I added the free part to grab more of the communities attention. I do believe most people skim over my posts so may have missed the fact that if you go to the Alawar site, not only can you download a free kiddies pack, but a whole different game called Snowy Puzzle Island Winter pack. (you do require the Snowy Puzzle Island to be registered first though). Anyway, here's today's review. I meant to post it much earlier, but have been cleaning out my HDD's deleting all the things I don't use or play anymore. :)
======================================================================
This is an excellent Snowy puzzle (one of my favorites from the snowy series), which was originally given away early February this year. It received 93% thumbs up from 164 votes, so it’s definitely a popular one. You can check back over what was said then by following the link below:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/snowy-puzzle-islands/#comments
In –particular check out the following comments:
# 10 & 11 by Bonnie who provides a link for the Brain shaker levels pack, which adds an additional 60 levels to this game
#14 by Promo who mentions about having to activate the game separately for each profile on your computer
#16 by Game Seeker who mentions that within the main game there are sets for both children and adults. He also adds to Bonnie’s comment about there being an extra 5 free kiddies levels from Alawar:
http://www.alawar.com/games/puzzleislands/
The zip file unpacks to give you three files, the all important read me file for those who are new to the giveaway project, and the two more important modules that activate and set up the game. As Promo previously mentioned in February, if you run multiple profiles from your computer, it may be advisable to activate the game from each profile to ensure that you get the full version for each person who has a seperate profile
I only run an administrators profile as I seem to remember reading that having more than one profile can slow your computer down. I cannot qualify this at the moment though, but I do seem to remember when I did remove all profiles apart from the admin (Which you can't remove) there did seem to be a noticeable difference in loading times and everything just seemed generally faster. (When I have the time and the inclination I’ll comment on this in the forums)
As I’ve mentioned previously, if you are interested in keeping your computer in tip top running order, it’s always advisable to install your games and utilities onto a different drive to your boot drive, (usually the C: drive) which unfortunately all installers seem to be set to by default. This can easily be changed though (provided you have more than one drive) by changing the install location via the install window. Just type in the new path you wish to install the game to. For example I install these types of games to the following path:
G:Arcade Games/Puzzles/
Once the game has been installed you can set the sound and music volumes by going into the options menu and using the sliders to adjust the volumes. There’s also a video quality and a VSync setting. The VSync option is not necessary with most computers these days as it was used with the old CRT monitors. If you are still using CRT monitors (I do with two of my computers) and your computer is quite old, I would recommend turning it off, as it may cause graphical glitches (you can read why via the Wikipedia article I’ve given a link for below). I’d test the game out first though and if there are no glitches, just leave it. It is switched on by default, so if you do have problems with respect to the graphics being messed up, you will need to uncheck it. For more details about VSync read the Wikipedia article below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsync
As usual I’m a little late starting the review so I’ve copied and pasted what Alawar had to say about the game:
Quote:
“Snowy: Puzzle Islands is an adventure through a colourful world made of switches, moving platforms, teleporters and locked gates. Your goal on each of the game's 100 levels is to use these objects to help Snowy reach the exit. Along the way, you can collect fruit bonuses and other goodies.
Puzzle Islands features a 60-level campaign for serious thinkers as well as an easier 40-level campaign designed to teach kids simple logic skills. Whether you're a seasoned puzzle game fan or just want to perform simple tasks while enjoying vibrant graphics and pleasant music, Puzzle Islands will appeal to you.
In addition to the original game, registered users can download the free Simple Tasks add-on and purchase our Brain Shaker expansion pack, making for hours of brain-teasing fun for Snowy fans everywhere!”
Once installed and started you are firstly given the option of creating a profile then once that’s done you can select between the kids levels and the standard levels. If you click on the additional levels button it will take you to a screen that says “You do not have Additional Game Worlds”, and then it says “Click here to download additional game worlds. Do click on this link as not only will it give you access to the free kids levels, but a whole new winter levels pack. Click on the “Download Winter Edition” and run it. Choose the same installation path that you chose for today’s giveaway.
Once installed you will find that the Winter edition is fully registered, (to FDC). It’s still called Snowy Puzzle Islands but all the squares are full of snow instead of the wooden crates, and the shortcut that’s installed onto the desktop says Snowy Puzzle Islands Winter Edition. I checked a few levels (of the same level number) from each game and found that they were all different.
Follow the link below to see what those downloading this game from Alawar had to say:
http://www.alawar.com/games/puzzleislands/comments/
This is a fabulous game, that both my children played out the first time it was given away, only then I didn’t discover that you get a whole new game for free if you download the winter edition, provided you have the original Puzzle Islands registered. What a bargain that is.
I give this a 8 out of 10 for playability and stimulation. Thank you Alawar and the game giveaway team for a great repeat, and thank you for the extras that are attached to the game. (ie the free winter pack and the kids pack). :D
I checked out the games that Diane mentioned in her post #27
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/snowy-islands-o-puzzle
They are certainly excellent puzzles, but I hardly think they are worth the $70 you’d have to pay for all four of them. I’d certainly consider buying all four for $20, though because I enjoyed the limited amount of time I did spend on them and think they certainly have a lot of potential. I would also agree to a certain extent that the puzzles are much better than the Snowy Puzzles; with loads of objects to manipulate and utilize; but graphically speaking they are in the dark ages, which is a shame as most people do like the graphics you get today. (Although I know graphics alone don’t make a game) Thank you for the link, I will be ‘trying’ to complete the free levels at least.. If I was a fanatic over these sorts of puzzles I’d probably buy a couple of them, but I think I’d feel a little cheated.
If you are interested here’s the link that Diane posted with the paragraph included for context:
“The 4 games which include well more than 1,000 puzzles are: Hero’s Hearts, Hero Defiant, Falling Hero and Hero’s Friends. You can get the paid versions as well as many many more free puzzles from:
They also have a level editor so you can make your own puzzles including your own objects. That’s where all the free games came from!”
`