Celebrities. Blogging. It’s a dream come true for some who would love to write about famous people and their lives. Gotcha: Celebrity Secrets is your chance to get a taste of that. As Gaby, you start working as a blogger and doing whatever you can to break the news so you can drive up your blog traffic. In this hidden object game, you search for people instead of things — a nice twist that unfortunately feels monotonous after a little play despite 40 scenes and 1200 characters.

When you first meet Gaby, she’s in a job that she hates (familiar to many). She begins receiving text messages letting her know where celebrities will appear. A chapter consists of following a celebrity and getting the story. Events include a wedding, a birth, awards and others. Every scene also has bonus objects, which includes finding Gaby, five stars and another person or thing. The game gets harder as you advance by adding more people and creating more crowded scenes. You can also challenge yourself to reach the expert level by finding everyone before time runs out.

The game tells you who you need to find by giving clues. Sometimes you see the person’s image, sometimes you receive a clue like “wearing a t-shirt with a heart on it” and sometimes you see a silhouette. After playing a couple of chapters, you’ll notice the people start repeating and before long, you know exactly what you need to find. Though the scenes grow more crowded, the cues will help you see through them.

One of the things going for the game is its vibrant colors and cartoon-style graphics. Although it offers a creative twist in the hidden object genre, Gotcha: Celebrity Secrets just doesn’t grip you long enough to want to play the whole game. The free hour of play is more than enough to give you an idea of the whole game. If you play to see how it ends, this one’s ending doesn’t satisfy. It’s a shame because this offers an original story and game play that could’ve gone further with the right treatment.

Download Gotcha: Celebrity Secrets.

FTC warning: Game received from publisher.

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games

Anyone looking to finish the year off with a bang and lots of fun should head straight for Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove. This point-and-click game tells the story of four friends who are  graduate students filming their adventures only to run into trouble. The friends have disappeared and you find their movies dispersed throughout the captivating game.

In England, you run into a snowstorm where you come across an abandoned car with a video camera just outside of Dire Grove. Naturally, you can’t help but become curious and investigate the four friends’ claim that the legend of Dire Grove is real. While you won’t see a big leap between this one and Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst, it takes on a whole new story that comes together nicely with a satisfying ending. I wasn’t too happy with the ending Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst. Return to Ravenhearst is good, but it’s not a stand-alone story like Dire Grove.

Some scenes require you to find items that appear in the list — like in hidden object games, but then you’ll be rewarded with something you need for your travels. One of the strengths of the series is that you can go any place you wish. The only time “order” matters is when you need to find something before you can move forward. You’ll see sparkles appear in scenes, which indicate you need to explore the area.

The setting goes far and wide, although it won’t look that way in the beginning. Then you discover openings to bigger areas as you explore and check everything possible. For the longest time, I made no progress because I had overlooked a barely noticeable door in one of the rooms. You may get stuck at times when you have everything and yet, can’t progress. Do not give up. Keep looking around and touching everything or ask for a hint. Sometimes you just miss a step. Hints are almost always available, but you’ll need to give the hint meter a few moments to refill.

I’m not a fan of horror films, so I can promise you that those who feel the same won’t have a problem with this one. The films only make up a part of the action and I’m grateful they came with closed-captions. When I first heard about the game and its use of video, I freaked because my experience has been that most things don’t come subtitled.

A couple of short phrases that didn’t have captions, but you can find out what was said with a little research. These little quotes aren’t detrimental to the story. Do pay attention to the videos because they give you clues that can help as does your casebook, which captures your notes of what you’ve seen. The film also has some jerky action, not too agreeable for this gal who gets dizzy easily.

Considering the Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove takes place in England, the actors also have a British accent adding to its authenticity. The whole production reels you in making you feel a part of the game. A Collector’s Edition is available, which offers bonus game play, challenge and achievement system, tracking down 50+ objects that change shape and a strategy guide.

Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove is a superb game that will entertain you for a full day, a wonderful way to spend a winter day huddled around the computer and staying warm even though the most of the scenes are frozen.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games, Puzzle Games

PlayFirst has announced the upcoming launch of Gotcha: Celebrity Secrets, a hidden object game set in the world of celebrity sass and scandal. Launching December 15, 2009 on Playfirst.com, and other retailers beginning January 15, 2010, Gotcha: Celebrity Secrets will be available for PC and Mac Digital Download, priced at $19.95.

Gotcha puts you in the shoes of Gaby, a green but intrepid celebrity blogger, on a mission to uncover the juiciest gossip. Instead of searching for objects, players search for people. Plays hunt for special informants bursting with potential news at jet set events, jam-packed parties and red carpet galas. Gaby tries to unearth the details surrounding celebrity secrets like hush hush nuptials, new nip and tuck surgeries, who is having who’s baby (and what is it named?) and more. Locating these influential insiders is no easy task, as players need to scour over 40 crowded scenes throughout town.

Players will also face unique Tinsel Town challenges as they hunt for gossip, such as maneuvering past security guards, moving limos and crowd-clogging confetti. And of course, players will need to contend with camera-shy personas who don’t want Gaby digging up their secrets. A collection of all-new mini-games challenge sleuths to piece together clues from informants, leading to salacious stories about the most sought-after personas in the biz.

Gotcha will have players looking for over 1,000 different characters, ranging from crazy and cool, to everything in between, each with a one-of-kind take on Hollywood. All of which ends up on Gaby’s celebrity blog, which players can customize with an array of styles and upgrades. Player’s will dish on the hottest happenings at venues including a Night Club, Airport, Charity Functions, Reality Shows and more. Players will turn the town over looking for spicy rumors, gossip and more on their way to the top of the celebrity blogosphere.

Watch for the game on Playfirst.

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game News, Hidden Object Games, PC Games, Releases

In Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal (I keep typing “Reporter”), you play a new journalist in the 1920s who deals with prejudiced males who think women should not be in certain jobs and a scandal involving politicians and starlets. This hidden object adventure game comes with a few twists and a fascinating story that’s sure to win over experienced and new hidden object adventure gamers.

Valerie starts her job with the local newspaper. Even though a female is a star reporter there, she paid her dues, and she’s no ally of Valerie’s. Valerie ends up in plenty of hot water as she pokes her nose where it doesn’t belong. She digs deep into the case involving a famous starlet, the mayor, the chief of police, a boxer and a director.

In the search for the truth, Valerie schleps around town visiting police station, mayor’s office, the gin joint, her apartment and other spots. She’ll study the scenes for clues that appear in the list of things to find. A lot of them, however, have nothing to do with the story. The game also tries to make the object finding harder by describing items instead of giving you their names, such as “hand warmer” for gloves and “cuts things” for scissors. If an item’s name or description perplexes you, click it to see its silhouette.

Another twist is finding multiple items of the same type such as newspapers, umbrellas and so on. Press and hold the mouse button and touch each for bonus points. You can do this when Valerie rides the train to travel to another location or in a scene asking you to find X number of items.

You’ll also search for two batteries in every scene to receive additional hints as well as 100 bells. When using up a hint, you still have to wait for the light bulb to fill back up before you can use another. If you don’t find all 100 bells by the end of the game, you’re out of luck unless you have the patience of Job and can replay the entire thing.

Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal lets you feel like a reporter as Valerie types up stories with your help. The typewriter enters a few words, and then you select the word or phrase — from a list — that should come next in the story. Once you finish the story, you set the headline filling in the blank slots with the metal plates like they did in the old days. So pay attention to the story or else you’ll end up guessing the words until you get them right. What a clever way to ensure you follow the story.

When you have interactive conversations with the suspects and city officials, sometimes you’ll need to figure out the next line for Valerie to say. Rather than guessing, you have a puzzle where you trace the “correct” answer to the right statement by following the curvy lines. It’s a nice way to involve the player in the dialogue. You also do word searches based on conversations you’ve had and other mini-games. Most of the mini-games do repeat, but at least it’s not to the point where it becomes tedious or monotonous.

You revisit scenes and see the same objects when you revisit, but you rarely (if ever) have to find the same objects you’ve found before.

You’ll develop photographs by lining up two overlapping photos. This was difficult to figure out at first as the game didn’t accept the work — it looked clear. But after a few tries, it came together.

The scenes reflect the culture and design of the 1920s with gorgeous graphics with a touch of art deco. Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal is an excellent production that’s a pleasure to play. While not without a few annoyances, Valerie Porter and the Scarlet Scandal keeps you captivated through all aspects of the game — something few games manage to do.

Download and try the game.

FTC Discalimer: Copy received from publisher.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games

You’ve probably heard this before when an original hidden object game came out, but this time I mean it — Pure Hidden flips the hidden object genre upside on its head, spinning it around and throwing everything we thought we knew about hidden object games out the door, heck — out of this world.

Pure Hidden takes place out of the world in a colorful scene reminding me of 1960s or 1970s graphics style with a plant and budding flowers. The flowers hold boxes, or surprises. But you can’t open them until you complete a puzzle inside one of the boxes. Upon finding the “key” or object to open another box, you can move on or you can finish the puzzle.

Good surprises wait for you behind those boxes. You could be finding hidden objects from a list, but the scenes vary. They’re nothing like you’ve ever seen before — more like different styles of mosaics.

You’ll never encounter identical scenes and objects. A couple of games repeat — not the hidden object ones, though. The dominoes game repeats and it’s a delight to do it again.

Despite “pure” in its name, the game has you doing more than finding items. Yes, sometimes you’ll look for a bunch of the same objects. But also, you’ll knock down a bunch of dominoes, help seeds bloom, look for differences in two scenes — however, in a lot of unique ways. One way has you spinning the scene around from day to night in 3D to find the differences.

Although you can move on to another scene once you find the object to open the next box, you may not help help but want finish the scene because it’s compelling and fun. You can play zen (ohhhmmmm – relaxed) or timed mode, so whatever your preference — you got it. Really, this one is for savoring not rushing through.

Hints are available when the asterisk fills up and you can select which item you want to find. The game posts a circle for you melting away any frustration in trying to find something.

The music wows. No story exists to waste your time. And the game has you from the first click, or close to it. Just go play for ten minutes. Pure Hidden is pure gold. It’s the kind of thing you’d want to do on a rainy day and a sunny one, too. Good to know innovation and creativity remain strong out there in the hidden object genre.

• Big Fish Games
• Reflexive GameCenterSolution – Win
• Reflexive GameCenterSolution – Mac

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games, Puzzle Games

I’m eager to check out Pure Hidden, a hidden object game that has hit the top of the charts. The details:

Open mysterious boxes containing hidden objects, mechanisms, puzzles, logic and manipulation games, and a series of interactive surprises. The game contains over 1000 objects to discover in its peculiar world. Unlock wallpaper images as you dive into the dream-state adventure that is Pure Hidden.

Download the game from your favorite site

• Big Fish Games
• Reflexive GameCenterSolution Mac
• Reflexve GameCenterSolution Win

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game News, Hidden Object Games, PC Games

I thought this game was custom-made for me. The logo had “ME” on it. Of course, the initials stood for “Magic Encyclopedia” not “Meryl Evans.” Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light follows Magic Encyclopedia, and continues with its hand-drawn adventure with a new story and main character.

Fans of the original will be surprised and delighted by the follow up, which has surpassed the original in terms of size, adventures and puzzles. This one tells the story of Katrina who had a strange (what else?) dream and her brother asks her to look into his professor’s disappearance. She finds herself traveling the world collecting scrolls and gems to figure out what happened to the professor.

The hidden object portion has you looking for pieces of objects to put them back together. Once you collect all the pieces for an object, it enters your inventory for use on one of the scenes and not necessarily the same one where you found its pieces. The last half of Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light contains a lot of narrow, stick-light objects that will frustrate the searcher as they hide so well. Maybe too well. Clicking items don’t always take either.

Also, parts hide in little black holes that you zoom in on when the mouse rolls over these spots. This neat feature is a little bit of a curse, too. Sometimes the spot sits very close to an interactive item and the interactive item keeps lighting up instead of the spot. Those teeny-tiny parts will have you relying on the crystal ball for hints. You have unlimited hints, but must wait for it to fill back up. But sometimes the crystal ball doesn’t cooperate though it looks full.

Mini-games pop up every now and then when you’re trying to access or open something on a scene. Some resemble the puzzles you see in other hidden object games while others bring something new.  You can skip them after so much time passes and the skip button comes to life. The mini-games do challenge enough that I skip a couple after spending too much time on them. I still wanted to figure them out and I knew I could do that later because you can access the mini-games from the main menu and replay any after unlocking them. Love this feature.

The only thing below quality is the font used. The font looks like  the oft-used font that comes with Microsoft Word and other software. It’s as tired and amateur as Comic Sans. Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light delights, charms and challenges with its graphics, audio and game play. Go download and try Magic Encyclopedia: Moon Light.

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games, Puzzle Games

Bernie the Bookworm loves to solve a mystery, but he thinks there’s nothing to detect in DinerTown. Flo comes along and proves him wrong. They may not have serious crimes like murder and high-priced robberies, but they have plenty of quirky things happening in this hidden object game (HOG) with a dash of puzzles. Bernie starts DinerTown Detective Agency and Diner Dash’s Flo tags along to get out of the kitchen for a bit.

While the hidden object piece doesn’t introduce anything new, the game takes a different approach by treating each level as a single case. Bernie investigates a couple of scenes, collects clues and puts together puzzles. Upon completing a review of the scenes, Bernie completes several puzzles to eliminate suspects and then determine the culprit.

Bernie has 25 cases to solve spread throughout 20 DinerTown locations from the gym to the — where else? — diner. Fans of other PlayFirst games will recognize many of the characters, which adds to the charm. Not knowing the characters won’t affect the experience.

A new DinerTown Detective Agency case begins at the scene of the crime and nearby locations. For example, if the crime takes place in an office, Bernie looks around the break room and in an employee’s cubicle. Bernie looks around the store and its storeroom when the crime occurs in a store for items that appear on the list of things to find or a picture of an object where you must find all of its parts to to put together. Some items enter your inventory for use in the scene.

Every case also has an interactive feature such as dusting for fingerprints, using a magnifying glass to find tiny objects or squeezing an eyedropper to find evidence. There is no rhyme or reason for where you need to click — it’s purely a guessing game. It’s fun at first, but quickly turns old.

After completing the scene investigation, Bernie eliminates suspects in mini-games such as matching fingerprints or putting cards onto a grid where the columns and rows have a common theme. When down to three suspects, Bernie uses logic to identify the culprit. Each suspect has a Yes / No column and you check them off based on interviewing witnesses. Whichever suspect meets all three criteria identified earlier is the culprit. Case solved! Celebrate. Next case.

The familiar graphics live up to what you’ve come to expect from PlayFirst games like Wedding Dash, Diner Dash, Fitness Dash and many more. While a fun and cute game, it soon feels repetitive. The humor, funny cases and overall production will rein in Flo fans who like a good HOG or willing to try it with DinerTown Detective Agency.

Download of DinerTown Detective Agency free.

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games

Samantha Swift fresh from her Roses of Athena Adventure readies herself for another that follows Midas’ golden touch. In Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch, a client hires Samantha to find Alexander the Great’s scroll, which lists all of the items that King Midas turned to gold. She can keep whatever else she finds on the quest, and of course, she puts everything in a museum to share with the world. Samantha naturally runs into trouble as someone wants to use Midas’ secret to turn everything to gold.

In this long lasting hidden object game, players have plenty to do to prevent boredom in searching the hand-drawn scenes for objects. Mini-games and puzzles are plentiful with no repetition. Many of the items that Samantha must find end up in her inventory for use later on. Instead of finding stop signs and other unrelated objects, Samantha picks up things that will go in the museum or further her quest.

The mini-games add a touch of the game’s theme and style. In its version of mah jongg, it has symbols that fell on top of each other. You match pairs that aren’t blocked and the symbols have a role after you solve the mini-game. A match three mini-game also appears, and again, it matches the story and current mystery. It’s rare for a player to enjoy all of the mini-games, but Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch does a beautiful job of fitting the games with the story without any repetition.

The puzzles have you interacting with objects from your inventory and the scene. While fun, these turn into a guessing game. Often, you can’t tell what you need to do in the scene. All you need to do is move your cursor around the scene until you see two blue gears turning. Once you do, you can figure out the rest. Sometimes it takes time to pinpoint where you need to go.

The visuals remain as sharp and charming with a nice complement from the audio. Story updates come in bite-sizes and short cutscenes to avoid overwhelming players with too much info. The story flows and intrigues from beginning to end.

The very young and those new to hidden object games delight in playing Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch. It provides endless amounts of hints and help. Every scene contains lightning bolts, which gives you hints anytime you need it. It takes little time to pile up on them.

Furthermore, a scanner shows you the outline of any object you need to find AND turn from white to orange to red to let you know how close you are to the item. Experienced players can challenge themselves not to use any hints or help. However, some items don’t look like what you expect. You could let the scanner show you what the item looks like and then click another item to turn off the scanner so you can find the item on your own. If you click too many times without hitting anything, the scanner punishes you by turning itself off for a few minutes.

Though hints are plentiful and guessing games needed, Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch is a game worth touching.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Big Fish Games
• Reflexive Arcade Game Center Solution

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game Reviews, Hidden Object Games, PC Games

The casual games industry is giving The Serpent of Isis high accolades. I haven’t checked it myself as I’m swamped with client projects. Here are the details:

Someone stole the legendary artwork, The Serpent of Isis, from the grand opening of the Egypt Museum in Cairo. Your character’s grandfather originally discovered the artifact that has been missing for years. An anonymous letter arrives saying that the person who has the artwork is on board the Mont Palu Express. Catch the train to find the artwork and solve the ancient mystery.

Although the artifact comes the very popular hidden object game setting of Egypt, the action doesn’t all take place in Cairo. In fact, it ends in London — one of the first places I want to visit outside of North America.

Filed Under: Casual Games Reviews, News & Talk, Game News, Hidden Object Games, PC Games