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

I'll be back to normal in a few weeks. I've got a lot of catching up to do at home, plus still one more funeral to attend. Lost two family members over the last 2 weeks. I'll try and post something for today's game later.

Check out the last section of today's review for links to a free game that's available temporarily on steam called Guns of Icarus: Alliance. Also this weekend there are other deals and for this weekend only, several games to play all weekend for free. You'll find links to these near the end of this review.

Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear

Introduction:

Rupert and Emma plunge into the land of ancient intrigue, Egypt. Seek out treasures and jewels, hidden within stunning gardens and relic-laden palaces. Swap jewels to turn tiles gold in classic Jewel Quest boards, and decipher puzzles of logic and wit. Experience Jewel Quest Mystery: Curse of the Emerald Tear, a Hidden Object game shrouded in the lore of Jewel Quest and the mystique of ancient Egypt!

Reference accessed HERE 26th May 2018

Installation:

Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear downloads to a 104 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 118 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Jewel Quest Mysteries - Curse of the Emerald Tear

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

The Game:

Hidden object games meet Match-three puzzles in Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear, a new hybrid from iWin that fuses a seek-and-find adventure related to Egyptian lore with classic Jewel Quest gem-swapping.

While not the first to combine the two genres, it works in Jewel Quest Mysteries – but it’s far from a perfect experience.

Without revealing much of the story, Rupert and Emma are plunged into a mystery surrounding ancient Egypt and must visit the area, solve puzzles and unlock more of an intriguing tale told via journal entries and sketches.

The main type of gameplay is hidden object-based, a Where’s Waldo-like exercise in finding well-hidden objects in a busy indoor or outdoor scene. Along the left-hand-side of the screen are a few items you need to find – a sword, pretzel, golf clubs, and saucer, for example – within a specific amount of time. After you find and click the item it gets crossed off your list; when you find them all you move onto the map screen to select another location. If you click on an incorrect items three times you lose 30 seconds off the clock.

As with many other hidden object games, the items have nothing to do with the scene, and can be downright silly if you think about it, such as a dartboard hanging on the wall of an ancient tomb or a frozen popsicle in the middle of the desert. It doesn’t bother some gamers, but it sure annoys others. And yes, the obligatory hot dog is in this game, too.

You can also collect coins on each level, which can go towards the number of Hints you can click when stuck, as well as colored gems, used as a kind of currency when selecting an upgrade after every few levels. The upgrade screen lets you purchase something to help you along your adventures, such as more time added to the clock, additional hints or the ability to highlight a hidden object when the mouse is near it (called “jewel sense”).

Jewel Quest-like puzzles and other minigames are also found here. You must swap adjacent gems on a board so that at least three have formed a vertical or horizontal row. Doing so destroys the line and new gems cascade down the board. To complete the level you must turn every square on this board to gold, which adds a new layer of strategy to your game. As with the Jewel Quest puzzle games, this is based upon, the Match-three diversion was a fun break from the main game.

Another kind of puzzle was less intuitive and thus less enjoyable; it involves selecting the correct gems in the proper order and dragging a design it makes onto a board. You’re supposed to replicate a pattern or make the entire board gold — we’re not quite sure (the instructions are quite vague). Anecdotally, we asked two other people to play this minigame and both couldn’t figure out the concept either.

Another beef with this game is some technical problems we had on one (fairly new) computer. It took a long time to load, ran slowly and crashed on occasion. The second computer we tried it on was just fine.

One other issue: when you revisit the same location, and you will early on in the game, the items are in the exact same place. Although you’re asked to find new items, you’ve likely combed the screen multiple times before, therefore you’ll find the new set of items much faster than the first visit. Some games change the location of all the items to keep you guessing.

Jewel Quest Mysteries isn’t a bad game – in fact, the many levels and attractive music and graphics make it a relaxing casual game – but with a number of flaws it doesn’t rank as high as more polished hidden object puzzlers.

Reference accessed HERE 26th May 2018

Conclusion:

Jewel Quest Mysteries is a reasonably decent hidden object game. You can purchase upgrades and mini-games are playable every few levels. There's a good story line with decent music and graphics. Apparently there's a hidden sweepstakes (via iWin), but as this game isn't new, i don't know whether it's valid any longer. i've only played the initaial game to get a feel for it, so haven't uncovered the sweepstake yet.

There are some technical issues. One minigame type is obscure and confusing. Items are in the same place each time and for an arcade game the download is relatively large.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it directly from the Big Fish Games HERE

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the current review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals'. You can find the new thread in the game discussion forums HERE.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Also, check out Delenns thread over in the game discussion forums for details of other free games and offers HERE. Presently you can get Guns of Icarus: Alliance for free via Steam HERE. Also, there are some excellent deals over on Steam, plus some other games that are free to play this weekend only.

There's up to 66% off the Assassins Creed Franchise HERE and 50% off Black Desert Online HERE. There's also a Spring cleaning event HERE with the opportunity to play several great games for free ALL WEEKEND i.e. Dead by Daylight (co-op zombie survival game), Cities: Skyline (city building strategy game), Don't Starve Together: A New Reign (an atmospheric rogue- like open world sandbox horror survival game), Dirt 4 (fantastic rally racing with gorgeous scenery), Left 4 Dead 2 (co-op - FPS - zombies), Tyranny (story rich atmospheric isometric cRPG), Borderlands 2 (FPS action RPG), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (atmospheric open world fantasy RPG - based on Lord of the Rings), Castle Crashers (co-op hack & slash fantasy RPG).

Having problems installing today's game?

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear to work please visit the problems section, which which you can find in the FAQ's thread HERE. Also read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted. The main issue we have is with the giveaway wrapper, which uses a Themida based code to protect the games executable. Unfortunately Themida is also used to hide malware; so, as a precaution, some security software may block the installation and sometimes even delete the executable file. Blocking or deletion is usually determined partly by the way your computer is set up. Usually you'll get a message saying ''the file is corrupted'', but in reality the files are okay. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome this issue. The first is to reboot in safe mode with networking, install the game then reboot, or secondly you can (at your own risk) temporarily turn off your security, install the game, then turn your security back on. A note of reassurance to those that choose the latter and quicker method. The game giveaway team have been giving away games for over a decade (Dec 2006 & prior to that, via the main site 2 or 3 times weekly from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006) and have 'NEVER' given away a game infected with malware; they always test every giveaway with several of the top anti-malware suites to ensure all games are free from malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE