Introduction:
This was first given away last year in Sept 08 and was given a positive 83% of 952 votes. You can read all the previous comments most of which were positive via the following link:
See previous comments about today’s game HERE
Most community members will be fully aware of what’s involved and how to play a match three or more game, so I’m not going to go into great detail about the mechanics of this game. (some will say hooray here :lol: The download is quite large for an arcade game at just over 38Mb (though it’s miniscule compared to many DVD based games that are available now), Once installed it is just over 55Mb in size.
Quote:
You only have 80 days to circumnavigate the globe. Think that sounds easy? Travel back in time to the late 19th century and get ready for spectacular adventures on land, sea and air together with the English daredevil Phileas Fogg and his loyal French servant Passepourtout. Use the unique chance to visit four continents and complete the inconceivable journey in this outstanding puzzler based on the classic adventure novel by Jules Verne.
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Reference: http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/2758/around-the-world-in-80-days/index.html?afcode=aff2fe81434f Accessed 6th Sept 08
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The Game:
Apparently (I’ve read somewhere) this is another upgrade of The Rise of Atlantis, from the developer Playrix which is another game that we have been given previously via the giveaway project. After playing several levels, I do agree that the game is very similar, and that it does have some improvements over its predecessor; though you’ll need to play both to be able to see the differences (apart from the obvious graphical differences). There is now another sequel to Rise of Atlantis called Call of Atlantis; again very similar, but with some improvements.
I much prefer the way this games storyline unfolds, to the Atlantis game. It sticks to the original by Jules Verne apart from the American leg of the journey which isn’t true to the original story. The graphics are gorgeous and the music okay. It’s classical in nature and works well with the overall feel of the game. I think the majority are going to be pleased with this game play despite it being a match three. (check out the list of free match three games at the end of the review)
You can access the options menu as well as the help menu and high scores from the games main menu. The options menu enables you to adjust the music as well as toggle between full screen and windowed mode. There’s also a toggle to switch between your default mouse pointer and a custom pointer and another to turn on or off the in game tips.
The game is fully mouse controlled, with only the keyboard required to input your profile name.
The game play follows closely that of Rise of Atlantis, including having to move broken artefacts to the bottom of the playing field (most of the time) to complete the level; though the storyline (as is obvious from the title of the game) is based around Jules Verne’s story as opposed to Atlantis. You earn power ups by creating matches of four or more. You can see what power ups are available from the help menu, and include (Amongst others) bombs, extra lives, extra time and bonus points. Some of the power ups are upgradeable as well. The first one to become available when you’ve created enough matches of four or more is the hammer which you can use to knock out either one tile, unlock a lock or unfreeze a tile. As you create more matches this is upgraded to a super hammer which destroys all tiles of the same color; further upgrades include a bomb and a super bomb. This ability to upgrade power ups reminds me of Treasures of Montezuma and Sky bubbles Deluxe and more recently Alchemist's Apprentice, which I’m playing at the moment (and incidentally am really enjoying. There are also bonus levels at the end of each country, where you have to uncover a stamp by clearing away the Golden tiles (which is supposed to be proof that Fogg has visited that particular country). An additional bonus with this game is the free screensaver, which is the very same screensaver that was given away back in June 08 called Around the World: London. There are another six to unlock, which if you're into screen savers and match three games makes this a worthwhile purchase (if you had to purchase it. Thankfully even if you miss today's giveaway there's no need to be upset because you can get the game free 24/7 from Gametop, or play it online if you don’t want to download it. I like the Around the World screensavers that Astro Gemini sell for around $20 each, so this game is a real bargain to those who love screensavers because technically you’d be paying over $100 for the screensavers and the game. Though in reality, you can buy Astro Gemini’s whole stock for the price of five or six screensavers.
A great addition to this game is that once you finish the game in it's entirety. Playing it again introduces blocking tiles that can only be removed using bombs. The addition of these extras increases the games difficulty somewhat. (Thanks for the information LonniH comment #3 from April 09's comments)
System Requirements:
OS………………………………Win 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista
CPU……………………………..600MHz
System Memory (RAM)………..128Mb
Graphics…………………….…..DX8 or later
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Videos:
The first link covers the introductory story and the initial dialogue between Phileas Fogg and his valet Passepourtout as well as the first level of the game, though because I had problems capturing any video using the commercial version, I used the online version which although the same game does have a couple of slight differences to the menu buttons. The second and third links takes you to Reflexive and Big Fish Games (BFG) respectively. Both these video’s are worth watching, especially the Reflexive video. You’ll need to click on the video button once you’ve been taken to either of Reflexive’s or BFG’s web pages. The third video, posted on You Tube is very poor quality, but still conveys a reasonable impression of the game. There’s also 50 screen captures of the early stages of the dialogue and log book, as well as the initial stages of the game:
Watch video of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ HERE
Watch Reflexive Games video of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ HERE
Watch Big Fish Games video of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ HERE
Watch more video of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ HERE
Images:
See images of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ as a slideshow HERE
See all images of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ on one page HERE
See Googled Images of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ HERE
Other reviews worth reading:
Full review of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ from Gamezebo
Full review of ‘Around the World in 80 Day’s’ from Gamemile
Community reviews from Gamezebo
Community reviews from Reflexive
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Conclusion:
Despite a preponderance of match three puzzles that abound these days, this is definitely one of the better ones (IMO). It’s got all the ingredients to make it a pleasure to play, including the storyline, which doesn’t interfere with game play because you can easily click on a button to pass it by quickly. I’m not a big fan of match three puzzles, (apart from Treasures of Montezuma, Four Elements, Sky Bubbles Deluxe and more recently Alchemist's Apprentice), plus a few others, but I do think Around the World in 80 Day’s, is one of those you’ll find hard to put down once you’ve started to play, plus it’s a great alround family arcade game. So I think it’s worth a good 8 out of 10 despite it not being an original idea. The latter levels are very hard, especially the last ones where you have to move objects sideways rather than downwards. I would have preferred the power ups to be cumulative from level to level, but instead, you have to recharge them each time you start a new level.
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Resources and other stuff:
The following link takes you to a free online version of Around the World in 80 Days; so you can either check to see if you think you’ll like the game; though no screensavers are included plus if you don’t want to download the game or missed today’s giveaway you can still play the game any time you wish.
Free ‘commercial quality’ Games:
Also if you like this genre there’s two or three games similar to Around the World in 80 Days available for free from both the Gametop and Freegamepick sites. Plus there are a growing number of match three games also available from these sites (nearly 30). You can find the following free commercial match three or more games (see below for the two links to Gametop and FreeGamePick):
Pharaohs Puzzle, Eldorado Puzzle, Amazon Quest, Golden Path, Around the World in 80 Days, Aboo, Pearl Diversion, Atlantis Quest, Rainbow Web 2, Ocean Quest, Charma (Daggleland), Cake Queen, Magic Rooms, Rhombis, Treasure Puzzle, Gift Puzzle, Fairy Puzzle, Adventure Match, Matching Gems 2, Azteka (Mayan Maze), Rise of Atlantis (Pillars of Hercules), Diamond Lines, Magic Drop, Crazy Birds, Gem Mines, Venture Flock, Aqua Pop and Hamster Blocks - Some of these games, for example Atlantis Quest, Rise of Atlantis and Fairy Puzzle were previous giveaways:
Go to Gametop for loads of free match three games
Go to FreeGamePick for free match three games
As always I should remind you that games from these two sites do open up your browser when you close the game down, though it isn’t redirected. You just have to click on the x to close it down. I’ve checked all the games from both sites with F-Secure and PCGuard and found no viri or malware attached to any of the files. Gametop have recently introduced more advertising which kicks in whenever you click on a game (while on the website); though you can bypass the advert. It just means a few more mouse clicks and an extra 10 or so seconds wasted before you can download your totally free commercially available game. Also it is advisable to watch the installation process carefully and ensure you un-tick any check boxes that ask if tool bars be installed or home pages be changed. Gametop has recently been introducing ths with some of the newer games, but not all. Thankfully un-checking the boxes prevent these happening.
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Changing in-game music:
All the music is in the ogg format, so you will need to convert any music you wish to use into that format before exchanging the files found in the following folder. You can download a free audio converter from the freeware section of the giveaway project. There are two or three in the audio converters section. You must rename any track you change to the one you’re exchanging. I’d keep a back up of the ones you are removing just in case there are any problems.
C:\……..\Around the World in 80 Days\Base\Sound\Music
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Issues & Problems :
Previously some community members couldn’t get this game to work. The following 'fixes' or suggestions may help to resolve the issue.
• There are animations included that may require newer graphics drivers so I would suggest you update these and also your DX version. If you’re not sure how to do this please post your query in the forums and I will answer it ASAP.
• Try defragmenting your drive (especially if you’ve never done it before (or rarely), because a badly defragmented drive can cause programs to crash.
• Set your screen resolution to a lower value.
• Try turning off unnecessary background programs.
• Download a fresh copy from the mirror link
• Uninstall & Reinstall the game then download a fresh copy of the game from the mirror link.
• :idea: Caulbox posted the following fix the last time this was given away and may just solve any problems that some community members may get:
for those who are encountering problems with game crashes or freezes during loading:
Although the game runs without problems on my system, if I look at the “log.htm” file, which gets generated afresh in the games “Base” directory every time the game is started (that’s a directory called “Base” not the root)….I do notice that there’s always an error reported when I run the game. The error report reads, “ERROR : Can’t load KeyMap.xml!”. Not surprising really, cos there is no file of that name included with the game installation.
However, there is a file (again in the “Base” directory) which is called “KeysMapping.xml”. If I rename (a copy of) that file so that it’s called “KeyMap.xml” the error reporting disappears from subsequent log files.
Although this isn’t really necessary for me, as the game is running fine as it is…I wonder if the reported error behavior, might in any way be connected with the freezes that others are encountering during loading of the game? As I say, just a wild stab in the dark…but, if all else is failing, it might be worth renaming ‘KeysMapping.xml’ to ‘KeyMap.xml’ and see if it cures the crashes. (I’d advise renaming a copy of the file, keeping the original safely intact and in place).
Comment #77 by Caulbox
Issues:
One issue that some may not like with the screensavers that comes packaged with this game…… When it asks if you want to activate your screensaver it will automatically change your present screensaver to the Around the World set. If you choose not to activate them the screensaver is set to None for some reason.
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While searching for a You Tube video of the game (so as to save me some time preparing one myself I came across an interesting Google Earth video called Around the World in 8 minutes (though it’s actually 8 mins 58 sec). It’s nothing to do with the game, but as it’s sort of related, I thought I’d post it with the review:
