Indie

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Much like last week's game, Desktop Dungeons is a streamlined rogue-like. It strays a little further into rogue-like territory with level gaining and such, but like Tiny Crawl, it's a very simple game that just about anyone can understand and get into. However, underneath the layer of simple controls and basics, Desktop Dungeons has a complexity and depth that make it surprisingly engaging and addictive. In fact, we could almost compare it to the title Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. Short, simple to understand, and difficult to master are all characteristics of both games, and this makes Desktop Dungeons a great game if you want to relax for a few minutes over a coffee break with some monster slaughtering. Beware, though, as you might lose track of time and get reprimanded for spending too much time dungeon crawling!

Tuesday is usually a day that most people dread. It's a day that smack dab in the middle of the week and the weekend looks like its months away. But thankfully there are some mid-week PC game sales to keep the work blues away.

Steam's regular mid-week sale this week is for Titan Quest Gold. From now until Thursday you can purchase and download the action-RPG game and its expansion pack from now defunct developer Iron Lore together for the super low price of just $4.99. Direct2Drive has also put the acclaimed indie game Cogs on sale for a limited time for just $4.95.

It's been quite a while since GameStop's Indie Game Challenge was announced, but today the list of 12 finalists (six professional, six non-professional) was announced at long last. Unlike the Independent Games Festival, there is also a public vote on the competition's web site that determines which of the finalists look the best to them (via a video only) and then they vote for which game they think should win the $10,000 Gamer's Choice prize. However the two big grand prizes of $100,000 each (one for the pro selections and one for the amateur selections) are selected by a panel of judges from GameStop, The Guildhall and Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. There are a few other prizes for specific areas of excellence (technical, art, design). You can check out the list of games, vote, and watch game videos on the official website.

The list of games covers many different genres, from puzzle to arcade. Four of the IGF finalists have a spot on the IGC list as well: Cogs, Miegakure, Vessel, and AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! Some other notable games include Gear, which was an honorable mention in the IGF student showcase, and the multiplayer arcade game Altitude, which had a recent launch on Steam.

It's still something hard to believe that a company that no one had heard before creates one of the best games of all time as its debut title. Yet Irrational Games did just that when they released the FPS-RPG sequel System Shock 2 back in 1999. Now the newly revamped Irrational Games web site is spilling a few of the development secrets from the game.

For example, did you know that the game started out with a kind of Heart of Darkness-Apocalypse Now style plot? Or that there were plans for a zero-g sequence outside the space ship hull? Well those secrets and more can now be read at Irrational's web site. We just hope the reveal of their next game is "soon".

One of the oldest game genres is the rogue-like, with games such as Nethack and Angband having an incredible longevity. Nethack itself is almost 26 years old, for example. However, rogue-likes are typically impenetrable to those that haven't spent a considerable amount of time playing them. Tiny Crawl is the answer to this common frustration, and it's a great way for new players to become engrossed in the rogue-like genre. Created for the TIGsource Assemblee competition, it boils rogue-likes down to their absolute core, providing a simple, streamlined, and engaging experience. It's no surprise how finely crafted and tuned Tiny Crawl is, given developer Sparky's work on IGF finalist Star Guard.

Someone at Digital Illusions must like the Underworld movies. The developer has announced that their free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes is giving its players a chance to fight not as pseudo WWII combatants but as either vampires or werewolves. The special in-game event lasts for the next month.

Players can purchase special werewolf or vampire clothing and appearance bundles in the Battlefield Heroes online store. Those bundles include special attacks; the Wolf Claw (for the werewolves) or the Vampire Claw (for the vamps, natch). In addition three of the game's maps have been converted to a spooky night setting. Sorry, no Kate Beckinsale in tight leather is available. You can check out a trailer after the jump.

Download HD Battlefield Heroes 'Vampires vs Werewolves' Trailer (148 MB)

With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

It's time for the final, and most important, category in the IGF. The Seamus McNally Grand Prize holds the largest cash reward and prestige out of any category, and for good reason. Here are games that epitomize polished perfection, and whoever wins the grand prize is sure to find publishers knocking on their door for an exclusive deal. Every game in the grand prize category this year was in one of the other minor cateogries, which is not particularly shocking, even tif it does not happen all that often. If you look back upon previous years, there's normally one game that makes it to the grand prize that doesn't quite fit anywhere else. This year, that's not the case. These games are the best of the best, and they deserved to be honored.

With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

The games which truly exhibit technical excellence in the indie realm are often praised beyond all potential comparison. After all, technical advances here such as HDR lighting aren't the real technical advances. It's things that alter the gameplay in interesting ways while still being smooth and presentable that really excite indie gamers. It's interesting how graphics advances are praised as advances in visuals, not in technical creation, where other things are. Here's five games that just can't fit in any other category at the IGF thanks to their unrelenting technical improvements.

With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of. This week we're going to take a look at a few of the games that have made it to the finals.

People love a good art style. Sure, you can make your game so that it's all black pixels and monotony, but if you have a cohesive and engaging visual style, players will like it more. Everybody likes something done well and clearly, and the members of the IGF judging team are no exception. Here are the five games that made the top of the list in visual artistry.

If you been hankering for a game that combines elements of Rainbow Six, Jagged Alliance and Tron, then UK-based game developer Mode 7 Games has an upcoming title that's right up your alley. Frozen Synapse is being made as a top down tactical shooter that in terms of art style resembles Tron but plays out like a combat game.

The developer, who previously created a multiplayer sword combat game called Determinance, has recently released their first trailer from Frozen Synapse which you can check out after the jump. As you can see you plan out your team's attack in turn based mode and then see the results in real time. The game is still pretty early in development. Mode 7 Games says it won't be released until late 2010.

[Via Joystiq]

Valve's zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 is "between updates" as it were but the developer is working on new patches to the game. An update on the game's official blog gives some hints as to what's coming. One is getting rid of auto-spawning during Versus match finales. That should please a lot of people.

Yet another new addition that will be added is bot support for the Infected side "to help out the Infected when they are down a man or two." The blog also reminds us that Valve is working on their first big Left 4 Dead 2 expansion, The Passing, which as we reported before, will see the big meeting between the main casts of both Left 4 Dead games.

The playable demo for Zombie Driver includes three levels from the full game. The patch updates the game to v1.0.6 and addresses a number of gameplay issues. A full list of changes and system requirements are shown after the jump.

"Fight your way through the streets of a zombie infested city to save the survivors of a disastrous chemical accident that changed most of the city's population into mindless brain hungry monsters. Time is your enemy and your car is your weapon as you race through the streets smashing everything on your way including fences, phone booths, street lamps and hordes of zombies. When the gruesomely mutated zombies become too much to handle, buy a new car or get more guns and upgrades installed. You can earn more money for finishing side quests, making kill combos and searching for hidden prizes. Game play is unrestricted and the player can freely roam through the dark streets, alleys and backyards searching for the best shortcuts or hidden power ups."

Download Zombie Driver Demo (404 MB)
Download Zombie Driver v1.0.6 Patch (9 MB)

Don't let the low-tech graphics fool you, VVVVVV is a complex action platforming game that shifts gravity around. Created by indie developer Distractionware's Terry Cavanagh, the demo is available for both the PC and Mac.

Download VVVVVV Demo (14 MB)
Download VVVVVV Mac Demo (15 MB)