Amelie's Cafe has been marketed with different themes covering similar game play, as often happens, such as the immensely popular match 3, Fishdom. GGOTD has given away the original, the Christmas version, the summertime version, and now the Halloween themed one. It is a stripped down diner time management game. By stripped down, I mean it's pretty close to it's purest form. Where some have a heavy emphasis on uprgrade purchasing strategy, and some - the find ingredients to complete a recipe game type - are helped by good memory, and some feature both, Amelie's is pretty much a rat race challenge type of game. Do a lot and do it as quickly as you can. If that appeals to you, then this is representative of what your looking for and worth a download. I'll give it a try, but more as an experiment, since I prefer the games that put more emphasis on those other 2 qualities.

The game downloaded and installed just fine on Win 7. But when trying to go through the tutorial, it keeps displaying the error message "you've created a chain of pictures too slowly" and displays a yellow swirl on the screen. I have to click ok, then it resumes the error cycle saying "Run Amy Run" and giving everyone pumpkin pie. uugh. Cannot get past the tutorial to play the game.

Not a fan of time management games myself, other than ones like Royal Envoy or Rescue Rangers.
I won't vote it down because I haven't tried it.

I guess my biggest reason for leaving a comment is because the comment section is blank and I don't like blank.

Pass since not a TM fan. Fairly harsh ratings score and I'm not voting. Pretty high vote count early on. Still enjoying yesterday's game. Thanks again GOTD.

Not my cup of tea but for those who like this genre but have trouble with the false positive virus reports might want to check out MyPlayCity and ToomkyGames. It's available at both places. Be cautious of hijacking for MyPlayCity but ToomkyGames just has an extra "gadget" to watch out for at the end. Also, MyPlayCity has 16 - 17 files plus 1 folder that are just garbage (about 5 MB worth) that can be deleted and then a new shortcut created. That 5 MB / game adds up fast. ToomkyGames does admit that by changing the shortcut from running gamename.exe (gamename is the name of the game) to game.exe, you avoid the browser opening.

I prefer ToomkyGames now that they've cleaned up their install procedure. It one of the cleanest ones I've seen in years!

You need someone else to ok posts so we can see what others say when you can't be here.

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

I've asked before, but the giveaway team were not happy to give access to the admin panel. I'll be around as usual from next week. We've just been really busy with our rental house after it was left in need of repairs and a complete redecorate (despite having only redecorated two years ago).

Sorry I've not been around.

For starters, I just want to signal that the game.giveaway.com TICKER is NOT visible on a forum (where I put it as my sign).
It isn’t visible even in the Spread the word section of this website.

I submitted the compressed package, and the unzipped files, to WinDefender, SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes and EmsiSoft Emergency Kit (those programs are installed or portable on this PC): no problems detected.
I submitted the G/GAOTD setup.exe to virustotal, jotti, metascan-online, and virscan: virustotal and jotti found nothing, FPROT scan engine on virscan found W32/Felix:P:Lastsect_unkn!Eldorado, that I considered as false positive, on metascan-online --> Fortinet has failed to scan and virit engine was updating (usually it reports Trojan.Win32.DownLoader16.CH) but the other forty-two engines found nothing.
The game "installed" (extracted itself) well on windows 10 (standard/home) x64.
I had to create the shortcut for it and enable/tick/select Disable display scaling on high DPI settings in its properties - compatibility tab, because I'm using high DPI settings (150%).
The game started and finished without problems.

Thanks for this game, as usual, to Whiterabbit-uk (aka Stephen), to GGAOTD and to Alawar Entertainment!!!

Again I will be absent for most of today. We still have work to do on the rental house. Thankfully the new tenants are moving in this next Frioday, so i shoould be free for next weeks games. I've not had any time to play todays game, so there is no conclusion and only a brief paragraph about the game, tohugh i have posted some video links.

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



For those of you who are getting hits by your anti malware suites, firstly it will be a false positive; the reason you may be getting a hit is because your anti-malware suite is picking up the Themida based protection, which was put in place to protect the game from unscrupulous community members that were hacking the giveaway wrapper which then gave them unlimited access to a registered copy of the game, and which was being put on peer to peer sites. Some community members were even uploading video tutorials on You Tube telling you how to do it yourself.

Themida based applications are sometimes seen as a threat by anti-malware. I can assure you this game and hundreds before, that have given community members cause for concern have been totally safe. The game giveaway team have managed to secure well over a thousand games for us since they first started giving games away back in late 2006 (firstly via the main site back in Oct 2006, then via the game giveaway site early December 2006). There has never been an infected game given away.

If you are able to configure your anti-malware suite to allow the 'offending' file through security, the game should then install normally. If you can't, or don't know how to, then the other way would be to temporarily turn off your protection. You do so at your own risk, but please do take into account what I've already said above; in a nut shell, every malware occurance reported here since the game giveaway went live in Dec 2006 have been false positives due to overly sensitive anti-malware suites.

It would be against the teams best interest to allow such an occurance as it would destroy their good standing with the big search engines and I'm sure many who have frequented this site for a long time would leave. The giveaway team use several antimalware suites to test every game given away here.


Another thing to consider when you think the game is infected, if it really was, there would be hundreds of community members posting about the infection; we rarely see more than a few posts for any particular game. Since the gcd file was introduced over the summer of 2012 I have seen many more community members reporting infections due to the Themida based code found in the giveaways wrapper protection. However, out of the thousands of downloads each week, those community members reporting a malware hit are considered insignificant and support the fact that the results they are getting are actually false positives. They have always been proven to be so.

Amelie's Cafe: Halloween :

Installation:

Amelie's Cafe: Halloween downloads as a 119 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me document that contains the terms and conditions and a wrapped dual activation and set up module and a security set up file (setup.gcd). Just for the newcomers amongst today’s users that means the game will be registered once it’s gone through the set up process, so there’s no registering the game with an activation code. The instal path is:

C:\Games\AmeliesCafeHalloween_Game

There is no desktop or Start menu shortcuts intalled. Sometimes I've found the installation path shows the previous game I installed from this site, so to be sure you don't install the game inside a previous game, check the installation path when you start the installation. You can usually find where it's supposed to go by looking in the read me file that comes with the download. To stop this happening, clear your cache. The installed game is ? MB in size.

If you have any problems installing or registering Amelie's Cafe: Halloween , check the problems section below.



Introduction:

Help Amelie cater to guests dressed up as ghosts, goblins and vampires! Keep her cooks busy and more in this fast-paced and exciting Time Management game! Rack up big money in Amelie’s Cafe: Halloween, and purchase incredible upgrades to keep your café from going under! Dive into spine-tingling fun as you cook up beautiful brain pies, delicious witch’s brew, and more tasty treats today!

Reference accessed HERE Oct 12th 2015

If you miss today's giveaway Amelie`s Cafe: Halloween is available from MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. Please do be aware that if you don't uncheck the checkboxes during installation, and sometimes everytime you boot up the game you will get toolbars installed, and possibly your home page changed or even your browser. Also everytime you close the game down, it will open your browser to MyPlayCities home page.

The Game:

As usual to in all the games of Amelie’s Café series, you’ll help the heroine do everything from serving customers to decorating the cafe in order to bring new customers in. The only thing that differs from the previous games is that all the decorations will correspond to Halloween? And for Amelie it means the workers wearing scary costumes (lol) and many other things that will be clear to you while making progress through the game. This is a typical time management game, which i'm sure the majority of community members will know what to expect.

Gameplay

As the owner of the cafe, Amelie is in charge of taking orders and serving the food. Each counter in the cafe prepares only one type of food. Some of the counters are staffed by one of Amelie's staff and these types of counters needs the most care and maintenance. You will need to click on the counters to get the staff to start preparing the food. The counters will get dirty while the staff prepares the food so you will need to keep an eye on the cleanliness levels of the counters. Once it gets too dirty, you can't prepare any more food on the counter until you clean it up.

The faster you perform your actions, the more the bonus bar at the bottom gets filled up. To claim the bonus, you have to match three of the same type by clicking away the unwanted ones. The goal of each stage is to earn a certain amount of money displayed in the top right corner. At the end of each stage, you will also be shown whether you have met the optional requirements eg. whether you have served all the customers, kept your counters clean right til the end etc.

Thoughts
This is a time management game, nothing more and nothing less. There are just stages and stages of frantic cooking and serving customers in the cafe, broken up by cut scenes. There are no complex storyline or mini games or trophies. But I think people who like time management games will like this because it is at heart a pretty fun time management game without the unnecessary and perhaps distracting additions.

Playing the game seems easy at first as it is just a matter of clicking here and there. Unlike other time management games like Spa Mania, there is no extra step to do at each station. So the pace of the game can get really fast. There are so many things happening at the same time that it is difficult to keep an eye on everything. I hardly even have time to think!

The game is rather weak in graphics and it looks a little pixelated on my 1920 x 1080 screen. I also think the style isn't cute and looks a little ugly but that's my personal bias. Thankfully the pace of the game is so fast, that I hardly have time to notice the graphics after a while.

Reference accessed HERE. 25th Oct 2015

Other Reviews:



You can see more community written mini reviews via Big Fish near the bottom of the page HERE.



Video:

You can see several videos of Amelie's Cafe: Halloween game play HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Help screenies:

System Requirements:


OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
DirectX: 8.0
Hard Drive: 129 MB

Conclusion:

No time to play the game today, so can't make a fair judgment of it. Should be back to normal next week. :)


Scoring:

I haven't scored the game for the same reason as mentioned in the conclusion.

Graphics:
Sound:
Story:
Originality:
Gameplay:
Puzzles:
Control and Navigation:
Fun Factor:





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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting today's game working, please go HERE for help. I've posted most of the common problems and solutions in a FAQ thread, which you can find in the sticky section of the forums by following the above link.




If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums; in the game discussion section, because I cannot moderate 24hrs a day over the weekend. I've created a thread HERE for that purpose. If you've installed the game but it doesn’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at a later date. Unfortunately if your problem is actually downloading it, once the giveaway deadline is reached you will no longer be able to download the game unless you've already started downloading it before the cut-off. Sometimes you can still register the game after the giveaway has ended so long as you managed to start the download before the giveaway ends. I've tested this and the grace period lasts for up to 1 hour. Apart from the above instances; i.e. already installed, but having problems running the game, (with the possibility of receiving help from the community via the giveawayoftheday game discussion forum); or still downloading after the cut off period, but within the 1 hour grace period, or registering within an hour of the cut-off period. Once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done to get the game (unless its available from one of the free game sites) until the game is given away again (though that isn't always guaranteed).




It's worth checking the giveaway game discussion forums the day before the giveaways go live to see if we are getting a large sized file (I usually post a comment about approximately how large a file is, though if I'm particularily busy I may neglect to do this). It is especially important for those who have slow connections and even more so if the game is popular. We can have up to forty thousand (40 000) community members downloading over the 24 hour period, with the bulk of community members downloading in the first 12 hours of the giveaway going live, there is always a massive strain on the giveaway servers. The bigger the file size, the more community members will be downloading at any one time. Because the bandwidth is shared equally amongst all community members, downloads can become excruciatingly slow, so if you do have a slow connection, its important to start your download as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Because these games are free, the giveaway owners cannot invest in more bandwidth without compromising the whole project, so we have to be satisfied with what we have at present.

A download manager can help speed the download up and also protect the download in case of an interrpution. There's nothing as frustrating for those with really slow connections to have the connection break after an hour or so, then have to start from the beginning again. I would ask community members if you do have decent bandwidth please avoid using a manager as it does add to the number of downloads occuring at any one time, for example some download managers will download your requested file in up to 32 packets simultaneously, that will take 32 download spots, thus slowing down everyone else's download speeds. For those with slow downloads (due to having a slow connection e.g. a 2MB Broadband connection or less) I would advise using a download manager if the file is larger than around 200MB. My broadband connection is 100MBs, so I don't need to use a download manager, (I do have one called Internet Download Manager, but don't use it when downloading files from the giveaway site). For me a 1GB file usually downloads in about 1.5 minutes or less. My connection is quite a long way from the provider so it is slowed a little, but is still quite good at a download speed of around 12 to 14 MB's per second.

I hope the above goes some way in expalining why we sometimes have really slow downloads.


It’s always worth checking out the free games sites because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity (MPC) has the most with over 1000 games to choose from. Todays game is available from MyPlayCity HERE





If you do download any games from MyPlayCity, or the other free game sites please 'do' watch out for toolbars etc. Make sure you un-check the check-boxes during installation, and, in the case of MyPlayCity, every time you boot the game up, (this may have changed now as these free game sites tend to change the format frequently)....... I've posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the games, games games section. If you do download a game from any of these sites you do so at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for problems arising from an installation recommended here. :)


For now I won't be recommending you download games from Jenkat Games. They have changed the way you get games from their site. Diane has posted information about this over in the game discussion forums. If I have time or remember, I'll link to it. TooMyk Games are now safe to download from. They have removed the games that were suspect and have cleaned up their act. As always, you download from those free game sites at your own risk. The giveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway (apart from the instances mentioned above and if and when you upgrade or buy a new computer legally you aren't allowed to transfer games given away previously, unless they are being given away on the day you upgrade, or if you've purchased a licence. :)

You just have to look at the gamegiveawayoftheday sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. Zero games given away have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slght annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway. That is the Software Informer installation. Some community members have complained that they were given no choice in its installation. That is not true; when the final window pops up, there are two buttons, one asking if you want Software Informer installed and the button to close the giveaway window down. Some community members have clicked on the wrong button, probably because they weren't paying attention. Thankfully Software Informer is a genuine application, that can easily be uninstalled by the usual means. It's actually a useful piece of software, especially if you have a lot of applications running on your computer. Basically the program will list the programs that need updating, or programs that have available updates. They wont be automatically installed (thus cancelling many giveaway registrations); you have to click on individual buttons to update each program/application. :D

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Games, Games, and yet more Games:




There are 372 games on sale over on Steam this week, ranging from 10% to 90% off. The weekend deals include up to 75% off the Telltale games catalogue Walking Dead seasons I & II, Tales from the Borderlands, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead: 400 Days, Back to the future: The Game, Night 2, plus loads more. There's also 40% of Darkest Dungeon, and 66% off Depth. There are too many other great deals to mention here, just check out the specials section for all 650 plus titles on sale HERE.

There's loads more in the weekly sales and the 48 hours sales to choose from. almost certainly something for everyone. The next set of weekly sales starts on Monday with usually a few hundred titles added. :)





You'll also find some excellent deals over on the following Game sites.

GreenManGaming They usually have coupons to the value of 23% and sometimes more off pre ordered games. I've just pre ordered Just Cause 3 XL and XCOM 2 using a voucher and saved £22 on the price paid in the Steam store
Gamersgate Summer Sale
GOG (DRM free games)
Gamestop
GameFly (soon to be sold off)

I've removed the Desura link because the owners are bankrupt and there has been no activity on the site in months. The servers are still live (at least until Bad JoJo's subscription to the servers has ended, Bad JoJo are the owners of Desura and Indie Royale, or were until filing for bankruptcy). If you own any games via Desura I advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform and on the Indie Royale site before the sites are taken down.




Free Game Sites:


MyPlayCity (over a 1000 games to choose from)
Gametop
FreeGamePick



To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price. If like me you prefer Steamworks games, many of the above sites also sell steamwork games.

If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles (there's over 20 of them - If you purchased all of them you'd be paying around $80 for around a thousand dollars worth of games); or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand. you'll find the indie bundles thread HERE. The thread is outdated, but all of the links will still take you to the latest bundles.






The latest IndieGameStand is It came from space, and ate our brains:

It's an Arcade top down shooter with horde survival gameplay. The brain slurping aliens are only vulnerable to bullets. Using your flashlight, environment and special powers you have a better chance to take care of the unwanted pink guests.

Key features of 'It came from space, and ate our brains:
- Play alone, or with with up to 4 friends in online co-op!
- Easy to learn, hard to get these *#$% aliens off my back!
- Visit different locations ranging from cities, forests and alien spaceships.
- Make use of turrets, shields, mines and other items to protect your brain.
- Unique upgradeable weapons to wreck havoc and teach these aliens a lesson! #rekt

You can get the game for $1; pay over the average to get several more videos about indie gaming.

The deal ends Thursday 29th Oct 2015 5am (GMT)



The latest DIG game is DIG - Cobi Treasure Deluxe:
Help Sally the seahorse collect and match ocean treasures before they fall to the seabed.

Match the falling ocean gems and play through three exciting and absorbing game modes in the perfect blend of relaxation and Match 3 fun!

Features:

- Stunning Graphics and Effects
- Mystery Gems, Oil Slicks, and more
- Win cool Trophies and Rosettes
- 75 Puzzle Levels in Sally's Shapes
- High Score Tables to save your best scores

Pay £0.99 for the double pack or you can get two packs if you pay more than the average of $1.01 (at the time of writing ). One Steam key to share with a friend or family member perhaps? You'll find that deal HERE. They also have five bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 each HERE (DIG Bundles 42, 43, 44 and 45 a Topware bundle). You get Steam keys for all of these games.
The single game deal ends just after Midnight Mondayday 26th Oct 2015 and will be replaced with Tribloos 2, later we will get The Defenders: The Second Wave then Pahelika: Revelations

Most of the bundles available retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars (apart from the Daily Indie bundles that only cost $1.49 for six games), but you can pay as little as a dollar for some. There are some excellent bundles out at the moment. Check out the following:

Groupees (5 bundles)
Indie Gala (? bundles)
Humble bundle (2 Bundles)
Indie Royale (this bundle is no longer live)
Bundle Bandits (0 bundles)
Blink Bundle (0 bundles)
Play Injector (0 bundle)
Get Loaded (0 bundles)
Games Rage (0 bundles)
Flying bundle (0 bundles)

The free game from Origin has changed from Zuma's Revenge to one of Command & Conquers later games Red Alert 2 plus you get the expansion Yuri's Revenge. This is another AAA game, well worth having if you are into strategy war games.

The world erupts in conflict as Soviet forces invade American soil in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Time travel has helped to eliminate the German threat, and now the Soviets are expanding into the West unchecked. You are the Supreme Commander. Arm yourself to the teeth with top-secret technologies and lead the Soviet or Allied troops to victory.
Plus, defeat an army of mind-controlled Soviet forces in the expansion Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge.

Game Features:

Many ways to play. Lead Soviet or Allied forces in a gripping single-player game or a Skirmish game, where there's no particular objective other than destroying everything else on-screen. Who will win the war for world domination?
No need to play nice. You'll need to pull out all the stops if you're going to win this war. Thankfully, you've got a well-stocked arsenal of legitimate and illicit technologies from Prism Tanks and Terror Drones, to Psychic Mind Control devices and Soviet Cloning Vats. Use them.
Deliver the fury. Dominate land, air, and sea battles with the help of over 80 units and structures. Plus, you'll benefit from a enhanced veterancy system that turns newbie forces into battle-hardened war machines -- and brings you closer to victory.

Check it out HERE.


You do need a free Origin account and install the Origin client to get these free games. Once you've installed the Origin client and signed into your account select 'On the house' from the 'Free Games' drop down menu. Then select download now. The game will then be registered to your Origin account permanently.

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A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment, and a big thank you to immanitas games for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen