Installation:
Today’s zip files of 11.5Mb which contained three files, a read me an activation module and a set up module installed to 17.5Mb. During the set up you are able to select whether you want desk top short cuts and quick start shortcuts. You do need to tick the checkbox to get either of these. There’s a shortcut and an uninstaller shortcut to the game automatically placed in the start menu as well as a link to the home page of Robin Games. So if you forget to tick the desktop shortcut box you can create one from the start menu shortcut. If you don’t like the web links they can be deleted without affecting the game.
Warning
On installing Key Words for the second time using today's installer it tried to install itself in the Hope Spring Eternal folder, so when installing do check the installation path. Meridian 93' games do tend t have a weird install coding. Weird.
Introduction:
Key Words received a positive 88% of 248 votes and 97 comments the first time it was given away in March 2007; and a positive 62% of 348 votes and 76 comments the second time from last year in January 2008. You can check out past comments, which were on the whole very positive about this game by following the two links below. A few reported a Trojan virus, but this was probably a false positive. However, if you’re unsure, use a sandbox (such as the one we were given several weeks ago called Returnil) to install the game first, so as to check whether anything untoward is installed. There was no posts about this potential problem following the early reported instances and it was never mentioned the second time it was given away. You can read all the previous comments by following the links below:
March 07:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/keywords/#comments
Jan 08:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/keywords-2/#comments
Quote:
Create words from moving letters in this jungle-themed word game. An adorable chameleon will help change your regular afternoon into fun with Key Words. Awesome graphics and never-ending challenges help this adventure become a memorable one. Journey across the land, completing each stage by completing longer and longer words. Experience the beauty and relaxation of a tropical forest along the way. How fast can you spell F.U.N.?
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The Game:
What a great repeat. Today’s game is not only fun, it's a great way to ‘supplement’ (though not replace) that ‘boring’ English teaching with the kids. Okay English can be really interesting if you like that sort of thing - I actually used to be into English via word roots and collecting unusual dictionaries (e.g. Bernstein’s reverse dictionary, and still do collect the odd dictionary when I come across them in charity shops and even purchased an English course via the national press so that I could write excellent after dinner speeches and converse with statespersons or so the advert led me to believe, lol). The game is certainly a fun way of spending a few minutes playing with words. I never could afford the complete oxford dictionary until it was put onto a DVD. Isn’t technology brilliant?
Today’s game is well worth the download, especially if you enjoy word puzzles of any type.
The options menu enables you to adjust the usual stuff like the music (which is okay, though I would recommend turning it right down low if you are going to play for a while) and sound effects. The music can be changed if you have an audio converter which changes MP3 or WAV files to ogg. There’s one available in the freeware library:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2007/07/30/free-mp3-wma-wav-converter/
You can also select to play in windowed mode, which is especially useful if you’re grabbing a quick game while at work and your boss walks into the room; (not that I’m condoning such practices). There’s a custom cursor that changes your usual mouse pointer to a gauntleted hand if you want to change the boring standard pointer and use one that looks the part. :lol: There’s also a 3D Hardware acceleration toggle. With 3D hardware acceleration, three-dimensional rendering uses the graphics processor on your video card instead of taking up valuable CPU resources drawing 3D images; so if you have a fairly slow processor leave this ticked (I think it was on by default when I first installed the game), as it will help reduce choppiness during game play, especially when there’s a lot of movement on the screen.
During game play there are lots of awards to aim for, which is always a great addition to a game as it gives you an incentive to carry on. There are awards for submitting a specific number of different sizes of words for example you get an award for submitting 100 words using 3 letters. There are actually three awards for each size of word from 3 to 8 letters in length, which includes 100, 200 and 300 times, making a total of 18 awards for that particular category. . There’s awards for being 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the high score board, and awards for attaining scores of 10000, 20000, and 30000, I scored 606 points on my first go (though this could probably have been more as I was concentrating on taking screen captures as opposed to actually making words {making an excuse for such a low score, lol} There’s also awards for playing a specific number of levels, the lowest being 10 levels. There are anther 39 awards to find out about. Awards that you do manage to win are shown on the playing screen above the word selection window as well as in a trophy room.
Your progress is automatically saved when you exit the game, and when you return you can start where you left off or play an earlier level. Also progress is marked on a levels map.
Tip:
While playing any particular level, if you decide you want to start again you can do so by pausing the game and using the Esc key. This will bring up a menu which includes options, restart exit or resume the game. If you choose to restart the game you will automatically lose a life, though if you choose to exit then restart again via the levels selection map you do not.
By choosing words other than the ones suggested in the players info panel to the bottom right of the playing area you can earn awards, but choosing the words suggested gains you extra bonus points. For example creating 100 unique words, that is words that are not being suggested, will give you the first level of the award. Using the special bricks with a ‘* mark' allows you to make words that have letters missing from them. For example,
K*TE automatically changes the * to a I making KITE.
When first starting the game you are presented with an information screen (see the screen captures via the links below for details) which shows you everything you need to know about this game. You can also select (toggled on by default) an in game tutorial, which will take you through the basics of the game. Later on when bonus items such as ruby and diamond gems are presented you will get little balloons popping up via the lizard helper with further information about the bonus. The lizard also acts as a warning if you are taking too long over thinking about a word combination; the levels are timed. It also comes out with some funny stuff as well, which will endear the kids to the game, (possibly). Once a letter has been selected for a word it cannot be used again unless you decide to scrap the word in which case you can use the clear button which is situated to the left of the word creation field, or alternatively you can remove individual letters by right clicking on the ones you want deselecting. To submit a word you can ether click on the green submit hand (note to the developer - maybe it’s the wrong colour with respect to red/green colour blindness) or double click anywhere on the word you’ve made.
Try clicking on the lizard. He will cycle through most of the phrases you are likely to see during the game.
At the end of a level you are presented with skills table. There are four to choose from:
• Freeze Tim
• New Row
• Diamond
• Ruby
As you progress through the levels these skills increase in value, so for example, if you choose to improve the freeze time, every time you choose a letter tile with the freeze symbol on it the time it freezes the tile selection lasts longer
Game Features:
• Word game mechanics
• More than 100 levels
• Talking Chameleon
• More than 80000 words in dictionary
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Useful Information & Images:
Images:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Key%20Words/?start=all
As a Slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Key%20Words/?albumview=slideshow
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System Requirements:
Operating System------------Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista,
CPU----------------------------600MHz or faster Processor,
RAM---------------------------128Mb RAM
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Conclusion:
Key Words is worth a good 7 out of 10 in my opinion. It's well made, looks good and is easy to use. It also has some extra features (mentioned above) that most word games I've played don't have. (Bookworm is anther excellent example, but you'll have to pay for that one) There's just enough variety with respect to power-ups to make it fun to play as well.
As with most word games it won't have all the words you place into the selection box, but I didn't come across any while I was doing my initial testing, which would indicate that it's covered most of the words in common usage. I'm sure you're going to find words that are missing, but these are easily added to the dictionary. It's certainly better than some word games we've been given previously, that seemed to refuse even the simplest of words.
It’s a fun game to play with and the extras give you an incentive to keep on playing for quite some time. I played with this with my children the first time it was given away for several weeks, which is quite a feat. It in no way replaces spelling lessons, but it can make them a little more fun by using it as an adjunct to teaching. It's still on one of my other computers; but they are still offline at the moment. :(
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Previous Comments:
mev1296 previously reported the following:
The dictionary CAN be edited — it’s in the KeyWords/data folder. Open it in notepad. If you want a non-English version, you can also replace this file with a custom dictionary from your own language, provided that you keep the file name the same, and mentions that this game works on Vista as well, though he had to turn on the custom cursors because on normal the cursor kept blinking on and off. (see comment 32 from Jan08)
SecularSage discovered that the dictionary held an offensive word, which I’m not even going to mention here. It is quite shocking actually. And Kim comment #60 mentions that the first few bonus words she got were adult orientated, so I would suggest that before you let this loose on the children you should open up the custom dictionary which is found in the C:\.......\key words\data folder\diction.en.kw. You can use any text editor such as notebook. (see comment #47 from Jan 08)
This is an edited version of my original post from January 08. You can read further comments in the game giveaway comments section:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/keywords-3/#comment-96149
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