I did finish this game by shear determination. I will reference #5; I agree. Very poor Grammar and English or American, many mini games had little to no directions about what needed to be done and the anticipated outcome. In addition too many mini games with either no solution. And while I'm sure many of the mini games the I pressed "Skip" for had solutions the direction of what needed to be done was either very vague or the solution would have taken way too long. When mini games are too difficult of have no solution that detracts greatly from the overall enjoyment of the game. I'm one who hates pressing "Skip", but found myself doing it a lot in this game. I rarely press the "HINT" button, in most games, but found myself pressing it a lot in this game, and as I found out it was because things I needed to complete the scene I was in were on the outside of the screen unseen. It is very frustrating to click "HINT" just to see the "HINT" trail lead off the screen; then you end up having to click in that are three, four, five times to gain whatever it is. This also happens in the "hidden object games" when you are trying to earn "HINTS"; very frustrating.

The cartoon graphics didn't bother me a bit, in fact they were kinda cute; the theme and story line were fine, but game play stunk and was very frustrating.

I won't give it a thumbs up or down, but I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Not sure why Stephen gave "Game Play" a 7 - I'd say more like 4; maybe 5. If "Urse" cleans up the bad game play this will be a decent game.

The translation is, I agree, very sloppy. (Note to whiterabbit: "breaks outside" is probably a misspelling of "brakes outside" as it's a car with gangsters in it!)

I don't think the HOGs are entirely optional. It's not made clear during gameplay but there's a puzzle (involving rewiring a circuit) that you can't get the components for (on the puzzle board itself) without doing HO scenes. Unless I just was not looking very hard...

Objects at the edge of the screen are, for me, completely invisible. I get the impression that it may have been written for widescreen and isn't rescaling itself properly to a 4:3 ratio, but I haven't tried to prove that point yet.

The cartoony graphics give it the impression of being child-friendly. I have yet to find an unsolvable (or even particularly difficult) puzzle (I thought I had, like JonE, but the HO puzzles seemed to unlock more of the puzzle I was stuck on -- not hints, components!) but I have yet to finish it and maybe he's seen more than me...

I think the devs should look at better support for 4:3 screen layout or ensuring objects are always onscreen regardless of layout, and a bit more guidance on gameplay and what to do when you think you're stuck might also be helpful.

This is the most frustrating HOG I've ever played. And I agree; way too stingy with hints, although I don't mind doing the "hidden object scences" to get hints, except that some of the objects one must find are on the outside edge of the screen; that's not very sporting. And a 5 hint penalty for "skipping" a puzzle is pretty steep. Better directions for the puzzles would help, but some of the puzzles were never meant to be solved and I'm pretty good at solving puzzles, most of the time. And the language is horrid. If you no can speak good American then a linguist you must find. And no I'm not one of those if you can't speak American you ain't (fill in the blank). It would just be nice to be able to understand what you're supposed to do and not have to guess whether you interrpreted the broken English properly or search for things on the outside edges of the screen.

I haven't finished this game yet, but I will by pure determination. I won't give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. The cartoon graphics don't bother me a bit; kinda cute actually. There are things I love about this game, but also things I hate. But, overall I can't recommmend it.

This game is WAY too stingy with hints!

Just finished it up. Nicely done story line - not involved nor complex, like a 'bigger' game, and with some holes - but nice and appropriate for its level. Ended with a reasonable conclusion - not just "Oh, we're done".

I wish the 'switch all the levers to horizontal' would have had a reset button. I was frustrated by that game, and then couldn't get back to the starting position to even try and think it thru better - so - hit the skip button... I hit 'skip' for the same game Questerium_Sinister Trinity - don't know how to solve that one yet...

I've enjoyed the game more than I thought. The 'hilight on mouseover' makes for just the right challenge level - today anyway :-)

In the mini-game where you're catching drops in the coconut half, trying to avoid the stuff thrown by the monkey: Going back to zero EVERY TIME was frustrating. I could see losing 20%, or something like that. But getting just a few drops away and going all the way back just makes it annoying.

Hi,
I think its just like the last one. Failed to connect and can't run it. It says 2 hours left, but had the same problem late night last time.
Hope can get the next one.

have a good night!

It loads, but by the time it comes to enter my name it crashes. I get a memory violation error. Have tried in compatability mode but still won't work. Using windows 8.1.

Contains language not appropriate for children.

Installed and ran fine on my Vista laptop, played thru until the island, but just too juvenile for me, no real challenges at all, even the puzzles. A few laughs at the simplistic design, gameplay and broken English, not so fun to have everything hinted for you, might play to the end later, but overall...

Not a keeper.
John

My younger brother said we should combine this game with last Sunday's game and make "Tap Kellie Stanford." I punched him in the face.

to hecate (#11)

This happened to me also. Keep going back to other map sites til there are no more HOG sections to complete, then return to the barrel, it seems critical where you click when you have the corkscrew on the cursor, the point of the cursor should be on (or near?) the plug on the barrel so keep clicking around that area.

Downloaded the game twice, "KellieStanfordTurnofFate.zip" check's out 100% with latest Winrar 5.10(Registered) but as soon as I unpack file's the Setup tell's me that it's corrupt !
Got windows 8.1 here and never had this problem before with files from this website!

After installation I'm getting a screen stating DirectPlay needs to download in order to run this game. I'm a little hesitant about letting this install. Is anyone else encountering this? Is it OK to let DirectPlay install? My OS is Win 8.1. Never had this requirement before so any advice would be appreciated. I installed using Shadow Defender so I just rebooted and let things go back till I get some advice.
Tks

I may complete this game, though the comic like graphics don't grab my attention. I also noted some poor English. The application of the make-up made the game seem like it might be meant to appeal to a younger crowd. The mini-games are the most interesting part of the game. The idea of finding an unknown father is intriguing.

A bit juvenile in the graphics and story, but figured it would kill and afternoon :) and I do love these kind of puzzles. Was sailing through with just the right amount of thinking required until I got to the staffroom with the barrel. You're supposed to use the corkscrew on the plug to empty the water, but my corkscrew won't do it---it keeps saying it's wrong, but I'm using it correctly. Even caved and checked the walkthrough, and yup, you should be able to use the corkscrew on the plug, but no go. Oh well, shorter afternoon than I'd thought---looks like I actually have to get some work done today :).

I use Windows7/64 Pro and completed the first panel without a problem. Didn't need to use Compatibility Mode. Don't know if reinstalling it would be helpful to The Research Institute but it might be worth a try. Good luck.

At first I was going to pass on this one but White Rabbit's review encouraged me to give it a try. So far I'm glad I did. Looking forward to getting back to it later.

Dumb, but likeable. The play of the mini-game puzzles is not obvious to those of us who don't play these kinds of games regularly.

Big ups to URSE for sending us all these goodies!

Downloaded and ran just fine on my old XP3 machine. The only problem I had was the loudness of the music when I first turned it on and I already had the volume turned down on the computer. Cute game. I laughed to myself when I was playing the mini game where she is putting on her morning makeup. Just what I'd do, knowing that someone was coming to kill me. The broken English just seems to add to the game a bit. At least for the laughs.

Stephen, you might want to include the link for the U.S. gamestop, and U.S. gamefly. Thinking of those rabbits huh? lol.

http://www.gamestop.com/

http://www.gamefly.com/#axzz3BDm16iF9


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

Will do

Thanks

ok

I had to run the game in compatibility mode on Windows 7 (otherwise the game would crash).

I see from my list that I last downloaded and played this in 2010 and made the following comment 'Poor. Bad English. Clicks hard' Nevertheless I'm going to try it again (I love HOGs) - they might have improved it over 4 years!


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

I can't ever remember this game being given away here beofre. I checked back over all the giveaways from 2010 and it wasn't given away that year. The game was released in 2008, so their is a possibility that it was given away but i'm not checking through every giveaway as there's 8 years worth the look through, using the search function also doesn't show when this was given away beofre. Maybe you got it from another source?

After escaping from dangerous gangsters, Kellie must use her wits and dexterity to go on the run and reveal the truth about her boss. But first, she needs to apply tons of makeup!

I didn't download this, as the screenshots shout of stereotyping of women. They may belie the true content, but in that case the advertising really should take greater care to match the product.


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

Hi Bovi, the application of makeup was used to disquise herself, not to sterotype women. :)

Thanks for the link to the walkthrough, Laurel.

This appears to be an adventure-type HOG game. Since I'm here before the review, and WhiteRabbit's been busy lately, here's a BFG walkthrough:
http://www.bigfishgames.com/blog/walkthrough/kellie-stanford-turn-of-fate-walkthrough/

Looks like there are extra HOG scenes to earn additional hints, and a wide variety of minigames (which you can see at the link above.) Looks like it's not too difficult, and maybe aimed at a younger crowd? 13 chapters in all.

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



Thnks for the feedback Laurel. I needed to go back to bed earlier; had a bad night. Am working on the review at the moment. Need to play the game for a while to get a feel for it before I can post anything. Hadn't got the demo yesterday as I was busy with family stuff, so am a little behind. :)

Sorry for the late review. Had to go pick a second dwarf rabbit for my daughter.

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Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate:

Installation:

Today’s game giveaway is Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate a Hidden Object adventure game

The giveaway downloads to a 68.8 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and dual activation and set up module. To new game giveaway visitors that means just install the game and it should automatically register because the activation module is wrapped in with the set up file. There is also a gdc file that contains the security software. This was added two years ago to stop hackers from breaking into the wrapped set up file and uploading to peer to peer sites. Many game giveaways appeared on these sites within minutes hours of the game going live as well as You Tube videos telling you how to do it .*It was very easy to do). The gcd file has helped to cut down on hacked games. Hacking these giveaways so as to be able to install the game at any time is against the agreement you agree to when installing the game. (see the terms and Conditions in the read me file that comes with all giveaways).

The game installs to

C:\Games\KellieStanfordTurnofFate_game

The installed game is 66.4 Mb in size.
The game works on Win 7 and Win 8 platforms. I no longer use Vista or XP so can't confirm whether it works on those operating systems.

There is no shortcut installed to the desktop or the Stat menu programs list, so, make a note of the above install path, or where you choose to install the game so that you can create a shortcut yourself.



If you miss today's giveaway you can get it 24/7 from MyPlayCity HERE


If you get any problems once the giveaway is over, or late in the day (there's no moderation usually for the last four or five hours until the last half hour or so of the giveaway) please also post them over in the forums as you are more likely to get a reply from a community member. I've created a thread specifically for the purpose HERE.

Introduction:

Help Kellie Stanford discover the truth about the Hollywood film studio she works for, and the mysterious owner she`s never met! Kellie`s friend Mike has called her, with a dire warning. After escaping from dangerous gangsters, Kellie must use her wits and dexterity to go on the run and reveal the truth about her boss. Go on an exciting journey and uncover family secrets in Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate.

Reference accessed HERE 23th August 2014

The Game:

Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate is a humorous adventure game with quirky cartoon graphics and some hidden object game play in the mix. Maybe it’s just the tropical music or the occasional monkey, but I was catching a clear Monkey Island influence towards the second half of the game, too.

The heroine of the story, Kellie, took a job at a film studio as a hair stylist in the hopes of achieving her dream of becoming a cinematographer. Little did she know that one single peculiar day would change the course of her life forever, as a series of odd events come together in a mystery involving gangsters, her estranged father, and a Yogi on a tropical island. The story is twisty and doesn’t always flow logically, plus it’s light on details, but it’s entertaining nonetheless.

The pressure is low, and the game is untimed. You can interact with the environment by opening doors or moving items, but you’re given automatic hints as you play, so things that can be manipulated will be highlighted with a mouseover. The same goes for items which you find in the scenes and can add to your inventory. There doesn’t seem to be any penalty for incorrect clicks, so click away.

Occasionally, inventory items must be combined, like using scissors and black dye on a wig which you need for a disguise. In these cases, the objects will be circled, so you simply need to click them. This removes a lot of the guesswork.

Some of the inventory puzzles are tricky. For example, it isn’t intuitive to use a key on a cuckoo clock, just to remove the gear to combine it with some nuts to lure out a rat…However, you should be able to figure things out yourself if you use the in-game hints. Most of the inventory puzzles are logical, despite a few odd ones (like the above) thrown in.

In an interesting twist, this is listed as a hidden object adventure on many game sites, but finding hidden objects is completely optional, and only integrated as part of the hint system. At any time, you can click on a light bulb near Kellie’s profile to get a hint regarding an inventory puzzle or game task. To earn extra hints, you can play hidden object scenes from the map screen. Technically, if you can beat the game without hints, there isn’t any dire need to do the object searches. They’re fun, though, so there’s no reason to avoid them either.

It’s exciting to play a hidden object game portion where you can really look for the objects without just clicking on things that stand out. Because you are shown silhouettes, there’s no ambiguity, and it’s a pleasure to find things. The objects are natural sized, not too large or too small, and everything is clearly drawn.

There are no hints for the HOG scenes, but you shouldn’t need them, since you can see an image of each object you need to find. On the downside, the hidden objects do repeat, and there aren’t a whole lot of HOG locations.

The real strength here is the mini-games, which have you doing unique and interesting things like putting makeup on Kellie using inventory cosmetic items, or navigating through her maze-like house with dim lighting to guide you. You also play a game like Connect 4, and a pearl catching game that is similar to Goldminer Deluxe. Each and every mini-game is remarkably smooth and intuitive to play. That’s something you can’t say about every game we review! The variety of minigames is also a definite strength. You can skip these minigames if you have 2 available hints, although you’ll be missing out on most of the fun.

The English can sometimes be awkward, so rigid grammarians might have cause to scowl. For example, Kellie says that Mike’s joke "caught her flatfooted," or that she heard "breaks" (something breaking) outside. It isn’t major, but it is noticeable, and some of the dialogue is stilted as a result.




Reference accessed HERE 23th August 2014

Walkthrough:

You can also find a walkthrough via Big Fish Games HERE


Music:


If you don't like the in-game music you may be able to change it by swapping the appropriate ogg files with music from your own collection.

You will probably need to convert the music you choose to the ogg format, and rename the files to the ones you are replacing. The giveaway team have given away loads of audio converters over the last few years; however, if you don't have one, there's plenty of freeware alternatives available; just be wary when downloading to make sure you're not downloading from an unsafe site.

The music files are located via the following path:

C:\Games\KellieStanfordTurnofFate_game\media\Music\x.ogg


I'd back up the originals just in case you encounter any problems. :)


System Specifications:

OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 77 MB

Video & Images:


You can see a slideshow of about 60 images HERE and a few game play videos to give you an idea what the game looks like HERE , HERE and HERE.






Conclusion:

While it’s a pleasure to play, for the most part it’s not very challenging. Everything is highlighted or prepared for you, so it’s simply a case of clicking in the right place at the right time. If you don’t play each and every hidden object scene, you can beat the game in just over two hours. Playing the HOG scenes lengthens the game play, but not substantially. The hidden object lists are randomized, so there is some replay value, but not a huge amount.

Kellie Stanford: Turn of Fate is a pleasant but short and simple adventure game. Strict hidden object fans might not find enough hidden object tasks to sustain their interest, but folks who enjoy the blended genre approach should find it plenty amusing. It’s not a game that will challenge you in any way, but it’s relaxing and fun to play.

Personally I think it's a great game for families with children aged between 5 to 9 years of age especially those with at least one girl. I kbnow my daughter (whose now approaching 14) would hav e loved this when she was younger.





Scoring:

Game play - 7
Graphics - 7
Audio - 8
Re-playability - 6
Originality – 7

Total = 35 out of 50 or 7.0 out of 10

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Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:




If you have any problems installing or getting to work today's game please go HERE for help. I've posted all of the common problems and solutions in a FAQ thread, which you can find in the sticky section of the forums by following the above link.






This weekends Steam deals include 75% off Borderlands 2 Game of the Year, 67% off Sid Meier's civilization V: Complete Edition, 83% off Bioshock Triple Pack, 67% 0ff X-Com Complete (Game +3 dlc's), 66% off dishonored - Game of the Year Edition, 80% off The bureau: XCOM Declassified, (Theses are being sold so cheap because the developer 2K Games is now defunct, another victim of the recession and constant game sales), 50% off Assetto Corsa, 75% off Kinetic Void, 80% off Spec Op's The Line (a much undervalued, but excellent third person shooter), 75% off Mafia II (Much better than GTA IV IMO), 80% off The Darkness II, 67% off Borderlands, 80% off Nethergate: Resurrection, 66% off War of the Roses: Kingmaker, 85% off Stronghold Complete Pack, 75% off Dr Who: The Adventure Game, 50% off Roller Coaster Rampage, 50% off NBA 2K14, 60% off AI War Bundle (2014(, 75% off The Raven - Legacy of a Master thief, 50% off Full Mojo Ramapage, 67% off Duke Nukem Forever, plus many more bargains.


You'll also find some excellent deals over on the following Game sites, some of which have summer sales on.

GreenManGaming
Gamersgate Summer Sale
GOG
Desura
Gamestop
GameFly

To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price. If like me you prefer Steamwork games, many of the above sites also sell Steamwork games.

If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles (there's over 20 of them - If you purchased all of them you'd be paying around $80 for around a thousand dollars worth of games); or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand. I've updated the Indie Game bundle thread to include all the latest bundles. you'll find that thread HERE. Also check out HERE link for a list of all current bundles.
The latest IndieGameStand game is
The Way of the Pixelated Fist a parkour and martial arts inspired free-roaming cinematic platformer.This deal ends Wednesday morning 5am (GMT).

The latest Daily Indie game is 'ONE DAY for Ched' a hardcore corridor shooter from indie developers BSL Team. You can get two keys if you pay more than $1.22 (at the time of writing); (one for a friend or family member perhaps?). There are also two excellent DIG bundles (number’s 7 & 8), that contain the following games (Dig 7 – Little Trus Man, Space Splice, 500 Years Act 1, Revenge: Rhobar’s Myth, Dnager and Project Night {Alpha}, same deal as DIG 6, though not all the games are on Greenlight) and (Dig 8 - Memories of a Vagabond, Bionic dues, A Valley without wind, Lightfish, Crystals of time and Hacker Evolution Duality - all come with Steam keys).

You'll find those deals HERE.

Most of the bundles retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars, but you can pay as little as a dollar for some.


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 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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