It was quite the night for Mike. Not only does this young security guard catch someone breaking into the museum after dark but discovers the rare artifact the intruder is after is tied to his own father's mysterious disappearance. Such is the premise behind The Nightshift Code, a well-crafted hidden-object adventure that cleverly integrates a fun story and challenging mini-game puzzles into the familiar seek-and-find gameplay.

Available as a download for both Windows and Macs, PlayFirst's The Nightshift Code follows Mike and Isabel as they venture across the globe - from the U.S. to Germany, Canada to the Greek Isles - in order to find key items, decipher cryptic messages and solve tough puzzles. To help push the story along, players will see attractive comic book-like scenes prior to each level.

The main game-play will be familiar to fans of these hidden object games. You're presented with a busy scene, such as a messy room or outdoor courtyard, and you're asked to find a dozen or more items listed at the bottom of the screen. Examples of items you'll be asked to find include a sword, conch shell, green apple, sphinx, wheelbarrow, car, fan or mermaid. It appears the items you find are irrelevant to the story, which is a bit disappointing, but doesn't take away from the overall experience.

At times, you'll be tasked to find multiple items such as "Four tapes," and when you comb the screen with your mouse to find them all you realize they're not all the same thing; in this scenario, the items are an audio tape, VHS cassette, measuring tape and sticky roll of tape.

Some items are spread out between two scenes, such as Mike's apartment and office, so players are asked to toggle between two locations to find everything listed. One different - and thus, memorable -- location was an ancient map, and your mouse cursor turns into a magnifying glass to find all the well-hidden items. Later on in the game you'll also use the magnifying glass to examine fake artifacts...

When a thief is caught at the Chicago Museum, the object at the center of interest causes a reaction by the young security guard to uncover the mystery surrounding his fathers disappearance. This then leads you on a quest through different countries and forgotten times.

The Nightshift Code is a cleverly finished hidden object game with many levels and good mini games to keep the player immersed in the story...

The Nightshift Code Game is a detective seek and find game. Mike and Isobel are hunting for stolen artifacts. Mike works for museum security, and his father has mysteriously disappeared.

Nightshift Code is well done and has some really interesting mini games. Nightshift Code has some innovations, and a fun, timed scavenger hunt mode. So all you seek and find addicts out there (you know who you are) should download Nightshift Code to keep you going. It's safe for the home PC and will appeal to all members of the family.

The Nightshift Code lets you discover, decode and delight with hidden treasures and locked puzzles...

As I had said earlier, playing The Nightshift Code game is a great refreshing breathe from the much easier Hidden Object games I’ve played this past week. I’m not saying that those I’ve reviewed earlier are worse than this one, but it’s really quite true that The Nightshift Code is the tops when it comes to challenge.

The game features very nice graphics and a very compelling storyline that will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole game. The sound is very nice too, and perfectly blends well into the gameplay surroundings for a particular level. While this game may take the challenge up a notch a bit, it may prove to be a bit too hard for the younger players, but I guess that it’s still a great exercise for logical thinking and they may well find this newfound test quite engaging too...

I actually played The Nightshift Code about a month ago. The site I found it on only allowed thirty minutes of play on their free demo download and I was making notes and grabbing screenshots as I played. When my time ran out I didn’t feel like I had enough info for a review so I let it pass. Now it’s in wider distribution and I’ve had the chance to play it again tonight. It’s a fun game and introduces a few innovations to the hidden object game genre.

The stage is set with a graphic comic-style story. Mike’s father is missing. A sinister visitor to the museum where he works convinces Mike that he can rescue his dad by following a series of clues. The opening chapter of the story is quite long and each phase of the game is followed by more installments. This is my least favorite feature of the game, but perhaps would not have bothered me if I had been playing the full version. Having only a time-limited demo available, I was watching the clock and clicked rapidly through the storyboards.

The art is sharp, clear and skillfully drawn. Some of the hidden objects are tough to find, but all are fairly rendered and can be found. It’s what we expect from these games and a huge relief after my experience with The Count of Monte Cristo. Scenes are used repeatedly, so you’ll already know where some items are when a scene reappears with a new list of objects to search for...

Throw some prawns on the barbie, time to leave the cable cars of San Francisco behind and head for a hum dinger of a trip with the Big City Adventure family in the new hidden object game Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia. Discover well-known sites like Hyde Park, Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, and Royal Botanical Gardens. Venture beyond the beautiful and famous buildings to Circular Quay, the Domain, markets, and museums. Count on re-experiencing the fun of traveling by the bay in a new setting with a few new features.

Though you'll revisit a couple of the 25 places, you'll always receive a new postcard with facts about Sydney and its abundant past. The ability to review past locations adds a welcome improvement. Click on a memento from a completed level to see the postcard with related facts. Sometimes you just want to play the game and not learn about every destination. Now you can go back and read them when you're in the mood.

As expected of a hidden object game, your goal is to track down the items that appear in the inventory of things to find in the current location to collect a momento and move on to the next desination. Timed mode adds the pressure of finding the items before the clock runs out.

After spying all the hidden items among kangaroos, boomerangs, and wide brimmed hats, it's mini-game time. Three mini-games from San Francisco follow the family to Sydney where they discover three more. The mini-game returnees are Match the Groups, a match three game that calls for making matches on every tile until they all disappear; Jigsaw Puzzle, put together all the pieces in their rightful places; and Memory Game, find the pairs until each one finds its mate. Many match three games may exist, but the images move as the tiles fall for a great effect...

At last a game where I can share my travel photos with all. For someone who has had the opportunity to visit Sydney on more than one occasion, Big City Adventure, Sydney, Australia hidden object game is a wonderful trip down under.

Sydney is one of the major cities of the world and for the tourist, a safe and fabulous place where you can visit iconic places, have breathtaking views and see some unique Australian animals, all within walking distance to the best shopping in Sydney...

Just when I was beginning to wonder if our favorite game designers had gone on strike with the Writer’s Guild, a whole swarm of new games have been released. Look for several reviews from me over the next few days. I downloaded and played the 1-hour demo of Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia from Big Fish Games this morning. This is a Big Fish Exclusive for the time being, so you’ll have to go to them if you want to play.

The gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has played the other Big City Adventure games. You’re on a trip with family, this time to Sydney, Australia. While there you’ll visit various landmarks and interesting places, each of which just happen to have hidden objects in need of finding. Not much plot, but that’s not why we play, is it?

The artwork is beautifully drawn and brightly colored, with hidden objects well-defined, though cleverly camoflaged in come cases. I’ve developed a pattern of rushing through the easy-to-find object on each screen, skipping over more elusive items. Then I do a grid-by-grid search for the one or two that didn’t pop out at me. Some in this game were quite artfully hidden, for instance: a ginger root placed right next to an almost identical coral in an underwater scene.

Coins with various designs are hidden in each screen, usually three to a round. These are your hints and helps. They’re usually pretty easy to find, though one or two eluded me throughout the hour that I played. Collect all of them that you can find, not because you’ll use them up but because it’s part of the challenge...

The Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia game is actually the sequel of another famous Big City Adventure game about San Francisco. The story tells about a family composing of 6 members, traveling to some of Sydney’s most famous locations in search of well… treasure and adventure. Honestly, I’m not really sure about the treasure stuff since I just read that from the marketing text of this game and the actual game doesn’t really imply any treasure hunting of any kind, however, I’m absolutely sure about the adventure part since I had a really great gaming adventure from this one.

The main objective of the game is to collect all 75 mementos coming from various places in Sydney. This may be the “treasure hunting” part of the game, but as I said earlier, I’m not quite sure. This souvenir-finding revolves around 26 unique locations wherein you’ll be dealing with 76 levels of object-finding fun. And in between, the game also features quite a number of exciting mini games enough to make a separate casual game on its own...

Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia is the latest word to find articles on the game, in all aspects of a good performance. Life in San Francisco waiting for your travel, risky in this city, across all the famous places attractions, treasures and valuable items search.

Softer tone to the game show beautifully delicate images. 20 scenes rich environment, both drawn cartoon-style images, including pictures of realism displayed this exotic city's diverse landscape.

Soothing, beautiful background music in different scenes interludes, with rich audio and sounds of the game's sharp, clean right tone, so that the whole game is set in a relaxed atmosphere...

PC owners who dream of a life spent sailing the seven seas in search of fabulous treasure are in for a treat, as all-new arcade game Finders Keepers lets you do just that. A cleverly click-happy outing, we're delighted to say it's both innovative and slickly produced... we just wish the action was a little faster-paced and flush with more mid-mission excitement, so the title would prove an even greater splash.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here, as we celebrate the tale of Floyd Finders, a poor seaman whose lucky gold coin has been swiped by the mischievous mer-boy. Told via a series of charming animated cutscenes - we couldn't help but be reminded of childhood pop-up books here - Shakespeare the story isn't, however it will effectively resonate with whimsically-inclined viewers. Better still, there's oodles of fun to be had as you visit a whopping 168 different levels spread across several nautically-themed locales from the Bahamas to the North Pole and even Atlantis in hopes of retrieving the coveted keepsake.

Play is fairly self-explanatory, with each stage finding you in control of Floyd's boat, which glides across the top of the screen as you press the left/right arrow keys or sail horizontally with a click of the mouse. Below lurk coral reefs and sandy sea bottoms filled with a variety of floating objects from schools of fish to squid, clams, gemstones, barrels and gifts.

Using a net that slowly swings back and forth like a pendulum, simply click to make the device fire when it's facing a desired direction, then watch as it shoots out and grabs anything that makes contact. Depending on their size and weight, items are then reeled in by Floyd and his helpful one-eyed cat, who are awarded various cash amounts depending on every haul. Score more than a preset minimum within each level's given time limit and you'll successfully proceed onward, with any extra cheddar yours to apply towards the next challenge...

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION
One of the best selling books of all time is The Da Vinci Code. I’ve never read it and could only stand about 30 minutes of the movie (even with Tom Hanks’s manly charm) so I never understood what all the hubbub is about. The author is apparently responsible for coming up with the term cryptex for a thing you rotate to unlock. They also used one at the conclusion of Treasure Hunters, which I found to be at least mildly entertaining. This brings us to Cryptex of Time, a puzzle game that involves rotating wheels of gems in order to match them. Will Cryptex of Time be a “Draconian devil” (is that a good thing?) or is it “so dark” like “the con of Man” (probably not a good thing)?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Cryptex of Time looks fairly decent for a puzzle game. The main cryptex is rendered in 3-D and can be rotated on its vertical axis in order to access the entire cylinder. The cryptex itself features some nice detail with the jewels that adorn it, although some of the jewels are too similar in appearance, making the game more difficult. There is also the usual assortment of special effects when you clear some jewels and remove a wheel. Overall, the game has a clean appearance that promotes ease of use. The sound is also typical for a puzzle game: some average background music and effects that relate to the gameplay. Notable is the gem matching effect, which is well done. Overall, Cryptex of Time falls squarely in the middle of the genre in terms of presentation: not outstanding but not terrible.

ET AL.
While Cryptex of Time certainly has its roots in a classic matching game, it adds some unique features that makes it different enough from previous titles in the genre. Cryptex of Time comes with a story mode which introduces additional complexities to the game while introducing different themed areas (like Mayan and Egyptian). The puzzle board of Cryptex of Time is a cylinder that contains rows of gems that must be rotated in order to match three or more adjacent gems. Because you can only rotate the wheels of the cryptex horizontally, most of your matches will occur vertically. This alone makes Cryptex of Time somewhat more difficult than other games in the genre because of the limited nature of the cryptex...

It’s tremendously difficult not to pull up comparisons to similar games when looking at ‘Cryptex of Time.’ If you only glance at Cryptex of Time, then it’s easy enough to argue that it takes a lot from other jewel-based puzzle games. Whether it be Bejewelled, Jewel Quest, or even the classic; Columns (Mega Drive) the easy choice is to consider Cryptex of Time as a simple clone. Sadly, if you indeed do undertake that view, you’ll be sorely mistaken; and therefore be missing out on one of the most addictive games as of late. Do not be mistaken, it does have its similarities with other games, but what it takes, it refines and makes better.

First off, it’s best to get the negatives out of the way. Its pointless story, (a means to loosely explain each level) is unneeded and completely avoidable. It’s a simple puzzle game, and a narrative is unnecessary. After the first level (where the basics are introduced) you’ll quickly find yourself skipping the written dialogue to get to the puzzles. The lack of a ‘decent’ resolution niggles away at the score, but it’s not really a game destroying negative. Finally, it can take a little while to get in full flow, granting the player ludicrously easy puzzles to get the hang of the game mechanics. Anyone with a decent sized brain will find themselves impatiently yearning the next level, as the current one is too easy.

Criticism aside, the game does rack the difficulty upwards, resulting in a slow and patient approach to the puzzles. The conundrums consist of multiple cogs staked on one another, which consist of different coloured jewels or pictured blocks. By rotating the cogs in a circular manner, you’ll match up 3 or more jewels of the same colour and therefore make them disappear. It’s not exactly a new concept and anyone familiar with the games mentioned above will pick it up easily. The spherical 3D element adds a slight twist, and you’ll often find yourself clearing gems you can’t even see. There are the customary powerups, (in the form of special coloured gems) which can remove whole lines (vertically) or explode to remove a large area...

Cryptex of Time is a gorgeous 3-D game elimination of time and the round will take you into the mysterious world, full of puzzles here and ancient legends, untie them secret, you will enjoy a pleasant journey.

Gorgeous screen of the game will bring you a strong visual impact, and you will enjoy the Mayan, Egypt, China and other natural scenery, appeared in the elimination of elements: glistening bright jewel of a piece of wood totems, or Characterization of the characters are drawn extremely stones characteristics.

Momentum flourish, or delicate euphemism, different background music scene with the theme emerging in various hurdles, as well as the elimination of a true and powerful sound, so that the full set itself against the exotic scenes exaggerating the very environment in place...

No, sci-fi brick-basher Hyperballoid 2 isn't named after a rare and debilitating medical condition. But if it were, symptoms would include excessive muscular contractions around the wrist, darting eyes, heightened blood pressure and an irresistible compulsion to remain glued to the PC. A highly engaging and surreally beautiful take on the ancient art of arcade-style, Arkanoid-inspired block smashing, it's the sort of value-minded title that successfully lobbies hard to earn a spot in your personal gaming collection.

Officially subtitled "Time Rider," the outing - and we say this with honest affection - would better have been dubbed "Time Waster." It's so good, in fact, that you'll be compelled to squeeze in additional rounds during coffee breaks at work, just to see if you can bang out a few more levels before turning back to that TPS report. But enough gushing: You've got four uniquely-themed (and named... get a load of the pidgin English behind such featured groupings as Original, Ancient, Planets [sic] and Hitech World) realms to conquer. Quirky nomenclature notwithstanding, you're free to tackle all at your own pace, hopping back and forth between each aesthetically-varied category as the mood strikes.

And believe us... Want to experiment you will, as a relatively basic gameplay formula - move your mouse left/right to make a bottom-mounted paddle swat bouncing balls back into the destructible bricks waiting above - is quickly transcended by the adventure's stunning feature set. Not only will you play on beautiful, individualized backgrounds featuring moving parts, animated blocks that dart in/out and oscillating designs based on Trojan horses, swirling nebulae and the inside of chugging machines. You'll also get to annihilate over 280 kinds of bricks (steel, stone, glass, etc.) using a whopping 45 special bonuses and detailed physics modeling...