library posts

Deus Ex, an esteemed classic of the first-person-shooter genre, will join Psychonauts and Thief: Deadly Shadows on GameTap's list of free-to-play games next week. Even though it uses the original Unreal engine, Deus Ex has aged surprisingly well. It stands next to System Shock 2 as one of the deepest and most praised shooters in PC gaming.

GameTap offers a vast library of old to semi-recent games, which can be downloaded and played by members. Most of those games are only available to paid subscribers, but every once in a while a good one is made free for a while to promote the service. It used to offer gaming news and other editorial content, but that division was just shut down.

This week, new games available to subscribers include Ducati World Championship, Tortugo Pirates of the New World, and Brian Lara Cricket 2007. Ah, well; they can't be awesome every week.

Monthly-pay-based service GameTap today added three games to its already vast library -- Dracula Twins, Alien Shooter Vengeance, and Dark Matter. Yeah, those don't make us fall out of our chairs from the force of the excitement, either. Well, they could be fun; you never know, right? Correct us if we're missing out!

But here's what's really cool: Egosoft's X2: The Threat has been made available to all users -- even non-subscribers. That means you can play X2 for free. If you don't know it, it's a pretty decent game, so long as you're attracted to the genre (3D space trading ala Wing Commander: Privateer or Freelancer). It's a bit daunting at first but give it a try if it's your sort of thing. Alternatively, you can buy it on Steam for a measly ten bucks.

For the uninitiated: GameTap charges a monthly fee to provide members with unlimited access to an enormous library of classic (and on some occassions, new-ish) PC and console games. It updates its library on Thursdays, hence "GameTap Thursday." Sometimes, as you may have gathered, certain games are available to non-paying members.