September 17, 2008

Using the newest version of the brain-twisting program, Crazy Machines 2 (**** out of four), you can have fun solving "Rube Goldberg" type machine puzzles. Or, if you feel creative, try making your very own wacky contraptions. The program includes more than 200 puzzles to solve (by assembling the provided parts). Puzzles range from very simple to very complex contraptions, all designed to do easy tasks in a fun, weird and wacky complicated way. Version 2 has added more action elements to work with and more challenges to solve.

You’re best starting the game in the Tutorial, where the "professor," your host for the program, gives you challenges. There are simple ones first, such as controlling how a ball rolls down a plank to hit a basket, but you’re soon on to more complex challenges. For example, he wants to grill his sausage and gives you a stock of parts to use. So you assemble a machine that puts a flame under a tank to boil water in the tank to create steam that drives a steam engine that turns a pulley that turns a belt that turns another pulley that turns another belt that turns the rotisserie that holds the sausage. And don’t forget to put a fire under the sausage too. More than 200 elements are included and range from simple pegs, platforms, wheels and belts to canons and fireworks to airships, robots and electric generators, lightning bolts to laser beams and more; most perform some action that can be chain-reacted to get a final desired result.

In the My Lab section you can assemble your own machines to show your own ingenuity, such as making a machine that lets a ball fall on the plunger of a blowtorch, lighting it. The blowtorch flame lights a rocket that, when it goes off, knocks a box off a shelf that falls on a switch that turns a light on. That’s an easy way to turn on a light, right? Use your imagination, and you’ll have a world of fun designing and assembling these perfectly useless crazy contraptions. And you can export your inventions over the Internet to drive other inventors crazy figuring them out. Likewise you can download other people’s inventions to try your hand at solving them.

In the World Tour section of Crazy Machines 2 you’re introduced to the many newer and harder challenges--150 in all. But by now you’re an expert inventor, so you should be up to the task.

The 3D graphics are wonderful and use accurate physics models to control their motion, adding to the challenge. For example, balls may not have been given quite enough push to reach the switch or knock the block off the shelf. The program is fun for the whole family, and we find this newest version with new content even more challenging and quite addicting. Highly recommended.

Outcry (** out of four) is a mystical/psychological drama adventure played out on your computer.

The story line finds you investigating the disappearance of your brother, following receipt of a letter from him asking for your help. Exploring his apartment, you find cryptic references to a machine that separates your consciousness from your body and sends consciousness to a different place occupied by other consciousnesses. You are asked in his notes to destroy the machine, except for a curious "Capsule." So off you go on your adventure to explore the borderline between reality, consciousness and dreams.

With a dreamy and dreary start, complete with out of focus scenes, bright spot flares and film scratch marks, you know you’re in for a different ride. Original music and eerie sound effects fit the mood. In typical adventure game format, you’ll have to gather various items to use later and find the solution to various puzzles, such as setting the proper position for slider switches. For some you find clues, but for others, it’s trial and error. If you’re into mystical mysteries in dreary settings you’ll likely like this game.