Author - Jerry Paxton

We were not fortunate enough to play the first two Virtual Villagers titles. However, we recently got a chance to play the third installment: Virtual Villagers – The Secret City. This time around, you start on the shoreline near some ancient ruins and build into them (the ‘secret’ city mentioned in the title). Your villagers consist of all manner of persons. There are men and women, skilled and unskilled people, pregnant folk and otherwise, the list goes on. Your duty is to get their new home established and prospering before the food runs out.

In fact, your first order of business in the game is to gather more good eats for your people. Villagers move around with their own agendas but that usually doesn’t get you very far. They need a guiding hand to get them to where they need to be and that hand is you! Simply click-and-drag a villager to place them where you like. When you hover them over something useful to them, a message will appear at the bottom of the screen. In the first area of Isola (the island you inhabit), you have to hover a villager over a torch near a bee hive and drop him there. The villager will grab the torch, walk over to a fire and light it – then return to the bees and smoke them calm so you can extract the honey, increasing your tribe’s food supply.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that if you do not click on ‘pause’ before leaving, when you return you will find your village has changed (and is possible dead completely) as the game will continue evolving when you are not there! This came as quite a shock to me originally, as I had plenty of people when I left the game and only two upon my return.

Villagers will also need to procreate in order to increase their numbers. Just click-and-drag one person over another and, if they are compatible they will mate and create another little mouth to feed. Fortunately, those larval humans grow in size and gain experience until one day they too can be useful, contributing members of the tribe. This, of course, is the goal as villagers get old and die. This can have a surprisingly rough impact as you watch a villager grow from a baby to a geriatric before you eyes. Watch their successes and failures, loves and losts as it were, all turned to shadows and dust after their passing. There is a strange realism to it, which is odd as the game is not that visually attractive.

Overall, the game is alot of fun but way more in-depth than one assumes it will be when you first sit down to it. The graphics are 2D and, while vibrant, are not exceptionally clear or high resolution. Playing in full screen mode on my 1920×1200 LCD just looks horrible, so I played it mostly in windowed mode. Sound is minimal and there is an average score to the game which sounds like a royalty free track. Even with these shortcomings however, the gameplay is a lot of fun and makes for an interesting puzzler as you try to help your villagers thrive.

You can check out an hour-long demo of Virtual Villagers – The Secret City here.

Oregon Scientific has long been a manufacturer of all sorts of electronic devices, who’s functions range from time keeping to monitoring air quality and even weather forecasting. The Meteo Weather Forecast Watch falls in the last category. It is literally a short term weather forecasting device strapped to your wrist.

theStyle: The Meteo features an all-black exterior with large LCD display and rubber watchband. The overall sleek appearance is very unique among these types of watches and has turned more than a few heads over the last week we have had it.

theQuality: The Meteo is mostly a hard plastic casing with a soft rubber for the band material. Overall, the watch holds together very well and seems to be somewhat scratch resistant as my Meteo has accidentally met the business end of a car door several times (I am still growing into my body). Something that struck me right away was that, unlike many other watches I have worn – the Meteo’s display is amazingly clear and readable in direct sunlight. The black area of the display gives a great contrast to the liquid crystals and picks up the light well, adding to its readability.

theFunctionality: The Meteo is not just a weather forecasting device. It is also a time piece which is water resistant up to 30 meters, a stopwatch that will time up to 60 hours, and also stores the date and day of the week. It also features a nice backlight button that, when held down, will trigger a ‘locked’ mode in which other button presses on the watch do nothing. This is helpful if, say, you are accident prone like me and bang your watch against a car door. One time I hit it right on the side of the watch and I hear the chime of a button being pressed. I looked down at the watch and the time was still being shown – all thanks to it being locked at the time.

theWeather: Most people will buy this watch for its weather forecasting ability, and over the last week we have been able to give it what we consider to be a thorough test. First, lets talk about the weather forecasting part of the LCD display. You will notice four different, animated icons which denote the following weather types: sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, and rainy. On Sunday, my Meteo read a solid ‘sunny’, and sure enough, the next day was sunny. That next day, however, the Meteo reported a partly cloudy condition. Now bare in mind there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and while others mocked my weather forecasting dynamo, I just stood in proud silence as I knew what was coming. Sure enough, the partly cloudy condition came and the temperature fell. They were not laughing anymore when I reported that on the partly cloudy day, the Meteo now read a rainy condition approaching. The Meteo will predict weather conditions from 12 to 24 hours in advanced. The next day the gloom came and the rain fell. My Meteo had been proven 100% correct over the course of the week. Now I am not saying it will be without failure in the future, but as observed in my test it was flawless.

theDruthers: If there was one thing I would enhance the Meteo with, it would be a thermometer. Now, technically this thermometer would not be very useful as it doesn’t matter weather it is 60 degrees or 100 degrees, you will know when you walk outside and determine if you need a jacket or a tank top. However, being the geek that I am, I just enjoy saying, ‘Do you know what the temperature is?’

theSummary: Overall, the Meteo is an excellent weather forecasting time piece with a bit of extra functionality in its stopwatch and water resistance. Additionally, it has a very good design and style that would go well with a work uniform or a dress suit. If you can afford the $69.99, I highly recommend it. It is great and less expensive alternative to the electronic behemoths put out by Casio and Suunto. If you bought one watch this year….This would be my vote.

You can purchase the Oregon Scientific Meteo here.