User Review - 3 Cards to Midnight

I love that this game gives us a new approach to the standard hidden object game. I really enjoyed searching through the objects on the screen and then referring back to the key words to see if they would be a good fit.

I played in all three of the different difficulty levels. The Easy and Challenge levels have the same objects to find, but in the Challenge level you just have to find more than in the Easy level. The Gamer level, which is the most difficult, has different items to find. They don’t just add more items. The have given us mostly all new items to find. There are a few of the same items but for the most part it is just like a totally new game. This is GREAT for replay value because it is like getting three games in one.

I also enjoyed the puzzles and mini-games. They came up with games that are fresh and fun but not too difficult. Just the right amount of challenge I think.

Although this is a wonderful game and I love playing it, it seems like they didn't put the polishing touches on it.

We can't play in windowed mode. They did give us a drop down box to pause and exit the game but it is nearly impossible to find as it is off the screen in the upper right corner.

The game does not adapt to our screen resolutions. The developers should have at least suggested the best resolution settings in the game directions.

We don't have the option to turn the music down and it is always louder that the dialogue. I was constantly adjusting the volume up to hear the dialogue then I would have to turn it down while searching for the items.

I hope Big Finish Games will be able to work out these minor polishing details for their new game, 3 Cards to Dead Time, which is due out in the forth quarter of this year.

As an addition to everything above: Subtitles would be nice, because english isn't my first language. The only person I could really understand was the inkeeper at the motel.
I didn't get a word from the last scenes, because the sound was really dreadful.

I'm still debating on this one.

* I found the best resolution for my monitor was 1280 x 960 (after playing 3 demos just to find a decent resolution). Even with that, the pixels are still kind of square looking. I can make the game cover my whole 22" flat screen monitor, but then the game looks like it has vaseline smeared on it a bit.

* I have not found a problem with the music being too loud. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember any music.

* I read on the developers forum that if you bought the game from them, they have a patch to fix a glitch somewhere.

* I do like the new style of HO hunting. The mini games where not too hard (the first few I played were actually very easy). I'm still befuddled that some people feel Madame Fate was a hard game - I brought this up since there was a comparison between the two games concerning difficulty.

* I'm usually not into the story when I play a game, but this one interests me so I don't mind listening to it the FIRST time through. The opening scenes can't be skipped , but I read somewhere about hitting your spacebar to skip scenes.

* I saw the comments on Gamzebo concerning the game's accult type theme. Even though I was raised VERY Catholic, this doesn't bother me. I know what I believe and what I don't believe, so no fear of going to Hell for me if I play this game or getting bad karma or whatnot. It was 107 degrees today where I live, so I already feel like I live in Hell.

I hope the next game will correct some of these problems..... mostly screen size & resolution.

I really enjoyed the game as many aspects of it were unique, fresh and excellent. The types of searches were great....I really enjoyed finding things to go with "fire", "blood", etc. so much more than the current craze of finding pieces of items. That always seems creepy to me.....while finding the objects to match words made the game more cerebral and yet fun too. The mini-games were great puzzles, and the storyline hooked me quickly.

One minor problem and one rant:

Minor problem is the graphics. Even when I took my wide screen down to 1024 x 768, the graphics in some sections were SO bad that you couldn't tell what the items were. I had to play some scenes twice because I had to guess at an object (i.e. is it an egg? an onion? a ball?).

Major Rant: WHY is there no way to re-play the finale with different cards? SHEESH! How wonderful it would have been to try selecting different cards at the end to see different endings! I was AMAZED at this decision and feel cheated that after the time spent to get all these cards, you don't get to play them.

P.S. Forcing us to sit through all the credits at the end of the game isn't a great decision but it's not a problem. If you're going to make us sit through credits before we can exit the game, at least make them entertaining by including bloopers, puzzles or just some photos.

Scotcat:

The version has the glitch mentioned in the manufacturer's site repaired. I foolishly bought from them, ended up deleting and buying from here because I can't manage to do zip files. Call it a $20 learning experience.

I hope the game developers are reading the comments and will include some of our suggestions in their new game that they are working on now.

I am enjoying the game very much but have one pet peeve with this one that I hope the developers will keep in mind. Stop giving the characters a lisp! This time around the girl has a lazy "s" and it's completely annoying and distracting. For example, if she said "I don't know what my friendssssssss would say." (In my mind they would say go to a speech therapist and get rid of that lisp!)

Other than that, love the game!

I posted in another thread about this game that her lithping ith pithing me off, lol, so I know what you're saying. Nothing against people with speech difficulties but we all have jobs we wouldn't be good at and people who lisp really shouldn't be voice actors, imo.

I am really enjoying this game and allthe puzzles even though I sometimes have to do it twice to get all the words right! I love the new approach to HO and found it quite entertaining. It is starting to get a little creepy so I'll see what happens.

My major annoyance was with the rotating letters puzzles. On both of them I did solve the danged thing. I could clearly read the messages..but the game didn't grant it as solved. I'm sure it was a letter that is the same both directions (Os, or Ts) that was the wrong direction...but rotating them around didn't do squat. I wound up skipping them just to get out of them.

It was also not easily apparent how to escape from the puzzles. I had to leave in the middle of another and wound skipping it. It was much later when I discovered the unpinned exit button.

The credits at the end were also incredibly annoying. I wound up having to ctrl-alt-delete to get out of it.

It was an okay game. I liked the twist on the hidden objects. The puzzles were okay, but not fabulous. It was worth playing, but hardly my favorite Big FIsh Game (gotta give that to the original Azada)

RaeTP wrote:I am enjoying the game very much but have one pet peeve with this one that I hope the developers will keep in mind. Stop giving the characters a lisp! This time around the girl has a lazy "s" and it's completely annoying and distracting. For example, if she said "I don't know what my friendssssssss would say." (In my mind they would say go to a speech therapist and get rid of that lisp!)

Other than that, love the game!

I never noticed a lisp. Maybe it's your PC speakers. ????

I didn't actually notice a lisp but the "brother's" dialogue in the end scene was totally unintelligible. I could not make out what he was saying at all. I loved the word matching! Very different and fun. I enjoyed this game very much.

I really did enjoy the style of this game with it's twist on hidden objects. Like other players have said in their comments not usually interested in stories on the puzzles but this one was intriguing....What I could hear any way. The dialogue was either slurred or completely garbled and the scenes were always freezing up and being skipped over. I truly hope that by the time the new one comes out they fix these glitches surprized that it is offered in this condition. It's a bummer because i really like the game and would love to get the follow up but not if it plays like this one.

Just finished the gamer levels for this game and agree whole-heartedly with all the other posts that this was a really fresh approach combining the object search with word games and including new clues for the gamer levels. The mini games were fun and not too challenging. Had some issues with the lack of sound controls but switching to headphones that had a volume control eased some of those problems (although, even then, I don't think I caught more than a few words of what Ylli said.)

This was definitely a real treat to play both times (normal and gamer) and I would highly recommend it.

Kudos, too, to the voice actors... very convincing portrayals make you feel part of the action.

I understand about the lisping..it really got to me at times..I wish they would have used a different voice person.

Other than that the games are great and the graphics and speech are fine.

I just bought this game a played the first chapter. I was very disappointed with the quality of the graphics in the hidden object scenes. If you aren't able to identify what an item is to start with, I don't know how they expect you to match it to the words. Oh well. I will persevere. I think I'll just be relying more than I would like on the hint button.

This is the most interesting, best quality game I have played from Bigfishgames, and I buy multiple games every month, I don't inderstand why it isn't more popular, it is better than Madame Fate/Ravenhurst series. Perhaps it should be listed in large file games, rather than hidden ovject.

I absolutely LOVED this game--I think this is even one of my favorites. It was a great spin on the classic HOGS out there now and I loved that it really made me think before I matched up the items with the key words. I give this game I would to see more like this. The story line was great as well which kept me interested. This is definitely a game I will play over and over again.

The only downside was the brother's speech at the end of the game. I couldn't understand a single word he was saying. Subtitles would have been a plus for that one!!

After finding all the track, horse and gold scene in the bloody room, I get stuck when we go back to that scene, what am I supposed to do? Pleeeeaaaase I need help!! Thanx loads.

I loved this game but then again I'm a aaron connors & chris jones fan in a big way. And if you don't know who these guys are, they wrote & produced the tex murphy series. This is the first in 10 years & they have been listening to all praises & comments being bad & good & hopefully will address all this in the new game.