Thanks for the info, Kjos and Traveler.

Okay, I decided I needed to buy this.

I'm usually pretty frugal when it comes to buying CE's. I'm glad I decided to buy this one. Much more of an adventure game than a HOG. Lots of environments to explore and nice graphics. As someone else noted, HO scenes are all different and also fit into the environment and the story - not just a pile of stuff to sort through. I'm a happy camper this weekend.

ETA: As is usually the case for me, by the time I finished the game I'd forgotten the gist of the story. Can someone give me a brief summary as well as what the bonus content is about? Thanks.

I finally picked up this one, and my first impressions are pretty mixed. There is some very nice artwork and I agree about the cut scene of the unrolling bridge being well done (I saw one of those in Denmark!). However, I don't agree that the HOG scenes are anything different from other games of this type. I had to look through an HOG in a crashed helicopter in which there was a bowling pin, skis and an anchor, to point out just a few of the usual irrelevancies to the environment. ha ha But you get used to that with casual games. No biggee.

I have enjoyed the minigames so far. A couple were pesky enough to make me happy. Some are original but most are based on the old puzzles (stacking disks, rotating piping pieces, playing with door keys, jumping tokens until all but one is gone, shifting tiles around, Match 3, etc.). I have not encountered any novel puzzles yet.

I'm still in the early phase, and the snowy environment is well done, with howling wind, blowing snow and all. I haven't fixed the balloon yet, but am at that site now.

I liked reading that "HOGs become less frequent as the game progresses." That will be nice. They are pretty frequent at the start. I'm enjoying the game, and also liked hearing that it is a long game.

LATER: Finished the game and really came around to liking it. It included a few novel mini-games that I loved. The extended play is really worth it. I give a four out of five.

Thanks for your input Reenie!