PlayFirst announces the winners of its first ever PlayFirst Firsties. Of course, the games up for nomination are PlayFirst games. But we gotta admit they produce great games.

We love the following winners:

• Flo in Cooking Dash as Best Leading Lady. [Game review]
• Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan as Best Hidden Object. [Game review]
• Natalie Brooks: Secrets of Treasure House [Game review] and Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze [Game review] as first and second place winners in Best Adventure Game.
• Build-A-Lot 2: Town of the Year wins Best Simulation and Strategy Game. [Game review]
• Cooking Dash as Tastiest Food Game.
• Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet for Best Mystery Game. [Game review]

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. May 19th: 40% off on Dream Chronicles 2

Tue. May 20th: 50% off on Mahjong Epic

Wed. May 21th: 60% off on Tale of Three Vikings

Thu. May 22th: 50% off on Runes of Avalon 2

Fri. May 23th: 50% off on Yardmaster

Sat. May 24th: 50% off on Gallop for Gold

Sun. May 25th: 50% off on Kakuro

Big Fish Games offers a 40% off coupon any game in honor of Mother’s Day. But you can buy a game for yourself or anyone. Steps:

1. Explore Big Fish Games.
2. Find and try games until you find the perfect match.
3. Click “Buy.”
4. Enter mothersday in the code box.

The coupon is good until May 16. If you’re struggling to find the right gift for Mom — you still have time and you don’t have to mail anything.

Recommendations for Mom:

• Enigma
• Build-a-Lot 2
• Build-a-Lot
• Chocolatier 2: Chocolate without the guilt
• Dream Chronicles 1
• Dream Chronicles 2
• Dream Day series

Casual gamers who enjoyed blockbuster Dream Chronicles will be excited to see the Faye returns for another adventure. In the previous episode, Faye went on a quest to find her husband, Fidget. She reached him only to find the sneaky Liliith, Fairy Queen of Dreams, take him away again. To find her husband, Faye must go deeper in the dream realm in Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze.

Dream Chronicles 2 follows its predecessor’s footsteps with its phenomenal art nouveau scenes, graphics, and effects. Players again fill in Faye’s shoes to find Fidget and their daughter Lyra. But like any good soap opera, we won’t find all the answers in this latest episode and must wait for another. Nonetheless, solving puzzles, picking up dream jewels, and collecting clear and hard to see dream pieces will entertain and challenge.

When the dream pieces fill a dream jewel (you must find the jewel first), players must solve another puzzle before receiving a clue to help them in their adventures. This puzzle consists of words that form a sentence.

We must figure out the order of the words to create the correct sentence. Here we discover one of the annoyances with the game. We can’t backtrack or swap words whenever we mess up or change our minds. So reset we must hit and start over. 15 dream jewels will dutifully reveal their secrets after we solve their puzzles. Some of the dream jewel clues do come in handy.

The best part — the 80 assorted puzzles — comes between finding jewels. These puzzles can spread over several scenes requiring us to move back and forth. Some needed items won’t appear until we first finish another task. The game lets players move freely instead of sequentially. Sure, you won’t be able to go certain areas until you solve a puzzle — but some adventure games don’t venture beyond a set sequence.

Oh, how the puzzles vary! A few puzzles call for putting something back together to make it work (my favorite type). Another has us matching musical instruments with their sheet music. My least favorite is the Simon-like game where the game plays a sequence and you must repeat it. Never like that kind of game, but I get through it.

Dream Chronicles 2 treats us to 25 chapters, seven over the original’s 18 chapters. Though the game lasts longer, it’s shorter (it took me less than eight hours) than the average game in its genre except for Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor — the shortest of ‘em all.

Even if you haven’t played the original, you should be able to play Dream Chronicles 2 without confusion since the story stands alone. Although, the game tells a stronger story than stories found in most casual games, the original Dream Chronicles spins a more compelling story. I’m ready for Dream Chronicles 3 — will it stop there? Will it continue? To be continued…

Download Dream Chronicles 2.

Notice few exciting games have come out lately? It may be a good thing since the weather is beautiful in many areas of the U.S. and we should be out enjoying it instead of hooked on a game.

Shame on me — I haven’t had the chance to play Dream Chronicles 2. Got busy reviewing other games based on requests from editors and game developers. The weather is just too lovely here in the Dallas area, too. Although, it looks like today is an off weather day, but booked for the day.

Love games — but get fresh air, too, OK? Off to yoga. Namaste.