survival posts

We can't say we're too surprised about this development, given the Team Fortress 2 team's love of Minecraft. Notch, according to a tweet this morning, is in talks with Valve over the future of Minecraft. As he has expressed desire to bring the excellent construction and survival simulation to Steam, that seems like the obvious choice, but other possible outcomes include licensing the Source engine for a future game or even being absorbed into Valve proper. It's also completely possible that none of these are happening, and Valve simply wanted to talk with Notch because they are huge fans of his work. This association is great news for both Minecraft and Notch, as interaction with Valve will give the Swedish developer even more exposure for his incredible independent title.

Survival games seem to be all the rage in the indie community nowadays, and for good reason. The success of games like Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress show that people really want games that, while without traditional goals, still stimulates them. It pushes players to explore both their environment and their relation to the things around them. Under The Garden is an entry into TIGsource's A Game By Its Cover competition, and it falls squarely into the realm of these pseudo-simulations.

There's no explicit goal in Under The Garden other than "survive," and the game makes this abundantly clear at every opportunity. You must chop wood, shoot rabbits, and rearrange furniture all to keep your stamina up in the harsh wilderness weather. It's an interesting take on the survival genre, especially given the beautiful side-view perspective and excellent sounds. One of the best games from the competition, for sure.

This news is a little late, but we hope you can forgive us. Why is it late, you ask? Well, because we've been addicted to Minecraft's new survival multiplayer. It's been a long-time coming, but Notch's popular survival simulation has finally become multiplayer. Granted, it's only available to people who have pre-ordered the game.

For those that don't know about Minecraft's survival mode, it plays something like a first-person Dwarf Fortress. You gather wood, turn it into planks, smelt iron, make tools, and do all sorts of activities to guarantee your continued survival against hoards of zombies, skeletons, and creepers. Multiplayer is mildly buggy and missing some elements (such as enemies), but if you are looking for something a little deeper than just fooling around in creative mode or playing all by your lonesome, you'll definitely get addicted.

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.

You can never get enough high-intensity zombie blasting action, but we'll have to settle for watching trailers until Left 4 Dead finally releases. This trailer shows what it takes to take on a rush of zombies clamoring to rip you and your team apart, and the firepower it takes to take out a mutant boss. Left 4 Dead will let players team up as a group of survivors against waves of undead, but real players can also take control of the powerful bosses to wreak havoc. The game is currently scheduled to release this November, so players better learn to play together or die alone.

Download Left 4 Dead HD Gameplay Video (255 MB)