Belated Merry Christmas

Ah Monday. It's back to the grindstone for most people. I hope everyone had a happy holiday, no matter what they celebrate. Things went well for me and I got some much needed rest. This week should be the last ultra-busy week for me. Then I can go back to playing video games and watching dramas. I apologize that I haven't been able to do much of either for a long time. I will get my free time back, I swear!

Game review: Artist Colony

Since we were snowed in all weekend, I decided to waste some time playing Artist Colony. It looked a lot like Virtual Villagers. Since I really enjoyed that series, this should be fun too, right? Well, it's mostly fun. As with most simulation games, there is a set of goals that the characters need to finish. The story is about a group of artists coming together to rebuild an old artists' colony. (There's a backstory about friendship and love, but it's not really all that necessary to the game play.) You get money to complete tasks by selling the artists' works. Since you begin with only two artists, it's a little difficult to raise money. However, once you start attracting new artists to the colony, things can really get moving. Then it ends up being a little difficult to keep track of everyone. On top of that, I found myself getting bored with the tedious task of training the artist and having them create masterpieces to sell. Perhaps if the selling part went a little faster, the creating part wouldn't be so dull. As it was, I ended up with artists that couldn't create anything because I filled up my gallery yet no one was coming to buy anything.

Overall, it was a decent game. There were little annoyances, but I could easily overlook them. If nothing else, I wanted to see what the end result was.

Koziar's Christmas Village

I completely forgot to talk about this. If you live within driving distance of Berks County and have children, you might enjoy checking out Koziar's Christmas Village. My husband and I took our 7-year old daughter over the weekend and she had a pretty good time. Basically, Koziar's is a large plot of land with various buildings entirely decorated with Christmas lights. When you walk in, there's an area to the right that has three trains running on a track around a little village. On the pond, there's a lit-up pirate ship. Nearby, there's a lit train with a couple of cars. As you walk through the village, there are buildings dressed up with themes like "Christmas Around The World." There's also an old-fashioned post office and fire station. And, of course, the kids can have their pictures taken with Santa Claus.

For the adults, there are a couple of gift stores where you can buy ornaments or nutcrackers or little things for the kids. My in-laws bought my daughter light-up reindeer antlers and a light-up Rudolph nose. There were also a variety of really cute hats, including a pig with wings and a blue elephant. If you get cold or hungry, there's plenty of hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and cookies.

Just make sure you get there early! Otherwise the line is huge!

Game review: Escape the Museum 2

Back in April 2008, I talked about Escape the Museum, a rather innovative hidden object game. A couple of days ago, I played the sequel, Escape the Museum 2. The underlying basis of the original game is there, however, they have changed a few things that make the game a little difficult. Each area you need to explore has two pieces: a hidden object section (and there's usually more than one of those) and a 'fix it' section. The hidden object part is pretty basic. They give you a list and you find the objects. Then, for the 'fix it' section, you use certain pieces from those hidden object lists to fix whatever is impeding your progress to the next area. Both of these are fine and dandy. Unfortunately, the game has added an ultimate 'fix it' section where you need to pick up pieces of a bridge that will be used later. These pieces are usually hidden under other objects in the main area. For instance, you have to move a pile of bricks to find one piece. The only way you know a piece is under those bricks is the slight shuddering of the pile when you mouse over it. If you don't find the piece, the area is marked "Unfinished." I don't know about you...but it bugs me to have an unfinished area so I had to keep going back to try to find whatever I was missing.

I really would like this game if it didn't have those 'Ultimate Hidden Object' pieces. Not only are they impossible to find, but you don't even know they are there unless you stumble onto them or leave an area to see it marked "Unfinished." It doesn't show up in any list at all. If that part doesn't bother you, then it's a fun game that I think you would enjoy.