Crazy Machines 2

This game is excellent for all ages. It's a game where inventiveness and thinking outside the box is crucial. You don't have to be a teenager with rapid-fire reflexes to excel. I'm an over-50 Mom and I have as much fun and do as well as my teenagers. The puzzles do progress to more difficulty fairly quickly, so a pre-teen may need help, but collaberating can be half the fun.You aren't timed in the manner of a clock ticking, but for each problem, the game keeps track of how many tries was needed for you to solve the problem. On the screen where it keeps track of your completed projects, you can get one, two or three gears for each completed project, depending on how fast you completed it (and any extra-credit objectives). It has been very fortunate for me, at times, that you can't time out. However long it takes you is how long it takes you.And sometimes it takes me a very long time. As with any puzzle game, sometimes the Rube Goldberg-esque answer is simple, but I just don't see it right away. Sometimes the answer is not so simple, and I end up pulling my hair out. As you progress to the more difficult projects, you may need to do more than just place objects correctly. You may need to zoom in on a specific puzzle part, to get a closer look before you can tell what is needed (using the mouse wheel). Or you may need to change your perspective (by holding down the mouse wheel). Or the answer may not hit you until you rotate your view (hold ALT and the mouse wheel down).Sometimes you've got the right idea, but your placement of an object is a tad off to the right or left or up or down. This is a game of patience and cunning - yes CUNNING - even if your "opponent" isn't moving, you have to out-think the diabolical puzzle maker!A word of advice! Most of the puzzles have a primary goal and a secondary goal or goals. Ex. Goal 1 is to get the blue pin in the basket. Goal 2 is to knock the red pin off the shelf. The first time you run your Goldberg machine and accomplish Goal 1, the game congratulates you for completing the puzzle, and you're on to the next one. So, if you want to get more gears (see above), I suggest you figure out the ancillary goal first!Crazy Machines 2 has over 200 puzzles, so you get a huge amount of game play and enjoyment for your money. In addition to completing the game's puzzles, you can create your own Goldberg puzzles. If you join a forum, you can upload your creation and others can play your puzzle, and you can play other people's creations. (I haven't tried that.)I bought the CD-ROM version of this game over a year ago, and we've had no problems running it on a PC XP. I can't speak to the downloaded version, as I haven't tried it and we try to steer clear of downloads. Crazy Machines 2 is available on Steam, which is one game site we trust for downloads.I really really liked this game. Excellent brain work - get the kids off their SIMS games and give them something to actually do!Happy Reader

My son, like most boys, enjoys playing video games. So i try to at least steer him in the direction of games that include problem solving and are thought provoking. Crazy Machines 2 is really fantastic in this respect. I would much rather see my son spend an hour solving the puzzles in CM2 than an hour playing something mindless like Mario Super Sluggers.

I'm assuming the demo is just the full version with fewer puzzles? If this is not the case please let me know so I can revise my review.THE GOOD1. This is still a fun game compared to older versions of Rube-Goldberg games. Newer physics modelling has made the game more challenging.2. The graphics are very pretty.THE BAD1. The tutorial section doesn't give the user a complete picture of how different components are used. After the tutorial, the 2nd puzzle introduced new elements which I had no idea how to use! It makes for a frustrating experience if you don't know, for example, that the crossbow trigger only moves in one direction.2. None of the shortcut keys work. I can't get a reminder of the puzzle goals, change the background, or get help.3. Unlike the screenshots, I am unable to change my view of the experiment. I can zoom in & out and pan around, but I can't change the angle. So in this respect the game is just a 2-D experience which taxes my CPU & GPU unnecessarily.4. The game's main improvement (the physics) can also be it's downfall. It sometimes makes an otherwise fun game TOO challenging, and tax your computer's resources too much. This should still be a game, not simply a physics demonstration.

I attempted to run Crazy Machines 2 immediately after installation and was prompted to TAGES copy protection as an administrator. This does not make me feel comfortable, but I was on a test computer so I proceeded anyway.Windows then blocked TAGES copy protection saying it prevents the computer from booting after restarting and gave me a link to download an update from TAGES website. I figured it's not worth the hassle to fight copy protection just to play a game, so I uninstalled Crazy Machines 2 and tossed the disc in the trash.

The good is the great graphics and challenging game play along with the ability to download other peoples creations. I like the zoom feature, but I've tried two different mice and neither will tilt or rotate. Not a big deal since that feature is not really required/useful.One thing with prior versions...if you were plugging in multiple electric cords (or other multiples), when you picked one, you automatically had another....now you have to re-pick it from the parts bin. Just more convenient. A new feature I like is undo/redo with alot of depth (can go back a long ways).The game is a bit buggy and has frozen a few times, but for the most part runs OK. Reaching objectives is sometimes random....you clearly meet the objective but don't get the points, or in the case of the "best of" solutions (you can download the best solutions of others) they sometimes don't achieve the objective (again, clearly) but get credit. Not really a big deal.The WORST part of the game is there is NO SUPPORT FROM VIVA MEDIA. You use the registration code to get a registration key. The key is apparently obtained from a web page download. When I got the standard.....site wants to download....and clicked the "download this file" that was the end, a blank web page. When I tried again, I got an "invalid registration key" error. They should do the code through email like most other software. Considering it's $18 software the copy protection is far worse than other high price software AND after emailing VIVA with the problem.....well, it's been a week+ and no reply! You can use the software with the CD, but, that is a pain in the........ I really don't like going to hacking sites to get a fix but that may be my only recourse.Bottom line is there is really alot of entertainment for the $.

I purchased this for my son and found myself playing it when I could. Some of the puzzles are tricky and it's not always clear, at least at the beginning (despite the tutorial) what to do. But for those who keep at it, the pay-off is great. We have been playing this randomly for months now and love it.

This product was very difficult to load onto any of my computers and when I finally got it loaded on my newest computer I got a virus from it. I do not recommend this product to anyone! I am so upset that I wasted my money and will try to return Crazy Machines 2. I am now worried that it will be a problem to return it because it was sent from another venue even though it was ordered through Amazon. I have had good luck with Amazon but this time it all went wrong.