A long time ago, I played the first Cinema Tycoon game. I tend to have a weakness for Tycoon games but this one was fairly boring. Basically, you are given a movie theater and you need to run it. You pick what movies will play, how much tickets cost, the type of advertising you'll use and even what you'll sell at the concession stand. The problem is that once the day started running, there wasn't anything for you to do. So you spent a lot of the time fast-forwarding through the day. Cinema Tycoon 2: Movie Mania isn't much different. You seem to spend a lot of time just picking out what movies to show and restocking the concession stand. The rest of the options don't seem particularly necessary. Definitely a boring game.
Game review: Road to Riches
Wanting to try something a bit different, I downloaded Road to Riches. You play John, a trucker who has been fired from his job. Instead of getting down in the dumps, he decides to open his own delivery company. Unfortunately, this is not a good time management game. It is difficult to figure out which shipments you need to pick up and which ones you should turn down. If you try to pick up all of them, you will frequently go into "overtime" and be penalized. It would be nice if there was a way to color the important deliveries one color and the unimportant ones a separate color. So, while this should be a fun game to play, it is not. It is just frustrating.
Game review: Cooking Dash
Everyone's favorite waitress, Flo, is back for yet another Dash game. This time it's Cooking Dash. At Flo's order, her chef has left the restaurant to further his career, leaving Flo and her grandmother to handle the shop. Grandmother handles making the sandwiches while Flo cooks food and serves the customers. This was a ton easier than the Diner Dash: Seasonal Snack Pack. As a matter of fact, this version is a lot like the original Diner Dash game but with better graphics. However, instead of just handling customers' orders, Flo also has to handle the grill and the fryer. Adding these jobs to her waitress job doesn't make completing her tasks impossible though. It's just another trip around the kitchen. If you like the Diner Dash series, I think you'd really like Cooking Dash as well.
Game review: Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville
Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville is an interesting hidden object game. Your character recently bought a new house and is in the process of fixing it up. In order to make it beautiful enough to feature on the cover of a magazine, you hit up the local yard sales to find a variety of treasures. While the hidden object parts of the game are pretty standard, the in-between pieces are where the game shines. At times, you will find broken but gorgeous pieces at a yard sale. You put these broken treasures back together in these in-between games. Everything from fixing a broken lamp to painting a chair can be found here. A great way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Game review: The Great Chocolate Chase
About a year ago, I played a game called Chocolatier. While I didn't have fun at first, I quickly grew to enjoy the game. So I tried one of the sequels, The Great Chocolate Chase. Unfortunately, everything that was fun about the game was removed. Instead of flying around the world trying to find new chocolate recipes for your company, you are waiting on customers much like a Diner Dash game. (Though the visuals are more like Cake Mania.) From the first level, the game is way too difficult. It is almost impossible to keep up with the number of customers they throw at you. And since each order takes about three steps to make, it's difficult to make the chocolate the existing customers want while getting menus for new customers. Overall, it's a terrible game that isn't worth the time to try.
Game review: Farm Mania
I was told about Farm Mania at the beginning of this month. However, I really wanted to play the game for awhile before I talked about it. After all, this seemed like a game that could go either way. Well, I've now played the game for around two weeks and I think I'm ready to open up.
At first, I was very hesitant to play Farm Mania. I have so much love for Farm Frenzy that I was afraid this would ruin the whole farming time management genre for me. Luckily, my fears were unwarranted. Reallore Studios has a hit on their hands.
You play Anna, a girl trying to help get her grandparents' farm back on its feet. Throughout the game, you will plant crops, raise animals and sell a variety of goods while trying to keep crows and rabbits from destroying your work. Both of your grandparents help out so you aren't totally left on your own to tend the farm.
I am still having tons of fun playing this. Granted, it gets harder to juggle everything as you get into the higher levels but, to be honest, that is what keeps the game fun - deciding what pieces are really important to keep up with and what pieces can be ignored for a little while. Definitely give this one a try. You won't regret it!
Green Day - Castaway
I have been a big fan of Green Day for a long time. Of their entire discography, the Warning CD is my least favorite. "Castaway" appears on this disc.
The song is one of their more 'pop' songs and it sounds like they wrote it because some studio exec thought it would sound 'cool.' So we end up with a rather bland tune. Even the semi-catchy parts of the song come across as bored. There is very little energy here and, unfortunately, that feeling takes up most of the album.
Game review: Sunshine Acres
It seems that farming games have become pretty popular lately. Sunshine Acres is one of the new time management games based on raising crops. It is not a difficult game but it does get a little tedious after awhile since it is the same motions over and over. Due to this, it's hard for me to judge how fun the game is. I enjoyed the one hour demo but I can see it getting boring in higher levels. This is one you'll just have to try out for yourself.
Game review: Diner Dash: Seasonal Snack Pack
I've always been a big fan of the Diner Dash series. It pretty much started the whole time management genre and it still managed to stay interesting after all this time. However, the Seasonal Snack Pack version is much too difficult. As a matter of fact, it's so difficult that I stopped playing around the third level. I keep going back to try to beat it but, no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it. The main problem lies in the table organization, which you cannot change. You are given one or two four-seat tables and three or four two-seat tables. A majority of the customers that come in are four-person parties, which means you cannot seat them until one of the few four-seat tables opens up. Then the customers get pissed off having to wait. Since it takes so long to do the "Make the waiting customers happy" thing, there isn't really a way to keep them from walking off. Well, there is, but it's difficult. Either way, the level is still too hard for the game. I can't imagine what the higher levels are like.
TV Review: My Own Worst Enemy
When I was younger, I had a huge crush on Christian Slater. I would even sit through a terrible movie just because he was in it. When I heard that he was starring in a new television show, there were many fangirl moments. Luckily, my husband was intrigued by the show's premise and wanted to watch it as well. My Own Worst Enemy is about a secret agent named Edward Albright. Edward does all the spy things: sniping someone from an empty building, having sex with the hot female enemy and having lots of secrets. One of his secrets is that he is also Henry Spivy, a normal working man with a wife and two kids. Henry does not know about Edward. Henry is Edward's undercover personality. Somehow, the organization has figured out a way to force a person into a split personality. When Edward "goes to sleep," Henry "wakes up." When Henry is woken via a computer program, the computer also implants false memories to explain the time away from his family. (He travels a lot for work.)
First - Christian Slater is still hot. Second - the show was pretty interesting. The debut episode dealt with the problems that arose when Henry suddenly wakes up in the middle of one of Edward's missions. Since Henry was not aware that he is a split personality, it came as quite a shock to him. He seems to have dealt with it in a very rational manner and I'm curious to see where the writers will go from here.
I also have to curse NBC for putting all their interesting shows on Monday nights. Spread the love out across the whole week man!