I also love Alawar games and I like this one too. That is why I got this far. Island 38 has a bug that when you get busy enough to build a wall it locks up. I had to upgrade the catapults to the highest to demolish the bunker while still being attacked on both sides. A bit harder to accomplish.

If I hadn't spent the last month sucked into games like Royal Envoy and Roads of Rome, I wouldn't have had a clue what to do. It really needs a tutorial.

There seems to be a glitch: when you get to island 12 (or maybe it's 13) you have two bridges and wagons to load. You have to go to the lower one first, where you're supposed to buy the blueprints for the enhanced catapult. However you arrive there with no stones and no gold so you cannot build the road to get to the store, and you only have one piece of gold which isn't enough to buy the blueprint anyway.

And you cannot go over the second bridge until you do buy the blueprint. So you're totally stuck.

I searched and found several websites and people on all of them were griping about this same glitch. One person claimed to have gotten past the glitch by created a NEW PROFILE and playing under that one, and then when s/he crossed the first bridge she had gold and stones in the warehouse and was able to build the road/buy the plans and then continue on with the game.

So if you're stuck there -- as I am -- I guess all you can try is to start over completely. :(


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Thank you for your feedback susan

Installed the game twice now, always get a blank page instead of the "game activated" and cannot find the game anywhere on my computer.



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Don't know what could be wrong? Have you looked in C:/Games/Island Realms?

A copy of many TM games out there like this, just with a different storyline, but I like them, cons and all! (and one I don't have yet, so definitely worth a download.)

I must go off topic to stephen (sorry all!)... stephen, we're going through the same thing! But we're trying to sell and we MUST move in a time crunch, but oh what a bunch of hard work! 25 years worth of accumulation here is not easy to sift through and get the house ready to "show"... I wish you much luck on your venture with a happy ending! Hugs. :)


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Hi Midori, nice to see you. 20 years of accumulation here, with me a compulsive collector of stuff. I'm having to be really strict with myself and throw most of it away. I hope your house sale goes through soon and successfully. :)

it is always freeware on myplaycity.com AND its legal!
thumb down for it.


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Technically its not free. These 'FREE' game sites work on the principle of paying the developer to give the games away, drawing in the user to their sites. They get paid for every visit by a user. The games on these sites are still being sold by reputable distributers such as Alawar and Playrix. Its why you are always directed to their home page when you close the game down and they try to change your browser provider and home page as well as install toolbars.

By the way, I'd already linked to the free version from MyPlaycity in my review at comment number 1.

1. I do not understand and got stucked on the third island: Where do I get stones for the stone quarry and all that other stuff ? The men produced tons of food and money.

2. The "Produce a Catapult" button shows Russian words.

3. The "Help" button is difficult to find.

A little instruction would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Seems like a good game! Thanks Alawar and gotd! Anybody have any luck with getting free games from alawar with their defective gamebox downloader!

Quite a simple time management game. Yes the lack of a tutorial on the first level is a pity, but there is not a lot to do in this game so it is easy to pick up.

It installs be default to C:\Games, and doesn't create a shortcut, you have to do that manually. It's pretty light on the tutorial, in fact, it doesn't really have one, and figuring out the gameplay is difficult.

It's not showing up in the uninstall list so I'm assuming this is just a delete the folder situation. I can't find any walkthroughs in the usual places. I may check out Big Fish forums and or the couple of Youtube videos I found, but if I can't find info on gameplay this one just didn't generate enough interest for me to try and figure it out on my own. Any info on gameplay or uninstallation would be appreciated.





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Thanks for your feedback.

You can easily make your own desktop icon for any of these games, and don't need to worry about that whole MyPlayCity malware business.

After you find the game's .exe file with Windows Explorer, just RIGHT-click on the file (the game.exe file) and select "Send to..." from the popup menu.

On the next little popup menu, select "Desktop (create shortcut)"

This will make a normal desktop icon for the game and all you have to do to start the game is click it normally from then on.

It'll be named whatever the game.exe file is named, so if you want to rename it to something more memorable or easier to read, just click the text under the icon and it'll turn blue (selected). Then click it again and it'll become editable. Just type over it whatever you'd like the icon to be named and when you're done click anywhere on the desktop to save the new name.




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Thanks for your feedback.

I totally agree with you. There should be more instruction, better storyline, and more than just the one mode. I am disappointed in Alawar. They usually do so much better than this. But all in all the game is challenging, especially trying to figure things out.
Thank you GameGiveAway and Alawar.




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Thanks for your feedback.

Nice to see a bunch of thumgs ups. Usually anything near 70% is decent offering and this is 78% from start. Thanks for review WR that too is a real help. Hoping the addition of an enemy isn't harmful to game. I remember some strategy games with that element got darn ugy at points for just a casual play. But with a few paths to a win that should be ok challenge. Settlers bugged me that way. Have great long weekend guys.




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Thanks for your feedback. :)

Yay! Alawar brightens our weekend yet again with another original, fun, quality game - this time, an interesting and challenging strategy game with high replayability. What a rare treat. I wish there were more casual games in this genre. Thanks a million Stephen, GGOTD and Alawar. :)




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Thanks for your feedback.

The funny road builders really saved my afternoon!

Hopefully, they will get faster during the game, when regarding all the roads they still have to master. This takes too much time to build a single lane.

Game runs fine and fast on Win 7 64-bit.

What is missing in the beginning, is an introductory tutorial. One can find the explanation in the help point, but this could be made smoother.

Otherwise, I will enjoy this game. Many thanks.



……………………..Moderator Comment…………………..


Thanks for your feedback.

@Stephen: Today's game sound exactly the kind of thing my wife enjoys; she'll download and try it soon, then she or I will report back.

Sorry to be off-topic for a moment, but I hope your move goes smoothly and that it's not an enforced move due to health or anything like that? Good luck with it all anyway: any removal is always a stressful thing to deal with!

Re your comment on hacking before the new wrapper: I confess to sometimes doing the 'hacking' part, but simply to have a backup for my personal use on (or occasionally on the replacement for) the same computer after a system crash or rebuild. I wouldn't dream of breaking the (unwritten?) agreement here that the item is available for 24 hours only, and only to visitors here during said 24 hours. And no, I didn't give copies to anyone else either. So just to say, not all of us who 'cracked' earlier giveaways did so to re-distribute them!



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Thanks Cad; the move is progressing well. We are moving for health reasons. My legs suddenly give way randomly. No explanation from the medics. So decided to move to a bungalow so that i don't have to worry about stirs (though we are having an upstairs room built into the roof with a balcony. (Wanted it for my telescope)

I guess I won't be installing this game from here. On my way out the door til too late to get it. Tried twice and instead of the activated window, the Game GAOTD message said "Sorry, no posts matched your criteria." ??? Never seen that happen before.


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Try rebooting your modem.

@Rick Carlson: The path is in the readme - can you not read? The way of installation is OK because not everybody wants shortcuts for games on the desktop! It´s a simple work to make it when you need...

Excellent advice :) One terribly inconvenient bug I found after playing for a bit is that after unchecking full screen it (obviously) goes into windowed mode. The problem is that if you happen to hit the maximize button to get what would hopefully be a full screen window, it gives the same size game with black surrounding and there's no way to do anything but force restart. Task manager won't show, you can't alt tab away and even hitting the windows key won't provide a way to manipulate the screen/game. Entertaining game aside from that.


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Thanks for your feedback Rick.

Not going so well so far. It didn't create a shortcut on the desktop nor offer to and nothing in the start menu. I had to actually use the explorer to find the folder and .exe inside. Game runs nice itself.


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

Hi Rick, I usually post details of where the game will install to, but this weekend is particularly full for me, so have neglected to do that, when installing game giveaways, always check the installation path so that you can follow through and find the game. Some of the games, usually Playrix games, do install shortcuts and an uninstaller,; but, for some reason (unknown to me) the nature of the Gamegiveaway wrapper stops a shortcut from being installed to both the desktop and the Start Menu programs list. You'll also find most game giveaways have no uninstaller and you won't find them in your programs remove list. The advantage to this is that most games are free standing, so impact the registry little as well as other positives. To uninstall most giveaways you just delete them from your computer manually. I know this is a little inconvenient, but at least you are getting the game for free. :)

If you want these shortcuts installed automatically together with an uninstaller in the Start Menu Programs list, you can get the game from MyPlayCity for free 24/7, but you do run the risk of getting toolbars and your home page changed, whereas Game giveaways are totally free of such things. also since the game giveaway project started back in December 2006 there has never been a game infected with malware. If your Anti malware program picks up any problems it's almost certainly a false positive caused because of the security measures that the giveaway team added to the set up file (due to a small number of giveaway community members hacking the files and then putting the games on peer to peer sites)



http://www.myplaycity.com/island_realms/

I'm extremely busy today as we only have two weeks left before we move and there's masses to do (emptying our old house, decorating and repairing loads of things in readiness for renting the place out). I've already got a tenant lined up; plus the house needs refurnishing, so I've posted Gamezebo's review below with images I've captured from the game, plus a few found on the net (the last three images).

My usual stuff such as intro and installation information as well as video's are missing. If I do get chance later I'll add them.

I'll moderate as often as I can, but it's more likely to be much later this afternoon or evening. Hopefully, once I've moved (between Sept 16th to 20th) I'll be able to return to my old reviews and moderate more frequently. sorry for the inconvenience.

Please do leave feedback about the game, whether it's positive or negative, it's always welcome. Please do remember that this is a family site so no swearing. Thank you. ;-)

Have a great weekend folks.







Island Realms



As the name of the game indicates, the player visits a large number of small islands throughout the game. Your basic goal is to reach the next island, but doing so requires a lot of work and strategic thinking, which is without a doubt more challenging and hectic than what some casual gamers are used to. To reach another island, you have to load a wagon at the end of the current island with various goods, such as food, stone, coins or wood.

Though this may sound simple at first, it is clearly not, and just like in the Farm Frenzy series you will have to restart numerous levels more than just once to figure out the appropriate strategy to leave the island in expert time. This can certainly be frustrating, but most of the times it fortunately is not, because there are various ways to beat any level, so that a fresh start really feels like a totally new level.

The goods you are going to need on your journey are produced at the mill, the stone quarry, the sawmill, or the forge, and depending on how far those buildings have been upgraded, you need the according number of men to produce food, stone, or wood. To be able to upgrade any building, you first have to purchase those upgrade permits at the store, one of the rare buildings that are there from the beginning on, and which are not in your possession.

Furthermore, the delivery of the goods is a strategic element of the game that should not be underestimated. Most of the roads between the different buildings have to be constructed right in the beginning, and to fulfill production and delivery tasks you have to train more men to become more effective. The control of your men and the assignment of tasks works absolutely brilliantly, which is definitely worth a nod towards the developer, because the A.I. is nearly flawless.

The exchange of different goods at the store is one of the core features of Island Realms. Here you can spend all your goods for coins, the latter ones being the last requirement to leave any island. Later on there are also piers on your island, where different ships will stop at on a regular basis, offering what can be called special discounts. Here the player is able to exchange goods that are not available anywhere else on the island, or you will get just a very good deal out of it, so these ships are always worth to check out.

Another very unique aspect of Island Realms is the addition of an enemy. Fortunately the game still is not overly violent, but the theme of conflict might still rub some gamers the wrong way. On most of the islands you will find a bunker accommodating your enemy's soldiers, who will make the life as difficult as possible for the player. Some of those soldiers will destroy your roads, others will steal your goods whenever they can, and those are only a few of the bad surprises they come up with. But there is no need to be too afraid, because Island Realms offers a lot of tools for the player to handle the enemy and to prevent any further disturbance.

The graphics are actually great, with fantastic animations and comparatively detailed people. The interaction between your own men and the enemy is hilarious to watch, maybe except for those moments at which every second counts, and where it is absolutely frustrating to see your men, currently delivering the urgently needed goods, being sandbagged by the patrolling men of the enemy. The landscape and the buildings look beautiful, too, but are mainly functional, and it's to the game's advantage, that the scenery is not overly crowded, so that the player can fully concentrate on the action itself.

If there is one sharp point of criticism with Island Realms, it's the blatant lack of a tutorial. The already rare instruction boxes are not very detailed, a lot of features are not explained at all, and a few more elaborate tips would surely have been a welcome and helpful addition to the game. It definitely is possible to figure out everything on your own, but this takes time and patience, as well as the willingness to restart a level because you were not aware of an important detail right from the start. The game is definitely worth it, but not everyone might have the time to learn the rules of the game in a "Do-it-yourself"-manner.

Island Realms is definitely on the challenging side, with comparatively long and complex levels right from the beginning. Interestingly enough, the game is another example of the successful approach of the casual and the hardcore gaming market. The trial version should suffice to assure whether the game is to your taste or not, but especially those of you who already liked the old classic The Settlers will absolutely adore Island Realms.

Reference accessed HERE 31st August 2013

Conclusion:

Pros

Highly complex and challenging gameplay. Stellar production values. Decent length. Innovative and unique. Awards to win. High replayability. Nearly flawless controls.

Cons

Not enough instruction. Poor storyline. Only one mode. The enemy feature might not be everyone's cup of tea.



If you miss todays game, or wish to have shortcuts installed automatically, you can get Island Realms free 24/7 from MyPlayCity HERE. Do watch out for home page hijacks and toolbar installations when installing from MPC.

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Other Games

If todays game doesn't appeal to you there are loads of places where you'll find bargains such as Gamersgate, Desura, Steam, Gamefly and Greenman gaming. Plus there are some excellent bundles available at the moment. Check the game discussion forums HERE for details of all of the bundles available at this time. You'll only pay around $5 for several games, all of which are excellent, for example The Groupees Capsule Computers bundle includes Cognition Episode 1: The Hangman, Super Sanctum TD, Three Dead Zed, Transcripted, Lost Marbles, Pressure, SpaceChem, Swords & Soldiers HD or the latest Indie Royale bundle that includes Block Story, ASA: A Space Adventure, "Beware Planet Earth!", Diadra Empty, Bollywood Wannabe and Undead Legions. The Indie Royale Bundle is a debut bundle and comes with G a DRM free download, a Desura key plus the games are on steams Greenlight project, so, if greenlit, you will get a Steam key as well. The Groupees bundle comes with a mixture of Steam and Desura keys. Also, the Humble bundles latest weekly bundle includes a great line up of games; for only $1 you'll get Europa Universalis III Complete, War of the Roses: Kingmaker, Warlock: Master of the Arcane, Leviathan: Warships, Dungeonland, The Showdown Effect, and soundtracks for all these games! Plus, if you pay over the average (about $5) you'll also get Crusader Kings II and Magicka plus their soundtracks. AND for the price of around 2 premium AAA games ($125) you can get 80 great games via the humble weekly sale (won't list them here, but there's hundreds of dollars worth and most are {IMO} excellent games).

The Indie Gala Theatre of War bundle includes for $1 Theatre Of War, if you pay $2.69 or more you also get Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943, Theatre of War 2 - Battle for Caen DLC, Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943, Theatre of War 2: Centauro DLC, and if you pay $4.55 or more you also get Theatre of War 3: Korea - all come with Steam keys.

The latest IndieGameStand (IGS) deal is 'Pandora Purge of Pride' a first person puzzle game in which you play as Pandora, a Victorian woman who must recapture the Seven Deadly Sins after they have been unleashed on her mansion. The game comes with a DRM free download link, a Desura key and is on Steams Greenlight project, so you may get a Steam key later. This deal ends tomorrow morning 4am GMT (about 18 hours from now) :)




You'll find IGS HERE

Finally, check out the didimatic site for loads of deals on some of the sites I've mentioned HERE.

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A Request for help:

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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