Memoirs of Murder: Welcome to Hidden Pines Collector's Edition - New HOPA on Big Fish

Today's game for Club Members, tomorrow's game for all.

You can download Memoirs of Murder: Welcome to Hidden Pines Collector's Edition here.



As always, please remember to come back and tell us what you think.

Happy gaming!

Thanks, Marian!

Ana

The game description sounds good!

I've only played 15 or so minutes of the demo, but I like it so far.

I will purchase this when I decide which game to get on today's BOGO sale.

Thus far, it's clear Eipix put more intellectual muscle into the scripting and design of Memoirs of Murder: Welcome to Hidden Pines than into Andersen Accounts. I've been too trusting before so I am avoiding a further opinion.

Right. I can't make any pronouncements about the game after 15 minutes of play, either.

Let us know what game you decide to get.

I wouldn't on 15 minutes either. I should have been clearer. I meant I've spun 180 after a promising demo or promising demo plus some game time.

Yes, I understand.

The unfortunate result of those reversals is that I feel tricked and am less likely to give the next game by the same crew a fair shot.

And complicating that fact is that I tend to believe that large companies (AMAX, Elephant, Eipix, etc.) have different teams working on different games concurrently. I don't know this for sure, but it seems likely.

I have noticed the same.

My commitment to fairness is tempered by how fair I think a company has been to me. In short, the company should hold all the teams to a standard high enough to avoid falling down on the job after the demo.

That said, Memoirs of Murder is looking way better than recent other Eipix offerings. My immersion is limited by my suspicion that at any moment Memoirs of Murder may take a turn for the worst and become a paperclip for zipper pull slog. I no longer have any expectation of something outstanding.

I have been playing this game, and am at part 9 (I believe). Am at the evidence wall and can't get the items to move onto each other. Contacted BF, and they said I must have created 2 signons or changed my email address. !!! Did nothing of the sort. Wrote back and told them they were wrong. BF's forum doesn't have this game on it yet.

Any help? Thanks.

I quit playing earlier than that over exactly the same problem. I've been quietly waiting for a new build.

8dognight: Thanks for the confirmation. I don't mean to be rude, but the BF person who answered my email seems a little "off."

Laurette: News about Big Fish forums:

http://forums.bigfishgames.com/posts/list/1081020.page

I wonder if everyone is getting hit by this bug. I'm glad to know about this and will look out for a new build.

Sparkle: Thanks. Their forums were never very good anyway; hardly anyone would try to help.

I am not going to miss the forums, but if I came across a glitch in a game I could always check the forums to see if anyone else was experiencing the same thing, and that was very helpful to know. That is one aspect of the forums that I am sorry to see go.

Venturebeat had a December 4, 2017 article on Aristocrat Leisure's acquisitions of BFG and Plarium. Here is a portion of the piece:

"Big Fish operates premium paid mobile games (18 percent of bookings), social casino games (42 percent of bookings), and social games (40 percent of bookings). It has 700 employees and five in-house development studios in Seattle and Oakland, California. Its hottest title is Big Fish Casino, which is regularly in the top five grossing apps in the U.S., thanks to repeat business from people who come back regularly to play social casino games.

Aristocrat paid 11.9 times EBITDA and 2.2 times revenues for Big Fish Games, which puts its valuation at the upper end of recent transactions. But the price is roughly the same multiple that Churchill Downs paid when it bought the business a few years ago.

Krejcik said that the acquisition has some risks, like the difficulty of merging two large-scale social gaming companies. Aristocrat’s studios will be far flung across London, San Francisco, Israel, Ukraine, Seattle, and Oakland. All of the deals will have a 'transformational impact' on Aristocrat’s business, Krejcik said, and it will diversify the companies revenues across the digital games opportunity."

I gather the last sentence means that revenues from BFG will not necessarily be plowed into BFG game development and improvement but I'm not sure if I understand the specialized jargon. I doubt it means putting money from elsewhere into BFG because Aristocrat had troubled years a decade ago and the recent Washington state decision on gambling may have an effect as well although that may go down appeal.

I am curious about the breakdown of BFG earnings. Which area do the IHOGS and HOPAS fit into? Do they even make the pie chart? Anyone know?

I don't have an answer to your question.

You might find an answer here 8dog:

https://aristocratleisurelimited.gcs-web.com/static-files/8757874a-b276-45d2-be82-dbb0f1773a2f

Nope. Page doesn't load.

ETA: Just did. Thanks. I'm looking.

Judging solely from the game icons presented in the overview section, I speculate that IHOGS and HOPAS are included in a category called "premium paid" and represent 18% of BFG's adjusted revenue, 81 million in 2017 out of 458 total.

I've skimmed the document and have the impression the sorts of games I like are not where the industry is going. No surprise there. The bright spot is that regular adventure games were toe-tagged DOA years ago then--like the first sequence after the opening car accident in a game or horror movie--sat up on the gurney and listened with amused befuddlement to the screams of morgue attendants.

Yes. Was slow loading.

Hi, Marian!

Thankfully, I don't run into glitches too often but, like you, whenever I did, I would always check out the BF forums to see if it was a common glitch and if anyone had figured out how to get past it. If there was no fix, I would contact BF Customer Service. The reviews were also helpful.

Susan

Susan, thankfully I don't have glitches very often either, but it was always nice to compare notes with other players if I did experience one. I will try to always mention it here if I have a glitch in a new game that is being discussed.

I haven't reinstalled the game yet. I usually try that first before customer service.

Hi, Marian

At least here, posts are always answered . That was not necessarily the case in the Big Fish forums. I still love Big Fish because their level of Customer Service is right up there with Amazon's and is rarely seen anymore. On the few occasions that I have contacted them when there was a glitch that prevented me from finishing a game and they couldn't resolve the issue, they have always given me a game credit along with a sincere apology.

Susan

Well, Susan, we do try to make sure that questions are answered here, even if the answer is that we don't know.

I just finished this game with no glitches or bugs, guess I am one of the lucky ones. Not a bad game, different style in many of the games I played recently, the only irratating thing is that the Couple (main game actors) made the Sheriff and some others look stupid and incompetent, but oh well, it is just a game afterall, puzzles are not bad, HOs varied, graphics very clear, is it replayable for me, maybe down the long road... 2 years from now...

Just for added info. I played this game on my Windows 10 64 bit, 5 Years old laptop.

Has anyone else noticed Big Fish's support is not very good any more. Still have not received a response to my original inquiry about this game.

Thanks.

I haven't been having that experience, Laurette, and I have written them several times this year. Sorry you are having trouble.

8dognight: I just installed an update for this game, and the part where I was stuck (and you) has been fixed

Thanks for letting us know, Laurette.

Thanks for letting me know.