OK - I'm addicted. Got $3 and a bunch of time to kill - you can be too!

Ever since I started playing games on the computer I seem to be attracted to the same two or three general genres of games. My favorite by far are adventure games. These are usually quests to get puzzles and riddles solved along a similar storyline. Myst was the first in this category to addict me (...ok, maybe Zork, but that doesn't really count as a modern day game as it was text based and from the 80's). Myst has a couple of sequels that were also pretty good, including Riven and finally Uru my favorite of the series.  Rich, deep and filled with incredible graphics - sometimes I had to force myself to get up to go pee.

The other category I seem to like are what I call mindless brain candy. These are the flashy, graphic puzzles, with cool sound effects. Games like Alchemy or Bejeweled. They only take 30 seconds to learn, and you can start and stop them anytime you have 5 minutes to kill. They do not require the kind of investment in intellectual capital as the first category. Just click away and get your daily dose of achievement.

The last category is relitively new to me. Oficially titled 'hidden object' games, they appear to be a throwback to that old Highlights magazine you used to love from your doctors office growing up. Esentially you are presented with a large graphically intense picture and have to find objects within it. Can you find the spyder, Coke bottle and gold fish in this photo? Sort of a take on where's Waldo. A good example is Letters from Nowhere.

So imagine my suprise when I found Phantasmat. It is sort of a hybrid of all three, mashed together. An adventure game about a poor sole that crashes their car into the woods and stumbles across a creepy old hotel to try and get help. You use a combination of puzzle solving, and inginuity to work through the mistery, which also has a good sprinkling of hidden object and brain candy games throughout.

Needless to say I'm seriously addicted. Available for both PC and Mac and the best (or possibly worst part) is that you get to play for free for the first hour - enough to hook you before they drag $3 out of you  

... Dont say I didn't warn you!