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Dilbert's Desktop Games is a fun diversion for your computer that unfortunately becomes quickly repetitive. Dilbert is best known, of course, as the daily comic strip by Scott Adams that has become extremely popular in the past few years. Dilbert's antics and those of his co-workers have now been brought to your PC in the form of mini arcade games. Dilbert's Desktop Games features six mini games, and three other desktop toys that will keep you amused and make you laugh: - Techno Raiders is a game that challenges you to climb the corporate tower, gathering donuts while avoiding cp-workers and bosses
- Enduring Fools, my favourite of the mini games, gives you the opportunity to take a pot shot (literally) at those annoying office workers that won't leave you alone. Characters pop up on your screen, spouting annoying phrases, and you get to zap them into charcoal masses. Very satisfying.
- Project Pass-Off puts you in the middle of a meeting where your job is to take the good projects, bonuses, etc, while dumping the pink slips and boring projects onto a co-worker.
- Boss Evaders is a Space Invaders clone that features bosses moving down the screen at you, dumping pink slips before them. You must shoot them down before they can get you.
- Elbonian Airlines is taken directly from the comic itself. In the strip, Elbonia is a poor country whose airline consists of catapulting poeple with a giant slingshot. In the mini game, you fire people at targets, both moving and stationary.
- Can-O-Matic 2 puts you into the persona of Catbert, the sadistic HR director, where you literally get to fire people into the air at projects, trying to gather the most lucrative ones.
- The Final Word is a virtual rubber stamp that allows you to place cute and sarcastic sayings on your desktop.
- The Jargonator is a text tool that allows you to type in a phrase or paragraph, and 'executize' it. The Jargonator will punch up your document so that it will be understandable to managers. Very funny.
- Lastly, The CEO Simulator is a funny "sim" game that lets you start your own company, hire employees, and manage your business by the use of motivation and discipline on your employees. Build your empire, and make enough money to hire consultants. As you progress, your company gets larger and larger, more departments are added, and the game gets funnier and funnier. The only problem with the simulation is that when you hire consultants, morale goes down and performance goes up, while those of us in the real world know that when consultants are brought into a company, both morale AND performance go down.
Despite the appeal of many unique spoofs of office life, packages like this are always a mixed bag, and it only takes one or two really good games to make the whole thing worthwhile. There's more than enough here to make that justification. If you're a Dilbert fan, you'll get all the jokes and references. But.. .that?s it. Of the ten "activities" included, none are fun for very long, and ten uninspired products bundled together just make one bigger uninspired product. Overall, Dilbert?s Desktop Games fails miserably in its aim of giving put-upon cubicle-dwellers something fun and diverting to do with their computers other than work. Maybe office managers worried about employee productivity should consider having this installed on all their machines. They?re more likely to want to get on with their work than play this nonsense, though. Worth a try if you're a Dilbert fan, but otherwise, stay away. Note: Despite what the official game page claims, Dilbert Zone no longer sells the game, which is why you can download it here :) Reviewed by: Underdogs | |
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