Free Ride Games Blog

Hotel Dash: Suite Success – Game Review

Part of the fun of going on holidays is staying in a hotel and being waited on 24/7.
The more plush the surroundings and impeccable the service, the more you enjoy your stay. But have you ever wondered what it’s like for those whose job it is to cater to your every need? It’s one challenge after another! In Hotel Dash: Suite Success, you get to experience hotels from their perspective.

In this charming Time Management game (a part of the Dash series), Quinn decides to branch out from Wedding Planning to Hotel Management. Her first challenge is to renovate the Honeymoon Suite at The DinerTown Suites. The pressure’s on because she knows the couple personally and has very little time to get the room ready, but as we get stuck into the game, it becomes apparent that the heroine of this game is actually not Quinn, but the hard-working Flo, who steps up once again to help her friend achieve her ambitious new career goal.

Flo will rely on YOUR keen eye and efficient timing to help serve the hotel’s guest, keep them from becoming impatient if she gets busy and takes too long to tend to their requests, and keep them happy enough to shower her with tips that she can use towards renovating the hotel. She’ll have to deal with plenty of obstacles along the way too, like sabotages, ghosts, and guests who don’t get along with each other. All in a day’s work at Diner Dash: Suite Success!

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Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving holiday is filled with many festive traditions embraced by millions of Americans each year.

So what is it that makes this holiday so special and loved?

Is it the travel?
Family members come from far and wide to be together on this holiday.  Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year!

Is it the food?
Traditional foods such as turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes pumpkin and pecan pies are popular Thanksgiving staples. Just typing these words is making my mouth water!  And if you like cooking, then making all of these scrumptious treats (or at the very least eating them) is also part of the Thanksgiving fun.

Is it spending time with family?
People make an effort on Thanksgiving to spend time with their loved ones, and often, it’s the only time during the year that families separated by long distances actually see each other.

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People – grab your wands and let the Hidden Object magic begin as you play The Magician’s Handbook 2: Blacklore!

After saving Cursed Valley and becoming a pupil of the wise Wizard in The Magician’s Handbook: Cursed Valley, our hero was looking forward to a life filled with adventure and mystery. Unfortunately the Magician’s Handbook became useless and our hero returned home to his unexciting life. Now, two years, later the Magician’s Handbook is starting to come alive again with the voice of Corrigan, the fairy helper to the wizard and he desperately needs our hero’s help!

 
It’s now your job to help free the captured magicians and trapped fairies by stripping the extremely powerful and evil magician pirate Blacklore from his powers.

However, as our hero wasn’t born with magical powers, his aim is to collect enchanted objects, which will allow him to cast spells. The brilliant thing about the game is that the hidden object lists in the various chapters are randomized, so if you play the game or chapter again you will most likely have a different selection of objects.

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I’m always on the lookout for interesting articles and presentations to share with you about casual games and recently I came across a TED talk by Tom Chatfield titled “7 ways games reward the brain.”

Tom Chatfield – a longtime gamer and game theorist – is the arts and books editor at the UK current-affairs magazine Prospect.

The growth of the gaming industry and the reach of modern video and online-game culture is nothing short of mind-boggling, with gaming revenue recently overtaking that of more traditional media (it overtook music in 2008).

In his talk, Tom explores the power of computer games to influence the way we think and learn. According to Tom, “games are perfectly tuned to dole out rewards that engage the brain and keep us questing for more,” which reinforces the notion that playing computer games is more than just fun, it can also play an important role in improving your brain’s cognitive function and the way you approach our technologically evolving world.

If you’re already a casual games lover, then check out the video of this illuminating talk to get a professional’s perspective on how the games you play are actually doing your brain some good!

Watch “Tom Chatfield: 7 ways games reward the brain.”

Then, when you’re done watching the video – do your brain some more good by playing some of our top brain ‘workout’ games! Try:

• 7 Wonders II (Genre: Match 3)
• Cradle of Rome (Genre: Match 3)
• Mahjongg Artifacts (Genre: Board)
• Atlantis Quest (Genre: Puzzle)
• Sudoku Quest (Genre: Puzzle)

Amazing Heists: Dillinger tells the exciting true story of the infamous John Dillinger, an American gangster and bank-robber who was at the height of his “career” in the era in which Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie & Clyde were on everybody’s “Most Wanted” list.

Dillinger robbed two dozen banks and four police stations and incredibly managed to escape jail twice! While doing time, he became resentful towards society and hooked up with other criminals, preparing himself to dive right back into criminal activities when he was released. The game tells the story of his life after being released from his eight and a half year prison sentence.

This hidden object game begins as you join the gang at their hide-out at Little Bohemia Lodge, looking at potential banks to rob and casing joints. Each level of the game has a different bank to rob but each bank robbery has the same structure:

• Casing the Joint
• Block the Egress
• The Robbery and
• Breaking the Bank.

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