dad has been for the past 7 games?

The father was in a previous game, in the part where they went to the tree farm (he hasn't changed his clothes in 2-3 years - still that same green sweatshirt).

Grandpa and Grandma rented a cabin at Pinecreek Hills in this game, and she was at the far right of the screen, in the kitchen. I had to wonder at her makeover, though. She looked younger, with a younger hairstyle (hair still grey, but no longer up in a bun and looking 10-20 years older than Grandpa, as in previous games). So either she got a makeover or Grandpa remarried?


Something I meant to mention before that actually does annoy me about this game: There are numerous scenes where the family is outside - at the tree farm, at the gas station on the way to Pinecreek Hills, at church... the wind is howling in the background, everyone else is wearing winter jackets (one woman at the church is bundled up in a heavy parka)... but the family is in shirtsleeves! No jackets, no toques, no mittens, no boots! I had to check the mom's footwear at the gas station to see if she was wearing shoes or sandals (shoes, fortunately for her feet).

This is something that people in warm climates might not notice, but to those of us who live in the northern regions (ie. Canada, where I'm looking at the snow coming down as I type), something like this is ludicrous. I remember thinking that this family must be polar bear changelings, or something. I realize it would cost more to design outdoor winter wear for these characters, but it would be a good thing, as seeing people in shirtsleeves in weather that's obviously cold enough for the background characters to bundle up just takes me right out of the story and into annoyance.

Majestyx12 wrote:I too noticed they didn't age or change. I think we would keep the series longer if they don't because people would be divided on the older and newer versions if they changed now.

I've finished the game now, and noticed that the "new" house is the same one that the other family (different set of kids) lived in several games ago. The kids' bedroom in #8 is the same one as the other kids had in a couple of the earlier games. So maybe they swapped houses?

There's a delightful surprise in Christmas Wonderland 8 for fans of the Park Ranger series of games.

I really enjoyed this edition, and look forward to the next one.

cathybobcat wrote:One more appealing factor adding to this Wonderland is that no one ages....message.... Always Stay Young at Heart...no matter what your age~

True... nobody ages. But I have to laugh; I recently played all the Park Ranger games through one after the other, and just yesterday I finished playing all the previous Christmas Wonderland games through. I've noticed something... the mom in these games hasn't changed her shirt or her necklace in at least 3 years! I think she's got different jeans on, though. The dad is still wearing the same sweatshirt he had on before, and the daughter, I think, is still wearing the same top.

I realize it costs money to make changes from year to year, but it just struck me funny at how much this family doesn't change!

It's nice that they got a new house, though. Maybe that's the reason they never wear any other clothes - they've been thrifty in saving up for the new place.

(Such are the thoughts that occur when a person replays these games all within a two-week period; odd things get noticed.)

misty5 wrote:I bought CW 8 this morning with a coupon code and after completing transaction, got a pop-up saying I already owned this game. Sure enough, when I started playing everything was familiar -- the North Pole contest, the family's new address, etc. Why would BFG offer last year's Wonderland as a full price game again this year? And will my coupon code be reinstated or is it gone for good?? I can't recall this ever happening before with one of their series games. Usually last year's entry is offered only as a DD shortly before the new one comes out. Any thoughts?

That's how the system works. It defines "already" as in the past, even if it was less than a minute ago.

If you really had purchased the game before you would get the popup before completing the transaction. This game is new.

I have most of the jigsaw puzzles offered on this site. But sadly I don't think this will be one of them. The pictures are mostly generic for a pirate-themed puzzle game (a few people dressed in pirate costumes but uninteresting because they look like they came off the department store Halloween rack instead of authentic pirates), and the music is annoying to the point where I had to mute it.

Maybe if the music had been pirate-themed (ie. sea chanties)... but no.

The music is too loud, and the game is boring. I'm surprised that this is a current game; with the lack of any point to it, I thought it would be an older game (it just popped up on the bottom of my "based on your interest in..." list and I thought I might try it).

No sale.

I've played several levels of the demo, and while some of the pictures are somewhat simple, they're also not too childish. I find this game relaxing, and I enjoy the more creative games that let me design a garden or house and put things where I want.

The music is a little annoying in this one; I prefer mellow strings and brass, rather than thin voices, but it'll do. It's better than some, and for me the music is critical to my enjoyment of Fantasy Mosaic games, as I like to just zone out to the music as I do the puzzles.

There are some really nice, subtle colors in this one. There's one shade of green I don't remember seeing in the other puzzles, unless they're recent (I'm not yet done with 23 and 24 in this series).

Sale.

While I wish somebody would make solitaire games other than golf and matching cards, this one is better than most due to the creepy graphics and excellent background music. This is the first solitaire game in ages whose music is so thoroughly enjoyable.

I'm about 3/4 through the game, and have only had to guess twice. Considering that some of the puzzles have background pictures or or part of a labyrinth or garden-like setting, it's quite intuitive.

This game will not run on Windows XP, even though it says it does.

This is by far not the only time BFG has claimed a game is XP-compatible and it isn't.

I don't appreciate the dishonesty (or the carelessness if this is merely an assumption on BFG's part that the games will work and nobody in the tech department actually checks these things out.