Best Quality Downloadable Games

Although it isn't such a big secret, not everyone knows yet, but games that sell on Amazon or on the store shelves for lots more can be downloaded for just $6.99.  Here are a few.

More Hidden Object Games

Big Game Companies Don't Want You To Know.

It 's official, at the end of October, game sales were down 18% year-over-year. Matt Peckham reported the numbers on Nov., 13, 2009. Although he had great expectations for the remainder of the year, the numbers speak for themselves. Many people blame the economy, Kwing a game reviewer , on therealgamemaster.com, during his June blog spot, hinted that so many new games are all the same, so people are bored with the new games - and that may have something to do with the slump. But, the REAL reason for games distributed by the big labels being on the decline is that the Internet is killing them. Does that sound crazy, or what? The Internet and file sharing has been killing the big label music CD business for a few years now. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg of that deterioration in the game industry. Chris Anderson in his book Free, The Future of a Radical Price, explains how the price of storage, CPU cycles, and bandwidth is decreasing so rapidly, that the cost of distributing digital data via download is approaching zero. The businesses that embrace this model are cutting costs in a way never seen before. Think about it for a moment, if a manufacturer didn't have to shelf the product in stores, manufacture the CDs in plants, package the products and ship them around the world, wouldn't their costs be significantly lower? Those stuck in the old model (think big game labels) will continue to fight with the higher fixed costs, and will have to charge higher prices. There is a game company that understands this new paradigm. They are creating new games at an incredible rate—at least one game per day, and they are distributing those games for just $6.99 per download. That company is the BigFish Games. They have 14 catagories of downloadable games. Those include popular titles like Nancy Drew: Treasure in The Royal Tower, Hidden Magic, and Lost Realms: The Curse of Babylon. These titles sell retail for $19.95, and $15.94 at Amazon. The bottom line: If you like games the way I do, but don't have a kazillion bucks to sink into them, there is a lot cheaper way to get there. Download them from BigFish Games. Look for other companies in the future turning to digital distribution. It is the wave of the future and will only cut into the profits of the big game labels. It can even help your pocket book, especially around Christmas time.

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Murder, She Wrote - PC Game review.



Murder, She Wrote, by Legacy Interactive, is a great mystery, adventure, and hidden-object game. It is really five murder mysteries rolled into one. You play the game as the Angela Lansbury character, Jessica Fletcher, from the long-running "Murder, She Wrote" television series. Jessica is a retired educator, who writes murder mystery novels - and uses her unique insight to solve real murders on the TV series. So it is no accident that each mystery in the game is tied to a book in the book shelf. Three of the mysteries take place in Cabot Cove, Jessica Fletcher's home town. One mystery takes place in another Vermont town, and one in London, England.

The adventures include finding hidden objects and using them in unique ways to solve the mystery. Sometimes you have to find the more obvious hidden items in the scenes to use to "uncover" the more challenging items. Hints about what to find come out of Jessica's typewriter. You have to find the missing vowels to complete the words on the list. If you find the typewriter ribbon hidden on the page, the hints can appear faster. The hidden objects are used in the mini-games and puzzles to make more sense out of the clues that are found.

The graphics are a bit cartoon like, but great for this type of adventure. Each mystery starts with a mini-movie that may include dialog among the characters and sets up the background for the case to be solved. Many scenes have a mini-game or puzzles to solve. Most of the mini-games or puzzles are related to the mystery, helping the user piece together the clues. I believe the innovation of adding the mini-games to the hidden-object adventure is a real plus. The mini-games can be played on a timer, or not timed, they can even be skipped. Going back to a page may result in objects being moved to another location, this can make the game more challenging. The character dialogs are reminiscent of the TV series and can include likenesses of guest that have appeared on the show. The games and puzzles include handwriting analysis, selecting license plates given specific clues, matching games and many, many more. You get a chance to learn or exercise gardening skills, library skills, and skills of keen observation.

I like the combination of five mysteries into one game, finishing one mystery allows a person to open the next. I can come to a good stopping place, by ending one mystery, but still be excited about starting the next installment when I get back to my computer. This feature alone sets Murder, She Wrote apart from most of its competition. It insures hours of playing time, with out getting board of a single plot or objective.

With the addition of the mini-games and puzzles, the combination of five mysteries in one, and the movie scenes that make up the background and context to the game itself, Murder, She wrote plays a lot like an episode in one of the TV series, and is bound to bring hours of entertainment to any user. I would rate the game a 4.5 on a scale of 5!

Etrade reported the dismal outlook. The big game companies are expecting November sales data to show flat figures. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan said, "It has been a horrible year for video game publishers," and that they expect continued weakness. The game consoles and off the shelf games are very expensive. Consumers save money and get more value from download games. Game titles such as Nancy Drew, Murder, She Wrote, Mystery Case Files, Escape The Museum and many more can be downloaded for $6.99

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