Free Games

• Epic Games
  • Crying Suns
    • 2019
    • Story-rich tactical rogue-lite that puts you in the role of a space fleet commander as you explore a mysteriously fallen empire, uncovering the truth about it and yourself
• Twitch
  • Overcooked
    • 2016
    • A co-op party game where you and up to three friends work together in a kitchen to prepare meals, working around fires, shifting floors, and other obstacles
  • Sword Legacy Omen
    • 2018
    • Turn-based tactical RPG in a re-imagined King Arthur mythos where you play a vengeful knight in search of the long-lost Excalibur
  • Bridge Constructor Playground
    • 2014
    • Classic physics-based bridge building puzzle gameplay, but now with no fixed budget and next to no limitations on building materials
  • Alt Frequencies
    • 2019
    • An audio mystery set in a time loop. Record, rewind time and broadcast snippets of radio shows to expose radio hosts, conspiracy theorists, and politicians.
  • Along the Edge
    • 2016
    • Interactive visual novel set in the European countryside, where your choices impact the main character’s personality and appearance.
  • When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
    • 2019
    • Physics-based construction puzzler similar to Bridge Constructor, but this time you’re building different contraptions to carry skiers up the slopes with added control over the riders
  • Void Bastards
    • 2019
    • Science-fiction roguelike first person shooter inspired by BioShock and System Shock 2. Can you lead the misfit prisoners of the Void Ark through the derelict spaceships and myriad dangers of the Sargasso Nebula?
• Playstation
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
    • 2018
    • Action adventure game continuing the narrative from Rise of the Tomb Raider, following Lara Croft as she races to stop a Mayan apocalypse that she has unleashed
  • GreedFall
    • 2018
    • Action RPG set in a 17th-century style fantasy world where you explore a remote island alongside other settlers, mercenaries, treasure hunters, and invaders, with combat, diplomacy, and stealth
  • Maneater (PS5)
    • 2020
    • Open world action RPG where you start as a shark pup tasked with surviving the harsh world while eating your way up the ecosystem
    • People who recently purchased Maneater on either PS4 or PS5 have reportedly gotten automatic refunds from Sony, giving them free access to the PS4 version, but otherwise it’s only free on the PS5
• Xbox
  • Little Nightmares
    • 2017
    • A dark, whimsical side-scrolling platformer that will confront you with childhood fears as you escape The Maw- a vast, mysterious vessel inhabited by corrupted souls looking for their next meal.
  • Bleed 2
    • 2017
    • Side-scrolling arcade action platformer featuring air-dodging, bullet-reflecting, and tons of bosses, like a 2D Bayonetta bullet-hell

  • The King of Fighters XIII

    • 2010
    • A significantly modified entry in the King of Fighters fighting game series that removed the guard attack, critical counter, and clash systems, as well as the dynamic zooming camera, in favour of new enhancements to super moves, Hyper Drive mode, and Drive Cancel.

Facebook and Twitter finally locked Trump’s accounts this week after his disinformation and incitement led to a riot that breached the US capitol building

• After years of being complicit with Trump’s hate speech under the guise of public interest, all it took was armed police having to retake the US Senate, killing four and arresting 52, for these platforms to recognize that freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences, nor does it mean you are entitled to a platform or an audience
• This is what you get when you have websites dedicated to driving engagement with extreme, polarizing content under the guise of news or social interaction

A couple of sizeable cyberattacks came to light involving software development and network management tools, impacting everyone using tools from Jetbrains and SolarWinds (including the US government)

• Security researchers apparently told SolarWinds that anyone could access their update server using the password ‘solarwinds123’, but since no action was taken hackers used that to push malicious updates to their software
• Among the targets were dozens of email accounts and government encryption keys, showing pretty definitively that we can’t trust them with the encryption backdoors that they’ve been demanding for years

Apple stealth-dropped the new AirPods Max, wireless over-ear headphones with all the bells and whistles including a premium price tag

• The stainless steel headphones bring the AirPods Pro featureset to over-ear sound quality, and apparently they sound great, but they also cost $780 CAD
  • They make premium noise-cancelling headphones from Bose and Sony look downright affordable at half the price
• They also come with a bizarre headphone-cozy to cover up the earcups and put them into sleep mode, but it’s a soft case that only covers the earcups with minimal protection
• Also, if you want to use them wired instead of wireless you need to buy a separate lightning to 3.5mm cable specifically from Apple, and unlike competitors like Bose they won’t work wired if the battery is dead

US state and federal governments are suing Facebook in twin antitrust suits, looking to split up their monopoly over our digital lives including separating out Instagram and WhatsApp

• Considering in the 6 years since purchasing WhatsApp the messaging went from “privacy is coded into our DNA” to “you can get some neat features if you let us connect your data” to now “if you want to use WhatsApp your data will be used for advertising and Facebook products”, I think they’ve got a pretty good shot
• It would be great if they would pry Oculus out of there as well, but I haven’t seen mention of that anywhere

Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch, leading to refunds and even being pulled from digital stores after running abysmally on previous-generation consoles

• And I do have to take back some of what I’ve said about the game- directors and marketing claimed the game was done months ago and the delays were caused by polish, but it just straight up wasn’t done. They needed more time, not more deadlines
  • Apparently even though the next-gen version won’t be released till later this year they never showed it running on the Xbox One or PS4 before launch (you know, the consoles that it was released for), leading to a lot of disappointment when people received the game and saw that it looked so much worse than they expected
  • CD Projekt Red released a statement apologizing for that, saying they should have spent more time making it run better
• Hopefully they can continue to develop it into the game it should have been released as, leading up to its actual PS5/Xbox Series launch

Facebook’s begun using full-page newspaper ads to slam Apple’s upcoming privacy measures, claiming they’re standing up for small businesses, titled “Apple vs the free internet”

• Taking the Epic Games approach, Facebook’s defending their practices by holding up a small-business strawman and saying that they just want to protect the little guy by getting to do whatever they want
• The ads say that Apple’s changes will limit small and medium sized businesses ability to run personalized ads, leading to less bang for their buck, and that’s really all Facebook’s worried about. Not the fact that Facebook won’t have as much access to data they harvest on everyone to sell those very same ads. 
• This is very much the same problem that law enforcement is having with encryption and privacy- they’ve had free access to look through peoples’ windows for so long, they can’t stand the idea of people installing blinds and being allowed to close them if they want to
• The privacy measure that has them up in arms, by the way, is just a popup asking if you want to allow an app to track your activity across other apps and websites. There’s a spot where they can explain why they need it, and buttons to either “Ask App not to Track” or “Allow”. That’s it.
  • Maybe instead of wailing and tearing their shirts over this, crying to businesses that they have no choice but to comply with the tracking transparency features, Facebook should be convincing users why they should click Allow

Popular video conferencing app Zoom continues to be awful, now accused by the US Justice Department of suppressing calls about Tiananmen Square at China’s behest

• According to the Washington Post, Zoom executives worked with Chinese law enforcement to monitor calls both within and outside of China for discussions of political and religious topics deemed unacceptable by China’s Communist Party
• The monitoring lead to disrupting video calls, terminating accounts, and delivering personal information about identified users to government officials in China
• This proves pretty definitively that they don’t use encryption, your calls are not private, and we as a global community need to stop using Zoom

These Weeks in Gaming History

December 8 – 1997 – Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor – Windows

• This game is strictly multiplayer game.
  • It broke records with the fact that there can be 51 players playing it at the same time.
  • Every player has only one unit, and only one is to be the sole survivor.
  • Otherwise, the graphic is same as in original Command & Conquer DOS and GOLD version, with some extra units as a difference.

December 9 – 1995 – WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness – DOS

• WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness is a fantasy themed real-time strategy game and sequel to WarCraft: Orcs & Humansset on the world of Azeroth.
  • With the conquest of the kingdom of Azeroth in the first war, the orcs are now preparing for an invasion of Lordaeron and conquer the remaining human, dwarven and elvisch realms.
  • In an effort to counter this invasion the humans, elves and dwarves formed an alliance in the hope to avert the same fate the kingdom of Azeroth met.
• The game comes with many new features such as fighting not only over land but also over sea and air, SVGA 640×480 resolution graphics with many newly-rendered buildings and units, multiplayer-support with up to eight players, as well as a Red Book audio soundtrack, and a scenario editor that allows players to design and create their own scenarios.
  • The editor requires Windows 3.1 or greater, even though WarCraft II is a DOS-based game.

December 10 – 2020 – Cyberpunk 2077 – PS4, Xbox One, Windows

• Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification.
  • You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality.
  • You can customize your character’s cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you.
• Become a cyberpunk, an urban mercenary equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City.
• Enter the massive open world of Night City, a place that sets new standards in terms of visuals, complexity and depth.
• Take the riskiest job of your life and go after a prototype implant that is the key to immortality.

December 11 – 2001 – Shadow Hearts – Playstation 2 North America

• Yuri Hyuga is a young harmonixer: a man who possesses the power of transforming into demons.
  • He meets Alice Elliot, a young British girl whose father was brutally murdered, and who is chased by a mysterious warlock who calls himself Roger Bacon.
  • Yuri and Alice travel through the pre-war China, dealing with demons, evil magicians, and Japanese occupation army.
  • The journey eventually takes them and their friends to Europe, where they have to confront their ultimate enemy, but also uncover the truth about their own pasts.
• Shadow Hearts is a Japanese-style role-playing game set in a historical period (China and Europe of 1913, one year before the World War I) with plenty of supernatural elements mixed in.
  • The game shares plot-related and stylistic traits with Koudelka, to which it can be considered a sequel.
  • The player navigates a party of characters (up to three active combatants) over pre-rendered backgrounds.
  • Combat with regular enemies occurs randomly. During battles, characters use regular attacks or cast spells.
  • In addition to the regular health (HP) and magic points (MP), each character also has a special SP (“sanity points”) bar.
    • Sanity bar is gradually depleted in combat; when characters run out of SP, they become insane and hence uncontrollable, until their sanity is restored with items.
• The game implements traditional turn-based combat style for the battles, adding to it a feature called Judgment Ring.
  • Every time a character performs an attack, a ring with a spinning arrow appears on the top of the screen.
  • If the player stops the arrow when it is over a critical area on the ring, the attack will be more powerful.
  • However, missing the larger hit area will cancel the attack completely.
  • Various types of attacks have rings of various difficulty; usually, the more powerful a spell is, the smaller the hit area is on the ring.
  • The Judgment Ring is also used for other purposes; it can help the player reduce prices in stores, and is needed to solve several puzzles.
• All characters except Yuri learn new abilities automatically when leveling up.
  • Due to his demon-fusion abilities, Yuri can collect soul energy and use it to acquire various fusion forms.
  • When Yuri transforms into a demon he gains unique abilities, and continues fighting with the party as a controllable character.
  • He also has to travel to a graveyard in his own mental realm from time to time, in order to face his own inner demons and clear Malice, negative vengeful energy the party accumulates by killing enemies.

December 12 – 2000- Star Wars: Episode I – Obi-Wan’s Adventures – Game Boy Color

• Play as Obi-Wan through many levels of battle droids, similar in style to Jedi Power Battles.
  • You can use your lightsaber, blaster or the force to defeat the enemy and advance to the final showdown with Darth Maul.

December 13 – 1996 – Sonic Blast – Game Gear (Japan)

• Sonic Blast was released for Game Gear in conjunction with Sonic 3D Blast (aka Sonic 3D: Flickies’ Island) for Genesis/MD and Saturn.
  • It boasted similarly rendered character sprites and colorful backgrounds.
  • The game was yet another addition to the series, plus Sega had hoped it would be a boost to the dying Game Gear’s title selection at the time.
  • Brazilian based TecToy re-released the game for Sega Master System in 1997, a year after the initial release (while many may think this is a pirated title, TecToy is indeed licensed to produce and release games under the Sega name).

December 14 – 2017 – Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory – PS4, PS Vita (Japan)

• Brand new title from the “Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth”.
  • Set in the near future, the line between the real and digital worlds is blurred, become a hacker and utilize computer viruses called Digimon to tackle the incidents caused by hostile hackers other Digimons.
• Scan, raise, train and battle Digimon in classic turn-based gameplay!
  • 「Adventure」…Take on the role of a hacker within the cyber space and resolve the digital woes! Command Digimons and utilize your hacking skills!
  • 「Training」…Seek out Digimons and put them through intensive training before evolving into stronger breeds!
  • 「Battle」…Form your very own Digimon team for battle! Take on fights effortless with mastery of Digimon skills and elements at your disposal!
    • A total of 320 Digimon variants available and a wide range of brand new support skills effectively expands your battle arsenal.
• Team battle simulation & quests such as the ”Domination Battle”, ”Territory Contest” etc. along with enhanced online gameplay elements are added as well.
• With just this title, you would have access to all the gameplay elements ”Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth“ world could ever offer!
• Main story from the previous title ”Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth“ included with cross-save features and special bring-over bonus available as well!
• New players could fully enjoy the ”Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth“ series like any existing players too!

December 15 – 1992 – Batman Returns – DOS

• Frigid winter winds swept over an already chilled Gotham City.
  • Random street crimes were running at an all-time high, despite the holidays.
  • Down below, in the city’s frozen sewers, Oswald Cobblepot, known as The Penguin, planned more mayhem and schemed the take over of the frightened metropolis.
  • His loyal army of missile-packing Penguin Commandos and the bizarre Red Triangle Circus Gang are energized by the evil genius of the web-footed orphan.
  • A desperate call to Batman goes up.
• Batman Returns is an adventure game with fighting sequences, based on the movie of the same name.
  • Control Batman’s combat style, and help conduct relentless interrogations of The Penguins many allies.
  • Use the Batcave computer to input clues, analyze evidence, and review enemy bios.
  • You’re in charge of weapons, too.
  • Stock Batman’s Utility belt with enough heat to match the diverse fighting styles of The Penguin and cold-blooded, sewer-dwelling minions.

December 16 – 2003 – The Sims: Bustin’ Out – GameCube, PS2, XBox

• The Sims: Bustin’ Out is the console sequel to The Sims and the second Sims game to appear on the major consoles.
  • Sims can now leave their house and visit all different kinds of locations.
• In the mission-based Bust Out mode, the player starts at Mom’s house learning that evil Malcolm Langrabb is repossessing items from all the Sims homes.
  • Your job is to make enough money to buy back all the goods and eventually evict him from his own mansion.
  • The game also features an open-ended Freeplay mode.
• Bustin’ Out’s big new features are the ability to visit and move between houses through the single player progression as well as an online multi-player mode for 2 people on the PS2.
  • The servers for the online mode have since been shut down.

December 17 – 2002 – Super Bubble Pop – GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Xbox

• A combination of Tetris and Bust-A-Move, Super Bubble Pop has you controlling a character along the bottom of the playfield, who you use to throw bubbles of different colours towards the other side of the playfield.
  • As you throw them down the line, they will stack up in piles of six.
  • Linking three bubbles together will pop them (remove them from the field), and if there is a stack of six, the bubbles on the way will form a new stack in front of it.
• The aim of the game is to remove all bubbles from the field, but there is another way of completing a game.
  • Tokens will appear during play, and by collecting enough, you can move on to the next round regardless of what you have on the playfield.

December 18 – 1998 – Star Craft: Brood War – Windows

• StarCraft: Brood War is an add-on for StarCraft (requiring the full version of StarCraft) and a direct continuation of its story.
• Plot:
  • With the demise of the Overmind on the Protoss home world at the end of the original game, the Zerg are left leaderless.
    • In an attempt to regain control, a number of cerebrates merge to form a new Overmind. Kerrigan, a human/Zerg hybrid however wants to take control of the Zerg herself.
    • The Protoss are evacuating what is left of their people from their ruined home world.
    • Meanwhile the United Earth Directorate (UED) have learned of the recent developments in the sector.
    • Fearing for the safety of Earth they sent an expeditionary fleet there to secure it.
• Brood War brings several changes to the game, altering some gameplay aspects of the game, the most important change being the addition of new units.
  • The Terrans receive the Valkyrie, a craft with air-to-air fighting capabilities.
    • They also obtain the Medic, which can heal all non-mechanic units and, through upgrades, can use the Restore (remove all ailments on a unit) and Optical Flare (reduce the sight range of an enemy unit to 1) powers.
  • The Zergs receive the Lurker, obtained after mutating an Hydralisk, which can, and actually must, burrow to attack.
    • They also gain the Devourer, after mutation of a Mutalisk, an air-to-air unit, whose acid shots have notably the specificity of temporarily lowering the enemy defense, allowing other units to do increased damage.
  • The Protoss receive the Corsair, an air-to-air unit, which has access to the Disruption Web power (which, once cast, prevents targeted enemy units from firing outside of the web).
    • The Dark Templars, already seen in the original StarCraft are now a producable unit.
    • Their main strength lies in their permanent cloaking, allowing them to deliver their strong close combat attacks unharmed.
    • Additionally, in the same manner as two Templars can be merged as an Archon in StarCraft, two Dark Templars can now be merged to obtain a Dark Archon.
      • A Dark Archon has access to several powerful powers: Mind Control (giving permanent control of the targeted unit), Maelstrom (temporarily rendering all non-mechanical units within the target area unable to do anything) and Feedback (removes from a target unit the amount of energy it has available for special powers and inflicts it this amount as physical damage).
• Besides the new units, some units already featured in StarCraft can now be upgraded in certain areas.
  • For instance, the Terran Goliath can have the range of its ground-to-air missiles be tremendously increased. Similarly, the Zerg Ultralisk can now receive speed and armor upgrades.
• Other changes include a better AI and some alterations of the cost of certain units.
• Three new campaigns are available.
  • In order, a Protoss campaign featuring 8 missions, a Terran campaign also featuring 8 missions and a Zerg campaign comprising 10 missions (plus a bonus mission if some requirements are met in mission 9).
• The add-on also comes with about 100 multiplayer maps.

December 19 – 1994 – Blackthorne – DOS

• The planet Tuul was a peaceful place, until the evil warrior Sarlac used the power of the Darkstone to take control.
  • Blackthorne’s father, the good King Vlaros, sent him to Earth just as his kingdom crumbled around him.
  • Now, twenty years later, Blackthorne is grown and must return to Tuul to free it from the clutches of Sarlac.
• Blackthorne is a platform action game played from a side-view with non-scrolling backgrounds.
  • It has certain similarities to Prince of Persia, being set in maze-like environments and focusing on exploration and occasional puzzle-solving.
  • Blackthorne fights enemies by shooting at them.
  • His default weapon, a pump action shotgun, can be upgraded throughout the course of the game.
  • Various types of bombs can be used to damage enemies, blow open doors, or destroy generations.
  • Keys must be often found to gain access to new areas.

December 20 – 2013 – TRIHAYWBFRFYH (The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home) – Browser, Mac, Windows

• TRIHAYWBFRFYH is a short experimental game based on the theme of loneliness in the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
  • Set in a misty setting with fields, hills and forests, the protagonist experiences the last 20 minutes before rapture, the end of the world.
  • A large alien or celestial shape looms above while time counts down.
  • The player is free to explore the environment in any direction.
  • Four type of trails, marked by large vertical columns in a different colour, can be tracked.
  • When the character gets near one of them, part of a Lovecraft story is narrated and the coloured sphere appears somewhere else.
• There are no clear goals in the game except to explore, listen to the stories and hear the electronic music drone on as the inevitable rapture gets near.
  • At regular intervals lightning may strike or an earthquake may occur.
  • Movement is done with four keys along with the mouse to look.
  • The secondary mouse button provides a zoomed-in view.

December 21 – 2000 – The Broken Land – Windows

• An RPG game in the dungeon crawl style of Diablo.
  • The basic story involves you saving Heaven (not Earth) by re-combining the 5 pieces Heaven was split into by a battle with the gods and the forces of evil.
  • Game play is hack-and-slash with limited interaction with NPCs and merchants.
  • Characters have limited upgrades available to them as do the weapons and armor.
  • The game was released with no printed manual (it was included on the disk, but was inaccurate to the actual game play).

December 22 – 1998 – South Park – N64

• A comet is heading toward South Park, causing many of the enemies from early seasons of the shows (including cows, aliens, and clones) to rise up and attack.
  • The player takes control of Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and Stan to fight through the town in a first-person perspective.
  • Features new dialogue from the original voice actors on the show.
• Single player takes the form of a “Story” mode divided into five episodes and fifteen linear levels.
  • The player will face weak minions (which change based on the episode), plus occasional sub-bosses which will try to escape into town.
  • The final level is devoted to a unique boss fight.
  • Players use quirky weapons ranging from infinite yellow snowballs to cow launchers and toxic Terrance and Phillip dolls.
  • Every weapon has a secondary fire, and players switch between the four main characters when they switch weapons – each of the four kids shares a single life bar because of this.
  • The kids will comment on game actions as they occur, with heavier profanity censored with bleeps.
  • The kids will get angrier (and fouler) as their health depletes, until they finally give up on saving the town and go home.
• A multiplayer mode lets players take characters and weapons they unlock in Story mode into small deathmatch arenas.
  • The PlayStation version supports 2 players, the N64 does 4, and the PC version allows players to go online to search for opponents through GameSpy.
  • Players can set standard victory options like knockouts or time limits.
  • Voice samples for multiplayer are also included, so the characters will make comments and taunts when hit.
• Graphics are rendered in 3D, in a style approximating that of the show.
  • Draw distance is limited by a heavy fog, with varying severity based on the platform.
  • None of the environments are interactive, and only enemies respond to weapon hits.
  • The N64 version supports the Expansion Pak.

December 23 – 2015 – Who’s Your Daddy – Linux, Mac, PC

• Who’s Your Daddy is a two-player versus game in which one player controls a bumbling father, while the other takes the role of his infant son.
  • The father is responsible for the baby’s well-being, and as such needs to work to baby-proof the house.
  • He can also perform chores that will grant special abilities that help him keep an eye on the child and any hazards.
  • However, the player controlling the baby is given the goal of taking his own life through whatever means are available, such as drowning himself or ingesting poisonous chemicals.
  • The baby wins if he is able to commit suicide, while the father wins if he is able to keep his son alive until time runs out.

December 24 – 2009 – Tuper Tario Tros. – Browser

• Tuper Tario Tros. is a mash-up of two classic games: Super Mario Bros. and Tetris.
  • Inspired by the puzzle platforming in Lucidity, this is the first in a series of deep water experiments by the developers to test experimental game prototypes.
  • The game starts like a traditional Super Mario Bros. platformer clone with the classic elements, enemies and power-ups, until Mario encounters a wall that cannot be passed.
  • From that point on, it is possible to switch to Tetris-style gameplay with the press of a key to move around and rotate falling blocks to redesign the level, creating lines to make blocks disappear or building bridges to cross gaps.
• While in Tetris mode, Mario cannot be moved, but the gameplay is not paused.
  • Enemies continue to move around and the screen also moves forward at a steady pace.
  • Blocks can also be used to crush enemies.
  • At the end of the level, there is an additional section where both modes need to be used quickly in succession to complete a time-limited end sequence.

December 25 – 2010 – Coffee Forever – Mac, Windows

• In Coffee Forever, you must find coffee!
  • You begin on a screen that is mostly hidden.
  • You must move about the screen, revealing more of the screen and finding and gathering cups of coffee.
  • Once the minimum number of them are found, the level is complete.
  • You must find the minimum number of cups before your coffee meter, a.k.a. the timer, runs out.
  • Also, be careful as there are spikes on the playing field. If the time runs out or you hit a spike, you lose a life.
  • Lose all your lives and the game is over.

December 26 – 2001 – Final Fantasy X – PS2

• Tidus is a young athlete who lives in a futuristic city of Zanarkand – “the city that never sleeps”.
  • He plays blitzball, a ball game where players throw the ball while flying around.
  • Suddenly, a terrible disaster happens.
  • A huge dark wave engulfs the city, spawning monsters.
  • Tidus comes in contact with the mysterious creature, and as a result finds himself in a different world, a thousand years into the future.
  • The civilization he is used to doesn’t exist any more.
  • He learns that the world he knew was destroyed by Sin, a terrible being that is believed to be indestructible.
  • Tidus meets a young summoner named Yuna, and joins her as a guardian on her quest to put an end to Sin.
• Final Fantasy X is Japanese-style role-playing game set in a world somewhat similar to South Asia.
  • Only individual locations can be physically explored; there is no “world map” in the game, and exploration is fairly linear.
  • Enemy encounters are random; the game abandons the series’ traditional ATB (active-time battle) combat in favor of a Conditional Turn-Based Battle system, in which the turns of the participants are determined by characters’ stats and actions, with turn order displayed in the upper corner of the screen.
• The game also departs from the usual leveling up system.
  • There are no character levels in the game: instead, experience points received after battles can be allocated by the player directly to upgrade the characters’ parameters.
  • Each character has his or her special “sphere map”, with straight or branching paths containing spots that increase the character’s personal statistics, or teach him or her active and passive abilities.
  • The characters are given distinct class attributes, and it is possible top switch between all the party members during the same battle. Monster summons (called aeons in the game) now behave like playable characters, have their own hit points (HP), and can fight for the party until defeated.
• Conversations that occur during cutscenes have voice overs, for the first time in the series.
  • The game features various mini-games, the most prominent of which are blitzball tournaments.

December 27 – 1995 – The Indian In The Cupboard – Mac, Windows

• Inside of a young boy’s cupboard, the tiny toy figurine native american named Little Bear has come to life.
  • Letting the tiny man guide you through several activities will allow you to bring more toys to life and show your accomplishments on your wampum belt.
  • Some of the available activities include the bead pictures game, where you practice your artistry with carved Iroquois templates and colored beads.
  • There’s also the Music Mimicry game and the Symbols game and several more.
  • Completing all the activities successfully opens up a new area, the Bedroom 3-D environment and makes available six different quests.

December 28 – 2004 – MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf – Xbox

• MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf takes place roughly one year after the original MechAssault game.
  • This is not a simple extension of the first game.
  • There are a lot of new missions, vehicles (mechs, tanks, and whatever else the player can find), and worlds to explore.
  • Jump in and let’s go for a ride.
• The game adds new gameplay elements to the system used in MechAssault.
  • In the original game, the player was a Mech pilot and nothing else.
  • Here, the player is the only pilot in the game world.
  • This means that the player can now get out of a Mech and drive someone else’s Mech.
  • Want to drive a tank or some of the other vehicles?
  • Well, now it is possible.
  • Jump in many of the vehicles and take one for a ride
  • Of course, the Battlemech still rules the field.
• Like the original game, Xbox Live is fully supported for multiplayer gaming.

December 29 – 2005 – Dead or Alive 4 – Xbox 360

• The fourth installment in the Dead or Alive series (excluding Beach Volleyball) continues in a similar vein of fighting game.
  • Delivering another dose of combo heavy action set in a variety of highly interactive locations.
• With Helena assuming control over DOATEC an eclectic cast of fighters from all corners of the world all battle each other for some personal goal. Each character has vastly different, and often unusual, motives.
• In the main game’s story mode each character fights through a series of encounters, often with a bizarre context eg. taking exception to cruelty to a T-Rex and a fight over a fresh lettuce are both examples of the rather odd but still hilarious Japanese humour.
• XBOX Live support allows players to watch fights while waiting for their turn in the arena.
  • VOIP is also supported, as with many Live games.
• Featuring a graphical upgrade and an improved fighting system (tested by some top DOA players before release) Dead or Alive 4 is aimed not only at the older DOA players, but enticing new gamers due to the less intimidating control system, and giving slightly less advantage to the experienced.

December 30 – 2010 – Pong Solitare – Browser

• Pong Solitaire is a joke game from the web comic artist Steve Napierski.
  • It is a mix between Pong and Solitaire.
  • The gameplay is similar to the classic Pong game, except that the opponent’s paddle occupies the entire height of the screen.
  • That way you can only lose, as you grow tired of bouncing it back to yourself all the time.

December 31 – 1996 – Diablo – Windows

• Story:
  • Long ago a secret war raged between Heaven and Hell, each using humanity as its pawns.
    • While the Prime Evils of Hell were engaged in war their lesser lieutenants conspired to overthrow them.
    • They mutinied suddenly with the combined forces of Hell, overwhelming the three Primes.
    • Stripped of their power, they were banished to the mortal realm.
    • Human agents of Heaven, upon discovering this, found the three Primes and sealed them within gemstone prisons, each of them sent to a different corner of the earth and kept under guard to prevent them from escaping.
  • As years turns to centuries, however, the power of Heaven’s agents waned, until eventually not even the people of the town of Tristram knew that buried deep under their chapel was the soul of the Lord of Terror, Diablo.
    • As the strength of his prison waned Diablo reached out into the world, corrupting the dreams of the land’s good king, driving him to attack his neighbors.
    • The nation of Khanduras fought wars with no intention of winning, desiring only slaughter and suffering.
    • Now the lands lay scorched, home only to monsters and the dead.
    • Rumors spread of a way to stop the demons, as well as rumors of great wealth, and both draw adventurers from far to the small town of Tristram.
• Players start by choosing their avatar’s class: either Warrior, Rogue, or Sorcerer.
  • Warriors have the highest maximum strength and can repair weapons and armor inside the dungeon, but this will lower the item’s maximum durability.
  • The Rogue has the highest maximum dexterity and can both see and disarm traps on treasure chests.
  • The Sorcerer has the highest maximum magic attribute and can recharge the charges on a spellcasting staff at the cost of his own mana.
• Characters can equip armor, weapons, and accessories found in the chapel’s shifting dungeons, but strong equipment will have minimum attribute requirements to be worn.
  • Most equipment will have randomized stats, but some strong monsters will drop Unique weapons with set stats.
  • Magic can be learned by finding magic tomes, and leveled up by finding multiples of the same spell tome, but advanced spell levels can not be learned if the character’s magic stat is too low.
  • Upon destroying enough monsters to level up the player is rewarded with additional attribute points to distribute to whichever attributes they wish.
  • Occasionally the few people left in town will inform the player of a job they would like done, either an exceptionally strong monster that must be slain or a unique item found deep in the dungeon, and will reward the player in kind upon completion of the quest.
• Diablo can be played cooperatively with 1 to 3 other players over LAN or BattleNet with the PC versions, or with 1 player locally on the PlayStation.
  • Players can team up to survive the depths of the dungeons, or turn on each other to steal one another’s items from their corpse.
  • The quest unique zones are removed from the online version of a dungeon, and instead quest monsters will be found wandering the level that would normally lead to their unique area.

January 1 – 1990 – Hugo’s House of Horrors – DOS

• Hugo’s sweetheart Penelope has vanished after visiting a haunted house on a babysitting job.
  • In order to save her, Hugo must explore the area around, within, and beneath the house and solve its mysteries, while surviving its many perils.
• Hugo’s House of Horrors is a graphic adventure game, controlled with a combination of the arrow keys for movement, and typed commands such as eat steak to interact with the environment.
  • Some challenges are puzzles which must be solved by clever use of items found in the house, while others require quick and careful movement, or test the player’s knowledge.
• This game is the first game in the Hugo’s House of Horrors shareware trilogy.
  • This full game was released as a taster for the full trilogy which includes this game plus the titles Hugo’s Mystery Adventure, Hugo’s Amazon Adventure, a hint book and an automatic solver which plays the game like a movie.

January 2 – 2010 – Newton Adventure – Linux, Mac, Windows

• Newton Adventure is a 2D platform game with a unique feature: in order to get through the 21 levels, the player has to rotate them and change gravity at 360°.
• By using this special rotating power, the hero can jump to distant platforms, make enemies fall or move objects.
• Divided in four themed worlds (arctic, jungle, Vatican and Egypt), the 20 levels have the same goals: find the door to exit and the key that open it.
  • The key is an object to be brought by pushing it or by making it fall using gravity change.
• Aside from completing the levels, the goals is to make highest scores possible, by killing enemies, collecting items or accessing to special bonus zones.

January 3 – 2007 – Paws & Claws: Pet Vet – Nintendo DS

• You Love Animals and They Love You!
• Now you can pamper and rescue all of your favorite creatures at your own Paws & Claws Pet Vet.
  • Nurture and love the animals to grow your business and become every animal’s best friend!
• Features:
  • Nurse all of your injured patients back to health through 20+ cases
  • Choose from 10+ different kinds of animals, from cockatoos and guinea pigs to dogs and horses
  • Visit the 3D clothing shop and choose from 9 cute outfits
  • Become the best vet and you’ll grow your business into the biggest pet clinic in town!

January 4 – 2001 – Thandor: The Invasion – Windows

• After the defeat of the Golraths, the Alliance of Averes have collapsed and the allies have turned enemies.
  • But in the times of turmoil and despair, some faithful Alliance soldiers are planning for a return to the glorious Alliance…
• Thandor is a 3D RTS game where you build units and battle other factions for control of resources (to build more units).

January 5 – 2004 – Sonic Battle – Game Boy Advance (North America)

• Sonic Battle is a fast paced pseudo-fighting game, akin to Super Smash Brothers from Nintendo.
  • Rather than being 3D side-scrolling, this game employs a 3D isometric view- not a static, sprite-based field though, it is comprised of actual texture-mapped polygons.
  • The character sprites are 2D though, and while you think it wouldn’t work- it does 😛
• You can have 9 characters to choose from, 5 modes of play; Story, Battle, Challenge, Training, and Mini Games; you can link up 4 GBA’s to fight your friends, each character has a bunch of moves you can use to beat the you-know-what out of whoever you’re fighting.
  • It has a system of selecting Aerial, Ground, and Guard based attacks, and depending on what type of attack you set for which area (aerial/ground/guard), you have a possibility of 9 total different special attacks to choose from (only 3 at a time in a match though) which you can change each time you lose 1 stock point.
• Among the other many features, Sonic Team has also made the game more dynamic with the addition of a trainable character whose abilities and techniques you can raise and add to.
  • You get to pick and choose every aspect of the robot’s style (running, attacking, jumping, dashing, etc etc etc etc etc).
• The game takes a moderate amount of time to play through as all the characters, and adds a longer lifespan to itself if you wish to play through and beat it completely (all characters, get all moves for the trainable robot, etc).

January 6 – 2010 – Born Into Darkness – Mac, Windows

• Nathaniel Black joins the vampire Amber Blythe on a treasure hunt around the world, where they must follow the clues left on artifacts and ancient tombs to retrieve the lost Shroud of Lazarus.
• Born Into Darkness is a hidden object game with adventure elements, where the main objective is to find all pieces of inventory items, to assemble and use them later.
  • The interface tray at the bottom shows the silhouettes of the required objects whose parts are scattered around the location.
  • As in most point-and-click titles, the player moves between scenes by clicking on obvious exit hotspots like doors and other openings.
  • The silhouettes can be selected to show the all the parts necessary to complete the object.
  • Once assembled, the item can be dragged and dropped from the inventory to a logical portion of the scenery to solve puzzles or perform certain actions.
• The inventory is framed by blue and red hint jewels and medallions for each main character.
  • There are slots for six jewels that highlight the position of one of the required parts when activated, showing only pieces for silhouettes that match their colors.
  • Extra hints can be earned by selecting one of the medallions to play a mini-game.
  • On Nathaniel’s mini-game, the goal is to find and click on the words listed at the top of the medallion on a pile of juxtaposed text at the center.
  • On Amber’s mini-game, the player has to click on the flying ghost whose portrait appears on slots at the side of the medallion.

January 7 – 1998 – Sentry – Windows

• Sentry is a freeware remake of Geoff Crammond’s all-time classic, The Sentinel.
  • Gameplay remains true to the original, in this battle for dominance via height.
  • Climb higher by building towers of boulders, gain energy by absorbing natural resources and teleport around the strange checkered landscape via robot shells.
  • Meanwhile, you must avoid the deadly gaze of The Sentinel, who looks out from the highest peak.
  • Get higher than him, then absorb him and take his place as ruler.
• This Windows version includes texture mapping, dynamic lighting, music, an infinite supply of levels and a host of options.
  • There are even two different stereoscopic modes.

January 8 – 2016 – Punch Club – Linux, Mac, Windows

• Punch Club is a sporting management simulation in which the player manages an upcoming boxer in training and preparation for a series of boxing matches at a local club, while searching for clues of who killed their father.
  • The game was developed as a humorous take on action films of the 1980s and 1990s.
• The player controls an unnamed boxer whose father, who helped to train him, was murdered.
  • The boxer aims to continue his training and become the best boxer at a local league, while following clues to lead him to who killed his father.
  • The player manages the boxer around the clock through various locations in a city, including his home, the boxing gym, stores, and his work place.
  • Time progresses when the player is involved in any activity, including moving between these locations.

Tidbits

• Apple launched their “Privacy Nutrition Labels” on the App Store, giving you a full breakdown of what information they’re collecting when you use the app
  • If you want a wake-up call just head over to Facebook’s or Instagram’s listing and scroll through the plethora of info they’re harvesting
• It begins again- Samsung is deleting posts mocking Apple about not including USB wall adaptors with new iPhones amid plans to do the very same with their Galaxy S21
  • Xiaomi is in the exact same situation too, releasing ads for their Mi10 phone highlighting the included power adaptor and now removing it from the Mi11 citing the environment
• Adobe Flash is officially dead, with support having ended on December 31st
  • But that which is dead may never die, and you can still see Peanut Butter Jelly Time over at the Internet Archive thanks to emulators
• Watch Death to 2020 on Netflix
  • Hilarious mockumentary about the year we all just got through, with some great actors and excellent writing

A Smart Bird Feeder

• Bird Buddy is a Wifi enabled bird feeder
  • Notifies you on bird visitors
  • Takes their photo
  • And organizes it into a collection which is easy to share
  • It will also track the species and catalog it in a collection for you
• What features make it a Smart Feeder
  • There is a front facing camera, that is equipped with AI that can recognize over a 1000 bird species
  • The built in microphone will also identify birds by song as they approach or pass by.
  • The mobile app lets you access these features as well, wherever you are
• The module is detachable and upgrade-able from the bird feeder itself.
• Very much funded
  • A goal of 50,000 euro
  • At time of note taking, over 3 million euro
• Add on’s:
  • Solar Roof
  • Wall Mount
  • Fence mount
  • Suet Ball holder
• You are also helping bird conservation
  • Tracking info on bird species will help with migratory patterns and data will be accessible by experts
  • Every feeder also includes a guide to bird feeding