Free Games

• Epic Games

  • For The King

    • 2017
    • Strategic RPG with tabletop and roguelike elements and attractive polygonal visuals. Each playthrough is unique with procedural maps, quests, and events. Single player, local, or online co-op

  • Metro: Last Light Redux

    • 2015
    • The sequel to Metro: 2033, it’s a post-apocalyptic first person shooter following a young soldier living in the Moscow Metro after a devastating nuclear war has left the surface world uninhabitable

• Twitch

  • Spinch

    • 2020
    • Side-scrolling psychedelic platformer from the mind of award-winning Canadian cartoonist Jesse Jacobs, that plays like a surreal Super Meat Boy as Spinch goes on a quest to rescue a litter of its missing offspring

  • Stealth Bastard Deluxe

    • 2012
    • Subtitled “Tactical Espionage Arsehole”, this 2D stealth platformer has you sneaking through a deadly facility that seems determined to get you

  • Monster Prom: Hotseat Edition

    • 2018
    • 2D narrative dating sim with both singleplayer and multiplayer modes with a randomized story that has you deciding how to spend your last six weeks before prom, going through different events and gaining stats while trying to improve relationships with whoever catches your eye

  • Swimsanity! – Couch Party Edition

    • 2020
    • Multiplayer 2D underwater shoot-em-up with co-op and versus game modes, and both online and local play. It’s like Gradius in the ocean with your friends

  • Table Manners

    • 2020
    • Physics-based dating simulator that puts the hand from Surgeon Simulator into a variety of venues for dates, from conveyor belt sushi to a plane going through a series of dives

Facebook has begun asking users to opt in to activity tracking ahead of Apple’s upcoming tracking transparency changes coming in iOS 14.5

• Some iOS users have already begun seeing a new notification when launching the app, set to appear before Apple’s own notification and clarifying why they think you should let them track you
  • It basically says that if you let them use your app and website activity you get:
    • Personalized ads
    • “Support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers”
      • That one might carry more weight if the majority of Facebook ads didn’t seem to be knockoffs and scams
  • They also mention that it won’t give them access to new types of information, but that’s really just saying they’ve been gathering it without permission so far

Xiaomi has revealed true wireless charging technology with their ‘Mi Air Charge’, able to charge devices from across the room

• With no cables or stands this new tech can send 5W of power to each device, using advanced spatial positioning and beamforming energy transmission
  • 5W isn’t much, but as a slow trickle-charge throughout the day it would definitely be a nice boost
• Xiaomi has apparently developed a special charging unit that can accurately detect the location of a compatible smartphone, then use an array of 144 antennas to transmit millimeter-wide waves directly to the phone
• And they say that physical objects don’t do anything to reduce efficiency, though I’d like to see the potential health impacts of getting electricity beamed through your body, especially long-term
• Xiaomi has currently developed it with smartphones it mind, but they’re looking to expand the tech to smartwatches and other wearables, as well as smart speakers, desk lamps, and more
• Disney Made a wireless powered room
  • https://www.iflscience.com/technology/disney-researchers-make-wireless-power-transfer-breakthrough/

Activision could be in some legal hot water after introducing a new character to their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare battlepass

• Writer and photographer Clayton Haugen is alleging that the company intentionally modelled the new character, an operator named Mara, after his own character, Cade Janus, from a short story called November Renaissance
• Hausen has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit saying that Activision Blizzard and Infinity Ward willfully intended to model Mara after Cade Janus, including hiring the same model, using the same makeup professional, and instructing her to style the model’s hair exactly as she had done for Haugen’s photographs, even using the same hair piece extension

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is coming on May 14th, with a lot of fanciness and lens flares

• The collection includes world-building enhancements, improved interfaces and UI, and modernized controls for the first instalment, along with a ton of visual improvements and changes like pumping things up to 4K and HDR
• They’ve also increased the options in the character creator and unified it across all three games
• It all looks pretty good, but judging by the screenshots released so far they went a little ham sandwich with the lens flares and really brightening up some of the creepier scenes

Destruction AllStars is showing off the dark side of the PS5’s fancy controller

• The colourful, vibrant destruction-derby style game has taken an interesting approach to voice chat, automatically using the Dualsense controller as a microphone and headset by default
• This can be turned off for each match, but it will automatically turn it self back on again next time treating you once more to the audio hellscape that is online gaming

This Week In Gaming History

January 30 – 2001 – SimCoaster – Windows

• SimCoaster is the third and final game in the Theme Park series.
  • It uses the same graphic engine as the previous game Theme Park World.
  • It is a theme park management game where players build their own theme park and attract as much visitors as possible.
  • This time there are also grandparents of the little visitors who need to be entertained.
• This version focuses more on the management side of running a park.
  • It contains various types of business related to campaigns and objectives, such as bringing in a certain number of guests to a ride.
  • By completing these challenges, promotions can be gained. As with the previous game in the series, players can walk around in their park in a first-person mode and go on the rides.
• The game had an appearance in the cool action movie “Cradle 2 the Grave” starring Jet Li and DMX.
  • In the movie released in 2003 by Warner Bros. a little daughter Vanessa of main protagonist played by DMX was very interested in playing this game and even several seconds of her playing were watched.
  • This action has defined the SimCoaster as an interesting game for smart girls with an art in their minds.
• The title is SimCoaster only in the United States
  • Elsewhere, it is titles, Theme Park INC.

January 31 – 1999 – Silent Hill – PlayStation

• You play Harry Mason, a normal man, with no powers or training of any kind.
  • You must search through the town of Silent Hill, looking for your daughter.
  • You will come across many people, some friendly, some not.
  • mYou must visit many different areas, such as the school, and the church.
  • Will Harry find his daughter and safely get out, or is there more to this town than a simple fog layer?
• PS2J 162 and 168 are a two part Silent Hill history
  • Josh keeps insisting that he will go back through these and remake these as more entertaining content.
  • But the more dry example is available if people are interested.
• The PS1 version of Silent Hill appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

February 1 – 1995 – Kirby’s Avalanche – SNES

• The First Annual Dream Land’s Avalanche Competition is about to get under way, and as Kirby and a host of characters from the Kirby series, you can join the tournament and become Avalanche king.
• Kirby’s Avalanche is a Puyo Puyo variant, and has you stacking colored blobs similar in a way to Tetris.
  • When a certain amount of one color is stacked, an explosion occurs and the screen clears of those blobs, which then appear in the other players screen (either the CPU or a second player).
  • When the other player’s screen is so full of blobs that they can’t make another move, you move onto the next round, and so on until the final boss.
  • The winner of that match is then crowned the Avalanche king.
• This game is almost exactly the same as Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine for the Genesis.
  • Only the Robotnik/Sonic theme has been replaced by a Kirby theme.
  • That’s because both games were actually developed by Compile and are based on their Puyo Puyo games.
  • Thanks to Roedie on Moby Games to point that out

February 2 – 2009 – 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness – Windows

• 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness is a game created for the Global Game Jam that tests the boundaries of what defines a game.
  • If the program runs for four minutes and 33 seconds—no further user input is needed—the player wins.
  • The catch is that it must be the only copy running in the entire world at that time—the program checks over the Internet to see if anyone else is running the game, and if someone is, the program will immediately shut itself down.
  • The only graphics are a white progress bar that inches across the screen as time passes.
• The game is inspired by John Cage’s musical composition 4′33″, which is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of complete silence.
  • The uniqueness of the piece is established through the background sounds in the environment, which makes the experience different for each listener.

February 3 – 2015 – Poké Doll Grabber – Browser

• Available through the Pokémon Global Link website, Poké Doll Grabber is a simple game in which the player guides the claw of a crane machine up to the top of the screen.
  • Along the way, they must guide the claw, which is clutching five Poké Dolls, past obstacles that could knock one of the dolls loose.
  • They can move it left and right, or rapidly move it upwards, though horizontal movements can cause the claw to swing and hit an obstacle anyway.
  • Upon reaching the top of the screen, the game ends, and the player will be given their score and will receive a random item that can be sent back to the player’s 3DS Pokémon RPG.
• Playing the game costs Poké Miles, which are obtained by using multiplayer features in the 3DS Pokémon games and sent to the Global Link by syncing one’s save file to the internet.
  • Three different levels of the game are available, which cost the same number of miles but offer differing prizes.

February 4 – 2000 – The Sims – Windows

• The simulation game that people, like Josh, started wasting days, weeks, months of their lives to perfecting the experience of digital lives.
• The Sims was originally going to be called “Home Tactics,” and would have an entirely different focus.
  • Will Wright originally designed it to be completely about building houses.
  • When someone suggested a feature involving letting people move in to determine the quality of the house, the focus completely changed.
  • Developers were having more fun watching the people than building the house.
  • The design goals were directed towards Sims, and architecture was left as a side bonus.
• Sims Trivia

• • You can put your own MP3s in the music folder in the game’s directory and they will be played on the radio.
  • After managing a household for 100 days you will be rewarded with information etc. about the creators of the game.
  • The game is listed in the 2008 Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition as the best selling PC game of all time, with 16 million sales worldwide since the original launch.
  • The PC version of The Sims appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

• This time the player gets cast as Nero, a member of the Order of the Sword who worships Sparda, in addition to playing as the previous games’ protagonist, Dante.
  • The game follows the story of Nero in which witnesses the assassination of the leader of the Order of the Sword, Sanctus, by no other than Dante.
  • The murder causes chaos and Sanctus’ deputy, Credo, orders Nero to go after Dante, who is heading for Fortuna Castle.
• Nero is equipped with a sword (Red Queen), a revolver (Blue Rose), and powers from his Devil Bringer arm that works like Dante’s Devil Trigger.
  • They also give Nero special abilities: pulling and pushing enemies, slamming them on the ground and zooming across areas.
  • Overall gameplay with Nero is still hack-and-slash but with fresh attack styles and techniques.
  • Dante joins later in the game for some levels of his own.
  • His gameplay stays mostly intact with the four attack styles: Trickster, Sword Master, Gunslinger, and Royal Guard.
• Devil May Cry 4 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Tidbits

• Google has apparently shut down its internal game development studio that was tasked with making games for the Stadia, leaving many wondering if this is the beginning of the end
  • The service will stick around focused on third-party games, but time will tell if this gets added to the list of services that Google pumps up and then lets fall by the wayside
• Apple’s upcoming iOS 14.5 update is in beta now, and it’s bringing some cool features like support for PS5 and Xbox Series controllers, as well as the ability to unlock your phone with your watch instead of your face if you’re wearing a mask
  • The unlock is pretty slick- if your Apple Watch is unlocked and on your wrist, and FaceID detects you’re wearing a mask, it will just unlock and send a notification to your watch. Best part, in case someone else has grabbed your phone, that notification has a big “Lock iPhone” button on it
• God of War 2018’s enhanced performance patch for the PS5 is live now, cranking everything up to 11 with 60FPS and 4K resolutions

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