First I'd like to say that this post may contain some game spoilers, but I'll try to keep those to the bare minimum. That said, I think if you haven't played the game at all yet, read this after you've played a bit, but before your village population is over ten people including infants. Same goes in my opinion, for the official guide at www.ldwforums.com which is the address to the forum community at Last Day of Work, the makers of this game. I'd give you a hot link to it, but their linking policy is a little complicated. Spoilers start below.
I'm glad to say I was able to purchase the game through Big Fish several days ago, after find at the LDW forums that Big Dish was indeed going to be getting the game soon. As I understand it, this version of the game is still a bit of a work in progress, with additional tweaking to be released at a later date. I'm very much enjoying this game. and now that my Villagers are no longer on the verge of starvation I can relax and move back into a more casual playing mode. One vital piece of information that is in the official guide is that until the Villagers can fish, the available food sources can support a maximum of 12-15 people. I read this after my population was at 17, and spent quite a bit of touch and go time staving off starvation with mushroom harvests. It's ideal to have at least two children at all times with this game, as unlike earlier Virtual Villagers games, there are often several collectibles and/or mushrooms appearing at the same time. Which is really nice actually, as it keeps you busy.
I'm saddened to say, I did have to read the walk-through section on the fishing puzzle in order to get my Villagers on the right track, I really wanted to solve it without cheating, but I didn't know I had exceeded my max population on current food sources until it was obviously too late. Thankfully, I was able to pull them through once I did get them working on the right track. No one has died as yet. And, with the information from the walk-through, I was able to focus all their labor on the solution, where up until that point I had them working on less important areas, unknowingly. If you keep your population below the max level you should be able to work out the puzzle, without cheating, at your leisure.
I'm looking forward to solving the rest of the puzzles on my own, barring an attack of sheer frustration.
So, I'd recommend getting this game, exploring a little first and then maybe checking out the guide, it's nicely organized into basic information first, and clearly warns the reader before they get to the actual puzzle solutions and other such spoilers.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City
I had a chance to play a demo of Virtual Villagers 3 and it looks great! The new layout is kinda of startling at first as much of the space is vertical, however either due to this new format, or to some tinkering in the coding, moving your point of view throughout the area is much faster. Which is a great improvement over earlier editions in which, especially for objects the kids can gather by the time you find an object and get a kid to it, sometimes it disappears just as you drop the kid on it.
The only flaw in the vertical layout that I found so far, is that occasionally dropping a villager on what looks like the edge of an upper level, means they fall through to a lower level, so ther is a bit of an adjustment period on learning the exact spot to place villagers occasionally.
As with other versions of the game, finding food sources for your villagers looks to be tricky. The only advice I have at this point concerns a new feature in the game, called "factions."
It is somewhat confusing, as the description implies the possibility of an immediate increase in food supplies if you choose the "Nature" faction, but I did not find this to be the case in the limited play time that I had. So, I'd advise waiting to choose (and spend tech points to do so) until after there are several constant food supplies available. The faction feature appears to be designed to increase the variety of playing options, in that once you do choose a faction, your players are committed to that "lifestyle," as it were, for the remainder of the game. Exactly what sort of differences in the Villagers experiences either faction will create is still a mystery (at least to me.) But the fact that Last Day of Work seems to be trying to increase the repeatable playing factor in the game bodes well.
Last Day of Work specializes in games that run in real time, that is, unless you pause the game, life continues forward for whatever characters or creatures in your game, which means if you forget to check on them frequently, they often die. On the other hand, it also means you don't have to have the game running, or even have your computer on, in order for fish or plants to mature, or Villagers to earn tech points. Finding the balance of speed of game play, frequency of needed check points, and just getting bored while waiting for something to happen is part of the challenge of their games. I do agree with one reviewer, that suggested the games need an even faster rate of time, for when you want to be hands on, but are tending towards boredom. Currently, there is paused, half speed, normal and fast, which appears to be about double. A times four speed option would be ideal.
The same reviewer also mentioned a zoom option would be nice in the Virtual Villagers games. I agree, especially for when a new game such as this one comes out, as there appear to be some items hidden in nooks here and there. And although the game doesn't actively need it, being able to rotate ones view point would be a nice touch as well, though I imagine both addition are left out because the coding for them would slow game play, increase game size and possibly create problems on older graphic systems. One of the nice features of these games is that the currently don't require vast resources to run. I'd hate for that to change.
I am looking forward to being able to own this game and learn all it secrets. I tried to find out when (or if) Big Fish Games will be offering it and ran into a road block as they have a company policy of not revealing release dates, apparently because all such dates are tentative. I'm a bit annoyed that they were not even willing to say whether or not they are going to be able to offer it, ever. My concern is, that to date, the only places I have seen it offered, actually link back to Last Day of Work itself, for the download, so I am wondering if Last Day wishes to keep this game exclusive. Which means a $20.00 or so investment, rather than my Big Fish game club rate of $6.99. Sigh. I live on a very limited income through SSI, as I have always been too disabled to work a "regular" job, so $20.00 is a rather significant chunk. I'll do it if my patience runs out before I can find it someplace else.
In the meantime, I am revisiting Virtual Villagers 2: the Lost Children and playing it in hard difficulty level. I have found that the Villagers require near constant attention in that mode, especially when it comes to harvesting and replanting efficiently. I use the pause feature a lot, and have managed to keep all but one of them alive despite frequently having no food, those magic stews are a lifesaver.
Well, I'm off to see if I can track down a bargain on Virtual Villagers 3, wish me luck, and happy gaming! If I find a bargain I will post an update here.
The only flaw in the vertical layout that I found so far, is that occasionally dropping a villager on what looks like the edge of an upper level, means they fall through to a lower level, so ther is a bit of an adjustment period on learning the exact spot to place villagers occasionally.
As with other versions of the game, finding food sources for your villagers looks to be tricky. The only advice I have at this point concerns a new feature in the game, called "factions."
It is somewhat confusing, as the description implies the possibility of an immediate increase in food supplies if you choose the "Nature" faction, but I did not find this to be the case in the limited play time that I had. So, I'd advise waiting to choose (and spend tech points to do so) until after there are several constant food supplies available. The faction feature appears to be designed to increase the variety of playing options, in that once you do choose a faction, your players are committed to that "lifestyle," as it were, for the remainder of the game. Exactly what sort of differences in the Villagers experiences either faction will create is still a mystery (at least to me.) But the fact that Last Day of Work seems to be trying to increase the repeatable playing factor in the game bodes well.
Last Day of Work specializes in games that run in real time, that is, unless you pause the game, life continues forward for whatever characters or creatures in your game, which means if you forget to check on them frequently, they often die. On the other hand, it also means you don't have to have the game running, or even have your computer on, in order for fish or plants to mature, or Villagers to earn tech points. Finding the balance of speed of game play, frequency of needed check points, and just getting bored while waiting for something to happen is part of the challenge of their games. I do agree with one reviewer, that suggested the games need an even faster rate of time, for when you want to be hands on, but are tending towards boredom. Currently, there is paused, half speed, normal and fast, which appears to be about double. A times four speed option would be ideal.
The same reviewer also mentioned a zoom option would be nice in the Virtual Villagers games. I agree, especially for when a new game such as this one comes out, as there appear to be some items hidden in nooks here and there. And although the game doesn't actively need it, being able to rotate ones view point would be a nice touch as well, though I imagine both addition are left out because the coding for them would slow game play, increase game size and possibly create problems on older graphic systems. One of the nice features of these games is that the currently don't require vast resources to run. I'd hate for that to change.
I am looking forward to being able to own this game and learn all it secrets. I tried to find out when (or if) Big Fish Games will be offering it and ran into a road block as they have a company policy of not revealing release dates, apparently because all such dates are tentative. I'm a bit annoyed that they were not even willing to say whether or not they are going to be able to offer it, ever. My concern is, that to date, the only places I have seen it offered, actually link back to Last Day of Work itself, for the download, so I am wondering if Last Day wishes to keep this game exclusive. Which means a $20.00 or so investment, rather than my Big Fish game club rate of $6.99. Sigh. I live on a very limited income through SSI, as I have always been too disabled to work a "regular" job, so $20.00 is a rather significant chunk. I'll do it if my patience runs out before I can find it someplace else.
In the meantime, I am revisiting Virtual Villagers 2: the Lost Children and playing it in hard difficulty level. I have found that the Villagers require near constant attention in that mode, especially when it comes to harvesting and replanting efficiently. I use the pause feature a lot, and have managed to keep all but one of them alive despite frequently having no food, those magic stews are a lifesaver.
Well, I'm off to see if I can track down a bargain on Virtual Villagers 3, wish me luck, and happy gaming! If I find a bargain I will post an update here.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Empires & Dungeons
A dungeon and dragons style game. Actually fairly enjoyable if somewhat simple. Lots of slashing and fighting. Find jewels and other treasures in the dungeons while doing battle with all sorts of nasty beasties. Watch out for the Dire Witch...she was the death of me several times, fortunately I revived. Use resources to build up you army and castle in order to defeat the enemy army and their lord. This game is somewhat tricker than I expected it to be at first, so I did not get very far in the hour demo, but that is good news since it means the game has staying power.
I found the fighting rather repetitive and noisy, but it's still a game I may buy at some point. Sometimes you just need to do some slashing and invading.
I found the fighting rather repetitive and noisy, but it's still a game I may buy at some point. Sometimes you just need to do some slashing and invading.
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