Hey does anyone know which CEs are being released this week?  Tirama?  Anyone?  

I have a replacement CE coupon that expires next Saturday and I'm not sure what to do.  

I've just demoed last week's 2 CEs  -  Grim Tales: Crimson Hollow CE  -  Dead Reckoning: Snowbird's Creek CE  -  and I'm afraid I didn't like either one.  So I'm not sure if I should try and find another game that I rejected as a CE, knowing that I would be able to play it with my FunPass when GH releases it, and see if I've changed my mind about it and get that tomorrow.  Or whether I should use 2 CSCCs to get 4 punches tomorrow to fill a card, assuming we have a BPM, and then get either Thursday's or Friday's CE to start a card for September.  If I know what they are I can play the betas to see if they're any better than last week's 2. 

Today I demoed a game that All About Casual Game had listed as being released in August  -  Stranded Dreamscapes: The Doppleganger CE  -  but that was even worse! 



If no one knows, I'll see if I can play the betas for all the games All About Casual Game has listed for release in September and then see if I should wait and hope that any that are good are released this week and, if not, just choose one that I was tempted to get as a CE but rejected for whatever reason.

Why oh why do you only get a week before a replacement coupon expires?  I wrote to them late on Friday and got an email with a replacement coupon  -  without, of course, them having read the email, as they always state  -  only a couple of hours later, with an expiry date next Saturday ... so only 8 days to decide and right at the end of the month!



 

Grim Tales: Crimson Hollow CE  

Pros:

  -  has all 4 of my important criteria
       -  supports one touch, no BBTs, no PIIs - nothing!, no CICs
  -  LOVED that challenge
  -  good extras
       -  incl. Secret Room, Archives, good Collectibles
       -  but no replay of HOPs and MGs
  -  I LOVED the first HOP and MG, then all downhill from there

Cons:

  -  no BBTs but still got those stupid messages like, "I thought that would work"
  -  stupid HUGE notebook comes up every 5 secs with your tasks and fills the screen
  -  and I'd chosen NO TASKS - but that, as usual, is just map markings
  -  I hated the graphics!
       -  really, really harsh  (for want of a better word)
            -  in the present - way overexposed black and white
            -  in the past - overexposed, oversaturated colours
  -  apparently, the second MG has been dumbed down from the beta
       -  it only took 2 CLICKS in the demo but was quite hard in the beta
  -  there were some extra things to click on in the scenes but not very much

Recommendation for myself  - 

Can I put up with the awful graphics (although some reviewers loved them!) and that blasted huge notebook that keeps on popping up to fill the screen to play the challenging game?  And how many other MGs have been dumbed down?  Did so many people complain in the beta about how hard it was that they made it a 2-click insult to your intelligence?



NB: 

BBTs  =  Black Bar Tips
PIIs  =  Plus Item Indicators
CICs  =  Contextual Icon Changes
 

Dead Reckoning: Snowbird's Creek CE  

Pros:

  -  one-touch support, no BBT help, no CICs, no PIIs  (but see cons)
  -  usual Eipix extras  (but see cons)
  -  v. good V/Os and L/S  (voiceovers and lipsyncing)
  -  I really liked the first HOP, which was v. original
  -  and the MGs weren't bad

Cons:

  -  I HATED the grainy, flat, 2D graphics
  -  what happened to Eipix's normally great graphics?
  -  I chose no PIIs  (and it didn't say no ACTIVE PIIs!)
       -  but each PI had a huge GLOWING neon blue + above it !!!!
       -  no PIIs just means that they don't PULSATE when they're active!
  -  no BBT helpful messages, yes, but still those awful comments
       -  however, the game doesn't make sense without them!
       -  so I found that you can't play the game without the BBTs
       -  nothing is logical or used for a logical reason
       -  you'd never think of using x to get y in order to get z !
       -  I had to keep on using hints just to work out what to do next!
       -  which defeats the purpose of having no BBTs!
  -  and the collectibles were easy to spot and all the same

Recommendation for me  - 

With needing the BBTs to know what illogical things you need to do get inventory items  -  and with grainy, flat, 2D graphics that I hated  -   and with those huge, glowing, neon blue +s above the PIs  -  and with the stupid BBT comments you get when you try something and it doesn't work  -  and with the easy peasy collectibles  -  this is a no for me, even as an SE.  I was bored and just kept on hitting Hint, as nothing was logical, until I couldn't take it anymore and quit the demo.


 

sunshinej wrote:

stusue wrote:

  
 As for Rite of Passage: Child of the Forest, that's in my top 3 fav games, if not my fav game ever!  But I don't know what you mean by "squiggles".  I can't remember anything like that in the game.  All I remember is that I absolutely loved every singe minute of it and was really sorry to see it end.


 

By squiggles I meant the squiggly lines that they used in the mini games, mostly matching and fighting the big boss at the end.  Not all the mini games had them, but a lot did to make it noticeable to me.  I didn't mean anything bad by it.  I thought the game was pretty good and the story was good.

I finished the bonus game to Shadowplay: Darkness Incarnate and it took me 1 1/4 hours.  It was good.  It added some information on where the (Spoiler Alert)  lantern came from and why it was at the asylum, but not so much on the shadow thing.

I am trying to decide what my most favorite game is...True Fear or Phantasmat or Dark Parables: The Exiled Prince. 
 

Sunshine  

I downloaded Rite of Passage: Child of the Forest CE, played about half an hour, maybe a bit more, I think I played maybe 2 MGs, but didn't come across any squiggles and starting the game again rang no bells for me re these squiggles.  All it did was make me want to play it all over again!  I really, really loved it!  But squiggles?  Nope.  Nada.  Rien.  Nichts.  Got nothin'.



Thanks for the info re the Shadowplay bonus chapter!  

I just hope GH gets it sooner rather than later so I can play the CE.  Now that GH is getting all BFG's CEs, I only get the CEs from BFG that I think are worth it (for many different reasons) and that I don't want to wait to play.  All those that I'd normally get as SEs I'm now simply waiting to play the CEs with my FunPass at GH.



So ... have you worked out your fav game yet? 

Did you know that Phantasmat 7 is on its way?


 

lilyr wrote:

stusue -- Darn!  I was looking forward to DEAD RECKONING.  It sounded like a good murder mystery.  But based on your review, especially about so much that's illogical, I guess I'll pass.

Lily, please try the demo as you and I have totally different requirements in a game and you may just like it! 



If you play with helpful hints then you'd know what to do and it may not seem illogical and then you'd like the game.  For me, it was kind of like when you're not sure what to do and the hint takes you way back to a scene you haven't been to for ages just to play a HOP that there's no way you would have known was there, or that you were supposed to play again.  How were you supposed to know?  ESP?  There's no logic.  That's one of my pet peeves in a game as it's not something logical; there's no reason for you to go all the way back there or to know that there's a HOP there, and you only go back for a HOP then you have to go all the way back again to use that item. 



No one else has commented on that in the reviews so I think it's just a problem if you try to play without any helpful hints (or maybe it's just a problem for my poor little brain). 



I was really disappointed that I didn't like the demo.  I didn't like any of the 3 games I demoed today but what really surprised me was how much I hated all the graphics, especially as 2 of the developers normally have fantastic graphics - Eipix and Elephant.  Maybe my eyes were just having a bad day ...