Free Games

• Epic Games

  • ABZU

    • 2016
    • From the art director of Journey and Flower, ABZÛ is a wordless underwater adventure that evokes the dream of diving, taking you on a journey through the ruins of an ancient civilization.

  • Rising Storm 2: Vietnam

    • 2017
    • Tactical first person shooter set during the Vietnam War, with an emphasis on teamwork and asymmetric gameplay in its 64-player matches pitting the National Liberation Front and the North Vietnamese Army against the US Army, Marines, the Australian Army, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam

Apple is suing a company it hired to recycle and dismantle old devices for instead reselling more than 100K iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches

• Apple previously partnered with GEEP Canada and sent them over 500K iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches from 2015 to 2017
• After running an audit they found that 18% of those devices were still accessing cellular networks
  • Since many Apple devices don’t even have cellular capabilities, the actual percentage of devices resold could be even higher
• GEEP Canada denies all wrongdoing here, but doesn’t deny there was a theft- they reportedly filed a third-party suit claiming three employees stole the devices on their own behalf
• Apple disagrees, arguing that these employees were senior management at the firm, and is looking for at least $31M
  • Considering how many devices are involved, Apple’s starting pretty reasonably at $300/device
  • Especially considering that, according to their policies, the products sent for recycling are ones that Apple’s decided are no longer up to their standards for consumer use, and depending on how they’re refurbished could even be dangerous for the end users

Population: One, a VR battle royale game that actually looked pretty solid, is taking heat after it was found that the game will use microtransactions on top of its $30 price tag

• The most damning part is that they introduced the microtransaction menu after the early review build was sent to journalists and YouTubers to increase the hype
• Reviewers and playtesters were all under the impression that there would be no microtransactions or lootboxes, which some pointed to as a pretty big selling point

The United States government may be weighing in on Facebook’s account requirements when it comes to the Quest 2

• The US House of Representatives is suggesting that requiring a Facebook account to use the gaming hardware may be anticompetitive, saying that Congress should clarify that “conditioning access to a product or service in which a firm has market power to the use of a separate product or service is anticompetitive.”
• This is a bit different from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo’s user accounts in that Facebook is leveraging their ownership of Oculus to drive more people back over to their primary product, rather than using an account to support the game playing or buying experience

Ghost of Tsushima is getting an update on the 16th, bringing all new game modes to the beautiful game

• Titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, it includes new two-player story missions and four-player survival missions
• In Legends you’ll also be able to pick between different classes, such as:
  • Samurai- the tank
  • Hunter- the sniper
  • Assassin- the rogue
  • Ronin- the healer who also gets a spirit dog
• The developer has also teased a multiplayer raid to be released following launch, made up of “an epic three-part adventure that will require excellent teamwork and communication to overcome.”
• The update also brings a new game plus mode, with a new horse, new powerful charms, and a new merchant with new game plus exclusive dyes and vanity items

This Week In Gaming History

October 3 – 1989 – Prince of Persia – Apple II

• Prince of Persia is a 2D platformer that is commonly regarded as a progenitor of the cinematic platform genre.
  • Rather than following the more common jump-and-run mechanics, it focuses on careful advancement through fairly complex levels, emphasizing the protagonist’s vulnerability and survival aspect.
  • Rotoscoping technique is used to give more realism to the animation of the characters’ movements.

October 4 – 2004 – Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 – GameCube, PS2, Xbox

• This is the last skateboarding game I played
  • I remember, my reaction was is was more of the same, but the running around aspect was getting out of control. And there was platforming needed to get to new spots to skate.
• As an aspiring pro skater, you’re invited to join Tony Hawk in an around-the-world underground skating competition known as the “World Destruction Tour.”
  • It’s Team Hawk against Team Bam in a no-holds-barred contest to gain the most points by performing insane stunts and raising havoc in cities all over the world.
• THUG 2’s story mode basically follows the same formula as THUG, in which you have to complete a number of goals before you can move on to the next city.
• All the Create-A-Modes from THUG are present, with the addition of the new Create-A-Graphic mode where you can make your own graffiti design with layers of text and predefined graphics, then use it to “tag up” during gameplay.

October 5 – 2004 – Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude – PS2, XBox, Windows

• Larry Lovage learned everything he knows from his uncle, Larry Laffer, the famous polyester-clad fellow who starred in the previous games. Young Larry finally makes it to college, the best place to meet and pick up girls.
  • He finds them everywhere .. in restaurants, night clubs, dormitories and at fraternity parties. All those scantilly clad, gorgeous babes! But, does Larry have half a chance to score with even one of them?
  • Will he get a peek at what’s underneath that braless, too-tight tank top?
• Larry’s sexcapades include varied types of arcade mini-games.
  • Some simply require good reflexes while others involve memory and/or correct timing.
  • For instance, steer a little joker sperm through an obstacle course of flying objects, all the while trying to keep the “course” of the conversation on track.
  • Or .. put the correct ingredients into a bar drink in order – and in the time allowed.
  • Several of the games become more difficult as the game progresses.
• This action/adventure features three endings, over 20 locations, 3D graphics, and hilarious adult situations and conversations.

October 6 – 2009 – Saw – PS3, XBox 360, Windows

• Based on the popular movie franchise of the same name, Saw casts the player as the former detective David Tapp, shortly after the events of the first movie.
  • The Jigsaw Killer has healed his gunshot wound and has locked him up in an abandoned asylum to teach him a lesson about life appreciation.
  • Tapp’s primary tasks is to explore the building and find an exit, while avoiding or solving Jigsaw’s traps and puzzles.
• Upon starting the game Tapp is instantly faced with the task of removing a trap known as the Reverse Bear Trap, a mechanism that is set to go off and tear a human head apart.
  • After getting the trap off his head, he is free to wander a mental institution filled with obstacles such as shotgun doors, broken glass that cuts Tapp’s bare feet, and other victims of Jigsaw who are after Tapp because Jigsaw has hidden the key to their traps inside his chest.
  • Mysteries surrounding the films need to be uncovered, there are different characters to meet and it is possible to see the sets recreated from them.
• Tapp’s actions affect the outcome of the game.
  • If he is not careful, in some traps innocents will be killed, and some of those wandering the halls are not violent.
  • Killing them affects the game’s outcome, as well Tapp’s ability to save others from certain traps.
  • The game has two endings, a positive and a negative.
  • The positive ending is the only ending which is canon to the films, the negative ending is not canon.
• Players control Tapp from a third-person perspective, and the game has a combat mechanism very similar to Silent Hill: Homecoming.
  • He can use various weapons in the environments, however they will break after being used a few times.
  • Some enemies have traps that may affect their skills; enemies with square shaped traps on their head cannot see but will attack if they can find you, while enemies with dynamite strapped to their hands will explode after death which can harm you, and so on.
• Traps can be used against enemies as well; fuse boxes can be switched on above a pool of water and anyone who steps in will be electrocuted, and later in the game the player can re-set shotgun doors and hide from enemies.
  • While progressing through the game, new kinds of traps can be found, as well as new weapons, light sources, and even the ability to create new traps or weapons from junk around the asylum.
  • Some of the larger, more complex traps require Tapp to save both his own life as well as another person’s life, and others may force him to make a decision between his own life or the others.
  • These traps are often presented as complex puzzles.
  • The game rewards the player for finding clues and documents strewn around the Asylum, and in many cases Tapp will not be able to escape a trap without the help of the clues.

October 7 – 2014 – Alien: Isolation – PS3, PS4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One

• Fifteen years after the events of Ridley Scott’s Alien Ellen Ripley’s daughter Amanda is looking for answers.
  • She is an engineer working for Weiland-Yutani Corporation.
  • When she finds out that the logs from USCSS Nostromo have been located and transported to Sevastopol space station she decides to join a small crew sent by Weiland-Yutani to retrieve the data.
  • Little does she know that the ship that has found the logs reached Sevastopol with a terrifying passenger on board, the one that murdered the majority of station’s population and left the survivors cowering in fear.
• Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game.
  • It is set on the Sevastopol space station where Amanda is searching for USCSS Nostromo logs.
  • Sevastopol is split into many areas, and a certain degree of freedom is given to the player: areas may have several alternative routes to the goal, hidden rooms and ventilation shafts; also Amanda may (and later needs to) backtrack through the station.
  • As the game goes on Amanda’s tools will be upgraded and she will be able to get access to previously out of reach areas.
• Amanda is an engineer, so she is able to loot containers and bodies for resources and craft devices like noisemakers, smoke bombs, or Molotov cocktails, mainly used to distract the enemy.
  • Later she acquires a flashlight, a motion detector and several types of weapons to defend herself against humanoid enemies (groups of hostile survivors or androids).
  • However, Amanda is not a fighter, and each encounter should be carefully planned.
  • Many actions take some time, for example to use a medpack Amanda needs to stand perfectly still.
• When Amanda draws attention of the alien, stealth is the only way to survive.
  • The alien cannot be harmed, and it kills Amanda in a single hit.
  • In most cases it doesn’t follow a predetermined scripted route, but instead relies on its senses to track Amanda down.
• In addition to the main story mode there’s Survivor mode in which the player needs to escape from a specially designed map fulfilling secondary objectives along the way, while being aggressively hunted by the alien.
  • This mode includes online leaderboards.

October 8 – 2006 – Scarface: The World Is Yours – PS2, Wii, Xbox, Windows

• Miami in the ’80s: gangs, drugs and hookers dominate the scene and a Cuban called Tony Montana rises up to be the most powerful drug dealer, controlling the whole of Miami.
  • This is the story of the 1983 movie Scarface in which Tony Montana dies during a attack from a rival gang on his mansion at the end.
  • The game now puts the player in the shoes of Tony a few moments before the gang hits his office.
• After he successfully defends his mansion, his empire lies in ruins.
  • But Tony wouldn’t be Tony Montana if he would just give up, so it is the player’s goal to reclaim Miami once again.
  • To do so, he has to earn money and respect.
  • The only way to earn money in Miami is to deal drugs.
  • At the beginning the stuff is bought in small amounts and personally sold to the dealers.
  • Eventually, however, Tony can set up so-called “Fronts” which are legitimate shops (like a car seller) in which drugs are sold in very large amounts.
  • By overtaking “Fronts”, Tony also increases his control over the current district of Miami.
  • To completely overtake one part of town, all the enemy gangs scattered around in small groups must be eliminated.
• After a deal, Tony has to launder the money at the local bank and have it transferred to his account.
  • He then can buy “exotics” for his mansion like an expensive vase or a new car with a driver.
• When talking with a dealer or trying to get cop heat down, the player has to play a mini-game that determines if Tony is successful and if so, how much he gets for the drugs or how much heat he loses.
• Respect is earned by increasing Tony’s territory, buying exotics and earning “balls” in fights and while driving.
  • The enemies have different target zones which give a different amount of balls on a hit.
  • This also fills up Tony’s ‘ball-meter”.
  • Once this is full he can enter a kind of god mode in which he is invulnerable and has unlimited ammo.
  • Tony also gets health when killing someone in this mode.
  • If he is driving a car he gets balls when making stunts like driving on the wrong side of the road or dodging an incoming car.
• As in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the player is free to roam the city of Miami and there are also some side-missions with racing events.

October 9 – 1997 – Fallout – DOS, Windows, Mac

• The Fallout that started everyone’s post apocalyptic fantasies
  • This was a heavy RPG, as the newer games still are, but the originals made by Interplay, are a division for fans of the Fallout Franchise
• The Story:
  • A devastating nuclear war had wiped out almost the entire population of the Earth.
  • The civilization, as we know it, has been destroyed.
  • The Earth has become a huge wasteland populated by mutated creatures.
  • Only small number of humans survived and they formed communities living on the surface, where they mostly scavenge what remains from the pre-war civilization.
  • Some lucky people managed to reach safety of the Vaults, huge underground dwellings, during the war.
  • Recently, the water purification controller chip in Vault 13 broke.
  • Without clean water, the people of the Vault cannot survive.
  • One person is sent to find a replacement chip and ventures outside to face a dangerous world, hoping to return within a hundred and fifty days.
• The game has an open world which can be freely explored from the onset.
  • Only a few quests are required to complete in order to advance the main plot; a vast amount of side quests is available.
  • Thanks to the game’s emphasis on social interaction, many problems can be solved in a non-violent way; in fact, it is possible to complete the game without engaging in battles at all, running away from enemy encounters and concluding the final confrontation in a relatively peaceful fashion.
  • Conversely, the player can opt for a destructive path, killing everyone in sight.
  • A Karma system is used to track the player’s moral decisions during the game.
• Combat in Fallout is turn-based.
  • Participants have a limited amount of action points (AP) per turn; each action (including movement) depletes a certain number of AP, eventually ending a character’s turn.
  • The player can target specific body parts of enemies during battles.
  • Characters may join the protagonist, traveling together and participating in combat as a party.
  • Though the player may assign general commands to the companions, their actions are controlled by the AI, and they cannot be customized.

Tidbits

• Facebook is finally banning all QAnon accounts from its platforms in order to limit the ability of the group and militarized social movements to operate and organize on their platform
  • QAnon is a hate group that spreads misinformation and incites violence against a lot of different groups of people, often under the guise of protecting children
• The unoptimized mess that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare no longer fits on a 250GB drive, leaving many players that had previously set up an entire SSD just for the one game unable to update
  • People are calling on Activision to split up the singleplayer, multiplayer, and warzone game modes to address some of this bloat, but even then apparently the game has a lot of duplicated models and textures that could be reused to save space
• The director of Marvel’s Spider-Man has reportedly been receiving death threats over Peter Parker’s face change in the PS5 remaster
  • Some are speculating that this is Sony trying to make him look more like the MCU’s Spider-Man, Tom Holland, but either way this is a ridiculous reaction to a complete non-issue in a game where the character spends the vast majority of his time wearing a mask
• Apple’s officially announced their next event, coming to us on October 13th
  • So far the leaks have us expecting a few different iPhone 12 models, including an iPhone 12 Mini, and the over-ear Airpods Studio