Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review

Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795 Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review en-US Sun, 12 Feb 2012 07:07:16 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 Terri218 on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-66086 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:41:53 +0000 Terri218 66086@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I'm excited that there are two Hidden Object games in two weeks. Keep it up. Terri218 on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-66085 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:31:37 +0000 Terri218 66085@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I'll be upset if you repeat Around the World in 80 Days because I just bought it from BFG as part of their $2.99 deal. I had just missed it when it was offered here because I didn't discover this site until right after that. Oh well. LOL Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-66074 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:04:32 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66074@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Just bringing this back to the front page. Te folloing thread deals with problems running the game: <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3794#post-41016" rel="nofollow">http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3794#post-41016</a> Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-52992 Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:08:49 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 52992@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Just bringing this review back to the front page: Yesterday Weezie pointed out that Gametop have now added Around the World in 80 Days which is a decent Match 3 game. I know it’s not the same as a Hidden Objects game, but I’ve noticed several community members mention that they would like to see it repeated here. The main difference between this free version and the one originally given away here apart from the fact that the one you can download is installable at any time is that when you close the game down you’re browser is opened to Gametops home page; however it’s innocuous. Nothing is changed on your computer. Well worth the minor hassle for a great game for free. <a href="http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/80-days">Around the World in 80 Days</a> You can find todays giveaway by following the link below: <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/golden-prague/">Go to game giveaway comments about Mysterious City: Golden Prague</a> Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41056 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:41:45 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 41056@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks for the info aRenegade. I downloaded the demo from iWin the other day and hated the manager that came with it. so once the demo had expired I deleted all traces of the game and manager including a through trawl of the registry. I was worried that we would get the manger with today’s download because the admin’s gave me the iWin download link on Thursday so that I could prepare both weekend games reviews. I've managed to get to day four with one crash at the end of level 11. I'd actually finished the level, and then it crashed before the next level had loaded. (I got the usual windows message saying the program had to shut down) Anyway, on restarting the game I had to re do level 11. At least the objects were different. That was the last time it crashed. The fact that I was taking a lot of screen captures could have been partially responsible. I usually use Capture Wiz Pro for stills. I’ve added a shed load more images to my photo bucket account that take you up to level 27 and includes all the cartoon story introductions to new stages as well as images of virtually all the levels up to 27 level stats and the gallery. aRenegade on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41054 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:23:45 +0000 aRenegade 41054@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ What Steven said about starting over is exactly what I said in the game comments section at the download site. It's a decent game but, having to restart the entire game, and with a different set of objects to find, is just too sever of a penalty if you cannot make it straight through a level. It's hard to accept, let alone understand the reasoning of why it was developed that way. (An aside - The games music is a rip off from one of the "Snowy" adventure series. I recognized the tune. Whether that's a good or bad thing I won’t say. I can't recall the exact title but it was a GGAOTD during the daily giveaway era.) I'd also like to mention that I tried one of "free" hidden object games at the iwin site, "Magicians Handbook" and I'd like to share that experience. During actual gameplay a nag pops up EVERY five minutes that blocks play for 20 seconds (the player has to wait). It nags that only by buying the game will the "nagging" stop. Beautiful eh? If that wasn't irritating enough, when I began the uninstall I discovered "A LOT" of "extras" were planted. There were two so-called “trial” games accompanied by many, many, many, extra files in the Registry no less (that is not nice!). Only by the grace of Revo (the king of uninstallers) was I able hunt down and manually delete the uninvited files. Then on the off chance I missed something, I ran a system restore. That’s bad folks, please beware! copmom on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41051 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:56:56 +0000 copmom 41051@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Someone suggested updating DirectX which I just got through doing. Now to see if the game still cuts out on me. Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41037 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:41:51 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 41037@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Quite a few community members have been reporting errors as have I, though I did almost make it to the second day. It didn't crash, but I failed to find the last object before the 30 minutes ran out. I restarted from scrath three times, which has been a real bind. I've only persevered with the game because of the review, but to be honest, after restarting so many times I'm put off the rest of the game. I don't want to be having to start from the beginning every time I fail to make a level. I think some of the objects are very well hidden, that, coupled with the fact that there are at least several reported items that do not match the descriptions given, it's going to make this game a hit and miss affair. It's a pity, because I do think it's got some really big positives. I like hard Hidden Objects games, but one that becomes repetitive like this one is going to be a failure; especially when there is so much other quality stuff around. The above is speaking from frstration, lol. By the way, thanks Buckleysmom. Hopefully I'll be creating videos for all the reviews I do now. :) Oh yeah, if anyone is getting run time errors a couple of community members have posted possible fixes. One is to do with changing your screen resolution and the other by finding your game.xml and changing the contents. You can find those posts by following the link below to the comments section: <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/mysterious-city-golden-prague/#comment-76599" rel="nofollow">http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/mysterious-city-golden-prague/#comment-76599</a> regards Stephen Buckleysmom on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41034 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:24:58 +0000 Buckleysmom 41034@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Same here...I love these S&F games. Thanks for all your hard work WR! Loved the You Tube clip! Great job! copmom on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41027 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:58:19 +0000 copmom 41027@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Well, I got up to stage 8 of level one. Then I got an error message saying it would have to shut down. Will try again, of course! Love hidden object games, so this d/l is very much appreciated! suzzyqz on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41026 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:28:51 +0000 suzzyqz 41026@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks Whiterabbit..appreciate all the time you spend doing this..I like HO games..off to try it! Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41025 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:37:00 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 41025@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Yeah! I've finally figured out how to convert my Camtasia video captures to You tubes format (FLV), so uploaded the video of the game I took yesterday, which was initially 250Mb in size for just 90 seconds of play. The converter I used (Extra Video Converter) has reduced the file size down to less than 8Mb and it wasn't even set on the lowest quality; amazing. You can see the 90 second clip by following the link below. It shows you the main and options menus as well as the wallpaper library (with only one unlocked wallpaper) and part of the first level of play. Please bear with me though. The video isn't very professional, but I'm sure you can forgive my first attempt. At least it will give you a good idea as to what the game is like: <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-H1q46ggI" rel="nofollow">http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-H1q46ggI</a> Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Golden Prague: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/3795#post-41018 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:33:19 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 41018@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Mysterious City: Golden Prague: A Review This game received 73% of 772 votes with 176 comments the first time it was given away back in August last year: <a href="//game.giveawayoftheday.com/mysterious-city-golden-prague/#comments"">See previous comments</a> For those on dial up today’s game is going to be reasonable as arcade games go, but it may take you some time to download still; at around 38.9Mb; however after playing the game from the previous time this was given away I’d say it’s well worth the trouble. I do believe there hasn’t been any other hidden objects games given away as yet on the game giveaway project apart from the last time this was given away, so this is a first (still). Once installed the game takes up about 48Mb of disc space. As with many games of late this game doesn’t install shortcuts to either the desktop or the start programs menu. It installs the game to C:\Games by default. If you go into the games folder you should find the games folder, which is labeled Golden Prague and not Mysterious City as you would expect. Open up the Golden Prague folder and right click on the executable file that looks like quarter of an astronomical clock. Scroll down to ‘Send To’ then click on ‘Create Shortcut)’ You should then find a shortcut on the desk top. If you want a shortcut in your start menu I wrote a short tutorial that can be found in the game discussion forums. Quote: <blockquote>Enter the world of Mysterious City: Golden Prague as your peaceful morning is interrupted by a frantic knock on your door. Your beloved professor has gone missing from the museum where he was last seen. With only a week until the magnificent golden clock is scheduled to open, it’s up to you to explore the beautiful and historic city of Prague; from the intriguing museums and mysterious castles to its mysterious underbelly. Discover the clues the professor left, and piece together what happened before it’s too late! </blockquote> <a href="//www.iwin.com/games/the-mysterious-city-golden-prague"">Reference accessed 28th August 08</a> <ul> <blockquote>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </ul> The Game: There are nearly 50 levels divided up into seven stages (days). Each stage has seven or eight levels and you have 30 minutes to complete each stage. You can access hints at any time but they have a time cost of two minutes. If you click randomly too quickly you will be awarded a time penalty of 30 seconds which you can ill afford to lose. Throughout the game you are frequently awarded wallpapers that you can peruse via the gallery link which is accessed from the main menu. You can set any of the wallpapers you’ve unlocked as your current wallpaper. (you can also copy all of the wallpapers directly from the games installed folder if you can’t wait to win them in game). I wanted to see what there was for the purpose of this review and was really impressed with many of the images. Some of which are stunning and all of which are taken in and around Prague. There’s also thumbnail images of all the different levels you’ll come across in the game. Each stage is introduced by a cartoon strip style story line. You can quickly skim over these if you wish by clicking on the screen, though personally I find such additions to a game adds to the overall enjoyment and dept of the game. In the time I was able to play the game over two hour periods (after downloading the demo from two different distributors) I saw three game types. These were the traditional hidden objects screen where you have to find a multitude of objects amongst a particular scene. The objects are cleverly hidden against straight lines and curves as well as colors. The second style of board was a ‘find the difference’ type and the third was finding the shape of the object. There are three mini games to be found during game play, which I presume are offered at the end of a stage. Unfortunately, because I never finished a stage, (I was literally seconds off finishing the last level in the first stage, but ran out of time over the 30 minute period), I never saw one. From reading several reviews of the game there are other styles of levels as well and include ones where you require a torch to find the objects and others where the image is done in monochrome, so such objects that require color are much more difficult to find. Game Mechanics: You will find the usual music and sound sliders in the options menu, as well as toggles for windowed mode, hints, wide screen and a custom cursor. The game is fully mouse controlled apart from inputting your profile name. You can create multiple profiles if you wish. If you fail to complete a level be it from level 2 onwards to level 8 in each stage you have to start from the beginning. Each level remains the same with respect to where the hidden objects are placed, but if you have to replay a level, or play it using a different profile you’ll get different lists of items to find, though the spot the differences levels are the same whenever you have to replay them. Music The music is very pleasant to listen to; a sort of pseudo classical tune that is (IMO) ideal as back ground music for such a game. Though if you wish you can change this to whatever you want provided you have an audio converter to convert your MP3’s etc to the ogg format; (you can download a couple from the giveaway freeware library). Once you’ve converted your favorite music you will have to rename the tracks to the ones found in the music folder.(I’d recommend backing up the originals if you do go ahead and change the music, though it shouldn’t be necessary) There are five tracks in total. If you have Winamp installed you can listen to music files in the ogg format if you wish. <ul> <blockquote>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </ul> Possible PROBLEMS and FIXES: If anyone is getting run time errors a couple of community members previously posted possible fixes. One is to do with changing your screen resolution to the screens native resolution (Caulbox comment #75), if you’re not sure I suggest trying each resolution until you get one that works :lol: and the other by finding your game.xml and editing the contents to put the game into windowed mode. (Andy comment # 52) Also rebooting your computer seemed to work for others - though it only appeared to be a temporary thing if you left your game unattended but open for a while. (Cheryl comment #167)You can find those posts by following the link below to the original comments section: Colin comment #38 suggested installing the latest shockwave program. He found the fix on another site and said it fixed his version of Mysterious city. You will need to restart your computer once shockwave has been installed. Jackie suggested updating your direct X files (which is always a good idea) comment #96 And I’d also suggest updating your graphics drivers and doing a defrag as a badly fragmented drive can cause errors. The only problem that can’t effectively be fixed is the poor collision mesh. You’ll find sometimes clicking directly on an item won’t work and you need to click several times to get it to accept. This can be annoying, especially if you happen to be near the hint button and waste a hint; (which as previously mentioned will cost you a 2 minute time penalty). Finally, sometimes objects are hidden underneath the timer clock and/or the map and hint icons <a href="//game.giveawayoftheday.com/mysterious-city-golden-prague/#comment-76599"">See previous comments for fixes</a> <ul> <blockquote>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </ul> System Requirements: • Windows XP/Vista • Processor: Pentium 750 MHz • 256 MB RAM • Free hard drive space: 40 MB <ul> <blockquote>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </ul> Resources: Other Reviews: <a href="//www.iwin.com/dispatchUserReviews.do?method=allReviewsForGame&title=&gameId=1736952325862529499"">Read reviews at iWin</a> <a href="//www.gamezebo.com/games/mysterious-city-golden-prague/review"">Read review at Gamezebo</a> <a href="//www.gamezebo.com/games/mysterious-city-golden-prague/user-reviews""> Read user reviews at Gamezebo </a> Video: <a href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-H1q46ggI"">Watch Video HERE</a> <a href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObqXoGwjHKc"">Watch video HERE</a> Images: <a href="//s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Mysterious%20City%20Golden%20Prague/?start=all"">See Images all on one page</a> <a href="//s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Mysterious%20City%20Golden%20Prague/?albumview=slideshow"">See Images as a slideshow</a> Useful trainer for creating a time freeze: Because this game is times you may find the following trainer useful (first mentioned by caulbox I think). It works by freezing the time so that you can spend some more time on each puzzle. It wont freeze the time if you use a hint though. Each hint will give you a 2 minute time penalty. I’d advise only using this cheat if you get really stuck as there’s nothing so frustrating as havin to repeat the same level over and over again, when sometimes it may be one of those problems when the object was hidden under the clock, map or hints ico.n: Freeze time trainer: <a href="//www.gamershell.com/download_30068.shtml"">Get freeze timer HERE</a> <ul> <blockquote>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </blockquote> </ul> Conclusion: As a first for the game giveaway project this hidden objects game is okay. It has several of the elements of the best hidden objects games that I’ve personally played such as Magic Encyclopedia, Treasure Masters and Unicorn Castle, as well as others such as the Dream Chronicles series, the Hidden Expedition series and The Little Shop of Treasures games. However there are so many hidden Objects games around now that it’d take me ages to check my arcade games folder for all the different ones that are available (not that I have them all) for me to make comparisons with. I don’t think it’s up there amongst the best, but it is still a worthwhile challenge, especially with the 30 minute limit on each stage. That makes using the hint button very expensive. The mini games are relatively easy, which is a shame as I’d much rather have games like those found in Treasure Masters or Magic Encyclopedia, whose mini games are quite challenging. I do think the game would be much improved if an un-timed mode was added as I felt I was rushing all the time. It would have been nice to be able to search for the objects in a leisurely manner, otherwise I couldn’t really fault the game. It did worry me that the game demo I reviewed crashed a few times during game play, and also that some objects were badly labeled. These alone would put me off actually purchasing the game. For example in level four I was asked to find a cigarette, which turned out to be a silver cigarette holder. When I fist saw the word ‘rook’, I assumed it was going to be the black bird, but it was actually the chess piece. Several community members complained about this previously and on reading some reviews on the web, there were several complaints about this with other objects badly named; for example: Quote: <blockquote>I also found myself somewhat distressed over object descriptions, which were often entirely inaccurate. I’ve no problem with clues meant to be vague or misleading—such as “clippers” (which could mean anything from nail trimmers to sailing ships) - but I do not appreciate being asked to look for objects that simply don’t exist in the picture. I was once told to find a “horn” that turned out to be a flute, a “tennis ball” that was really a baseball and a “sphinx” that was in actuality a mummy’s casket. </blockquote> <a href="//www.gamezebo.com/games/mysterious-city-golden-prague/review"">Reference accessed 28th Aug 08</a> That aside, I’d still download this and check it out. It’s just about worth a reasonable 7 out of 10 when comparing it to the full spectrum of hidden objects games that are available now. If you’re not familiar with hidden objects games and want to explore them further I’d certainly recommend any of the ones I’ve mentioned above. If you want something challenging, go for the Dream Chronicles duo, both are beautifully crafted and quite challenging. ======================================================================