Free Games

• Twitch

  • Algo Bot

    • 2018
    • Puzzle game that has you maintaining a pan-galactic colony ship by managing a cute robot through a visual programming language

  • Little Big Workshop

    • 2019
    • Management sim with an open-ended sandbox experience where you start with a small tabletop workshop and expand to a desk-filling factory, running multiple production lines and managing your cute workers

• Epic Games

  • Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition

    • 2018
    • 2D platformer and Metroidvania based on the Afro-Brazilian warrior of the same name that has you traversing the world by warping between white surfaces
    • Trials of Fear Edition adds a bunch of things like new areas, a new boss, new powers, and a new secret ending

• Sony

  • Concrete Genie

    • 2019
    • Action-adventure game where you discover a paint brush that can bring your art to life, infusing them with different personalities and powers depending on how you draw them

  • Control Ultimate Edition

    • 2020 bundle version of the 2019 release, including the Foundation and AWE expansions, brand new to the PS5 and Xbox Series in February
    • Action-adventure game that revolves around the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret US government agency tasked with containing and studying phenomena that violate the laws of reality. You play as the new director and use your powerful abilities to defeat the deadly Hiss
    • This is a messy one- the developers set it up so that only people that own the Ultimate edition can get a free upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, so players that bought it in the first year of release are left out in the cold
      • They also stated that save files could be brought forward to the latest consoles from the original release if you bought Ultimate Edition on the last-generation consoles, but just yesterday they announced that there is actually no way to bring your old save file to the next-gen consoles
      • Now Ultimate Edition is being made free on PS4 and PS5 two weeks after it was just on sale, but unlike ManEater they aren’t offering any refunds for people that jumped on the deal, even if they haven’t booted it up yet while waiting for the PS5 release

  • Destruction AllStars

    • Brand new 2021
    • Vehicular combat game billed as a “global sports entertainment event where stars & cars collide”, where each hero vehicle has different abilities and once your car has been destroyed you need to survive on foot

• Microsoft

  • Gears 5

    • 2019 optimized for the Xbox Series
    • Third-person shooter that takes place months after the events of Gears of War 4 that has you uncovering the origins of the Locust and the truth behind your family history

  • Resident Evil

    • 2015 HD remaster of the 1996 release
    • Survival horror game that helped define the genre, where you play a member of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S as they investigate the outskirts of Raccoon City following the disappearance of your team members

  • Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition (also on Epic)

    • 2018
    • 2D platformer and Metroidvania based on the Afro-Brazilian warrior of the same name that has you traversing the world by warping between white surfaces
    • Trials of Fear Edition adds a bunch of things like new areas, a new boss, new powers, and a new secret ending

  • Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb

    • 2003
    • Action-adventure game that has you taking the role of Indy as he travels to 1935 China to prevent a powerful artifact from falling into evil hands, pitting you against evil Nazis and the Asian underworld

  • Lost Planet 2

    • 2010
    • Third-person shooter set 10 years after Lost Planet: Extreme Condition where terraforming efforts have started to change the face of the planet but mankind is still locked in a civil war for thermal energy

Apple’s released updates for pretty much all of their devices except for Mac, including bug fixes, security updates for vulnerabilities that may have been exploited in the wild, and a new Unity watchface inspired by the Pan-African flag

• Some people online think the security updates may be related to the GreyKey iPhone hacking device, but we have yet to see any solid reports
• Related to the new watchface, as part of Black History Month Apple has also introduced a limited-edition “Black Unity” Apple Watch and sport band, using the colours of the Pan-African flag and inscribed with messages like “Black Unity”, and “Truth. Power. Solidarity.”
  • They also have plans to use their apps like Maps and Music to spotlight Black businesses, musicians, developers, writers, influencers, and news stories

Facebook is apparently preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for an unfair approach to privacy and default apps

• Facebook is claiming that the App Tracking Transparency features, allowing users to opt-out of being tracked, are unfair because they don’t appear for Apple’s built-in apps
  • The problem here is that Apple doesn’t track users or share data for advertising purposes, so it doesn’t really apply
• Facebook will apparently also be focusing on Apple’s refusal to allow other messaging apps to be set as the system default, claiming that limitation is an effort to prevent people from switching to competing brands
  • I’m sure this has nothing to do with them lobbying Apple in September to allow Facebook Messenger to be the default messaging app and being soundly rejected
• The big bullet point here seems to be that Facebook’s accusing Apple of making changes to line their own pockets, while the reality seems to be that all Apple’s doing here is giving us control over how Facebook monetizes us
• We’ll have to see if these actions actually get filed, but a lot of it just seems like an tantrum because Facebook will have to start asking permission before harvesting data from iPhone users

In related news, Google is actually pulling the tracking features from their iOS apps

• Many of Google’s apps still have yet to submit their data privacy labels to the App Store, which will show what data they’re gathering, but in the meantime they’ve announced that rather than ask users to allow themselves to be tracked Google will instead remove tracking altogether
• Google’s warned that app developers may see a “significant impact” to their Google ad revenue on iOS after the new policy takes effect, but if tracking is so important to their business then they could always leave it in and use the permissions prompt to justify it to their users
• The fact that they’d rather stop than ask permission is pretty dang telling

Microsoft revealed plans to double the price of Xbox Live Gold this week, drawing so much fire that they reversed course 15 hours later

• In their planned rollout their cheapest option would have stayed at $60, but cut down to 6 months instead of the current 12
• The prevailing theory is that this change would have been to push more people toward Game Pass Ultimate, which offers the benefits of Gold with the Game Pass subscription service that’s pretty solid but not necessarily for everyone
• On the plus side, now instead of doubling the price of Gold they’re keeping prices as-is and also making changes for free-to-play games to allow them online without a Gold membership
• So it at least shows that they’re open to criticism and willing to make their services a little better instead of much worse

Disney’s making changes to its Disney+ lineup as part of their Stories Matter initiative, an effort to reckon with the company’s history of racist stereotypes and negative depictions

• Several titles with problematic content like Peter Pan, Aristocats, The Lady and the Tramp, and Dumbo, have been removed from profiles set up for children, though they can still be viewed from regular accounts
• When watched they also display a strong condemnation of their contents, saying that the stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now, acknowledging the harmful impact, and saying they want to learn from it and spark conversation so that parents can make sure their children have a good mental framework in which to place these movies
• Conversations about race and stereotypes aren’t easy to have with kids, but you can’t just throw those types of racist caricatures at impressionable minds willy-nilly without doing some harm in the process

This Week In Gaming History 2000’s Edition!

January 23 – 2001 – The Typing Of The Dead – Sega Dreamcast (North America)

• This is essentially the same game as the arcade light-gun rail-shooter House of the Dead 2, except they’ve turned it into a edu-tainment typing trainer.
  • Instead of guns, your characters have keyboards strapped to them, and instead of shooting the zombies that constantly jump out at you you’ll need to type out the words attached to the zombies in order to kill them before they crack open your head and feast upon the goo inside.
  • The game ranks you on your typing speed and provides various tutorials and other edu-tainment sundries.
• Otherwise it’s pretty much the same game as House of the Dead 2.
  • Much like the Resident Evil series, the zombie hordes have gone from infesting a vaguely gothic creepy old mansion to infesting a vaguely gothic decaying city, and its your job to stop them and save the human race (as usual).

January 24 – 2000 – Crazy Taxi – Sega Dreamcast (United States)

• Crazy Taxi is an arcade-like racer where the player takes the role of a taxi driver who weaves his way through crowded streets, across sidewalks, and even underwater, in a wild and frantic race to deliver passengers on time.
  • The courses are largely set inside cities crowded with general traffic and pedestrians (which can’t be run over, they dive away).
  • The main goal is to bring as many customers as possible to their destination in time.
  • Available customers are marked through circles and the color represents the distance and the fare they offer.
  • Green means long rides with plenty of money, and red ones are very short.
• In the main Arcade mode, there is a timer that quickly runs down.
  • It can be replenished by picking up customers.
  • While driving reckless maneuvers are encouraged.
  • Players can disregard all traffic rules and customers give extra tips for speedy and dangerous driving, but these can only be cashed when the customer arrives at his destination in time.
  • By the same token, the reward at the end of a ride is based on the amount of time left, as each customer also has a personal timer.
  • The city is filled with slopes and jumps, and the game uses a very loose driving model.
  • No damage can be done to the car, so driving as fast as possible is encouraged.
  • While driving players can toy with the gears to perform two special tricks: a crazy drift and a crazy boost to speed up more quickly.
• Next to the Arcade mode, there is an Original mode and Crazy Box where specific goals need to be met on closed down courses.
  • In the regular modes, it is possible to disregard the usual timer and play for a fixed amount of minutes.
  • At the end of the race, the player is rewarded with a license, either D, C, B or A, with S for outstanding performance.
  • Next to the interactive courses from the arcade version, there is a new course for home consoles.
  • There are four cabs and drivers to choose from.
  • The cars have different statistics and the drivers’ different attitudes while racing.
  • The game has a soundtrack featuring The Offspring and Bad Religion (not for the Xbox 360 version).

January 25 – 2005 – Playboy: The Mansion – PS2, Windows, Xbox

• Live the life of Hugh Hefner in this “Virtual Hef” simulation.
• As a young Hugh Hefner, it is the player’s goal to build the Playboy empire through sexy parties and putting together Playboy magazine every month.
  • Build friendships and business contacts with celebrities, political figures, musicians, sports stars and more through hosting events and charming over people.
• On the business side, Hef has to hire a staff to take photos and write articles for the magazine.
  • The “Playboy Photoshoot” mode allows the player to take the role of photographer.
  • On the personal side, invite friends into your inner circle, and find a girlfriend… or two…. or more.
  • The better the parties Hef throws, the more fame he gets, as well as more interesting people to fill the magazine.
  • More money means a larger staff, and more items (toys and furniture) for He