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

I'm off to the Midlands with my son for an open day at one of the universities he's interested in attending next year. He wants to study Pharmacy.

I will continue to moderate once I return later today. It's almost a three hour drive to the university, so I probably won't be back until this evening at the earliest. Please continue to post comments. If you find any problems, I will try to help when I return, though there are some excellent community members who have helped with problems recently. (Thanks in advance to those who do help)

Weird Park: Scary Tales

In Brief

A Hidden Object Adventure game. Do be aware the download is almost 1 gigabyte, so for those with slow connections please do start downloading as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Also available via MyPlayCity is the first in the Weird Park series called Weird Park: Broken Tune

Whether you like or dislike Weird Park: Scary Tales please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, 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. If you prefer the game on Steam you can also buy all three games in the series via the Steam platform HERE. At the moment it's on sale with 80% off for £2.99/$3.99 £

Weird Park: Scary Tales downloads to a 979 MB zip file that unzips to four 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 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\Weird Park - Scary Tales

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)

Explore the Fairy Gate Park to reveal the eerie truth about mysterious events in the hidden object game Weird Park: Scary Tales! When you want to have a nice weekend, you can never imagine what will happen on the way to the marvelous place where your friends are waiting for you. Nothing was of ill omen, but in the spirit of horror films a strange sad girl appears on the passenger seat and asks for help. You get to the accident and appear not far from the mysterious place with not a single person around. Are you scared? Most of people definitely are. But if you want to throw light upon the sinister story in the game Weird Park: Scary Tales, welcome to the Fairy Gate Park! What’s happened to this nice place and why is the atmosphere so oppressive there? It seems like nobody was there long ago, everything is shabby and devastated. But what a mysterious story is connected to this place? 9 children are missed not far from the Fairy Gate Park, the police investigated every house around but nothing was found. What’s happened to these children? Are they alive? It’s high time to find the kidnapped children and look for the necessary tools to repair the car. Explore the tons of picturesque locations in the game Fairy Gate Park and get to the roots of the crime! In the game Weird Park: Scary Tales you’ll face the notorious criminals: Louis the Clown and Mr. Dudley who are the main villains in this secluded place and nobody except you can help the children escape from those horrible fairy tales with them in the lead role. Using your powers of observation to find hidden objects and intellect to solve challenging puzzles, you will make your way through the stories of Cinderella, Peter Pan, Aladdin and more, releasing the children only to see Mr. Dudley appear and then spirit them away to the clown's tower. Find all the items from the list, solve mind-bending puzzles where you will become a painter, diver and even a mechanic to set the children free! Play the game Weird Park: Scary Tales and outwit the cunning clowns!

Reference accessed HERE. 2016

1) ... 59 unique locations

2) ... 26 mini-games

3) ... Walkthroughs available via Big Fish

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Weird Park: Scary Tales to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

It’s time for another dose of psychotic circus performers! Weird Park: Scary Tales is a sequel to Weird Park: Broken Tune (all three of the series available as a triple pack via Steam, with 80% off this weekend), continuing the tradition of crazy locations and straightforward hidden object gameplay. After crashing your car outside of an abandoned town, you learn that mad Louis the Clown has trapped several children inside twisted versions of classic fairy tales. And you know what? The only person who can rescue them is you!

Weird Park: Scary Tales sticks to the well-established formula for hidden object games, placing you in a series of small areas blocked by locked doors, overgrown vines, busted machines and various other obstacles. You clear the way by solving puzzles using items gathered during your travels. Some key items can be found strewn about the landscape, but the bulk of the important stuff will be found by completing hidden object scenes. Once you’ve got an item you think you can use, simply click on your inventory and try it out. If it works, you’ll have access to a new area that’s no doubt ripe with more mysteries to solve!

Hidden object scenes in Weird Park: Scary Tales are frequent, and you’ll often repeat the same scene with a different list of items minutes after completing it the first time. Each one takes just a few minutes to work through, featuring a small list of items to find in areas that aren’t too crowded with debris. Red list items will need a little encouragement to be brought into existence, so if you see “photograph of an owl”, don’t look for a ready-made picture. Instead, hunt for a camera, find an owl, and take the photo yourself! Nothing too obscure or complex is ever thrown your way, it just helps liven up the otherwise stationary hidden object scenes.

A feeling you’ll quickly become familiar with while playing Scary Tales is confusion. The game likes to throw handfuls of puzzles at you at once, piling them on one after another with no clear solutions in sight. In most games this wouldn’t be too much of a problem. In fact, it might make things even more intriguing. Here, though, because the solutions don’t always follow a logical path, you’ll end up feeling lost most of the time. It’s the old “If I need to break that glass, why can’t I use the hammer in my inventory? Why do I have to hunt for a specific crowbar?” quandary, making it a daunting task to mentally catalogue possible locations you should try new inventory items. It’s a little frustrating, and the matter is made worse by the ineffectual hint system.

At the bottom of the screen a stuffed bear sits and blows up a balloon. When it’s full, you can click to pop it, activating a hint. If you’re in the middle of a hidden object scene, a trail of sparkles points you to an item to find. If you’re not, they lead to one of the many unsolved puzzles on your mental tally sheet. This is where problems arise: what the hint balloon tells you to do isn’t always what moves you forward. It almost seems random, and sometimes it’s downright useless. Once you’ve spent the hint and solved the riddle you’re often no further than you were a moment ago, still lost and confused and wishing that bear had bigger lungs.

Overall, Weird Park: Scary Tales is a middle of the road hidden object game. The production values are high and the game is free from technical faults, but the puzzles don’t quite fit together to form a coherent whole. The storyline is thin, hidden object scenes repeat themselves, and the hint system needs a few more IQ points. While it may not revolutionize the hidden object genre, it does provide a decent item hunting experience – though be ready to utilize trial and error to make it through some of the puzzles.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Original review written by John Anthony on Nov 12, 2012 Edited by Whiterabbit-uk 29th Oct 2016

There are three in the series, Weird Park Scary Tales being the second in the series. (see my note above regarding the trilogy being on sale over on Steam with 80% off i.e. £2.99/$3.99). The game definitely measures up to the first one especially in terms of its weirdness level... although this game takes a little warming up before you can totally appreciate its fine bouquet of bizarre.

The story begins one night as you're driving your hot rod car down the road, blasting some nice midi tunes on your radio. Sorry, I couldn't help it... the radio was blasting some weird music that sounded like an old Atari game theme song like Pole Position... not important to the story at all, but resulted in a moment of panic when I thought it hinted at what was to come.

As you drive into the night, you cross into the town limits of Fairy Gate Park, and suddenly... your radio goes dead. And then, the next thing you know, there's a creepy little girl sitting next to you asking you to save her. You naturally are so shocked by this sudden invasion that you crash your car headlong into a tree. Although... another side note... at the speed you were going, I'm not sure you would have easily walked away from that crash let alone gone adventuring after an evil clown... but that's just me.

The next hour or so will leave you somewhat confused as to what you're doing as you struggle with searching the abandoned and crumbling remains of Louis Gauche's home, but trust me, it's worth it. What you're looking for is a way into the fantasy realm where the children are caught in the stories. And there's where the true brilliance and excitement of Weird Park Scary Tales come shining through.

Through each story, you must put things to right in order to save the children caught in each world. So for example, you need to find Cinderella's glass slipper and return it to her... but she may or may not be stuck in her coach, which is now a pumpkin.

The graphics are beautiful, although I admit, the sparkling vibrant colors you discover in the fantasy world are much more enjoyable than the dark and dingy colors you have to suffer through in order to get there.

Don't get me wrong, the graphics were still impressive, dark and shadowy and chilling... totally appropriate for the story leading up to it. It just was nice to see the golden glints from Cinderella's coach or the rays of streaming sunlight on Captain Hook's ship, as opposed to the grime and mold built up on the remains of Louis' house.

The sounds and music were equally impressive, disregarding that one tiny flashback to the 80s we had earlier. There were short bursts of music from various instruments that set the mood just right for creepy. Chilling piano, mournful violins, the tinkling of chimes, along with random howls, soft snuffling, and the humming of machinery... all helped add to the bizarre flavor of Weird Tales Scary Tales.

Everything was adding up to a delicious stew of weird, except the actual gameplay. It was my one and only slight gripe about the game and the reason it's getting four stars from me instead of five. The hidden object games were ridiculously easy. I don't think I ever even thought about using a hint button. The puzzles were the opposite... a bit too challenging for my tastes. I couldn't wait until the skip button charged.

And what's with all the running around? Back and forth, back and forth, over and over and over again. Returning to the same hidden object scene again and again to find another item. And then some items that were lying around weren't able to be added to your inventory until something else happened. So you would get confused because you know for a fact you couldn't pick that item up before.

The only saving grace for this aspect of the game was an exceptional hint system that told me exactly where to go and what to do when I didn't have a clue. I guess that means we're probably going to have to do a Weird Park Scary Tales Walkthrough... note to self... make someone else do it. The hint system chargers fairly quickly so you don't have to be shy about using it, and it doesn't use up a hint if there's nothing to do in the scene.

Overall, Weird Park Scary Tales probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a weirdo like me, and you adore the abnormal, you'll love it as much as I did. One note... if you haven't played the first Weird Park game, you might want to take a detour and play that game first since the same characters and story find their way into this one.

Edited reference accessed HERE. 29th Oct 2016, original review writtenby Tracy Jerry on 19th Dec 2012

You can see community reviews of Weird Park: Scary Tales HERE and more information in the Big fish forums HERE. You can also see reviews of the trilogy over on Steam (most of which are positive) HERE

if you want to see some game play you can see some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. You'll find a written walkthrough over on big fish Games HERE

I'm off to another university open day with my son shortly, so haven't had time to properly appreciate this game. At first glance it looks pretty good. No actualy conclusion today.

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

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 today's game was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The latest free game over on Origin has now changed to the excellent (though now dated) RPG Dungeon Keeper. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

Also available via Failmid's site is Totem Tribe II: Jotun Ultimate Enkord Package which you'll find HERE. the deal ends Monday afternoon (UK time) and Ubisoft has been celebrating 30 years in the business by giving away games every month since June. Octobers game is the excellent Beyond Good and Evil. You do need a Ubisoft account which is free and the Ubisoft uPlay client, both of which are free. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link HERE, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of Beyond Good and Evil. There will be other games coming next month and beyond

The Indie Gala store has some fantastic deals on at the moment, for example you can buy all three of the Sniper: Ghost Warrior games for only $1.99, plus you get a surprise gift. Other games for example buying CT Special forces (for less than a dollar gives you a surprise gift plus a second game called Horizon shift for free. There are loads of games with 90% off and it seems there are hidden deals for example the Daedalic Armageddon Bundle worth almost $150 for under $16, depending on which games you purchase. You can find them all Angel Express

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time, though you cannot access the deals directly from the main site anymore, but they are still live via the following links:
To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time).