Sid Meier's Civilization series is often mentioned as the epitome of "one more turn" video games. PopCap Games deserves mention as makers of "one more play" or "one more try" video games. PopCap's Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies, and Peggle series are very addicting. They are easy to play but challenging to master. Because they contain so many goals, challenges, and various modes of play, these simple games offer many hours of gameplay. I've enjoyed every PopCap game I've ever played and Bejeweled 3 is no exception.

Bejeweled 3 is another example of a "match 3" game. The purpose is to match at least three consecutive gems of a given color. That is easy enough but proper strategy involves thinking ahead to setup future moves. The game starts with four game modes: Classic, Zen, Lightning, and Quest. I played them all and unlocked four additional modes: Poker, Butterflies, Ice Storm, and Diamond Mine. After 15 hours or so, I've accomplished almost everything I set out to do. The one exception is the completion of Quest mode. I finished 39 out of 40 quests but have yet to complete the Poker III quest. That quest's goal is to earn 4000 points within ten hands, which is quite a lot. You need a lot of flushes to achieve that. Even averaging a full house every hand (350 points) isn't enough.

Overall, I really liked the game. Until I completed most of the quests and earned most of the badges, I found it hard to stop playing.


My growing collection of Bejeweled 3 badges

Next up on my video game playlist was Swords & Soldiers HD. I expected to dabble with it a bit and then move on. It surprised me. Once I started the single player campaign, I felt compelled to finish it. The story was corny and nothing special. However, the gameplay was a lot of fun. Swords & Soldiers is a real-time strategy game set in a 2D side-scrolling world. You start on the left and your opponent is on the right. A typical mission involves a bit of back and forth battling until one side destroys the other's main base. You gather gold and purchase units and upgrades. You also cast spells to aid your units or hinder your opponent. The Viking campaign came first, followed by the Aztec and Chinese campaigns. There was also a Chief Meat campaign listed but I was unable to play it for some reason. After completing the China campaign, it did not unlock as I expected. Regardless, I enjoyed the thirty missions comprising the first three campaigns. After the campaigns, I played some skirmishes and several challenges. The developers released a sequel several years later. Based on numerous user reviews I read, Swords & Soldiers 2 has much improved graphics but the gameplay is not as fun as the original. This one was short and sweet and quite enjoyable.

Another game I played recently was Zen Bound 2, a title with mobile roots. Like Shank, I enjoyed it but didn't stick with it for too long. Your goal is to paint an object. The object has one or more nails and a rope attached. Paint is applied to the object by winding the rope around it. The concept is certainly a change of pace from the typical video game. I think Zen Bound 2 was well-suited to a touch interface. Playing with a mouse was probably not as good but certainly acceptable. ZB2 was enjoyable but after completing 10 or twelve objects I was ready to move on to a different game.

After some longer games, I am now bouncing between games that I can play in smaller chunks. First up is Shank, a side-scrolling fighting game. It has decent 2D graphics with a comic book art style. As befits a console inspired video game, Shank has gamepad support. It worked flawlessly with my Logitech RumblePad 2. I played the single-player campaign, which follows the story of the titular character on a quest for revenge. Shank has a variety of light and heavy melee weapons, guns, and grenades. With so many options, the controls used the d-pad, the analog stick, and eight buttons on the gamepad. It didn't take too long to get the hand of it. As is typical in these fighting games, there are waves of enemies and bosses to defeat. It was fun for a while but the repetitive combat and thumb-soreness eventually caused me to move on. Still, it is a quality title that I would recommend to fans of the genre.