Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either not appropriate, or not about the game will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however a little light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit will be allowed, and will be judged by the moderator as to whether it is suitable or not to be left.

I am posting this in light of the massive increase in negative comments not related to the game being given away, inappropriate comments and spam (Almost 700 spam comments were posted one day about 3 weeks ago) that have occurred over the past several months since the site was updated and in particular since the site started to give away games from the Steam world and since they started using Facebook.

I truly believe that if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers will be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints (and spam) instead of feedback about the game given away will not persuade other developers to give their games away for free. So please bear this in mind when posting your comments. Any comment not about the game for example complaints, or if deemed unfriendly or inappropriate, will be deleted or added to the spam folder, which automatically black lists the IP address you used. Although I have enjoyed responding to many of those comments, I will no longer waste my time answering comments from community members who should have read the moderation policy.

Negative feedback about the games given away are always welcomed because they can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games should be directed to the giveawayoftheday contact form which I've linked to HERE; alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day (I can't moderate 24 hours a day), please also post your issue in the forums where you may get a response from the community. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation (for example quite a few game giveaways I've installed including today's have been blocked by my copy of Zemana Anti-malware suite) Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and if you do have a problem with the game not running properly, or installing please check the FAQ's thread HERE.

I have included an offer of free games to those who post quality feedback; please see the end of the review for details. Thank you.

In Brief

A match three game. Zemana Anti-logger blocked the games executable from installing the game for me, so I had to disable Zemana temporarily. This has been a common occurrence since installing the anti-logger and I think it is to do with the the games file phoning home to MyPlayCity, which all MPC games do. It's not a malware problem and should be ignored. All free games from sites such as MPC open up their home page. This earns them money, part of which os paid to the owner of the games license, usually the developer. Bypassing this stage could eventual;ly lead to these free games disappearing. (becasue if we are not redirected, they don't earn cash to pay the developers).

Whether you like or dislike Magic Match Adventures please give some feedback about your opinions, for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, and how it could be improved from your point of view. If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?Giving such feedback instead of saying nothing or just saying this game is rubbish may bring more developers to the site, which could mean more and better games. Would you give away thousands of copies of a game (or extra content for a game) away to a community that complains all the time instead of giving useful feedback? It only takes a few moments of your time. This site could be transformed if only the community would be more forthcoming in their opinions of the games they are getting for free.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. There are two other games in this series , Magic Match and Magic Match: The Genies Journey. Both can be downloaded free. The latter from FreeGamePick. I've not downloaded a game from FreeGamePick for several years so don't know what they try to install. Watch out for check boxes to avoid home page changes etc.

Magic Match Adventures downloads to a 81.5 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 93 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\Magic Match Adventures

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)

Travel to the distant Imp World and help the funny imps defeat the evil wizard who has bent the magic kingdom to his will! You are to explore the whole Water Kingdom where funny imps live so don’t miss a chance to train your magical skills! Destroy chains of identical artifacts in the game Magic Match Adventures to learn various spells that will be extremely helpful in the future. Use power-ups to collect all the potions and complete spells lightning fast. Get all the trophies and gain the highest possible rank in game Magic Match Adventures!

Reference accessed HERE. 4th February 2017

1) ... Explore and save villages

2) ... Great new power ups!

3) ... Travel across a magical realm.

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Magic Match Adventures to work please visit the problems section, which can be found in the FAQ's thread HERE

This is the third game in the quirky Magic Match series. This time, rather than just telling a story, we peek inside the imps’ lives in the land of Arcania and give them a hand when they need it. Just wave the wand over the troubled imp and everything’s A-OK again.

The imps work and play hard, but then evil comes along and takes something away from them. It may stop the wind so a little imp can’t fly his kite, steal items for sale from two imps’ tables, or break a machine the imps use to get work done. You watch evil take out the imps with horror, then run to the Magic Realm – which is represented by match-three game – to collect red potion to create a spell to help the imps in trouble.

As soon as you collect enough red potion to make the spell, you can cast it upon the struggling imps, watch the spell take effect, and receive a thank you bonus. The match-three game contains elements with a number for each. That numbers mean you need to destroy that many of each element. The first level in each kingdom usually has four elements, and more elements become available as you advance.

Magic Match Adventures‘ matching works similarly to Cradle of Persia‘s. Whatever direction you make the match in, the pieces behind it follow to fill up the space. As found in most matching games, pieces freeze and wood or rocks get in the way to make it hard to find matches. Coins, potions, and power-ups also act as any element. For example, you select two bird feet, a coin and a potion; it counts for four bird feet.

While the tiles have different colors under the elements like most matching games, the goal isn’t to destroy them, but rather get as many as you can. The tiles come in green, blue, and neutral. The green and blue tiles contain mana for building up your blue and green potions. Four of the eight spells use the green mana and four use the blue mana. Every spell costs points and the game deducts those points from the green or blue mana depending on which spell you use.

The game has three different colored beakers: red, blue, and green. Blue and green add to your mana score. Red doesn’t appear until you’ve cleared an element. The biggest frustration comes with the blue and green mana spells and power-ups. It takes practice to figure out what happens as the instructions don’t always make it apparent. Only three or four spells are worth using. It’s better to skip some spells and save your points for the important ones when you need them.

You travel through different kingdoms in Arcania beginning with water followed by Earth, air, and fire. Every kingdom comes with its own story, but if you’re not interested you can skip it and go right to the Magic Realm.

A new evil wizard appears in each kingdom along with a Dark-O-Meter counter. The Dark-O-Meter displays the number of evil spells you need to thwart before dueling the evil wizard in the “sort of” mini-game. In the duel, you and the evil wizard take turns making matches to get the needed elements. Whoever clears all of the elements first wins the duel. The duel game has fewer barriers than the regular one, but the evil wizard creates a few barriers with mean tricks.

Upon defeating the evil wizard, the imps celebrate and you move on to the next kingdom receiving a new background behind the grid and new elements for a breath a fresh air. The game doesn’t have lives, so when failing in a duel or a level, you can just replay it.

The music adds a nice touch to the game’s peppy and colorful atmosphere. Unfortunately, just when you get the hang of the game and its rules, it’s almost over. It only has 33 levels and takes about a day to play. Magic Match Adventures doesn’t have other modes, but its matching game would make a fine arcade game. Players earn new ranks as they reach scoring milestones. Once finishing the game, you’ve earned all the titles.

Since the game comes with a trophy room and players won’t necessary win all the trophies after completing the game, it might motivate some to replay the game to find those missing trophies. But other than that, why play it again? Regardless, the adventure is worth the trip.

Some imps will interact when you click on them. Click the drummer and he keeps beating the drum with one stick. Click the singer and notes fly. It would enhance fun and cute factor if the game had more interaction with the imps — sort of blending a doll house and game in one package.

Magic Match Adventures brings a few new things to the matching arena with the duel, helping the imps, and different rules from a typical matching game. Players have plenty of chances to put strategies to work. If you’d rather have fun and not think too much, it’s possible to succeed — it just may take longer. To paraphrase the opening song, Magic Match and matching game fans will enjoy the Imp World and its great wondrous land. They await you to give them a hand.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Original review written by Joel Brodie on 3rd March 2008. Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 4th February 2017

You can see Big Fish community reviews of Magic Match Adventures HERE and more information in the Big fish forums HERE.

if you want to see some game play you can see some videos of game play HERE and HERE (Russian). You'll find a slideshow of almost 100 images HERE

An excellent match three game with lots of extra's that will keep the whole family entertained for several hours at the very least. Well worth dpownloading in my opinion. I'd never seen this particular series despite this third in the series having been released over 8 years ago. 8 out of 10

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Magic Match Adventures and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case Steam keys.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If Magic Match Adventures didn't appeal, or you've had enough of match three's, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The free game over on Origin is still the excellent atmospheric Sci Fi RPG third person Shooter Mass Effect 2, but it will be ending soon. If you've still not got a copy, get it now, it's well worth. It usually costs £19.99/$19.99 (though I paid the pre order price of over £30 prior to it's release back in January 2010) . You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

You will also find lots of deals over on Green Man Gaming and Big Fish Games usually have 70% off the first game you buy from them, plus they also have other deals occasionally. Desura was purchased from Bad Ju Ju games last year by One Play. If you already have a Desura account you can read details of what is happening HERE. As yet you can't access games you previosly purchased via Desura (I have around 1400), but One Play are working to recover everyones accounts and hope to do so by the end of March 2017. Indie Royale will also resume on a weekly basis, though at this time I don't know if previous Inde Royale Greenlight bundles will be honoured? Alawar, Gamehouse and Playrix entertainment have free games available (usually online versions) and other game houses such as the AAA distributors Ubisoft and Origin always have some games on sale. I've updated the Weekly roundup of game deals HERE to include a large list of other sites where you can find games on sale ( eg Origin, uPlay, GreenManGaming etc, as well as links to free online games as well as other game houses such as Alawar, Playrix and Gamehouse plus gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and Game Seek, and included a list of free to play Massive Multiplayer games such as World of Tanks, world of warships, Liberators and Allegiance to name a few. For more details please go to the Weekly roundup of game deals over in the game discussion sticky section HERE.<.blockquote>

There are 878 games on sale over on Steam at the moment, with up to 91% off. Game prices range from as little as £0.15p (Splatter: Zombie apocalypse, Airscape - The Fall of Gravity, Clones, See No Evil and Rolling Sun all with 91% off, and there are almost 200 games and dlc less than $1 and almost 300 less than £1. You can find all of the deals HERE.

Also for this weekend only you can play Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Siege that was released just over a year ago on Steam totally for free until 8pm Sunday evening (GMT). You get access to the full game HERE.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege invites players to master the art of destruction. Intense close quarters confrontations, high lethality, tactics, team play, and explosive action are at the center of the experience. The gameplay sets a new bar for intense firefights and expert strategy in the rich legacy of past Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games

Key Features include siege gameplay; where enemies now have the means to transform their environments into strongholds: they can trap, fortify, and create defensive systems to prevent breach by Rainbow teams. Counter terrorist units; (“short range” specialists, where training is concentrated on indoor environments. Operating in tight formations, they are experts of close quarter combat, demolition, and coordinated assaults plus hostage rescue). You also are able to destroy parts of the environment i.e. procedural destruction; where everything in the environment reacts realistically, dynamically, and uniquely based on the size and caliber of bullets you are using or the amount of explosives you have set. If you like First person shooters and/or team based game play (both in single player and multiplayer), I highly recommend you try this game. I played this game last year and found it extremely satisfying.

If you spend more than $3 in the Indie Gala store you'll also get a free copy of the atmospheric point and click horror adventure game 'Between Me and the Night' worth $14.99/£9.99. There's also a sale on over on the Humble Bundle site featuring Telltale games (The walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Back to the future, Jurassic ParkPuzzle /agent 1 and 2 etc), plus lads more games on sale. If you subscribe to the Humble Monthly, which costs $12 a month you not only get a large collection of decent Steam games you will also get for the first month of the subscription total war: Warhammer, which was released last Spring and costs $59.99/£39.99. The great thing is, you can cancel at any time, so only need to receive the first bundle of games. I personally haven't bothered, but only becasue I usually have already purchased most of the games included in the monthly bundle. The usual savings on the games you get are around 90%, not counting the introductory offer. There's also lots of games on sale over on the Bundle Stars and Indie Game Stand (IGS)




stores.

...........................................FREE game offer in exchange for quality feedback...................................

I've posted a list of over 100 Steam games in the forums HERE, some of which I will giving away each week to those community members who post decent feedback for the game given away that day. It is quite an extensive list of games taken from the 10 000+ Steam keys I've collected over the last several years; all were either purchased by me, or received free for pre-ordering games on Steam, plus a few from entering competitions and other offers). There will be a limited number of other keys available, such as Origin, uPlay and Desura keys (Desura has recently been purchased following the original owners demise and should be up and running by the end of March). I will announce the winner's from the giveaway the following week. If no announcement is made, it means no one posted feedback that qualified for a free game that week. If you have won a game, I will post details in the thread I've created specifically for that purpose HERE. Once I've given a key away, the game and any comments by the winner will be removed from the list.

Depending on the quality of the feedback, I may choose to award games to more community members for each game given away, 'at my discretion'. The feedback must be about the game, and it must include a couple of paragraphs of feedback following the guidelines I've posted in the suggestions section of my review. i.e. your opinion of the game, what you liked and/or disliked plus suggestions for improvement. If you choose a game that is very cheap I may give you a second game; so, when choosing from the list I provide, please list more than one choice. If a game is chosen by more than one community member and only one key is available the key will go to the one I deem the most useful. I do have multiple keys for quite a lot of the games I've listed, so, don't be put off if you see someone else has chosen the game you want. I haven't indicated any of the games I have multiple keys for (though for example I do have several keys for the excellent Western themed AAA game Call of Juarez, which i picked up for free for purchasing several games via the Indie Gala store several months ago. spending a few dollars got me a copy of the game, so I made several separate purchases over a couple of days while the offer was still live.

I do own at least three community members a game from the previous giveaways that I posted several months ago. I'd totally forgotten about those. I do have a document with their names on, so they will get a game from the original list when I find the document (I'm extremely disorganized); or they can peruse the new list and choose something different. Just post a comment over in the forums in the appropriate thread. If you do post feedback with a view to getting one of the games and think you have covered the requirements, you don't have to do anything until I announce the winners the following week.

Please remember, this comments section is mainly for feedback about today's game giveaway. If you're not sure, read the moderation policy, which you can see HERE