The first thing that you should do is all agree on where you’re meeting up. It makes sense that you should go to the person with the most room spare as then everyone would be able to stay over without having to worry about where they were going to sleep. If you ensure that everyone knows in advance where it is that they’re going to be sleeping, then this should save any problems later when some people think that you have favoured others over them.

The next thing that you need to do is plan some activities. A movie is the obvious choice, and this is great because you could choose something that you all liked. You could do this at the beginning of the night so that everyone could settle in. Make sure that you choose which film you’re going to watch before the day, because this means that you would be able to save any arguments from people who like to watch slightly different things to you.

Getting some food can also be great fun. If you don’t fancy cooking, then there is no reason that you can’t order food to be delivered. You don’t even have to all order the same thing. If you used several different companies to get things delivered at around the same time then everyone could have whatever they wanted. In a way, this is probably the easiest thing to do because of the fact that everyone would be happy then.

If you have a games console then this could be one of the best ways to have fun on a boys night in. There are lots of interactive sport games which you could enjoy playing against each other, and this means that you would be getting some exercise as well as having fun! Avoid the temptation to play on games that are only for two people though, as this would mean that there were many of you who would be getting left out of all the fun, which would not be great for them.

Simple things like trampolines and darts boards can be fun on nights such as these. You could create games or tournaments and then have prizes for the winners. Although you might not think that it sounds like the most fun thing in the world to be doing, you will probably find that once the fun and games have started you actually end up having more fun than you’ve had in years!

There is a bit of a story here, and the flash style animation is done well. There are loads of levels and tons of stuff to ‘build’ onto your village with. (You have to restore it for the previous residents.) Like all such games there is the onerous energy bar, the feature to add ‘friends’ so that you can play more when the energy bar runs out, and ways you can pay real cash for the fake energy to add to your energy bar. Man, I hate those energy bars.

As you play you earn coins and ‘gems’ that you can use to buy other stuff with. The rooms of the mansion are filled with creepy stuff, befitting a haunted mansion. The whole thing is easier to play in full screen so that you can actually see all the creepy stuff. Love the dolls. There is a hidden, hidden object in the little circle to the left hand bottom corner of the screen, not listed in the list of things to find, that you must also find. I actually found it a little hard to see everything at first and was glad that I could take the whole thing up to full screen.

Like all the other hidden object games on facebook like Hidden Chronicles, they just remind me of I Spy books, and the Scholastic games for kids, such as ‘I Spy Spooky Mansion’. Seriously, its just like that! Except not as good.

Three stars out of five for being redundant.

The Hunger Games (Photo credit: Wikipedia), If you haven’t read the book yet, read it.

Most Facebook games are designed to be fun, addictive, and hopefully to sell you stuff. The Hunger Games is no different in those aspects. Like Spartacus: Vengeance and Avenger’s Alliance on Facebook, this game borrows a lot from the movie. You start out as an orphan being helped through the game by Katniss, simply because Gale asked her to. Your avatar has a few choices, more than most games, but the ‘choices’ aren’t very different from one another and all the avatars look remarkably similar. Your avatar then goes over the fence into the forest where you find a bow and arrow and get to fight a vulture mutt. Like most games on Facebook every action costs energy from the depleting energy bar. You move about to a forest base camp to District 11, and to other places collecting things, selling things, harvesting things, fighting things, etc.

There really isn’t much to distinguish this game from any other game on Facebook. Its playable, but a bit of a let down as the interaction with the characters from the movie is so blah. It seems that they wasted an opportunity to really make this unique, like the book and the movie.

I give this three and a half stars, because it is playable, but just like a lot of games already out there.

ZUMA’s Revenge

ZUMA’s Revenge is a fast-pace, action game where the player completes challenges as a ball spitting frog while clearing multicolor ball chains at lightening speed. This game offers players 20 different levels of play with each level more challenging than the last. As the game progresses power balls each with its own unique reward appears in the chains at random for brief periods of time. Clearing a chain once one of these power balls appear the player is given a unique power shot on the following turn to clear massive multicolor ball chains off of the board before the bonus time runs out. If the player fails to clear all of the ball chains off of the board before they reach the other end of the board, then the player looses a frog and must start the level over. Extra lives are earned when the player collects 50K points, 100K points, 150K points, and then for each 50K points thereafter. My personal best high score is 289,000 points after completing all 20 levels, just something to shoot for if beating high scores are your motivating thing. 

Plants Vs Zombies

Plants Vs Zombies is fascinating action game with plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested in playing the game to its end. In this game players must arrange an interesting variety of plants each with unique properties to defend and destroy the legions of zombies that want to eat your brains from entering your house. Kind of like chess players must quickly decide which plants that they want to defend with, but there is a catch, the plants aren’t free. Players must also collect sunlight that rain down during each level of game play, which reward the player 50 points to purchase plants to plant on the field of battle. The levels start off extremely easy, but progressively get harder and harder, faster and faster, so the player must be able to multitask to prevent the zombie army from making a meal of your plant army and invading your house and feasting on your brains. 

BOOKWORM

BOOKWORM is another fast-pace game offered at PopCap.com, which players try to spell as many three or more lettered words using only the lettered tiles that are available on the board. Words can be spelled up, down, right or left, diagonally or cress-cross just as long as the lettered tiles are used only one time in the spelling of the word. During game play, bonus point tiles will appear randomly on the board, which will give the player an additional opportunity to score more points for the word which these bonus tiles are used in the spelling. When a word is spelled correctly and successfully, then those tiles used will disappear from the board and new tiles will drop down on the board replacing the old lettered tiles that were previously used during the last turn. Additionally, during the game and after completing a few levels, bonus word challenges will be offered that the player can score extra points when successfully spelling them during normal game play. Now for the twist, once completing several levels burning letter tiles will begin to show up on the board, which will burn up the letter tile below it, if these burning letter tiles are not used quickly. Once a burning letter tile reaches the bottom of the game board and are not used spelling the last word, then the entire board will catch fire and the game will be over. This is an excellent game to learn new English words and have fun during the learning process. 

Amazing Adventures: The Caribbean Secret

Popcap.com offers dozens of free limited time trial games on the website and Amazing Adventures: The Caribbean Secret is just but one of these types of games. The game is offers something that should be quite familiar to most people who have ever played a Find-the-hidden object game in a newspaper or a Highlights book. The only thing is that not only is the player challenged to find and remove the more than 1500 hidden objects during game play, but extra bonus objects that are located will unlock bonus levels of entertainment. This game is quite involve consisting of maps, secret levels and geographic information which are revealed in-between levels to later assist in winning the ultimate challenge at the conclusion of the game. Players need to be able to spot out cleverly hidden objects as quick as possible during the limited time trial version of the game, because there is only 60 minutes to give this game a test drive, before time runs out.

Other Limited Time Trial Games similar to Amazing Adventures: The Caribbean Secret recommended is:

Amazing Adventures: The Lost Tomb

Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Dynasty

Escape: The Emerald Star

Escape: Rosecliff Island

Mystery P.I.: The London Caper

Mystery P.I.: Lost in Los Angeles  

*Screen shot of village

Zynga usually prides itself on being innovative and new, which makes their newest offering a bit odd. It is a bit like Angry Birds by and and Ravenwood Faireby 6waves all mushed together. The cute furry little racoons and other little woodland critters are defending the forest against evil invaders. By launching pigs. Yep, catapulted pigs.

Your first task, given to you by a raccoon general who also happens to be your father, is to drive the Bear King out of the woods. The animation is simple Flash style animation, but it is used well and simply. Your weapon of choice in the beginning is the pig catapult and the Bear King’s is a large mud fan. I have to say I do enjoy the catapult, despite the cuteness. Squealing pigs flying over a battlefield? Who doesn’t love that?

*Pig Catapult

The place names are great as well, like Falkirk Forest. Cute, yet historical.

The game moves on with more quests, more critters, and, like all Zynga games, building and gathering. You can go back and forth to town, which looks like a WWII war torn London at first, and use energy (man, I hate the energy bar) and clear rubble, gather materials, visit various shops and such, and generally spend twenty minutes of your short life that you will never get back.

The game is well thought out, but with all of the frustrating game elements we have come to know and loath from Facebook games. You run out of energy way too fast and have to wait or buy more energy, and by buy I mean with actual money. To truly advance in the game you have to bug your friends to play and then send and receive gifts and help. That’s fine if your friends are into it, but not so much if they aren’t.

Overall I give the game three and a half stars for the good graphics, well thought out story line and slightly funny dialog (the ‘refresh page’ icon is a little robed raccoon saying ‘Use the Forest’). I subtracted one and a half stars for the above annoyances, but it will probably be worth playing if you like other Zynga games like Farmville or Castleville.

In 1981 the arcades were full of maze games and shooting games. Little yellow fellows zoomed around a screen eating dots and alien menaces died by the millions. There were a lot of arcade games, and after a while many of them started to look the same, like clones of other games.

Of course there were some games which were different from many of the others. Venture is one such game.

Released in 1981 by the Exidy Company, Venture grew to some success in the arcades, though it never quite had the legendary status of such games as Donkey Kong or Space Invaders and the like. The player controls a small dot on the screen known as Winky, and Winky’s goal is to travel around a dungeon and collect treasure while avoiding or slaying monsters. It’s a fairly simple process, and the first dungeon (of three) is pretty easy for most players, but there was still fun to be found here.

In each of the three dungeons there are four rooms that Winky must enter. Those rooms contain the treasure. Out in the dungeon are giant monsters roaming around, and Winky isn’t able to kill them. But in each of the rooms are monsters Winky can kill with his trusty bow and arrows; even after slaying a foe, however, Winky has to be on his toes because touching the body of a dead enemy can still kill Winky. And if Winky takes too long in any of the rooms, one of the giant monsters from the dungeon will pop into the room and make a beeline for Winky.

One could call Venture a minimalist game, and to some extent that is true. The sound is very basic, almost monotonous, and the graphics are pretty bland, even by standards of 1981. However, perhaps it is only nostalgia, but there was plenty of fun to be had having Winky traverse around the dungeon slaying monsters and stealing treasures. Perhaps we just didn’t know better back then because we were all thrilled with every new game that came along, but I, for one, always appreciated the simplicity of Venture and the fun that came along with the game, despite that once you’ve master this game it does not have much replay value.

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Atari games now available for iPad and iPhone

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The tutorial starts out with Spartacus giving you a brief tour before you go off to free the slaves from the dominion of Rome. On your home screen there is a Healing tent, Inventory tent, Training ground, and a store wagon, each of which is self explanatory in function.

After the brief tour you click on the map to begin your first actions as a slave rebel leader. You choose a party member, only one at first, and then begin the story portion of the game. Characters from the show pop up, like Mira, and give you insight to what is happening and that you are being hunted down as an escaped slave by Glabor. Your first mission is to rescue a captured comrade and you do that by again clicking on the map. This is all pretty standard, but the combat is a bit weird. It is a simple game, with simple point and click technology, and they tried to make that interesting with a ‘rage’ bar that you click to build up before hitting and then a weird sea-sawing bar that you click ‘at the right moment’ to strike. Still just click to hit combat, and not more interesting, just a little odd and slow.

Most of the game is slow. You move across the map square by square, rather than just going to the next mission. It doesn’t add reality, just makes the pace that of a Roman snail. You conquer territory, free slaves to join your ranks, receive tribute from conquered territories, get cool gear to equip your various fighters with, and all in all a well thought out game. But boring, which is kind of sad because it seems they have really missed a cool opportunity here.

The problem is that the great things about the show-the battles, the fast pace, the intrigue, the incredibly good to look at naked people of both genders-is impossible to do on a Facebook game which has to be the softest G-rating imaginable. There is no gore in the game, not really. The pace is slow, and slowed down even further by trying to make it ‘cool’ with things like a rage bar. I can only guess that they tried too hard to be all things to all people. They wanted to battle Romans and be a really cool game to promote Starz show, Spartacus, but they had to make it accessible for the larger Facebook audience. Maybe it will pay off, with more people checking out the show, but I doubt it. If you are the sort of viewer that would dig a show like Spartacus, you are already watching, and if you are already watching that you are probably not digging this game.

Three out of five stars, though I applaud the effort that went into it.

Other Game Reviews:

Avengers Alliance

It’s been 40 years since you’ve last heard from your father, only to be called to his funeral. At the funeral, a lawyer approaches you and explains you’ve inherited a vast land. However, He let it overgrow with trees and weeds. The only way the state will allow you to keep your new land is if you can clear the area of plants and build a city on the cleared land.

Rules

Easy mode
1. The game is considered over after 30 days in the game.
2. You can start in any biome
3. You must keep the Difficulty at PEACEFUL or EASY
4. Indigenous Town folk are considered FRIENDLY. Your city can be an extension of a city that was already on the map
5. The State council has APPROVED the use of fire to level weeds and Forests.
6. There is no limit on what you create.
7. NO MODS!

Normal Mode
1. The game is considered over after 30 days in the game.
2. You can start in any forest Biome
3. You must keep the Difficulty at NORMAL
4. Indigenous Towns folk are considered NEUTRAL. Since you can’t extend their town, you must isolate them.
5. The State council has BANNED the use of fire to level weeds and forests.
6. The State wants a small town built on your land, but if whatever you build is fine.
7. NO MODS!

Hard Mode
1. The game is considered over after 30 days in the game.
2. You must start in a Jungle Biome.
3. You must keep the Difficulty at HARD
4. Indigenous Towns folk are considered HOSTILE. Since you can’t extend their town, you must exterminate them, then level their city.
5. The State council has BANNED the use of fire to level forests and weeds.
6. The State wants to see a residential, Commercial and Industrial District built on your land. What you build in those districts are up to you.
7. NO MODS!

Of course this and all Challenges are subject to whatever changes you come up with. The important part is just to have fun!

Minecraft Seeds
(All seeds were tested in 1.2.4)
“Lumberjack” – Creates an EASY mode map. Starts you in a field with a town. A forest and Jungle are near by
“One Up” -  Hard mode: Starts you off near a heavily wooded Jungle hills Area
“-6528100299166259401″ – Puts you on a Jungle/Desert Island.
“-7236667740396870579″ – Puts you at a short River, separating a Forest and Taiga.
“THE GAME” – Starts you off in a field with lots of Weeds and small patches of Trees around you. There’s a cave directly in front of you. Lots of animals around you.

Other Minecraft Challenges
Currently none

• Minecraft Gift code Generators
• Runescape Money editor
• Runescape Bots
• Zynga Farmville money programs/Hacks
• Dragon Fable Amulet Givers
• Wow Gold bots
• Game Beta Key Generators
• Gold Selling sites
• Other Program pin generators

Why would someone want to download such programs?

Simply put, all those who seek to obtain such programs want to gain either an unfair advantage within the game – or not pay for the game.
For CD Games, people will download the game files from a source or use another friends disc to rip the files to their computers, and then attempt to “crack” the game by using these programs.
For Online games where it is not easy to simply modify system files, people download programs that carry out specific instructions without them being there so that their characters gain levels quickly and with no effort from the owner. People and websites go a step further and sell these automated programs and some even directly sell employees to do it for you to avoid any detection systems.

The Bottom line often is a question of either money or time.

Should we be using these resources if they are out there?

Seems like a fair argument. These programs have already been developed and hence we might as well use them. That seems fine right? WRONG. Having to use cracks on CD games implies that you have downloaded the game files or are trying to install the game onto another computer. To then go on the try and hack the game so that you can effectively have it for free undermines the creators of the game as they intended for the game to be sold for a certain amount of money, but also it is heavy piracy and against the law.
In the case of Online Games, i can’t think of many MMO Company’s that don’t actively discourage the use of Bots and Selling sites, in fact JaGeX recently excelled at this and successfully managed to “nuke” a vast percentage of it’s botting community, and is continually carrying out lawsuits against bot creators and gold selling companies. Summary, No you should not use any 3rd party applications to attempt to hack, crack or gain unfair advantages in games.

So that’s the Legalities out the way…

Now for morals. Yes, it is true that many stick to the expression “Try and get every opportunity and advantage in life”, this should not apply to games. Gaming leader-boards should be comprised of the achievements of the player and not the hours of a bot or hired sweat-shop worker. In the reverse situation, how would you feel if your friend kept constantly out-doing you because he was botting levels, or kept gaining a huge pile of gold via websites. It isn’t fair on legitimate players and should be prevented to maintain the joy of games.

And the Risks?

So, you did choose to download that program, or give into selling sites. Now what? Well firstly, the program you got will work or not. That could be your first disappointment. Alternatively, that gold website might not train your skills or deliver your gold and just walk off with your real-life money!

Of course, both lead to the same conclusion ultimately. The Program you just downloaded will have 9/10 a key-lodger, or virus. As for the website you just gave your login detail to, you may as well have given them the keys to your car. Chances are – you’re probably going to be hacked on either your game, your computer or anything else the key-lodger can get its coded arms around. No one likes to get hacked and more often than not people go on to quit due to it with a typical reaction when they discover they have indeed, been hacked of:

So was it really worth it? Certainly the gold you payed for which is now gone wasn’t. And potentially the skills you got trained automatically wasn’t now that you’re banned for using 3rd party software.

Conclusion?

Easy conclusion, don’t cheat in games. Play fairy, legitimately, and of course – don’t be a noob! Certainly never ever let someone onto your account that you don’t know and can’t trust simply because you are paying them. And a final note, never believe those articles “Giving away a free __________ account” or “Just quit giving my things away” because on this site particularly, they are just to drum up views.

RATE, COMMENT, LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!

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Disclaimer: In case it wasn’t obvious, I don’t condone the use of Bots, 3rd party software, websites etc. to gain unfair advantages. Don’t do it. I own none of the images in this post.

Various characters of the Marvel Universe. Promotional Art for the Civil War event by Steve McNiven. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The game begins with choosing your avatar at Shield headquarters. There is very little to customize in your avatar but it looks pretty good to start with. You are a Shield agent, and quite pretty in good Marvel form. You can be male or female, change hair color and skin color, but that’s it.

In the tutorial, or training, you get to battle a rebuilt Sentinel, but the battle is boring, a little Flash Animation, with just point and click. You have different weapons you can acquire and use in the game by clicking on the option in the menu bar and then clicking on the target. Nick Fury and Hill pop up with hints, story and instructions.

That part is brief. The fun of the game comes in the story, which gives you more than your typical facebook game. It gives you a kinda animated Marvel comic, (Yay!) in which you get to take part. A massive energy surge hits the world from space in the form of an EMP pulse, and everything goes to hell in a hand basket. Shield has some of the only working equipment running on backup. Your first mission is with Iron Man to go backup Black Widow in an exploding New York.

As the game progresses you get to collect super heroes that have been associated with the Avengers and Shield, which is quite a few. They include cross-overs from the X-Men books and the Fantastic Four, but have a lot of old favorites like Spider Man, Hawkeye and Thor.  You also get to battle in scenarios that include all your favorite villians from AIM, Hydra, etc..

Game play is just complicated enough to keep you interested with options of weapons and powers, a host of things for your inventory like health kits, and interesting maps and animation. The only down side in the game play is the limit of the Flash animation, and the stupid energy bar. Every mission uses energy and when its depleted you have to stop playing or pay to have it ‘topped off’. I hate that, but that is how these games make money, not just from the advertisements. I’m also fairly certain somebody, somewhere made a little bit of bank from the Marvel franchise.

All in all, it is a very playable game with a good story, despite the energy bar (ggrrrr…). Play it long enough to acquire the Hulk and you won’t be disappointed.

Four and a half stars out of five.

Other Playdom Games on Facebook:

Gnome Town

Games that a bit like this one on Facebook:

Dragon Age Legends