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  Moxie’s Coffee Break

August 28, 2007

Vacation!

*singing* “Vacation, all I ever wanted… vacation, had to get away…” Just a few more hours of work before I take off for twelve blissful days of glorious, non-productive downtime. I am going to slack, I am going to sleep, I am going to go hiking in the Cascades, I am going to read some of the dozens of books I keep buying and never have time for, and I’m going to play games.

Does it get any better than that? Well, okay, I guess I could be heading for a tropical island somewhere, but really, the Pacific Northwest is so beautiful this time of year that it would be a shame to miss out. Beautiful forests, whitewater rivers, bald eagles, deer, elk, even the occasional shy cougar: what’s not to love? I’m going to get out there and take a good long look at all of it.

Completely coincidental segue
Somebody’s probably going to accuse me of having vacations on the brain, but I try to play at least a few minutes of every single game we have on MSN Games, so this actually is completely coincidental. One of the two games that really caught my interest lately is Escape from Paradise, and it just so happens to be about cruise ship passengers shipwrecked on a lovely, if not quite deserted, island. Think Virtual Villagers, but with more interactivity.

You start out with just a couple of castaways, exploring a bit of the island and foraging for bananas and wood. With a little help from the island’s enigmatic, tiki-masked inhabitants, you’ll eventually build wells, huts, storage buildings and fishing piers. And with any luck, eventually you’ll be able to escape the island. (Although the question remains: why would anyone want to?)

One of the most interesting things about Escape from Paradise is that it’s basically a whole bunch of games all wrapped into one. Minigames abound, from old favorites like checkers and peg-jumping to quick card games and even simplified versions of the match-three and restaurant management games. Keeping your castaways happy and fed – particularly once more survivors start showing up – is an enjoyable challenge on its own, but it’s nice to change things up once in a while by playing the minigames.

Which reminds me of something that really impressed me about this game: although you have to play certain minigames in order to win certain items, unlock areas, or otherwise progress the story, you don’t actually have to win them. Just playing once is enough. Thank you so much to whoever designed this feature! Although I rock at most of them, I am unabashedly awful at certain others, and the realization that I wasn’t going to have to play them again and again and again and again just to find another radio part… well, frankly, it was a rush akin to not catching the bouquet at a friend’s wedding. If I couldn’t progress in the game without beating, oh let’s say, Chinese Checkers, I wouldn’t have played far enough to be talking about it.

Anyway, the practical upshot is that I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen so far, and I’m cheerfully recommending it.

Management 101
Okay, question time. If the whole point of a game is surviving a day at the office, does that still make it a game? Sounds kind of counterintuitive, really. But I’m a big fan of the time-and-resource-management games like Diner Dash and Plantasia, so when I saw Miss Management show up on the site, I just had to give it a try. And wow, I’ve definitely found my new addiction. (Which is saying something, since there were plenty of new download games trying to tempt me this month!) But Miss Management is something special, and it’s all about the characters.

Now, I need to clarify something: when I say this game is about a day at the office, I don’t mean my office. I love this place. No, it’s more like… did you ever see a movie called “9 to 5”? Dolly Pardon, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin working in a horribly oppressive office with an incompetent middle manager? Well, it’s kind of like that, except that everyone who works there is some variety of slacker. And you – lucky you – are the new manager who is supposed to keep everyone happy, prevent them from completely getting on each other’s nerves, and actually get some work done.

Oh, and once you have the hang of it? That would be the point when somebody quits or somebody else makes an office power play and changes the whole dynamic. The character list reads like a Who’s Who in Modern Stereotypes, from the geeky IT tech who’d rather be playing videogames, to the shy artist obsessed with Japanese cartoons, to the meddling busybody who wants everything done her way; keeping them from stressing each other out is incredibly challenging! In terms of difficulty, I’d say it’s a bit tougher than most of the time-management games out there, but also one of the most enjoyable. I’m probably halfway through the game so far, and I definitely plan to finish it while I’m on vacation.

Playing a game about work while I’m on vacation. Do I get some sort of irony award for that?

Tech talk
Time for some good news! I know I mentioned a while back that Bridge was not compatible with Windows Vista, but what I didn’t know at the time was how close we were to making it compatible. Now that our elite developer ninjas have finished their work, Bridge should run just fine on your Vista-based computer. Now for the fun part: trying to convince my mother that it’s not just because she told me to ask them to fix it. I’m pretty sure that in her world view, I’m in charge here. (I love you, Mum!)

For more information on Bridge and assorted versions of Windows, please see the System Requirements page!

See you next time!