I played Chocolatier awhile ago and thought it was just OK. So I decided to give it another try. Maybe it's because I knew how the controls worked this time around but I enjoyed it a lot more. The basic gist of the game is that a large chocolate-making family has hit some hard times. They need you to help rebuild their chocolate empire. You travel around the world in search of their lost recipes while keeping track of your factories and their inventory. In your travels, you will come across people that will place special orders for candies. For the most part, these people will pay top dollar for your wares.

In some ways, the game gets very difficult. Every time you have to make a new type of chocolate, there is a mini-game for that factory. If you wish to make that type of chocolate in multiple factories, you'll need to replay that mini-game each time. While the recipe will transfer to all of your factories, how to actually make them will not. That part is a little tedious. Especially when you are trying to teach your factories how to make the new recipes as well.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. It takes awhile to get used to what you are supposed to do and I still have problems remembering what port sells which ingredients. I think that chocolate lovers might get a kick out of this but I don't think it's anything that people will be able to play for really long periods of time.

While browsing around Yahoo Games, I came across Escape from Paradise. The description on Yahoo is: "A luxury cruise ship crashes on an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. Lead the survivors of the shipwreck, set up camp on the island, and build a rescue object to get your friends off the island. Escape from Paradise is packed full of different games to play. Explore the five islands surrounding the main island and unlock new games that will help you gather resources and aid you in your quest."

This is pretty much a Sims game. First you design your character then you are tossed onto a deserted island with one other character. After a bit of instruction from the Tiki Man, you are given some goals to complete. The first goal is "Gather 50 pieces of wood." So between your character and the computer-generated character, you must cut 50 pieces of wood as well as gather enough food so the two of you don't starve. The goals gradually get more difficult but it isn't anything you can't accomplish with a little bit of time. In between the main goals, you'll have the chance to play mini-games such as marbles. (Well, it's not called marbles but it's the same concept.) In my opinion, the mini-games aren't really necessary and end up being more difficult than the reward is worth. I'd rather just stick to the main goals of building houses and wells.

Overall, this game is just OK. It's not extremely difficult so a casual player would probably like it. However, it's rather tedious until you get a few more people in your village. I don't think too many people would stick with this beyond the 60-minute demo.