Check out Raise This Village for village building sims reviews.

Go d own to the link list and click on Raise This Village, where all the village building SIM coverage is headed. Just reviewed Jurassic Park Builder (Ludia) and Fantasy Town (GameLoft)so check them out please.

Tablet Review : Kiwi's Shipwrecked : Lost Island

Since we are on a roll with bad games how about a Sims Castaways meets Farmville clone which falls short, aka Shipwrecked.

My first exposure to this game was in one of the in game ads shoved down your throat while playing Order Up To Go (if you are a Sony gamer and ever wanted to know what in game advertising looks like... this is in game advertising, here in Order Up To Go). The ad looked interesting, but like a great many ads it was deceptive and left out vital details.

So set sometime in... I don't know, the romanticized age of pirates not from Somalia... well you have two survivors of a shipwreck (hunky man and strong female female character) building a colony on this lost island with the help of other people you meet as you play... and already we run into the first problem with this game, people.

This is one of those rare games where people act as the cursor, requiring one person free to do tasks like clean up debris for resources (a common chore you will partake in in this game), gather stuff from all the buildings and stuff you put on your limited space, perform tasks involving expanding into the forest around you and expanding into the forest around you. Sounds simple enough... but it isn't.

Just doing simple tasks is alright, but when it comes to building or uncovering task items from the wilderness it ties up a single character for a few hours, and you start off with only three characters. So, once all three are tied up in long tasks unless you are willing to pay in spirits/potions your stuck... So where are all the other characters hinted at in the trailer? Oh you can find them... in the game store, being sold for Premium currency that is impossible to come by! Translation the first three are free, the rest cost real money.

But wait, that is not all! A major part of the game is clearing away the jungle surrounding your tight small landing spot, to do this you use swords in order to clear the jungle one small section at a time and it seems OK... until you run out of swords. No problem, that'll regenerate right? No. No they don't. Well then maybe you just need to buy the right building to earn or craft swords. And that seems like a logical idea, only none of these so called stores give you an option to craft anything, and not even the ones related to swords yield swords. You only gain swords by leveling up, at a disgustingly slow rate only to earn a very low yield if one or two per hard fought leg e l up (earned doing the aforementioned endless chore of cleaning and building tending). The only way I figure you can earn swords? Buying them with real money. What utter rubbish! Making the two most vital elements of the game, people and swords, a Premium currency item. Unforgivable! That insures the only way you will get full use out of the game is by spending real money on said game! Rubbish! It's one thing to love a game so much you are willing to make the investment, but quite another to be forced to invest just to progress! That is not a good way to motivate you to drop money nor should you on this game.

Too bad too, it had nice graphics a decent story and had potential. Potential squandered by a lack of interactive shops or the ability to craft vital elements like swords, a tight stranglehold on survivors (a problem I have with another Castaway/Farmville clone I will be reviewing shortly), and again that stagnation of game development unless your willing to spend real money for that progress. Rubbish. A 2 out of 5. Go play Oregon Trail American Settler... before GameLoft updates the game into the ground and an early grave.

WIPR : Gameloft's Oregon Trail American Settlers Review

I thought it was a pretty rare treat getting my hands on this game, a rare Gameloft release that, yes, while cloning a popular series (the Ville series from Zynga) it turned out to be a pretty good and addictive game all in all.

Leave it to GameLoft though to shoot themselves with their new game update, ruining what was a pretty good game in the process. Mind you it is not yet completely ruined, and can be fixed... but right now it makes me want the previous version of the game back.

Besides small cosmetic changes here and there several bigger changes have been made, starting with an annoying game synching which seems to crash the game half the Times you try to play it. What a tripe, especially since this was the rare game that played offline well, unlike My Little Pony that suffers constant crashes loading if it's not online.

Disasters are changed. While you have less devastating disasters you also can't use food, wood or money to minimize the damage... you also lose the three choice option for a short pay premium currency or suffer this effect. The worst is building damage has your buildings now burst into flames and you have to craft... get this... paper and fire to fix it. Paper and fire! Also it used to be you could use wood to repair buildings. Can't do that now.

I only just started grinding into this new version, but the rampant crash issue really burned my butter... reminds me of my stupid router... anyway more notes to come as a full review is coming soon. Stay tuned.

The Village Idiot : Gameloft`s Ice Age Village

When it comes to tablet gaming a lot of the reviews in these early days will be casual games. Yeah, I got The Bard`s Tale to review sure, but for the most part a big chunk of reviews is in the category of casual. Specifically Cafe World clones, Farmville clones, and the on the go quick gaming experience here and there... and the occasional T for Teen content Adults Only game. Seriously have we become so sensitive that games that used to easily get a T rating is considered too Adult even if said game has ZERO adult content? Boggles the mind.

But this is The Village Idiot, and as you guessed the name of the game is village building Sims and what better way to start then to take a trip to the marketing tool of DreamWorks Animation and Ice Age Village... actually there are far better trips we could be taking, I wad bring sarcastic.

Released by Gameloft and set in the world of Ice Age, but not tied to any particular movie or plot, you build a village... and that is that. There is no attempt to even create a story here, but then again even the best of these Sims lack a real narrative so cest la vie. Your progress is not hampered by limited energy that measures out how much progress you make each day, but you really don't discovery satisfied with progress you make either. You go through the motions, you build a village, and that is that.

The highlight of the game, if I dare call it that, is an unlockable theater that runs promotional trailers and clips of Ice Age Continential Drift, aka Ice Age 4. It's nice and all, even if a bit dated given how long ago that movie came out, but that gimmick is just not enough to recommend this... almost. If I am to recommend this one it would be to young children or for the casual gamer looking for a lite bite of village SIM without the grinding needed to play a good village SIM. It is a taste, but not a burden to grind through so it gives you the experience without the constant working at the game to progress. Some people thrive in games like that yes, but for those who don't you have Ice Age Village, a 3 out of 5.

Next time...

The first of two going native island Castaway Sims that had promise, but fell short somewhere along the way. First off we look at Pixonic`s Robinson, a slow grind of a game where true progress is hard to achieve, and the most difficult thing to unlock is human companionship on both the virtual and real sense.

Next time. Stay tuned.