Not too long ago a relative newcomer to adventure/hidden object hybrids, ChaYoWo games, took us on a journey through the heart of Southern India in The Dark Hills of Cherai. Now they're back and once again the player will be transported to a place few will ever be able to visit in The Dark Hills of Cherai: The Regal Scepter.

The dead are still unquiet, and aspiring writer and awkward medium Rosangela Blackwell is having a more difficult time dealing with it than usual... especially when one of her friends turns up among the spirits. Together with her sarcastic spirit guide Joey Mallone, will she be able to break open a conspiracy before it claims even more victims, or is she more vulnerable than she thinks? Find out in this stellar continuation of the point-and-click adventure series from Wadjet Eye Games.

What would you be willing to do to recapture your first true love? You'll get to explore the answers to that question in Media Art's Love Story: The Beach Cottage, the second adventure/hidden object hybrid game in the Love Story series that grabs the hopeless romantic in all of us and takes us on a journey that may (or may not) give us the "happily ever after" we're looking for.

The Tribloos is a new time management game from Bumpkin Brothers, creator of the 3D assembly line puzzle game The Machine. Similar to the Roads of Rome series and My Kingdom for the Princess series in basic structure, Tribloos will surprise you with its knack for turning simple tasks into smart challenges. Do not let the game's simple visual presentation fool you, this game is filled with serious amounts of smart challenge!

In the world of time management/casual simulation games there are plenty of Build-a-Lot clones, so it was exciting a few years back when a new player entered the field with Virtual City. Rather than concentrate on building or development, Virtual City took the genre in a whole new direction by focusing the gameplay on the movement of goods, services, and people. Now, G5 Entertainment is back with Virtual City 2: Paradise Resort, which takes the transportation madness to new and interesting heights.

The Pied Piper. Stories tell of the strange man who offered to rid the town of Hamelin of its rat problem using nothing more than a musical pipe. The citizens agreed, but when they refused to pay for his service, the piper grew angry. Using his magical/musical talents, he led the town's children away into the night, apparently because it's difficult to break kneecaps with a flute. In Alawar's latest hidden object adventure hybrid, Oddly Enough: Pied Piper, you take on the role of hero (well, debt collector), investigating the piper's doings and trying to track down the kidnapped children.

Ah, the Victorians. There are many tropes from their literature that still haunt us today, including eerie women dressed in white appearing at lonely intersections, pale, blood-sucking gentlemen in evening attire, and dark-skinned men wearing turbans. Perhaps the greatest of the era's paranoias was the thought of being buried alive, which permeated the culture to the point of having little bells and pulls installed on coffins. That fear was encapsulated in one of Edgar Allan Poe's great stories which has now been turned into a stunning adventure/hidden object hybrid, Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's The Premature Burial. Yes, ERS Game Studio is back with their third adaption of a Poe story, and this one is a killer! (sorry, bad pun)

Roguelike, The Legend of Zelda, a dual stick shooter, and the twisted mind of Edmund McMillen, part of the team behind Super Meat Boy. Put them all together and you've got The Binding of Isaac, a game that is as unhinged as it is entertaining, as good-looking as it is, well, disgusting. Even still, it's the kind of game you'll play through again and again, just to collect every item and explore every corner of the game's randomly-generated world.

You've probably heard that "all roads lead to Rome". What you didn't count on is that you'd have to build them all! In Roads of Rome III, a building-centric time management simulation from Whiterra, you take orders from the Caesar himself and set out to repair damage to the empire caused by barbarians. It's no easy task, and you're not really in the mood to do it, but it's your duty, and one never questions the Caesar!

Ding dong the witch is dead! Wait, what? She's still not dead? Not only that, the old hag is back and badder than ever creating havoc in the museum in Echoes of the Past: The Citadels of Time, the latest adventure/hidden object hybrid by Orneon and sequel to both Echoes of the Past: Royal House of Stone and Echoes of the Past: The Castle of Shadows. Perhaps it's time to stop hanging out in that darn museum? Just saying.

Travel through the ages from the time of the Roman gladiators all the way to the Aztec pyramids. Solve riddles and brain teasers in order to collect Civilization Points that can be used to rebuild civilization. World Riddles: Secrets of the Ages is a worthy successor to Seven Wonders and is a definite must for all picross puzzle fans. Hours and hours of gameplay awaits along with a lot of interesting trivia about various objects from different historical times.

After an explosion, you wake up in shackles on the floor of a dirty room. A frantic phone call warns you not to trust the police woman who breaks down the door moments later... but who CAN you trust? And what happened to you? Find out the truth in this short and easy but surprisingly engrossing hidden-object adventure from Vast Studios.

Belle's happily-ever-after is cut short when her Prince is once again cursed by the same evil enchantress who turned him into a Beast. The entire kingdom has fallen under a dark spell, and Belle is the only one left to stop it, assuming she can avoid the dangers and dark magic twisting her world at every turn in this stunning, engrossing hidden-object adventure from the makers of Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera.

Blocks That Matter, an indie game from Swing Swing Submarine, likes to do things a little bit differently. It likes to break the rules, mix up genres, tear down that fourth wall, and borrow the best from some of the most popular games ever released and turn it into something new. Blocks That Matter is part Tetris, part Minecraft, part Dig Dug, part platformer all wrapped into one, with a cute main character leading the whole thing up that serves as the perfect gateway to a game you won't be able to get enough of.

A popular reality program goes terribly wrong when one of the contestants appears to die onscreen during the finale, and the show promptly goes dark. Things only start looking more grim when the rest of the show's stars go missing, and you're called in to track them down. Easier said than done since the show isn't exactly ordinary, and The Maze is one unbelievable reality show whose sets are as surreal and clever as they are deadly. Track down the missing people in this imaginative and engrossing hidden-object adventure from Elephant Games, but keep your eyes open... in the Maze, you aren't alone, and you're never safe...

With fifty levels to play, this fast-paced and addictingly enjoyable new game from Youda Games is sure to provide many hours of fun. Youda Fisherman succeeds in combining a variety of popular time management and simulation elements in a way that makes sense while adding a fresh spin on the genre. Make use of fantastic inventions to fight off pirates, gather resources, and build a thriving fishing company into a successful enterprise.

Often when game designers try to throw everything but the kitchen sink into an adventure/hidden object hybrid, what you end up with is an incoherent mess. In the case of Voodoo Chronicles: The First Sign by Space Monkey Games, start with a hard-boiled detective film noir, cross it with a horror movie, add in elements of steampunk, and the result is a fantastic, glorious sprawling mess of a game that is very difficult to put down and harder still to walk away from.

Build-a-Lot: On vacation is still casual gameplay that sucks you in and doesn't let you go until you've expert leveled the last scenario. Fans of the series will appreciate the new twists in strategy and newbs will just love the addictive gameplay. Forget the depressed real estate market; it's time to get building!

It's time for a super special demo-only edition of Weekend Download! A number of extremely promising demo games have been released in the past few weeks, showing off some big titles from big indie developers that will soon be released as full-fledged games. And, if you're like most people, you hate waiting like you hate ketchup on ice cream, so these will give you a little taste of the awesomeness to come! Look for more coverage when the full versions of these games hit.

Statues coming to life and racing through the streets? It all sounds preposterous, at least until you see it happen right in front of you. Suddenly, all the other stuff, like the malevolent little imp and the soul-stealing crystals, sounds a lot more plausible than it did a few minutes ago. Crack a supernatural mystery and lock horns with an old foe in this creative and atmospheric hidden-object adventure title from the makers of Haunted Legends: The Queen of Spades.

There's something lurking beneath the ice and beyond the veil in Greenland, but Norwegian researcher Rune Knudsen and the others aboard the ice station Alpha Polaris are more concerned with their own work. With pressure from the oil companies to deliver samples and new discoveries, everyone is pushing themselves hard... and over the course of four nightmarish days when a malevolent force turns its gaze on them, maybe even past the breaking point. A point-and-click horror adventure from indie developers Turmoil Games with gorgeous professional production.

The newest adventure/hidden object hybrid from HitPoint Studios, The Secrets of Arcelia Island is an experience in sumptuous environments, beguiling scenery and affable puzzles. Help Greta on her mission to save Arcelia Island from the witch Sirenia's curse by gathering clues, searching for objects and solving puzzles in expertly rendered realms that mix fantasy and mystery, surrealism and substantive locales. On the way you'll meet and help island inhabitants including a regal fairy queen and king, an elf, a satyr, and the sorceress Sirenia herself.

Prince (now King) Arthur and his lovely Queen Helen are back for more time management shenanigans in Nevosoft's My Kingdom for the Princess III, which explores what happens when the kids try their hands at running the kingdom. This is the story of what happens after "they lived happily ever after", although the gist of the tale may just be never have kids. Ever.

A quiet town in the middle of nowhere has a dark history, but when you regain consciousness in the middle of it with someone else's blood on your hands and no memory of why you're there you have more pressing concerns. Solve a decades old mystery and uncover a dangerous, ancient evil in this big, beautiful and eerie hidden-object adventure from Artifex Mundi!

A friendly reminder from your internet pals: if a mysterious painting of a spooky old castle appears on your doorstep late one night, do not let your child hang it in his or her room. Mischievous things are bound to happen, and not the sort of madcap adventures one would find in an episode of Scooby Doo. Lost Souls: Enchanted Paintings tells the story of a missing boy who suffers the unfortunate fate of getting sucked into a painting. His mother, Bella, will do anything to get him back, including enlisting the help of some otherwordly friends.

Owners of iOS devices have been enjoying Mobigame's isometric arcade/puzzle game EDGE for over two years now. The game survived legal battles and multiple removals from the iTunes App Store to win a number of awards for mobile gaming excellence. Now, Mac and PC can come to the party! EDGE has arrived on Steam, carrying with it all the content of the mobile release with updated visuals and a new interface.

Awakening: The Goblin Kingdom is a magical enchanted ride and a worthy successor to the games that preceded it. As before, when you complete the main story, there are a nice variety of the main puzzles available from the game menu to prolong the experience. Gorgeous, fun and compelling, The Goblin Kingdom is everything you could want in an hidden object adventure hybrid and more.

A g-g-g-ghost! More than one, even! Actually, the mansion Ashley finds herself called to is practically heaving with spectres, all of them with unfinished business, and a mysterious being informs her that she is the only one who can set them free. Age of Enigma: The Secret of the Sixth Ghost is a point-and-click adventure from Casual Box. It looks stunning, almost like a playable Saturday morning cartoon (readers aged 30 and over, that reference is for you!), and even though the puzzle elements are a bit thin, the game manages to paint an atmosphere of intrigue that draws you right in.

In Kairosoft's latest game in the "story" series, you've got fifteen years to turn your struggling little strip mall into a sprawling megaplex worth five stars, and while you may not have much to begin with, with a little bit of planning and a little bit of funding to improve and grease the wheels of the local community, you'll be rolling in dough in no time. Selling out was never so addictive!

A great Calamity rocks the world, wiping out all of civlization in an instant and leaving behind only a handful of floating islands in a vast void. As the Kid, along with your ever-present Narrator as a guide, search the remnants of the world for something that might rebuild it, uncovering the truth about the Calamity (and human nature) as you do. Featuring stunning visuals, an engrossing story related in a unique, immersive fashion, and fast-paced combat with upgradeable weapons, Bastion is a top-notch indie action RPG players looking for another realm and a good story will definitely want to investigate.

It's been a long, strange year, hasn't it? First your great uncle passed away, then you had to move to the odd little town of Queensbury to help your grandmother run the family soup stall, then a curse hits the town and suddenly the only thing standing between the townsfolk and complete chaos is your great-uncle's magical spirit soup recipe. Wait, wha? Seriously, that's the premise behind newcomer Twilight Games' fabulously goofy new adventure. Play Spirit Soup: The Queensbury Curse and travel back to a simpler time when adventure games were goofy and magical soup could save the day!

Waking up in a hospital is never comforting, and it's even less so for Angel, whose hysterics about monsters ever since she was discovered wandering on the beach have convinced the hospital staff she's a danger to herself and others. In this sequel to the hidden-object adventure Shadow Town, help Angel escape from the hospital and the strange other world known as the Twisted Lands, uncovering a dark secret in the process.

The long-awaited sequel to Hidden Expedition: The Devil's Triangle has finally arrived! H.E.A.T. (that's the Hidden Expedition Adventure Team) is back and is finally going to rescue the pilot! So was the nearly two year wait for Hidden Expedition: The Uncharted Islands worth it? Without hesitation, a resounding: YES! The Uncharted Islands is fun for everyone, from newbies to the most hard-core adventure addicts. Most definitely worth the wait!

Do you think you're safe from the denizens of the night just because you turned the light on? Does the warmth of the sun scare away evil just because it's bright and cheery? Think again. As Redemption Cemetery: Children's Plight aims to prove, you're never safe from the demons of this world (or any other world). A follow-up to the first point-and-click hidden object/adventure hybrid from ERS Game Studios, Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven, this installment forces you to ask the difficult question: how the heck am I going to fall asleep tonight after witnessing that?

Several years in the making, the darkly atmospheric (and strangely realistic) platform game LIMBO has finally migrated from console download to the PC ecosphere.Crafted by Danish studio Playdead, LIMBO drops you in a shadowy world filled with dangers, immensely difficult puzzles, and more ways to die than you would really want to count. It's an incredibly stylistic and engaging game, one that just about any player can pick up and enjoy from beginning to end.

A nightmarish wreck at sea one evening should have left you and your father dead, but instead you find yourself a lost soul stranded at the bottom of the briny deep, trapped somewhere between life and death by none other than Davy Jones himself. In this creative, cheesy-good hidden-object adventure, you'll have to play the malevolent sea-spectre's games if you want to win your freedom, but with so many other listless spirits trapped below the waves for who knows how long it looks like the odds aren't in your favour. Will you be able to rescue your father and the oddball assortment of other beings who lost themselves to Davy Jones' tricks, or are you doomed to an eternity underwater?

You haven't seen your twin sister Luisa since you were children, and when you receive word that she was pushed off a bridge in a wedding gown by a shadowy figure it seems you might never get the chance to reconnect... but a dark offer from a mysterious being may just grant you the ability to uncover the mysteries and set things right if you're willing to put your soul on the line. Travel back in Luisa's life in this dark, beautiful hidden-object adventure full of tragedy, mystery, and family secrets best left undisturbed.

This is one of the best, most elaborate adventure hybrids to come out this year. With the emphasis squarely on the point-and-click adventuring, Sacra Terra: Angelic Night is a mind-blowing throwback to the days of yore in adventure gaming with its engrossing story, stunning visuals, and, most importantly, depth of gameplay. Alawar has created a world which is fascinating to explore and difficult to leave, and the combination of beautiful, otherworldly scenes juxtaposed with the grim, haunting asylum proper makes the entire experience surreal.

Life isn't easy for fairies. You have to shop in the newborns' clothing section, you leave messy dust everywhere you go, people think that by shaking you around and sprinkling your dandruff on themselves that they can fly. It's a tough life! This is a situation that our heroines Chante and Elise are learning about firsthand in Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters, a new action-RPG developed by EasyGameStation and published by Carpe Fulgur.

Unsolved Mystery Club: Ancient Astronauts can be quite a challenge for the advanced gamer while still being easy enough for the beginner. With its fantastic visuals and engrossing story Unsolved Mystery Club: Ancient Astronauts is not to be missed, even if you are more skeptical than Scully about the whole aliens-interacting-with-ancient-peoples thing.

Blue Tea Games, a studio that knows its hidden object adventure genre better than a chef knows how to boil water, is at it again. Following series such as Enlightenus, Dark Parables, and Forgotten Riddles is a tough job, but Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale definitely holds its own, crafting an environment filled with intrigue, danger, mystery, and loads of shiny objects to find. It's a hidden object/casual adventure game for the most discriminating fans, and it never fails to impress from beginning to end.

Your life takes a drastic change when you discover that you're no ordinary teenage girl; you're a witch, and there's a place at the secretive Iris Academy waiting for you! Will you bury your nose in your schoolbooks and become the next great magical prodigy? Develop friendships (and rivalries) to last a lifetime? Or maybe you'll find... someone special? This latest visual novel RPG simulation from Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar is not only tremendously addictive and engrossing, it's packed full of charm, replay value, and a magic all its own.

It's Mardi Gras, home of costumed pedestrians, masked partiers, parades, dancing, food, and more crazy things than you can imagine. What could possibly go wrong with everyone in the throes of celebration? Try murder. Murder, and a number of occult happenings shortly thereafter. As you arrive on the scene of the crime, you learn something very strange has been going on in Louisiana, and judging by the glowing tattoo on the dead body, you know it's not going to be an ordinary case. Pick up your fingerprint kit and brush up on your voodoo knowledge, as in the new adventure/hidden object game Paranormal Crime Investigations: Brotherhood of the Crescent Snake, you're going to do some investigating of the supernatural kind!

Gourmania 3: Zoo Zoom, from Alawar Games, takes a few common casual gaming genres and breaks their molds all to pieces, creating a game that's one half hidden object game, one half time management simulation. How do you combine a sit and think genre with a frantic click-fest genre? Easy! You hunt for ingredients in a crowded restaurant to cook dishes for impatient customers!

Gorgeous, entertaining, and fit for both the noob and the advanced adventure gamer, Timeless: The Forgotten Town is a feast of astounding visuals and amusing gameplay. Do not, however, expect an exciting roller-coaster ride of adventure in game form. Instead, enjoy a quiet and meditative stroll down avenues of the past, probably a lot more entertaining than actually being there.

From the horror-themed hidden object masters at Vogat Interactive comes F.A.C.E.S., another casual adventure tale filled with mystery, occult occurrences, and plenty of strange human abilities. You play a young woman who can travel into photographs and carry things back to the real world. She's trapped in an asylum at the game's outset, however, and knows she's about to endure the scientists' final experiment. Not good! To escape, she'll need to find the right photographs and scurry her way out into the world beyond!

Do you remember your high school? Are you still in high school? Have you always thought you could do better than the, like, total lamers who run the place? Now's your chance to prove it with Kairosoft's latest simulation and foray into the world of Pretend School Management. Balance the needs of your students and faculty with building improvements to your facilities, research new rooms and activities, take part in competitions, and design the academy of your dreams to ensure you rise to number one.

You wake up. Disoriented. Outside of an abandoned town. All you know is your motorcycle is ruined, but a series of vague images continually float through your mind. The town you're stranded outside of was evacuated decades ago because of a fire in the mines. Coal is still burning below the surface, and something ghostly walks the streets above ground. Vampire Saga - Welcome to Hell Lock, a sequel to Vampire Saga: Pandora's Box, is an extraordinarily well-done hidden object adventure that incorporates classic horror film methods to create a creepy, captivating world that draws your interest out with each and every step you take.

The business of fixing dreams is a delicate one. It requires a lot of time and energy, the clients are few, and let's face it, the pay probably isn't that great. That doesn't stop a young woman from helping out her tormented friend, Victor, from sussing out the source of his nightmares by traveling within his world of dreams. Foreign Dreams is a visually stylish hidden object adventure game that lays on imagery and mystery in its unusually-crafted world. As you follow a frightening young girl through Victor's dreams, you begin to piece together a bit of the puzzle surrounding the source of his nightmares.

The Mission: A Search and Rescue Mystery is still a blast to play if only for those puzzles. For those who miss the days of classic point-and-click adventuring this is a game that, while not completely resurrecting the old days, certainly comes closer than most on the market.

From Intenium, the makers of the equally awesome Insider Tales: The Stolen Venus 2 and Tulula: Legend Of A Volcano, comes Sandra Fleming Chronicles: Crystal Skulls, a hidden object adventure with heavy emphasis on the latter. Sandra Fleming cuts out most of the casual stuff we see in modern games, leaving you alone with a strange world with nothing but your wits to get you out. It's a challenging and intriguing game that goes to greater lengths to satisfy your puzzle solving itch than most other games of its species!

You want action? We got that. You want cheesy storylines with French villains obsessed about obtaining immortality, kidnapped scientists, plane crashes and giant spiders? Got that, too. Hide and Secret: The Lost World from Anarchy Enterprises is the fourth game in the hidden object adventure series, featuring a classic-styled plot ripped out of your favorite dime novel from a century ago.

When young Emily goes missing moments before midnight on the day before her seventh birthday, her mother Kathleen and uncle Peter have no choice but to follow her otherworldly abductor to a strange and dangerous realm typically hidden from human eyes. Who are the Extractors, and what is their interest in the mysterious "bridge of seven"? Find out in this fantastic hidden-object adventure!

Those of us adept at folding space-time (with or without the use of spice) are very familiar with the concept of moving chunks of the universe around so we can easily step from one area to another. For everyone else, there's Continuity 2: The Continuation, a sequel to the familiar Flash puzzle game Continuity. Combining a little bit of 2D platforming and a lot of sliding puzzle logic, Continuity 2 is a unique and challenging experience made better by the battery of almost 50 new levels packed into the iPhone's tiny little screen. It's all the space-time folding you could ever want, without the blue-in-blue eyes to show for it!

Back to save the village once more, eh? Youda Farmer 3: Seasons is a time management game from the seasoned experts of the casual genre, Youda Games. Following the original Youda Farmer and its sequel Youda Farmer 2: Save the Village, the third in the series keeps the gameplay largely the same but introduces several great features, all adding up to a healthy and robust time management simulation experience you'll enjoy mastering!

If you love time management games in the vein of Build-a-lot, then there is a lot to like in The Timebuilders: Caveman's Prophecy. Fast, frantic, and fun this is definitely what casual gaming should be. Have fun building civilization and shaking the devil out of those mischievous kitties!

From ERS Game Studios, creator of Haunted Halls: Green Hills Sanitarium, PuppetShow: Lost Town, Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven, and a number of other games, comes a hidden object adventure that takes place in old Italy. Grim Facade: Mystery of Venice is a dark, atmospheric game populated by empty streets and moonlit statues, strongly punctuating the shaded character you're chasing after: the man in the mask.

When you hear the phrase "dream resort", you immediately think of a lavish getaway locale that's so luxurious you could barely even dream of it, right? Well, that's not exactly the case in Chloe's Dream Resort, a new time management release from Fugazo. Instead of operating the resort of someone's dreams, you're operating the resort of everyone's dreams. In other words, when people go to sleep, they visit this resort to relax their mind, body and spirit. The problem is, the resort isn't working so well, so while Chloe slumber's on her work desk, her dream self is busily serving dreamers from around the world.

Beautiful, engaging, lengthy, difficult, Dreamland is everything that you could want in a hidden object/adventure hybrid and more. A feast for the eyes, ears, and brains, evoking that long ago distrust of the traveling carnival and showing the evil that can lurk beneath the surface of any childhood fantasy. Take the time to enjoy the experience and the thrills of Dreamland.

From Orneon Games, crafters of The Agency of Anomalies: Mystic Hospital, comes Secrets of the Dark: Temple of Night, a hidden object/casual adventure game steeped in legends, demons, and a town that's a little on the strange side. The game uses a creative light/dark mechanism that allows you to peer into the demon world simply by turning off or blocking the lights in a room. This morphs the scene and opens up new passageways, reveals new items and objects to explore, and disseminates new bits of story that you'll gobble up like delicious popcorn.

You like Dino Run SE, right? And Nanotube? Well, imagine a game that's nothing like either of those games but co-created by the makers of each. Imagining that? Now stop and check out Super Space Rubbish, a game that satisfies the wildest fantasies you've had since starting this review, and does so with a fantastic retro style. Super Space Rubbish looks a lot like the classic Asteroids game on the surface, but really it's a mining/upgrading sort of experience where you customize your ship using materials extracted from asteroids smashed with your turret.

Mmm, delicious time management games. If slinging burgers, serving tacos, or making cakes doesn't get your appetite going, you probably need to play a little longer! Stand O'Food 3 is a new time management game that puts you in the chef shoes of Ronnie, a mega-talented restauranteur whose skills at making eateries popular rivals that of every other time management game hero! Now it's your job to run a series of burger joints that, apparently, sell burgers the size of a couch cushion. Business is booming, though, and you'll have a great time serving food and pleasing customers in this casual game!

Hotel Dash: Lost Luxuries is time management done fantastically well, challenging, amusing, beautiful, and frantic. Take a few minutes and get sucked into the world of Flo and Dinertown!

Vampires are the new "it" thing, for reasons we shall not name, and recently they've become quite the item in casual games. Dracula: Love Kills goes back to the roots of the legends and casts you in the role of the non-sparkling Count Dracula, the original vampire that no teenage girl would ever want to date. It's a hidden object adventure from Waterlily Games that's heavy on story, atmosphere, and puzzles, and there are plenty of unlockables to get your cold, vampiric hands on, too!

Tearstone is a fantastic first effort by a new designer on the scene. DragonsEye Studio has come up with a fantastic, challenging, fun, and entertaining point and click adventure of the old school, with a few hidden object conventions thrown in.

Serve the Pact, serve Avadon, serve Redbeard. So it goes for you, a new recruit to the fabled Black Fortress, eager to make a name for yourself and help uphold the ideals of your land. But all is not as it seems; Redbeard, Avadon's commander, seems to inspire as much fear as he does loyalty in his followers, and murmurs of dissent ripple through the ranks while rumours of traitors both unnerve and intrigue you. Decide for yourself what path you will follow in this massive, engrossing turn-based fantasy RPG from Spiderweb Software. Just remember to watch your back so someone doesn't stick a dagger into it. Who can you trust?

From Nevosoft comes a quirky, lighthearted game that takes inspiration from the likes of Galcon and Risk, LandGrabbers. In a land filled with castles and knights and crusades, it's own or be owned. You are a brilliant military strategist (but you knew that already!) who has decided to show your prowess by taking over the land. One building at a time. Send units, fortify your homeland, and set out to conquer the medieval world the only way you know how: casual strategy gaming!

Love Chronicles: The Sword and the Rose, a new casual adventure game from Vendel Games, creator of the Magic Encyclopedia series, flings you into a gloomy world of alchemy, spells, sleeping trees, frozen puddles and glowing rose petals. As a prince who is on his way home from an adventure, you encounter a strange island filled with mystery. And ice. Lots and lots of ice. Your boat becomes trapped on the shore, so you set foot to sand and investigate the island's strange sights.

Antique Road Trip 2: Homecoming is a hidden object game that tells the story of a young couple, Grace and James, their newborn son Colin and their amazingly cute puppy. In the original Antique Road Trip USA they spent a ton of time traveling around the country, finding and selling antiques to fix up their own lovely antique store. Now all they want is a break, so they head to Montana to visit Grace's parents and enjoy some long-awaited relaxation.

When tornadoes strike Greefield Island, who you gonna call? The rescue team, of course! Clad in the finest orange overalls and wearing the highest-tech helmets available, the handy crew sails in, hammers at the ready, willing and able to clean up the debris covering the island and repair each and every building along the way. A time management sim in the vein of My Kingdom for the Princess and Roads of Rome, Alawar Game's Rescue Team aims to take its own slice of the road repairing, house rebuilding pie, one level at a time!

The pen is mightier than the sword and it won't give you any time to rest. Mark Twain's soul is uneasy, and he seeks you out to help him try to make sense of a premonition he can't remember from his youth, and to help save him from the strange beast that seems to be hunting him through time. Solve a centuries old mystery and conspiracy in the third installment of Mumbo Jumbo's popular hidden-object adventure series!

Time management game? We don't think so! Bistro Boulevard is a casual restaurant simulation from Fugazo, creators of the World Mosaics series as well as Fiction Fixers. In an unusual departure from the norm. Bistro Boulevard is focused on you as the manager of a restaurant. Hire staff, train them to cook ingredients, formulate recipes, and seat customers, all with a few clicks of the mouse. Your staff does all the drudge work, leaving you to focus on the important parts of the business!

Emma and the Inventor is a wonder-filled adventure/hidden object game from Tricky Software. A relative newcomer to the casual downloads scene, the studio makes a great impression with a game that is not only easy and inviting to play, but one that has been carefully put together with attention to the small details. The end result doesn't shatter records or break the genre's mold too fiercely, but instead delivers a supremely satisfying game with good puzzles, excellent artwork and music, and frustration-free gameplay scene after glorious scene.

With its darker and more powerful storyline and haunting music Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse still delivers the goods of involving, entertaining, challenging gameplay. The ability to chose two different modes of play makes Princess Isabella fun for both beginners to the field and seasoned adventurers looking for a challenge. Beautiful beyond belief and exciting to play Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse is a definite hit.

From crooked law agents to psychic detectives to run-of-the-mill agents who find themselves in tough situations, most of us feel like we've got a good grip on the fictional portrayal of the justice system at this point in time. Dark Ritual plays with this familiarity a bit, introducing two FBI agents at the very beginning of the game, one of whom has a sister that has mysteriously vanished. The pair sets out to locate her, uncovering top secret plots, a mad scientist with an Incan mind control concoction, and plenty of mysticism along the way. It's a stunning hidden object thriller from Vogat Interactive (Shades of Death: Royal Blood, Gravely Silent: House of Deadlock), and you won't be able to pause until you've ran through to the end!

Dragon Keeper is an amusing and fun little time management diversion in which you need to raise baby dragons to help win back the princess and the kingdom. The animations are hilarious and the action can become fast and frantic, but not so much that this game is out of reach of the young or old, making Dragon Keeper literally fun for everyone. Dragon Keeper offers hours upon hours of addictive fun for the whole family, wrapped up in a cute little bow.

Tragedy rocks an isolated town, but nobody wants to talk about it... mainly because they've all vanished. Over a century later you find yourself at the gates, drawn there by an obsession from your own tragedies and a mysterious letter, and wind up embroiled in a plot of love, hate, and murder in a place that straddles the line between nightmare and reality. A creepy and captivating hidden-object adventure with quality and good times to go around.

When Amanita Design's Samorost or Machinarium meets a smart, non-formulatic hidden object game, The Tiny Bang Story is the beautiful result. A point-and-click puzzle game at heart, this charming release from Colibri Games will hook you from the start, keeping your eyes busy and your cursor mobile from the opening screen all the way to the very end. It's a stunning and very memorable game that will make you wish more games followed its careful design concepts.

Welcome to Snark Busters 2: All Revved Up, a bizarre, colorful, steampunk-ish world of broken hidden objects, magical mirrors, and mischievous chandelier-breaking cats! As Jack Blair, famous Formula 0 racer, you follow in the footsteps of your grandfather who was not only a better driver, but a better Snark Buster as well! The sequel is every bit as whimsical and engaging as the original game, Snark Busters: Welcome to the Club, and it's a treasure of an experience from beginning to end!

Mystery Chronicles: Betrayals of Love tells a tale of love, obsession, and murder which unfolds alongside the dazzling scenery with each clue you uncover and each vista you explore. Will you find out what happened to the countess? You will indeed, and have a great deal of fun along the way.

Mystery is afoot in the snow-logged town of Raincliff! When a busload of university students goes missing nearby, the locals aren't talking... mainly because there aren't any. The town has been deserted for years and nobody knows why, and when you go looking for answers, it's clear that something doesn't want you around and will go to any lengths to keep you from playing the hero. Uncover a bizarre secret, stay one step ahead of a murderous unseen force, and search for clues in this exciting, imaginative installment in the fantastic Mystery Trackers hidden-object adventure series!

A space ship. An explosion. An escape pod. A crash. It's just you and an alien planet replete with jungle creatures who aggressively attack you, lone guy in a well-equipped spacesuit. Capsized drops you in an unfamiliar world and gives you just a few tools to survive. Fortunately, a grappling hook and a number of guns happens to be amongst these tools, the former of which is handy not only for swinging around and pulling yourself up ledges, but for grabbing and moving obstacles. Other than that, you really have to rely on your wits in this gorgeously-illustrated but challenging physics/action game.

Amanda Rose: The Game of Time, developed by Renergy, takes the idea of hurtling through a time-space continuum one step further by way of a small stone in an unfolding cube found by our heroine, Amanda, at the site of a plane crash. It's not an easy ride though and after several days of unconsciousness, she awakes to an adventure that will take her through the wild west of America to the amazing lost city of Atlantis. Of course there are multiple hidden objects to be found to help her on her way.

Note to wizards tinkering with space and time: if you're going to build a magical portal, be sure to calibrate it for humans before unleashing its unstoppable power on the universe! In the far away land of Sefirem, one such wizard failed to do this, and the high-tech portal he was working on went all wacky and trapped him inside. Now, an elfin girl and her rodent pal need a human — namely, you — to collect crystals and find the wizard, else the entire land will fall to ruin! So begins Allora and the Broken Portal, a gorgeously-drawn fantasy hidden object adventure from the folks at AZ Art development studio.

Voodoo Whisperer: Curse of a Legend is a hidden object adventure hybrid that brings the atmosphere and mystery of New Orleans to you in the comfort and safety of your own home. A moody soundtrack accentuates the gorgeous and stunning visuals in the game, as well as the brilliantly detailed and almost photo-realistic hidden object scenes. What Voodoo Whisperer brings to the table is a twist on the usual gameplay along with fantastic atmosphere and a gripping story that keeps the player engaged while sending shivers down the spine.

Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is virtually a pure point-and-click adventure experience of the old Myst school of gameplay, with some minor hidden object elements mixed in. Book of Water picks up where Book of Air left off, with the heroine Lyra making her way back home to the land of Wish after her adventures with the Clockmaker. Stunning to look at, a joy to listen to (the soundtrack is lovely as always), challenging, entertaining, and downright fun, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is a worthy successor to the previous games in the series, while setting the stage for the (hopefully) big wrap up that is to come.

Card games: love 'em or be just sorta "meh" about them. We happen to love them, and when it comes to downloadable solitaire games, you'll always be hard-pressed to outdo the card masters at Anawiki. New from the developer that brought you Soccer Cup Solitaire comes the smooth, attractive, and long-playing tri peaks sort of game Avalon Legends Solitaire. One you start, you probably won't want to stop. And hey, we won't blame you!

They say the price of fame is steep, but when Lisa signs on for a TV show, little does she know it's about running a farm — and she's the star! Think Old McDonald meets Paris Hilton. Fortunately for Lisa, you'll make sure she's awesome at farming in the time management game My Farm Life.

Spirits of Mystery: Amber Maiden offers a lot of fantastic adventuring and hidden object gameplay. The beautiful scenery, the competent voice acting, the amusing animations and the fine interface guarantee lots of fun for fans of the genre. So take some time and explore this gorgeous world while saving the kingdom from a fate that is, while visually very pretty, in reality not all that pretty.

In the first Youda Survivor, your job as a ragged castaway was to impress the chief of the island by brewing potions and living off of the magic of the world around you. Prove you were the stuff of legend, and you would be rewarded! After saving both the island and its inhabitants, you settled down for a nice and quiet civilized life of your own. But as Youda Survivor 2 begins, the island chief calls you back, and it looks like some serious trouble is brewing this time around!

A government experiment gone wrong... an isolated ruin of a hospital... a madman who refuses to stop his work... and a host of angry beings with deadly powers. That should be a walk in the park for you, right? Save the world and track down five experimental super soldiers gone rogue in Orneon's hidden-object adventure! For hidden-object adventure fans who prefer their experiences just a little bit creepy, Agency of Anomalies: Mystic Hospital is the perfect choice, with an emphasis on adventure and puzzle solving to balance out hidden-object scenes.

Blood and Ruby, from Hitpoint Studios, features both traditional bloodsucking vampire villains and the new heartthrob type (he even has a cuddly scarf!) in its new adventure, but thankfully it doesn't take itself too seriously!

A distraught phone call from your sister informing you of your father's death is the least of your worries. When you show up at the family castle to settle some familial matters, you find that things are going from bad to worse as a malevolent force appears to be working against you and following your every move. Will you be able to save your sister and, ultimately, the world from the darkness? Find out in this short but engrossing hidden-object adventure from Vogat Interactive!

Discover why a small tropical island has been over-run by the spirits of a sunken luxury liner in this captivating, beautiful and thoroughly fun adventure game. It is one of the best adventure games we've seen this year. Sometimes I struggle through these types of games, mostly the result of boredom. This title? I played it twice — in a row.

Ready for an adventure game that will engladden you with every puzzle? Or maybe you're in the mood for a little princess saving, dragon slaying, ghost-costume-wearing fun? Either way, The Fool has got you covered. And then some! The Fool is a perfect example of what a casual adventure game should be: smart, funny, filled with puzzles, and just the right number of diversions to keep things from going too silent. All wrapped in a deliciously tongue-in-cheek fantasy setting.

Vogat Interactive presents a tale of magic, murder, menace, and uncooperative talking pianos in this hidden-object adventure. You awake one evening from a nightmare to find that it's come true; your brother-in-law has called to inform you that your sister has died. Suspicious of his evasive behaviour, you arrive at his eccentric estate unannounced and set about uncovering a truth that may be more fantastical than you'd expect... and offer a shot at saving your sister from a very bleak eternity.

Her parents spent their time searching for an artifact called the Severed Heart. Now, Edwina Margrave is driving through the dark woods to a remote village where her mother and father were last seen. Probably not the brightest idea she's ever had, but Ed knows a thing or two about the supernatural realm. The hidden object adventure Margrave: The Curse of the Severed Heart opens up with our heroine arriving at a dimly-lit cottage in the woods. She is seeking answers, but naturally she'll find many more questions as things begin to unravel in a most peculiar way. Ghostly animals haunting the realm of the living, anyone?

You might think that if a large, priceless statue is stolen in a cruise ship the police would simply prevent the ship from docking and conduct a thorough search until they find it. But where would be the fun in that? Where would be the opportunity for hidden object searching for clues in tourist locations across the Mediterranean? Maybe Italian police really do handle things differently. In Insider Tales 2: The Stolen Venus, a new adventure game from Intenium, Detective di Porta indulges in a little pizza making and even surreptitiously enters a Greek archaeological site on her leisurely course towards nabbing the culprit.

Empress of the Deep 2: Song of the Blue Whale is a brand new adventure game from Silverback Productions, creator of the original Empress of the Deep game. The sequel picks up where the first game left off, dropping you in a lushly-rendered world filled with mythological entities, puzzling pieces of machinery, and just a dab or two of fantasy magic.

New from Hitpoint Studios comes Guardians of Magic: Amanda's Awakening, a casual adventure game that focuses on inventory puzzles, exploration, and a lush fantasy setting. You take on the role of Amanda, a young girl who discovers some secrets about her late grandfather's life, including his feud with her mentor, Dr. Magus. It's technology versus magic in this well-spun game, and you'll get to explore a heap of scenes as you search for items to help you solve puzzles.