Blogcritics Author: Meryl

Book Review The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead by David Shields

Meryl — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:24:10 EDT

A little of everything on life - memoir, biography, non-fiction stories, health, aging...
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead focuses contains a mixture of an autobiography and facts about the body's growing and aging. The stories told and the given facts both humor and depress readers. Rather than linearly cover author David Shields' life from childhood to adulthood sprinkled with quotes and stories about...

DVD Review: Little Einsteins - Race for Space

Meryl — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:34:52 EST

Go on a three episode trip with our favorite rocket ship.
The animated TV series Little Einsteins teaches art and music to the young'uns by incorporating classical music and art into stories. The gang of four interacts with kids by facing the screen and encouraging them to play along. Little Einsteins: Race for Space comes with three episodes, one of which hasn't aired as of the DVD's initial...

Book Review: Sell Your Book on Amazon by Brent Sampson

Meryl — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:02:25 EST

Good resource for selling POD and self-published books on Amazon.
Despite a way too long subtitle and "salesy" claims, Sell Your Book on Amazon surprises. Its format simplifies finding the sections of interest - couple that with the ratings from five stars indicating "a must do" item to one star meaning "Don't waste your time." Authors who publish their books using a...

Book Review: The Success Effect by John Eckberg

Meryl — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 15:01:16 EST

A conversational-style book of intellectual conversations without the big words.
The Success Effect takes a different tack to many books with interviews with successful business people by printing them in question and answer format. Such an approach doesn't always succeed. However, Eckberg successfully culled great material from past interviews and put them together to create a conversational and educational resource.A...

Nintendo DS Review: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

Meryl — Wed, 5 Dec 2007 07:12:51 EST

Play lawyer with this first person style game that makes players feel part of the action.
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, returns for this third in the series with five new cases where players portray Mia Fey, Wright's mentor from a past case involving Phoenix. Those who haven't played the first two games can start with this one without any confusion. Of course, some scenes will have more meaning to those playing the first two in the...

PC Game Review: Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb

Meryl — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:19:45 EST

Discover the Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb, a hidden object game with mini-games and travels throughout Egypt.
Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb is a hidden object game with mini-games and travels throughout Egypt. This sharp looking game lasts a long time with over 100 levels of play. With that many levels, it's amazing how it rarely feels like one plays the same rooms repeatedly or hunts for the same objects in 22 locations.While the game won't...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Nintendo DS Review: Brain Buster Puzzle Pak

Meryl — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:18:35 EDT

Nintendo smartly created a genre of games known as Touch Generations that attract all generations, not just the hard core gamer. Such casual games focus on unwinding and brain exercise. Nintendo is definitely onto something as brain exercise games grow more popular as Baby Boomers want to keep their minds sharp with puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuro.In addition to Sudoku and Kakuro, Brain Buster Puzzle Pak, by Agetec, helps players flex their mental muscle with numbers and logic games of Nurikabe, Light Up, and Slitherlink. Not only do players work their way through the puzzles, but also watch for monsters and aliens to zap and gain bonuses. The games also reward players with wallpaper for changing the background look. Brain Buster Puzzle Pak provides guidance every step of the way: how to play the puzzle, how to get around the games and what the menu items do. Anyone new to Nintendo DS won't have much trouble learning how to use Brain Buster Puzzle Pak. The menu did confuse several adults because it uses "Game" and "Session" as in "End game" or "End session." Distinguishing the two isn't as easy as it should be.Another annoying feature, the "Return" button, takes you up one level or back one screen. When you reach the top level and tap "Return," the game opening credit appears. The button shouldn't be available on this screen. Who wants to see the opening credits again besides the company that developed it?Playing Sudoku in this one was a better and more enjoyable experience than in another brain game pack, which took more effort. Sudoku contains a 9x9 grid with nine boxes. Each box must contain a number one through nine and those numbers cannot appear on the same row or column in the other boxes.Mixing addition, logic and Sudoku, Kakuro involves placing numbers that add up to the number for that row or column and not reuse any of the same numbers. In trying to enter three digits that total 7, you can't use 3+2+2 because two appears twice. It must be 4+3+1. Oh, and it doesn't have to appear in that order as it depends on the other boxes. This is the only one that involves math.In Nurikabe, players work to leave the right amount of space around a number. For instance, the number 1 should have no space around it. The number four should have four connecting squares around it. Light On resembles Nurikabe in that players rely on the numbers to decide where to place the light bulbs. Instead of building islands out of the numbers, the light bulbs must light up all the squares without stepping on each other.The least favorite, Slitherlink, was very difficult for several adults to play in spite of the tutorial. Several capable adults struggled indicating the game is too challenging and a frustrating experience. The pack doesn't require playing all five games to get the most out of it. You can control which games you play and the level of each.Brain Buster Puzzle Pak creates a profile for each player and tracks scores for every game. As the player works the puzzle, a clock ticks down and lets you know your current rating. Ratings begin with Master working down to Expert and then Novice based on how much time passes. Some won't like this giant clock and ratings slider, and there is no option to turn it off. It would have been better to announce the rating after the completing the puzzle.Its graphics aren't the sharpest or fanciest, and it's neither the best nor the worse of brain packs. Experienced puzzle and brain game fans might find the pack isn't challenging enough. Those new to these games will probably enjoy and appreciate Brain Buster Puzzle Pak most. Brain Buster Puzzle Pak is rated E (Everyone) by the ESRB.

Meryl K. Evans is the content maven (AKA writer, editor, researcher, word gal, CEO, and UFO) behind meryl.net. She's the author of Brilliant Outlook Pocketbook and co-author of Adapting Web Standards. Meryl has been blogging since June 2000. The Texas native also reviews for TheDiamondGames and Gamzebo, and she's the editor of a few newsletters, and does whatever her clients ask... well, not everything.

PC Game Review: Chocolatier

Meryl — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:05:40 EDT

Thank goodness this doesn't come with smells, like the upcoming My Name Is Earl smell-o-vision episode, then it would be impossible to play without craving chocolate. You may want to play Chocolatier on a full stomach, as the graphics clearly show every delicious ingredient in the 60 different kinds of bars, squares, infusions and truffles. The game comes with Story and Freeplay modes with over 130 quests taking place in 14 cities. Working through the tutorial, the game looked complicated. But it wasn't. Give it time and it will become as addicting as chocolate. Thankfully, unlike chocolate, this didn't hurt my waistline - maybe my bottom from sitting on it for hours in eager anticipation to progress in the game.Not only do players buy ingredients, make new products, sell chocolates, buy factories and stores, and travel the world; but they also try to get the story behind a family squabble. Since we only use the finest ingredients, we must travel to cities around the world for specific ingredients. The two U.S. cities didn't carry cacao. In fact, they carried the least amount of ingredients in the whole world.Expensive products sell at higher rates because they contained ingredients specific to a region like the Sulawesi Macadamia Cacao Infusions, which contain one ingredient from Sulawesi. When you don't have a lot of dough, you want to travel to the locales that pay more for the chocolates you have available.Upgrading a factory from bars to truffles doesn't simply involve changing the ingredients, but also buying new equipment. Those cost you a pretty pound. As soon as you assign a new recipe to a factory and have its ingredients, it turns into a race. You have to make as many as you can of the candy following the recipe within a set time. Unfortunately, this made me dizzy considering my susceptibility to things moving in circles. The amount of chocolates made during that time is the amount the factory can produce in a week. The bars are easiest to make since they contain two or three ingredients while the truffles can contain six unique ingredients.Every city contains a store that buys chocolate, a market that sells ingredients, a special crop for the hard to get ingredients, and one or two local hangouts for talking with people to get the scoop on the business and the family. Some hangouts also give you a chance to gamble and double your money, or lose it.The game screen has a message section. This section lets you know about any problems in your business -- such as degrading food supplies -- along with any action items you promised to take and tasks you've done. This message section is small, hard to read and slow in scrolling. Sometimes I had more than one action item and it was a chore to find them in the message section when they didn't appear at the top as current tasks did.I loved the diversity in this game. There was no right or wrong, or a set path you must take. You could make whichever recipe, and travel to the destinations of your choosing unless you needed to find an ingredient only available in one place. You could help people along the way and haggle prices. The game slowed when I had tons of money, but still needed more recipes and couldn't accomplish things until I found the right person. During that time, I traveled from port to port trying to find someone to help.When I finally got a hit, the game picked up again and kept me hopping for the rest of it. I never thought I could manage six factories -- the thought of that sounded like too much multi-tasking -- but it wasn't. In fact, I wish I had more places to visit. Chocolatier didn't attempt to copy any of the "run a business" style games. Rather, its creator developed it from scratch as the game package turned out as beautifully as the chocolates.Download free trial of Chocolatier.System Requirements: Windows Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista700MHz or faster Processor128MB RAM800x600 minimum screen resolutionSound Card recommendedDirectX 7.0 or later30MB+ available drive spaceSystem Requirements: MacMac OS X 10.3.9 or newer G4 800 MHz or faster or G5 or Intel processor800x600 minimum screen resolution21MB+ available drive space

PC Game Review: Abra Academy

Meryl — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:32:25 EDT

This latest entry into the hidden object category takes place in Abra Academy, a school for witches. Players help Wanda survive four years of school by finding hidden objects and adding them to the cauldron.Unless you're a fan of hidden objects, regardless of the storyline or mini-games that occur between hidden objects puzzles, Abra Academy offers little to make it stand out from the other games of the hidden object genre. The game, however, does a good job of hiding many objects as they blend naturally into the scene. The game hides things so well that I needed help from the fairies to find them. Unfortunately, those same fairies are a distraction. They're flighty creatures that quickly moved around their little cage making it difficult to concentrate on finding the objects. Also, the number of fairies equals the number of hints available. Unless there are only one or two hints left, figuring out the number of hints remaining was tough.The same thing applies to knowing how much time you had left. The cauldron, where the objects enter, sits on a fire. When the fire dies down, time is running out. But how much time is left? Thirty seconds? Five minutes? You can extend time by finding four wooden matches in each scene, which keeps the fire burning bright. Ironically, trying to click the stick thin matches to get more time leads to losing time because when you click too fast, a mean gremlin comes out and steals time. Other complications include having to back out of the scene to get to the main page to pause the game. You can't pause the game from within the scene. The game does not include a help file. The only help comes from professors and students who pop in with advice. I couldn't remember everything they said.Mini-games appear when you complete a period. These games were more frustrating than fun. Most of them have letters or objects flowing in a jagged line making their way into a cauldron. As they move, they jerk making it dizzying and difficult to pick them up.The game's ending was anti-climatic. I graduated, I got a diploma and that was that. Disappointing. The game does offer a good way to keep the eyes sharp for hidden objects games.Download a free trial of Abra Academy.System Requirements Windows 2000/XP/Vista500MHz or faster Processor128MB RAMDirectX 7.0 or higher

PC Game Review: G.H.O.S.T. Hunters: The Haunting of Majesty Manor

Meryl — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:24:45 EDT

Children of the '80s can't help but think of Ghostbusters while playing G.H.O.S.T. Hunters, a hidden object game with mystery thrown in. Viola Majesty calls Ghost Hunter, Inc. for help finding out what's going on in her mansion. She reports hearing strange noises and seeing things move.Welcome new investigator, you have 15 days to investigate the house, identify suspects and solve mystery behind the haunting; search room by room for clues in the guise of hidden objects while hair stands on end in response to the scary music and creepy looking objects. Discover suspects as you clear the rooms on a level.Most hidden object games come with hints, and G.H.O.S.T. Hunters takes a creative approach in providing them. Instead of simply pointing out the location of a hidden object, use Spectre-Scan Mate, a remote control-like gadget for finding objects. The handheld device works like the "Hot and Cold" game. When the four red buttons on the remote control light up, you're hot and very close to the object. See one red dot and you're way off. Since the device, like most devices, sucks down power - you can gain more hint power by finding batteries in the scenes.The game comes with two modes, timed and easy. Those optioning for less pressure will still see a clock ticking down, which annoys some people. Just put a small towel over it to hide the distraction. Most casual games let you switch out of full-screen mode, but not this one.In comparison to other games of this genre, this one challenges even the experienced player in finding hidden objects. The list of evidence can trick the investigator with an item like "arrow." You might start hunting for the kind that works with a bow, but it could also be an arrow on a street sign. When you think of bat, what comes to mind? Baseball? The mammal? It could be one or the other. You don't have to find all the objects in every room, but you can earn a bonus if you do.It's common to find the same object a few times in an average hidden object game. However, this one has the same items appearing in the list too often, and the rooms don't vary much as you advance. Hidden object games usually have a mini-game or another game that doesn't involve finding objects to break the monotony. G.H.O.S.T. Hunters doesn't have any other puzzles.With its crisp graphics and accompanying background music, G.H.O.S.T. Hunters succeeds in creating an environment expected in a suspenseful game. It isn't the most captivating of hidden object games and won't be a favorite, but it will occupy players for a few hours.Download a demo of G.H.O.S.T. Hunters: The Haunting of Majesty Manor.Recommended Requirements for Windows Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista (Windows XP is best)1.0 GHz or faster Processor512MB RAMnVidia or ATI accelerated 3D video card