Zack 2: Celestine's Map was temporarily removed from the limited giveaway that was posted four days ago, with 500 keys available for the game. The reason for the removal was because Facebook blocked the widget that enabled you to add 25 extra entries each day; thus, making it impossible to add more entries to the giveaway.

I received an email from Alexa who said the game will be renewed tomorrow.

Whether you're previous entries will count, I do not know?

Mystery Cookbook

In Brief
A Hidden Object game with a restaurant and kitchen theme. Simple mini games included


Mystery Cookbook was originally given away on December 1, 2018, where it received a positive 76% from 34 votes with 16 comments which you can see HERE


You can see more information, tips and tricks HERE via the Big Fish forums.

Introduction:

Mystery Cookbook serves up a sumptuous feast of Hidden Object fun! Scour your screen for cleverly hidden objects, find matching shapes and point out the differences between similar pictures in Mystery Cookbook, a sumptuous feast of Hidden Object fun! Six exciting mini-games are like the cherry on the cake!

Edited reference accessed HERE. 30th November 2018, game has been removed from Big Fish games so the link to the reference is no longer valid. I'll repost another intro if I find time.

The Game:

Boot up this attractive hidden object game and you’ll meet Mousy, a rodent who wants to master the fine art of professional cooking. To help him achieve this lofty goal, you’ll meet many bizarre animal characters, visit nearly a dozen locations and search for hundreds of well-hidden items in order to find pages of a secret cookbook. If you don’t like the humorous dialogue between Mousy and a cat, dog, fish, bird, hamster and so on, you can just click to fast-forward to the game-play.

If you’re familiar with hidden object games, you’ll have no trouble playing Mystery Cookbook: players are presented with a busy scene, such as a restaurant kitchen, and a number of items to find, such as a fork, wine glass, basket, apple or flowers. Sometimes you’ll see the items listed as words, like "bread," while other levels will show you a silhouette of an item to find, such as an outline of a sugar bowl, and you’ll need to look for it on the screen. You must find all the items within the allotted time or else you need to replay the level. Click on the wrong item a few times and 20 seconds will be removed from the clock as a penalty.

If you’re stuck, you can click on the cheese platter for a hint, and in order to replenish this plate you can find bits of cheese hidden on the level.

Players are also given a specific task for the level, which is tied to the story, such as finding a pocket watch, menu, eyeglasses, brochure or page from a cookbook, and so on. Allegedly the game has more than 800 objects to find, which is enormous.

Mystery Cookbook also offers six types of mini-games that pop up every few levels or so, such as a tile puzzle that challenges players to rotate blocks on a 5×5 grid to form a scene; spotting the differences between two similar images; or finding a specific number of similar items in a scene, such as cups.

Besides the "me, too" game-play, Mystery Cookbook has its share of annoying problems. For one, I was instructed to find and click pieces of cheese on the level, but when I clicked on what was obviously a piece of brie, it cost me some time off the clock as it wasn’t one of the ones I needed to find for some reason.

There are also some confusing items listed like "can," but it turned out to be a glass jar, and "pots," but when I clicked on two pots on the stove, I lost points (it was a third bronze pot off to the side). A third issue is when you need to replay a level if you run out of time, the items stay in the exact same place the second time around so it makes it too easy to finish it since you know where everything is.

As a fan of Alawar’s games, I really wanted to like Mystery Cookbook, but couldn’t get past these annoying shortcomings. Sure, if you’re a serious fan of hidden object games you might enjoy playing through the trial but be aware these issues exist, which will likely eat away at your patience.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Marc Saltzman on Apr 28, 2008, re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 30th November2018

Conclusion:

Mystery Cookbook is a reasonable hidden object game with a humorous story and graphics (the dogs eyes made me laugh). The mini games are relatively easy, but do add the the playability of the game. There are loads of items to find, some by Silhouett, some by name.

However, there are some confusing item descriptions for example The egg plant (US). Here in the UK we call them aubergines and in South Africa and South Asia they are called brinjal. some instances, it seemed impossible to click on all listed items, also, if you replay the level, the items are in exactly the same place, reducing the replayability of this game. Personally I found the game much too easy, sailing through the first several levels very quickly; despite this I would still say the game is worth downloading, especially if you like traditional HOG's with easy game play. The cut scenes are a little distracting, but you can skip those if you wish. I'd score this a 6.5 out of 10 for game play, 8.5 for ease of play and 7.5 for graphics.

Other Reviews and Videos of Mystery Cookbook:

You can see other comments of Mystery Cookbook HERE (go to bottom of page for community comments)

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE German), HERE, HERE & HERE and written walkthroughs/strategy guides HERE & HERE.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways 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 the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

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.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Mystery cookbook to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

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

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

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

For those community members who only check the gamegiveaway pages at weekends; for the past two weeks we have been getting games every day. These weekday games have not been from MyPlayCity, but from Falcoware and do not contain low level adware like MyPlayCity games (i.e. your browser isn't opened to the distributors home page when you close the games down). I don't know how long we will continue to get games every day, lets hope its a permanent thing :)

Mystery Cookbook

In Brief

A Hidden Object game with a restaurant and kitchen theme. Simple mini games included

Installation:

Mystery Cookbook downloads to a 26.4 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 can save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 29.1 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\Mystery Cookbook

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)

Introduction:

Mystery Cookbook serves up a sumptuous feast of Hidden Object fun! Scour your screen for cleverly hidden objects, find matching shapes and point out the differences between similar pictures in Mystery Cookbook, a sumptuous feast of Hidden Object fun! Six exciting mini-games are like the cherry on the cake!

Edited reference accessed HERE. 30th November 2018

The Game:

Boot up this attractive hidden object game and you’ll meet Mousy, a rodent who wants to master the fine art of professional cooking. To help him achieve this lofty goal, you’ll meet many bizarre animal characters, visit nearly a dozen locations and search for hundreds of well-hidden items in order to find pages of a secret cookbook. If you don’t like the humorous dialogue between Mousy and a cat, dog, fish, bird, hamster and so on, you can just click to fast-forward to the game-play.

If you’re familiar with hidden object games, you’ll have no trouble playing Mystery Cookbook: players are presented with a busy scene, such as a restaurant kitchen, and a number of items to find, such as a fork, wine glass, basket, apple or flowers. Sometimes you’ll see the items listed as words, like "bread," while other levels will show you a silhouette of an item to find, such as an outline of a sugar bowl, and you’ll need to look for it on the screen. You must find all the items within the allotted time or else you need to replay the level. Click on the wrong item a few times and 20 seconds will be removed from the clock as a penalty.

If you’re stuck, you can click on the cheese platter for a hint, and in order to replenish this plate you can find bits of cheese hidden on the level.

Players are also given a specific task for the level, which is tied to the story, such as finding a pocket watch, menu, eyeglasses, brochure or page from a cookbook, and so on. Allegedly the game has more than 800 objects to find, which is enormous.

Mystery Cookbook also offers six types of mini-games that pop up every few levels or so, such as a tile puzzle that challenges players to rotate blocks on a 5×5 grid to form a scene; spotting the differences between two similar images; or finding a specific number of similar items in a scene, such as cups.

Besides the "me, too" game-play, Mystery Cookbook has its share of annoying problems. For one, I was instructed to find and click pieces of cheese on the level, but when I clicked on what was obviously a piece of brie, it cost me some time off the clock as it wasn’t one of the ones I needed to find for some reason.

There are also some confusing items listed like "can," but it turned out to be a glass jar, and "pots," but when I clicked on two pots on the stove, I lost points (it was a third bronze pot off to the side). A third issue is when you need to replay a level if you run out of time, the items stay in the exact same place the second time around so it makes it too easy to finish it since you know where everything is.

As a fan of Alawar’s games, I really wanted to like Mystery Cookbook, but couldn’t get past these annoying shortcomings. Sure, if you’re a serious fan of hidden object games you might enjoy playing through the trial but be aware these issues exist, which will likely eat away at your patience.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Marc Saltzman on Apr 28, 2008, re-posted by Whiterabbit-uk 30th November2018

Conclusion:

Mystery Cookbook is a reasonable hidden object game with a humorous story and graphics (the dogs eyes made me laugh). The mini games are relatively easy, but do add the the playability of the game. There are loads of items to find, some by Silhouett, some by name.

However, there are some confusing item descriptions for example The egg plant (US). Here in the UK we call them aubergines and in South Africa and South Asia they are called brinjal. some instances, it seemed impossible to click on all listed items, also, if you replay the level, the items are in exactly the same place, reducing the replayability of this game. Personally I found the game much too easy, sailing through the first several levels very quickly; despite this I would still say the game is worth downloading, especially if you like traditional HOG's with easy game play. The cut scenes are a little distracting, but you can skip those if you wish. I'd score this a 6.5 out of 10 for game play, 8.5 for ease of play and 7.5 for graphics.

Other Reviews and Videos of Mystery Cookbook:

You can see other comments of Mystery Cookbook HERE (go to bottom of page for community comments)

You can see several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE German), HERE, HERE & HERE and written walkthroughs/strategy guides HERE & HERE.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game later, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways 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 the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

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.

Problems getting the game to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Mystery cookbook to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e. the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try white-listing the setup.gcd file. In the almost 12 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

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

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Mystery Cookbook 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:

If Mystery Cookbook doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and elsewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).