One more issue is that video gaming became one of the all-time greatest forms of fun for people of all ages. Kids engage in video games, and adults do, too. The actual XBox 360 is probably the favorite games systems for people who love to have hundreds of activities available to them, plus who like to learn live with other people all over the world. Thank you for sharing your opinions.

Time management games are my favourite games to play & I don't really like hidden object games. This game is one of the few hidden object games I enjoyed playing & the graphics are really good. But I still prefer my time management games, maybe they could make another game like this with similar graphics & ideas without having to look for things. We need new time management games set in a boutique, salon restaurant etc.

I agree with Maggie(#7) -- great game to play with your kids! Give them a fine-point paintbrush if you have an LCD screen and let them point out ingredients!

I'm not a fan of time-management games, but I'm enjoying this one with the HOG element. Graphics are great! I agree that music change for different locations would be a good addition, though.

Alawar have established themselves as a best-of-the-genre, great graphics site like Playrix.

Thanks Alawar, GGOTD; and WhiteRabbit for the very informative reviews!


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

Sorry for the very late moderation.

I enjoy TM games and this is a fun one, a bit different to the usual restaurant games where you serve customers. It made an interesting change and is nice and easy. Keep 'em coming and thanks again GGOTD and Alawar.

Pretty interesting game, though it can be frustrating to find the items sometimes (especially as they can be really small or hidden). Neat concept though!

Hello GAOTD TEAM, i can not install this game ...
my os: windows 7
it said: "The Key can not be decrypted ..

i've downloaded this game 3 times and ... I have downloaded this game 3 times and all the results are the same .. I can't installed this game ......


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

Did you check the FAQ's section over in the forums. I posted a link in my review at comment number 1. If you are running Firefox you have to ensure that I.E. is still online. Another possible problem is your security software. It may be blocking the activation etc.

Does your website have a contact page? I'm having problems locating it but, I'd like
to send you an e-mail. I've got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it grow over time.

Thank you for this game! I love these kinds of games.

To Scott who said that this game didn't save your progress. Did you input a player name at the beginning? or just play the default? I made a player name and have not had a problem with it. Maybe make sure when you go back in that it says welcome to the name you saved. If not click on the not you button and see if it is in there.
I have closed and gone back into the game several times today and it has saved my progress every time. (I'm on the 4th shop right now).
I just wanted to let others know that the game does run fine and saves progress. If you enjoy these types of games it is a great one to get :)

Hi! Just spent the last couple of hours playing...I have a couple of things I would like to add.

#8. Did you exit during a level being played? That said your progress will probably not be saved, it is such a short amount of time so it really is not a big deal. If you are talking about your whole progress as far as purchasing shops ect, I quit the game and it saved everything.

I am not big on the dash style time management games, but this one was a bit different as you had to find the ingredients. I liked that sometimes things were found in the same place within a certain restaurant, it helped me stay on top of things. So far the coffee shop was a bit hard for me as some of the things like the glassware blends in too much.

I also found that clicking on things did not always work. I hope they fix that if they make another one. The graphics are fine, the music not too annoying, I would have liked to hear different tracks for each shop and the storyline, I would have liked to see more. Why do I want to buy these places? Maybe add in a bit with dealing with customers or something> Not sure..but I can see how it could get repetitive. It's not so much to keep me from playing though. I did enjoy it and will keep playing.

Thank you again Alawar, you guys are awesome...also thank you for the team, you guys are totally great!


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

Thank you for your feedback. :)

Well, this is another game that when I click to 'play' it moves the screen over to the left (so half the screen is not visible and I only see the right half of the screen) I've looked at the faq and do not see any fix for this.

I do not have two screens. I am running windows 7 ultimate x64 and not sure what else might be desired/needed to potentially help with compatibility.

The download keeps being interrupted, therefore I can't download it. :(

Cee

I already played this and am not that big fun of this kind of games but it has nice graphics and works well so if someone likes this sort of games take it!

This time-management, object recognition game could be very easily adapted to be a language teaching game / tool. Play may proceed, that after playing in your native country, you would try similar businesses in foreign countries to increase your vocabulary in their language. Suggest utilising bubble hints when the cursor hovers over items. More time extensions may be needed.

this game doens't not save progress if u close out to main menu and exit you will have to start over from scratch, very poor programming.

My 9 yr. old grandson and I love playing these games together. Thank you so very much for another opportunity to make a wonderful memory of us laughing and enjoying time together. Just know that you don't have to do it, but you do..as my grandson says "you rock" (I hope I said that right..LOL)
Maggie

This is a fantastic game! I bought it a couple of years ago and still play it every now and then :)

Great game-little out of the norm that it is a object find as well at management. Installed fine Thanks GAOTD & Alawar

BORING! + STRESSFUL! = NO FUN!

I HATE hidden object games! And hidden object games with a time limit are DOUBLE HATE X2!

I'd rather have 1,000 pictures of mashed potatoes on my computer than this game!

BUT I downloaded "Around the World in 80 Days" from Gametop.com today! YEA! WHOOP! WHOOP!

First let me say I LOVE Alawar games. I can't wait to try this game. Thank you so much GGATD for offering top notch games. And thank you Alawar for giving us the chance to play this game.
I am one of those who like time management and seek and find. I played till I bought my first restaurant. I had no problems installing or playing. Now, I will have something new to play during my hospital stay this week.
White Rabbit I pray you are doing well!

Look like great fun. BUT I am not a real big fan of time management games. So I will pass on giving this game a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I can not provide a unbiased or fair review either.

I just have not the patience needed to learn how to play time mamngment games. I get frustrated with my poor hand & eye cordination. Playing these games can be a real test of my temper as well. I would rather keep calm than end up being stressed out due to a game.

I can state that most of the game's on my pc are from Alawar and Playrix. They also see the most game play while the other games I have see very little gameplay. Which might be because I tend to spend most of my time playing MMORPG'S

When I play my RPG's it is on 1 of 3 Accounts at www.Runescape.com or playing a game called shakes & fidget it started as German comic book spoofing fun about the World of Warcraft. I play on 2 of the 9 US servers. So I have 2 accounts here. all of which means I spend less time playing my other installed PC game's

Most of the games I do play on my pc are Match 3 and match 4 type games with a few physics ones throwen in for good measure and no game collection is not complete with out a couple of Hidden object games. I also like games that incorporate HOG and The Match 3

Sadly some of the games I have on my pc no longer work after I transfered over to my larger hard drive seems like there was some files that got missed in the transfer they no longer work .. What bothers me is that they are my schmups and I love Space shoot em ups

My second favourite genre of game play is the mario style action games. I have all 3 of the turtix series given away on here and they work =) big happy grin but these schumps don't Big unhappy face =( maybe it is because the turtix games are in a games folder and the Schumps are in a program files? ...

I will give this game a pass today but would like to say thank you to the GAOTD for bringing us these great games and a huge Thank You to Alawar for giving us another great game to play. Alawar seems to provide a lot of good games even if i don't download them all I am stil lthankfull they choose to continue to let GGAOTD to provide them to us all.

Forgive my spelling My spell checker is not working right now.
Signed
Rick Frog


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

Hi Rick, check out the free games on Desura (there's over 100 quality freebies) some of which are excellent shmups. There's also a thread in the game discussion forums that lists a whole wad of free shmups, though I haven't updated it in quite some time. The release of schmups has been gathering impetus over the last few years, with some excellent games being released. I've backed a few on Kickstarter over the last year such as Strike Suit Zero (which was released last week) , Planetary Annihilation, Kinetic Void, Star Command, Drifter: A Space Trading Game and Elite Dangerous

The following I've posted over in the good Games to Grab Project:


Go Beryllium


Battlecruiser Millenium


Pyxenos


Aero Flux


Chromium BSU


Flight Commander


Naev


Gravitron & Gravitron X



Vega Strike


Open Rocket


Grid Wars 2


They Came From Verminest


Conquest of Phobos


Arcade Sniper



Xenowar (X-Com)



Strange Adventures in Infinite Space



Darius Gaiden



Vacant Arc



WarMachine Overload



Earth Jets


I went back to September 2011. There's loads more excellent Shmups to be found in the free games project. You'll find a lot in the Synopsis, though I've not updated that in 2 years, so there are still quite a few between Jan 2011 and Sept 2011 that I've not listed above that will need to be searched for by going through individual pages. You'll find the synopsis HERE and the Shmups thread HERE

I'll add some images later. :)

In Brief:


If you are a fan of both time management and hidden object games, then you might want to check out Gourmania. It's a cooking themed game that blends both genres and ingredients in a fun but unoriginal dish, modelled after the popular Go Go Gourmet.

Installation:


Gourmania downloads to a 76.2 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive.

The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is MB in size.



C:\Games\Gourmania_Game\







No desktop shortcut or start menu/progra shortcuts are installed, so make sure you make a note of where the game is being installed to so that you can create am shortcut for yourself. Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files.



I've only tested the game on Win 7 this time around, Anyone running Win 8, Vista or XP, please confirm whether this game works Thanks.

Introduction:

Do you have the skills to win a cook off among the top chefs at a glamorous resort? Begin your journey at a fast food joint, finding the ingredients for the sandwiches your customers want and the processing their orders before time runs out. Before the big showdown, you’ll save a Sushi Bar, a Pizza Parlor and more from shutting down, making you the most sought after chef in town! Just make sure to purchase the upgrades that will give you an edge. Full of seek-and-find and slice-and-dice fun, GourMania is your ticket to the big leagues!

Reference accessed HERE Jan 5th 2013

The Game:


Gourmania isn't big on story. Your goal is to build your fortune, and earn a reputation as a stellar master chef. You get to start at the local fast food joint, and work your way up to bigger and more prestigious spots as you advance. Throughout the game, you'll get to acquire a variety of restaurants and work with different cuisines. There's a sushi bar that serves a variety of eastern foods, an Italian restaurant, a beach bar, and a vegetarian kitchen to name a few, with 8 locations and 60 levels in total.

The mechanics of Gourmania are virtually identical to Go Go Gourmet. In a nutshell, you find ingredients in the kitchen hidden object style. Then, you use those ingredients to prepare dishes for customers before their patience runs out. The actually cooking part is much simpler in Gourmania, however, and mostly involves dragging food to one of the appliances overhead, like the chopping board or fry cooker. Once an order is complete, you pick up cash, and work on another order. Clicks are mostly (but not always) responsive. It can sometimes be tough to access an item that is laying behind another one. There's a 20 second penalty for random clicks.

For the most part, ingredients are straightforward, though you might be asked to find the occasional unusual one like a garnet or guava. Also, not all items are clear – the coffee looks a bit like chocolate mousse. If you don't know what something should look like, you can use the hint function, which continually refills. Also, hovering over any food item will eventually bring up a named description. Don't expect all of the items to look the same – a plate can be any color or shape or size, and a kiwi might be cut, sliced, or whole. This is kind of neat, and makes the game more challenging.

It should be mentioned that specific items are only in several places on the screen. So, there might be only 3 bottles of wine, or four ice buckets in the room, and these will disappear and reappear as you play. Eventually you can become very familiar with item locations and get expert scores more easily.

There are lots of ways to earn bonus cash, and you'll need to master these in order to win. Gathering all of the items to fill one order in one swoop will earn you an “order + $10” bonus. It's worth it to aim for an expert score on all levels, since this will earn you more customers, which ultimately means more profit on future levels. It's also worth upgrading your appliances when you can, since this will increase your overall speed. If you use three appliances at the same time, you'll get a money bonus, and the appliances will temporarily work twice as fast. Lastly, if you can chain picking up cash, you'll also receive a bonus.

Sometimes there are extra items hidden in the boards which can help you out. Hourglasses are the most common, and these extend the amount of time you have to complete the day, which means a better chance of earning expert level cash. Batteries will speed up your appliances.

Unlike most time management games, you don't need to play through the restaurants sequentially. If you can afford to buy a new restaurant and have met the basic requirements, you can do so even if you haven't completed the others yet. The difficulty level stays pretty consistent for most of the game.

Every three levels, there's a bonus game where you can unlock new recipes. This is pretty simple, and involves matching food items to their corresponding silhouettes that roll by on scrolling bars. As far as I can tell, there's no way to lose, so all this really does is break up the game a bit.

The graphics and artwork are all pretty good, though much of the character's speech animations are funny to watch. The music is hardly noticeable in the background. With unlimited opportunities to try and get expert scores, there's plenty of replay value. The game itself is on the long side, considering the genre, so you can expect at least 5 or 6 hours before you beat every level and obtain Master Chef status.

I couldn't help but add, the recipes are very odd. It's never made very clear what you are cooking. I can't imagine what type of gourmet pizza involves ingredients like mayonnaise, hotdogs, and mustard. I'm not sure I want to know, either...but, maybe that's why I'm not a chef!

Gourmania isn't quite as involved or challenging as Go Go Gourmet, and it lacks a good story to keep things focused and interesting. Giving players a chance to jump around allows more flexibility, but also makes the game feel like it lacks structure. However, on the whole, Gourmania is still a fun game to play if you enjoy hidden object gaming and want something that's not too “dark” or story focused, or if you happen to be a cooking game junky who can't get enough culinary-themed diversions. It's fun and relaxing to play, and offers just the right level of challenge for most gamers.


Pro's:

Nice graphics. Good variety of food items and restaurants. Hidden objects are mostly clear with a good hint system. Challenging. Flexible level system allows users to jump to different restaurants at will.


Con's:

No storyline. Peculiar recipes. Lacks structure. Food item locations repeat. Unoriginal concept.






Reference accessed HERE Jan 5th 2013

Features:

• Gorgeous Scenes to Search
• Original Storyline
• Loads of Challenging Levels
• Hours of Hidden Object Fun
• 6 stages
• 24 levels









System Requirements:


Windows 2000/ XP/ Vista/ 7

Operating system: Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
CPU: 1.7 GHz processor;
System RAM: 512 MB
gRAM: 128 MB videocard;
DirectX 8 or higher





Video:

You’ll find videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE
and HERE.











Conclusion:



Time Management (TM) isn't one of my favorite genres, in fact, apart from games like Farm Frenzy, I just don't enjoy playing TM games. For me a game is for relaxation or excitement. TM games just create too much stress, so defeat the whole point for me.

That said I do think this game deserves your attention. It's nothing original, but it is well constructed and for TM aficionados, I'm sure you'll get some decent game play out of today's freebie.



Scoring

A little biased towards my own feelings towards these games, so please take with a pinch of salt. ;-)

Gameplay – 7
Graphics – 7
Audio – 6
Re-playability – 6
Originality – 6

Total = 6.4

Download, Installation & Game Play Problems:

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed. Sometimes, so long as you already have the giveaway files downloaded, you can still install and activate a game for upwards of an hour once the giveaway has finished, though it's not guaranteed. If you miss the giveaway totally and would have liked to at least check the game out, it’s always worth checking out the free games sites such as MyPlayCity, Gametop, Jenkat Games and FreeGamePick (there are more but these are all I can remember because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them, though bear in min=d the usual annoyances you get with such games (toolbars, home page changes, browser opening on closing the game down etc). Today's game is available from MyPlayCity HERE

If you have any problems installing or starting up today's game please go to the game discussion forums HERE for help via the FAQ's I've posted. There are several common problems that I've detailed with possible solutions..

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Games, Games, and yet more Games:






If you're looking for something other than today's game check the Didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

There are loads of deals available from Steam for example there's a free weekend for Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and it's 50% off for the game if you decide to purchase. {This game looks amazing, but is not suitable for children). There's also 50% off Hotline Miami and between 50% to 75% off all Square Enix's games. Each day till Monday there will be a special that has a better percentage off. Today's special is the Hitman franchise, with 66% off. I've posted details over in the forums THIS. The previous days special he Deus Ex franchise is still available at 75% off until this evening (around 8pm GMT)

The 24 hr deal is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with 50% off, (also the two DLC's Dawnguard and Hearthfire). A new DLC called Dragonborn will be at the beginning of February.

You'll also find many more games on sale via Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site (apart from GreenManGaming), which I've linked to


The usual monthly free game from Alawars game box is now Sprill. It's supposed to change every month, but some community members are seeing the same game for months on end. Dido suggested that you reinstall gamebox to fix the problem. Reinstalling gamebox shouldn't affect any previous freebies. :). (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month).

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 (The Indie Gala Magika bundle has been extended) or the four day sales at IndieGameStand. The latest IndieGameStand game is Oil Blue an indie action sim that sees you drilling for oil. The average price to qualify for bonus content is $1.68 at the moment but you can get the game for $1 without bonus content (music from the game) if you wish. The next game will be available tomorrow.,


You'll find more free Time Management and Hidden Object games over at MyPlayCity, Gametop, Jenkat Games and FreeGamePick but please be aware that these sites may add toolbars and home page hijacks to your web browser. These can be avoided by un-checking the appropriate boxes during installation. Also when you close any of their games down, your browser is opened and directed to the sites home page. This is innocuous so don’t worry. Closing the page ends any connection and nothing is downloaded.

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A Request for helpl>:

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.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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