Freeware-Friday posts

Freeware Friday: Captain Forever

by James Murff Nov 20th 2009 @ 6:00PM

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

Most of the browser games that have been talked about on Freeware Friday have been by the esteemed Flashbang Studios. However, it's time to break that trend with a game that is just as good as anything Flashbang can or has come up with. Farbs' Captain Forever was released a while ago to those who have donated, with the promise of it being released for free at a later date. That later date has arrived, and Captain Forever is now available to the general public. It's an excellent game, and one that you can easily lose a lot of time to, which makes it both a great freeware game and an amazing browser game.

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Filed under: Features, Indie

Freeware Friday: Dragon Age: Journeys

by James Murff Nov 13th 2009 @ 8:00PM

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

Dragon Age: Origins is out there amidst consumers, garnering both critical and commercial recognition for its dark atmosphere, excellent story, and entertaining combat. However, there's more to the Dragon Age series besides Origins. EA2D, makers of the excellent Mirror's Edge 2D, decided to take the 2D browser approach to the Dragon Age franchise. The end result is Dragon Age: Journeys, a spin-off game that manages to be good on its own while still providing you with bonuses in the main game itself. Those that love strategy and role-playing games should definitely try it out.

Continue reading Freeware Friday: Dragon Age: Journeys

Filed under: Features, Browser, RPG, Strategy, Dragon Age: Origins

Freeware Friday: Au Sable

by James Murff Nov 6th 2009 @ 5:00PM

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

Way back in May there was a little game that scared my pants off with some truly disturbing imagery and sound. That game was All Of Our Friends Are Dead, and it is still one of the scariest games I have ever played. It doesn't stop with just that game, however, as the developer made a thematic sequel with the confusingly titled Au Sable. Where All Of Our Friends Are Dead was spooky, Au Sable cranks it up even further. There are few games that I have to stop playing for reasons pertaining to creepiness or terror, and none that force me to do it as much as Au Sable did. This is an improvement on All Of Our Friends Are Dead in every way, and that includes the scaring your pants off.

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Filed under: Indie

Freeware Friday: We Want YOU!

by James Murff Oct 30th 2009 @ 7:00PM

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

War games and procedurally generated games are favorites here at Big Download. We Want YOU fits both of those models, and does it in a way that is funny, fun, and subversive all at the same time. It pulls from inspirations such as Spelunky to make a game that is part platformer, part shooter, and all excellent. It has finally been released from beta status into standard, release candidate status, which means it's about time that people seriously give it a try. After all, with a list of changes from build to build that only serves to impress, you'll be hard pressed to find a game quite as engaging as We Want YOU that is also as well-designed and funny.

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Filed under: Features, Action, Indie

Freeware Friday: DoomRL

by James Murff Oct 23rd 2009 @ 6:00PM

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

Most rogue-likes tend to be of the role-playing variety rather than the action variety. Instead of whipping out guns, you hack apart goblins, gain levels, and traverse through dungeons. But what if it was much more simple, action-oriented, and just plain fun for your average joe? That's where DoomRL comes in. A rogue-like of id's classic shooter, it manages to be both a great remake into an interesting gameplay system as well as a compelling game on its own. It could easily be adapted to different settings or expanded to include even more goodies, which is the real beauty of it.

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Filed under: Features, Action, Indie, RPG

Freeware Friday: RRRRRPG

by James Murff Oct 16th 2009 @ 4:00PM

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

Sometimes distilling a genre down to its basic essence can be just as compelling as the genre itself. Remove all of the fancy graphics from your average top-down shooter, and in the end it's still a game about racking up points in awesome ways. RRRRRPG is the distillation of the traditional JRPG, but despite lacking all those nice things like unique dungeons, a sweeping plot, or stunning graphics, it still manages to be fun. It's a clever take on what drives us as gamers while still managing to be a great game to play. It's not just a statement on games; RRRRRPG is genuinely entertaining and addictive.

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Filed under: Features, RPG

Freeware Friday: RunMan: Race Around the World

by James Murff Oct 9th 2009 @ 2:00PM

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

Anybody who has ever played a Sega Genesis knows about Sega's old mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. An incredibly fast hedgehog, his games were all about finishing levels as fast as possible and with the highest score. In a way, RunMan: Race Around the World is the spiritual successor to that formula, but does away with all of the trappings the blue hedgehog has become associated with and focuses on the sheer fun, which is something that Sonic lost sight of a long time ago. It's a stellar donationware title that was four years in the making, and those with a love for classic platforming should not miss it.

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Filed under: Features, Action, Indie

Freeware Friday: Strange Adventures in Infinite Space

by James Murff Oct 2nd 2009 @ 2:00PM

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

Sometimes, the length of a game can hurt it severely. In other cases, it can make it even better. Games with short play sessions are well-suited for gaming on the go and at work, and it is with this in mind that Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was developed. It may be short, but it has a surprising amount of depth and replayability for a game in which you can finish an entire session in less than 10 minutes. Length does not necessary denote depth, and Strange Adventures in Infinite Space is the proof behind this.

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Filed under: Features, Indie

Freeware Friday: Clonk Endeavour

by James Murff Sep 25th 2009 @ 2:00PM

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

Previously mentioned when we found it through an independent review, the Clonk series is a collection of sandbox games that focus around survival and exploitation of the environment. They are quite good, and all except the latest game are available for free through the official site. Clonk Endeavour is the predecessor to the latest title (Clonk Rage) and it's incredible. While it may not be as well known as other freeware independent titles, it certainly deserves to be, and it is a game that you can easily lose your life to. So maybe it's time that it gets the love it deserves.

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Filed under: Features, Indie, Sandbox

Freeware Friday: BaboViolent2

by James Murff Sep 18th 2009 @ 2:00PM

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

There's a threshold that is crossed when an indie game maker or studio goes from making freeware games to retail games. Some call it selling out, while others applaud them and seek to support their fellow indies with some hard-earned cash. With the release of the retail Babo Invasion through Steam, now is a good time to look upon the game that directly preceded it and set the stage for its release. BaboViolent2 is a great multiplayer shooting game, much like Liero or Soldat, but manages to distinguish itself while still retaining a familiar method of play.

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Filed under: Indie, Multiplayer

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