Ice Cream Craze: Tycoon Takeover is the sequel to the original Ice Cream Craze that made time management games cool (heh). Help Anna grow her business from an old ice cream truck into a force to challenge the well-established ice cream tycoon BigCo.
In the original Ice Cream Craze, you helped a teenager in the 1950's called Jan run her parents' ice cream shop. Now, it's 2 decades later, and you find out that her shop was run out of business by a giant company called BigCo. You now play the part of Anna, Jan's granddaughter. Anna believes that she can compete against BigCo, and starts off by serving ice cream out of an old ice cream truck. Granny Jan is also there to give advice along the way.
The overall goal of the game is to grow Anna's business large enough to challenge BigCo. You do that by having over $5000 in the bank and significant busines presence in all 9 locations in town. How you go about this is what makes the game stand out from other time management games and presents a fresh new perspective.
The main part of Ice Cream Craze: Tycoon Takeover is the actual serving of ice cream to customers at the ice cream truck. This starts off pretty easy at first, with just cones, 3 flavors of ice cream and 3 toppings to choose from. But depending on each level's difficulty, you might end up having to juggle cones, brownies and pies, and all sorts of flavors and toppings.
The difficulty of each level depends on which part of town you are in and what you are playing for. And this is where the game stands out from other time management games. In other games, you get to buy upgrades in between games. In this game however, the upgrades are rewards in completing specific levels. So you will need to decide whether you want to play for an espresso machine that gives you temporary speed boosts, or a cupcake platter that keeps your customers satisfied for longer.
The game isn't just a linear series of levels as well. The gameplay is separated by days, and what you decide to do each day has a huge impact on how successful your ice cream business will be. Wiill you spend Day 9 trying to earn the espresso machine? Or should you instead be trying to set up a new stall at the circus in order to earn you continuous side income every day? Setting up new stalls might be a good idea, but if you don't go for efficiency upgrades, you might find some of the more advanced levels a bit hard to cope with.
It is this overarching strategy that gives the game much of its appeal and will keep you coming back for more even after you've finished the game. Do you want to play like a businessman and quickly establish bases all over town? Or would you rather increase the efficiency of your ice cream service and earn big bucks every day?
The look and feel of the game isn't too bad either. There aren't any flashy movies or cool animations, but the graphics in the game are pleasant and definitely capture the feel of an ice cream business. However, one thing that bothers me is the abnormally big eyes that the characters have. They just creep me out...
Ice Cream Craze 2 is a great game to try, not only because it contains a really good time management aspect, but also revolves around a very fun and delicious business. Furthermore, the overall strategic and business decisions you have to make in this game give it a unique feel that is different from the other time management games out there.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Flux Family Secrets - The Ripple Effect Game Review
Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect is a hidden object game that experiments a little with the genre. In this game, you will find hidden objects, puzzles, adventure and even a few history lessons! In Flux Family Secrets, you play the role of someone who does not know their past and are actively seeking it out. A mysterious family contacts you and sends you on an adventure of a lifetime. Using a time travel device, you get to go back in time and solve historical puzzles.
The story begins with the mysterious Flux family welcoming you into their home and presenting you with a few puzzles to prove your worth. You then discover that the family has a time travel device that they use to repair damage caused by time Ripples. You then get involved helping them realign history, going back in time and solving puzzles and obtaining artifacts in the various categories such as art, music and flight.
The gameplay in Flux Family Secrets is refreshing as well. Rather than searching each scene for a shopping list of hidden objects, everything you search for in this game has a purpose. You are required to find parts of items that have been broken up into a few pieces. Once the items are assembled, you will need to either place them back into the scene where they belong, or get them to interact with some other object in the scene to progress or activate a puzzle.
The puzzles in the game are plentiful and well spread-out throughout the game so that you don't get bored with constantly looking for hidden objects. The puzzles aren't too complex, but there are many of them and they are pretty well thought out. You get to solve cryptex puzzles, safe-cracking, arrangement puzzles and even a couple of arcade-style minigames.
When you get to the time travel bits of the game, you will find that the hidden objects and puzzles aren't very straight-forward at all. In every "category" that you go back to fix (such as Art or Music), you will be presented with 3 scenes featuring 3 masters in their craft. The objects and puzzles in the 3 scenes are interconnected. You will need to solve puzzles in one scene in order to unlock puzzles and objects in a different scene. This adds a new dimension to the game, requiring you to keep hopping between scenes.
The game also adds a nice "history lesson" angle that makes it educational as well. The game will give you a brief description of Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa when you encounter them in the Art scenario. Similarly, you will learn more about the origin of flight and the Wright brothers when you encounter that scene in the Flight scenario.
The graphics and music are above average in this game. The art style and soundtrack are different for each scene and reflect the styles prevalent in those historical periods. In all, Flux Family Secrets is a game that tries to blend in features from the hidden object, puzzle, adventure and mystery genres and succeeds at doing so.
The story begins with the mysterious Flux family welcoming you into their home and presenting you with a few puzzles to prove your worth. You then discover that the family has a time travel device that they use to repair damage caused by time Ripples. You then get involved helping them realign history, going back in time and solving puzzles and obtaining artifacts in the various categories such as art, music and flight.
The gameplay in Flux Family Secrets is refreshing as well. Rather than searching each scene for a shopping list of hidden objects, everything you search for in this game has a purpose. You are required to find parts of items that have been broken up into a few pieces. Once the items are assembled, you will need to either place them back into the scene where they belong, or get them to interact with some other object in the scene to progress or activate a puzzle.
The puzzles in the game are plentiful and well spread-out throughout the game so that you don't get bored with constantly looking for hidden objects. The puzzles aren't too complex, but there are many of them and they are pretty well thought out. You get to solve cryptex puzzles, safe-cracking, arrangement puzzles and even a couple of arcade-style minigames.
When you get to the time travel bits of the game, you will find that the hidden objects and puzzles aren't very straight-forward at all. In every "category" that you go back to fix (such as Art or Music), you will be presented with 3 scenes featuring 3 masters in their craft. The objects and puzzles in the 3 scenes are interconnected. You will need to solve puzzles in one scene in order to unlock puzzles and objects in a different scene. This adds a new dimension to the game, requiring you to keep hopping between scenes.
The game also adds a nice "history lesson" angle that makes it educational as well. The game will give you a brief description of Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa when you encounter them in the Art scenario. Similarly, you will learn more about the origin of flight and the Wright brothers when you encounter that scene in the Flight scenario.
The graphics and music are above average in this game. The art style and soundtrack are different for each scene and reflect the styles prevalent in those historical periods. In all, Flux Family Secrets is a game that tries to blend in features from the hidden object, puzzle, adventure and mystery genres and succeeds at doing so.
Madworld Wii Gaming Review
Madworld is released on the Wii in March 2009 with ultra violent content and a unique look but will it be a real success or will it be too different?
Madworld is based upon the look of a graphic novel and it is almost completely done in black white and red, it is very different and can really affect your vision but is something you definitely will not see every day. Madworld is set in the city of Varrigan, which has been cut off from the world around it, as is basically left to kill or be killed culture with the winner receiving 100 million dollars. You are playing as Jack, who is in essence a bit cheesy and kind of a stereotype but an extremely violent character who is forced into the role of protector and battles against some equally violent characters called 'The Organisers' with an array of weapons. The citizens and Jack are unwilling participants in the game show to win the money but Jack has some ideas of his own. With some interesting commentators calling out moves as they are executed, this is a very unique game encompassing aspects of many different genres of game in one, which you will either really love or pretty much hate.
One of the criticisms of this game is that it is extremely short, over in around 5 hours of gameplay and although there are good mini games within it, such as MoneyShot and Man golf, some are good for the macabre visuals and comic book slash and gore although it still is a short game to shell out money for. Another frustrating aspect is if you are on your last life and die before completing the level and doing away with the boss then you will have to replay the whole level from scratch, you can't just resume from where you left off like in some games like Fable 2, for example. The overall black and white feel can also lead to a confusing effect but in all this game should appeal to the blood hungry gamer, with the violent action and hysterical commentary making this game a very innovative offering.
Madworld is based upon the look of a graphic novel and it is almost completely done in black white and red, it is very different and can really affect your vision but is something you definitely will not see every day. Madworld is set in the city of Varrigan, which has been cut off from the world around it, as is basically left to kill or be killed culture with the winner receiving 100 million dollars. You are playing as Jack, who is in essence a bit cheesy and kind of a stereotype but an extremely violent character who is forced into the role of protector and battles against some equally violent characters called 'The Organisers' with an array of weapons. The citizens and Jack are unwilling participants in the game show to win the money but Jack has some ideas of his own. With some interesting commentators calling out moves as they are executed, this is a very unique game encompassing aspects of many different genres of game in one, which you will either really love or pretty much hate.
One of the criticisms of this game is that it is extremely short, over in around 5 hours of gameplay and although there are good mini games within it, such as MoneyShot and Man golf, some are good for the macabre visuals and comic book slash and gore although it still is a short game to shell out money for. Another frustrating aspect is if you are on your last life and die before completing the level and doing away with the boss then you will have to replay the whole level from scratch, you can't just resume from where you left off like in some games like Fable 2, for example. The overall black and white feel can also lead to a confusing effect but in all this game should appeal to the blood hungry gamer, with the violent action and hysterical commentary making this game a very innovative offering.
Tomb Raider - Legend - Here at Last!
A million sexy points from Angelina Jolie couldn't do much for the Tomb Raider's first few installments. While other video games had gone places, Lara Croft could only dream of getting there. But thanks to a whole decade of fixing awkward controls and choppy motion graphics, she's finally arrived. Legend props the series up to par with radical evolutions and the audacity that survived its forerunners.
Tomb Raider: Legend anchors on Lara Croft's unquenchable thirst for her past and a passion for solving the mystery of her mother's death. Somehow, she snarls with the legend of King Arthur and ends up pursuing a magical sword's fragments that have been scattered around the world - great justice to all that platforming and box-pushing that take you everywhere from one exotic neighborhood in Ghana to another in Kazakhstan.
Basically, Lara's artifact-chasing exploits will have you working with switch puzzles through each level while searching for the artifact. But you'll want to know there's a certain cunning to these puzzles lest you fall for them and lose. The total effect is as cunning because you'd always want to beat those puzzles and while your adrenaline rushes to the point you actually figure them out, it drops because now there's nothing much to do but find the hidden pieces. The story also tends to be just a little bit garbled, although it does make perfect excuse for Lara's global itineraries. If you have an affinity for guns, there's nothing legendary about the guns in Legend. But save for these minor disappointments, you get to pump some real adrenaline just the same.
In between devastation and tombs, you could lock on to an enemy and squash him to death, throw grenades, launch air strikes, or leap onto to a speeding Ducati which is so perfect because the controls have just become more liquid and, by all chance, more cooperative. Camera woes are just about over as well, although it still could get annoying when you miscalculate a jump because of a wrong position. You'll appreciate those powerful designs that progress to a more intense feel of danger as you surpass one level onto the next.
Absolutely fantastic register on the Xbox 360 with all that crisp visual detail and all too compelling scenes. This cutting-edge illusion is created by the console's 720p with anti-aliasing coupled with Crystal Dynamic's sound that creates an altogether unique dimension to the game it practically pulls you right over into scene with Lara- whether she's bouncing off rock walls, fighting crooks in an arcadian village or colliding with cars.
Tomb Raider: Legend anchors on Lara Croft's unquenchable thirst for her past and a passion for solving the mystery of her mother's death. Somehow, she snarls with the legend of King Arthur and ends up pursuing a magical sword's fragments that have been scattered around the world - great justice to all that platforming and box-pushing that take you everywhere from one exotic neighborhood in Ghana to another in Kazakhstan.
Basically, Lara's artifact-chasing exploits will have you working with switch puzzles through each level while searching for the artifact. But you'll want to know there's a certain cunning to these puzzles lest you fall for them and lose. The total effect is as cunning because you'd always want to beat those puzzles and while your adrenaline rushes to the point you actually figure them out, it drops because now there's nothing much to do but find the hidden pieces. The story also tends to be just a little bit garbled, although it does make perfect excuse for Lara's global itineraries. If you have an affinity for guns, there's nothing legendary about the guns in Legend. But save for these minor disappointments, you get to pump some real adrenaline just the same.
In between devastation and tombs, you could lock on to an enemy and squash him to death, throw grenades, launch air strikes, or leap onto to a speeding Ducati which is so perfect because the controls have just become more liquid and, by all chance, more cooperative. Camera woes are just about over as well, although it still could get annoying when you miscalculate a jump because of a wrong position. You'll appreciate those powerful designs that progress to a more intense feel of danger as you surpass one level onto the next.
Absolutely fantastic register on the Xbox 360 with all that crisp visual detail and all too compelling scenes. This cutting-edge illusion is created by the console's 720p with anti-aliasing coupled with Crystal Dynamic's sound that creates an altogether unique dimension to the game it practically pulls you right over into scene with Lara- whether she's bouncing off rock walls, fighting crooks in an arcadian village or colliding with cars.
Jackaless African Gun Safari - Far Cry 2 is a Bit Short on Delivery!
I had been serializing Far Cry 2 as you can see in my last two posts, but after the shooting of the King and placing his son in charge of the throne (Far Cry 2 : Snap, Crackle and Pop!) I saw that Far Cry 2 may not be as deep as I thought it was going to be. I was fairly right in this regard, Far Cry 2 is a pretty big game but it isn't as creative an endeavour as say, Fallout 3, (Fallout 3 Welcome to Glitch City!) which I was unable to complete because of technical difficulties. I continued with Far Cry 2 though, and finally completed it. In some of the pictures of the game I see that the guns, etc., are pretty new looking! That is probably due to these 'side missions' that you can complete throughout the game. I decided that I wouldn't do these and made sure that I stuck to the Main Story of the game. I just couldn't see myself running down a 'Caravan" of gun runners half way across the map just to open up a few guns. But indeed it is troubling to have a rifle that Jams on you! Your guns, if they are not your own actually get Rusty throughout the game! This isn't a bad device to tell the truth and does add some realism to the game.
There are Games out there that as soon as they hit the street seem dated already. This, I believe is because the developers/creators of these games are looking a bit in the past at times. This isn't a bad thing, but Far Cry 2 is pretty dated already. It's a game that 'feels' like a generation behind the Gaming Curve. You can start to feel pretty lonely in fact if your playing Far Cry 2, on your own these days. Most game boys have blown by it some time ago. And this was the case with me here, yet I had done pretty much the same with Brotherhood In Arms (A Flash of Hitler - Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway) and in fact, it is kind of nice not to have that kinetic gameboy energy all around. I mean I was thinking I was going to get Killzone 2 and up pops Far Cry 2... so you see the difference! Anyway I'm just saying that Far Cry 2 is a very leisurely game compared to other more recent shooters.
To summarize Far Cry 2, you are an operative on a mission to hunt down The Jackal a Gunrunner who has been supplying munitions to both sides of an African Civil War. The two sides of the conflict the UFLL and the APR are led by their respective Generals who are constantly bickering about generally petty matters. It's a lot of Pride and not much Brain Power, you might say, which is what usually rules these 'fly by night' Militias. The African nation, by the way is fictional.
The goal of the player's character is to find and assassinate the Jackal, an arms-dealer who has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict. The player must accomplish this goal by whatever means necessary, even if he has to reach the level of immorality employed by the warring factions and the Jackal himself.
That's from Wikipedia and yes that was the stated goal, to hunt down the assassin, The Jackal and kill him. Yet the game really doesn't deliver on this or keep the narrative going in this manner. The Jackal rarely shows up in the game at all! You can find Tapes of the Jackal throughout the game, but in the end I only found 2, simply because I wasn't looking for them! Instead of hunting the Jackal you'll find yourself going either to the UFLL or the APR, who when you arrive at the Office they are always ready to either Assassinate their enemies on the other side or blow up and or steal something that their enemies have, the Jackal himself is not much mentioned at all. That's the real problem of Far Cry 2 in that it would have been really very cool to see The Jackal constantly mixing it up with me in the game... but amazingly at the end of the game I don't even get to shoot him!Yet Far Cry 2 is inventive and really pretty fun once you get into the Vibe of the thing. I focused on doing jobs for the UFLL exclusively, but then the game would only let me do jobs for the APR after that... so the games AI wasn't all that expansive after all! Still it was sort of fun to drive around. You usually have to get from place to place by Jeep, etc... although you can take the bus, which is sometimes necessary, you'll often have to go through checkpoints along the road that are heavily fortified with militia. I'd usually stop my Jeep just a bit before they realized I was coming in and Snipe one or two. In fact all you'll really need is the Sniper Rifle. My favorite weapon in any game except for maybe a really powerful Magnum is any Sniper Rifle. I pretty much went through the game blowing away these Militias pretty effectively, especially at the destinations. I found that if you stop a few clicks out from a 'town' or 'village' where your main mission takes you, you can snipe one guard and the entire force of the town will soon arrive. In that way you can get, sometimes, about eight cool kills. I Bagged quite a few this[a]way!
And this is how the game goes for the most part, going back a forth doing the UFLL's and the APR's business for them. I was pretty happy towards the end of the game to get the final sniper rifle which I used to good use, and found throughout the game you can just stop in at your gunshop and update the condition and accuracy of you gun then constantly go to the gun supply area to renew it's newness! This worked out fine, in fact as by the near end of the game all the guns etc, become available. I didn't much bother with finding the cases of diamonds, either, there are about 150 cases throughout the game, you open them up and get a diamond. Well I only got a case when I heard it beeping and couldn't be bothered to hunt everyone of them down... in fact you get plenty of money/diamonds for doing your missions to buy munitions.
That is how Far Cry 2 goes however and only towards the end do you get to see a bit more of the Jackal, he is against Peace and wants an all out assault for both sides, but then later seems to change his tune a bit, all of which I found a bit unusual. If the makers of Far Cry 2 had focused upon the Jackal as the center of the story, as was promised then Far Cry 2 would have had a real emotional impact and purpose to it, but as just a minor character in a very, finely rendered African Savannah, The Jackal doesn't have much 'Teeth' as we would say in the Congo! He's sort of not a part of the conflict it seems... not much of a threat either... still Far Cry 2 is a pretty good game, inventive and has a really good 'feel' to it. You could end up spending many, many hours playing Far Cry 2... I choose to blast through it as fast as possible and even that took me a bit of time to get through... so Far Cry 2 is a worthwhile game but one in which you will wish had got the story better and the conflict with the Jackal more clear and purposeful.
There are Games out there that as soon as they hit the street seem dated already. This, I believe is because the developers/creators of these games are looking a bit in the past at times. This isn't a bad thing, but Far Cry 2 is pretty dated already. It's a game that 'feels' like a generation behind the Gaming Curve. You can start to feel pretty lonely in fact if your playing Far Cry 2, on your own these days. Most game boys have blown by it some time ago. And this was the case with me here, yet I had done pretty much the same with Brotherhood In Arms (A Flash of Hitler - Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway) and in fact, it is kind of nice not to have that kinetic gameboy energy all around. I mean I was thinking I was going to get Killzone 2 and up pops Far Cry 2... so you see the difference! Anyway I'm just saying that Far Cry 2 is a very leisurely game compared to other more recent shooters.
To summarize Far Cry 2, you are an operative on a mission to hunt down The Jackal a Gunrunner who has been supplying munitions to both sides of an African Civil War. The two sides of the conflict the UFLL and the APR are led by their respective Generals who are constantly bickering about generally petty matters. It's a lot of Pride and not much Brain Power, you might say, which is what usually rules these 'fly by night' Militias. The African nation, by the way is fictional.
The goal of the player's character is to find and assassinate the Jackal, an arms-dealer who has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict. The player must accomplish this goal by whatever means necessary, even if he has to reach the level of immorality employed by the warring factions and the Jackal himself.
That's from Wikipedia and yes that was the stated goal, to hunt down the assassin, The Jackal and kill him. Yet the game really doesn't deliver on this or keep the narrative going in this manner. The Jackal rarely shows up in the game at all! You can find Tapes of the Jackal throughout the game, but in the end I only found 2, simply because I wasn't looking for them! Instead of hunting the Jackal you'll find yourself going either to the UFLL or the APR, who when you arrive at the Office they are always ready to either Assassinate their enemies on the other side or blow up and or steal something that their enemies have, the Jackal himself is not much mentioned at all. That's the real problem of Far Cry 2 in that it would have been really very cool to see The Jackal constantly mixing it up with me in the game... but amazingly at the end of the game I don't even get to shoot him!Yet Far Cry 2 is inventive and really pretty fun once you get into the Vibe of the thing. I focused on doing jobs for the UFLL exclusively, but then the game would only let me do jobs for the APR after that... so the games AI wasn't all that expansive after all! Still it was sort of fun to drive around. You usually have to get from place to place by Jeep, etc... although you can take the bus, which is sometimes necessary, you'll often have to go through checkpoints along the road that are heavily fortified with militia. I'd usually stop my Jeep just a bit before they realized I was coming in and Snipe one or two. In fact all you'll really need is the Sniper Rifle. My favorite weapon in any game except for maybe a really powerful Magnum is any Sniper Rifle. I pretty much went through the game blowing away these Militias pretty effectively, especially at the destinations. I found that if you stop a few clicks out from a 'town' or 'village' where your main mission takes you, you can snipe one guard and the entire force of the town will soon arrive. In that way you can get, sometimes, about eight cool kills. I Bagged quite a few this[a]way!
And this is how the game goes for the most part, going back a forth doing the UFLL's and the APR's business for them. I was pretty happy towards the end of the game to get the final sniper rifle which I used to good use, and found throughout the game you can just stop in at your gunshop and update the condition and accuracy of you gun then constantly go to the gun supply area to renew it's newness! This worked out fine, in fact as by the near end of the game all the guns etc, become available. I didn't much bother with finding the cases of diamonds, either, there are about 150 cases throughout the game, you open them up and get a diamond. Well I only got a case when I heard it beeping and couldn't be bothered to hunt everyone of them down... in fact you get plenty of money/diamonds for doing your missions to buy munitions.
That is how Far Cry 2 goes however and only towards the end do you get to see a bit more of the Jackal, he is against Peace and wants an all out assault for both sides, but then later seems to change his tune a bit, all of which I found a bit unusual. If the makers of Far Cry 2 had focused upon the Jackal as the center of the story, as was promised then Far Cry 2 would have had a real emotional impact and purpose to it, but as just a minor character in a very, finely rendered African Savannah, The Jackal doesn't have much 'Teeth' as we would say in the Congo! He's sort of not a part of the conflict it seems... not much of a threat either... still Far Cry 2 is a pretty good game, inventive and has a really good 'feel' to it. You could end up spending many, many hours playing Far Cry 2... I choose to blast through it as fast as possible and even that took me a bit of time to get through... so Far Cry 2 is a worthwhile game but one in which you will wish had got the story better and the conflict with the Jackal more clear and purposeful.
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