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

Retiring for the night; I will continue to moderate in the morning before the giveaway ends.

If you have problems installing the game, it's most likely going to be your security software blocking the installation due to the games wrapper which contains Themida code. (Themida code can also be used to wrap malware, so some security software will automatically block the installation as a precaution and in some cases even delete the file with no warning) Turning off your security temporarily, rebooting in safe mode with networking or white listing the giveaway files should enable you to install the game. For other issues please read the FAQ's thread HERE

I hope all mothers had a pleasant and restful day. :)

Brief Summery of Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby

Detective Ashley Clark is puzzled by a series of mysterious kidnappings. The only connection between these unusual disappearances is a brilliant, red ruby pendant. Could someone be using this sparkling ornament to send a clandestine message, or could this be the handiwork of an underground cult?

There are four difficulty levels; Easy, Normal, Hard, Nightmare. You can change the difficulty level at any time during game play via the menu button located to the bottom left of the screen. There is also a tutorial, which you can opt out of at any time. The journal, also located to the bottom left of the screen keeps notes on your progress and the interactive map will take you to any location you have visited previously, prepare yourselves for a decent HOG experience. :)

Join Ashley Clark and explore the ancient castle to reveal the criminal. She was transported to a sinister castle while handeling a crucial piece of evidence, i.e. a ruby pendant, that started to sparkle then she found herelf in the castle.It's Ruby and your job to find out what happened there and why there are so many skeletons everywhere? Help her understand why the pendant transferred her to this castle and what happened there centuries ago. At first, Ashley appeared in the prison. Find a way to get her out of there! Use all the items at hand to find a puzzle on the castle wall and solve it. You can skip puzzles and mini games if you wish. You will become acquainted with a skeleton called Casio who guarded the castle previously. Listen to his advice, he can tell help you progress. There are lots of locations for you to explore in this game. A garden, gorgeous chambers and of course eerie things like a basement and cellar. What happened to all the inhabitants of the castle and where are all the kidnapped people from our century? There are lots of ghosts in the castle, who are they and what’s happened to them? Help Ashley to reveal the truth and set old ghosts free and turn the newbies into people again! Who was the criminal? Help Ashley to discover it and destroy the evil powers of this ruby pendant.

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or not about today's game will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however a little light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. All comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed not appropriate, will be deleted with no explanation. Please see the end of this review for further details about posting comments and links to the teams Contact, Moderation Policy and the FAQ's thread, thank you.

Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby

In Brief

A Hidden Object game where you play as a derective investigating a missing person.

Suggestions:

Whether you like or dislike Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby please give some feedback about your opinion of todays game giveaway, for example, what you liked or disliked , and how it could be improved from your point of view. If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality? Giving such feedback instead of saying nothing or just saying this game is rubbish or good may bring more developers to the site, which could mean more and better games. Would you give away thousands of copies of a game (or extra content for a game) away to a community that complains all the time instead of giving useful feedback? It only takes a few moments of your time. This site could be transformed if only the community would be more forthcoming in their opinions of the games they are getting for free instead of complaining about the way this site has changed or that they don't like Steam games. If something isn't for you then move on to the next giveaway, or check out the extra's section at the end of this review; you never know, you may find something that interests you..

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. If you prefer to buy it, you can get it HERE.

Installation:

Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby downloads to a 382 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 1.37 GB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Ashley Clark - Secret of the Ruby

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Detective Ashley Clark is puzzled by a series of mysterious kidnappings. The only connection between these unusual disappearances is a brilliant, red ruby pendant. Could someone be using this sparkling ornament to send a clandestine message, or could this be the handiwork of an underground cult? Follow the clues to discover the ancient secrets held by the ruby pendant, and uncover the truth behind the bizarre kidnappings!

Reference accessed HERE. 25th March 2017

Main Features:

⦁ Highly interactive storyline and gameplay
⦁ Exciting mini-games
⦁ Intriguing plot with twists and turns
⦁ Wide range of difficulty levels

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

The Game:

. Join Ashley Clark and explore the ancient castle to reveal the criminal. She was transported to a sinister castle while handeling a crucial piece of evidence, i.e. a ruby pendant, that started to sparkle then she found herself in the castle.
It's Ruby and your job to find out what happened there and why there are so many skeletons everywhere? Help her understand why the pendant transferred her to this castle and what happened there centuries ago. At first, Ashley appeared in the prison. Find a way to get her out of there! Use all the items at hand to find a puzzle on the castle wall and solve it. You can skip puzzles and mini games if you wish. You will become acquainted with a skeleton called Casio who guarded the castle previously. Listen to his advice, he can tell help you progress. There are lots of locations for you to explore in this game. A garden, gorgeous chambers and of course eerie things like a basement and cellar. What happened to all the inhabitants of the castle and where are all the kidnapped people from our century? There are lots of ghosts in the castle, who are they and what’s happened to them? Help Ashley to reveal the truth and set old ghosts free and turn the newbies into people again! Who was the criminal? Help Ashley to discover it and destroy the evil powers of this ruby pendant.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 25th March 2017 2017

There are four difficulty levels; Easy, Normal, Hard, Nightmare. You can change the difficulty level at any time during game play via the menu button located to the bottom left of the screen. There is also a tutorial, which you can opt out of at any time. The journal, also located to the bottom left of the screen keeps notes on your progress and the interactive map will take you to any location you have visited

Tips on Playing

⦁ Press the hint button to get a direct clue how to proceed.
⦁ Your inventory bar will hold items until they are needed.
⦁ Hover over the inventory to review your current inventory items or to take and use them in specific scenes.
⦁ Access the map to find out locations with active objectives and to quickly travel to any location.
⦁ Use your Journal for additional help with puzzles and tasks.
⦁ From the menu you can leave the game, adjust the volume plus the display mode and change the difficulty of the game.
⦁ Your pointer changes to a magnifying glass when you can take a closer look at something.
⦁ When you can interact with something, the pointer changes to a pointing hand.
⦁ When your pointer changes to a hand, you can pick up an object, click the tile to take it.
⦁ Glints show areas of interest, An eye icon appears when you can examine an area closer.
⦁ The arrow indicates that you can move to another location.

Other Reviews and Videos of Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby:

You can see community reviews of Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby HERE and HERE, plus more information in the Big Fish forums HERE.

You can see videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case Steam keys.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If you have a problem running today's game you can find help in the FAQ's thread HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If today's game giveaway 'Ashley Clark: Secret of the Ruby' doesn't appeal, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The free game over on Origin is now Siberia II. It is a third-person puzzle-solving game. Stylistically identical to the first Syberia, Syberia II improves upon the first game by introducing more realistic character animation. The game includes a recap of the first chapter, so does not require the player to have experienced the first game.. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

You will also find lots of deals over on Green Man Gaming and Big Fish Games usually have 70% off the first game you buy from them, plus they also have other deals occasionally. Alawar, Gamehouse and Playrix entertainment have free games available (usually online versions) and other game houses such as the AAA distributors Ubisoft and Origin always have some games on sale. I've updated the Weekly roundup of game deals HERE to include a large list of other sites where you can find games on sale ( e.g. Origin, uPlay, GreenManGaming etc, as well as links to free online games plus gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and Game Seek, and included a list of free to play Massive Multiplayer games such as World of Tanks, World of Warships (both very popular), Liberators and Allegiance to name a few. For more details please go to the Weekly roundup of game deals over in the game discussion sticky section HERE.

Important time limited information:
⦁ If you didn't win a copy of Whispering Willows the other week, Indie Gala are featuring it in their Gemseeker bundle. As time passes the price goes up. At the moment (13.30 UK time) you can get the game for $1.06 HERE. The deal ends in 2 days 21 hours from now. (approx Tuesday 10am UK time). Do remember, the longer you leave it the more it will cost.
⦁ Also see Delenns post about other free Steam keys over in the giveaway game discussion forums HERE.
⦁ If you've purchased games from Dot.emu the site will be permanently closing on 1st June 2017, so make sure you've downloaded a copy of each game you purchased from them as from that date onward the domain will no longer be accessible. To download your games go to the website HERE and login. Then to the top right of the screen you should see your profile. Select My Games and download each one. To ensure you have copies make backups of each game. During installation you should find the games executable files in the AppData folder/Local/Temp folder. Though it may be under a coded name. Once you're sure you've found the correct file, copy it then rename the copied file to the name of game you are installing, then back it up. If you find it difficult to accomplish this, an already installed version should be okay. whenever you need to re-install it all you need to do is copy and paste the whole folder to wherever you keep your games, then create a desktop shortcut. If you prefer shortcuts in the Start menu, there's a simple way to accomplish this, just Google the process. :). All games from DOT.Emu are DRM free, so you should be able to back up working copies of all games purchased; (thanks for the heads up Delenn).

There are 2953 games on sale over on Steam at the moment, with up to 91% off. Game prices range from as little as £0.15p (most of these cheap games are actually cheaper in the UK than the US, so if you are a US citizen and have a UK friend, get them to buy the game for you). There are almost 350 games and dlc less than $1 and almost 400 for less than £1. You can find all of the deals HERE.

If you spend more than $2 in the Indie Gala store you'll also get a free copy of Between Me and the Night worth £9.99/$14.99, plus there are loads more deals with excellent discounts of up to 85% that you'll find HERE. If you didn't win a copy of whispering willows the other week, Indie Gala are featuring it in their Gemseeker bundle. as time passes the price goes up. At the moment 13.30 UK time you can get the game for $1.06 HERE. The deal ends in 2 days 21 hours from now. (approx Tuesday 10am UK time). do remember, the longer you leave it the more it will cost.

The Humble Store features loads of discounted games (usually Steam codes). If you subscribe to the Humble Monthly, which costs $12 a month (or less if you choose various monthly plans) you not only get a large collection of decent Steam games you will also get for the first month of the subscription The Witness(worth £29.99), which was released last year (Jan 21016). The great thing is, you can cancel at any time, so only need to receive the first bundle of games. I personally haven't bothered, but only because I usually have already purchased most of the games included in the monthly bundle. The usual savings on the games you get are around 90%, not counting the introductory offer. There's also lots of games on sale over on the Bundle Stars and Indie Game Stand (IGS).

Giveaway Team Contact and Moderation policy:

Since the introduction of the VPN blocker and the Captcha requirement before you can post, the number of spam and troll comments have been reduced significantly. Assuming this continues to improve, i will be removing this section from this review to cut down on the length of the review. :) The following is continued from the first paragraph at the beginning of this review This is a site that gives free games away, so it was quite shocking to see the number of negative and sometimes inappropriate comments that were being posted here, especially when they are not even related to the actual game that we receive. I always though getting something for free was a privilege/perk/treat/ and deserves at least some thanks or gratitude and still cannot understand why we got so many negative comments that possibly turn away potential developers who would otherwise have given the project their games. Then again, having researched the mentality of trolls and spammers I've come to understand some aspects of the problem and because of that have chosen to totally ignore most comments from such people. Of course we have freedom of speech, but as mentioned in my review above, there are rules to posting in this comments section; even a free society requires rules and regulations to run properly, so please bear this in mind when posting a comment.

I believe if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers would be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints (and spam) instead of feedback about the giveaways will not persuade other developers to give their creations away for free, especially when they may have spent thousands of hours working on the creation. So please bear this in mind when posting your comments. Any comment not about the game for example complaints, or if deemed unfriendly or inappropriate, will be deleted (usually with no explanation) or added to the spam folder, which automatically black lists the IP address you used. Although I have enjoyed responding to many of those comments in the past, I will no longer waste my time answering comments from community members who should have read the moderation policy.

Negative feedback about the games given away will always be welcomed because they can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games or about Steam keys not received should be directed to the giveawayoftheday team via the contact form (with evidence of completed tasks, the name and email you used to enter the competition, or giveaway). I've linked to the contact form HERE; alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day (I can't moderate 24 hours a day), please also post your issue in the forums where you may get a response from the community. All games given away here have been thoroughly checked using several anti malware suites to ensure a safe download and in the 10 plus years this site has been operating, there has never been a game infected with malware. If your security software flags an issue, it's probably the Themida code that is used to protect the game from hackers or sometimes the non invasive adware that MPC games use. Themida code can also be used to hide malware, so some security software's will automatically block anything with Themida code, even if it's absolutely safe to install. also other computer configurations (i.e. the way you have your computer set up) may have blocked the install. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation (for example quite a few game giveaways I've installed have been blocked by my copy of Zemana Anti-malware suite) Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and if you do have a problem please check the FAQ's thread HERE. Thank you for reading.

FREE game offer from the moderator in exchange for quality feedback:

I've posted a list of those who have won a key either for posting a decent comment about the game being given away, or posting consistently on a weekly basis. Here is the up to date list of winners. I still haven't sent out any games becasue I was hoping to do it all in one go, but some winner has still not responded, so will try to send out the keys by the end of this weekend. Check your emails for your keys soon. :) Everyone who has chosen a game will get their first choice so far. I've recently added more games to the list and am slowly adding video of game play for each game to give you an oppetunity to see what the game play is like; so, if you've already chosen a key, you are welcome to change it if you wish before I send the keys out. Things have been extremely manic for weeks now which is another reason for the delay in sending out keys. Sorry for the delay.

⦁ tinyearl for Turtix 2: Rescue Adventures
⦁ Torque for Turtix 2: Rescue Adventures
⦁ Torque for Sea Legends
⦁ Mavadelo for Exterios plus other comments
⦁ JBurt for Exterios plus other comments
⦁ Terri owed from last summer
⦁ johnfranklin1944 owed from last summer
⦁ JoeJ for Exterios
⦁ JBurt for Exterios plus other comments 2 keys as i owe from last year.
⦁ neme for consistently posting comments weekly
⦁ tinyearl for Secret of six seas
⦁ Thomas Zwilling for Secret of six Seas
⦁ Lee C. for consistently posting feedback
⦁ delenn13 for consistently posting feedback
⦁ idluckyone for Whispering willows
⦁ Mavadelo for Old Clockmaker's Riddle
⦁ Torque for Aerie - Spirit of the Forest
⦁ JBurt 2 Steam keys for her daughter who is in hospital
⦁ Fran for posting helpful comments

You'll find the list of over 200 Steam games in the forums HERE and will be adding more as time permits over the coming weeks. I will assume if you don't reply within a few weeks you aren't bothered about a key. Please post your preferences (list at least 3 games in order of preference via the link above, thankyou. Happy gaming.)

Depending on the quality of the feedback, I may choose to award games to more community members for each game given away, 'at my discretion'. The feedback must be about the game, and it must include a couple of paragraphs of feedback following the guidelines I've posted in the suggestions section of my review. i.e. your opinion of the game, what you liked and/or disliked plus suggestions for improvement. If you choose a game that is very cheap I may give you a second game; so, when choosing from the list I provide, please list more than one choice. If a game is chosen by more than one community member and only one key is available the key will go to the one I deem the most useful. I do have multiple keys for quite a lot of the games I've listed, so, don't be put off if you see someone else has chosen the game you want. I haven't indicated any of the games I have multiple keys for (though for example I do have several keys for the excellent Western themed AAA game Call of Juarez, which i picked up for free for purchasing several games via the Indie Gala store several months ago. spending a few dollars got me a copy of the game, so I made several separate purchases over a couple of days while the offer was still live.

I do own at least three community members a game from the previous giveaways that I posted several months ago. I'd totally forgotten about those. I do have a document with their names on, so they will get a game from the original list when I find the document (I'm extremely disorganized); or they can peruse the new list and choose something different. Just post a comment over in the forums in the appropriate thread. If you do post feedback with a view to getting one of the games and think you have covered the requirements, you don't have to do anything until I announce the winners the following week.

Please remember, this comments section is mainly for feedback about today's game giveaway. If you're not sure, read the moderation policy, which you can see HERE