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Fridays game giveaway Forge of Gods: Guardians of the Universe Pack, (the ninth dlc pack Panoramik have given away since April 2016) is still live (until Monday morning 9am UK time) HERE. There are still at least 75% of the 20 000 keys originally included in the offer still available.

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or comments with only one or a few words; for example vg, good, thank you, TY, bad, rubbish, this game is ~%!£*? etc , or if the comment has nothing to do with today's game or is complaining (send your complaints to the giveaway team via the contact form that I've linked to below), they may be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however, a little light banter among community members/friends 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 inappropriate, will be deleted and usually with no explanation. Please see the moderation policy HERE for details about posting comments. If you are having problems installing the game check the FAQ's thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted; and if for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

Green Valley: Fun on the Farm

In Brief

A farming oriented match three game with up-gradable farm building and lots of bonuses.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open up the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers new or fresh 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 needs 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, for exam0le, they don't like MPC games, they hate HOG's, have had enough of Match Three and Time Management games, or they want to see the latest version of Call of Duty or some other big name AAA game given away or that they don't like Steam games. If something isn't for you then please move on to the next giveaway, or check out the forums HERE, HERE and HERE, where a few members of the community post details of various free games and free game sites as well as links to various indie bundle sites etc; you never know, you may find something that really interests you.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it via Big Fish Games HERE. It usually costs £7.70; but, if you are a new subscriber to BFG you can usually get it at a discounted price of £2.99/$2.99.

Installation:

Green Valley: Fun on the Farm downloads to a 44.3 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 65 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default; and, unlike games downloaded directly from My Play City can be changed to other paths by the user if preferred:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Green Valley - Fun on the Farm

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:

Little bug is very happy because he received inheritance - a big farm - from his uncle. As soon as he found out about it, he decided to go and inspect his new property. It turned out that the farm is not very large and if you want to get a rich harvest and earn lots of money you have to work hard there. Do you want to become an experienced farmer and help Beetle Bug get lots of money? Welcome! In Green Valley: Fun on the Farm you have such a unique opportunity. There are lots of fruit, vegetables and flowers on the fields and your task is to collect them and put in the boxes. Make a chain of more than three related objects with the help of the left mouse button and they will fall in the boxes.

The boxes are situated near the field. Be careful! If there are no empty boxes, don't throw your fruit or vegetables. You won't get any points but your fruit will smash on the ground. As soon as you gather harvest and put it into boxes, little bug will take full boxes away. You have to fill certain amount of boxes during each level. Moreover, the number of the empty stuff increases from level to level in Green Valley: Fun on the Farm. Finally, little bug will sell all harvest and earn some money. This sum of money will help him expand the farm. Also, there are great bonuses in Green Valley: Fun on the Farm which are hidden in the fields. Make the chain around a bonus and it will destroy all objects near it. Wonderful 3D graphics, energetic music, funny heroes - you'll see that working on the field is not a hard work!

Reference accessed HERE. 28th July 2017

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Green Valley: Fun on the Farm 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:

Normally, insects can present huge problems for farms, ruining crops, infecting cattle with disease and spreading blight throughout the land. In googly-eyed hero Beetle Bug’s latest adventure, Green Valley – Fun on the Farm, though, they’re actually in charge of turning an ailing estate and its fallow fields into a thriving concern.

A pleasing match-three mind-bender that’s blessed with brilliant audiovisuals and myriad challenge types, from a pure value standpoint, the game proves a solid, if not banner harvest. As such, while well above average in terms of overall quality, it’s nonetheless a little rough around the edges for the – and we quote the developers here – “most agricultural puzzle game of all times [sic]!”

If marketing copy like that isn’t a dead giveaway, one of the title’s most obvious and immediately annoying gaffes is its Pidgin English translation. It’s a shame too, as from the second you boot up the game’s animated intro sequence, complete with catchy voice-overs by our bumbling hero and his quirky kids, the presentation’s otherwise top-notch.

Brightly colored, flush with personality and featuring regular cut-scenes with lively speech samples that appear between new scenarios, we can’t help but wonder how this annoyance was overlooked. That goes double when you consider that spoken dialogue doesn’t always match on-screen subtitles to boot, tainting one’s initial impression – strange stuff, indeed.

Thankfully for perplexed viewers, the actual hands-on action itself more than makes up for such shortcomings, offering a variety of challenges to tackle. Most stages take the form of grids of hexagonal tiles, and are themed after fields, fruit trees and soil beds. By dragging the mouse over adjacent sequences of playing pieces containing icons for strawberries, flowers, eggplants, peas and onions (among other objects), you’ll attempt to make groups of three or more identical items. Do so, and they disappear from the board, with fruits and vegetables tumbling downwards to either splatter uselessly against the ground or collect in waiting boxes, which Beetle Bug then harvests and turns into cash.

Earn enough money, and you’ll literally watch your farm – initially an old cottage – grow to encompass orchards, cattle pens and rolling grasslands. (Thank mid-mission interludes where you can admire surrounding grounds and click on flying birds to pop them for extra loot.)

But where the game really shines is in how it continually mixes things up over a sequence of 80 individual levels. For example, goals can shift. Rather than collecting X number of foodstuffs in a set amount of time, one stage might demand you remove stones from fields by pushing them to the bottom of the grid, while the next requires releasing a certain number of chickens from their eggs instead. Likewise, creating larger matches can cause bonuses to appear, letting you destroy nearby tiles with explosive force or remove entire lines from the playfield at a time.

An increasingly more diverse range of obstacles such as ice and blocked-off tiles that’s introduced as you advance also presents difficulties. Furthermore, one can additionally charge mega bonuses that let you remove random tiles and add extra crates on-demand. There’s even the odd mini-game to savor.

Collectively, the experience proves brisk, beautiful and engaging, ultimately adding up to way more than the sum of its parts. But the hard truth is that there’s little here in the way of innovation or surprises; just a clever, and well-refined, mish-mash of common tropes. Keeping this in mind, Green Valley nonetheless proves an impressive repackaging of genre staples that’s sure to satisfy most comers. Take away the slick window dressing, however, and you’ll find that, as with the various vittles it features, there’s still plenty of room for growth.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Original review written by Scott Steinberg on Oct 15, 2008; re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 28th July 2017

Other Reviews & Videos of Green Valley: Fun on the Farm:

You can see Big Fish community reviews of Green Valley: Fun on the Farm HERE and more information in the Big Fish forums HERE.

You can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE (Russian), HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

Good animated visuals, goofy voice-overs and decent Sound effects and music. The setup is charming and there are loads of bonuses and obstacles with masses of goal types. Attention to detail is excellent though some of the translations are a little suspect.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Green Valley: Fun on the Farm and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

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.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns for details of other free games and offers HERE