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Following San Francisco's lead, Los Angeles County and city officials are urging people, businesses and government to switch off nonessential lights for one hour in October to save energy.

Cake Mania fans - Cake Mania 2 is out. The original Cake Mania was the first time management game I really enjoyed playing. Guide coming soon.

The years Sally has spent training and saving her money have paid off, and now she's ready to open her first beauty salon. Although it starts off as a small shop in a suburban mall, she'll eventually work her way up until she owns a chain of ritzy salons. Drawing upon the likes of Diner Dash and Burger Rush for inspiration, Sally's Salon brings its own unique twists to the management sim genre.

Use this walkthrough to get a killer score on Mysterious Island.

Well, I'm not married yet, and after this game, I'm not sure I ever want to get married! Just kidding.

Fish Tycoon meets Alice Greenfingers in Last Day of Work's latest installment. Check this guide out for a seed catalogue and other tips.

The Dream Chronicles has info for all 18 levels and the location of all 115 gems. Check it out if you're looking for some tips or get stuck.

Have you ever seen that episode of Friends where they are trying to move the couch up the stairs? Well that's pretty much what happened to Zavy and I while we were trying move Anne into her dorm room on Wednesday. She found this huge couch sitting on the curb, so you know in LA, that's just how it works - you're free to take it. The stairwell has this nasty turn... and well you get the picture. Like 45 minutes later...

You've all seen the mentos/coke videos. Imagine that explosion inside your car. That's what happened to me at lunch, soaking me and my new car is fizzy sticky stuff, after I opened my coke bottle. So I went home to change, and somehow started playing Railroad Tycoon 3. Lots of economics. You have to master bonds, the stock market, hostile takeovers, and of course the details of "consist" - hauling cargo. Fun game.

I have a confession to make. There are several of the classic games I have never played before. There, I said it. So I've been taking some time this summer to catch up with some of the casual game genre's history. The one I just recently finished playing was Virtual Villagers. I really enjoyed it. It's a great game to have going when you are also wanting to get other things done. But you need to be patient, the game progresses in it's own time. At first I wasn't so patient and I tried fast forwarding it by changing the time clock on my computer. I set it two hours ahead and and found that most of my villagers had died or were barely alive. I had to start all over. I also loved the little surprise connection to Fish Tycoon. The fertility fish that comes out of the lagoon is also the fertility fish in Fish Tycoon.

Finished Mexican Motor Mafia and have since moved onto Psychonauts. This action game is a fun new spin on an old formula. Go into the minds of others and literally find the keys to their "emotion baggage". Find and destroy the memories that have damaged them. Survive by maintaining your "mental health" and learn enemy destroying psycho-kinetic skills. Arresting graphics and challenging game-play.

Here's a cool site for angelenos to get untangled from traffic jams: Traffic Predict. It uses historical information to help you predict traffic patterns.

A friend of mine threw a party yesterday out in echo park. It was a block party for National Night Out. I was really impressed with the cross-section of society that showed up - many different ethnicities from different SOE backgrounds. Young, Old. It was great. And we played Boggle. It really doesn't get any better.

Finally back from Mexico. Went to a funeral. Honestly I'm not even sure how I was related to the person - my dad tried to explain it, but I didn't quite get it. Made a trip down to Mexico City to see more of the family. They just found another temple in the downtown area - it was hidden in the slums. Pretty crazy.

Like Anne said, I’ve been in quite a few weddings this summer. It’s definitely been interesting watching as a groomsman, wondering when or if that day will come for me. The last one of the summer was this week and I got to the wedding rehearsal way too early, so I stole over to a Borders. I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and read the end (there’s no way I’m ever going to have to time to read all those books, so go ahead and boo me). I have to say I was a little bored by it all. But then something weird happened at the rehearsal. I watched the bride and groom going through their mock vows, observed as all the parents snapped their camera at every opportunity. I just kind of detached from myself and let myself hover over the church, watching the moments go by. And this sort of wave of emotion came over me – suddenly the end of Harry Potter actually made sense to me. These were the sorts of moments those wizards were fighting for.

The Pirate Poppers forum is starting to take off... so if you're having trouble, check it out to get some helpful tips.

You'd think you'd have more time to blog in the summer, but I guess not. Where does the time go? Zavy is still in Mexico and he's having some trouble with his internet connection there. Jasper's been in like three weddings and is in summer school. My excuse? Well, I decided last month to start reading the harry potter series from the beginning, not to mention my internship with the local paper. Finished book seven today. What an amazing series and the last book certaintly didn't disappoint!

I posted two new guides: one for Burger Island and the other for Chocolatier. The Chocolatier game is a pretty involved sim game, so the guide goes in depth to discuss all the various recipes, ingredients, and locations in the game. Enjoy!

I tried out the new Burger Island game and must say I got hooked. This time management game was challenging enough to keep my interest piqued and made me want to try each new recipe and next level of difficulty. Burger Island definitely tested my multitasking skills. Though it's tempting, try not to focus on one order at a time. Instead wait and let at least a couple pile up and then you can complete them together and save time.

I put together a new guide this week for the hidden object game The Magician's Handbook: Cursed Valley. Check it out if you need some tips.

Also new this week is I guide I assembled for Alice Greenfingers. This new farming strategy/simulation hybrid will have you tending to a farm and selling your goods so you can afford better equipment, new kinds of seeds and other aids to help nourish the soil.

Just started playing this game through Gametap. Highly recommended, solid gameplay with great graphics.

I grew up playing yahtzee with my Mom and her friends. Its brings back good memories. I was excited to this week's releases included a new version of the game. Help your hand or hinder your opponents with original power-ups and reach for the celebrated rank of Grandmaster in the all-new Power Yahtzee mode.

Offsetting Gift: n. The latest trend in environmentally polite society: Instead of sending that happy couple another punch bowl, offset their carbon footprint by buying credits in their behalf.

Nikakudori is a new type of Mahjong game. Its a bit more challenging than the traditional game.

Getting Up - Contents Under Pressure: If you've always dreamed of livin' the tagger lifestyle but never had the guts to, this is the game for you. Version 2 needs to have a networked option for starting crews.

New this week to the Strategy genre: Defender of the Crown: Heroes Live Forever. This Cinemaware classic returns.

New this week: We've combined the best from the web to give you a comprehensive guide to the not-so-casual game Aveyond. This game has a lot of depth - check it out and then come back here when you get stuck.

They were supposed to clean up the library, but they cleaned out all the books! Now it's up to you to help the librarian get them back in BookStories. Build a research library as you make your way through Quest mode or use your keen word building skills as the levels get increasingly difficult.

New guide today: Chicken Invaders 3: Revenge of the Yoke.

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Chickens. For centuries we have oppressed them, grilling, roasting, stewing, and stuffing them in buns. The time has come for us to pay. Intergalactic chickens are invading Earth, seeking revenge for the oppression of their earthly brethren! It's time for you to fight through 120 waves of chicken invaders for our ancestral right to omelettes. Will you succeed? Will the future of chicken burgers be secure? Or will you end up as part of the menu in a galactic chicken restaurant?

I’m kicking myself that I still haven’t had the time to play this game. But, from the reviews, it looks like it will surely be one of the top titles of 2007. As IGN puts it: “The long anticipated unofficial follow up to Cavedog's Total Annihilation is finally upon us, and it turns out to be a truly mammoth real-time strategy experience. We've had the final build in the office for a few weeks now, and have been regularly eschewing normal work duties to get in just one more skirmish. Along with Supreme Commander's dizzying depth and balancing comes a significant learning curve, something that may unfortunately turn away the casual gamer. If you're an RTS fan at all, you really owe it to yourself to check out the strategic juggernaut Gas Powered Games has created. Though its single player campaign is far from spectacular, the multiplayer and skirmish modes in Supreme Commander deliver some of the deepest, most refined RTS gameplay in recent memory.” Looks like I may need to rearrange my weekend plans.

Scientists in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a prototype of a hydrogen fueling station for your garage. It's about the size of a filing cabinet and runs on electricity generated by standard-issue rooftop solar panels.

We noticed a lot of people (especially from canada and australia) were downloading "Bus Driver". Not a game you'd think would be that popular, but turns out what it doesn't deliver in crashes and explosions, it does deliver in realism, and the result is a quality simulation. Bus Driver is a far more convincing simulation than SCS Software's 18 Wheels of Steel series. This is a very polished game set in a realistic city with interesting and challenging missions; a mission editor would extend the value of the game even further. The controls are easy to pick up and anyone can play the game, assuming that you have an analog controller. Bus Driver isn't for everyone, but if you've ever wanted to drive a bus, this is your game.

This game is generating a lot of buzz because of its balance of complexity and gameplay. If you like games like Insaniquarium or Fish Tycoon, you'll probably like this one. This one has a story line as well, and you can choose from pretty easy to very hard with the option for open-ended gameplay.

A lot of people out there are having trouble getting past the first level in this game and that understandably is leaving people with a bad impression. To find some better titles, simply type in 'Tycoon' in the search box to see all we offer in that category. Ice Cream Tycoon is a fun concept, but poorly executed.

New this week: Big City Adventure: San Francisco is the latest addition to the popular genre of hidden-object games. Set in cosmopolitan San Francisco, it offers you the chance to visit 20 of the city's famous, and not-so-illustrious, landmarks. In the process, you'll learn some interesting and obscure historical facts, as well as collect some cool mementos. Gamezebo ranked this game 4 out 5 stars. If you like the hide-and-seek genre, this is one of the better titles.

I downloaded this game as a part of my gametap subscription. I was really disappointed. I was expecting something on par with the Nintendo Mario Golf series, but got something far less. I should have known from the small download size it couldn't be that great. Very limited game play, beat the whole game in about an hour. LAME - don't bother.

Gamezebo is developing two new games and they are looking for beta-testers. 20 people who provide feedback will win a free version of the games when released. Click here to sign up for Gamezebo's Beta Test program. If you have signed up for beta tests on Gamezebo before, no need to sign up again, they'll email you.

Fish Tycoon is a classic sims game that lets you run your own aquarium shop. Create the perfect breed of fish and sell them for big profits using our very own fish breeding chart that you can find in this Fish Tycoon Walkthrough.