No upgraded drivers - or anything else, really. This is a Win 7 Professional PC that's about two years old. I deleted that game since I couldn't get it to work.

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

Graphic drivers are being updated regularly. You should check to see what graphic chip/card you have then get the latest drivers. You can find out by opening up the direct X diagnostics panel by typing DXDiag, then open the display tab. It should tell you what your graphics card is. It's likely to be either an NVidia or an ATI/ASUS chip. Whichever it is, go to the website and click on the drivers section then fill in the details to get the latest driver. :)

I was really liking this game until my screen turned white. Some of the game is playable, but the hidden object scene on board the ship where you have to cut open the door that was welded shut pushed me past my limits. It's not possible to play a hidden object scene when everything is white...

Searching the internet for a possible solution to the problem located posts from others having the same problem. I tried rebooting my computer and disabling the aero features of Windows 7. I even tried playing the game under XP compatibility. Nothing listed as a possible solution worked for me.

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

Have y ou upgraded the graphic drivers recently?

Nice game. I enjoyed the different takes on the mini games. Don't even mind searching the same areas for the same things as the previous times. The lack of a map is tough. When there isn't an obvious next step I end up going to one end of the game and hitting hint for it to say there is nothing to do and repeat for every location until something comes up. Being able to travel with a map is nice but only a bonus. Some sort of indication would be extremely useful.

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

Thank you for your feedback Gina :)

Hi, people who 'struggle' with Win10, or knock down XP and earlier Windows don't realize the scale of maneuvering and headache to make Games work!! On that subject, I remember few years back moving to my brand new laptop with Win7 on it and connecting my external Drive to it for the first time (Drive, where most of my purchased or downloaded Games live).. Oh boy, I was gob smacked from the word go - seeing loads of Games perfectly OK with XP (some of them designed for '95..:) - won't play on 7 at all. Ha! Where there is will.. even Win7 had to barge to my desired wish. Don't ask me how, it was quite complicated process, some of it intuition or pure luck!:) Best I think to have few machines with previous Windows (or newest too) to make matters simpler and if that is not possible - dual OS-es, something I considered for a while on my lap, but fixed everything I needed (Games and Programs) to have these things working in one 'happy home' under one roof:) For how long?? Lol.

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

:)

Hi, first of all big TY for Saturday Game:) Downloaded pretty quick, plays OK on Win7 and it's quite enjoyable. What's more it's one of my favorite type of Games and it's a proper CE, so that's an extra bonus and generous Gift. Have to say that it's probably best to turn the volume right down, or skip conversations not to hear all these rather annoying 'oh my gashes' in twangy American accent, sorry. Glad the Game is new to me and hidden objects look different and unfamiliar, but graphically pleasant and challenging to find. Looking forward to few more days diving into this Game to solve the case and enjoy extra play no doubt. Many thanks again GGOTD, Immanitas, and for interesting Presentation and Comments.

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

Thank you for your feedback Fran, appreciated. :)

I found what I had missed, a right turn I hadn't noticed because of the angle (the one next to the entrance to the lighthouse proper. Again, this is a problem that would be solved with a map because that there was something there would be indicated instead of depending on me moving my cursor there. I found it after studying the strategy guide and searching every fishnet I could find, of which there were many.

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

:(

These are my favorite types of games, but it's not a great sign when I'm getting tired of going from place to place to click the hint and get nothing to do here. The best solution I've seen is the jump map with ! where there's something to do. As it is, I am using the strategy guide, which is confusing because apparently I did things out of order, and am completely stuck. All the places say there's nothing to do and I don't have the one piece I need to move forward. I have enjoyed the game up to this point though, enough so I will do the rounds again to see if I missed a place to check for an action. I have two of the three sign pieces, and I can't find a mention of where the first was supposed to come from in the strategy guide.

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

Thank you for your feedback Margaret, sorry to hear of the frustrating game play.:)

Windows Vista Laptop, 2 GHz. CPU, 2 GB RAM, 1280x768 resolution. I'm trying to alt-tab to use the walkthrough with the game in full screen since it doesn't like my resolution for windowed mode. Developed a video problem where it seems part of the lower part of the game screen was showing up at the top of the game screen, interfering with game play. I quit the game in hopes that will fix the problem next time I boot it up as that usually does the trick. My guess is that the game is hard on the video so I would not recommend it for laptop users. Otherwise, the game colors are rather dark and not recommended for people with less than sharp eyes. I think the programmer could have done better with lighter shades and/or better color separation while still retaining the overall look. The effect is that of a very muddied picture. If the video problems persist (and they may as the in-game hints are _terrible_) I might have to uninstall the game without reaching anything like the end of it. Very sad as it looks like otherwise it would have been fun to try.

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

Thank you for your feedback Therese, much appreciated. :)

P.S.: Another half GB downloaded for nothing...

Your stupid wrapper again isn't able to install this game.

"Failed to launch the program".

Thumbs down. :-(

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

Unfortunately the gamegiveaway team found it necessary to change the wrapper because of community members ripping off the games. It was easy to copy the unwrapper executable from the hidden folder AppData, which enabled those who knew how to find the folder to copy the executable which allowed the user to install the game anytime they wished instead of the 24 hour period. Not only that some community members thought it a great idea to post details of how to to that online, both on gaming forums and your tube videos. This resulted in some developers leaving the giveaway project. Thousands of community members are able to install these games every week despite the new wrapper. Those that can't 9nstall usually have something installed on their systems that is preventing the installation of the game. No two computers are exactly the same with respect to what is installed on their hard drives except when a new install of an operating system is made on a new hard drive.

There is probably something conflicting with the giveaway wrapper that is preventing the installation of these game giveaways. I can only suggest fixes, most of which are mentioned in the FAQ's that is available over in the game discussion forums sticky section. Often you can find out the reason by checking the event logs immediately following an installation attempt. Any issues encountered when installing or running a game or application will be recorded in the log, though the language used my seen cryptic. Googling these error messages may help.

I do hope you are able to figure out what the problem is on your computer.

:)

Thank you. I was able to muddle through. lol Just not used to Win10 yet.

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

I've been reverting back to win 7 on most of my computers. always preferred 7 to 8. Will keep at least 1 maybe two win 10 computers. the rest are now Win 7 again. I've got one still being refurbished and am going to reinstall XP as there are quite a lot of my older games that won't work on Vista onward, I may even make it a dual boot with Win 98. I'm going to reinstall most of the arcade games I originally purchased from Reflexive Arcade (over 900 of them). I've been reinstalling a lot of my old games recently and have enjoyed playing some of the 10 plus year old games such as Battlefield Vietnam, the original Sid Meier s Civilization, Darkland, several old breakouts and one of my all time favorite FPS games Men of Valor (just purchased a job lot of 15 new copies of Men of Valor to pass around to my friends as i intend either setting up a server to play online, or rent one). I'd not played any of them for several years or more.

Another game to stop me from the house work. Just as well its a weekend. Game loaded and play no problems. Win10 Home 64bit. Thank you.

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

:)

Win 10. First time I've ever had a problem with a GGOTD game. It seemed to d/l ok but when I try to extract and run, I get an error window. Compressed (zipped) Folders Error Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination file could not be created.
Huh? lol I've never had this problem before and I haven't clue as what to do.

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

Try using a different file archiver such as 7 Zip or J Zip. I've posted safe links to several free archivers over in the FAQ's thread, which is linked to in the problem,s section of my review above (see comment 1)

Hey you Wrascally Wabbit,

No I am not downloading the game this week. Tired of dreary bleak, dark HOGs. They really are bad on the eyes. Last week games were awesome so I am not complaining. We had a funeral in the family so I had to sneak on my PC to just download them. Love Tales of the Orient. The different choices as to how you play the game is really cool. Already had 4 Elements but it's a beautiful different game too.

David Bowie game FREE | Rock, Paper, Shotgun "It is the closest we ever got to A David Bowie game, and it also features music from his last 90s album Hours."

Remember Rock, Paper, Shotgun? well, they have a weekly feature called Free Loaders. It's a short review of free games. Have some real cute ones this week. May have to try that Sea Serpent Simulator.
Best Free PC Games of the week | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

When I read this..I thought of you...This guy is trying to finish ALL the Steam games | Irish Examiner But I think you just buy them..right? Joke, joke, joke!

Thanks to GGOTD and Immanitas Entertainment for the games they provide. There is always another day for another game. And hugs to The Furry, Floppy Eared One.

P.S. Thank you, Thomas, for the interesting read. :)

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

Hi Delenn, sorry to hear of your families loss. We used to post details of the free games from RPS in the Good Games to Grab posts. I keep meaning to re-start posting games again, but things have been so busy since we moved two years ago, I never seem to have the time to devote to the project. I even started a Whiterabbit's Recommendations, but so far have only posted one game (called Gish)

It's worth checking RPS's freeloaders regularly. They have posted some excellent ones over the last few years. Until around the time my friend David passed away I had played virtually all of my Steam games bar about 40 of them, but since he passed I've gone mad buying virtually every game released and now have almost 2000 games un-played. That said I have played around 4500 of them. Hopefully my renewed interest in astronomy and photography will wean me off buying more games. I purchased a decent 10'' reflector back in November and have purchased filters and other accessories for my camera. All I need now is a motorcycle trike to get me around and I'll be happy. I emailed that motorcycle guy who has a TV program. the one who's son fell out with him and created a rival company. (probably set up to create interest in the program). I can't remember the name of the TV show now. They made a brilliant motorcycle trike for charity that enabled a wheel chair bound person to use it. Unfortunately they never replied to my email. I was really interested in having a similar one made and shipped to the UK. At the time I still had enough money to buy one. :)

You can not even write properly comment on which the words that make sense is not just to be found.

Oh! what's a mistery? Is that a combination of misery and mystery? I don't think I would like that. Boo.

Two tutus too? Toodle Loo!

Yay - the mistery is back :-D

Download and installation without a problem. Great graphics, cool story - thanks a lot for this one.

You can not even write properly homepage on which the game is not just to be found.

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

:?:

Must have been peterlu's cat.

This is a beautiful game. I love the crisp graphics. There are nice sound effects and background music. This one definitely gets a thumbs up.

Thanks Immanitas for another great gift. Thanks GGOTD and Stephen for all that you do. I enjoyed the review today. I give this game 9/10. It has a lot of replayability for me.

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

:)

This game installs and works perfectly on Windows 8.1, with a message upon closing the game the first time that compatibility changes were applied automatically. Thanks as always to GGOTD and Immanitas Entertainment for another excellent game, and to WR for his thorough and entertaining review. I just skipped the spoilers for now, and will refer to them if needed later. I truly enjoy visiting this site and reading the comments every weekend, whether the game is a genre I like or not. Happy weekend to all.

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

Thank you for your feedback Buster. :)

It's obvious...

Peterlu won the game - three times!

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

:)

game looks quite interesting must be my pc the cursor takes ages to get to an object. pity has'nt happened before

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

Some community members have had issues with the resolution (including me on one of my computers that i installed this game to. Didn't really need the game as I already have it on my Steam account.:)

the shortcut is in computer /games folder

When clicking on the publisher or home page link, both show GGOD pages.
This was on a direct click or new tab open, using google chrome.

Downloaded and installed smoothly on my old XP3 machine. No problems with the game so far. I do appreciate the strategy guide. My only "con" is that I wish the HOS items were a bit bigger. It's kind of hard to find a tiny brown bottle. Thanks to all who make this site so wonderful! Linda

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

:)

Looks decent for fans. For me I can't take the work involved to lumber through all this after an especially hard week. Staying with wonderful 4 Elements II. No need to keep switching to the walk through for most HOG puzzles or endless piles of junk. Thanks for review & game.

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

I lost interest in these pretty looking, but same old same HOG's quite a few years ago. There are far better indie games out there for me to enjoy. Most HOG's seem to follow a pattern with just the graphics changed. a great cash co for the dev's:)

Apology accepted :). But for HOG/adventure type games, I'd much prefer a link to (or mention of) the Strategy Guide/walkthrough/solution rather than images of it in your game review.

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

I was unable to take any screen captures myself with this game. Every time i tried I'd get a paused message starting to show; so had to rely on Google images. unfortunately there were not that many decent images available.

Thank you Zakuska and Thomas for your comments concerning this issue. The Credo House blog is very informative for anyone who desires to please The Lord in all things without taking it to a level that it was not meant to be. IE., "not eating meat which was sacrificied to idols". I will be saving this link and re-reading several times to see how this applies to me. My initial take though is I will still be very careful in not, justifying any action which might violate how I honor the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, ETC. Ultimately the God of the Bible.

Again, I appreciate your thoughts in this matter.

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

:)

This weeks game is a great big NOPE, DOPE!

Last week's game, HOWEVER! Tales of the Orient: The Rising Sun is an AMAZING game! It might be my third favorite game ever offered here on the great and wonderful GOTD! Far FAR behind Fishdom BUT BUT BUT (I like big butts and I cannot lie) just a little behind Alice's Magical Mahjong. (HEY, game people, it's been a loooooong time since we've had a mahjong game offered here! hint. HINT!)

Rising Sun is the most MOSTEST game I've played in a long time! I LOVE the rotate feature!!! And I LOVE the choice of three play modes for every single round! Two suggestions, though, that MIGHT bring it to the FISHDOM level. 1. Allow a preview of the round before requiring a person to select a play mode. 2. Allow players of pick the location of buildings in the Japanese village instead of just, well... allowing us to do nothing. That part of the game still seems a waste of time.

Thanks, White Rabbit! Last weeks game made my week, and will make this week too seeing that I am only 41% finished. You the BIG BUNNY! (Have a good day, Erick, Erick, My Name is Erick and John the Chicken Boy. I HOPE HOPE HOPE to hear you both say a word someday!)

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

Thanks for your feedback and other comments, most of which bring a smile to the community :) :) :)

One other thing I forgot to mention... I believe the ending in the bonus chapter is the true ending to the game but don't remember the ending from the original. I think a lot of developers are getting away from doing this now. It really is not fair to the SE buyers to put the true ending in only the CE version.

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

:)

I purchased the SE version several years ago and enjoyed the game although it is not one of my favorite HOGs (A versus A+). I successfully copied the SE game progress to CE and then was able to play the bonus chapter without replaying the whole game. That is something I really appreciate in Collector's Editions games!

The only issue I had with the game was that when I tried to use the players I had used for originally demoing the game, there was nothing at the bottom of the window... no HOS list / diary / hint / etc. When I clicked around in the scene, it was acting like it was in an HOS. So I tried a new player which went to fullscreen and then changed back to windowed. I think changing from fullscreen to windowed might have fixed the issue so if anyone else has the same problem with previous players in windowed mode, try changing to fullscreen and back to windowed to see if that fixes the problem. I did also install the game from Toomky and Toomky worked correctly but I think the fullscreen change is really what fixed it.

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

Please excuse my late comment. Thank you for the excellent feedback, much appreciated. :)

What exactly did you thank him for??? I don't understand any of that! Was it something that I NEEDED to know???

Yay, another adventure type game! I try hard to avoid hints and walkthroughs, but do end up using them a few times in most of these games. I don't mind that the hints are a bit obscure in this one; there's always the strategy guide if you're really stuck :). So far working fine, but I see at least one person had a crash. Once in a while, I have the same issue, while most games work fine, and it's frustrating.

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

Thankfully I've only had a few issues, most of which have been recently. I hope it's not something I'm going to see more often. I do have several computers, so there is always at least one or two that are set up correctly for whatever is causing an issue for others. There has only ever been two games I've not been able to install, the first was given away around 5 months after the project started and was a quirky breakout game called Arcon Toys, (I still have a purchased copy, which I bought from Alawar), it wouldn't run on XP (this was before Vista was released), most other community members also had the same problem. It only worked on Win 98 and before. The error was a memory access violation. The other game was one we were given just before Christmas, the name of which I've forgotten. :)

I find it distasteful too. It will keep me from playing a game. Makes me think the game was build by a teenage boy who thinks it "cool" to talk that way.

freezes up on the add your name page. Have to use task manager or shut down to get out of it. Would of loved to play it but that is as far as it gets.

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

I had problems changing to windowed mode (I change to windowed mode to take screen captures, but wasn't able to on my secondary computer due to the monitor not supporting the resolution required. It may be that you need to change your monitor resolution for the game to work. You could temporarily change the resolution , get the game to run (assuming it will), change to windowed mode, then change back to your usual resolution.

111

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

:?:

AARGH! Did you intend to post a whole bunch of walkthrough spoilers today, Stephen? As I write, there are about five whole pages of walkthrough screenshots in your post #1.

I'll definitely be trying this one, but please: no spoilers in your reviews. Pretty please? Thanks.

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

Sorry Cad, meant to put a spoiler alert on those three images. They are pages from the strategy guide. :)

Ok game in general, but IMHO the hints could also point to the right direction. Did crash eventually (mono.dll caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005) in module mono.dll at 0023:10062f4d.), had to reboot.

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

Thanks for the feedback

Zakuska, about that "taking God's name in vain": http://credohouse.org/blog/taking-the-lords-name-in-vain-what-does-it-really-mean

Zakuska, I totally agree with you.
WR, I also look forward to hearing from you on the weekends.
Thanks for the games! :-)

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

:)

Bonjour,

Pour jouer en français :
1-Télécharger et installer la demo gratuite : http://www.bigfishgames.fr/jeux-a-telecharger/18024/sea-legends-le-phare-du-diable-ec/download.html
2-Copier tout le répertoire : C:\Program Files (x86)\SeaLegends_LePhareduDiable_CE_Data
3-le coller dans le répertoire de jeu : \SeaLegendsPhantasmalLightCE_Game\SeaLegends_LePhareduDiable_CE_Data
4-Renommer "SeaLegends_PhantasmalLight_CE_Data" en "SeaLegends_PhantasmalLight_CE_Data_original" pour le cas où...
5-Renommer "SeaLegends_LePhareduDiable_CE_Data" en "SeaLegends_PhantasmalLight_CE_Data"
Jouer.
Cerise sur le gâteau pour les non experts : il existe une solution en français : http://www.bigfishgames.fr/blog/walkthrough/sea-legends-le-phare-du-diable-solution/

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

Thanks bricolou

Seems like it will be a good game. The first thing I needed a hint on though, the hint was very vague and I couldn't tell what the object was that I was supposed to use to find the hidden object. The hint did not show where the hidden object was, just the unknown tool you were supposed to use.

Personally, I would enjoy these games much much more if they would stop taking God's name in vain during the conversations with the characters. There really is no point in it and it adds nothing to the game. I am sure I am not the only one that finds this use of it distasteful.

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

Thank you for your feedback Zakuska.

Hey, Whiterabbit! I look forward to hearing from you every weekend :-)

There is no desktop shortcut or start menu item installed: the game is extracted -- meaning no uninstaller either.

Looks like a good one!

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

To save time I use the previous weeks review and delete the content that isn't applicable to save time having to retype the headings etc. Forgot to change the shortcut info. now updated. thanks for reminding me Mac. :)

Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light Collectors Edition:

In Brief:


Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light is a Hidden Object-Adventure game with mini games. The game was kindly donated by Immanitas Entertainment. Thanks a million for continuing to give us some excellent games. Watch out for the Big Fish strategy guide images if you don't want any spoilers. I've added a spoiler alert above and below the images that contain spoilers.


If you miss today's giveaway it is available free 24/7 from MyPlayCity, TooMky Games and Gametop . The advantage of installing the giveaway version is that there's no chance of getting toolbars, home page changes, browser changes, and your browser is never opened to the donators web site when you close the game down, like it is if you get the game from any of the other free arcade game sites.





Installation:

Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light downloads to a 480 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive. The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 770 MB in size and is installed via the following path.

C:\Games\SeaLegendsPhantasmalLightCE_Game


There is no desktop shortcut installed. Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. The game works on Win 7 and Win 10 computers, unfortunately I can't confirm whether it works on Win 8 or XP.

Introduction:

Reveal the bloodcurdling truth about the cursed island and save your friend Mike in a dark and mysterious game Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light Collector's Edition! Are you ready for a dangerous adventure? You and Mike were having an idyllic day floating on a yacht when a storm broke through. You wake up on a foggy island. Your aim is to save Mike who was taken by some unknown creature. All you can see is a lighthouse Devil's Rock at the horizon. It won't take you long to understand that there is something wrong with the island and the lighthouse as well. From time to time you have terrible visions of dying people. Everywhere you can see strange notes or newspaper headlines saying that mysterious deaths happened in this area. If you are not afraid of such an atmosphere then try to solve the mystery in the game Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light Collector's Edition. There are 2 modes - regular and expert. You can use the tutorial at the beginning of the game. There are several misty and dark locations (an abandoned hut, a ship and even a graveyard), you can move from one location to another when cursor becomes a navigation icon. All important information is recorded in a diary at the bottom of the screen, you can have a look there any moment. A lot of puzzles are waiting for you! If you get stuck you can use a hint or skip the puzzle. You will also look for the hidden objects that are necessary for you. Use your logic and be attentive to the details! If you like mysteries you will definitely enjoy the game Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light Collector's Edition.

Reference accessed HERE 16th Jan 2016



....................SPOILER ALERT ... the following three images are from the, Big Fish strategy guide, they contain spoilers............................

Reviews:


You can see some Big Fish mini reviews of Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light HERE, just scroll down to the middle of the page. You can also find forum discussions HERE and more mini reviews over on Steam HERE.

You can find Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light walkthroughs HERE and HERE.







The Game:

Mike and Jane are enjoying a beautiful afternoon aboard their yacht, the Sea Bliss, when a storm suddenly appears. The sky turns dark and a strange symbol glows in the sky right before the yacht is hit with a powerful wave. You come to on a deserted island just in time to see Mike’s unconscious body being dragged away. Thus begins Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light.

You will need to explore the island and uncover the secrets of the mysterious lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper. Is he a madman or is there something more sinister at work here? As you explore your surroundings you will uncover some of his writings which will give you more insight into his motivations for trapping you and Mike. However, if you don’t read these notes, you are likely to be very confused by the plot. You may be confused by the end even if you do read everything you find.

....................SPOILER ALERT ... the above three images are from the Big Fish strategy guide, they contain spoilers............................

To progress in the game you will need to search through a lot of hidden object scenes. While the graphics in the scenes are clear, they are essentially junk piles. The number of useless items and oversized buttons that have been lost on this island is crazy. You will also be revisiting most of the scenes multiple times.

You will also need to solve a variety of puzzles as you search for Mike. The majority of the puzzles you will be solving are inventory based but there are also quite a few traditional puzzles sprinkled across the island. The puzzles range in difficulty from simple to intermediate. If you become stuck you can skip any puzzle once the skip button has fully charged.

The atmosphere in the game is well done. The scenes are dark and stormy and you definitely get the feeling that while you are alone on the island you really aren’t. The music is somewhat repetitive but not overly annoying. The game is fully voiced, but seeing as you are alone for the majority of the game you won’t be hearing a lot of talking.


The Collector’s Edition includes a bonus chapter that lets you play the game from Mike’s point of view. Unfortunately, most of the areas you will be visiting are places you’ve already visited. There are a couple new scenes though. Also, the bonus chapter includes several unique puzzles . The final puzzle may actually be a puzzle within a puzzle, so make your choice wisely.

Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light doesn’t really offer anything new, but it is a pleasant game nonetheless (well as pleasant as a game about abductions and creepy cursed lighthouses can be anyways).

General Information:

You can choose to play this game in Regular or Expert Mode. In Expert Mode Hint and Skip buttons recharge slower and active zones are not indicated with sparkles
In the Options Menu you can change the volume of various types of sounds and choose to play with a custom cursor or in windowed or full screen mode
At the start of the game you can choose to play a little tutorial that shows you the various types of interactions
– A hand cursor means you can grab an item
– A magnifying glass means you can zoom in on an object
– The cursor become a compass with an arrow in places where you can exit to the next scene
Hidden object scenes (HOS) are indicated with sparkles in both Regular and Expert Mode
Some of the items in the HOS will be listed in blue, meaning they require an extra action to be found. Sometimes two items need to be put together, in which case one of them will be indicated with a hand cursor and the other with a magnifying glass. In other cases you just need to click on something to reveal the item you are looking for
All puzzles can be skipped when the Skip button is fully charged. Puzzles can be reset by backing out and trying again
The Hint button can be used both in HOS and on regular maps. When there is nothing left to do on the current map, you will be told and the Hint button will not need to recharge
The Collector’s Edition of this game features a bonus chapter, which can be accessed from the main menu under “extras” after you’ve completed the game. When you’ve completed the bonus chapter more goodies will be unlocked, such as music, concept art, a wallpaper and a screen saver

Reference accessed HERE 16th Jan 2016

Video and Slideshow:

You’ll find videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.




System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista/Win7/8
CPU: 1.6 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 795 MB

Scoring

Game play: 7.5
Graphics: 8
Audio: 7
Replayability: 7
Originality: 7
Fun Factor: 7.5

Total = 44 out of 60 which equals 7.3 out of 10.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light working, please go HERE for help. I've posted most 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.

If you think the game is infected - IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

For those of you who are getting hits by your anti malware suites; it's because they are picking up the Themida based protection, which was put in place to protect the game from unscrupulous community members that were hacking the giveaway wrapper which then gave them unlimited access to a registered copy of the game, which was being put on peer to peer sites. Some community members were even uploading video tutorials on You tube telling you how to do it yourself.




Themida based applications are sometimes seen as a threat by anti-malware. I can assure you this game and hundreds before, that have given community members cause for concern have been totally safe. The game giveaway team have managed to secure well over a thousand games for us since they first started giving away games back in late 2006; firstly via the main site (Oct 2006), then via the game giveaway site (early December 2006). There has never 'ever' been an infected game given away.

If you are able to configure your anti-malware suite to allow the 'seemingly offensive' file through security, the game should then install normally. if you can't, or don't know how to, then the other way would be to temporarily turn off your protection. You do so at your own risk, but please do take into account what I've already said above; in a nut shell, every malware occurrence reported here since the game giveaway went live in Dec 2006 have been false positives due to overly sensitive anti-malware suites.

It would be against the giveaway teams best interest to allow such an occurrence as it would destroy their good standing with the big search engines and I'm sure many who have frequented this site for a long time would leave. The giveaway team use several anti-malware suites to test every game given away here.

Another thing to consider when you think the game is infected, if it really was, there would be hundreds of community members posting about the infection; we rarely more than a few posts for any particular game; though, since the gcd file that contains the Themida code was introduced in 2012 I have seen many more community members reporting infections due to the Themida based code found in the giveaways wrapper protection. However, out of the thousands of downloads each week, those numbers are insignificant and supports the fact that the results they are getting are actually false positives. They have always been proven to be so.

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums; in the game discussion section, because I cannot moderate 24hrs a day over the weekend. I've created a thread HERE for that purpose. If you've installed today's game but it doesn’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at a later date. Unfortunately if your problem is actually downloading it, once the giveaway deadline is reached you will no longer be able to download the game unless you've already started downloading it before the cut-off. Sometimes you can still register the game after the giveaway has ended so long as you managed to start the download before the giveaway ends. I've tested this and the grace period lasts for up to 1 hour. Apart from the above instances; i.e. already installed, but having problems running the game, (with the possibility of receiving help from the community via the giveawayoftheday game discussion forum); or still downloading after the cut off period, but within the 1 hour grace period, or registering within an hour of the cut-off period. Once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done to get the game (unless its available from one of the free game sites) until the game is given away again (though that isn't always guaranteed).


It's worth checking the giveaway game discussion forums the day before the giveaways go live to see if we are getting a large sized file (I usually post a comment about approximately how large a file is, though if I'm particularly busy I may neglect to do this). It is especially important for those who have slow connections and even more so if the game is popular. We can have up to forty thousand (40 000) community members downloading over the 24 hour period, with the bulk of community members downloading in the first 12 hours of the giveaway going live, there is always a massive strain on the giveaway servers. The bigger the file size, the more community members will be downloading at any one time. Because the bandwidth is shared equally among all community members, downloads can become excruciatingly slow, so if you do have a slow connection, its important to start your download as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Because these games are free, the giveaway owners cannot invest in more bandwidth without compromising the whole project, so we have to be satisfied with what we have at present.

A download manager can help speed the download up and also protect the download in case of an interruption. There's nothing as frustrating for those with really slow connections to have the connection break after an hour or so, then have to start from the beginning again. I would ask community members if you do have decent bandwidth please avoid using a manager as it does add to the number of downloads occurring at any one time, for example some download managers will download your requested file in up to 32 packets simultaneously, that will take 32 download spots, thus slowing down everyone else's download speeds. For those with slow downloads (due to having a slow connection e.g. a 2MB Broadband connection or less) I would advise using a download manager if the file is larger than around 200MB. My broadband connection is 100MBs, so I don't need to use a download manager, (I do have one called Internet Download Manager, but don't use it when downloading files from the giveaway site). For me a 1GB file usually downloads in about 1.5 minutes or less. My connection is quite a long way from the provider so it is slowed a little, but is still quite good at a download speed of around 12 to 14 MB's per second.

I hope the above goes some way in explaining why we sometimes have really slow downloads.



It’s always worth checking out the free games sites because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity (MPC) has the most with over 1000 games to choose from and Toomky Games is highly recommended. Today's game is available 24/7 from MyPlayCity, TooMky Games and Gametop






If you do download any games from these free game sites please 'do' watch out for toolbars etc. Make sure you un-check the check-boxes during installation, and, in the case of MyPlayCity, every time you boot the game up, (this may have changed now as these free game sites tend to change the format frequently)....... I've posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the games, games and yet more games section. If you do download a game from any of these sites you do so at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for problems arising from an installation recommended here. :)


As always, you download from those free game sites at your own risk. The gamegiveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. (BitsduJour is also great for free applications). The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway (apart from the instances mentioned above and if and when you upgrade or buy a new computer legally you aren't allowed to transfer games given away previously, unless they are being given away on the day you upgrade, or if you've purchased a license. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. No games given away here since the inception of the gamegiveaway site have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slight annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention; i.e. when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway, called 'the Software Informer' installation window. Some community members have complained that they were given no choice in its installation. That is not true; when the final window pops up, there are two buttons, one asking if you want Software Informer installed and the button to close the giveaway window down. Some community members have clicked on the wrong button, probably because they weren't paying attention. Thankfully Software Informer is a genuine application, that can easily be uninstalled by the usual means. It's actually a useful piece of software, especially if you have a lot of applications running on your computer. Basically the program will list the programs that need updating, or programs that have available updates. They wont be automatically installed (thus cancelling many giveaway registrations); you have to click on individual buttons to update each program/application. :D

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Games, Games, and yet more Games:


There are 505 games on sale this week, with a new batch of sales to come on Monday. You can find all of the games on sale HERE. I won't bother listing any of the games, but it should be worth visiting as there are games for all tastes. Of course you do need to install the Steam client, but IMO it is well worth it. There are lots of free games (not just free to play online games) available plus there are always games on sale.



You'll also find some excellent deals over on the following Game sites.

GreenManGaming They usually have coupons to the value of 23% and sometimes more off pre ordered games. I've just pre ordered Just Cause 3 XL and XCOM 2 using a voucher and saved £22 on the price paid in the Steam store
Gamersgate Summer Sale
GOG (DRM free games)
Gamestop
GameFly (soon to be sold off)

I've removed the Desura link because the owners are bankrupt and there has been no activity on the site in months. The servers are still live (at least until Bad JoJo's subscription to the servers has ended, Bad JoJo are the owners of Desura and Indie Royale, or were until filing for bankruptcy). If you own any games via Desura I advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform and on the Indie Royale site before the sites are taken down.




Free Game Sites:

Toomky Games
MyPlayCity (over a 1000 games to choose from)
Gametop
FreeGamePick



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 Steamworks 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. you'll find the indie bundles thread HERE. The thread is outdated, but all of the links will still take you to the latest bundles.






The latest IndieGameStand game is Spirits of Xanadu

Spirits of Xanadu is an atmospheric exploration game set aboard a deserted starship in an alternate 1980s. It draws inspiration from classic sci-fi films, novels, and games to create an immersive and highly interactive environment, featuring puzzles and FPS elements in the service of a unique and layered plot.

You can get the game for $1; pay over the average to get a bonus pack for the game. (The price at the time of writing was $1.67). The game includes a Steam code as well as a drm free download.


The deal ends Tuesday 19th Jan 2016 5am (GMT)



The latest DIG game is Sirius Online

Sirius Online is a space-based MMO inspired by the quick action of Freelancer and the vast beauty of EVE Online. You choose your own destiny, from being a miner and control the mineral supply, over Exploring and finding the deepest hidden riches of the universe, Trade and support the industry backbone, or even become a fighter for peace agains the ever growing Drone scourge... or to drive players into madness by killing them.

Sirius Online has an easily accessable control scheme, a vast and open universe with thousands of explorable object and a really supportive community. Join in today and start off a great Journey - with friends, foes and unsuspecting victims.

Pay £0.99 for the game or you can get two keys if you pay more than the average of $1.07 (at the time of writing ). One Steam key to share with a friend or family member perhaps? You'll find that deal HERE. They also have five bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 each HERE (DIG Bundles 47, 48, 49 & 50, reBundle 9 and DIG Greenlight Bundle 3 ). You get Steam keys for all of these games apart from the DIG GreelightBundle. If any of those games are added to the Steam store you will get a Steam key, in the mean time, you can download DRM free copies.
The single game deal ends just after Midnight tonight 16th Jan 2016 and will be replaced with a new game.

Most of the bundles available retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars (apart from the Daily Indie bundles that only cost $1.49 for six games), but you can pay as little as a dollar for some. There are some excellent bundles out at the moment. I highly recommend the first four sites as they regularly change their bundles, at least weekly. Bundle Stars is the most prolific, usually with at least 10 bundles, but sometimes a lot more. some bundles stay for months, others for only a few days. I also recommend buying the Greenlight bundles as you will get quite a few being greenlit and save a large amount of money on newly released games. I reckon at least 75% of the games from those bundles have been Greenlit since I purchased my first Greenlight bundle. (I've bought at least 50 bundles with only Greenlight games and they have never cost more than $3 to $4 per bundle, with savings up to 90%. The flying bundle is the only one that will inform you when a game has been Greenlit and will send you your Steam keys, the rest you have to check your accounts page to see if they have added Steam keys. sometimes it may take several weeks after the game has been released before you get your keys, but generally its either the same day or a few days at the most.





Bundle Stars (26 bundles)
Groupees (3 bundles)
Indie Gala (5 bundles)
Humble bundle (2 Bundles)
Indie Royale (this bundle is no longer live)
Bundle Bandits (0 bundles)
Blink Bundle (0 bundles)
Play Injector (0 bundle)
Get Loaded (0 bundles)
Games Rage (0 bundles)
Flying bundle (1 bundles)

FREE GAME:

The free game from Origin is Jade Empire: Special Edition (Highly Recommended).

Step into the role of an aspiring martial-arts master and follow the path of the open palm or the closed fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of the entire Jade Empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land, or will you crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses his strength and fighting mastery to bring peace, or will you instead use your power to bring pain and ruin?
The choice is yours.

Game Features:


The Original Award Winning Jade Empire
An incredible, engaging story that makes you the noble hero or the treacherous villain!
A wealth of fascinating characters to interact with.
Beautiful, mysterious lands to explore, discover, and save...or conquer.
A rich blend of role-playing and exciting real-time combat.
New monsters and enemies.
New fighting styles.
Customizable, intuitive controls including support for game-pads and keyboard/mouse.
Increased graphics resolutions and new visual effects.
Improved combat AI and difficulty levels.
New world map interface.

Check it out HERE.


You do need a free Origin account and install the Origin client to get these free games. Once you've installed the Origin client and signed into your account select 'On the house' from the 'Free Games' drop down menu. Then select download now. The game will then be registered to your Origin account permanently.

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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 between 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, and a big thank you to Playrix Entertainment for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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