Stephen,

Don't worry about missing a couple of game reviews. Hopefully, it will make us realize all the more how much we rely on you. If everyone was as helpful and kind as you have been, this world would be a much better place.

Best wishes on the move,
litemotif



................................Moderator Comment.............................

:) Thanks for the kind words.

.....................Moderator comment...................

Sorry for the lack of feedback today folks. Things have been really hectic. By the time I'd finished moving stuff over to the new house (we've been moving it in our Nissan Note, so there's been loads of journeys. By the time I'd finished early this evening, I needed to sleep.

Bad news (for me at least) is that I may not even be able to moderate at all later today (for Sundays game). My internet provider is turning off access from this house sometime today ( Sunday) and transferring it to the new house on Monday; I don't know why it has to be turned off the day before we get access at the new house).

We'd originally meant to have moved this weekend, so I'd pre arranged to have the internet, phone and TV swapped to the new house. Things got delayed and I forgot to change the date of the internet changeover.

Looks like my 1st post was lost. i basically said i did not really like the graphics just by looking at the samples.

(Personal note to moderator: in case you're not aware i did send you an apology a long time ago and hope i'm not being dissed.)

Regards to GGOTD,


..........................Moderator Comment........................

Hi Nothingls Free, No, I don't let negative comments colour my moderation. w.r.t. today, I've been out virtually all day, then needed to sleep. I can't see your previous post. I definitely didn't delete it. The only posts I delete are those with inappropriate swearing, and even then I tend to just delete the swearing.

ok,nevermind.... it's just that the graphics are off about 3/4 of an inch... i'm ok now.

Mr. Bunny
Please explain what city rankings are.
It is not explained in your review.
Hope all is well with you and your family.

BOOOO!!! it won't let me even START planting! I keep clicking and NOTHING happens!! i WAS looking forward to playing this too. :-((

Disabled av, downloaded in both firefox and IE, both times get message: "Tropical Farm has encountered a problem and needs to close, etc....."
Another game that won't play for me since the new wrapper. Never have a problem with any other game site or giveaway before the new wrapper.

for me the game exhibits a strange bug: the cursor does not always match up with where i click.

clicking on menu options is fine.

to click the start button, i have to click just below the button.

i can click directly on the tomatoes, though.

but with the initial hints playing, it's impossible to continue. clicking on the masked-out circle where the hole in the ground is registers as clicking about an inch above that and redirects the farmer to stand behind the hole. because the area is masked out, it's not possible to click anywhere else. if i turn off the hints, i have to click about an inch below the hole to register as clicking on it.

here are screenshots: http://tinyurl.com/tropicalfarm (i hope this works. i don't know how to format links for the forum.)

changing screen resolution doesn't help. changing the resolution causes the game to slow down significantly. however, the game always runs at the display's native 1024x600 -- and exhibits the odd misalignment of the cursor -- regardless of the resolution i set and regardless of whether i set it via the Display control panel, game Properties, or a1ctl.

i think it is playable, but without the hints, it will take more work to understand the game play, and without being sure where i am clicking, my performance would take a hit.

thanks to alawar, ggotd, and whiterabbit for offering this game!

(system info: winxp home sp3 on an acer aspire one d250, 2gb ram, 1.6ghz, native 1024x600 resolution, a1ctl 1.0)

You know already - I LOVE ALAWAR Games!

For this one: THANK YOU :-) and THUMBS UP!

Have a nice weekend and kindly greetings from the rainy Lake of Constanze! ;-)

Thanks to GGOTD and Alawar for another fun game!

I'm really enjoying this game although the olive oil is slowing me down. What bothers me though, is that the game seemed to take my name from the computer. I've seen my name pop out for games I'd forgotten I had but this one used a version that I don't usually use in games.

Just wanted to wish you well with the move Stephen - I've never recovered from my move! I still have stuff in the packing boxes that has yet to be sorted out years later...

Alawar is a great company, makes great games. I am a time management fan, so love this game. Thank You!

I just downloaded and installed this game without trouble.

I usually don't like dash games, because the time restraints make me nervous. But, even I can play this one, and I like it a lot. The crops grow nice and fast, which in other farm games usually takes boringly long, or is so fast that one can't keep up.

I like the colors and graphics of the game, it's no extreme wow factor, but it's keeping me busy for a few hours already... and i'm not intending to stop playing yet... i just got the goat to milk ;-)

Enjoy!

I love time management games! And this one doesn't disappoint

Downloaded and installed fine (Windows Vista)
Graphics are great
It is a lot like other farming games. But I like farming games so this is not a negative.
There are hints that you can turn off if you want.
Levels can be redone if you didn't make gold the first time.
The game gets progressively more difficult as you go on with more plants , goods & animals being introduced.
I can tell this is a game that I would be willing to play again once I finish.
All in all a good game, and thank you for offering it here :)

C64 times.....sorry, no.....


.....................Moderator Comment..................

No way. If this was C64, the resolution would be really blocky.

The final weekend before I move into my new home has arrived. I just don't have the time to do my usual review and will not be able to moderate until later this evening as we have an awful lot of stuff yet to sort before the big day, so I won't be posting my usual review.


The following review was copied from Gamezebo:

It is hard to count how many farming games have already been developed for the casual market, and Tropical Farm by Alawar is the next in line to compete for the player's attention. While there are not many flaws to be found here, the game still feels like playing more of the same old, and a few more innovations and twists would surely have been welcome.

The story, however, is actually quite original. Right in the beginning you learn that a dangerous tornado has destroyed the Greenfield Islands. The government then quickly decides to hold a contest, in which each contestant acquires one island. The winner of this contest will be able to lease his or her island for fifty more years, which is of course a nice reward. By accident, the player has just discovered a new formula which enables plants to grow in five seconds. Now that is what I call positive karma.

Apart from the story, Tropical Farm unfortunately lacks real innovation or charming uniqueness. We have seen most of the features in a dozen similar games, so that it feels like a mixture between Ranch Rush and Farm Frenzy. You will plant wheat, pineapples, bananas, corn or grapes, and care for animals such as ostrichs, bees, and peacocks. The further you proceed, the more complicated production of the goods you are trading will become. While the sale of ordinary grapes only requires one production step, that of grape juice requires two, and wine even three production steps.

The cultivation of seeds offers nothing new. You simply have to plant them, occasionally water and weed them, and after only five seconds you are able to harvest the ripe fruits. In contrast to other titles, however, plants never die, and the cost per seed is exactly what you get when you sell one fruit. Your main goal each day consists of various orders, and later on you will also get additional orders throughout a level. Here it is important to say that you are only paid for products that are actually ordered. This may sound trivial, but it has the consequence that the player really has to plan ahead how many seeds or animals to buy to fulfil all orders quickly enough, but to still make a profit at the same time.

A nice touch of Tropical Farm is the beautiful and interactive depiction of the island. After each level you can construct a new building to increase trade and growth, such as mansions, supermarkets, a school, or a pet shop. While those buildings are without real consequences for the actual gameplay, they're still a nice feature and a sort of bonus reward.

On top of that you are also able to upgrade five different skills of your farmer to three stars. It is certainly not for free to do so, but as long as you finish the levels in expert time, you will always be able to afford it. Those two features plus the occasional new animal or seed provide a lot of distraction for the first half of the game, but after that the buildings become repetitive, new animals or seeds are introduced rarely, and your skills have already been upgraded to the maximum, so that the second half of an already short game is a bit boring and still much too easy for experienced farming game players.

Besides the lack of innovation and new features, the easy difficulty of Tropical Farm is the second point of criticism. If a game offers only one mode and is quite short in terms of levels, it should be at least somewhat challenging, and Tropical Farm completely fails in that respect. If you carefully plan in which order you want to harvest the ordered products, and keep a cool head concerning new incoming orders, you will rarely ever fail to finish any level in expert time at first try. Fortunately the game at least demands the players constant attention, and for the time being it is definitely entertaining.

The graphics and animations of Tropical Farm are really gorgeous, except for the slightly weird face of your farmer. The animals look particularly the adorable and are reminiscent of those in the Farm Frenzy series. Another aspect the game excels in are the intuitive controls. A large majority of your clicks are registered immediately, and the chaining of actions, though not offering any bonuses, works perfectly, too.

All in all, people who have generally enjoyed every other farming game so far will definitely have a nice time with Tropical Farm, too. While its length is not absolutely satisfying, and changes compared to similar titles are rare enough to cause déjà vu, the game is still pretty solid and scores in enough important aspects to recommend it.