|
|
|
|
August 8, 2007 Help Nancy Solves The Icy Mystery
Nancy Drew: The White Wolf Of Icicle Creek (**** out of four) is the newest adventure of the ageless teenage detective--actually number 16 in the Nancy Drew CD-ROM series. For this mystery, Nancy’s travels take her to the snowy Canadian Rockies and a secluded lodge. Her arrival is met with a mysterious explosion and appearance of an equally mysterious white wolf. The wolf howls and disappears as mysteriously as it came, each time preceding a bad event. Nancy discovers that explosion was not accidental and destroyed a bunkhouse, but fortunately no one was injured--this time. And what of the white wolf? This is the setting for the mystery adventure that Nancy is called on to help solve. A dangerous international plot is afoot and Nancy must go undercover as a maid and cook to investigate the lodge and its guests. As a maid, she can examine the guests’ rooms for clues; as a cook, she can talk to the guests to gain valuable information. Along the way there are many wintertime activities, such as ice skating, skiing, snowmobiling and snow shoeing. But there are also puzzles to solve and codes to decipher. Your task is to guide Nancy in these activities to gather enough information to solve the mystery and prevent harm to the lodge and its guests. You have a chance to explore the lodge and its woods and the skating pond, but watch out for thin ice. One of your jobs is to place warning cones on thin patches, once you’ve solved a color puzzle, that is. Also, be sure to pick up items to put in your inventory because you’ll never know when you need them, such as when you get trapped in the sauna. The game plays very easily as long as you pay attention to details. If you make a mistake, the game automatically returns you to the point just before your mistake to give you another chance. To accommodate players of various skills, the game has options for you to play as a junior or senior detective. The 3D graphics are very good, especially in depicting the snowy north locations that we found fun to explore. Nancy Drew fans will love the game. From Her Interactive, Windows XP/Vista with 1 GHZ Pentium 3 and 1 GB free hard drive space, $19.99.
A new computer program with the unlikely name of Pzizz (**) uses a combination of especially composed music, sound effects, a binaural beat (much like a heartbeat) and soft-spoken verbal instructions all designed to induce a state of relaxation and/or sleep. Unlike relaxation audio tapes or CDs, Pzizz allows you to customize your experience by selecting the energize or sleep module, the length of the experience and the relative sound levels of voice and music. Each time you play your selection, the program generates a new mix of the elements that is different from the previous mix. You can play the selection on your computer or export it as an mp3 file to a portable player. The makers of the software state that using Pzizz for either short power naps or night-time sleep will help you relax, combat stress and increase your energy. The extent to which this will help may in part depend on your willingness to "cooperate" with the presentation. We tried it for a brief period of time and, although the experience was quite pleasant for us, it was difficult to stay motivated enough to stick with it. A trial download is available to see how it works for you. From Brainwave (www.Pzizz.com), Windows or Mac download, $29.95 for either the sleep or energize module or $49.95 for both; the hardware version (no computer needed) is available for $147.95.
Dream Day Honeymoon (**) is a followup to the Dream Day Wedding game, using very similar game play. The setting is a Hawaiian honeymoon and takes players to various spots on the Island, such as Pa’ani Beach, Tony’s Tiki Hut or the Honeymoon Suite. Each place is filled with a colorful array of cleverly hidden items and a list of items you need to find to move through the game. Each item is crossed off the list when you find it, and you can then move on to another place. All items are randomized, so you can go back to a location many times and find a different list of items. A timer runs during your search, but you can turn off the timer for a more relaxed game. Along the way you may encounter a honeymoon crisis or two to solve, but there are clues to help you. When you get through the locations and crises, you move on to other areas of the game. Scattered in the game are matching puzzles. Solve these in the allotted time and you move toward a special bonus. The game is all in fun and the scenes are beautifully decorated in a Hawaiian theme, although some of the items (such as hot dogs or Stonehenge) seem quite un-Hawaiian. The game is easy to play, either alone or with friends, and there are "Cupid Clues" if you need help. Hawaiian music and background sounds add to the atmosphere, although both can be turned off if you want. The cheerful, bright settings and simple activities make Dream Day Honeymoon an all-for-fun game. From Oberon Games, Windows 98+ with Pentium, $19.95; demo available at www.oberongames.com. |
