Games

We first attempted to play www.gamegarage.co.uk/puzzles-games/warbears">War Bears, a clever, nicely-designed point-and-click game, a few months ago, but gave up as we struggled to get anywhere fast. But when we tried again recently, we were determined to give it a good attempt and several hours, days later, we finally succeeded.

You must direct four special agents, Kla, Lucas, Ryoh and Steve (aka the War Bears) so that they succeed in their mission to save the Bedtime bank from robbers who have taken hostages.

While it is a toughie, it’s so much fun too. The graphics are lovely, with charming characters and just wait for the high-speed chase at the end!

Ok, so England didn't get off to the best of starts in the Ashes, losing the first Test by 277 runs in Melbourne, but all is not over just yet.

If we all get in a little wicket-keeping practice, surely we can help the boys turn it around and storm to victory in the second Test in Adelaide on Friday.

Playing Test Catch Cricket, you need to catch the balls being fired towards you by the batsman - you'll need lightning-fast reactions for some of the catches... or maybe we're just not very good at it!

Let us know how you get on!

A couple of years ago, the BBC asked people to vote for the top 50 things everyone should try to eat at least once in their lifetime - at number 48 came haggis. Robert Burns even praised the meaty dish as a 'great chieftain o' the pudding race'.

But, if you don't like the sound of eating lamb’s offal (lungs, liver and heart) mixed with suet, onions, herbs and spices, all packed into a skin, traditionally made of a sheep’s stomach, we don't  exactly blame you.

Perhaps you'd prefer to give a haggis a good beating instead? Playing Whack-a-Haggis - a 'pop up hunt and splat' game -  you need to hit the bad haggis to score points and avoid hitting the good haggis.

Apparently, no haggis were harmed in the making of the game.

eBay claims it has cracked the formula for Christmas shopping success.

Yes that's right, the online auction site consulted Tokyo-based mathematician Philip Obayda and psychologist Dr David Lewis to identify seven key factors in the choosing of original, but suitable gifts.

Apparently, the correct formula is:

((R+D)/S) + ((2(SQ+PT+T))/(0+1))

But of course! This is what the letters mean:

R =      Relationship Rating: How strong your relationship is with the recipient
S =      Scrooge Factor: How mean or generous you are
D =      Difficulty Determinate: Breadth of Interests of recipient
SQ =     Squeal Factor: Projected intensity/pleasure of the opening experience
T =      Time Test: The time and thought expended on selecting the gift
PT =     Personal Touch: Care taken to ensure gift is relevant to the receiver
O =      Originality Axis: How original vs predictable the gift is

To use the formula, you need to rate each of the questions on a scale of 1 to 5; where 1 = not true and 5 = completely true. Once you have rated the factors, simply add your scores into the formula and obtain the gifts rating.

eBay says it found that, for men, clothing knitted by elderly relatives averages a score of 2, while signed sports memorabilia averages a score of 24.

Playing Out 2 (yes, a sequel to point-and-click game Out) seems a fairly simple affair at first - you need to escape a building to complete the game. But what sets this game apart from other escape-the-room puzzles, is that you can actually die if you click too much or read riddles wrongly – which flies in the face of our usual method of “click and hope�.

When you lose a life you can restart the game from just before the point you lost it, but only two times before all your progress is wiped out. You also need to be able to read musical scores to solve some riddles and on some occasions we solved problems by random pieces of good fortune rather than logic. Good luck!