I also get stuck. I get stuck at the HOG scene in which you need to select a bottle which is in a cabinet. The bottle can NOT be selected. This problem I have discovered has been documented on the web. I would therefore have to say this game has a terrible bug in it, which is sad because it was very enjoyable. But this problem lowers the score of the game down to 2 because you end up with a cliffhanger. Otherwise I'd give it an 8 or 9.

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

Some community members did get past this area. Check the last few comments made about the game.

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

Thanks to all who commented on this game. I wasn't able to do much moderating due to medical issues which I've already posted some details of. Hopefully things will improve as time goes by. Next Saturday I have to go to a university in the Midlands to take my son to an open day. He is in his final year at school before university. I'm not sure what stage you call it in the US, we call it sixth form college he's 17. It's about 3 hours drive from my home, so I won't be around much throughout the day.

I didn't have time to read comments two days ago before spending an hour downloading, re-downloading, and attempting to install this game. If I had read the comments before that hour long frustration I would not have even spent the time that I did.

I have to echo other comments; why offer a game with known problems?

To that point the game offerings here used to be Playrix and Alawar, both of which I have purchased games from. I've never had a problem with a Playrix or Alawar game; there are some things by both Playrix and Alawar that I don't care for, but overall I've never had a problem. But now the main game provider, for Game Giveaway of the Day, is a game distributor with a known bad reputation; MyPlayCity (MPC). I do admit that the game offerings here from MPC seem to be void of the usual practices by MPC, however I'm still wondering if MPC is phoning home while loading. That and the practice of opening your browser every time you install a MPC game or after you close an MPC game is Highly Annoying; even more annoying is there seems to be no way to counter this. If someone knows a way to keep MPC from opening up our browser each and every time one installs or closes and MPC game your input would be most welcome.

Thanks for listening.

I have found a way to get the game going again if you are hung at the Professor Hanger Silhouette HOG. I had no problems with the game myself, but my wife played it on her PC and it hung there for her. I compared the game save files between her profile and mine and then through some trial and error found a solution. Here are the steps:

1) Have the game in the hanger but NOT in the HOG itself (the desk should display the magnifying glass so you could go into the HOG, just don't do it now).

2) Quit the game.

3) go to the game save folder:
%appdata%\AlawarEntertainment\HappyArtist\The Esoterica. Hollow Earth Survey\saves

4) Note there is a file that will have a unique number with a .sav extension.

5) Create a new text file with notepad and put the following in it exactly as I show it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>





6) Save the file with the same name as the .sav file but use the extension .savcross
so if your .sav file is 1234567890abcdefg.sav then save the file, in the same location as the .sav file, with the name 1234567890abcdefg.savcross

7) Start the game again. You can now go into the HOG and it will work. For me this also changed the player picture (to the left of the inventory) from the professor to the girl, but it still plays the same.

I think this works because the .savcross file makes it rebuild the .sav file with the HOG activated. I'm not sure why it changes the avatar, in spite of it being defined in the file as the professor. I tried it without the avatar section and it did not fix the HOG.

Hopefully this will also work for all of you.

Why have no admins addressed the problem that many of us (including myself) have experienced with not being able to go past the hangar scene. VERY frustrating as I was REALLY enjoying this game!!

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!

Since folks have found that the bug where the game is frozen in the hanger playing as Professor Stone has been reported for "over two years", WHY would GGOTD offer this when it hasn't been fixed? It's not like just this version was buggy---if others reported it repeatedly and the developers knew it didn't work, doesn't GGOTD assure that the games are at least workable? Very frustrating; I was SO happy to find an "adventure" game with no hoops to jump through finally offered here again.

I too couldn't past the hanger--I uninstalled GGOTD and per suggestion at #30, downloaded directly from MPC. It didn't work for me. I deleted that download and tried again. No luck. Just deleted the game for the 3rd time. I did enjoy it while it lasted. Graphics are nice and overall a nice game. Thank you.

What an absolute, utter, total waste of time. I spent over an hour trying to get this program installed. Downloaded three times; I might as well have had a dial up connection. Each time it failed to load. I'm glad someone was able to get this to install. I never rate a game until after I play it; I will give this a thumbs down.

on a windows xp computer it will not install at all. took an extra hour to redownload the game again. no errors on the download.
or the original one. extracted fine on both games. tried to install game using the first download. then tried it using the second download. did not install at all. clicked on the setup key. connecting to the giveaway site. activating it says while typing this.
Failed to launch the program is all it says from your end. please rerun the program so that we can get the game.

Hi,

It took awhile to download on 8. It opened easily. I right away switched to a regular cursor feeling a drag in theirs. The graphics are good, especially liked the opening scene through the umbrellas! After that graphics are usual though. the hidden items are fairly easy to find. The game is simple to follow, one thing done after another, which gives the same old feeling, but I've only been to the helicopter ride so far.
Thanks for another good game!
have a great week,
Lee

Win10 64bit Home. Game downloaded beautiful, played fine, no problems at all. I ended up downloading it from MPC and I have passed the Hanger section. Must be something wrong with GGOTDs link. IDK.

The game jams when you get to the hangar as the professor, when you have to find the object scenes silhouette. You cannot click on any of the items you are supposed to be finding. You can move to other scenes, but you need the handle from the hanger desk to proceed further.
It was quite nice while it lasted.

I just finished the game and didn't have any hangup where others have had one. So, what ever the problem is, its not happening to everyone. Win10-64

Ok Windows 10. Big image, sliders, mix of HOG & puzzles, little story line like usual kind.
Decent enough. Haven't experimented w/ trying in Windows 8 to see if the cursor movement might be less sluggish. Cursor isn't very smooth at full screen size. Can handle it but be better if typical movement. 8/10 for fans. Thanks GOTD.

It downloaded in reasonable time on Win 10 with Down Them All, and installed without problem. I haven't played it for long, but so far it's nicely designed and intriguing to play.

I haven't yet reached that place mentioned by others, where everything grinds to a halt - but if I do meet up with that, I'll have to come back and see if anyone has a magic answer!

As far as I've got with the game, it's a pleasant enough way to spend a tea break, so thanks again for that. I always prefer puzzles to pulverizing anyway.

The download takes way too long. I ended up downloading Free Download Manager as suggested in a post way down below. Started the game download and then it turned off my internet. WHAT.................. I ended up restarting my computer after deleting FDM and the internet is back on. IDK what happened but will not be downloading that again. I then had a look on BigFish site about this game and they too were having problems back in 2014. So no, I will give this game a miss. Thank you.

I'm not big on HOGs - and I already have many I haven't played yet - but I'll add this one because of the style and the setting (esp. since Agartha was just in the news)

It seems to be a nice game, HOWEVER, every time I quit and start back I have to start from the beginning. I'm hoping that this is only true during the tutorial. If not then the game is unacceptable. But, whenever you quit, the game should make it clear to the player whether the current progress will be saved regardless.

After over 4 hrs of download installed without a problem under Win10.

Nice graphics and storyline - love the game so far.

Nice game, but buggy too.
Got stuck in the hangar, playing as Prof. Stone, in a HO with silhouettes. I can't pick up any item and the game won't let me go any further. I tried a little research and it seems, that this particular bug has been known for more than two years. It really doesn't matter, if a game seems to be a little bit "oldfashioned", but at least it has to be playable :/

Esoterica downloaded to my Windows 7 Home 64 edition without a problem. It seemed to take a little longer than usual to load the game, but I'm assuming that's because of the 1 GB game size. It also automatically made a shortcut to the game on my desktop. Right from the start, the retro 1940's graphics took over the screen. They are drawn beautifully, vibrant, colorful and easy on the eyes. I've only gotten into about an hour of game play, but the frequent mini-games are interesting and move the story-line along very well. The actors' narration is well done with appropriate accents. The music is very suited to the room and activity going on and is easy on the ears. And of course the hidden objects are well drawn, and not too difficult to find, but also help to move the story forward. All in all, I'd give beautiful Esoterica- Hollow Earth a 9 out of 10. So thank you White Rabbit and GOTD for a weekend full of fun game play.

Downloaded fine, installed fine. Was enjoying the game when I reached a hidden object screen at the desk that doesn't allow you to pick anything up or to back out of the screen. The only choice is to go to the main menu and exit. When you go back into the game it places you back to this screen, soooooo, no way to continue. Oh well, it seemed to be a pretty good game as far as it went. Better luck next time getting a game you can finish. Thanks anyway.

Game are so slow to download,cant get it :(.

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

The problem when a game is so large (at least for an arcade game) is the download servers get log jammed due to literally thousands of community members downloading the game. The giveaway servers only have a specific amount of bandwidth. Whenever another community member joins the que, the download speed is reduced. The more that join, the slower the download speed. There is nothing that can be done apart from using a download manager that downloads the game in several parts. (Commercial download managers can download up to 32 separate parts, then rejoin them once the download has completed), for example I use Internet Download Manager (which I purchased a few years ago after it was recommended to me by a friend) if I'm downloading very large files. That said, using a download manager for giveaways will impact other community members downloads unless they too are downloading. if everyone used a download manager, then the original problem would return. :)

No problem installing/playing this game on Windows 10 PC. However, I get stuck in the hangar hidden object portion as well. Nothing clicked on will work. I even uninstalled and re-installed...still doesn't work. Wish there was a fix for this glitch. Otherwise, very enjoyable game.

I've played this game before and enjoyed it. However, I didn't think it was one that I wanted to keep as it seemed to be a bit "same old, same old". The graphics are good, the hidden object scenes fun, but it didn't have anything new to make me want to play it again. I didn't have any problems in playing it (I've got Win 7).

Whiterabbit - I wish you all the very best and hope that the medics can sort out what's wrong very quickly so that you get relief from your symptoms.

I get to the desk in the hangar and the scene freezes. I have changed players and still cannot get it to work. This happened to me several months ago as well.

Hey WBuk hope your healing superfast! Thanks so much for the game. and thank you my play city!!!

The game glitches when you get to the hangar as the professor, when you have to do one of the find the object scenes silhouette style. You cannot click on any of the items you are supposed to be finding. Therefore, you cannot continue in the game and the game becomes unfinishable.

I have tried reinstalling the games, and starting again. It doesn't work.

Am getting "Failed to launch the program" when installing on Windows 10 Home 64-bit (16 GB RAM).

Can't install on Windows XP. The "Activating" window pops up, but after a few minutes I get an error message ("Failed to launch the program").

Robot in that pic was nicked from The Robot and the Girl

Help. once I extract and run the Setup application, I keep getting the error message "The setup files are corrupt. Please obtain a new copy of the program."

I've disabled and even shut down both the firewall and anti-virus when downloading and attempting to install this, with exactly the same results. I've even tried to download and install on 2 desktops and 2 laptops with the same problem. And a friend has also told me he is having the same problems where he lives. The only thing all of the PCs have in common are they are running Windows 10 64-bit.

Each attempt has been with a fresh download as well, so I'm not using the same zip.

Is anyone else having this issue, or know of a solution? I have no issues downloading or installing software from anywhere else, but this is a frequent issue for me from this site.

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

Hi Colin, really sorry for the delay in replying. was not available for most of yesterday. Have you tried checking the event logs immediately after the problem occurs? Often logs can give you clues as to what the problem is, whether it's a conflict with another program (usually anti malware programs) or other issues. Also check the FAQ's thread over in the game discussion sticky section, which I link to in my reviews. I was having problems installing giveaways some time ago and in the end i contacted Microsoft, as I initially thought it was a problem following a partial rebuild after my daughter fried my motherboard. It turned out I'd installed another security program via the giveaway site and had totally forgotten about it. Is it possible you have something else installed that may be blocking the install process?:)

Sorry, last week some rightly complained that they didn't like the extra shortcuts that MyPlayCity puts on their desktops. Links to MPC, to that games homepage, and a play online games link, I'm assuming. And I commented it wasn't happening to me. But I misconstrued why that was. The reason I'm not getting them is that I don't usually use desktop shortcuts except for those items I use quite frequently. I have dozens, probably around a 100 games on this machine on a couple of different drives, and some I play quite infrequently, so why crowd the desktop? I pay attention to where they install, in fact, the install program lets me place them in alternate drives/partitions, which keeps my drive with the Operating System uncluttered. That way the OS, and programs, launch more quickly. I obviously don't play them all every day, in fact there are some I may not touch in months, so no need to have desktop icons for them. When I need them, I know where they are, so I just drill down to their folders to access them. I can even create a shortcut to my games folders on my desktop to save a step or 2.

So, when I get the option on the install box for desktop shortcuts, I just uncheck the box. And that's why I"m guessing I don't get any of the shortcuts. Also, I certainly don't need dozens of quick launch icons on my taskbar, so I uncheck that too. Honestly, no offense, but I really suggest you don't clutter up your desktop with shortcuts. For one thing, you don't need to even note where the MPC games install, because the one function they won't let you turn off is the folder of links the games automatically place in your start menu. So all the links, good and bad, are there anyway. (Although it's not necessarily a bad thing to know where your programs live in your computer.) If you want, you can delete these things from your start menu anyway, just right click on the folder, or any links/files that are installed there, and select delete in the menu. The only disadvantage of this is that it leaves little pointers to what you've just deleted in what's called your computer's "registry". However, it's extremely unlikely that you'll ever accumulate enough of these "dead" pointers from just deleting an occasional MyPlayCity placed folder/link/readme/license file that it could possibly slow down your computer while it sifts through those irrelevant entries.

Steam games are only interested, these standalone thirdparty games are lame

I followed the link to the downloadable walkthrough. The downloadable file is an executable file. Is this the right thing? I'm wary of downloading a .exe from an unfamiliar site.

Downloaded quickly and easily, extracted and installed with no problems - Win10.

So far I've only had time to play the first chapter, so can't comment beyond that. I chose relaxed mode, and opted out of full screen which blacked the whole thing out for a moment before it recovered.

The graphics are nice, hidden object scenes and mini games not too taxing - so far, but the tutorial does insist you do 'as it says' without letting you progress without the aid of a hint, or without clicking on a particular item, which is slightly irritating but not really important.

I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the game. Thanks GGOTD and MPC.

Great! exactly the kind of game I like. Thank you so much

Download and install went fine on my Win7/64 laptop. Took about an hour from starting the download to starting the game.

it's a good game with good graphics and fairly engaging story. You can choose easy or expert mode. I like that the images are clear and clean - the objects are hidden but not invisible like some other games.

Can't add much else. It's a keeper for me. Thanks MPC, GGOTD, and Whiterabbit.

Morning all

I regret to say this is my last day on gga. After wasting a gig of my monthly bandwidth, I again get the corrupt file error message. Win 7 laptop. I exited Kaspersky, exited WinPatrol, and exited Malwarebytes, extracted the package to its own folder (usually not necessary- well, in the past, none of this was necessary).
I realise there are likely other steps I could take to install this, but if the installs aren't relatively easy, then , for the amount of games I play, even a free game isn't worth the trouble. Additionally, not being a real gamer, I have no interest in platform games (such as Steam).

Its been a great run over the years, thanks to gga and the contributing programmers for all the great games I have downloaded - and still sometimes replay.

thanks muchly!

Having quite a difficult time getting this to even start installing. I'm used to having to shut off AVG for a bit for most releases to function (which would be better served not having the security wrap to begin with), but even doing that I keep getting some BEK thing crashing on me and installation won't initialize. This seems like something I might really enjoy if I can get it on the machine. Trying on a Win7 laptop.

Hi everybody and Whiterabbit-uk! :-)

Hope you are in good shape, more than previous week at least.


Downloaded and installed fine on Win10 home x64 (officially not supported by this game).

WinDefender, SAS free, MBAM free, Gridinsoft antimalware report the pack is clean, no false positives.

The only problem I get is when I untick the full screen in its options: it blocks everything and I must close the game with ALT + F4.

Thanks for the game to GAOTD, MyPlayCity, BigFishGames and Whiterabbit-UK! ;-)

I get no link today.

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

Following on from yesterday, we have family visiting for another birthday dinner (for out daughters 16th birthday), so will not be around much until later this evening. Will continue to moderate then if I'm able.

Good Morning to our great moderator WhiteRabbitUK and community!

Before actually having played the game,
I would like to emphasize the usefulness of a d/l manager:

please consider instead of merely complaining about d/l size -
mine cut down d/l time from almost a day (w/ a 200 MBd line) to 5 minutes...
the actual installation and registration process (just click no or uncheck as usual) took longer than that...

Hope you (and I) will enjoy the gane, Happy Sunday!
Best,
/ME

No full review today. will try and post something later today. No archery today either :( Please excuse the poorly formatted images below.

..........................................................................................................................................................

Esoterica: Hollow Earth!

In Brief

Espterica: Hollow Earth is a simple Hidden Object Game

Whether you like or dislike Esoterica: Hollow Earth! please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, 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 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.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE.970

Installation:

The game downloads to a 970 MB zip file that unzips to four 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 MB 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\

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)

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

Introduction:

The fabled land of Agartha awaits your discovery in Esoterica: Hollow Earth! Experience an edge-of-your seat sci-fi adventure that will take you to the depths of the planet, the bad guys nipping at your heels every step of the way! Dazzling art, professional vocal work, and jaw dropping production values will be your companions as you explore underwater caves, a subterranean jungle teeming with bizarre life forms, and the laboratory of an evil genius. Just be careful who you trust.

Reference accessed HERE. 23rd Oct 2016

The Game:

The story in Esoterica might not be extremely unique, however, the journey to the center of the Earth part really got us sold and the story really does improve as you play along. Also, Esoterica allows you to play as two characters, and the story sequence develops in an unusual, but interesting way.

The sights are nothing of out of this world type, but they are sharp, clean and nice to look at. The characters are actually really good-looking and their voice overs are well done. On the other hand, the comic-strip cutscenes are not exactly impressive, they are very cartoony, the drawings are not that good and the animations are super static.

Surprisingly, despite all of its simplistic, Esoterica is somehow very entertaining to play. The game featured some amazing sci-fi locations for you to visit and the tasks are fun to do. The Hidden Object scenes come in two types and they are professionally created; puzzles are interesting although nothing notably unique.

For those of you are wondering, there is no jump-map offered in this game but you really do not need one since the amount of backtracking is not too unbearable. There are also 29 Punch Cards to collect as you go, they give some detailed historic information of innovations and scientists.

Esoterica: Hollow Earth might not be a mind-blowing game with top productions values and all the bells and whistles but it is extremely well-executed and can certainly offer you long hours of pure entertainment.

Reference accessed HERE 23rd Oct 2016

Other Reviews and Videos:

You can see community reviews of Esoterica: Hollow Earth via Big Fish HERE and more information in the Big fish forums HERE. You can also find a downloadable walkthrough HERE

if you want to see some game play you can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. You can also see video walkthroughs of the game HERE

Conclusion:

Not had enough time to play the game enough to give a fair conclusion.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Esoterica: Hollow Earth and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing free games in a safe environment.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find 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 was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

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The latest free game over on Origin has now changed to the excellent (though now dated) RPG Dungeon Keeper. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

Also available via Failmid's site is a Steam key for Masked Shooter 2 which you'll find HERE. the deal ends Monday afternoon (UK time) and Ubisoft has been celebrating 30 years in the buisness by giving away games every month since June. Octobers game is the excellent Beyond Good and Evil. You do need a Ubisoft account which is free and the ubisoft uPlay client, both opf which are free. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link HERE, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of Beyond Good and Evil. There will be other games coming next month and beyond

The Indie Gala store has some fantastic deals on at the moment, for example you can buy all three of the Sniper: Ghost Warrior games for only $1.99, plus you get a surprise gift. Other games for example buying CT Special forces (for less than a dollar gives you a surprise gift plus a second game called Horizon shift for free. There are loads of games with 90% off and it seems there are hidden deals for example the Daedalic Armageddon Bundle worth almost $150 for under $16, depending on which games you purchase. You can find them all HERE

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time, though you cannot access the deals directly from the main site anymore, but they are still live via the following links: To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time).