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Put your puzzle solving skills to the test as you check out Greece and Turkey.
Tiny Little Lion has expanded the range and reach of its vacation offerings. Following on from Ireland, which was its starting point, this gaming software development company then move on to Japan as the focus of its puzzle based view of its virtual travel agency. Now the company has taken a look at the dual pairing of Greece and Turkey as the source area for its collection of puzzle type challenges which is entitled Vacation Puzzles - Greece and Turkey.
While headphones both over and on ear have their place there are also times when what you need are ear buds and this latest offering from Creative come in a case that is only the size of a medium sized pebble.
The case is 5x4.5x2cm and weighs only 33 grams with the buds inside. Unlike all earbuds I have previously seen there are no gels so the bud itself fits into the ear, they are 1.5cm from top to bottom and less than 1cm wide at the base, there is a 2cm long arm at the base that balances what is in your ear without excessive plugging. The back of the case has a USB ‘C’ socket and a short USB to USB ‘C’ cable is supplied to let you charge your buds.
e-Funsoft's Gaslamp Cases series has now reached number 7 with this latest release.
This particular episode in the company's Match 3 Victorian detective drama is entitled The Faith of Rasputin. In this game are trio of unlikely heroes, consisting of Morgan, Jack and Eleanor, are charged with the task of investigating the appearance of an illicit drug which is spreading like wildfire through parts of London. The drug is causing all manner of aggression and violence amongst its users.
When a game character complains of being bored then you know things will start to get busy.
Ignoring the possibility that Two for Solitaire might be considered an oxymoron, Strange Investigations - Two for Solitaire Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Adventure game. Developed by Big Fish Games, and indicated by the CE designation, this product comes with a number of bonus items to enhance the main game.
Usually a map can be used to reveal the location of treasure but in this case the map finds itself replaced by numbers.
When I came across this next game in my review schedule I thought its title gave an indication that this was another entry in the Nanogram genre of game play. It was an easy mistake to make as Treasure by Numbers evoked a scenario of creating mosaics in a grid like structure by following numeric clues but I was clearly mistaken.
Do you have hard water from your tap? It is especially hard in the area I live in. So being able to filter the water you drink is important. The filter removes lots of different items that arrive in your cup/glass if you drink direct from the tap.
The unit is 26cm tall, 25cm from front to back and 11cm wide. It can hold up to 5 pints (2.8 litres) of water. When you open the box you have the main unit, the top, the lid and the filter. There is a ‘Quick Guide’ but the assembly guide could be better and I tried – unsuccessfully – to put the top in the wrong way but this would mean that water would take many hours to get into the unit instead of a few minutes.
The Empress may have issued the challenge but are your playing skills up to the task in this next offering?
Offering to give you some practice in honing your gaming ability 8 Floor Games has produced The Empress of Mah-jong game. This cornucopia of mah-jong levels spreads itself over six graded location that are made up of 20 individual levels. You need to prove you are good enough to advance through the levels and location in order to achieve success and a reward from the Empress. The games gives you the usual collection of options for setting up the gaming environment.
The "Bridge to Another World" series of games, from Friendly Fox, currently stands at 10 titles covering various enchanting realms where anything could happen.
Occupying my current game playing time is "Bridge to Another World - Endless Game Collector's Edition. Along with the main Hidden Object Adventure game, this title comes with a collection of bonus items adding extra value to the package. These bonus offerings contain the usual mixture of items with some available immediate and others that require you to have already encountered them in the main game.
Organising a wedding is difficult enough but adding ghosts as wedding guests to the mix can only add to the complexity.
Developed by Elephant Games, this next title is part of a series covering twenty separate games that are based on a hotel that is haunted. This game is entitled Haunted Hotel - A Past Redeemed Collectors Edition. It is a Hidden Object Adventure game based on events surrounding the wedding of James and Rebecca at the Hotel del Pasado. As usual with games released in CE format, several bonus items come bundled with the main game.
Acronis is a piece of software that I have used for years, even if a virus or worse gets through a complete reinstall is possible and you are even protected – although not without cost – from a hard disc failure and this latter event happened to me a few months ago.
Any disc over time will eventually fail and a few months ago my hard disc failed to boot, sometimes the reinstall of this section of the hard disk can then rewrite this important section but not on this occasion. So instead of a new hard disc I purchased a SSD drive and then proceeded to transfer my complete ‘C’ drive to it and once done I had a PC full of life, booting instead of taking up to around five minutes was complete and ready to work in less than 20 seconds.
A Cruise Director's work involves numerous tasks as you will discover with this next title from Casual Arts.
It is Vacation Adventures time again. This time you are engaged in the role of Cruise Director 8 as you tackle the Collector's Edition of this Casual Arts title. Due to its CE classification, Cruise Director 8 comes with a number of bonus items made up of Wallpaper, Music tracks, bonus levels and various puzzles. While the main game features numerous Hidden Object type levels, this form of puzzle is absent from the bonus puzzles mentioned earlier.
News has reached me of a product designed to keep your portable devices up-and-running when their battery runs low.
As we tend to rely more and more on the functionality and easy accessibility of our portable devices, it does increase the difficulty of ensuring there is a source of power available when it is needed. Offering to supply a solution to this type of problem is the launch of UGREEN's MagSafe 10,000 mAh Battery Pack.
When things go bump in the night, it is time to put your Match 3 skills to the test and destroy any unwanted guests.
Judging by the multitude of evidence delivered via numerous offerings, the virtual gaming environment is home to a vast array of evil spirits and their ghostly companions. While often more than happy to wander freely about their particular domain, these dangerous entities do need a residence in which to recharge their batteries as they digest the evil they have collected from their latest excursions into our worlds.
Maybe Grandma does not know best but she can certainly set an intriguing problem as seen in this next title.
When distributed, secrets can often be communicated in whispers which leads nicely onto this next review of Whispered Secrets - Tying the Knot Collector's Edition. Developed by the intriguingly-named Grandma, this is a Hidden Object Adventure game that places you in the role of a detective who is quickly drawn into action as a young bride is attacked by a mysterious stranger during her wedding service. As the product's CE badge indicates, this offering comes with a number of bonus items.
This mid-range offering from Honor is the latest to cross my desk. Based on the recent Honor 90 it’s a bang up to date offering for those whom a full priced unit is out of reach.
The measures 16.55x7.3x.7cm apart from the area back top left where the cameras are which is 1.2cm, the unit weighs 180 grams. Going around the outside has the volume rocker and on/off buttons on the right. The speaker and microphone are on the base split by the USB ‘C’ connection which is not only for charging but also allows easy access to remove photos and videos. The left side has SIM entry point. .
Have you ever lost an important piece of a Jigsaw? It should not happen with this next product.
The guys occupying 8 Floor Games continue to wave the flag for Jigsaw puzzle gaming. The developer's latest offering in this respect is entitled 1001 Jigsaw Legends of Mystery 4. As usual with titles in this 1001 series, you can disregard the 1001 element but can still look forward to tackling 500 Jigsaw puzzles spread over five books of images depicting Legends of Magic and Mystery with a selection of witches, potions, heroes and the like who inhabit this particular world.
Get your mop, bucket, duster and vacuum ready as you set about a massive spring clean.
Describing itself as a Hidden Object game, Cleaning Queens - Crystal Clean Home Collector's Edition has been developed by Brave Giant. Before delving into the game and its content, there are a couple of points mentioned in my first sentence that might need cleaning up (no apology for the forced pun). While the game does have some aspects of Hidden Object type action, you will also be required to select from various tools to perform different tasks.
One of the advantages of a curved display is you see more screen from a smaller width here its 60cm to see 27 inches. So while the display shows QHD 2560x1440 it takes up a little less desk space. It has both HDMI and DisplayPort connections as well as a USB hub.
The screen is 60x36.5cm and its inverted ‘V’ shaped stand is 28cm from back to front and at its widest point it is 46cm. Unlike a lot of stands it allows side to side movement. The stand can raise the screen by between 3cm and up to 16cm from your desk. The connections are in a line under a slight overhang on the back. 3.
In your role as a Mystery Agency detective you are set the task of discovering who is stealing magic devices.
Crossroad of Worlds - Mystery Agency Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object game from the Domini Games stable. As usual with titles from this source, the game opens with Domini Games regular collection of set-up options. These settings include creating profiles for different players, adjusting volume levels for music, sound effects, environment and voice plus adjusting the brightness level.
Adding to the popular Bridge to Another World series is a Hidden Object Adventure led by a Fox.
The Friendly Fox invites you to visit Celesis. This environment consists of a magical city on a floating island that is home to talking animals and lush scenery. In order to accept this invitation, you will need to take a Bridge to Another World and encounter the Cursed Clouds. This game is available in Collector's Edition format that comes with bonus items to enhance the main game play.
Whether indoors or outdoors, you can take the Woodland with you to deliver music to all around.
Under the banner of "Joyful Listening", in the form of a DAB+/FM radio that has Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. This unit has been designed to feel equally at home when used either in an indoor location or for alfresco events that are organised to take advantage of the summer weather. With its dark green fabric covering, that is easy to wipe clean should it prove necessary, the Woodland has a sort of squashed cylinder appearance.
This is a powerful rugged notebook designed for the sort of conditions that most notebooks would very soon give up. While I can tell you about the unit I was sent, the connections it has can very to suit the use you plan to have for it, so the actual price will tend to vary somewhat.
It came with 32GB of RAM; it has an Intel 12 Gen i7 processor running at 2.1GHz. It has a 1GB SSD ‘C’ drive with 865GB of the 928GB free and a 1GB ‘D’ SSD with 953GB available. The Windows version is Windows 11 Pro 22H2 which is the latest available. Boot up was a reasonable 15 seconds, shutdown is around 10 seconds.
Water, water everywhere but is it fit to drink?
Despite the appearance of an occasional hose-pipe ban in certain parts of the country, we do tend to regard a steady supply of water as one of our rights. We expect to be able to turn on a tap and the required liquid would flow for whatever task we deem necessary. But do we ever consider the purity of the flowing liquid especially when it is for our personal consumption.
Mot one or two but three crimes face you in this next offering from Domini Games as you take on a Murderous Script.
With this next title, Domini Games casts you in the role of a detective who has a reputation for being a bit of a maverick who does things their own way. Entitled Unsolved Case - Murderous Script Collector's Edition, this Hidden Object Adventure game presents you with a case load made up of a murder on a train, people going missing from a fairground and a death in a restaurant.
Mystery symbols lead you on a search of an archaeology site to learn more about an unknown civilization.
This next title for review sees the return of Jake Everest an archaeologist from the e-Funsoft catalogue of digital characters. In this case Jake sets out to tackle the challenge of Gunung Padang - the Unseen Civilization which comes in the form of a Match 3 offering. As usual with e-Funsoft games, this Jake Everest 2 title allows you to make the standard collection of adjustments to the gaming environment.
Having a set of noise limited headset for a younger child is important as once a child’s hearing starts to get impaired it’s a one way street. Also important for a younger child is not to plug the ears and that any headphones or headset are wire less for obvious reasons as you don’t want them strangling one another.
The distance from the centre of the well-padded headband to the top of the also well-padded ear pieces is 10.5cm with no side expansion, this can increase to 13cm fully expanded, total weight is 123grams. Unlike other headsets where the speech arm sticks out or is a removable piece this unit has one that is curled up inside the right earpiece and pulls out to the chin area when required, it is up to 8cm long and is flexible.
While concentrating on your gaming action, it helps to avoid distractions caused by lack of comfort.
As dedicated computer gamers, and even casual players, will appreciate, this type of activity can bring some rather painful results as my back troubles will bear witness to occasionally. While I can not lay the blame for my back troubles solely on game playing, it could hardly be consider helpful when easing the problem which is brought about by a disc lesion that can flare up every so often.
It is time to put your searching skills to the test as you tackle a title that has So Much Stuff.
Developed by Little Tiny Lion and entitled So Much Stuff, this next offering combines Hidden Object Clutter game play with image creating puzzle solving. This title sits in the Collector's Edition category which means it comes with various bonus items that are bundled with the main game action. With this product the extra items consist of Wallpaper, Music, Collectibles and a bonus chapter that becomes available once the main game has been completed.
With no French accents, limited swordplay and Princess protection, can you accept the role of a musketeer?
Are you ready to step back in time to the 17th Century and ingratiate yourself into the French environment of that period. This is the fate that awaits you when taking up the challenge set by Connected Hearts - The Musketeer Saga. Available in Collector's Edition format, this Hidden Object Adventure game casts you in the role of a musketeer called Arron. You are charged with the protection of Princess Mercedes by her brother King Gweneale.
This has helped me function during the recent really hot weather, I know many will say that it is great for lying on a beach however if you are in a home office and walking down the hall and back brings you out in a sweat then something of this type not only allows you to feel cooler it also checks the air quality and improves it by drawing air from the room through its HEPA filter before blowing it out of the top of the unit.
There are two different models in this range, this is the more basic one that has a more limited range of functions but for anyone wanting a smaller area covered it is great. This model is a circular tube 57cm tall, the back half is the air input which starts 8cm from the base and rises to 33cm, from the base behind this area is the HEPA filter so all air is drawn through it. The air output is on the top of 57cm unit so while there is a good amount of breeze coming from the top loose papers etc.
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