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Please read the following before downloading and installing today's giveaway. If you are having problems installing the game, please check the FAQ's thread HERE and 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 has been configured. 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. Another issue could be the size of the download. Because the servers have limited bandwidth, the more community members downloading at any one time, the slower the download will be. Even with a fast internet connection, you may find the download becomes excruciatingly slow because you may be sharing the download with many others. Using a download manager may help an individual, but overall, the more users who use a manager, the greater the strain on the service as each download manager will be seen as multiple download nodes, slowing down the download for those not using a download manager significantly; so, unless absolutely necessary, please avoid using a download manager. Thank you.

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Mexicana: Deadly Holiday

In Brief

A Hidden Object Adventure with a Mexican flavour

Suggestions:

See end of review for suggestions.

Installation:

Mexicana: Deadly Holiday downloads to a 1.01 GB 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 1.24 GB 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\Mexicana - Deadly Holiday

Four short-cuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and short-cuts 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 un-check the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Help Maria set her beloved free from the world of the dead in the astonishing game Mexicana: Deadly Holiday! If you are fond of thrilling stories, you will like the one represented in the game Mexicana: Deadly Holiday without fail. Just imagine a long-awaited holiday to the Mexico where you will have a rest all days long. And the famous Day of the Dead is celebrated during your journey – you are so lucky! But who can ever imagine that this jolly day can turn your life into the nightmare… Play the beautiful hidden object game Mexicana: Deadly Holiday and travel to the world of the dead with Maria, the main character of the story. She has nobody but you to rely on and she can’t save her beloved Vitor without your help! Nothing meant trouble at the beginning. The happy couple was going to celebrate the mysterious Dia de Muertos and decided to visit the fortune-teller to rattle nerves a bit. Maria didn’t like the idea of discovering the future but Vitor persisted and took her to the shaman. After some manipulations the old woman showed the couple the card of the dead and at the same moment a phantom has captured Vitor and transferred him to the underworld.

And the desperate girl has nothing to do but perform a special ritual with the shaman and go to the pandemonium. Help Maria explore the sinister yet ravishing locations such as cemetery, Mexico market and even the eerie circus to play all mini-games and find the necessary items for the magical ritual. Use a hammer to hit only red moving figurines to cope with the task, find all the opposite card pairs of the same theme or restore the mechanism from the randomly thrown details – all the mini-games in Mexicana: Deadly Holiday are extremely amazing! It’s time to see how good you are at potion making: find all the components of the magical elixir, brew it and make a special bread of the dead to get the dead spirits on your side. Get ready to the breathtaking adventures of the frightening holiday and help Maria find Vitor in the world of the dead!

Reference accessed HERE. Sept 2nd 2017

The Game:

Story:  Dia de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, provides a stunning backdrop for a thrilling supernatural adventure in Mexicana: Deadly Holiday! Guide a young woman as she sets off on a desperate search for her fiance amidst the annual celebration in Mexico. Moments after a spectral figure kidnaps her beloved during a card reading, she begins her journey to the after world, where demons will plot her demise and ancients gods will lend her a helping hand. As you travel through a stunning fiery wasteland on your way to a realm of peace and tranquility, you’ll search for cleverly hidden objects, solve skillfully designed puzzles, and crack dozens of devious mini-games. Along the way, you’ll slowly unfold the astonishing truth of who the young woman really is. Set in a captivating world, and featuring visuals and music inspired by the Land of Enchantment, Mexicana: Deadly Holidays is packed with thrills unlike any you have experienced!  (BigFish Sales Blurb)

Desktop - Good, easy to use Options; Main Menu is simple and colourful; Auto-Tutorial for the opening section of the game, plus for the Scroll for the After-World.  There’s a Notebook for info; a Hints that helps generally as well as in HOGs; an Inventory Bar; and the aforementioned Scroll Side-Bar with Map Buttons.

Play Modes -  Casual; Expert.

Music -  Mexican, varied, but a little irritating at times – I turned the speaker down a little.

HOG’s -   Interactive Lists; Interactive Shapes where you find some then place them, then find some more then place them; and Lists with 2 Items at a time that you click to activate their combination, then find and activate the next pair, and so on till you acquire the desired item – rather unusual

Puzzles -  These are okay, but beware clicking on the Blue Arrow – it doesn’t Start the Puzzle, it Skips the puzzle.  Of course some need to be Skipped.

Collections -  Only the scattered pages of the Scroll so far.

Graphics - These are strongly colourful, exotic Mexican settings in the ‘Real World’, but macabre as you would expect in the After World.  They are delineated, visual-novel style, which I do like, though some of the Items are a little small.  They are fun to explore, almost too much but not quite.

Map - None for the Real World – this causes a lot of Back & Forth clicking; a Map accessed beside the Scroll for the After-World, wit Sub-Maps for the different locations within the After-World.  They give you info on ‘Active Sites, but won’t allow you to jump from site to site – or so it seems.

Game-play -  This varies from straightforward to rather complex.  You need to gather Items and make a potion, bread, and paint- all preparations for the cross into the After-World.  Some of the actions require multiple layers of actions to achieve the desired result.  The After-World looks as though it will follow the same pattern, though the Scroll requires some exploration.  Clicking an Item to use on another, either generally or in a HOG, this Item goes into a circle which will then work on the next correct Item clicked.  There is no hand to pick things up with – the Cursor remains as an arrow, so there is no indication that you are hovering over the right Item.  This causes a lot of Point & Click which is tiresome.

Player Participation - Because of the way things are combined for you there is less PP for the player.  But you settle into the Game-play style fairly quickly.

Satisfaction Factor -  I thought this game was quite promising, rather intriguing, slowly becoming more macabre as you progressed.  However, due to its rather odd Game-play, and slow to react Puzzles, I didn’t get as far as I usually do for the hour trial.

Frustration Factors - Mainly the fact that some Puzzles didn’t respond upon completion, though I could have made a small error somewhere that I couldn’t detect.  Also the lack of Interactive Map for the Real World, and lack of Interactivity in the Map/s for the After-World.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Jud House on 19th April 2014. Edited and re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 2nd September 2017.

Other Reviews and Videos of Mexicana: Deadly Holiday:

You can see Big Fish community reviews of Mexicana: Deadly Holiday HERE (bottom of the page) and more info in the forums HERE. If you want to see some game play, check out the following videos HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (German) HERE, HERE (German), and HERE (final scene). Plus a slide show of over 70 images HERE. If you get stuck, you’ll find walk-throughs HERE and HERE

Conclusion:

A well balanced HOG though nothing new will be found, basically a standard Hidden Object adventure. I liked the colourful scenes and the music gave ambiance to the story. 7 out of 10 from me.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Mexicana: Deadly Holiday and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

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.

The rest of the information that used to be posted here can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns for details of other free games and offers HERE

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play Mexicana: Deadly Holiday please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback about the game; for example, what you liked or disliked, or how improvements could be made to make it more enjoyable and perhaps change your mind about this game? If you don't like Hidden Object games at all, is there a reason why, please explain? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience. These comments will always be accessible for as long as this site is open and provide a valuable resource for game developers, thank you. To access the comments once the giveaway is over, open up the game giveaway to its home page then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review.

There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers new or fresh 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 or good 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 needs 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 instead of complaining about the way this site has changed, for example, they don't like MPC games, they hate HOG's, have had enough of Match Three and Time Management games, or they want to see the latest version of Call of Duty or some other big name AAA game given away or that they don't like Steam games. If something isn't for you then please move on to the next giveaway, or check out the forums HERE, HERE and HERE, where a few members of the community post details of various free games and free game sites as well as links to various indie bundle sites etc; you never know, you may find something that really interests you.

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 HERE via Big Fish Games, or via Steam as part of a 6 in one HOG bundle HERE, (Included in the 6 in 1 HOG bundle are Kronville: Stolen Dream, Cruel Games: Red Riding Hood, Panopticon: Path of Reflections, The Other Side: Tower of Souls, Lake House: Children of Silence Collector's Edition, Mexicana: Deadly Holiday).