Since we first saw Gunshine -- Supercell's Facebook-based massively multiplayer role playing game -- new content has been added, the rough edges have been smoothed, and upgrades have been applied to just about every aspect of the game. The result, you might say, really shines.
Dana Knightstone is back from her adventures in Death at Fairing Point and ready to solve another mystery. When Death Under Tuscan Skies begins you have just arrived at a university in Italy to deliver a lecture. Almost immediately, you are pulled into a mystery when the ghost of a young woman appears to you. It is up to you to help Dana find out about the mysterious illness that killed her and find out what happened to her lover, Giovanni, who vanished shortly before her death.
Time Mysteries: The Ancient Spectres combines a few standards in the hidden object realm: the game's major setting is in the 1800's, you're first introduced to a dilapidated, abandoned mansion, a ghostly spirit is haunting your travels and the game is quite moody overall. The story here is an interesting one however, and as you gain the ability to travel to different centuries, you'll be met with challenging hidden object scenes and puzzles every step of the way.
Awem Studio is back with The Island: Castaway 2, although the title is only half appropriate for this sequel. In contrast to the first part of this adventure/simulation-series you are now playing as a young member of a native tribe on the already familiar island. The player takes control of Yati, an orphan who has been brought up by the whole tribe. Yati has lived a sheltered life until things begin to change when strangers enter the small village. Haunted by hallucinations, Yati has to decide what to make of his life.
With Weird Park: Broken Tune, you have a game that plays it safe in terms of gameplay complexity / difficulty, with nice graphics and an interesting setup that unfortunately don't reach their full potential. However, if there's one thing that can be said without a doubt, it's that this one's named appropriately, as Weird Park is definitely that: weird.
One of the oldest browser-based games was a casual strategy game called Travian that is, these days, famous largely for the number of times it's been successfully cloned. On Facebook, for instance, the top Travian clone is probably Kingdoms of Camelot. And its developer, Kabam, publishes an entire line of Travian clones that use different artwork themes and gameplay tweaks. Golden Age is best understood as Aeria Games's own Travian clone, distinguished by its unusually detailed sprites and an interesting "dungeon" mechanic that makes combat a bit more memorable. Otherwise, it's like every other Travian-style strategy game you've ever played.
With Triple Town the team at Spry Fox managed to breath new life into the match-3 genre. And Panda Poet does the same for word games. The gameplay is easy to understand and incredibly addictive, and it doesn't hurt that the whole experience is pretty darn adorable as well. You may think that all word games are the same, but Panda Poet proves that there's still life left in the genre.
I've never played the first Fairway Solitaire game, though I've heard it was quite popular. As such, I can't offer an opinion on how one compares to the other. But I can say this: If the first game is anywhere near as good as Fairway is, well, I might just have to go back and check it out. Fairway is, well, it's excellent.