Gamezebo Archives - December 2011

Welcome to the Haunted Past: Realm of Ghosts Collector's Edition walkthrough on Gamezebo. Haunted Past: Realm of Ghosts Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Game played on the PC created by Gogii Games. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints and a strategy guide on how to complete Haunted Past: Realm of Ghosts Collector's Edition.

Welcome to The Secret Order: New Horizon walkthrough on Gamezebo. The Secret Order: New Horizon is a hidden object adventure game played on the PC created by Sunward Games. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints, and a strategy guide for how to complete The Secret Order: New Horizon.

It's Christmas Eve eve! And with much of the world, including the gaming world, dreaming of spending time with family and opening up lots of gifts, the news flow slowed to a trickle. But just in case you missed anything, we've rounded up the week's news in one handy place. And don't forget to check out our ongoing Best of 2011 series, which will keep on going strong until the end of the month. This week we looked at everything from the biggest disappointments of the year to the top iPhone games.

There’s a certain wisdom in music that, if you’re going to cover a song, you really add to do something new. You need to make it your own. Otherwise, why would someone listen to your song instead of the original? The same goes for games. Unfortunately for Yeti Town, the only substantial difference between it and Facebook’s Triple Town is the platform it's on. Otherwise it’s the exact same game, only this time with snow.

The early years of Facebook featured quite the number of word-based puzzle games, but crosswords tended to be a bit rare. And the genre is still very underrepresented, but a new social games developer by the name of PuzzleSocial is attempting to remedy that with the aptly named Crosswords. Holding rights to several major newspaper puzzles around the United States, the new application allows its players to solve new, complex crosswords on a daily basis.

When I first ran Dexter: Slice of Life through its paces back in October, the game was a boring, borderline broken mess. Based on our criticisms, the developers have gone back in to tweak and polish the game up a bit. Has this cold-blooded killer come back with a vengeance, or is this Slice of Life merely another sliver of mediocrity?

Kabam’s strategy games have tackled a wide range of subject matter. There’s science fiction, global conflict, and more recently organized crime. Now the developer is delving into the world of blood sucking vampires. But these aren’t your standard, charismatic vampires. No, Thirst of the Night takes place in a near future version of the world where the occult and technology mingle and vampires are taking over the globe.

It’s certainly not unusual for the App Store to see ports of older games put on the service, from the original Sonic games to Final Fantasies aplenty. The difference between these games and Mega Man X however, is that they knew when to leave well enough alone if they couldn’t improve upon a classic.

Tis’ the season to be jolly, bit tis’ also the season for Christmas light displays on YouTube. Over the years, we’ve seen every kind of crazy, sync’d to Beethoven’s 5th, hundred thousand light display you can imagine – or so we’d thought. This year though, the folks behind 2009’s awesome Guitar Hero lights display have decided to tackle everyone’s favourite avian assailants.

The end of a year is a great time to celebrate the best games we’ve played, but what about the ones we haven’t? What about the games that were expected to come out in 2011, but never materialized?

Twilight Carnival is a combination of two of the most popular genres on Facebook. It’s part business simulation, letting you build and manage your own amusement park. But it’s also a collection of mini-games, as you can actually play all of games you purchase for your budding carnival. it may not be particularly original, but the two sides of the game work well together and, when combined with a terrific presentation, make for a great overall experience.

Back in May, GameFly acquired Direct2Drive from IGN, which made a lot of people wonder what the future contained for the two services. Well, GameFly has finally revealed the answer: Direct2Drive is being merged with GameFly, so now you can pre-order, rent, buy, and download your games all from one source.

Stardoll is a dress up game and online fashion community that has recently ported to Facebook. In Stardoll you will create a personalized avatar, play dress-up games, decorate your home, and create your own designs. This guide will familiarize you with the world of Stardoll.

Ho ho ho! With Christmas just around the corner, iOS developers are looking to put a little holiday spirit under your tree. But with literally thousands upon thousands of sales this weekend, how are you going to know which ones are worth cashing in that iTunes gift card Santa left in your stocking?

Social networks like Facebook and Google+ may steal all of the headlines, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy some gaming in a web browser. The quality of browser-based games is steadily increasing, and the sheer variety on offer is pretty incredible: from full-blown massively multiplayer online games all the way to deceptively simple word games, it's pretty easy to find a great gaming experience just one tab over while you browser Gamezebo. Here are our four favorite browser games of 2011.

Admit it – you’ve always wanted to be The Doctor. Or at the very least, his companion. Well great news, Whovians! Three Rings, developers of the popular Yohoho! Pirates and Spiral Knights, have teamed up with the BBC to produce a game that lets you be The Doctor’s right hand man (or woman); Doctor Who: Worlds in Time.

Stardoll is a virtual paper doll/design game where you create an avatar and then everything else is up to you. You can build an immense wardrobe, decorate your home any way you wish, and create your own clothing designs. You have quite a bit of freedom in the game, but figuring out how to do things can prove rather difficult.

A new city-builder from the folks over at Kobojo has hit Facebook and this time it is taking players deep beneath the ocean waves. Atlantis Fantasy is the name, and believe it or not it actually feels very different from the rest of its ilk. Not only does it have a unique visual style, but it actually incorporates resource management mechanics that feel significant. Granted, it still comes with many of the features of its predecessors, but in a rare occasion, does not feel like a carbon copy.

Facebook has released a list of the most popular games on the platform and, surprisingly, the top spot didn't go to Zynga. Instead, Playdom's hidden object game Gardens of Time proved to be the most popular Facebook game of 2011.

Retro games on mobile have been something of a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes bringing a classic to the iPhone can be a flawless celebration of everything that made the game great 20 years earlier. Other times it can be a total disaster. But for the most part, Sonic’s experiences on smartphones have fallen somewhere in between. Competent, but never feeling quite right in terms of gameplay.

All of that changes with Sonic CD – a game that’s easily one of the best old school mobile ports we’ve seen to date.