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Am I correct in believing you, as well as the reviewer you mention, will not play the game because you make a deal with the devil?

This is hardly a new or surprising theme. Many well known works of literature are based on this same premise. Foremost among them would be Faust.
The Devil and Daniel Webster, by Washington Irving would be another famous example.

Even modern music (The Devil Went Down to Georgia), televisions shows (The Simpsons had several, Bart Sells his Soul, which my family just re-watched yesterday, and Treehouse of Horror IV), and movies (from Rosemary's Baby to Disney's All Dogs go to Heaven!).

The good vs evil theme is one of the major themes in folktales and myths.

I respect your viewpoint, and understand that you choose to not play games of this sort. But, as a former bible student, I do know that even Job was involved in a deal with the devil!

As for me, I will not play this game, or others featuring asylum escapees. The mentally ill deserve more respect than to be stereotyped as scary and violent. My protest would be for developers to show them the same consideration as as those suffering any other illness. I would ask that of players as well, but that's a battle for another day, and one I don't expect to "win."

Very nice game Boris! While I still like your Queen's Quest: Tower of Darkness best, this game is as good as the first (Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond - The Untold Story). Probably better, as you lost the sparkles on the hardest mode! Thanks! (I may have imagined the few teeny glints now and again when I first entered a location...)

I love your collectibles in sets. I will admit I didn't find them all, and I forgot to look for them in each scene due to being immersed in the game. I also love the morphs in the HOS! I like that we have to wait for them to become the desired object again. And the puzzles... again, I loved them! I did not skip a single one, and many weren't simplistic or quick.

I don't often concern myself with achievements, but in this case I thought you might like to know that I found one impossible to attain, while playing the hardest mode at least. There is an achievement for the tutorial. But, the hardest mode didn't have a tutorial. I started the game under a new profile (I checked to see what the achievements were soon after starting) thinking I opted out of the tutorial, but there wasn't one.

If I could change one thing, it would be to omit the (highlight to read) injured animals. I know I don't like to encounter wounded animals and believe other players may feel the same. It isn't so bad if it's a wounded person, as they aren't helpless!

I believe Brave Giant does these games better than anyone, and since they are a bit different from the usual HOG, encourage you do do more of this type. I know Tibetan Quest didn't get the reviews you hoped for, but that was a more normal, everyday HOG and there are too many of them already! I did buy it though!

And, as you know, I enjoyed watching the credits for this game! Thank you!

An absolutely top-notch match-3 game! Gorgeous graphics, wonderful music and sound effects. As well done as Perseus, with some of the same stellar features, plus refinements some players complained were missing in that one. For one, there is now a "shuffle" feature for when there are no more moves.

Too many match-3s have childlike game-play and simplistic graphics. Not so this one. There is actually a lot of strategy needed, especially when planning to use some of the upgrades, bonuses, or "blessings from the gods."

Fast playing boards. They do not start out super simple, but do progressively get more complicated and harder to complete. Good! One wonderful thing this developer gets right every time is the ability to make matches as the tiles are still falling. No waiting for the board to still before making your next move. Boy, can you get those tiles going! It isn't all straight match-3 either. Some boards are chain (drag your cursor over 3 or more, even those tiles knotted up), others groups (click on any tile within a cluster of 3 or more).

If you find the game boring, you probably didn't give it more than a board or two demo! There is so much going on! On one level you may not just have to clear the colored tiles, but match a certain amount of feathers or keys (to unlock a special item), knock out blocks or wood or undo knots, as well as pick up the golden feathers that fill the "blessings of the gods," the special powers. The "blessings" allow you to blast out an entire rows or other extra moves. The special peacock feathers are not matched, but picked up by clicking on them. This is where strategy is helpful. You may want to move one down or over before picking it up, thereby not only getting it, but removing a colored tile. There is no time to be bored!

There are yellow bombs to use anywhere you want. Just click to pick them up, move them to those tricky out of reach corners and there you go!

The tiles are beautiful, clear and very suited to the story. And the story is unfolded as you play the game.

Then, of course there are the side puzzles, as well as a building game. I am not too keen on builders, but that element here is not overdone.

Jason and the Golden Fleece was one of my favorite stories when I was a little girl, and this game does justice to the tale of the Argonauts. It's a terrific game, as close to perfect as any match-3 can come!

Some games get a 5 star review and are not recommended!

I notice the main page reviews are up now. Six with full 5 stars, and one with 4. Pretty good for a game the reviews in the forum say is an easy, cookie cutter, vanilla game! Some people must thrive on up votes. I blame social media and their little "like" buttons!

It keeps up the perfect during the entire work day! Perhaps more people will purchase it that way. Of course, I'm only guessing.

Or maybe you just aren't their favorite!
Or, perhaps the other reviews didn't follow the guidelines. That has happened to me before, my review is refused.

(By the way, I wondered the same thing.)

And tonight I finished the latest Cadenza! It was very good too, better than the first I think. It is also the only game, for the very first time, where I replayed HOS to better my achievements!

9otters wrote:bowlfreak not said,

Developers don't have to be original with their games, they just have to do them well, and then players don't notice they're doing the same things. There are certainly games out there with the "cut the stitches" puzzle that don't seem as trite because of how they are woven into the overall game.

I find this to be SO true. I just played Cadenza: Music, Betrayal and Death. It blew me away at how Mad Head made the HO genre seem NEW. The perfect combination of story and gameplay. A TEN STAR game.

If they are done well, they are original, even if that means making them part of the game. If the same ol' things are tailored to the story, that's original! Too many times they are just tossed in to add something more to the game, and they don't even fit.
I just finished Bridge to Another World: The Others, and boy, were those HOS original! Not just open a scene and there it was, but integrated into the game so well that I would be playing and realize it was a hidden object game! They didn't rely on lists at all. It was the best game I've played in a long time, at least this year.

I have to partially disagree with Pondprowler. I have been on several of those "other sites," and ran into some pretty nasty bullying directed towards myself. Here the mods try to handle it, on other sites it stays. I left several of those "other sites" because of it.

Some of the "good reviewers" (just what is a "good reviewer"? Any review is a "good review" to me!) may not be members anymore, and can't review the game until tomorrow. I may not be counted in the number of "good reviewers," but plan on reviewing it tomorrow. Or, they played a survey game and didn't like it, so why post a review? Or, more likely, they posted on the main page, where they can get voted up or down, perhaps feeding a need for acknowledgement for being a "good reviewer!" There are more reviews there than in the forums. Maybe that's the "in" place to be! I know games do better out there than here anyway. I mean, in the forums a game is panned, out "there" on the main page it will have 5 stars after 5 stars and "kudos" out the door.

I am in the middle of the bonus game (very, very long bonus game by the way) and I recall any spiders. If any, they were teeny to find in the HOS, but I don't remember if there were any of those. The SE is out now, so check the walk-through. If you don't want to look at the scenes in case it ruins things, search for "spider" using control F. If there was a big one I forgot it will bring it up.

Oh, GameLvr30! Don't be a downer, we were having such fun! Fun doesn't always have to have a point.

Well, I couldn't list everything at once!

Here are some more familiar things I am sick to death of.

* a missing zipper pull fixed with a paperclip
* making a lock pick from a hair pin
* tape to fix the faulty wiring
* dry leaves we can't move without a rake or gloves (one ERS had us use a hair comb!) for fear of dirtying up our hands
* obvious stitching to cut open
* a dark place needing a flashlight
* another dark place later needing a flashlight, but we don't have it anymore!
* anything else we use once, toss aside (at least it's gone) and need later

Don't get me started on HOS items! There are millions or billions of items in the world, but we have to find the same 100 or so every time.

On another subject, but now that I'm thinking of it, is there anyone here who calls a jewelry box or a small keepsake box a "casket?" I know it can be defined that way in a dictionary, but is it used that way by anyone who plays these games? A casket as far as I'm concerned is for dead bodies! I needed to make one the other day, in a game, and the context hadn't been explained yet! I wondered who I was going to put in it!

SPOILERS!

Well, let's see... what does this game have in common with others I have recently played?
An unearthly magical beast kidnaps someone, or is petrifying villagers, or leaving them frozen or perhaps just missing. In any event, all contact has been lost.
We have the mist, or fog, which is a mandatory element when mysterious magical beasts are on the prowl. They will have red eyes, and if human in form, cloaked in billowing black robes.
Then a house is locked, necessitating our locating either a key or a token.
There is always a locked mailbox, again needing a token or a key.
There are city walls, with emblems sans certain elements, or tokens.
There is a city gate, opened by a token we need to find, or a puzzle we have to complete.
Then the city has a couple of streets with businesses behind doors locked by either more tokens or locks needing special keys we have to find.
Behind the doors are shelves needing more books, or drawers needing... you guessed it, either another token or a key.
Cash registers are either missing keys or the handle.
Wagons usually block the streets, so we either have to find a new wheel, or a pulley to move it, requiring us to find missing gears. Or a rope. Or both.
The streets are cobbled.
The walls of the shops are stone, with at least one loose stone to pry out, revealing something stuck, requiring we come back once we locate tweezers. The street will have a grating, and a vital item will have fallen through, so off we go in search of a way to pry it up.
The streets will have oil lamps. Or have candle lit lanterns. Either way, they won't be functional until we find oil, or a flint, or yet another token if they are locked.
The characters we meet fade in and out of view, handing out tokens, keys and half the information we need.
Oh, and there will always be a need for fire. To light an oven, or those lamps once the oil is found, or to frighten off the dogs/hyenas/leopards/beasties/witches/baddie du jour.

In this game I was particularly bothered by the exact same beginning as former Dark Parables games, an injured Red Ridinghood Sister needing first aid. So, once again, off to find some healing herbs or bandages or potions.

So, yes, it's like other games. Of course, HOGs are good vs evil, with good prevailing, but the scenery need not be so copy-cat as to be familiar.

Oh, dk5793, I wish it were an "unfortunate choice of words." As an American, I can attest to the fact that "a lot" of us do feel that way. "We" also take exception to languages other than English used in these forums. I've read nasty insults replied to posts in other languages.

"A lot" is, fortunately, not the majority. But, it happens over and over again. The forums are just a very small world, unfortunately representing what happens in the big world every day. Read a few of the comments on news articles and see what I mean!

I saw an amusing image related to the subject recently. I can't share the link, but it is of a world map. It says, "Have you ever wanted to be the center of attention so much you cut Asia in half?" It's called western-centric and too many people are still of that mindset.

I believe the original poster was joking about her own reason for posting in the early hours of BFG time, not because she feels that way.

It's too bad you can't see the banner! It's adorable mice with cheese, while a cat sleeps on the opposite side of the page. "While the cat's away, the mice will play;" an apt adage for a game site!
I don't often take a second glance at the banner ad, other than what it offers. This one is cute!

Perfect for springtime, even if you're still under snow... or beginning autumn!

This company makes the best match-3 games, second to none! This game was released in 2011, yet is is better than many of the new games.

It is fast. You can make moves while tiles are falling. You can move tiles upwards even if there is a blank one there (because the one above that is frozen). These are things many of the new ones do not allow. Play it timed or relaxed with no timer.

I have all the Bonus games and play them all seasonally. They get better and better as each one comes out, but as I said, even the older ones are incredible! And addictive. Just one more board... just one more board... until I realize I'd better get ready for work!

They've given us a recap showing what has already been released instead! I can't imagine why, since we already know what came out. As for new releases, I guess they don't want us holding onto our money waiting for a weekend game, when we could be spending it earlier in the week. Keep the releases secret. That's all that makes sense to me, and I suppose it's good for business.

But a recap? I wonder who thought that was needed? Or who would gain anything from it?

Yes, sometimes games disappear! House M.D. can be found with an Internet search, there is still a page for it here, but there is no purchase option. There is a walk-through still, if you find the game and need it!

It doesn't seem to be available anywhere right now for download. You can buy CD versions though.

GameLvr30 wrote:It really is too bad that a group of bullies have made the BF forums their home but thankfully all you need to do is look at their track record of harassing one person after another to pick them out. I just wish they would stop spitting their venom onto good people using the cover of PMs. But really, why should I expect more when the sole purpose of their cowardly acts is to create conflict and drive people away so they can reign supreme?

I totally agree! The bullies forget we can look at previous posts and see a pattern of harassment, nitpicking, and general rudeness.

Really, though, GameLvr30, there is no need to put up with venomous PMs. Copy them to a Mod and block the person. It's really just a few people and easily rectified, as far as PMs go. Posts are another thing entirely. We are given the red "report" exclamation point to deal with those. It doesn't always work to remove a post, but it does give one a little satisfaction to press it!