Telltale Games is following up their Talk Like A Pirate Day free game with a free download of Muzzled for Wallace and Gromit’s 20th anniversary.
Via Telltale Games – Wallace & Gromit 20th Anniversary
Popularity: 9% [?]
Tags: ds, EA, free, free games, game, games, RoM, Telltale Games, wallace and gromit
Another freebie from Big Fish Games! Click the Azada image, follow the instructions to buy the game, and then enter the code FREEAZADA at checkout to get it free!
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: Big Fish Games, EA, free, free games, game, games, RoM
Lots of great freebies from Big Fish Games today! You can use the coupon code FREEAZADA to get a free download of Azada, FREEFAIRWAY for a free download of Fairway Solitaire (not to be confused with Faerie Solitaire!) or FREESPA for a free download of Spa Mania. These are full games, not the demo version!
You’re welcome!
Popularity: 19% [?]
Tags: Big Fish Games, ds, EA, Faerie Solitaire, free, free games, game, games, RoM, solitaire
Magic World Online, a new free-to-play MMORPG will officially launch on April 18th.
After months of open beta, MWO finally comes to a new era. On April 18th, 2009 the official launch will begin.
In the past few months, we have fixed a lot of bugs in the game and also we have improved this game in a lot of aspects upon the opinions of players. Thanks to all the MWO players! It is you who help us to make this game a great one!
Via Magic World Online.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Tags: Beta, e3, EA, free, free games, free to play, game, Magic World Online, mmo, MMOGs/MMORPGs, MMORPG, open beta, Past, RPG
Electric Box, by Twinkle Star Games, is one of the games available on Kongregate. The object of the game is to get the electrical current from the On/Off switch to the goal. You can use wires, generators, wind, light and steam power to get to that goal!
If you enjoy the special pieces having special moves, as in chess or Stratego, you’ll like these electric puzzles. I know some people find this style of game frustrating, especially in the type of game that keeps adding new pieces with new rules, but I thought the pacing of Electric Box’s new additions was perfect to keep it challenging. Each level adds complexity, by adding icons like batteries, which provide a back-up charge, in case your power supply runs out or changes, and electro-magnets, which pull your other pieces towards them. Each level has only one solution, and it’ll use all the pieces in your inventory to reach that solution.
My one complaint — and this is a common one for me — is that some of the icons looked too similar. I was confused a few times when I though I had, say, a stream-powered generator but it was really a refridgerator.
Using all the pieces in my inventory to move the power around the board made for a really interesting puzzle game, although I don’t know if it has much replay value. But that’s not a real problem. The free games portal Kongregate has dozens of other free puzzle games for when you finish one game or get bored.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Tags: ds, e3, EA, Electric Box, free, free games, game, games, Kongregate, mmo, MMOGs/MMORPGs, puzzle game, RoM, Twinkle Star Games, war
Lexton “Lunarhound” Collins was kind enough to review the upcoming MMORPG, Runes Of Magic, for us. Lexton has been playing the open beta of Runes of Magic for a few months now. Here he discusses Runes of Magic in particular and the free-to-play gaming model in general. Runes will be officially released on March 19th, 2009.
Free online RPG’s have been around for a while now. Besides the text-based Multi User Dungeons of old, games like Runescape were experimenting with free-to-play models years ago. The model has evolved, and in places like Korea and other parts of Asia, free is the primary way of doing business. Furnishing players with a downloadable client and unlimited play time at no cost, then giving them the option to purchase extra goodies in a ‘cash shop’ has proven to be very profitable. In the eyes of the Western gaming public, though, these titles have never come close to living up to the heavy-hitters; the ones hyped on major web sites and in magazines, who put out a fancy box with a 60.00 price tag and expect a further commitment of 15.00 or so a month for the privilege of playing. The free to play titles have always been seen as second rate, and not without reason. Many of them are very poorly translated, have atrocious customer service, are sorely lacking in the depth and game play departments, and are often just plain ugly.
And now, there’s Runes of Magic. It’s aiming squarely for a more Western feel, with WASD controls (though point and click is still available for those who want it), a heavy focus on quests, brisk advancement pace, higher localization standards, and a user-friendly approachability sorely lacking in many other free games. Its creators are determined to prove that you can make a free MMO that’s just as good as any of the more expensive ones out there.
One way it’s doing this is by blatantly copying the current best. The term ‘WoW clone’ is tossed around a lot these days, but it usually doesn’t have much basis in fact. Here, though, the similarities in both graphics and game play are immediately obvious. While die hard fans of the game will protest mightily that this is absolutely not World of Warcraft in any way, an honest assessment quickly proves this to be wishful thinking. The aesthetic isn’t identical, but it comes extremely close sometimes. While it might have been nice if they’d set themselves apart a bit more in the art department, it’s hard not to feel that adopting the same interface, control scheme and core play mechanics was the right thing to do. If you’ve played WoW before, everything will feel immediately familiar and the learning curve, at least when it comes to the basics of getting around and playing with the UI, will be reduced to almost zero. If you haven’t, the same intuitiveness that makes Blizzard’s masterpiece so easy to get into will still ensure that you spend more time playing than learning how to play in Runes of Magic.
In many ways, it almost feels like an improvement over WoW as far as features are concerned. Visual customization options for your character are more extensive, with sliders for adjusting height and resizing various body parts. Once in the game, the customization options expand via the cash shop, with purchasable facial tattoos and the option to dye your clothing and mount in the colors of your choice. All players are granted a free house, without any rental fees, early in the game. This can be upgraded to larger sizes, decorated with furniture that grants a rest bonus similar to WoW‘s, equipped with crafting tools, and used to store possessions. Besides the standard instanced dungeons, there are varieties with randomly generated maps that yield a special treasure at the end. There’s a dual class system, allowing you to mix and match abilities from any two classes. It’s possible to wipe the stats from a favorite piece of equipment and transfer the stats of a different piece to it, so that if you find a great new breastplate but like the way your old one looks better, you can keep both the appearance of the old and the benefits of the new. The interface is even modifiable via XML, and a sizable collection of useful addons can already be found at curse.com.
What it doesn’t have down quite yet is World of Warcraft’s amazing diversity of environments. Nothing here looks bad and, taken individually, each area actually looks pretty good. But there are very few surprises or (excuse the pun) “wow” moments. The game has the basic fantasy staples – green fields and forests, dark caves, snowy mountains – but very little of the raw creativity that makes WoW so stunning. Blizzard‘s environments are brimming with personality and a sense of artistry that elevate them above standard fantasy fare, despite that being exactly what they are. Azeroth has a real sense of place. Taborea doesn’t. It’s not boring and it’s not bad, it just doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be besides a traditional pseudo-medieval fantasy RPG. The developers haven’t yet figured out how to capture that sense of wonder that seeing Darnassus or the underground tram for the first time can evoke.
One place where more creative energy has been spent is on the story. Taborea’s background is involved and interesting. There are no scene-setting cinematics or mood-setting cut scenes to draw you into it – you’re just dropped unceremoniously into the world – so some players might not take enough interest to pay attention to what the NPC’s are saying. If you do, you’ll be treated to a rather unique (as fantasy MMO’s go) pioneering storyline. Unfortunately, this will probably be lost on a large portion of players, as the fairly simple goals of many of the initial quests (talk to him, give this to her, kill that) don’t seem to be worth the large blocks of text that precede them.
The dual class system is interesting and useful, but can often feel cumbersome. Though each class holds up well on its own, the fact that your secondary eventually provides all of your base stats with a bonus means that going without one will leave your character crippled later in the game. Because each of your two classes must be leveled independently (you can swap your primary and secondary at your house, and only the primary is able to gain experience points or raise its skills), it often feels as if you’re being forced to play two characters. Some won’t mind this, but those that don’t have as much time to devote to the game or simply don’t like playing alts will likely find it irritating. The flip side of this is that the system allows for a lot of great options and it really is fun to play with different class combinations. If you enjoy a traditional paladin character, a knight/priest fits the bill and comes with the added benefit of being able to change to a full-on healer if the need ever arises. What if you like tanking but aren’t so fond of the low damage output? Try a knight/warrior or knight/rogue. A rogue/mage can hurl fireballs from the shadows as well as holds its own in melee, a mage/priest can both dish out serious punishment and make up for its lack of fortitude with healing spells, and a warrior/scout can hold its own in both melee and ranged combat. The individual classes feel complete on their own, but each pairing also feels like its own specific class, with its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s just too bad that it has the downside of requiring you to essentially level two separate characters.
One of the features that could still use a bit of work is upgrading. Runes of Magic features an upgrade system that allows you to bolster the power of your equipment in several ways. One is with runes. Through defeating enemies and dismantling equipment, you’ll be able to gain runes that can enhance equipment with various bonuses. How many bonuses one piece can support depends on how many rune slots it has. With the use of a special device that you’ll acquire early in the game, you can combine lower tiered runes of the same type into more powerful, higher tiered runes of that type. This all works fine. What isn’t so polished are the direct stat upgrades through the use of jewels. Certain special jewels offer the chance to increase a piece of equipment’s base stats, with the risk that you could also get nothing at all, or even a downgrade. Each increase will put a +1, +2, etc. after the name of the equipment, up to +6. The problem with this is that increasing a piece of equipment to the point that you’ll notice any tangible benefits is so low as to make the entire system almost pointless. Getting to +1 after a few tries isn’t too difficult, but beyond that, the chance of failure or a downgrade seem to be so much higher than the chance of an upgrade that it’s not even worth the effort. The jewels are expensive and you can often end up spending thousands of gold with no positive result, or even a negative one, to show for it. Worse, these jewels are offered for sale in the cash shop. While their tooltips clearly warn of the chance of failure or downgrade, they don’t highlight just how high that chance is, and several players have already complained of spending significant amounts of real money hoping for an upgrade, with nothing at all to show for it. What’s even more baffling is that the upgrades, when successful, are so slight. If the developers were so afraid of equipment becoming too powerful, it’s hard to understand why they decided to include the upgrade system at all.
All in all, Runes of Magic is a pretty impressive package. It has a solid beginning, it’s at least as good as a lot of other games that require a fee, and it puts a number of features from the genre’s best in one place. There’s nothing revolutionary about the game design itself, and if you’re sick to death of traditional MMO’s, it likely won’t do anything for you. What makes it stand out is the fact that, despite a few flaws (and it’s still early enough that they could be worked out), it’s both free and a genuinely good game. If you’ve played pay to play MMO’s in the past, it’s easy to forget, while playing this one, that it doesn’t have to cost anything. Though it falls just short, it comes closer than any other completely free game has to being able to stand toe-to-toe with the big boys. Hopefully, it will become popular and visible enough that it will start a trend.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Tags: Beta, Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment, China, ds, EA, fantasy, free, free games, free to play, Frogstar, game, games, media, mmo, MMOGs/MMORPGs, MMORPG, online games, open beta, Past, pc, raw, RoM, RPG, Runes of Magic, war, WarCraft, World of Warcraft, WoW
Get a new free game from Big Fish Games! Go to the page for Mystery Case Files Madam Fate Game and then:
Click “Buy Now”
Select the $19.99 price option
Use FREEFATE as the coupon code
Apply code and watch as your order magically becomes free!
Download your new full version game.
I’m downloading mine right now!
You can also get a free download of Build-a-lot with code FREEBUILD, but I really didn’t like that game so I can’t be bothered to get it, even free.
We also had some more free games from Big Fish a few weeks ago.
Popularity: 9% [?]
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – January 19, 2009 – Qwak was released today on the Archive Games distribution platform. In Qwak, players guide a duck through 70 fun and challenging levels. Players try to gain higher scores by collecting fruit. Players will also find numerous other objects in their adventure: keys to unlock doors, jet boots to fly across the screen, umbrellas that cause fruit to rain from the sky, and eggs to throw at the player’s enemies. Many more secret hidden bonuses await those who play through the game! Players do not have to brave alone the six visually stunning worlds depicted in Qwak — they can bring along a friend to help them in the cooperative gameplay mode. Players can post their high scores to a global high scores list.
Qwak was initially released nearly twenty years ago for the BBC Micro by game developer Jamie Woodhouse. In today’s PC release, the classic arcade action gameplay has remained from that age — though the graphics and sound have been updated. The end result is a highly polished arcade experience which is fun for gamers new to the franchise and those who have played Qwak on another platform before.
Archive Games, a distribution platform for independently made games, is proud to welcome Qwak to their games catalog. Archive Games, known for its selection of independently made free games, is excited to offer Qwak as its first paid game. Said Archive Entertainment owner Robby Zinchak, “We’re thrilled to have Qwak join our line-up of independent games! We hope that by distributing paid games as well as free games, we are able to financially assist the plight of the independent game developer. Archive Games allows users to quickly find great independent games, and now, even support the authors of those games.
For more information about Qwak, or to download the demo, please visit http://ArchiveGames.net/game.php?gameID=qwak
Popularity: 8% [?]
Click on this link to a Big Fish Games coupon, and you’ll get 2 free games. The full versions, not the usual one-hour trial version.
You’ll be able choose two (2) free games from the selection of games listed below.
1) Atlantis Atlantis: Visually stunning and absolutely addictive, Atlantis takes you on a trip to the 19th century. As the head of a team of explorers on a classified mission, you unlock the secrets of the long-lost city in 81 challenging levels of pure fun. If you succeed, fame, fortune, and world-changing technology from Atlantis will be yours!
2) Fairies Game: Fairies takes you to a world where legends are true and magic is real. As the most powerful wizard ever, you are the only hope for a once peaceful land where fairies have been captured by an unknown evil. Complete 100 mesmerizing levels, break the magical spell that traps the fairies inside pictures, and restore justice to this world in need. Succeed and you’ll be a hero, granted the ultimate power; use it wisely!
3) Top Ten Solitaire Game: The world’s 10 most popular solitaire card games combined into one incredible game! With amazing graphics, animated cards, soothing music, great features and polished game play, it is no exaggeration to say that Top Ten Solitaire is the best solitaire game ever! Play Klondike, Pyramid, Scorpion, Accordion, Penguin, Canfield, Golf, Monte Carlo, Free Cell, and Yukon all in one collection.
4) Word Search Deluxe Game: It’s the master of all word search games! Thousands of word groups, numerous game types, a puzzle editor, and much more make this a must have for anyone who currently enjoys word search games or has ever enjoyed playing them. There is a kid’s option complete with animated characters and an easy to read large grid of characters.
5) Slot Words Game: Get ready for some good ‘ol word scrambling madness! Place your bet, spin the reels and prepare to do some quick thinking to unscramble the letters that the slots reveal. The more you bet, the longer the word and the bigger the payout. Progress through the levels, each giving out greater payouts but allowing less time to solve the puzzles. How many levels can you survive before you start losing your hard earned cash?
I’m downloading mine right now. What about you?
Via Free Samples: Big Fish – 2 Games Downloads
Popularity: 7% [?]
Tags: Atlantis, Big Fish Games, casual, Casual games, downloads, ds, EA, free, free games, game, games, Link, music, RoM, solitaire
I am a huge fan of strategy games. And i have played all the blockbuster RTS titles like Red Alert 2, Age Of Empires, Warcraft and many more. I also keep looking for free RTS games that are available on the internet. And let me tell you something, there are many great and totally free games available out there featuring great graphics and intense gameplay. One of my all time favorites is Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War. Rise and Fall is one of the best free RTS present on the internet right now. Rise and Fall is a free game from Midway which you can download from FileFront. Midway recently uploaded a corrupt version of Rise and Fall. Thousands of people got frustrated and complained about this bug. The good news is that midway has fixed this problem and uploaded a working version of Rise and Fall. They felt sorry about this incident and apologized for this.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: civilization, ds, EA, free, free games, game, games, RoM, war, WarCraft
The rumor that Google will be buying out Adscape, an in-game marketing company, is now official. Google has now officially entered the in-game ad marketplace, but they wont release any future plans to the public. Maybe they should give everyone free games, downloaded for free from the marketplace, and make their money back of in-game advertisements. As good as it sounds, it will probably never happen. But hopefully we can expect game prices to drop because of the extra revenue generated off of the in-game ad market. It will be interesting too see how the advertisements are integrated into the game.
Popularity: 2% [?]
