Ice Cream Craze: Natural Hero

#34

I dont mind TM games, and was quite enjoying this one and had a couple of sessions on it. When I wanted to play it again, a couple of the files were missing, including the exe file I need to start the game. I haven't deleted anything, they are just not there any more. Also, the 'setup' button is gone too, although the 'readme' is still there. I there a way to fix this and restore the missing files, or will I have to wait until it's offered again?

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

Try downloading the demo from the developers site, then reregistering it with the provided key. Your saves are stored elsewhere on the computer, so your saves should be okay.

Reply | Comment by Angel – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#33

I usually like TM games, but this is more repetitive, and I don't like the conveyor belt aspect. LOVE the witty dialogue, though.

Problems: I earned 100% market share before getting the upgrades and at the end of each "day" the game gets stuck. It does not give me the freshness bonus/percentage report, the sun does not rise, the rooster does not crow. I cannot advance or play anything. I have to quit to the menu and start again to be able to continue.

The game is not saving the things I do. I have gotten level 5 charm 3 times already and Engineering twice and once again, it says I am at level 4 on both. I am TIRED of replaying those levels, especially Enineering, which I hate because it is too hard for me.

I do like the puzzle levels, though much of it is trial and error. That's a great idea.

All in all, if I had paid for this, I would want my money back. (Sorry!)

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

Thank you for your feedback

Reply | Comment by Andrea – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#32

Cute game, very easy to grasp. Very good graphics, as well as the story. After the third game day everything was clear - I agree that this is an excellent game for a younger audience. I liked playing it myself even if I'm not a child... :)

Sometimes I felt that when upgrading in later levels (especially with an energy limit), it all came down to speed and skill. I think it was the speed in which you had to make ice cream was what turned me off - you *might* be able to complete an upgrade if you mess up on one ice cream, but make another mistake and you're finished. I guess this is part of the challenge of TM games.

Apart from that nitpick this game gets a positive review from me :)

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

Thank you for your feedback

Reply | Comment by Saphy – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#31

LOVE THIS GAME! I would like to thank gaotd.com team as well as the developer for such a gr8 game. Thank u soo much.

Reply | Comment by Sohail Azeem – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#30

While this is not the type of game I like I tried it because I love others by Game Fools. It plays fine for time management. It is cute, but I just prefer strategy. The "My Life" games are really fun. I bought two. I hope they come out with more games of life choices.

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

Thank you for your feedback Kiki

Reply | Comment by Kiki – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#29

Footnote to the above. I just checked my fragmentation level, and, though it's borderline, it's still below the recommended levels. So that may be the cause for the occasional pauses I was experiencing, but my educated guess is that it's still shortage of RAM.

Reply | Comment by Watcher13 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#28

Will work on Win2k, but you may need to make a copy of gdiplus.dll from somewhere else in your system and place it in the game's folder. I got a message saying it couldn't find that dll and it listed a number of places it was looking for it, including the C: folder for example, but, if you don't have it in one of those places, you'll need to put it in one. For example, as I said, in the game's folder. I copied the newest I had, one that shipped with .net framework 2.0, and that worked.
I can't play it fast enough to make any headway. Even though it plays on Win2000, your hardware may not be good enough. In my case, I suspect it needs more than my 192 meg RAM on this very old backup system - even though Win2000 is less memory intensive than XP. I suspect this because it occasionally stops for my HD to thrash, indicating Virtual Memory trying to make up for the RAM shortage.
I think I'm seeing some slop in the pointer, as others mentioned, but that might be related to the memory issue. If not, then the developers might want to check this, because this game is tighter in the amount of speed required than some of the other TMs I've played, and the coordinationally challenged, like yours truly, would never be able to progress enough to enjoy the game.
It's good the music varies by store, or else, IMHO, what seems to me to be relative short musical clips would get stale REAL quickly.

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

Thank you for your feedback watcher. :)

Reply | Comment by Watcher13 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

Fun game.

However, the children who were the intended players lost interest quickly.

Reply | Comment by Edward Miller – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

LOL this is basically a flash file :D With a little tempering, it could work in a browser

Reply | Comment by GAOTD Installer – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

To explain the three accounts, there was a time I signed up and never received a confirmation email nor did the lost password function work so I tried again, but had to use different names and emails because the accounts, while not yet active, still existed so naturally the names and emails couldn't be reused. Eventually the lost password function *did* work and I was able to log into the forums. You should find I only ever posted via one account- the other two may be deleted.

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

Yes I noticed that neither of the other two accounts were associated with posts. I could always create a password for you if necessary. I've not received replies from the other admins yet, so will probably email you with further information. Please bear with me tohugh a si'm not well at the moment. I on't be moderating for the rest of this game giveaway until maybe the last hour when iI'll be up trying to write up a brief review for tomorrows game, (there's no demo available, so I'll be writing it up after the giveaway starts. )

Good night.

Reply | Comment by QM – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

The comcast email is a valid one, yes. The eskimobob one is as well, but if anyone from the site has tried to contact me at it (like content warnings as you mentioned or a reply to one of my attempts) I haven't received anything, so I guess you should stick to the comcast one to be safe. I will update my account with it once it is unblocked. I will of course continue to look at this giveaway thread as well for further communication.

Reply | Comment by QM – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#23

Hmm... TM is not really my cup of tea. So I don't think much of today's game. But I can tell you this: this game is developed using Adobe Director (its output is most commonly known as Adobe Shockwave on the web). Therefore, trying to mod this game is very difficult. All game assets are stored in a Director file as well, so you can't change the music unless you know the Director format (which, from what I can tell, hasn't been researched as much as Adobe Flash). The only thing you can change is the game's localization (XML Excel format) and some game config. One fun bit of metadata: the game's strings localization has last been edited by a Jay Stewar, user name GameFools a couple of days ago, using OpenOffice.org and Windows 6.x. That's found in a file called .~lock.strings.xml#. I bet OpenOffice.org crashed to leave such a file.

..........edited comment due to inappropriate content.............

BTW, kudos to the GGOTD team for bringing Idea Informer here. Though I don't post, sometimes it's nice to see what others think in summary form.

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

Thanks for your input GMMan. I've deleted all clues you've posted to the coming games over the next few weeks. I've been tempted to do that myself on several occasions, but it would spoil the surprise. :)

Reply | Comment by GMMan – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

addendum: You changed the comment I replied to but I think it still mostly applies. Again, I do appreciate the work that is done by all of you and it sounds like more of a misunderstanding. Someone may want to look into the site comment form if no one received what I wrote that way, and I would guess that the giveaway@ account may not be one that is read, just used to send from.

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

I was still replying to it when you reposted. I tend to post a little then contine then post more etc. Just in case a user is still on the site. I feel it speeds up communication somewhat. (does that make sense, lol).

I will post more feedback later via these three posts you've made if I get any, otherwise check your email later.

Reply | Comment by QM – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

Please don't take this personally, WR- I am aware you are a volunteer moderator for this game forum and not a part of the staff (if I remember what I have read correctly). It has just been extremely frustrating trying to sort this problem out as mentioning it in this unorthodox manner should show. It does make me think though that it may be that I am being too harsh about the moderator in question, as though I mentioned my not receiving any reply I didn't think to turn that around and think that maybe for some reason he didn't receive mine. Three different methods of communication with no response at all though as I said is very frustrating and makes me wonder what's going on.

I apologize that I have made you feel that I have attacked you personally and thank you for looking into the matter, and for the fine job you are doing here.

About the block, I fear it may be related to an actual post I made and not anyone hacking my account. I was trying to be helpful toward someone who had a situation with activation similar to ones I have experienced. I posted nothing I had not posted in the past, yet someone may have misinterpreted what I wrote as how to do something to work around activation (it had nothing to do with bypassing activation or any other way of installing anything after the day of the giveaway which of course would be against rules and grounds for banning). So while I have a GUESS as to why the account was blocked it really doesn't tell me if there was a rule change, a misunderstanding, or some other reason entirely for the block. I wish to try to rectify it and know what to avoid writing in the future if it WAS indeed something I wrote.

Again, thank you for the response and for looking into it.

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

Hello QM, I wasn't taking it that personally, I just felt you were being a little too harsh on what is basically a volunteer section of the giveaway community, some of which put a lot of effort into the project. I'm sure there is a simple reason for the problem. As mentioned in my reply above, I'll email you as soon as I find out any more about the issue. As far as I can see you should still be able to access the other two accounts you created. If you've forgotten your passwords I could easily reset them for you and email the new passwords.

Please do check back to this and your other comment for further news if i discover any before the end of the giveaway. After the giveaway ends I'll resort to email. I presume the comcast email is a valid one?

I know that the other administrators would first warn you if you had posted illegal ontent; they wouldn't ban you out of hand.

:)

now it's time for my supper. :)

Please don't take this personally, WR- I am aware you are a volunteer moderator for this game forum and not a part of the staff (if I remember what I have read correctly).  It has just been extremely frustrating trying to sort this problem out as mentioning it in this unorthodox manner should show.  It does make me think though that it may be that I am being too harsh about the moderator in question, as though I mentioned my not receiving any reply I didn't think to turn that around and think that maybe for some reason he didn't receive mine.  Three different methods of communication with no response at all though as I said is very frustrating and makes me wonder what's going on.

I apologize that I have made you feel that I have attacked you personally and thank you for looking into the matter, and for the fine job you are doing here.

About the block, I fear it may be related to an actual post I made and not anyone hacking my account.  I was trying to be helpful toward someone who had a situation with activation similar to ones I have experienced.  I posted nothing I had not posted in the past, yet someone may have misinterpreted what I wrote as how to do something to work around activation (it had nothing to do with bypassing activation or any other way of installing anything after the day of the giveaway which of course would be against rules and grounds for banning).  So while I have a GUESS as to why the account was blocked it really doesn't tell me if there was a rule change, a misunderstanding, or some other reason entirely for the block.  I wish to try to rectify it and know what to avoid writing in the future if it WAS indeed something I wrote.

Again, thank you for the response and for looking into it.

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

Hello QM, I wasn't taking it   that personally, I just felt you were being a little too  harsh on what is basically a volunteer  section of the  giveaway community, some of which put a lot of effort into the project.  I'm sure there is a simple reason for the problem.  As  mentioned in my reply above, I'll email you as soon as I find out any more about the issue.  As far as I can see you should still be able to access  the other two accounts you created.  If you've forgotten your  passwords I could easily reset them for you and email the new passwords.

Please do check back to  this and your other comment for further news if i  discover any before the end of the giveaway. After the giveaway ends I'll resort to email.  I presume the comcast email is a valid one?

I know that the other administrators would first warn you  if you had posted illegal ontent; they wouldn't ban you out of hand.

:)

now it's time for my supper.  :)

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by QM – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

Game feedback: This is a very decent game. I just played day one so far and found it enjoyable. What I don't like is that full screen isn't really full screen- they just change the resolution to the window size so the window fills the screen. This can be seen by the window title bar on top. As well, changing the resolution makes all of my open windows small when I quit. I run at a 1920x1200 resolution so as you can imagine when the screen changes to 640x480 (I think) for the game, the open windows get really small and I have to adjust them correctly when I quit the game.

Other feedback: While I will always appreciate the work done to make free games and apps possible, I have to say I am *extremely* disappointed with the communication of the staff and moderators on this site. I had an issue occur where my forum account was blocked without explanation and every attempt of mine to find out more about it and possible remedies has been ignored despite the block screen saying to contact the forum admin if one thinks it was done in error. Even a moderator whose email address I had on hand completely ignored my plea, even to just reply that he nothing to do with the forum and couldn't help. Odd, as he is very helpful in the forums. I expect this part to be edited out before approving the post, but please, PLEASE forward this to the forum administrator first and let me know you have done so in a moderator comment if only to show me that *someone* is listening. IF by some strange chance all this has occurred because, say, email is being rejected from the address (I assure you I have checked the junk folder and trash) then I have given an alternate address with this post. The forum account is Qun Mang. Thank you.

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

Hello Qun Mang, thank you for your feed back. With respect to your second paragraph, if you'd contacted me I would have tried to do as much as possible. I find your accusation that I and other mods/admins lack communication skills rather offensive. I've always tried to help wherever I can and both BuBBy and Graylox put a lot of work into the forums and BuBBy in the giveaway comments section. BuBBy is also working full time and i believe admins and moderates other sites, so isn't always available. Graylox practically lives over in the forums. as for the various moderators, we had quite a few a couple of years ago, but i'm really not sure who's still active. the forums have become rather quite over the last several months. Even i don't visit as many times a day as i used to. I was posting practiclly evey day wheras now it may be a couple of ties a week and then only to contribute to someone elses thread.

As for a loack of communication here on this side of the giveaway site you just have to see the replies I make to those who request help to see that i'm very active here in this comment section. I spend hours writing a review f most games that are given away even when ill 9as i am at this moment) and moderate the questions as often as I can. You just have to ask and i'll do anything within my power to resolve the issues you mqay have. With respect to moderators, we are all volunteers and have a life other than the giveaway project. We get nothing apart from satisfaction for working on this site, no extra's or perks. I spend a significant portion of my spare time trying to help those in need, so was very disappointed in your second paragraph.

That said I'll look into your account in a few moments (when I'm done moderating the rest of the comments in need of moderating and once i've finished my supper) and see if I can resolve the problem for you. There are two other admins and several moderators over on the forums, so I don't at this point know whether your account has been blocked for some reason or whether their is a fault. I'll get back to you here so please return later to see what I've discovered.

p.s. If you have tried to contact my email I have not seen or have not received an email from you.

UPDATE:

I've checked the forums and see that you have created three accounts QM, QunMang and Qun Mang. Of the three two are still active and the Qun Mang account has been blocked but I cannot see why it was blocked because all of the posts you've contributed to are fine; nothing illegal, inappropriate or out of place. I've PMed the other two admins and asked if they know anything about the situation. I'm sure we shall get things resolved ASAP. I'll email you when I know more.

With respect to moderators, we had several a few years ago, but to be honest I've not seen much activity from any moderator of late. One moderator was blocked recently and others have left the forums.

Game feedback:  This is a very decent game.  I just played day one so far and found it enjoyable.  What I don't like is that full screen isn't really full screen- they just change the resolution to the window size so the window fills the screen.  This can be seen by the window title bar on top.  As well, changing the resolution makes all of my open windows small when I quit.  I run at a 1920x1200 resolution so as you can imagine when the screen changes to 640x480 (I think) for the game, the open windows get really small and I have to adjust them correctly when I quit the game.

Other feedback: While I will always appreciate the work done to make free games and apps possible, I have to say I am *extremely* disappointed with the communication of the staff and moderators on this site.  I had an issue occur where my forum account was blocked without explanation and every attempt of mine to find out more about it and possible remedies has been ignored despite the block screen saying to contact the forum admin if one thinks it was done in error.  Even a moderator whose email address I had on hand completely ignored my plea, even to just reply that he nothing to do with the forum and couldn't help.  Odd, as he is very helpful in the forums.  I expect this part to be edited out before approving the post, but please, PLEASE forward this to the forum administrator first and let me know you have done so in a moderator comment if only to show me that *someone* is listening.  IF by some strange chance all this has occurred because, say, email is being rejected from the address (I assure you I have checked the junk folder and trash) then I have given an alternate address with this post.  The forum account is Qun Mang.  Thank you.

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

Hello Qun Mang,  thank you for your  feed back.  With respect to your  second paragraph, if you'd contacted me I would have tried to do as much as possible.  I find your  accusation that I   and other   mods/admins lack  communication skills rather offensive.  I've always tried to help wherever I can and   both BuBBy and Graylox put a lot of  work into the forums and BuBBy in the giveaway comments section.  BuBBy is also  working full time and i believe admins and moderates other sites, so isn't always available.  Graylox  practically lives  over in the forums.  as for    the various moderators, we had quite a few a couple of years ago, but i'm really not sure who's still active.  the forums have become rather quite over the last several months.  Even i don't   visit  as many times a day as i used to.  I was posting practiclly evey day wheras now  it may be a couple of ties a week and then only to contribute to someone elses thread.

As for  a loack of communication here on this side of the giveaway site   you just have to see the  replies I make to   those who request help to see that i'm very active here in this comment section.  I spend hours writing  a review f most games that are given away even when ill 9as i am at this moment) and moderate the  questions  as often as I can.  You just have to ask and i'll do anything within my power to resolve the issues you mqay have.  With respect to moderators, we are all volunteers and have a life other than  the giveaway project.  We get nothing   apart from satisfaction for   working on this site, no  extra's or  perks.  I spend a significant  portion of my  spare time    trying to help those  in need, so was  very disappointed in your second  paragraph.

That said I'll look into  your account  in a few moments (when I'm done moderating   the rest of  the comments in need of moderating and  once i've finished my supper) and see if  I can resolve  the problem for you.  There are    two other admins and several moderators over on the forums,  so I don't at this point know whether your account has been blocked for some reason or whether their is a fault.  I'll get back to you   here so please return later to see what I've discovered.

p.s.  If you have tried to contact my email  I have not seen or  have    not received an email from  you.

UPDATE:

I've checked the forums and see that you have created three accounts QM, QunMang and Qun Mang.  Of the three two are still active and the  Qun Mang account has been blocked but I cannot see why it was blocked because all of the posts you've contributed to are  fine; nothing illegal, inappropriate or out of place.  I've PMed the other two admins and  asked if they know anything about the situation.  I'm sure we shall get things resolved ASAP.  I'll email you  when I know more.

With respect to moderators, we had several  a few years ago, but to be honest I've not seen much activity from any moderator  of late.  One moderator was  blocked  recently  and others  have left the  forums.

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by QM – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

To moderator: will you approve my previous comment please so that heather82 can see it?

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

of course; I was sleeping, so it's been a few hours since my last moderation. (I'm ill)

Reply | Comment by Irina – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

I like time management games and this game is a fun one.

Reply | Comment by Sharon – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

What is the version number of this "Ice Cream Craze: Natural Hero" program that is being given away today???

Reply | Comment by Ooogla – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

I've played this game in the past and wasn't that impressed by it. I used the one hour free versions at the time. Reminded me of Cake Mania. Normally I love cooking games of any kind. This one never appealed to me. Kids might like it though since it deals with ice cream. Look forward to tomorrows giveaway. thanks anyhow.

Reply | Comment by Tamara – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

#9: Jan 1st GGOTD was an adult theme: Spirit of Wandering: The Legend a Hidden Object Game (HOG) really geared toward adults but older kids could play it (meaning it was family friendly). What's great about GGOTD is their blend of many different game genres. I've played Call of Atlantis and Atlantis Quest (from the Moderator's reply) and those are adult geared games. I come to this site every weekend and while I don't download every game, I do download those HOG or Match 3 types I find adult geared but family friendly enough that I don't have to minimize the game to avoid my son from catching me play :). Way to go GGOTD :)

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

thank you or your support Deborah; the guy may be a relatively new user so won't appreciate the games that have been given away over the last five years.

Reply | Comment by Deborah1962 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

This game downloaded and installed just fine for me. The first time I loaded it, it didn't want to let me type in my name. After closing & reopening, it worked just fine. As a lover of TM games, I really enjoyed it. Sometimes, I just want a lower-key, less stressful game; something to pass some time with, rather than a really tough challenge. This one fits the bill for me in that aspect. I understand that TMs can be repetitive and are not everyone's cup of tea. In that regard, I would enjoy seeing some mini games or something to break up the game a bit. All in all, a light, enjoyable way to pass some time.

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

Thank you for your feedback

Reply | Comment by iowasongbird – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

A great website for testing files/sites for infections is https://www.virustotal.com/. It will test it compared to many different antivirus programs. If it comes up clean there, there should be even less need to worry.

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

Thank you for your feedback. I use virus total. :) I think there are 41 different anti-malware programs used to test each file.

Reply | Comment by Curt – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

I'm having a small problem on my Windows 7 x64 system. In full screen mode the game still has the regular windows border wiht minimize, close and zoom buttons. It blacks out everything outside of the window, but I lose some a small portion of the button of the game screen because the window border takes up extra space that the game does not account for at the top. This is very unusual behavior for a game and despite having hundreds of games on my machine, mostly from Steam and this site, none have displayed this particular problem. I can of course put it in windowed mode but then on my high definition monitor it is so tiny that it is difficult to see. Of course when a game is in full screen mode the Windows border and window buttons typically are not visible so surely this is erroneous behavior. I'm running on a fresh system install with all system and driver updates installed, so I'm guessing this is some small error with the game itself.. Perhaps it was designed for XP. I'm sure it's a very simple thing, and it doesn't make the game unplayable but for someone such as myself it get really annoying, especially with some of the screen cut off on the bottom. So I have to choose between it being so small that I need a magnifying glass to see it, or having it be awkward in a glitched full screen mode. Aside from this problem, the game itself seems to me as about as high quality as time management games get. I love these kinds of games, have played a lot of them, and if you're like me this is just another great one to add to the collection.

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

Thank you for your feedback. It may be your screen resolution that's conflicting with the game. :)

Reply | Comment by Nate – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

WhiteRabbit-UK (or other moderator): Please EMail me at the EAddy given here. I had some comments about last week's offering that I really want to get to the developer and I have had trouble logging into the forum. You may be able to help me. Or maybe you can locate another way for me to contact them.

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

You don't mention which game from last weekend? What is your forum name? I'm an admin over in the forums so can check to see why you are locked out. :)

Reply | Comment by AFPhys – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

To Heather82. Check your firewall settings. Make sure that the programm you are trying to run is permitted to access the Internet by the firewall rules. If unsure, just try disabling firewall entirly for a while. I`ve had the same problem and this helped me.

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

Good point. I always forget to mention firewall settings. ;-)

Reply | Comment by Irina – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#9

I really wish this website would start giving away games geared towards adults once in awhile.

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

There aren't many developers who are willing to give their games away. That said how long have you been coming to this site? The project has been active since December 2006 (on the game giveaway side) and there have been many games given away that I would definitely say are not children only games. for examle over the last few years we've had the following games:

Alien Stars, Egyptoid 1 & 2, Last Galaxy hero, Call of Atlantis, Sawoid, 4 elments, Incinerate, Star Defenders, Spirit of Metropolis, Jane Croft: Baker Street Murders, The Sandbox of God, greenTechPlus, Astro Avenger 2, Monopoly of New York, Atlantis quest, Brickshooter Egypt, Elementals: The Magic Key, Inca Ball, Race Cars: The Extreme Rally, Jungle Racers, Trial motorbikes, Last Conundrum of Da Vinci, Shellblast, Orbital Destruction, Top Fuel Drag Racing, Star Prince, Ultimate Nitro Racer, Star Warrior 2, Super Motocross Deluxe, Sky Aces: World War II, Sky Aces: Cold War, Air Bandits, Kingmania, Larva Mortus, Arcamania, Strateg, RVL Hacker plus many more.

Reply | Comment by Barry Weiss – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

"Failed to connect" error, first time it happens to me.

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

Check out the problems section near the bottom of my review. If you are using firefox, check that Internet explorer is not offline; also try rebooting your modem and/or router or try again later.

Reply | Comment by Heather82 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#7

A charming game. The Graphics, Music and general game-play all blend together well into a package that works well togeather.

I have one issue with this game, the repetitive factor is too high.

I was not expecting to have all aspects of the game based around the customer service play-screen. Upgrading your abilities and boss fights both being handled within the general play of the game makes them seem like they were just added for show and adds to the natural repetitiveness of the game.

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

Thank you for your feed back Mike. The repetitive nature of TM games is another reason I don't enjoy playing them.

Reply | Comment by Mike Medina – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#6

A P.S. to my previous post. The second time I started the game, it stuck on the opening "Game Fools" screen. I had to close the game, then right click on the desktop shortcut I had created after installation, and then left click on "run as administrator" to get it to start correctly.

Reply | Comment by F150Girl – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#5

I like TM's but this is not my cup of tea! Not being able to turn off the custom cursor makes the game floaty.
The sound effects are enough to make you have indigestion or think your washing machine has met its maker!
The idea was good but the execution of the game didn't follow through...

Reply | Comment by sukibabe – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#4

I love TM games of the Diner Dash variety, but I have played almost all of the ice cream craze games and they are pretty good if you like TM games, though the graphics seem a little outdated. Once you beat it, there is not a lot of "re-play-ability" to it, but it's fun for a whole run through :)

Reply | Comment by F150Girl – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

IMO, its a nice little game, mostly for the little ones out there.

Reply | Comment by Athan – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

Good Morning WhiterabbitUK et al.

AVG virus retesting various GGOTD files from past weeks, including today's game zip file, show no problems. It is quite apparent that the problems experienced by many last week were the fault of AVG, as even previously AVG scanned and approved files suddenly reported as being bad. The latest AVG virus definition update confirms the AVG scans from a fortnight past, that these very same files are FINE!

Hopefully, it's the end of the AVG nonsence and we can all get back to our happy lives here at GGOTD.

Cheers.

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

Thanks Mr Snoozles. It's apparent that I'm going to have to include such a report in each and every review because when these false positives are reported the number of downnloads is always dramatically reduced. I just wish the community could see that this project in it's six years of existance has never given away a bad game (w.r.t. malware'. It just takes one user to say a particulr game has a virus because they have beentoo quick to judge and not bothered to research further than their installed AV or other malware program to stop many users from not risking a download. The mere mention of a virus scares away users in their droves.

Better still maybe the giveaway owners should pubolish their findings from the tests they do. It shouldn't be hard to include a report in the information above.

Reply | Comment by Mr. Snoozles – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

Brief Review

This isn't my cup of tea so I'd be hard pressed to recommend it personally, but not being judgemental, if you like TM games this is slightly better than some I've beta tested or reviewd in the past. I think the graphics could do with an overhaul, but that aside it's not a bad game and well worth trying if you are a Time Management aficionado..

Overall, based on game play, graphics, music and re-playability I've scored this a 7 out of 10, though if I ignored my own personal tastes I'd give this a 9 out of 10 ignoring all but the game play elements of my scoring (see below for details).

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game PLEASE, PLEASE, 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 to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with search engines like Google. 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 more decent games to draw more users to their site. There are a lot of game sites and they all want your buisness. I really do think if we can improve on the quality and numbers of users leaving suitable feedback more developers will join the project. It's a great environment to recruit beta testers as well; giving the community the oppertunity to try out games that aren't on general release yet.

Again PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE leave some suitable feedback once you’ve played the game for an hour or so. It can be positive or negative, but please explain your reasons for the feedback you post. It doesn't need to be a dissertation, just a paragraph or two explaining what you think could improve the game and maybe what you didn't like about the game with suggestions to replace the negative area's. Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment. It will be very much appreciated by the developer, the giveaway team and me. Thank you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Installation:

The game downloads to a 42.4 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me with the terms and conditions plus a dual activation and setup module (the orange icon with the key symbol) Click on the module to install and register the game. to those new to the game giveaway project, basically this means that once the game has installed the game is activated.

The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed during the installation wizard. The C drive may be different depending upon if you have more than one hard drive installed and whether your OS is installed to the C drive or a different one like mine (which is the F drive):

C:\Games\IceCreamCrazeNaturalHero\Ice Cream Craze 3.exe

There is no shortcut installed to either the desktop or the start menu/programs list. Also there's no uninstaller. There is no significant registry files installed so to uninstall the game all you need to do is delete the games installed folder. You can create your own shortcut by following the path detailed above and opening the games folder then right clicking on the executable and select the option from the drop down menu that sends a shortcut to the desktop. you can also create one for the start menu programs list if you wish. to do this you need to find the start menu folder that's located for Vista and Win 7 within your profiles folder in the AppData folder (which is a hidden folder), or in XP in the Documents and Settings folder . To find it in Win 7 or vista is a little more complex than it used to be, but it's useful to know if you like to rearrange your programs list, especially if it's become very large. you can find it via the following path. Because it's located within a hidden folder you will need to go to the Control Panel and find folder options, then change folders to not hidden:

Start Menu > Profile Name > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Windows > Start Menu > Programs

Introduction:

Dr. Bane, a renowned super genius, has developed a line of ice cream made entirely of artificial chemicals. Determined to stop him, Anna decides to create her very own all-natural brand. Guide Anna through unique challenges, find deals on delicious ingredients, uncover hidden bonuses, and make the right decisions to boost your business. Then take on the notorious Dr. Bane himself and bring the world back to its senses. (45 MB)

Reference accessed HERE January 27th 2012

The Game:

Today's game giveaway Ice Cream Craze: Natural Hero is a typical time Management game. All the elements are included; an introductory tutorial (you can see screen captures of all of the tutorial HERE). The theme of the game as you'd guess from the title is serving ice cream but the main aim of the game is to capture 100% of the market share. The tutorial will teach you how to achieve this via the basic game play.; however, the tutorial doesn't show you all the elements of the game, that include bonus upgrades, sales of specific fruit and upgrading the various skills that you'll require to attain many of the targets given to you throughout the game. For example you can upgrade any one of several skills that include singing (increases the number of stars that indicates how happy a customers is. When a customers stars reduce to zero they leave with a consequent loss of energy from your energy bar). Other skills include shuffling, engineering, speed , charm and quick serve. Some are obvious from their titles, others will become evident as the game progresses. All confer an element of speed to increase your output and thus enable you to gain more of the market share.

Each successive level gets progressively harder, with more customers demanding more variety from your produce. Not only have you to contend with serving your customers to earn money you have to purchase various fruits from farms scattered around a map that's presented at the beginning of each level, plus you have to carry out various tasks to increase all of the skills you have. For example, to upgrade your charm (when selected), you have to collect a specific number of stars from your customers. The faster you serve, the more stars you earn. This can be enhanced by having higher skills such as singing which gives your customers more stars to begin with, which means they will wait longer before leaving. If a customer leaves you will lose some energy, which will impact on your ability to complete the upgrade.

Each level starts with a status report that tells you the price of today's available fruit, this can change from day to day (each day is equivalent to a level), so if you see that a particular fruit is much lower than usual it pays to purchase that fruit (if you can afford to), you can only purchase three types of fruit each day (though initially you won't be able to afford more than one fruit at a time), however you also need to take account of the freshness of your fruit. Each successive day after purchase your fruit will lose some of it's freshness, which is indicated by four lights, that when lit up orange show how fresh it is. When your fruit is fully fresh you will get a greater percentage of the market at the end of that turn as well as a bonus amount of money, so it can pay to keep your fruit as fresh as possible. Bear in mind (as mentioned above) that you can only purchase three fruits each day. To increase their freshness back to maximum. The status report also includes your current goals for that day. Attaining these will also give you more money and increase your market share. The whole game (as with most TM games) is a fine balancing act, trying to achieve your goals as well as improving the various skills you have. You goal for one particular day may be attaining a particular percentage of the market share as well as upgrading a particular ability/skill. You have to complete these goals to challenge your arch rival the evil Dr Bane. ;-) Sometimes special offers will appear that may conflict with the days goals, for example, the days goals may include upgrading your singing ability (which as mentioned elsewhere increases the number of stars or the length of time those stars remain before disappearing, whereas the special offer may be a 30% reduction in the price of shuffling lessons. You have to make a decision as to which is going to be the most beneficial to you. This may be difficult at the beginning of the game as you won't be certain as to what each skill confers, but once you've progressed further into the game you should be able to make a more informed decision. I've only played a few days into the game so can't give a full review of the game, but then I personally think knowing before you've started playing takes away some of the games attraction.

You can purchase fruits when they are available from various outlets/farm via the road map that's presented at the beginning of each level. Just click on the farms forecourt to open up the menu which usually includes three selections, buying fruit for a specified price, working to earn more money ( which takes you to the main part of the game) and upgrading one of your abilities which usually costs you $100 to increase from level 1 to level 2. (I presume upgrading to a higher level will cost more). Choosing to upgrade a skill will involve a challenge, for example the one above that I mentioned where you have to earn stars to increase your charm ability. If you fail any challenge you still have to pay the cost of the challenge, but you come away with naught. Sometimes a window pops up with a special offer; this may be the offer of upgrading another ability for example your singing ability or give you 30% off another skill such as shuffling. Sometimes it's worth going for these extra challenges as they can increase your chance at attaining another skill, whereas sometimes it may be impossible to attain because the skills you already have aren't enough to enable you to win the challenge. I failed my first attempt because my customers only started with four stars. I needed to have increased my singing ability first, which increases (as mentioned above) the number (or length of time a star will remain) of stars each customer has at the beginning, making it easier to attain the goal you have selected.

Each farm advertises the fruit they are selling via a large sign with an image of the fruit below the sale sign. When you click on the forecourt to open the farms menu you will be given up to three choices mentioned above. For example purchase the fruit they are selling for a particular price, earn cash or purchase an upgrade.

Purchasing fresh fruit is an important aspect of the game; the fresher your fruit, the more bonus's and a greater share of the market will be awarded at the end of each level. Remember though that each successive day reduces your fruits freshness till it needs replacing after the fourth day. The older your fruit, the smaller the percentage of the market share you'll be awarded at the end of that level. Market share is cumulative throughout the game, so if you were awarded 3% on four successive days your total at the end of those four days would be 12%, then attaining only 1% on the firth day would mean your market share was 13%, etc.

There are more aspects to this game, but I need to post this now otherwise it will be pointless. All will become evident as you play the game. I've included the main points so you should have a good idea as to what's required. I've posted a few videos of game play which should help to clarify game play. I've not included images I took later after posting the tutorial screen captures, but I don't think those are important at this stage. I may add them to the slide-show link that I've posted below later today.

The options menu is very basic with only three toggles, one for music, one for sound effects and one to toggle between full screen and windowed mode, by default the game starts in full screen. The game is fully mouse controlled, with only keyboard input required to create a profile of which you can create multiple profiles, making this an ideal family game, plus when you want to escape from the game by clicking on Esc, which brings up the main menu. You can also access the main menu from parts of the game as well.

Slideshow & Video's of Game Play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjDOFLksQlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijILhS7ZaPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgdgWveK2Sk

You can see a slideshow of around 70 images including all of the tutorial screens HERE

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: 1.0 GHz
Memory: 512 MB
DirectX: 9.0

Conclusion:

Although I don't particularily like playing Time Management (TM) games, I though this one was okay. I'm sure if you like TM games you'll love this one as it includes all the attributes associated with this type of game. I would like to see mini games included as this would break up the stress of the game (I find them too stressful to enjoy them fully) and also some improvements made on the graphics.

It's an ideal family game because you can set up multiple profiles and the cartoon like graphics lend themselves to the younger members of the family, tohugh I think for those younger than around 10 adult supervision may be needed.

It's a worthwhile download, that in my opinion (from an unbiased viewpoint) is worth a good 7 out of 10

Scoring

Graphics … 6.5

Sound … 6.5

Game play … 9

Re-playability … 6

Total … 28 out of 40 that’s a score of 7 out of 10 which equates to a game worth downloading and playing. :lol:

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Problems installing, activating and running today’s game:

If you have difficulty downloading or activating the game you can try again later or do one of the following - for example once downloaded when you click on the dual activation and set up file you may get the message “Failed to connect. Please try again later” Check to see if your internet explorer isn't offline (thanks to MrSnoozles/Mike and GMMan for that fix). If the previous suggestion doesn't work go check out previous comments from the last several weeks and look for comments from GMMan and Mike. They have also posted their possible fixes for this problem.

Mike suggests that you check to see if Internet Explorer is offline (even if you use firefox). If it is make sure that it's online thn try again. I’ve always tried re-booting my modem and/or router with some success, though Mike has said that doing that does nothing. Still, it’s worth a try if all else fails.

If you are getting the black screen problem right click on the games executable and select properties then click on the compatibility mode and select the disable visual themes. This should fix the problem, if not try disabling the display scaling on higher dpi settings and disabling the desktop composition.

Other fixes include changing your screen resolution, installing the latest direct X (remember that XP uses DX 9 or earlier only, Vista uses DX 10 or before and Win 7 DX11 or before). Also try updating your graphics drivers. The main two chip manufacturers are NVIDIA and ATI (now AMD) both of which offer driver downloads for free. Just go to the respective manufactures home page and you'll find a link to the driver download page. To find out which graphic card or graphics chip your computer uses type in Dxdiag in the search field (Vista or Win 7) or the run command (XP); this opens up the DirectX diagnostics panel. click on the display tab and look to the left panel. You should easily see what graphics card or chip you are using. (This is required information when selecting the correct download from the developers site).

If you are asked to turn off your Data Execution Prevention for this game to run. You can create an exception so that the game will run without having to turn DEP off. Please bear in mind it's rare that anyone even mentioned getting a DEP warning. If you are not sure how to create an exception read THIS article, which tells you how to do it.

If you are having problems unzipping the game giveaways zip file, for example getting a message saying the file is invalid try using a different file archiver such as 7-Zip, J-Zip, CAM UnZip, Hamster Free Zip Archiver, GZip, B Zip2, peazip, ZipUnzip, FreeRAR Extract Frog, RAR File Open Knife, ALZip, The Extractor, RarZilla Free Unrar

Okay, that should be enough. there are actually many more free versions available. also there are other commercial titles such as the well-known WinRAR, Stuffit, WinAce, NXPowerlite and Corel Winzip Pro, but IMO 7-Zip is probably one of the better freebies. I did purchase a copy of Stuffit when it was on sale a few years ago and recently repurchased a more up to date version when it was o offer via BitsDuJour, but didn't like the interface for some reason, so hardly ever use it.

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game Game Discussion . 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. It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

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If you are looking for something else other than a puzzle game check out the game discussion forums and the free games synopsis. We’ve posted a couple of thousand free games over the last three years, some of which are fantastic. All of the major game distributors such as Steam, Direct 2 Drive (soon to combine with another site), Impulse and GOG all have some sales with savings as good as 75% in some cases. You can check out all of the main distributors deals via the Didematic Site

Brief Review

This isn't my cup of tea so I'd be hard pressed to   recommend it personally, but    not being judgemental, if you like TM games this is  slightly better than some I've beta tested or reviewd  in the past.  I think the graphics could do with an overhaul, but that aside it's not a bad game and well worth trying if you are a Time Management aficionado..

Overall, based on game play, graphics, music and re-playability I've scored this a 7 out of 10, though if I ignored my own personal tastes I'd give this a 9 out of 10 ignoring all but the game play elements of my scoring (see below for details).

<blockquote>Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game PLEASE, PLEASE, 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 to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with search engines like Google. 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 more decent games to draw more users to their site. There are a lot of game sites and they all want your buisness. I really do think if we can improve on the quality and numbers of users leaving suitable feedback more developers will join the project. It's a great environment to recruit beta testers as well; giving the community the oppertunity to try out games that aren't on general release yet. 
 
Again PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE leave some suitable feedback once you’ve played the game for an hour or so. It can be positive or negative, but please explain your reasons for the feedback you post. It doesn't need to be a dissertation, just a paragraph or two explaining what you think could improve the game and maybe what you didn't like about the game with suggestions to replace the negative area's. Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment. It will be very much appreciated by the developer, the giveaway team and me. Thank you.</blockquote>

Installation:

The game downloads to a 42.4 MB  zip file that unpacks to a read me with the terms and conditions  plus a dual activation and setup module (the orange icon with the key symbol)  Click on the module to install and register the game.  to those new to the game giveaway project, basically this means that once the game has installed  the game is activated.

The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed during the installation wizard. The C drive may be different depending upon if you have more than one hard drive installed and whether your OS is installed to the C drive or a different one like mine (which is the F drive):

C:\Games\IceCreamCrazeNaturalHero\Ice Cream Craze 3.exe

There is no shortcut installed to either the desktop or the  start menu/programs list.  Also there's no uninstaller.   There is no significant  registry files installed so to uninstall the game all you need to do is  delete the  games installed folder. You can create your own shortcut by  following the path detailed above and opening the    games folder then  right clicking on the executable  and select the option from the drop down menu that sends a shortcut to the  desktop.  you can also  create one for the start menu programs list if you wish.  to do this you need to find the start menu  folder that's located for Vista and Win 7 within your  profiles folder in the AppData folder (which is a hidden folder), or in XP  in  the Documents and Settings folder .  To find it in Win 7 or vista is a little more complex than it used to be, but it's useful to know if you like to rearrange your   programs list, especially if it's become very large.  you can find it  via the following path.  Because it's located within a hidden folder you  will need to  go to the Control Panel and find folder options, then change  folders   to  not hidden:

Start Menu > Profile Name > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Windows > Start Menu > Programs

Introduction:

Dr. Bane, a renowned super genius, has developed a line of ice cream made entirely of artificial chemicals. Determined to stop him, Anna decides to create her very own all-natural brand. Guide Anna through unique challenges, find deals on delicious ingredients, uncover hidden bonuses, and make the right decisions to boost your business. Then take on the notorious Dr. Bane himself and bring the world back to its senses. (45 MB)

Reference accessed <a href="http://www.gamefools.com/downloads/IceCreamCrazeNaturalHero/3230.html?" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> January 27th 2012

The Game:

Today's game giveaway Ice Cream Craze: Natural Hero is a typical time Management game. All the elements are included; an introductory tutorial (you can see screen captures of all of the tutorial <a href="http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Ice%20Cream%20Craze%20Natural%20Hero/?albumview=slideshow" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>). The theme of the game as you'd guess from the title is serving ice cream but the main aim of the game is to capture 100% of the market share. The tutorial will teach you how to achieve this via the basic game play.; however, the tutorial doesn't show you all the elements of the game, that include bonus upgrades, sales of specific fruit and upgrading the various skills that you'll require to attain many of the targets given to you throughout the game. For example you can upgrade any one of several skills that include singing (increases the number of stars that indicates how happy a customers is. When a customers stars reduce to zero they leave with a consequent loss of energy from your energy bar). Other skills include shuffling, engineering, speed , charm and quick serve. Some are obvious from their titles, others will become evident as the game progresses. All confer an element of speed to increase your output and thus enable you to gain more of the market share.

Each successive level gets progressively harder, with more  customers demanding    more variety from your produce.  Not only have you to contend with   serving your customers to earn money you have to purchase  various fruits from  farms  scattered  around  a map that's presented at the beginning of each level, plus you have to  carry out  various tasks to increase  all of the skills you have.   For example, to upgrade  your charm   (when selected), you have to  collect  a specific number of stars  from your customers.  The faster you serve, the more stars you earn.  This can be enhanced by having higher skills  such as singing which  gives  your customers  more stars to begin with, which means they will wait  longer before leaving.  If a customer leaves you will lose  some energy, which will impact on your ability to  complete the  upgrade.

Each level starts with a status report that tells you  the price of today's available  fruit, this can change from day to day (each day is equivalent to a level),  so if you  see that a particular fruit is much lower than  usual  it pays to purchase that fruit (if you can afford to), you can only purchase  three types of fruit each day (though initially you won't be able to afford more than one fruit at a time), however you also need to  take account of the freshness of your fruit.  Each successive day after purchase your  fruit will lose some of it's freshness, which is indicated by  four lights, that when lit up orange show how fresh it is.  When your fruit is fully fresh   you will get  a greater percentage of the market  at the end of that turn as well as a bonus amount of money, so it  can pay to keep your fruit as fresh as possible.  Bear in mind (as mentioned above) that you can only purchase  three fruits each day. To increase their freshness back to maximum.   The status report also includes your current goals for that day.  Attaining these will also give you  more money and increase your market share.  The whole game  (as with most TM games) is a fine balancing act, trying to achieve your goals as well as improving the various skills you have.  You goal for one particular day may be attaining a particular percentage of the market share as well as  upgrading a particular ability/skill.  You have to complete these  goals  to challenge  your arch rival  the evil Dr Bane.  ;-) Sometimes special offers will appear  that may conflict with  the days  goals, for example, the days goals may include   upgrading your singing ability (which as mentioned elsewhere increases the number of stars   or the length of time those stars remain before disappearing, whereas the special offer may  be a 30% reduction in the price of  shuffling lessons.  You have to  make a decision as to which is going to be the most beneficial to you.  This may be difficult at the beginning of the game as you won't be certain as to what each  skill confers, but once you've progressed further into the game you should be able to make a more informed  decision.  I've  only played a few days into the game  so can't  give a full review of the game, but then I personally think   knowing  before you've  started playing takes away some of the games  attraction.

You can purchase fruits when they are available from various outlets/farm via the road map that's presented at the beginning of each level.  Just click on the farms forecourt  to   open up the  menu  which usually includes  three selections,  buying fruit for a specified price,  working to earn more money ( which takes you to the main part of the game) and  upgrading one of your abilities which usually costs you  $100 to increase   from level 1 to level 2.  (I presume  upgrading to a  higher level will cost more). Choosing to upgrade a skill will involve a challenge, for example the one above that I mentioned  where you have to earn stars to increase  your charm ability.   If you fail any  challenge  you  still have to pay the  cost of the challenge, but you come away with naught.  Sometimes a window pops up with a special offer; this may be  the offer of upgrading another ability for example your singing ability or  give you 30% off    another  skill such as shuffling.  Sometimes it's worth  going for these  extra challenges as they can increase your chance at  attaining  another  skill, whereas sometimes it may be impossible to attain because   the skills you already have   aren't enough    to enable you to win the challenge.  I failed my first attempt because   my customers only started with four stars.  I needed to have increased my  singing ability first, which increases (as mentioned above)  the number (or length of time a star will remain) of stars each customer has at the beginning, making it easier to attain the goal you have selected.

Each farm advertises the fruit they are selling via a large sign with an image of the fruit below the sale sign.  When you click on the forecourt to  open the farms menu  you will be given   up to three choices mentioned above.  For example purchase    the fruit they are selling for a particular price, earn cash  or purchase an upgrade.

Purchasing fresh fruit is an important  aspect of the game; the fresher your fruit, the more bonus's  and  a greater  share of the market will be awarded at the end of each level.  Remember  though that each successive   day  reduces your  fruits freshness till it needs replacing after the fourth day.  The older your fruit, the  smaller the percentage of  the market share you'll be awarded   at the end of that level.  Market share is cumulative throughout the  game, so if you were awarded  3% on  four successive days your total at the end of those four days would be 12%, then  attaining only 1% on the firth day would mean your market share was 13%, etc.

There are more  aspects to this game, but I need to post this now otherwise it will be pointless.  All will become evident as you  play the game.  I've included  the main points so you should have a good idea as to what's required.  I've posted    a few   videos of game play  which should help to clarify   game play.  I've not included   images I took later after posting   the tutorial screen captures,  but I don't think  those are important at this stage.  I may add them to  the slide-show link that I've posted below later today.

The options menu is very basic with  only three toggles, one for music, one for  sound effects and one to toggle between full screen and  windowed mode,  by default the game starts in full screen.  The game is fully mouse controlled, with only keyboard input required  to   create a profile of which you can create multiple profiles, making this an ideal family game, plus   when you want to escape from the game  by clicking on Esc, which brings up the main menu.  You can also  access the main menu from parts of the  game as well.

Slideshow & Video's of Game Play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjDOFLksQlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijILhS7ZaPI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgdgWveK2Sk

You can see a slideshow of around 70 images including all of the tutorial screens <a href="http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Ice%20Cream%20Craze%20Natural%20Hero/?albumview=slideshow" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista 
	Processor: 1.0 GHz
	Memory: 512 MB 
	DirectX: 9.0

Conclusion:

Although I don't particularily like playing Time Management (TM) games, I though this one  was   okay.  I'm sure if you like TM games you'll love this one as it includes all the  attributes associated with this type of game.  I would like to see mini games included as this would break up the   stress of the game (I find them too stressful to enjoy them fully) and also  some improvements made on the  graphics.

It's an ideal family game because you can set  up multiple  profiles and the cartoon like graphics lend themselves to the younger members of the family, tohugh I think  for  those younger than around 10 adult supervision may be needed.

It's   a worthwhile download,  that in my opinion (from an unbiased viewpoint) is worth a good 7 out of 10

Scoring

<blockquote>Graphics … 6.5

Sound … 6.5

Game play … 9

Re-playability … 6</blockquote>

Total … 28  out of 40  that’s  a score of 7 out of 10  which equates to a game worth downloading and playing.  :lol:

Problems installing, activating and running today’s game:

<blockquote>If you have difficulty downloading or activating the game you can try again later or do one of the following - for example once downloaded when you click on the dual activation and set up file you may get the message “Failed to connect. Please try again later” Check to see if your internet explorer isn't offline (thanks to MrSnoozles/Mike and GMMan for that fix). If the previous suggestion doesn't work go check out previous comments from the last several weeks and look for comments from GMMan and Mike. They have also posted their possible fixes for this problem.

Mike suggests that you  check to see if  Internet Explorer is offline (even if you use firefox).  If it is make sure that it's online thn try again. I’ve always  tried  re-booting my modem and/or router with some success, though Mike has said that  doing    that does nothing.  Still, it’s worth a try if all else fails.

If you are getting the black screen problem right click on the  games executable and select  properties then  click on the compatibility mode and  select  the disable visual themes.  This should fix the problem, if not try  disabling the  display scaling on higher dpi settings  and disabling the desktop composition.

Other fixes include changing your screen resolution, installing the latest direct X (remember that XP uses DX 9 or earlier only, Vista uses DX 10 or before and Win 7 DX11 or before).  Also try updating your graphics drivers.  The main two chip manufacturers are NVIDIA and ATI (now AMD) both of which  offer  driver downloads for free.  Just go to the respective  manufactures  home page and you'll find a link to the  driver download page.  To find out which graphic card or graphics chip your computer uses   type in Dxdiag in the search field (Vista or Win 7) or the run command (XP); this opens up the DirectX diagnostics panel.  click on the display tab and look to the left  panel. You should easily  see what graphics card or chip you are using. (This is required information when  selecting the correct download from the developers site).

If you are asked to turn off your Data Execution Prevention for this game to run. You can create an exception so that the game will run without having to turn DEP off. Please bear in mind it's rare that anyone even mentioned getting a DEP warning. If you are not sure how to create an exception read <a href="http://www.updatexp.com/dep-exceptions.html" rel="nofollow">THIS</a> article, which tells you how to do it.

If you are having problems unzipping the game giveaways zip file, for example getting a message saying the file is invalid try using a different file archiver such as <a href="http://7-zip.org/" rel="nofollow">7-Zip</a>, <a href="http://www.jzip.com/" rel="nofollow">J-Zip</a>, <a href="http://www.camunzip.com/" rel="nofollow">CAM UnZip</a>, <a href="http://ziparchiver.hamstersoft.com/en/home" rel="nofollow">Hamster Free Zip Archiver</a>, <a href="http://www.gzip.org/" rel="nofollow">GZip</a>, <a href="http://bzip.org/" rel="nofollow">B Zip2</a>, <a href="http://www.peazip.org/" rel="nofollow">peazip</a>, <a href="http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html" rel="nofollow">ZipUnzip</a>, <a href="http://free-rar-extract-frog.pwpw.de/" rel="nofollow">FreeRAR Extract Frog</a>, <a href="http://www.rar-file-open-knife.com/rar_file_open_knife.php" rel="nofollow">RAR File Open Knife</a>, <a href="http://www.altools.com/ALTools/ALZip.aspx" rel="nofollow">ALZip</a>, <a href="http://theextractor.org/" rel="nofollow">The Extractor</a>, <a href="http://www.philipp-winterberg.com/software/rarzilla_free_unrar.php" rel="nofollow">RarZilla Free Unrar</a>

Okay, that should be enough. there are actually many more free versions available. also there are other commercial titles such as the well-known WinRAR, Stuffit, WinAce, NXPowerlite and Corel Winzip Pro, but IMO 7-Zip is probably one of the better freebies. I did purchase a copy of Stuffit when it was on sale a few years ago and recently repurchased a more up to date version when it was o offer via BitsDuJour, but didn't like the interface for some reason, so hardly ever use it.</blockquote>

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">Game Discussion</a> . 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. It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

If you are looking for something else other than a puzzle game check out the game discussion forums and the free games synopsis. We’ve posted a couple of thousand free games over the last three years, some of which are fantastic. All of the major game distributors such as Steam, Direct 2 Drive (soon to combine with another site), Impulse and GOG all have some sales with savings as good as 75% in some cases. You can check out all of the main distributors deals via the <a href="http://didimatic.com/dd/en/about" rel="nofollow">Didematic Site</a>

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