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

Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: Mysterious City Vegas: A Review http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405 Giveaway of the Day Forums » Topic: Mysterious City Vegas: A Review en-US Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:10:39 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-67381 Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:44:34 +0000 02Gram09 67381@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Just wanted to let you know that my nephew was able to get the game going and it was the xml profile. Thanks again for all the free games. Have a good week and keep up the good work......... 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66694 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:10:43 +0000 02Gram09 66694@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thank you WR, but after going to the site and reading the information I don't have a clue as to what to do or how to do it. I will copy this entire post and give it to my nephew who is the computer geek and let him deal with it as I am having a few problems that he is going to resolve for me at the end of the week. Thanks again for your input. I will post again sometime next week. Thanks again for your help and maybe just maybe you will be able to solve the mystery from my code that I posted. Good luck. I neglected to say Thanks for all of the great game giveaways. As I said earlier I am hooked on the HOG games, so for the time being those are the only ones I do download. Love the Great Secrets Da Vinci code and yes I do have the Cairo and Golden Prague. Am also playing the second round of Around The World in 80 Days, that is quite challenging. I do have enough games to keep me busy for the time being. Thanks again for your input and help. Gram Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66689 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:24:33 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66689@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Oh yeah, forgot to mention, to edit the text in the profile you need an XML editor. Thankfully theres some available for free in the freeware library: <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/search.php?string=xml+editor" rel="nofollow">http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/search.php?string=xml+editor</a> W.R. p.s. I recommend Liquid XML Studio Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66687 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:07:18 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66687@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ If you remove the profile completely (or back it up), the game will automatially create a new one. It will mean you start from the beginning of the game, but then once you've played one level compare the new profile and the old one. It should be possible to cut and paste the levels from the backed up one to the new profile. I know it's a long way around way of doing it, but it should work. In the mean time I'll copy the code you've provided above onto a new profile and see if I can sort it myself, but 'probably' not for the next few days as I have this weeks free games to sort out still. I already have the games, but haven't written anything or uploaded any screen captures yet. It takes me hours to do each days game/s, and because this week I'm celebrating the anniversary of the project I have quite a few games to post. (some really good ones IMO) :) Regards W.R. 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66680 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:44:18 +0000 02Gram09 66680@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ WR and Watcher 13, Thank you for your input. I am a 72 yr young Grandma and though not a novice not an expert either. I found the files in my Roaming folder,profiles.xml. I am on level 7 and Pingo will not close, I have currently 220 spins. Each time I spin I get an additional spin. Very frustrating. I attempted to remove my "name" from the File in Roaming it will not let me do that. I tried to type in complete for the Plinko line and I could not do that either. Here is the profile file: Any help would be appreciated. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> - <profiles> - <profile name="Ro"> <stats easyMode="true" currentDay="1" story_day1_prestory="1" startAnimation="true" timeLeft="6410610" hintsShown="110000000010000000000000000000" score="39456" wallpapers="11110000000000000000" miniGamesAccess="1110000000" story_day2_prestory="1" playDay="1" playLev="5" /> - <levels> - <day_0 Level1="complete" Level2="complete" Level3="complete" Level4="complete" Level5="complete" Level6="complete" Level7="complete" Level8="complete"> <Level1 items="Old photo,Purse,Shoe,Star,Feather duster,Billiard chalk,Stack of money,Orchid,Balloon,Sack" itemsFound="Old photo,Purse,Shoe,Star,Feather duster,Billiard chalk,Stack of money,Orchid,Balloon,Sack," /> <Level2 items="Radio,Old photos,Arrow,Clover,Peppers,Ring latch,Swallow,Carrot,Chess piece,Globe" itemsFound="Radio,Old photos,Arrow,Clover,Peppers,Ring latch,Swallow,Carrot,Chess piece,Globe," /> <Level3 diff_collected_0="true" diff_collected_1="true" diff_collected_2="true" diff_collected_3="true" diff_collected_4="true" diff_collected_5="true" diff_collected_6="true" diff_collected_7="true" diff_collected_8="true" diff_collected_9="true" /> <Level4 items="Cupid,Boomerang,Seagull,Pickle,Fish,Ribbon,Knife,Seahorse,Roulette table,Train" itemsFound="Cupid,Boomerang,Seagull,Pickle,Fish,Ribbon,Knife,Seahorse,Roulette table,Train," /> <Level5 pokerstate="0,DOBETSXXX,0" /> <Level6 positions="0,0,0,0;1,0,1,0;2,0,2,0;3,0,3,0;0,1,0,1;1,1,1,1;2,1,2,1;3,1,3,1;0,2,0,2;1,2,1,2;2,2,2,2;3,2,3,2;0,3,0,3;1,3,1,3;2,3,2,3;3,3,3,3;" /> <Level7 items="Sun,Wrench,X,Bricks,Butterfly,Cheese,Bird,Tack,Paper lantern,Tambourine" itemsFound="Sun,Wrench,X,Bricks,Butterfly,Cheese,Bird,Tack,Paper lantern,Tambourine," /> <Level8 items="Hamburger,Donkey,Lamp,Bow,Casino,Billiard chalk,Camera,Beads,Map,Wooden box" itemsFound="Hamburger,Donkey,Lamp,Bow,Casino,Billiard chalk,Camera,Beads,Map,Wooden box," /> </day_0> - <day_1 Level1="complete" Level3="complete" Level2="complete" Level4="complete" Level5="complete" Level7="complete" Level8="complete" MiniGamePingo="complete"> <Level1 items="Propeller,Casino,Dollar sign,Scissors,Beads,Ring,Palm tree,Envelope,Map,Bouquet" itemsFound="Propeller,Casino,Dollar sign,Scissors,Beads,Ring,Palm tree,Envelope,Map,Bouquet," /> <Level3 positions="0,0,0,0;1,0,1,0;2,0,2,0;3,0,3,0;0,1,0,1;1,1,1,1;2,1,2,1;3,1,3,1;0,2,0,2;1,2,1,2;2,2,2,2;3,2,3,2;0,3,0,3;1,3,1,3;2,3,2,3;3,3,3,3;" /> <Level2 slotsstate="0,DOBETSXXX,0" /> <Level4 diff_collected_0="true" diff_collected_1="true" diff_collected_2="true" diff_collected_3="true" diff_collected_4="true" diff_collected_5="true" diff_collected_6="true" diff_collected_7="true" diff_collected_8="true" diff_collected_9="true" /> <Level5 items="Binocular,Horseshoe,Candle,Paper ship,Cigar,Ring,Dice,Fish,Bouquet,Bat" itemsFound="Binocular,Horseshoe,Candle,Paper ship,Cigar,Ring,Dice,Fish,Bouquet,Bat," /> <Level6 pingostate="PRESSNUMS,-257,300,13,0,1,0,10,0,3,0,7,0,15,0,11,0,4,0,24,0,22,0,5,0,12,0,19,0,20,0,14,0,6,0,2,0,18,0,16,0,17,0,25,255,8,0,21,0,9,0,23,0,14,7,11,24,12,3,23,1,15,19,1," /> <Level7 items="Old photo,Flag,Piggy bank,Spider,Pliers,Star,Dice,Cigarette,Car,Gift" itemsFound="Old photo,Flag,Piggy bank,Spider,Pliers,Star,Dice,Cigarette,Car,Gift," /> <Level8 items="Quiver,Chopsticks,Lamp,Frame,Spider,Bumble bee,Clothespin,Coin,Wreath,Boomerang" itemsFound="Quiver,Chopsticks,Lamp,Frame,Spider,Bumble bee,Clothespin,Coin,Wreath,Boomerang," /> <MiniGamePingo pingostate="PRESSSPIN,0,250,18,0,17,255,8,0,25,255,13,0,3,0,12,0,11,255,20,0,7,0,10,0,5,0,2,0,22,0,21,0,15,0,9,0,19,0,6,255,14,0,24,0,1,0,16,255,4,0,23,0," /> <MiniGameSlots slotsstate="9993,DOBETSXXX,0" /> </day_1> </levels> </profile> </profiles> watcher13 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66651 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:14:56 +0000 watcher13 66651@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ No problem, it was coherent and I got the gist of it. I'm curious to see if it's resolvable and how. I shall haunt these pages for a little while hoping to see that he's found a solution. After all, I might run into the same problem. :) Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66648 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:32:51 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66648@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks for your input watcher. I think the problem that 02Gram09 encountered was with the unlocked pingo rather than level 6 pingo, that is once you've played the pingo level it unlocks the game so that you can play it anytime. I think that was where 02Gran09 encountered the problem, the reason being is that when playing it as a level you only get to spin the numbers a specific amount of times, and then the game ends, even if the numbers freeze, you can still re spin them, thus ending the game once you'd spinned whatever number of times you get (I think it was 24 times?). As 02Gram09 said it wouldn't shut, I've presumed it was the unlocked game. :) Please excuse me if the above is confusing. It's 03.30 and I really should be in bed. I tend to stay up as late as possible so that I can ensure the games comments sction is moderated. If I go to bed early none of the comments get moderated, or very rarely. watcher13 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66637 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:18:11 +0000 watcher13 66637@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Sorry, folks I forgot that I always turn my hidden file view on. I definitely like to muck around with stuff. :) It should be in your Roaming folder, but I assume you've looked there. WR's path looks different than mine because I have Vista Home Premium like you and he has XP. You won't have Documents and Settings. The only thing I can think is that you're looking in the wrong account. If you installed it while your were logged in to, say, "Gram's Computer", and you look in Default, Administrator, so forth, it won't be in that account's roaming folder. Edit: Did you search your whole hard drive? Are you aware that the Vista seach uses indexing to speed up the search of gigabyte hard drives. It only searches certain folders unless you add more to the index. It won't search in AppData. You have to do an Advanced Search and change the first drop down box from Indexed Locations to Computer, or (potentially faster) your C: drive. MORE IMPORTANTLY, you may have to check the checkbox that says "search hidden and system files" or it may not find anything in AppData. If you already did that, then maybe that's the problem you're having. Maybe the game's not generating the files correctly. Pingo is Level 6 on day 1 (I know, it's day 2, but the profiles coding starts with "day 0"). I'm not sure what the numbers mean, but you could try clearing or deleting that line. 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66633 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:18:24 +0000 02Gram09 66633@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thank you WR,The folder for AppData only has Local, Local Low and Roaming. I have done a search for documents and settings and that folder is not there. I have also done a search for XML document and nothing. Unfortunately I have a commitment now that I must attend. Thanks for trying. Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66631 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:50:56 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66631@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Good news, if you just remove the profiles XML document from the folder I mention above it'll definitely restart your game from the beginning,, thus taking you away from the problem with Pingo. Your profil name is retained, but your progress is lost. There will definitely be a way of editing the XML document to remove the Pingo entry, but I don't kow what the enty looks like because I've not played the game apart from the one with a limited number of spins, so it wasn't a problem. I hope i'm not confusing you. Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66630 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:40:38 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66630@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Yes you will be able to, you just need to make a copy of the game (for safe keeping), then search the registry and the folder that Watcher mentions. You'll need to go to folder options (found via control panel then appearance and themes then click on view from the available tabs, look down the list to find 'show hidden files and folders' ) and select to see hidden folders because the applications folder is usually hidden. Once you've done that do a search for the folder. The applications folder is usually located within the documents and settings folder (mine path is C:\Documents and Settings\Whiterabbit.STEPHEN\Application Data\Gold Casual Games\The Mysterious City - Vegas) I'm not sure exactly what you should do but I think you need to edit the profile document. Firstly make a back up just in case I’m wrong, then delete the line that’s appropriate the the game you're playing - it should be near the top of the page. I'ts not necessary to copy this folder if you want to copy the game over to another computer because I've already done it and the game works. The folder just holds all the information about the game. Oddly all the screenshots I took of the game were stored in the same folder even though I used an unrelated program to take the screen captures. I may copy over the folder in Applications data if i have time and see if my progress appears on the computer i transferred the game to. Looking at the profile document, it does look like this is the key. Remove it from the folder and you may find the game starts afresh. If you don't want to lose your progress you'll have to delete the correct line. :) (Maybe by trial and error) Regards Whiterabbit 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66626 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:19:31 +0000 02Gram09 66626@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thank you WR, unfortunately I just read your response and am unable to reinstall the game. I have completed 7 levels and cannot go any further due to the fact that Plinko will not let me. I also checked Watcher 13's folder C:\Users\(User Account Name)\AppData\Roaming\Gold Casual Games\(individual The Mysterious City - as I am using Vista Home Premium and I do not have that folder. Sooooo, It looks like I will not be able to finish the game. Really stinks as I am addicted to HOG's............ watcher13 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66585 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:30:14 +0000 watcher13 66585@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Confirmed my suspicions, WR. I'm going to write something for the giveaway page - sorry I'm always so slow to do this - but I thought I'd post here on the portability/profile issue. I didn't notice this on Cairo and Prague, probably because, since almost all these things are portable anymore, I'm not doing my analysis. Just installing outright since I'm not expecting any registry entries. I know I didn't do it with Prague. Anyway, it's not registry entries, it's folders in other locations. So, even though it's not 100% portable, it can be made so. And it's not Windows, it's Gold Casual. The program is set up to create a Gold Casual Games folder for application data, which contains the individual "The Mysterious City - Vegas" (or Cairo, or Prague) folders, and place them outside the games' folder. And it set up to play from those outside folders. Putting the files into the actual games' folder won't work. In Vista, all the games create a Gold Casual Games folder and an individual game folder in the AppData folder. The address is C:\Users\(User Account Name)\AppData\Roaming\Gold Casual Games\(individual The Mysterious City - Wherever game folder). Inside the game folder are game.xml (options and profile names), and log.txt. The added complications is that they've changed the routine with Vegas. The Vegas folder also contains profiles.xml. But, with Prague and Cairo an additional Gold Casual Games folder is created in the ProgramData folder, which contains profiles.xml. In XP, there's likely something similar placed in the Documents and Settings folder. Here's an article with a chart showing the difference in application data storage methods between Vista and XP: <a href="http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_appdata.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_appdata.htm</a> The games are portable if you load them right onto your portable device, but they won't update if you play it on more than one machine. To keep your progress, options, and player profiles, you have to copy the files each time from those locations on the last computer you played on and transfer them to the appropriate locations on the next computer, overwriting other files if necessary, if you want to go to that trouble. Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66562 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:11:51 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66562@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks for the complement Bigun. I hope all is well. :) Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66561 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:11:21 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66561@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Are you playing the free game or one of the levels? 02Gram09? If it's one of the levels you should only have a certain number of spins. I gave up on even trying it in the free game mode because the game seemed rather buggy to me. I couldn't eliminate cards even though I should have been able to. All I can suggest is that you start again by reinstalling the game; however this may not work because I found when playing the demos last night, the saves were continued, so it maybe that even though you reinstall the game it may take you to the same spot. If that does happen, do a search of the registry. enter the registry editor by typing in Regedit in the run command box. o to the tool bar and click on edit, from the drop down menu select find then type in key words associated with the game. The executable is called Vegas, so I'd start with that. As a safe guard I'd do a restore point first. Delete all entries pertaining to the game, then reinstall before the game giveaway ends. As a precaution you could back up the installed folder because it is free standing. I'm sure there is no game play data stored on a file in the games folder because I transferred a copy over to my laptop to see if it would still work, which it did, but my profile wasn't saved. I hope this helps WR 02Gram09 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66559 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:42:29 +0000 02Gram09 66559@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ I am having a problem with the Pingo game. I have completed 7 levels and cannot get past Pingo to continue the game. I have one number left on the board and it will not come up. Each time I spin I get different numbers and have accumulated 178 spins. Each time I spin I accumulate another spin. Also, when the number on the bottom matches one of the numbers in the grid it won't let me eliminate the number in the grid. I just want to finish the game. How do I get out of Pingo? Please help. lwbjag on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66555 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:31:05 +0000 lwbjag 66555@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ My post to d/l page still awaiting moderation ... 8-( I forgot to mention I'm running XP - I don't know if that will make a difference with my problem. 1st time to have this trouble. Hope someone has an answer. -- Thanks ! watcher13 on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66547 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:31:04 +0000 watcher13 66547@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Haven't played, yet, WR, will try later. I'll do a post install analysis when I do concerning this storing profile data issue. Did you check whether Windows was creating those folders outside of the game folder, regardless of the games intentions? I believe I tested and it didn't do that in Cairo. Didn't test Prague. But, I believe that Windows sometimes deflects this stuff into it's own folders, though I've never gotten around to tracking it down. In Vista, I think that stuff can sometimes end up in either in the AppData or ProgramData folders. In XP, somebody said something about the Documents and Settings folder. I forget exactly what ends up there. It's been about 3-4 years since I was working at a place that had XP, so I get rusty. Did you happen to see whether you had any folders in other places that were created by Vegas? Just curious. Trying to track this occurrence down as part of the whole portability discussion. Would be interested as to whether it's that, or registry, or whether some do one and some the other. I'll see what I can figure out. Bigun on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66546 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:01:43 +0000 Bigun 66546@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ Thanks for mentioning Gametop's changing style. I have noticed that Gametop changes flavor throughout the day in an attempt to appeal to all audiences. Gametop changes to appeal to the adult and the child. Unfortunately Gametop makes no effort to separate the games available to these two groups from what is available to children thinkings as an adult. Bigun on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66544 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:49:39 +0000 Bigun 66544@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ WR, another game review very well done. You touched on the ancillary properties of the game (such as the wall paper prizes - in detail) giving the review a rich quality in part due to the depth of your narrative and an ample supply of supporting illustrations showing the different aspects of game design and game play. My impression of the game from the GGOTD blurb changed completely after reading your review. After reading your review, I will risk waisting 50 MB of disk space to play the game. I didn't have a single thought of playing the game after reading the GGOTD description. You put so much effort in writing your review that I have to acknowledge your work by at least giving the game a few minutes of my time. Whiterabbit-uk on "Mysterious City Vegas: A Review" http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6405#post-66507 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:32:01 +0000 Whiterabbit-uk 66507@http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/ <center>Mysterious City Vegas</center> Installation & Introduction This is the third in the Mysterious City series, and was released on the 31st July 09; so it’s a relatively new game. However in terms of Hidden Object games it’s already fairly old, with new ones being released almost every day. (Check out Big Fish Games <a href="http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/genres/15/hidden-object.html">HERE</a> for a list of Hidden Object Games that is over 300 games long, that have been released over the last year). The download size is 50Mb, and once it’s installed the game is 53.6Mb in size. <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/2levels.gif"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/mainmenuandwallpapers.gif"></center> The Story: <blockquote>Pack your bags and head for the dazzling lights of the Las Vegas Strip in Mysterious City Vegas. Your VIP suite awaits, but with unsolved crimes around every corner, you're here with a mission: Use your detective skills to uncover over 1000 hidden objects and apprehend a casino thief! Clues abound as you stake out casino tables and opulent Vegas locations. Casino mini-games including cards, slots and bingo take you to the heart of the action...and help you earn extra points! Just be careful who you trust - the thief could be closer than you think in Mysterious City Vegas.</blockquote> Reference accessed <a href="http://www.iwin.com/games/mysterious-city-vegas">HERE</a> on the 23rd October <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story002.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story003.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story004.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story005.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Story006.png"></center> The Game: When you first enter the game you can set it up by going into the options menu; here you can adjust the sound effects and music levels as well as change the aspect ratio to wide screen and windowed mode. There’s also a toggle to change the mouse cursor and turn the hints on or off. The main menu also has a gallery button where you can check to see what wallpapers you’ve unlocked, though at the start of the game this is inaccessible due to the lack of any wallpapers. <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Mainmenu-options.png"></center> You can create multiple profiles in this game making it an ideal family game, though I wouldn't recommend it to the younger kids due to the Casino games. (Though that depends upon how you feel about your children playing games that could be considered gambling games). Once your profile is accepted you are asked if you want to play the game in relaxed mode. Accepting this doesn’t mean the game isn’t timed; on the contrary, the game is still timed, but you get three times the amount of time that you get if you decide to play the timed game. The relaxed mode gives you 134 minutes to complete the section and the timed mode 45 minutes. <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/levelmappart1b.png"></center> If you select the relaxed mode you have plenty of time to complete all the levels within the first stage, the non seek and find puzzles are relatively easy to complete and leave you plenty of time to peruse the main hidden object puzzles. Even if you used the hint button to find all of the hidden objects, you still wouldn't run out of time because using a hint takes away only 2 minutes of your allocated time and if you make repeated attempts at clicking for objects but fail, you are supposed to lose 30 seconds, but I tried this several times and didn’t appear to lose any time. <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/timepenalty.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/timepenalty-hint.png"></center> There are 8 jigsaw puzzles (the sliding boxes type), 7 spot the difference puzzles, plus three types of casino games that includes Jacks or Better Poker, Slots Machine and Pingo. The game is split up into several sections; each section separated by a storyboard cartoon that tells you a very basic story about Dr Ellis and her visit to Vegas to apprehend some thieves who are ripping off the casino. Which I’m not going to elaborate on here – you can either discover the story as it unfolds in the game or check out my screen captures as I’ve taken screenshots of all the cartoon storyboards - see above. The game includes 16 wallpapers of scenes in and around Vegas (I've posted several below). These are awarded throughout the game once you've achieved specific targets; the first being awarded after completing the first two hidden object levels. <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/spotthedifference.png"></center> Each section of the game consists of a couple of the casino games mentioned above plus at least one jigsaw and one spot the difference level, the rest of the levels are hidden object levels which come in two forms; find the named object and find the shape. You may find you have to use a torch on some of the harder levels, which makes it much harder to spot the objects; also, if you use a hint, you'll have to look very carefully for the indicator as it doesn't stay for long. Once you’ve played one of the casino levels you’ll see that it has been unlocked on the main menu page. This allows you to play that particular casino game whenever you want to. All three casino games are unlocked by stage 2 of the games. Casino Games Help: Jacks or Better: <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Casino-Jacksorbetterpoker.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Casino-Jacksorbetterpokergameplay.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Casino-Jacksorbetterpokerwithrules.png"></center> Pingo: <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Casino-pingowithrules.png"></center> Reels: <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/casino-slots2.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Casino-Slotswithrules.png"></center> Wallpapers You can earn up to 16 wallpapers by completing hidden object and puzzle levels. The following are just a few of the examples you will get: <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers2.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers4.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers7.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers6.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/Wallpapers8.png"></center> Game Features: • Find Over 1000 Clues! • Unlock & Play Casino Games For Extra Points! • Apprehend A Casino Thief! • Explore The Las Vegas Strip • Earn 16 wallpapers System Requirements: OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista CPU: P750 Memory: 256 MB Video & Images: You can watch a short video of Mysterious City: Vegas <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1F_PhT0uio">HERE</a> and check out lots more in game images as well as all of the 16 wallpapers you can earn throughout this game <a href="http://s853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/?albumview=slideshow">HERE</a> as a slideshow and <a href="http://s853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/?albumview=grid">HERE</a> with all the images on one page. To see the image enlarged just click on the image over at photobucket (not the images posted here). <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/seeklevel.jpg"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Mysterious%20City%20Vegas/400x300/seeklevelusingtorch.png"></center> Conclusion My preparation for writing this review included reading the user reviews from gamers that had already played this game. I found that there was an overriding feeling that the game wasn’t very challenging and in some cases very boring. Playing it myself I'd partially agree with this, though I wouldn't call it boring. It really depends upon how much of a challenge you want from a game. Making it too hard can create frustration and leave a game unfinished, whereas being too easy enables you to complete the game in record time. Thankfully replaying already completed levels on a second re-run, you'll find the hidden objects are different ones, making this game replayable for at least a couple of times. The Casino games are easy to play and are also replayable because they rely upon a random generator There's no skill involved and are really just based on luck. I played them with little thought and actually finished most of the casino levels with lots of credits. The other mini games (spot the difference and jigsaws) were also too easy(IMO) The graphics are okay and the music works with this game * see below for information about changing the music. Personally I think this game is okay for newcomers to this genre; those with lots of experience will find it too easy. I completed nearly 20 levels within the space of 2 half hour demos. The amazing thing was when I installed today's giveaway over the demo's I used to play this game, all my progress was saved which would lead me to believe that there is some record kept in the registry. This was confirmed when I copied the installed game onto one of my memory sticks and transferred it over to another computer. The profiles were gone, but the game worked perfectly as a full version, so this is a free standing game. If you are looking for a more challenging game, there are many recently released H.O.G’s that are superior to this game and which can be purchased cheaper (e.g. Big Fish Games); however, that said it is free for today and it does work okay. The same formula has been uses in the preceding two games (Cairo and Prague), so those who downloaded them will be familiar with the layout and mini games from today’s game giveaway, (apart from the Casino games) There’s really nothing wrong with this game apart from it being a little too easy, but that was based upon playing the relaxed mode. I didn’t have any time left after playing two separate demo’s of the game to play the timed mode, which probably would make this game more interesting. I’d score it the same as the previous HOG games that we’d been given, i.e. 7 out of 10. That includes points for the gorgeous wallpapers (some of them at least), and the re-playability of the game. Other Information Hidden Object games are still all the rage at the moment, evidenced by the fact that most game houses seem to be adding new HOG's almost daily, whereas there are hardly any free versions available (unless you're lucky enough to catch the game giveaway of the day). However I have found one free HOG, called Great Secrets Da Vinci which you can download from <a href=""""//www.gametop.com/download-free-games/great-secrets-davinci/""""" rel="""""nofollow""""">HERE</a> . The following are screen captures from the game courtesy of Gametop: <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Secrets%20Da%20Vinci/davinci.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Secrets%20Da%20Vinci/davinci002.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Secrets%20Da%20Vinci/davinci003.png"></center> <center><img src="http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab93/whiterabbit03/Secrets%20Da%20Vinci/davinci004.png"></center> N.B.: Please note that Gametop are now rated yellow by McAfee Site Advisor, they do include checked tick boxes during installation, which if not unchecked will install toolbars into your browser an change your home page to Gametop. all this can be avoided by making sure you uncheck the appropriate boxes. also they do have pop ups so make sure your pop up blocker is turned on. Once you've done this the installed game is absolutely safe., though your browser will still be opened when you shut the game down; however, this is rectified by closing the browser down. * You can change the games music by going into the music folder located within the main folder – there are six files, one for the menu one for the map and four for the levels. You’ll need to convert the files you are going to use (If you plan to change the music) into the .ogg format as well as change the names to the ones you are replacing. I'd advise backing up the ones your replacing just in case you wish to revert to the original game . There are several audio conversion tools available free from the freeware library which you can find <a href=""""//www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/cat/Audio_Video_Audio_Encoders_Converters/""""" rel="""""nofollow""""">HERE</a> :)