Hmmm…maybe I just have a severe case of the Mondays! But do you know what? I think I have a quick cure that can be administered  in 15 minute intervals. That cure, if you haven’t figured it out from the post’s title yet, is Monster Truck Destroyer.

It is a free flash-based app where you can play a monster truck game online. I played it this morning from Shockwave. When you get to the site it will take a moment for the game to load. When it is finished you will see a screen like the one below.

It offers you three menu items. The first is to play the game, followed by your game options and a quick “How to play” tutorial. And when I say quick I mean quick! It just shows you which keys does what.  You can see the “How to play” screen below.

And here is the options screen which allows you to toggle sound effects and music on or off. You can choose the video quality that is displayed from the game and you can also go to a specific board in the game (if you have already beaten the previous ones!)

So as a beginner you will only have the first board enabled for you. You can see which boards are locked by the big red lock on them. Go ahead and click on the first board and let’s begin.

You can also unlock other big monster trucks. The first few boards you play, you will only have access to the first monster truck.

Go ahead and click on it to continue.

Now that we have selected our board and truck, we can begin. Here we go with level one. Remember the up arrow makes you go faster, the down arrow makes you brake, the left and right arrows make you lean left or right, respectively.

You can see the beginning of the first board below:

Unlike some other games in Monster Truck Destroyer you want to hit the bombs and collect points. You also get points for destroying, smashing and making things go kablooey!

When you hit the end of the board you will see a black and white checkered flag and then the game will tally up your score.

To save your points and tokens you will need to create a Shockwave account. If you are like me and hate setting up accounts you can easily not use one or use a BugMeNot account as I do.

You will find each board getting increasingly difficult. There will be more things to destroy, you will find things like school buses to destroy and loop-de-loops. This is a fast paced action game and it is very fun to play.

Let us know what your high scores are and if you have any tips or tricks for our soon to be addicted Monster Truck Destroyer players!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

• (14)3 Funny Flash Games That Make Fun Of The Gaming Industry
• (11)3 Brilliant Freeware Platformer Games You Should Try Out
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (7)Top 5 Sites With Scary Stuff That Makes You Jump
• (15)The FarmVille Facebook Game Craze – Easy & Fun

If you do not know if the application is compatible with your particular Blackberry you can simply click through to the download page. On the right hand side, if you scroll down a little, there will be Supported Devices, Countries and Carriers (most of them are for carrier!)

The first application up is free for only a limited time and is called Ka-Glom. Ka-Glom is one of many games that evolved from Tetris and that Mario game that kind of resembled Tetris. Your goal here is to match up falling objects of a specific color to other objects that are the same color. Match three or more and they will go Ka-Glom and you get the points.

The way it stands out from other similar free blackberry games is that it also has blobs that fall. And when enough blobs are on top of one another they will go kabloooie! They will also take any objects that are directly next to them with it!

This one is worth hours of fun. Grab it white it is still free from this URL.

Next up is a little tidbit called Vegas Pool Shark Lite. Here you are in Vegas hustling (or getting hustled) playing pool. You can line up your shots and make your high school physics teacher proud. There are four different opponents, three game types, full 3D viewing and for the beginners there is Shooting Assistance. In this free version we are able to score up to three points and then you can start again – still very cool for a free time waster.

The download link is available here.

Pixilated is highly addictive and probably my favorite out of the bunch. The object of Pixilated is to make the entire screen (which is made up of colored pixels hence the name) one solid color. It takes some getting used to so you can get the hang of it. But once you do watch out – because you will not let your spouse pull you away from it . Or maybe that is just me! The link to download it is here.

Next up is another puzzle type game called Cube Touch which can also be addictive. It is a clone of Bejeweled which I am sure you all know.You have to match 3 or more colored “cubes” up and down or across. The same rules apply which you can see below:

Here is the URL to grab this one.

And last but certainly not least, Sudoku Puzzles Lite will keep you busy for hours. The popular word game is now on your Blackberry for free. And with it comes 10 puzzles at each difficulty level, timer, save feature, clear all feature and much more. The only difference that I saw between the lite and full version is the amount of puzzles included. The full version has 100 games for each difficulty level. But this should be good enough to keep you going for some time.  Grab it from here.

What free Blackberry games do you have installed on your Blackberry?  Let us know all your hidden classics in the comments below.

• (33)Top 3 Sites To Download Windows Mobile 6 Freeware
• (11)5 Best Websites For Free Windows Mobile Software
• (5)5 Best Addictive Free Multiplayer Android Games
• (61)10 Websites For Free Mobile Phone Ringtones & Other Mobile Downloads
• (10)What Is Bluetooth? [Technology Explained]

The absolute best place to find free games is on Facebook. You have access to many different card games from a variety of game distributors, and you can strike up some healthy competition amongst your Facebook pals.  Plus, you can bookmark all of these free card game sites and have easy access to them whenever you are bored.

The best Facebook card game of all is definitely GameHouse’s Uno.  I loved Uno as a kid playing in the neighborhood, and I love playing it at parties and while camping. But, sadly, how often do we REALLY get to play a good few hands of Uno?

In this ubertastic Facebook version, you play real live people OR you can start a game with some Facebook friends by meeting them in a virtual lobby.  The graphics are really bright, and you can earn tokens and send gifts to other players at the table.

On Facebook, Mindjolt has the best variety of card games.  One fantabulous game is their version of Three Tower Solitaire. While the graphics are a little chintzy, the game is quick to load and easy to play.  If you need a quick fix, it is definitely worth the real estate in your bookmark bar.

Another slightly simplistic game, MindJolt’s Pyramid Solitaire, is a lot of fun.  It gives you all sorts of stats on how you rank against your friends, and you can choose whether or not to notify them if you have kicked their score to the curb.

GameArena is another Facebook distributor and offers up the popular Scarab Solitaire game.  The graphics aren’t too bad for a simple game. The online (non-Facebook) site is called DiceArena and requires registration, so I prefer to stick with the Facebook version.

So what about our non-Facebooking fans?  Never fear, there are free card game sites out there for you, too!  I am weary of ones that require registration, so this is a round up of games that you can play without having to sign up and get bombarded with daily spam.

For non-Facebook games, MindJolt takes the prize.  All of the beloved Facebook card games are also available on their website.  What is most wonderful is that you can play without having to create an account.  They have scored and non-scored games, too.  Really, it is my number one hotspot for entertainment.

You might never leave MindJolt, but if you do, head over to GameHouse.  They, too, offer the same games on their site as they do on Facebook.  They also offer some other games that I truly love.

Games.com has an excellent selection of games, but the best, by far, is Jewel Quest Solitaire.  I love the graphics, but it is also a refreshing twist on a very common game.

First, you play and win a round of Solitaire, and then you play a small version of Jewel Quest.  It is different than other Solitaire games because you are really playing two great games at once.

Shockwave also has a terrific assortments of games.  One favorite is the addictive Card Quest game.  It is both a card game and a brain teaser, and it really makes good use of idle time!  Like Jewel Quest, this game offers a spin from the ho-hum life of Solitaire.  You work on different quests as you progress through the game.

Shockwave also offers up one of my all time favorite games: Fashion Solitaire.  It is like Barbies for grown-ups.  You dress up models according to goals and then they go off to star on the catwalk.  Since I have no fashion sense, it makes me happy to inflict this pain on virtual models.  It is a great game for kids, too. It helps them match patterns and colors.

Playing at free card game sites can be a hoot.

What are your favorite card game sites?  Please share them in the comments below!!

• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (7)Top 5 Sites With Scary Stuff That Makes You Jump
• (15)The FarmVille Facebook Game Craze – Easy & Fun
• (2)Destroy Some Free Time With Monster Truck Destroyer
• (14)3 Funny Flash Games That Make Fun Of The Gaming Industry

All you need to accomplish your fitness goals is your Nintendo Wii Fit. 22.5 million copies have sold since December, so now’s the time to put it to good use.

In this article I am going to cover the top Wii Fitness games you can use to get in shape without leaving your house. Again, I know what you’re thinking – MakeUseOf only covers free software and tech. Well, we’ve decided that when it comes to your health, it doesn’t hurt to explore all of your options, so we’ll let it slide this one time.

Recommended Wii Fitness Games

When you buy a Wii Fit, it comes stocked with a balance board and various strength training, aerobics, yoga, and balance games. While these exercises can be effective, they aren’t all that fun to do, at least in comparison to some of the games that have come out since.

If you’re going to go all out to get into shape you might as well have a little fun, right? The following games are a few of the more popular Wii fitness titles out right now. They aren’t in any particular order.

Wii Fit Plus

If you liked the games that came with Wii Fit but wanted a little extra, Wii Fit Plus might be for you. The Wii Fit Plus has over 20 new games for you to play, and includes a calorie burning counter, ability to create custom workouts, profile creation, and quicker navigation than its counterpart.

If you already own a Wii Fit, you can purchase the Wii Fit Plus game by itself to serve as an upgrade. If you don’t, you can buy the Wii Fit Plus bundled with a balance board.

The Biggest Loser

Whether you are familiar with the TV show or not (one of my favorites), The Biggest Loser video game is a fun way for players to get in shape and maintain their ideal fitness. Like the TV show, the game is set at The Biggest Loser ranch.

Settings allow you to compete in 4, 8, or 12 week programs against former contestants from the show. Your progress and schedule is kept on a calendar for you. If you want to see who can lose the most weight between you and your friends, you can compete that way as well.

The game allows you to keep track of in-game achievements and even allows you to receive credit for progress made outside of the game, like walking, running, cycling, etc. You do have to enter in outside progress on your own, however, so remember to write down your achievements during your daily workouts.

The Biggest Loser also features a lot of suggestions and tips from former contestants and trainers in the game. These healthy tips include 50 recipes straight out of The Biggest Loser book that you can follow.

EA Sports Active: More Workouts

The successor to EA Sports Active, EA Sports Active: More Workouts has, like the title implies, more workouts for you to follow (35 to be exact). These exercises allow you to customize your routines to target different areas of your body, like upper body, lower body, and cardio.

If you don’t want to focus in on one area of your body, you can try one of the full body circuit routines. It also has warm-weather activities for you to try like water-skiing and paddle surfing.

The game features a 6 week challenge of core exercises, including abs, curl ups, and crunch and punches. It has a warm up/cool down feature as well as an in-game journal for you to record your progress.

Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2010

Jillian Michaels, trainer from The Biggest Loser (see above game), is one of the more intense trainers out there. Her fitness game, which is a sequel to the 2009 title, is pretty intense too. In the game, Jillian coaches and trains you for up to six months, giving you custom routines to work on in a one-on-one style session.

When playing this game, you will participate in a boot camp setting that is packed with energetic workout modes and 16 core exercises for you to follow. Included are cardio training, strength training, and balance training superset routines.

You can tailor your workouts to your specific abilities by adjusting the difficulty settings. Jillian gives you feedback while you’re working out so you can see if you are doing the workouts correctly or not. If you want to (I don’t know why you wouldn’t), you can work out on tropical beaches or in exotic jungles.

Don’t want to train with Jillian alone? Challenge family and friends in multi-player competitions.

My Fitness Coach

In My Fitness Coach, you get to work out with a virtual personal trainer named Maya. The game is designed to fit your personal goals. It tests your fitness level, sets your goals in the form of a calendar, and takes you through workouts that allow you to build routines.

There are over 500 unique exercises in this game, including yoga, pilates, kickboxing, cardio fitness, strength training, flexibility, and weight loss routines. You can choose which areas you want to work on if you have a particular need.

If you don’t know how to do one of the workouts in the game you can pause it and view a tutorial. You can workout in 9 different environments and customize the game’s music to your liking. You have 4 types to choose from: hip hop, 80’s, Latin, and dance.

Conclusion

The number one thing you need to get in shape is determination and focus. OK, that’s two things, but you need to set goals for yourself and stick to them if you want to reach your ideal fitness level. Be committed! Get motivated! Perhaps making a game out of it will help you get going. Put your Nintendo Wii to some good use, and above all, have fun!

Did you find this article useful? Is your favorite game not on the list? Let me hear it in the comment section below!

• (8)Three Motivational Websites That Help You Stay Physically Fit
• (15)SparkPeople – Free Online Health & Weight-loss Community
• (23)OneHundredPushups – A Geeky Pushup Workout Program to Get In Shape
• (9)How To Use RunKeeper To Set Exercise Goals [iPhone]
• (8)Top 3 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Walkthroughs

I first discovered the original bubble shooter game when I was writing a niche analysis on the gaming industry. At one of the free online game sites, I was curious, so I tried a few – and one of those was the bubble shooter game.

I was hooked every since. Today I’m going to cover the top 5 offshoots of the original Bubble Shooter game.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that quickly became addicted to the game. Online game developers went on to produce numerous offshoots of the original game. We’ve covered a lot about bubbles lately here at MakeUseOf. Karl showed you how to create bubble letters and he also showed you how to make bubble words, but today I’m going to show you a whole other use for bubbles – popping them!

#1 – Can’t Beat the Original Bubble Shooter Game

On any of the websites dedicated to bubble shooter games, you’ll find an honorary status for the original game that started it all. However, if you want to play the original, you should really go to the website of the game creators over at Bshooter. There, you’ll find both a free online version and a free download version of the famous, classic bubble shooter game.

The goal of the game is deceivingly simple. Just shoot the bubble alongside three or more similar touching bubbles of the same color and voila – they all pop and disappear. Manage to pop enough bubbles so that you cut off an entire section – and all of the bubbles underneath will pop as well. What’s the catch? Well, as you play the entire field of bubbles drips closer to the bottom, shrinking your available playing space (unless you can keep up). To say that this game is addictive just doesn’t describe how completely this game will erase several hours of your life and you won’t even notice.

#2 – Shields of Gemland

Shields of Gemland is a game offered by King.com, which puts a whole new twist on the bubble shooter genre. Instead of just an action-based arcade game, the makers of Shields of Gemland attempted to add a little bit of a plot to this particular game. By advancing through each level, you collect another gem and advance through the map to the next point in the game.

This game is really fast paced and fun. The cannon has a cool little recoil action going on, and as you advance through the levels, different objects start falling that can either hurt you or help you. There are also shielded bubbles that you can’t pop – the only way to get rid of those is to pop the bubbles above it. This bubble shooter takes a bit more strategy and planning.

#3 – Woobies

I think Woobies is a cute game, but it’s also a bit disturbing a the same time. Essentially, you’re in control of a slingshot. You catapult these little buggers (they’re essentially furballs with a set of eyes) into the crowd of Woobies and if you match up the color with 3 or more, they all explode in a mess of feathers (not sure how the PITA folks would feel about this game though.)

The graphics are great, the sound effects are fun, and there something really funny about the expressions on these little guy’s faces as you aim and shoot other Woobies at the crowd. Clear the entire field before the huge press pushes all of the Woobies into the ground, and you’ll advance to the next level (where there are even more colored Woobies to deal with).

#4 – Jungle Shooter

Another very popular bubble shooter game is one called Jungle Shooter.  Jungle Shooter is one of those games that you can tell is well programmed. The graphics are superior to most online games, the gameplay is fluid and fast-paced, and the music and sound effects really make the game a blast to play.

As the jungle boy aims the cannon, the jungle girl holds the next fruit that will be loaded so that you can see what’s coming next. Like Shields of Gemland, this game provides a navigation screen that you work through as you advance in level with your sharpshooting skills.

As you collect more fruit and advance through the levels, more of these locations are unlocked for you to explore and advance even further. This game is great fun, and a wonderful time-waster!

#5 – Bubble Struggle

Yet another great game based at least subtly on the original bubble shooter game is an addictive game called Bubble Struggle. This game is a bit different because you don’t start off with a ceiling filled with bubbles. Instead, you start out with one or two large bubbles (at least in the early levels), and then as you shoot them, they divide into smaller bouncing bubbles. Once you split all of them into the smallest sizes, then you can pop them with one more hit.

As the bubbles bounce around, you not only have to worry about timing your shot right in order to hit them, but you also have to dodge the bounce. If any of the bouncing bubbles hit you, you’ll hear a “smack!” sound, and your character will go flying to the ground.

These are only a few examples of my favorite bubble shooter games, but there are a lot of additional ones out there. Some are better than others, but one thing is for certain – bubble shooting games have become one of the most popular online pastimes in the world. So why don’t you give it a shot? Do you know of any other fun shooter games like these? Share your input in the comments section below.

• (2)Raft Wars – A Fun Pirate Turn-Based Online Shooter Time-Waster
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (16)3 Free Cross-Platform Multishooter Games That Resemble Worms 2
• (11)3 Brilliant Freeware Platformer Games You Should Try Out
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game

Last month, the admittedly outdated Steam application got a replacement. That’s to say, a first beta version went online. Steam has chosen for a public, opt-in beta; which means everyone can, but no one has to join.

What does the new Steam have in store for us? That’s what we’re taking a look at today. We won’t highlight the whole change log, but will focus on the three most prominent overhauls: games library, in-game overhaul and downloads.

Steam Games – The Next Generation

For those of you new to Steam, here’s a quick feature overview. Steam was developed by Valve Corporation, the same guys behind Half Life, Counterstrike and more recently, Left4Dead. There are three wholly different Steam ‘perspectives’.

Build as a content distribution system, Steam is the front-end of the Steam Games Store, and allows you to buy games online, and download them to your computer. Because these games are purchased with your Steam account, you can just download them again by logging in on another computer, never fearing to lose your precious optical media. Since 2003, several other game publishers have jumped on the bandwagon, and now offer their catalogues as well, including EA Games, THQ, Ubisoft, and practically all the other big guys. Steam is also famous for their promotion of indie games, and regular promotions and discounts.

As a game library, manages all your games bought from the Steam Stores, as well as any demos and trailers you downloaded in the application. For those looking for a library management application, Steam also allows you to add games that weren’t bought from the Steam Store, or even online, and link them to your account with the serial code.

From the start, Steam has tried to focus around social and multiplayer gaming. You can use the application, to connect with friends, compete in the leader boards, gain achievements, and see who’s playing what at any given moment – even join in in the very same ‘room’. While gaming, you can connect with your friends via hot keys and an in-game overlay.

As can be seen above, the look of Steam got a major upgrade. The fonts are crisper and larger, and although the new placing takes a little getting used to, it feels a lot more organized. But the user interface got several prominent improvements as well.

Steam Games Library Overhaul

The library – where you view your games – got the biggest mojo boost. It has become prettier, more relevant, and – most importantly – a lot easier to organize. Although you can view your games in list and grid views, the real interesting stuff surfaces in the details view.

After selecting your game in the left column, the rest of the screen will fill up with relevant data. Follow your achievements process, and connect with friends. You can see which of your friends own, or are playing the game at the moment, and join in. An important addition is the news feed, showing you the latest news stories about your game from a collection of games news sites.

Steam used to give you quite a sloppy library, once you collected enough games. With the new category function, you can organize your library to show only a few specific games at the time, like ‘2010 Mayhem’, ‘Online Shooters’, or ‘Currently Playing’.

In-Game Steam Overlay

By using a hot key, you can call up an in-game overlay in steam games. This used to just show you your friends and a chat window, but now includes a full-fledged gaming dashboard.

You can view your friends, what they’re playing, and initiate an in-game chat by clicking on them. Next to this, you’ve got the news feed for the game you’re playing and an achievement overview. Click the view all achievements button to see all available, and start achievement hunting.

Download Mayhem

Downloads used to be completely contained in the standard library view, nothing more than a percentage subtext. Now your game, demos and trailer downloads get the attention they deserve.

You get a detailed overview for every download, with the average download speed, progress, and estimated time remaining displayed. Once you’re game is downloaded, hit the play button to go for a test run. Some of the other features are available even when the game is still downloading, like game details and the news feed.

Opting For The New Steam Beta

Did you like what you saw? Upgrading to the new Steam beta is relatively easy, and completely priceless. Here’s what you need to do.

• First, make sure you’ve got Steam installed. If you didn’t have it previous to this article, download it now.
• Either navigate to the Steam Settings pane manually, or click here.



• Under Beta participation, click on Change… and select the Beta.

Steam will now restart and start updating. The download is rather small and shouldn’t take long, you’ll be good to go in a few minutes tops. If you ever get tired of the new Beta, or are troubled by (a) bug(s), you can revert without much trouble.

What is your opinion on the beta, or on Steam? Tell us what you think in the comments section below!

• (7)Stella – A Cross Platform Atari 2600 Emulator
• (6)Playfire – A Social Community For The Addicted Gamer
• (4)Gamer Trick: The Automatic Mouse Clicker For Games
• (13)3 Tools to Discover & Install Awesome Linux Games
• (12)Your Guide To Ubuntu Repositories and Package Management

That said, there are actually quite a few free multiplayer games out there for the Android that are nothing short of addictive and amazing – they’re just hard to find.

In preparation for this article I was doing some research online to see if there were any multiplayer apps I hadn’t come across, and I kept seeing Cestos, Gang Wars, and Parallel Kingdom. Not that these aren’t great games, but because I’ve seen them so much in reviews, I’m only going to mention Cestos in this article (because yes, I’m addicted). Keep that in mind while reading – I’m trying to hit on a few of the best Android games that may be new to you.

Project INF Beta

This is one of the best Android shooter games I’ve seen for Android, so you can imagine my surprise that not many Android users seem to know about it. Project INF is one of the few free multiplayer games that I play on a regular basis that I feel like I should be paying for.

ChickenBrickStudios has done a great job developing Project INF without making it unrealistic to play on a handheld device. So often handheld games have some of the worst, most painful control configurations known to man, but Project INF’s controls are relatively seamless and I found them very intuitive.

Don’t be put off by the seemingly slow pace that the game seems to have – it’s completely different when the game is in your hands. I personally am grateful that it isn’t any more fast paced because otherwise, there would be 3-4 person games rather than 16-20 person deathmatches. Right now, Project INF lets players compete in deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag events.

You can choose to be a Scout, Marine, or Brute, each class with a distinct skill or advantage that gives it an edge in a certain area. There’s also not really a “best class” in Project INF – just pick the one that fits your style, and customize the rest. Every other time that your character levels up (from kills, flag captures, etc) you are able to pick an aspect of the character to upgrade. This means that your level 30 Scout may be specialized for something else than your friend’s level 30 Scout.

In addition, as you progress you will gain money and have the ability to buy class specific items – whether they be shields that affect certain statistics, or different potions to help you out in a pinch, you’ll want to put your money to good use.

I have one last thing to mention about Project INF: it’s relatively well balanced between levels. Don’t feel intimidated if you’re a level 1 on a map full of level 30+ characters – at level 5 I was routinely killing people more than 20 levels above me. Get comfortable with your character and class, and just have some fun. Besides, you gain levels quickly up until around level 15, so you’ll get competitive pretty quickly.

What are you waiting for? Get Project INF, make an awesome screenname, and enjoy one of the best multiplayer Android games you’ve ever played!

Cestos

Learning this highly addictive game is extremely easy – if it takes you more than 30 seconds to get the hang of things, you’re trying too hard. All players on the map start out with a number of balls, and the object of the game is to knock other people’s balls into pits or hazards – the last man standing wins.

The interesting thing about this game is that turns are done simultaneously; you pick a direction and magnitude for the path of each of your balls, and then double tap to wait for the other player. After both of you have made decisions on where the balls will be headed, they will simultaneously go where you told them to go, leaving mines in their previous locations. ChickenBrickStudios (yeah, the same ones that made Project INF) have a decent set of screenshots that do a good job of explaining the game.

In addition to just the game, there’s actually a community where you can add friends, chat, view your statistics – all that fun stuff you like to see in games.

The cool thing about this style of play is that it’s based on how well you can predict your opponent’s moves – it keeps things interesting and prevents Cestos from becoming another game where a single strategy dominates. In addition, as you play Cestos you will level up and gain different tweaks and mods for your balls (I’m starting to sound creepy here). Mind you, the perks you get are not quite at the level of a game like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, but hey they don’t hurt!

Since Cestos is free, and everyone takes the occasional bathroom break, I would recommend you get on the Android market and download this game now.

What the Doodle Lite (Also see Sketch Online)

This game is nothing short of addictive. Join a room with several contestants, and take turns drawing the words that you are given. It’s essentially Pictionary for your Android device – without the paper of course. You may also have heard about Sketch Online, which is almost the exact same game.

I figured I would mention WTD because I like it more – the people that play it in general are nicer in my experience. Sketch seemed to have a lot of mouthy kids that didn’t really add to the fun of the game. Even though I like What the Doodle, feel free to try Sketch Online out as well – since they’re both free what have you got to lose? (other than your self esteem, but we won’t go there…)

HomeRun Battle 3D Free

Get the free version of this addictive arcade style home run derby-style game on your Android from the Android market. Home Run Battle 3D has some of the most impressive (‘Wii-like’) graphics that I’ve ever seen on an Android yet, and even utilized the accelerometer in your Android device to make gameplay more fun and engaging. The game can get repetitive just playing by yourself, so go online and battle other users on other platforms (yes, iPhone users) to see who can knock the most over the fence.

Here’s a quick summary video of HomeRun Battle 3D that sums the game up better than a few sentences will. By the way; graphics like this don’t come cheap–this thing’s filesize is huge for a standard Android game (22MB).

2 Player Reactor

I should warn you – this game isn’t true multiplayer, because it doesn’t play online. Rather, you and a friend share your Android for this one. The concept of the game is extremely simple – the first one to react to whatever’s in the middle of the screen gets a point. The stimuli vary – sometimes you’re waiting for three matching images in the middle, other times you are supposed to react to the first true statement, etc.

As you can see on the product summary, people love this game – there’s no reason why you won’t. I have this one in my arsenal because you never know when you and a friend will be bored – and since he doesn’t have an Android phone you can’t play any of the other games mentioned! Don’t panic, just get 2 player Reactor and see who’s fastest. Although the video is of 4-player reactor, you shouldn’t have any problem envisioning 2 player.

EXTRA: Quake III (Kwaak3)

Quake III on an Android? Hell yeah! When I heard the news that someone had ported Q3 to the Android, I had to check it out. You already know what the game is – Quake helped make FPS’s on the PC what they are today. What you’re PROBABLY wondering is why I mentioned it in an article about multiplayer Android games.

It turns out that the (blessed) developer that ported the game over to Android has actually tried it on his home network and stated that Quake III ran multiplayer with his home PC just fine! This means that (fingers crossed here) you’ll be able to do the same with your Android 1.6+ device! Say hello to Android-powered Quake III LAN parties.

I don’t want to bore you with details – just check out the video. AndroidandMe has a really good summary article of the entire story, so go read that for more information. All you really need to know is that the game runs at a decent speed (around 26fps on the Droid/Milestone), has multiplayer and single player, and cannot be downloaded on the Android marketplace, so don’t bother looking. Rather, check out the developer’s page and scroll down to “installation” for the required file and a short list of easy instructions. That’s it – enjoy Quake on your device! It ran flawlessly on my Droid and multiplayer went without a hitch as well – let me know in the comments section if you get it working too!

What’d you think of the list of best Android games mentioned here? My focus here was on games that are not hampered by their “Lite” status which sifted out a few games that could be extremely fun multiplayer, but don’t really offer the gamer many features in the ‘lite’ edition. Hopefully you hadn’t heard of one or two of the games I mentioned in this article, and found a game that you really enjoyed (and for such a good price, too!).

So, what’d I miss? Let me know which multiplayer games you play the most on your Android phone!

• (33)Top 3 Sites To Download Windows Mobile 6 Freeware
• (15)The 5 Games You Should Be Installing On Your Android Mobile Phone
• (9)Mobile Defense – A Free Mobile Phone Tracking System [Android]
• (12)Map Your Adventures With a Free GPS Mobile Tracker for Android
• (15)How To Capture Screenshots With Your Android Mobile Phone

I try to cover a game once or twice a month. The last one was Raft Wars which you can read about here. Today I came across a silly game that reminded me of them with a new school twist. I found the free online role playing game by chance on a site called Flash-Game.

When you arrive at the game you will see this screen. You can get to know the characters, enter cheat mode or select Scenes. But that’s not fun is it? Let’s start the game by pressing Start in the bottom left hand corner.

You will get a brief synopsis of what is going down and the basics to what you will be trying to do. It’s like real life but a simulation with choices. You want to be rich, popular and smart…go luck!

When you are first thrown into the free online role playing game you will see the screen below. You can click on any of the buildings to attempt to go into them. You start off with one hundred dollars and can grab another ten by reading your mail at home. From trial and error you will learn that the school is off limits to you until you find a school pass. The club and the night store (24h) are closed.

You continue entering buildings until you arrive at the coffee shop. The barman tells you that a man at the corner table wants to speak with you. You click on the silhouette of the dude to chat with him. This initiates the conversation and we go to a cut screen with a dude’s picture and what he wants from your life.

Ah apparently Frank wants you to give some flowers (available at the store for 25 bucks!! Expensive!) to a girl near the school. Remember that she is NEAR the school and not in it. That killed a few minutes for me and will be the last hint you get from me!

Following Frank’s advice I went to the store and bought some flowers. Pretty plain for twenty five bucks if you ask me though!

I took them over to the girl in front of the school, clicked on her and gave her the flowers. Then, as expected she gives you the pass you need to get into the school. Travel to the school by clicking on it and now you will be allowed in.

Ah here we are at school where we can study and work out. These will bring our levels up which are all sitting at a big fat zero as of now.

I think that is all the introduction you need to become helplessly addicted to this free online role playing game until you are the cool cat at the club and have a great paying job. Good luck with that – in the game and your real life!

We would love to hear if you have other games for us that are free and online! Link us to them in the comments kiddies!

• (8)Xiah Rebirth – Martial Arts Themed MMORPG
• (17)Top 5 Most Exciting Bubble Shooter Games
• (5)Top 2 Free Online Adventure Single Player RPG Games
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (24)Play-By-Mail: Play Fun Games via Email Casually

You can check it out. This game is called Raft Wars and you an play it here.

Once you get to the Raft Wars site, you can click on ‘Play’ to start. They will give you a quick intro and a little tutorial.

I won’t spoil it for you by showing you the screen that made me laugh. But here you are — a little baby on the beach.

You find gold and diamonds. And even a baby can be corrupted by greed and money, so here is how the shooter game starts.

Pirates hear about your find and try to take it from you.

Protect your treasure by aiming and firing. You can hit the pirates directly or have the ball ricochet off the mast and hit them in the back of the head. Either which way you have a Par of 6. So beat them in under 6 shots for a good bonus… Arrrr

You are babies so it doesn’t make much sense why they don’t just walk over and throw your land-loving butt into the water but putting that aside, let’s kick some pirate ass!

Move the mouse to aim and click (left click) to fire. When you make contact, the pirate’s life meter will deteriorate.

Once both opponents are done, you can continue on as you have won the battle. Depending on how many shots it took you to win and how good of a shot you were, you get extra bonus points.

The bonus points can be saved up and used at any board’s end or you can buy yourself a grenade with 300 points or a rocket with 500 points. it is your call. You could hold out for an upgrade to your raft as well for 1500 points.

Click done when you are finished and we will move on to the next board. Ah, they appear to be Vikings this time around. No more Arrrr’s and instead we replace them with Yah’s!

Start firing again and take out the offending Vikings! Sheesh can’t anyone leave these poor kids alone? And where are their parents anyways??

This board has 3 Vikings and I guess it will increase with each board. On my first shot, I hit the guy closest to me and made him bang into the one behind him. That killed the first dude – I mean Viking – and damaged the second one as you can see in the screen shot above.

It took me 8 shots to do the three of them in and it cost me my little friend’s life. Luckily he was right back by my side in the next round though… And my time is up… Crap 2 hours, late. My bad!

Do you have any good free flash shooter games online? Come on share them with the group in the comments.

• (17)Top 5 Most Exciting Bubble Shooter Games
• (6)The 4 Retro Gaming Classics & Their Modern Counterparts
• (9)I’m In Like With You – Online Multiplayer Gaming Site
• (102)How To Download and Play Flash Games Offline
• (10)Destroy Zombies 3 – Awesome Online Zombie Shooting Game

As a frequent MW player, I often come across people who have ridiculous stats on their accounts (e.g. 1 quadrillion dollars and on level 600+). When I see stats like that I ask, “How are these people doing this?” Surely they couldn’t be playing the game 24 hours a day, at least not all of them anyway. But if they aren’t playing non-stop then how are they doing so well? It’s simple, they cheat.

In this article, I will be discussing some of the Facebook Mafia Wars tips, tricks, and cheats that the top players use to dominate Mafia Wars. You can use these methods to level up quickly, build up your stats, and in some cases put your account on autopilot.

Note: MakeUseOf does not condone cheating and is not responsible if (for some reason) Zynga decides to ban your account. As far as I know, there are no legitimate “cheat codes” for Mafia Wars, so some of those provided are—for lack of a better word—hacks. In my opinion, as long as you aren’t greedy you are at low risk.

General Facebook Mafia Wars Tips & Strategies

First, before playing any game I feel it is pertinent to study up and become familiar with the game’s settings, gameplay, and terminology. In Mafia Wars’ case, there exists a wiki.

The Mafia Wars Wiki is a large site consisting of all the knowledge one could wish to gain in MW. Quite simply, if it isn’t listed in the wiki, it probably doesn’t exist in the game.

Use the wiki to learn what the strongest weapons are, where to find them, what you need to complete certain jobs, etc.

Grow Your Mafia

Mafia Wars currently limits your mafia to a maximum of 500. In the game, the more members you have the easier it is to win fights, so it is important that you grow your mafia. Since your mafia is mostly made up of your Facebook friends, it’s best to try to get more of them to participate. If not, you can always find people to add or you can purchase extra mafia members with your reward points.

Energy Is Key

One stat you want to make sure to upgrade more than anything else is Energy. The more Energy you have the more jobs you can complete. The more jobs you can complete the faster you will gain Experience (Exp). The faster you gain Experience the quicker you can level up.

Fight Somebody

To fight people you need Stamina. Stamina is probably the second most important stat to level up, at least in the beginning. While most jobs require several Energy to complete, you only need 1 Stamina to fight somebody. After you use up all of your Energy and are waiting for it to refill you may as well fight to gain Exp. You can also find some cool items and weapons this way.

When fighting, however, you are more likely to get attacked back in retaliation or even killed, so when you aren’t leveling up Energy you should be increasing your Stamina, Health, Attack, and Defense sparingly.

Prey On The Weak

Just like in real life, when fighting, it is easiest to fight somebody way weaker than you. After all, you are using a Stamina to fight, so why risk losing? The easiest way to accomplish this is to fight someone whose mafia size is half that of yours. For example, my mafia size is currently 48, so I stick to fighting people with a mafia size of 20 or less. I win 99% of my fights this way.

If you level up your Attack more often you don’t need to follow this technique, but why would you be doing that when I already told you Energy is the way to go?

Take Your Money To The Bank

When you’re first starting out in Mafia Wars money is crucial. I keep in the habit of depositing my money every time I have more than $50,000. I do this because when you get attacked by somebody you can lose up to $65,000 each time they win a fight against you. Keeping your on-hand cash to a minimum helps keep robbery to a minimum.

Control MW Like A Boss

Here comes the fun stuff—the not-so-general tips and tricks. If you want to put the above advice into motion effectively (and mostly automatically) then you can check out userscripts.

Note: In order to use scripts from userscripts.org you must have Greasemonkey installed. Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox and can be found here.

Mafia Wars Autoplayer

The infamous Mafia Wars Autoplayer (MWAP) has been installed over 485,000 times and is highly effective at automating your gameplay.

Once installed, you will see MWAP (and the version number) at the top right of your MW screen, along with Pause/Resume, Settings, and Log buttons. On the Settings screen there are a lot of options for you to toy around with. Here are some tips for optimizing your settings:

Settings: Autostat Tab

Check the box to enable auto-stat. Now this page might look a bit confusing, but it’s really quite simple. The way I use it is whatever I want to upgrade (like Energy) I set that field to a number other than zero (e.g. Energy = 5 x Level + 0). This will make the MWAP use skill points automatically to upgrade the areas you choose.

You can play around with the ratios to get everything perfect if you like, but I find this method easiest because I generally change the settings manually every day or so anyway. Most of the time I just leave it on Energy.

Settings: Energy Tab

Check the box at the top that says ‘Spend energy to perform any combination of jobs’. Also check ‘Optimize at end level’. Then set your ‘Master tier’ to whatever tier you are currently working on. MWAP will use your Energy to do jobs in the selected tier.

I like to set my tier to one that is higher than what I am currently working on. The jobs in the upper tiers give you more Exp upon completion, allowing you to level up more quickly. When MWAP is paused I use an Energy Pack and complete the lower tiers I was working on.

Settings: Stamina Tab

Check the box ‘Spend stamina to fight random opponents’. Set ‘Maximum level’ to 2 and check ‘Add my level’. This means you won’t fight anyone that is more than 2 levels ahead of you (you can’t in most versions of the game anyway).

Also check the ‘Add my mafia size’ box and list a negative number for ‘Maximum mafia’. In my case I have 48 mafia so I set the box to -28. That way MWAP will only fight those that have 1-20 mafia members (see Prey on the Weak section above).

Update MWAP

It is very important that you check for updates to MWAP frequently as there is usually at least one update every day. If you fail to update the script, chances are it will not work after a little while.

Conclusion

If you weren’t a Mafia Wars expert before reading this post I suspect you will be one quite soon. One of the things that make a game like MW so fun is that it’s a numbers game, and when you start to see high numbers you feel as though you have accomplished a great deal because you know how long it took to get to that point. Use these tips and you will achieve your goals in the game.

Did I forget to mention any great tips, tricks, or cheats? If you have any awesome secrets to share, along with your thoughts, ideas, praises, etc. please leave a comment below!

• (36)The Top Five Idle Time Facebook Games
• (15)The FarmVille Facebook Game Craze – Easy & Fun
• (4)Gamer Trick: The Automatic Mouse Clicker For Games
• (40)Five Places To Play Risk Online
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game

The legacy of the arcade has become a romanticized vision left only in the minds of those who lived it and preserved in movies and music from the heyday of such places. Songs like “PacMan Fever” remind us of how much arcades meant to their patrons.

Arcade games are different from other old games because most arcade cabinets had hardware designed specifically for the game. The NES in comparison had the hardware in the console and the cartridges held Read Only Memory which would tell the console what to do and display for the game. This makes emulation easier for such systems.

Diligent programmers would not be hindered by such things though. There is a free, open source emulator for old arcade games available called the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, commonly shortened to MAME.

You can get MAME here. Just click on “Latest Releases” then download the Windows binary for your system, either 64 bit or 32 bit. After the download completes, start the executable and select the directory where you want the files to be extracted. The prompt should look like this.

When that completes, you’re ready to start using MAME, but first, you need to download some ROMs to play.

There an many places to get ROMs, my favorite is ROM World. After you have gone through the list of games they have there and have downloaded your favorites, move them into the “roms” folder in your MAME extraction like so.

Remember not to unzip them, just leave them as they are.

Next, double click on the “mameapp” for 32-bit or “vmame64” for 64-bit in the MAME extraction.  The following dialog should pop up.

Note, if the lower part of the prompt is red when a game is highlighted, then there is a good chance that the ROM may not work because the developer has not finished it. If it is green, then you’re likely good to go.  Go to the old arcade game you want to play and press enter.

The game might take a second to start up because you are now emulating the cabinet’s hardware and it is acting as if it is starting for the first time or so. The screen may also flash with some strange messages or images, just let it do its thing until you get to the game’s splash screen.

Now you are ready to play. Press F5 to add a credit (like inserting a coin into a real machine) and press the 1 key for one player mode. The arrow keys will act as your joystick and LCtrl will be your button for simple old games that had just one button. For games with more than one, LAlt will be button two, and Space will be button three. Here I am playing Berzerk, one of my personal favorites.

You have the option to remap the buttons as you want so that you’re most comfortable when you play. Instructions can be found here. You can even use a gamepad or a joystick to better simulate the arcade experience.

MAME is a great program to get back to the video game’s roots. Old arcade games are fun for a quick game to pick up and play. MAME makes enjoying them easy, simple, and free.

Do you have any favorite arcade games or know of another arcade emulator? Let us know in the comments below.

• (7)Stella – A Cross Platform Atari 2600 Emulator
• (50)5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again
• (11)Top 5 Websites To Watch Old Movie Trailers You Forgot About
• (17)Top 5 Most Exciting Bubble Shooter Games
• (17)Top 2 Sites To Play Old Nintendo Games Online

The first site is Learn4Good and they have a car driving simulation program called Drivers Education. Once you are there and start up the game you will be given a warning that this should not be your only tool to learn to drive nor should it substitute actual driving lessons. With that said you will continue on to choose your instructor from Jessica, Johnny, Mr. Bumper and the boss lady. Can you guess who I picked?

Yes I choose Jessica. She will politely introduce herself. Don’t stare – you might fail!

After that you can either choose to start with lessons or go right for the driving test. The test is fun! You also have the option to quit, change your instructor or view the help.

Here are the available lessons: parallel parking, left turn at an all way stop, left turn on a green light, proceed through an all way stop and pulling out of a parking spot.

You use the up and down arrows as well as the backwards and forwards arrows to maneuver your car. You can hit up and right at the same time to move on a angle. Use your knowledge of parallel parking to do so successfully.

When you start your exam you will have to take a test for each of the lessons. When you complete them without running people over, hitting a car or disobeying the traffic law you will move on to the next exam like so:

Continue playing and learning until you can beat all of them with your eyes closed.

They will stop you from breaking the law and make you start over – better than failing in real life – right?

The next site with a car driving simulation program is brought to us by Chrysler and can be found on their website.

They tell you on the site that you will experience:

• Customizable vehicles.
• Playable tutorials.
• Real-world driving conditions.

Click play it now to begin. You will be prompted to install something called 3dVIA player – just follow the prompts. Once that is installed you will be ready to play.

Click on New Game to start your new game or you can continue a saved game, read the instructions, credits or the leaderboard.

We jumped right in and chose New Game and saw this:

I ran with the first lesson and went through the basics after reading some facts and waiting for the environment to load.

They will make you put on your seatbelt before starting by pressing the B key. Then you will learn how to drive and maneuver, consider this the starting board. Continue on, learn and go get your license. Enjoy.

Do you know of any other car driving simulation programs?  Let us know about them below in the comments.

• (10)Project Torque – Free Incredible Racing Car Game Online
• (11)MUO Games – The Best Free Online Racing Games
• (8)Use Memoriser to Memorize Information Fast During Work Day
• (7)Travel Through Space for Free, Guided by World-Famous Astronomers
• (15)Top 5 Websites for Java Application Examples

What we need is some excitement and maybe a little blood. Before you get on me about recommending a shoot em’ up to a 11 year old, know that he plays much MUCH worse games online everyday. So to him Ninja Hunter is pretty tame, but it’s a great method for learning to type online.

When you first load the page you will see this:

You can choose Easy, Normal or Hard. There is a survival mode (which is faster paced) and an enemy encyclopedia. I chose Easy and continued on. They will show you a brief tutorial on how to play the game.

The game is easy enough in theory. You will be at the top of the temple. Ninjas will attack. When they come flying at you they will have a four letter word over their head. You will need to type this word to defeat them. Things will get more exciting the further in you get with projectiles like deadly ninja stars and much more.

You also have special powers called Speed of the wind (1), Rage of the Wind (2) and the Wind Barrier (3). You can use these special attacks or offenses when your Rage meter is full at the top of the game screen.

Then by pressing the attack numbers (1, 2 or 3) on your keyboard you will initiate the attack or offense. Here I used one in the shot below – can you guess which one it is?

Keep on defeating your enemies to get more rage and stay ahead of the game. You can see each of the powers below, what they do and how to activate them.

In the first board all we will see are normal ninjas. They are the easiest to beat and do not throw projectiles at you.

Here you can see two normal ninjas attacking. I just typed the first word on the first ninja’s head and now I am going to type POLO to defeat the second one, all the while polishing my typing skills and effectively learning to type online.

When you beat the first stage, just like any other game, you will be given a status report telling you about how well or badly you did on the last board. You will also be given a score and gold pieces that can be used to upgrade your character.

Here you can see the upgrades and you can spread them around until you run out of money!

This is a highly addictive game but the added bonus is that it helps people type better, quicker and more accurate.

So go kill them ninjas kids!

• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (18)Toribash Fighting Game – Design & Try Perfect Fighting Moves
• (7)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night

Trying a PC game demo is often needed to get a feel for a game. Sure, you can sample trailers and reviews to your heart’s desire, but to spend 70 bucks on an interactive story, both are often still lacking.

Even if you don’t want, or never even planned to buy the game, demos can be a lot of fun. There’s nothing that keeps you from downloading a bunch of demos and gaming your socks off, just for the hell of it.

1. Steam Store – PC Game Demos

Steam, aside from a software gateway to great games, has an incredible store. Here you’ll be able to place pre-orders and gain incredible discounts on a lot of games. If you’re a retail-, as well as a freeware gamer, you should certainly take a look at their games under 10€ and 5€ categories.

Like most game stores, Steam also allows you to sample the products. The above link, or a swift flick in the sidebar will take you to the extensive PC game demos archive.

Personally, I think the Steam Store to be one of, if not the best, resource for demos. Not necessarily because of a larger offering, but thanks to the sheer joy of browsing the site. Compared to the Steam Store, most websites seem messy and disorganized.

Note that you’ll only be able to download games via the Steam client application. Once you’ve got this small app installed, you can also use it to access the Steam store from your desktop and manage your other games.

2. GamersHell.com – Demo Versions

GamersHell, more than an online game store, is one of the largest online sources related video games. You can use it to find reviews, videos, cheats, and – of course – game demos.

The demo archive of GamersHell is built like a directory. You can arrange the titles by date, or by name. The listing will automatically show the game type, and the beginning of a short description. Although I’m a sucker for images (cover art and screenshots), this usually suffices to scan the page for cool or relevant game demos.

Perhaps the biggest advantage to using GamersHell, aside from the possibility of using plain old http links instead of a desktop client, lies in your choice of file server. GamersHell will usually proffer around or above ten different download mirrors, sharing their location, transfer rate and current workload. With less than an extra minute spent, you can make sure to have the best available download.

3. FileFront.com – Demos

More akin to GamersHell, FileFront is the third demo source we’re cheering. Sadly, it doesn’t allow you to rearrange the demo list. You can either browse it by date, or launch a query from the search box (that is, if you know what you’re looking for).

File searches will yield game demos, as well as game patches and the occasional trailer, where Game searches will lead you to a general overview of related downloads.

Do you know any other good sources for PC game demos? You can have your say in the comments section below.

• (18)5 Sites To Download Free Video Game Music
• (12)Your Guide To Ubuntu Repositories and Package Management
• (15)Use SkipScreen To Bypass Rapidshare Advertising Waiting Screens
• (17)Use Rapidstack To Find Favorite Rapidshare Download Links
• (20)Two Simple Yet Useful Firefox Add-Ons You Should Have

Most of those spin-offs, however, stay incredibly close to the original. If it ain’t broken, why fix it – right? So the game’s ported to yet another device, donned in a new shiny interface and let be.

The other developers don’t waste time wondering ‘why?’, but think ‘why not?’.

Looking aside from the inevitable failures, here are some of the more original and innovating spin-offs. Three very different Tetris online games that grew from the same retro classic.

First-Person Tetris Online Game

At first glance, First-Person Tetris looks pretty regular, aside from the double screen interface. However, once you start playing this Tetris online game, you’ll notice that this game embeds ‘First-Person’ with another meaning.

Turning your block is not possible. Rotating everything else, is. You can spin the room in the right position, and slide it around your block. All the while, your block attracts the ‘bottom’ of the TV set. Almost as if it were falling.

Besides being fun, original, and very much addicting, First-Person Tetris really gets your head spinning. You probably won’t be able to finish the game without hugging the ground. Or the first few levels.

Tetris vs Triangle

No, there’s nothing wrong with that screenshot. Tetris vs Triangle was created in response to a ‘create a game with a stage smaller than or equal to 100×100 pixels‘ challenge. If you don’t feel you’re up for the job, always remember that your browser has a built in zoom function.

The real challenge, however, lies not in the game’s size. As you can see in the screenshot of this Tetris online game, there are a few new elements in the screen; purple blocks and a little triangle.

Your objective is to clear the playing field of these purple, static blocks. Get rid of them by vanishing the whole line. Just filling up those blanks. Sounds easy, right?

No, that little triangle has a gun, and he/she is not afraid to use it. If you can’t avoid the bullets soaring past, you’ll turn purple yourself. You’ve got an infinite supply of lives, but getting shot still makes the game a lot harder, and once you hit the top, it’s still game over.

Tetoris (Tetris HD)

This Tetris online game went viral some time ago. The concept is simple, and actually very similar to the original Tetris. The only difference is an upgrade of the resolution and size of the playing field. Often dubbed ‘Tetris HD’, this game makes retro available for the HD-crazed masses.

The screenshot above no doubt shows that the high resolution can offer quite a challenge. Not necessarily due to difficulty, but because of the time you spend trying to fill a line. One gamer commented: “It took me 15 minutes, just to lose on purpose.” Another cried out his dramatic tale of messing up the final block in a line.

As I’m sure you understand, Tetris is not the most satisfying game to play. It gets either frustrating or boring. The game is probably most praised for its arty concept, and for the joke that this game’s developer intended it to be.

What do you think of the games above? Which do you deem the most interesting, or the most addictive? Let us know about any other Tetris spin-offs that we’ve missed!

• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (5)Three Challenging Puzzle Games To Rack Your Brain
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (15)10 Cool Software Easter Eggs To Discover
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game

To be honest, I’ve never been very interested in cars. When I’m in “car boasting” company, I’m happy if I manage to nod and look amazed at the right times. But however uninterested I may be in automobiles, I do enjoy a good ‘virtual drive’ now and then.

We’ve already written about The Best Free Racing Games in the past, but X games aren’t enough to last a lifetime.

Project Torque

Project Torque is a self-proclaimed MMORG. No, not a role-playing game, but a Massively Multiplayer Racing Car Game Online. To dispel the common misunderstanding from the start: online is not the same as in-browser. It actually means you can race against other people from all over the world – with up to twenty different participants. Take a look at the trailer below.

A fun and simple racing car game online. Aeria Games, the online publisher, has delivered splendid work with Project Torque. Not entirely surprising, though, you might already know Aeria Games from previous titles like Wolf Team and Last Chaos.

Online Racing Madness

As said before, Project Torque supports online races with anything between two and twenty different racers. To make this manageable, there are a number of supporting online elements.

You can connect with friends or other racers by using the integrated chat and email clients. Although you don’t have to even touch it to enjoy yourself, the community is an integral part of the game if you’re looking to dive in completely.

Project Torque also regularly organizes tournaments. This, as well as your overall prestige in the normal races will determine your place in the online rankings.

In-Game Shop and Item Mall

There are hardly any games left without a source of revenue. After all, keeping those servers up is a costy job, nevermind developing the game itself. Although some games have been trying in-game advertisement, most still apply a system of micro-transactions. This involves the selling of premium upgrades and car customization parts.

Participating in these micro-transactions is by no means obligatory. Players willing to spend a few bucks here and there have the advantage of quality and often exclusive items. But it lacks the hard work that makes these kind of games great. By working hard, and ascending the skill ladder. You don’t need any of the fancy premium stuff to have fun in the game.

Project Torque is just one of many racing car games online. We’d love to hear the games you play. You can give your suggestions or feedback in the comments section below.

Minimum System Requirement
OS: Windows XP or Vista 32
CPU: 2000 MHz, (AMD: 2000)
Memory: 512MB
Video: DX8 compatible, 512MB Graphics card
Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
Network: DSL, CABLE
input: Analog Controller, USB wheel, or keyboard

Recommended System Requirement
CPU: 2500 MHz, (AMD: 2500)
Memory: 1GB
Video: DX9 compatible, 1GB Graphics card

• (11)MUO Games – The Best Free Online Racing Games
• (3)Audition – Groovalicious MMO Dancing Game
• (8)Xiah Rebirth – Martial Arts Themed MMORPG
• (50)Top 3 Ways for Kids To Make Money Online
• (31)The Top 3 Online Multiplayer Games (MMO) For Youngsters

The 2600 had the longest lifespan of any console to date.  Even as Atari released game consoles that were supposed to replace the 2600, the 2600 stood fast.  Something about the console just kept drawing people in.

The legacy of the 2600 continues up to today.  Many collectors and gamers alike still enjoy playing an Atari 2600 game every once in a while. Unfortunately, the system and games have become commodities, sometimes costing a good amount of money to own, making them impractical for someone just wanting to play off and on.

Luckily, there is a great Atari emulator available called Stella as well as many ROMs out there that you can download, meaning you can play the 2600 on your computer without spending a dime!

Stella

Stella was named after the codename that Atari had for the 2600 while it was in development. The Atari emulator is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  To download the version for your OS, hit the link here and go to “Stable Releases” on the side navigation bar.  Once there, you should see the following.

Click the version of the Atari emulator you need and let the file download.  Both the download and install should be pretty quick.

Now the fun part. Unlike its competitor, Z26, Stella has a Graphical User Interface and lets you navigate to your ROMs wherever you have them on your computer without using the command line.

Open up Stella and you should see this screen.

Navigate to where you keep the BIN files of your games.  Here, I am going to play Berzerk.

After you double click, your game should start up in an Atari emulator window like so.

Now you’re ready to play some Atari.

The controls are simple.  For most games, you will only need Left CTRL and your directional keys.  Left CTRL is the same as the single red button found on 2600 controllers.  The directional keys work as the joy stick.

For the other various switches on the console refer to the “User’s Guide” section of the Stella website.  They mostly use the F keys.

The User’s Guide also provides a lot of information on how to alter the Atari emulator to fit your liking.  You can change the video settings, change the audio settings, or even remap the controls on your keyboard.

Stella is provides good emulation and tries to integrate some of the hardware glitches that some games took advantage of to achieve certain effects into the program. Since Stella is under constant development, you can check in every once in a while to see if the software has been updated.

If you are interested in Stella, then you should check out my article about 2600 fan sites that was published here on MakeUseOf a little while back.  There, I gave the lowdown on AtariAge.com and Atarimania.com, both of which happen to be great places to get 2600 ROMs.

So now you can play all of those classic favorites without shelling out the cash for a vintage systems that isn’t even guaranteed to work with a little help from Stella.  If you know any other good Atari emulators out there, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below.

• (10)The 2 Great Websites for Atari 2600 Enthusiasts
• (2)Steam Games Management and Online Store Gets A Redesign
• (11)Play An Awesome Asteroids Arcade Game Clone In your Browser!
• (19)How To Play Old Arcade Games On Your PC
• (2)How To Create Your Own Homebrew Atari 2600 Games

My time waster for the day is ZOMGies! Or as I like to call it — Oh My God Zombies! It is a fast paced shoot ‘em up zombie survival game that you play with the mouse and keyboard Quake-style. You go after zombies with a few weapons. In the beginning, there is only a little pistol and a crow bar. But as you go on, you will unlock new and more powerful weapons. There are also items you can shoot on the screen to cause reactions to the environment. Let us check it out.

You can start by going to this URL. That will bring you to this screen that will allow you to start a new Zombgies quest or continue a saved one.

I clicked on NEW GAME and was pleasantly greeted with some basic instructions for how to play this zombie survival game. They show you that you can run up, down, left and right by either using the arrow keys or the W, A, S and D keys. You use the mouse to aim at the zombies and the left mouse button to fire! You shoot explosives (barrels) to kill everything on the screen and other goodies will give you points or health.

You are the dude in the pink pajamas! Just a side note, do not sleep in pink pajamas because if Zombies attack everyone will see them! You start off being chased by the horde. Simply move the mouse and start shooting! Aim at them and blast away and watch your points grow.

As you hit the enemies, you will see a life meter appear over there head. When the meter is totally depleted, they are dead. The same thing goes for you. Your health is represented by that red bar in the upper left hand corner of the interface. If it totally depletes, you are dead. The world is lost… Or you can play again!

You can only carry two weapons at a time. To start, the only ones unlocked are the crow bar and the pistol. But as you get more weapons, you will choose your favorite two or the ones you feel will be the best fit with the upcoming board.

When you find a new weapon, you will see this screen asking you to select your weapons again. Here, I found an UZI which is a machine gun and kills much faster than the pistol.

Hitting that purple barrel is a good thing and it will kill everyone (except for you magically) and clear the screen of bad guys.

Direct Hit! Blamo!

Keep on playing and killing to advance and gain more weapons. The flame thrower is simply awesome but I will leave it to you and I will not ruin the game. I beat it in about an hour. And now I have to return to the real world of tech support. Sadly, there are no zombies in my office that need killing – until I start the game again that is!

I wrote another post about a different awesome zombie survival game. Check it out!

For more games, visit MakeUseOf’s game section. Which are your favorite zombie games?

• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (19)Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder
• (7)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (7)Top 5 Sites With Scary Stuff That Makes You Jump
• (15)The FarmVille Facebook Game Craze – Easy & Fun

The Water Werks game is very fun and VERY addictive. You have blobs of water or maybe bubbles moving around the board. You need to guide them to safety – not really sure why but it is pretty fun. Let’s see how it works and how we can play it.

We start by visiting the Water Werks game homepage. Once you get there you have to click Play Game below the logo.

You will then be brought to a level select window where you can see all forty five levels. You can feel safe that this will keep you busy for some time to come with all of these free levels! Click continue and we will see the instructions.

The first instruction screen says you need to spray your hose to get the blobs to safety – you do not spray the blobs but instead you interact with the scenery. For example you spray your hose on a trap door closing it allowing the blobs to get to where they need to go.

Blobs can be different colors. Receptacles can be gray or a specific color. Gray ones take all blobs, specific colored blobs just take that particular color.

They get creative and make hose extensions and other objects that you can spray through…

You can make your hose spray wide or thin by pressing the left and right arrows – this is helpful for getting through small spaces or if you need a quick little blast.

After all the little guys are moved to safety you will be able to complete the level and TWO new ones will open up for you. Click on the done button and let’s move on to playing the game!

Here is the first board. The blobs move down from the top and flow to the right and then the left. But how can they get to the gray receptacle? You will have to do a little thinking….don’t worry I will wait!

(SPOILER ALERT!!!) OK! So you figured out that you can spray the wooden thing at the bottom to move it up to complete a bridge-like object allowing the little guys to get to where they are going. You can see the solution below. This one was easy!

As the boards go on they will get gradually harder. They will require thinking, strategizing and even a little hair pulling at times (this is not for the Water Werks game but some of these boards will drive you simply batty. Take a look at this board a little later on:

The game is addictive! Actually my post was a little late due to the fact that this game has taken over my day. Um actually can I take that back? I meant I had to go to the dentist and…aw shucks who am I fooling?! I love a good free online game!  Sorry Mark

Do you have any other favorites? Post them up in the comments! For some more fun check out this post on some other awesome online games. Or check a MakeUseOf article on How To Download and Play Kongregate Games Offline.

• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (8)Blosics – A Physics Game That Happens To Be FUN!
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (7)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (3)Game Classroom – Put the Fun Back In Learning With Educational Games

What stuck with me until today is the video game music and that’s true for most video games I played throughout my teenage years.

Remember the sound of Tetris? Or the popsong “The Postal Service” from Brand New Colony that was inspired by the Super Mario music? And did you see the Peter Gabriel video “Curtains” in the Myst IV game?

Would you like to create the soundtrack to your own video gamer career? Here are the resources to download free video game music.

Video Game Music Archive

VGMusic has been around for 13 years. With that, it’s one of the oldest video game music archives, covering consoles from Nintendo, SEGA, SONY, Microsoft, NEC, SNK, ATARI, as well as computer systems, and several more. Among the sites presented here, this one is the most widespread and possibly the largest archive. The Nintendo Game Boy directory alone contains almost 2,000 MIDI files.

All music files are provided in MIDI format.

Atari SAP Music Archive

ASMA is by its own description “the biggest and only official Atari XL / XE music archive.”

The start page contains a comprehensive list with information, including a zipped version of the complete archive, player and plugin downloads, tools, and a FAQ.

The archive can be searched by clicking on the ASMADB (ASMA database) button and entering a search query. If you leave the search field empty and hit the “Search now!” button you’ll be able to browse through all files in the archive.

A Game Music Index

The free video game music index at Autofish provides three music boxes dedicated to different game systems: Commodore 64 (C64), Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Each box contains a table with games and the respective music files.

The C64 SID music files come in ZIP archive. To play these tunes in Winamp, you need to install a SID plugin, which can be downloaded from the Winamp homepage. NES NSF files work with Winamp if this plugin was installed. SNES SPC files require this plugin for Winamp. To install plugins close Winamp, copy .dll file into Plugins folder, start Winamp and play file.

Another resource for Commodore 64 music is the High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC).

OverClocked ReMix

The site was founded in 1999 and is “dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music.” This archive contains free video game music of almost all systems, including Nintendo, SEGA, SONY, Microsoft, and many more.

Each ReMix receives a short evaluating article that may also uncover some of the song’s or game’s background.

Remix.Kwed.Org

RKO calls itself “The Definitive Guide to C64 Remakes”.

It contains over 2,500 tunes by over 700 artists. The archive can be sorted by date uploaded, title, arranger, composer, or rating.

There are two files for each song: the original SID and the remix as MP3.

What’s your favorite video game music track?

Image credits: yoshiaka

• (35)Top 10 Websites For Free & Legal MP3 Music Downloads
• (5)The Top 3 Sites To Find Free MP3 Music Downloads For European Artists
• (27)5 Free MP3 Full Albums You Can Download Legally Now
• (7)3 Sources To Stream Or Download Live Music for Free
• (25)The 3 Best MP3 Players For Portable USB Drives

When the Pom Maestros developed the NeoSteam Receiver, it became possible to harvest the NeoSteam from ancient energy stones, located throughout the world. But the discovery was met by fear. The king banished the Pom Maestros to a small island off-shore.

Here the fantasy gaming progression of NeoSteam continued. It is unknown what further advancements were made in the meantime. But even fantastic worlds are burdened by the Murphy’s Law. A meltdown of the stored NeoSteam resulted in worldwide chaos and the unleashed energy split the lands.

The three current continents have since rediscovered NeoSteam. Its very presence still a mystery, the races have now met it with joy instead of fear. Already, the nations are largely dependent on the resource. And because NeoSteam is limited the peace did not hold. It’s hard to tell who is ‘right’, but everyone is acting out of necessity. The wars for NeoSteam are needed to ensure the survival of every nation.

NeoSteam

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy gaming. It mixes elements of the victorian and technological (steam technology) with fantasy and science-fiction. Father of many wonderful Anime, and a whole design sub-culture – Google for images to get a peak at the ambience. Imagine the joy when word came out of a steampunk MMORPG fantasy game.

NeoSteam was announced in 2008, with little progression after that. Just when steampunk fans all over were losing hope, Atlus – famous for several console games – announced their purchase of the rights. In 2009, the game finally went public for the international English audience.

Gameplay

As might be expected, NeoSteam tries to blend steampunk with classic MMORPG fantasy gaming. However, due to the ever bigger roles of fantasy and magic elements, steampunk is not very much noticeable outside of certain parts of the technological continent – the Republic of Rogwel. The victorian elements are hardly present. I’d like to see a real steampunk game someday. Nevertheless, even though the steampunk elements could do with an upgrade, NeoSteam is an amazing game.

Like most MMORPG’s, NeoSteam comes packed with those most basic features. Leveling, looting, Player vs Monster, Player vs Player, different races, and a ton of quests. NeoSteam distinguishes itself in one major feat – the game’s division into different nation.

At character creation, you’re prompted to select one of two nations: the Republic of Rogwel and Elerd Kindom – all housing a number of races, and several occupation classes. The interesting parts lies in the inability of members of opposing races to communicate. All throughout the game, NeoSteam really plays the patriotism card.

Graphically, NeoSteam isn’t a work of art – the eyecandy is mediocre, and not the reason you should be playing this game. However, as an MMORPG, NeoSteam does not fail to entertain. The quests are many, and the story is decent. Living up to your class, training a pet animal, and learning your way in the (vast!) ingame world is a quest on itself.

We would’ve liked a little more steampunk, but NeoSteam was incredibly fun to play.

• (8)Xiah Rebirth – Martial Arts Themed MMORPG
• (11)Download & Play a MMORPG Called Ragnarok for Free
• (14)Dungeons & Dragons Online MMORPG Re-Releases – Free!
• (7)Asda Story – A Soul Mate MMORPG
• (12)A Perfect World International – Great Free MMORPG

So my diversion today was a little game called Blosics. It is billed as a fun Physics game or, as they put it, where blocks meet physics. But do not let that fool you – it is fun and maybe you can learn a little physics while you are at it – but probably not! Let’s take a look at this awesome game. Navigate on over here and let’s get ready to play!

Once you get there you will see the following screen. You can run through the tutorial or jump right into the game. I will show you the tutorial and how to play quickly so you can dive right in.

You have a structure on your left side and you use the big green ball to fire projectiles at it to knock it down. Think about it as a reverse game of Jenga. You click on the green ball and drag the mouse in any direction. It acts like a rubber band, the longer you hold it or pull it the harder it will snap back. You will see the numbers incrementing as you hold it to show you the power behind it. You can hit the spacebar to cancel the shot. Shooting costs points. You can go into the negative numbers on points.

Your goal of this fun physics game is to throw blocks off of the stage. Hitting green blocks will get you points and hitting red blocks takes points away. So the easiest solution may not be the best points-wise. Are you feeling me?

There are three different types of platforms and they react differently to your hits. They are stone, rubber and ice. You can guess how they will react. (For example rubber bounces and ice slips and slides…

In the shot below you can see me clicking and dragging the mouse to the right and up. I have held it for the count of 30. When I release it – it will knock down the blocks it comes in contact with. Strictly adhering to the laws of physics.

Blocks can knock into each other and off the board as well as falling as a result of direct impact.

Your target score is in the upper right hand corner of your screen. It is the second number and shown as 100 in the screen shot below. After you hit the mark you can click next in the lower right hand corner.

And to drive home how much fun this physics game is I have included a video from YouTube that will show you exactly how much time of yours this will waste!

Do you have a favorite online free game? We would love to hear from you in the comments! Share your favorites with us!

• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun
• (7)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (21)Four Funny Ways To Prank Your Parents With The Family Computer
• (10)Crayon Physics Deluxe – Get It During The Limited ‘Pay What You Want’ Deal

Then Crayon Physics Deluxe was announced – a sequel that sought to extend and perfect the game. News and screenshots have been flying around for a while, but earlier this month it was finally released in full glory.

Yes, the game is retail, normally selling at around 20 bucks a pop. But for the occasion, a special ‘birthday deal’ was announced. Counting on the good of your heart, you can pick your own price for the game. That is, until 15 January (closing in fast).

Crayon Physics Deluxe

The concept of the game is rather simple; collect the stars with a little red ball. You can’t control the ball itself, but you can manipulate the level environments. With a digital crayon in hand, you can set off to solve the puzzles. There’s nothing more entrancing than seeing your drawings come to life.

The interesting part of Crayon Physics Deluxe is that there are countless ways to solve each puzzle. There is no ‘right way’ to beat it, there are dozens! The only thing you need to complete this game is a vast and lively imagination.

In Crayon Physics Deluxe, there are over 70 ‘original’ levels. Add to that a level designer, so in a way, the fun never has to stop. Complete with relaxing music, Crayon Physics Deluxe is an instant classic for puzzlers and physics enthusiasts alike.

Pay What You Want (’till 15 January)

With the game’s launch fresh in memory, the developer has set up a special ‘birthday deal’. Normally costing around twenty bucks, you can now purchase the game for whatever amount you feel like paying. Look into your heart (and your wallet), and pick the price yourself!

Other developers have tried it in the past, including 2DBoy with the much famed World of Goo. Even a number of musicians managed to pull it off with success.

Do note that this limited deal is only applicable until the 15th of January. That puts quite the time pressure on you. So go to the site, and download the demo. Fiddle around a bit before you decide how much you want to spend.

Cool! So I can practically get it for free?

No. I mean, yes, you ‘can’, but you won’t. Here’s why.

When you buy a game from EA, Ubisoft, or another big game producer, a big part of the money is lost to the middleman. The part that actually reaches the developer(s) is often quite small. But there is no big firm behind Crayon Physics. Not even a team. The game is produced by one guy only; Petri Purho, a long-haired dude from Finland.

You see, Petri Purho worked two years to complete this game, and although the choice is yours, I’m sure you agree he deserves a little credit. Paying $1 (like many do) is not ’smart’, it’s just disrespectful. I’m not saying you can’t profit from the sale, that’s the enticement of the whole deal! Just make your choice wisely.

Crayon Physics Deluxe runs on Windows only.

What do you personally think of the pay model? What about the game itself? You can spout all your enthusiasm in the comments section below!

• (7)Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night
• (12)PlaySushi.com – Another Online Game Site To Help You Chill Out
• (21)Four Funny Ways To Prank Your Parents With The Family Computer
• (8)Blosics – A Physics Game That Happens To Be FUN!
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun

Apart from begetting new genres, like the Wii’s casual gaming experience, we’re seeing combinations of old genres. Examples are all but common nowadays; FPS with RPG, Hack ‘n Slash with MMO.

Last week, thanks to an Adblock Plus meltdown, I learned about Battleswarm. A an online war strategy game that not only proved the joy of in-browser advertising, but has created a daring and exciting new gaming genre.

Battleswarm: Field of Honor

With Battleswarm: Field of Honor, Reality Gap goes boldly where no developers have threaded before. Instead of adding role playing aspects to ‘just another game’, Reality Gap wholly mixes two dominant gaming genres. Battleswarm is what you get when Massive Multiplayer Shooters and Real Time Strategy collide.

Imagine the thrill of blasting bullets at an intelligent horde. A hive entity set out to crush you. On the other side, imagine putting your strategical inferiority to the test, by marching out against numerous sentient enemies. You have the high ground and the multitude, they have independence and superior weaponry. It’s a battle between genres.

FPS/TPS – Rambo Gone Wild

If you’ve got a preference for raw adrenaline and a rain of bullets, you should join the human side. With heavy armor and futuristic weaponry, you’ll find yourself residing somewhere in between Unreal Tournament and Gears of War. When facing a strong enemy, team play is as important as character level.

A soldier’s life is simple. Blast those bugs back to hell. A filled clip is your philosophy, and with the numbers of ‘em, you better make good use of it.

You start off with a simple gun, but don’t become too attached to it. Before long, you’ll be able to heavily expand your arsenal. The game offers chip slots – upgrade possibilities for both your skills and weaponry – and character leveling.

RTS – For We Are Many

Gamers who prefer the high ground, a complete overview and the cunning of real time online war strategy games need to join the bugs. Even with a legion of bugs at your disposal, you’ll still need tactics over numbers to take down those barbarian gunners.

Apart from directing the battlefield, you’ll need to build and enhance hives, begetting bigger numbers and better skills. Like the humans, bugs can level up and gain precious items in battle.

(People who’ve read Ender’s Game will soon notice the similarities – bugs vs. buggers)

There are several game types, including hive-defence and capture the flag. At the time being, the balance often tilts towards the FPS/TPS side. Winning with strategy is not a small challenge, but certainly a worthy and enjoyable one.

Playtime vs. Micro Transactions

No matter what games, there are always bills to be paid. Most free games tend to make use of a micro-transaction system, as does Battleswarm. Items – chips and weapons – can be traded in-between battles for virtual gold. This in-game currency can either be gained through game-play, or traded with real-life money. This gives an advantage to people willing to spend money – but luckily does not exclude the all-free gamer.

In short, Battleswarm deploys an excitingly simple, yet daring new concept. It’s a clash of raw action and cunning strategy. Oh, and it’s free. Challenging gameplay and nice grafics for a price of zero. Nothing much of a story, but that’s no biggy.

Have you played the game yet? Tell us what you think!

• (22)Quake Live – Free Online Shooting Game in Your Browser
• (15)Ogame – A Free Online Strategy Game of Space War
• (8)GunBound – Multiplayer Worms-like Shooting Game
• (42)Cross Fire – Online Fastpaced Multiplayer Shooting Game
• (8)Xiah Rebirth – Martial Arts Themed MMORPG

Even though MakeUseOf is famous for running with ‘what’s cool’ instead of ‘what’s new’, I guess we’re really late breaking this news, because Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy went adware mid-2008. Nevertheless, the coming holidays seemed a good enough reason to throw it (back) in the ring.

You can get the Psi Ops download for free if you live in the U.S or Europe.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (US, EU)

Psi-Ops is a secret American government project, an organization intended to keep world peace with an exciting cocktail of arms and psychic powers. ‘The Order’ is an international terrorism group that has other plans ‘in mind’. With a brain wipe and change of appearance, Nick Scryer is set out to infiltrate the group.

After being freed from imprisonment by the mysterious Sara, Nick slowly regains his psychic powers. Not a day too late, because the whole world is going haywire and someone needed to pwn those antagonists.

Psi-Ops, although not winning Oscars for the story-line, is an incredible game. Despite earning several great reviews, with scores hoovering around 80 to 90 per cent, the game has gone largely unnoticed. Some of the bigger guys didn’t deem it worth a review, and the gaming public has scarcely heard the name. All in all, the game has hardly lived up to its potential. Those who have played it have nothing but praise and are still hoping on a sequel.

Four years after the initial release, Psi-Ops was released again as an ad-supported title for the United States and Europe.

Gameplay

Psi-Ops is a third-person shooter with a psychic powers. You can carry up to two guns, and the game offers a wealthy arsenal of weapons. However, the physical weapons become close to obsolete as the game progresses. To complete the later levels in the game, you will heavily need to rely on your psychic abilities.

This could hardly be brought up as a bother, though. As the story unfolds, you’ll learn telekinesis (moving objects with your mind), mind control, pyrokinesis (hint: it’s got to do with fire) and several other shows of awesomeness.

These psychic powers are very well integrated in the gameplay. The controls are intuitive enough, and the levels are designed to offer several ways of physics manipulation and achieving your objectives.

As you slowly regain your psychic abilities, you’ll be facing a number of rogue Psi operatives – each mastering a specific psychic domain. These ‘bosses’ are lined up one after another, and although the progression tends to get pretty linear, the game stays fun and interesting.

Although this might in fact be a point of cheer for the more hardcore gamer, the game gets much more difficult near the end. Combined with the check-point saves, this is a recipe that’ll have you playing some levels ‘just a few more tries times’.

Concluding, Psi-Ops is a very enjoyable game, even 5 years after its release. Its well implemented psychic storyline and physics make it one of the better ‘freebies’ that the gaming world has to offer. If not because it’s new, you should be playing it because you failed to recognize a great title in 2004. Live in the U.S. or Europe? Download it here, for free!

• (154)We Have 3 Copies Of McAfee Total Protection 2010 [MakeUseOf Giveaway]
• (97)Top Five Free Online Shooter Games – Must Read For Gamers
• (17)Top 5 Most Exciting Bubble Shooter Games
• (35)Top 10 Websites For Free & Legal MP3 Music Downloads
• (5)The Top 3 Sites To Find Free MP3 Music Downloads For European Artists

The list of gripes can go on and on, but whether you love or hate them, most games these days will feature these cinematics or in-game movies to some extent. A cutscene is simply a sequence in which the player has little or no control over the game. It usually interrupts gameplay action for the purpose of advancing the plot, presenting character development, and providing things like background information, dialogue, clues, and atmosphere.

Taking advantage of new game engines, stronger processors, and techniques like CGI animation, cutscenes these days can be really impressive and maybe even worth seeing again. Let’s get right to it and find out how to watch and download video game cutscenes online.

GameTrailers & GameVideos

Both GameTrailers and GameVideos offers loads of video game clips, including trailers, previews, reviews, shows, and recording gameplay footage uploaded by its users. Simply search through their massive media collections for your favorite video game cutscenes.

Fortunately, both websites make downloading the videos very easy. On GameTrailers, just click on the Download button below the video to display the download links (Quicktime, WMV, and MP4 for iPod). Registration to the site is required first, but it’s free.

On GameVideos, just look for the download links under each video (MOV or WMV) to start downloading. This time, registration is not required.

Blue Laguna

For fans of role-playing games (RPGs), especially those of the Final Fantasy series, Blue Laguna is the place to download full motion videos (FMVs) and cutscenes from your favorite titles.

The site’s FMVs & Cutscene Movies page offers a wide variety of videos to download in AVI or MPG formats. Simply choose one of the games from the list to view the main content of all the video game cutscenes. The title of the movie is available, along with the file size, duration, and a plethora of screenshots. If you like what you see, you can download the video for free.

YouTube

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s always of course YouTube. The video sharing website probably has the largest collection of cutscenes out there. Simply search for the cinematics from the video game of your choice and hopefully users have uploaded some for you to view.

As for the downloading, we have extensively covered the topic of how to download videos from YouTube here at MakeUseOf. Just check out the following articles to find out how to get it done:

• 4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net
• 18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet
• How To Easily Download YouTube High Definition Videos

What’s your take on  video game cutscenes? Do you enjoy them or just skip right through? Also, where do you go to watch or download your favorite cutscenes? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : Matt Brett

• (8)Videosurf – One Video Search Engine for All Video Sites
• (4)Rippol – Impressive Personalized Video Search & Recommendation Service
• (5)How To Find Your Favorite Movie Scenes In Seconds With MovieClips
• (7)How To Download Audio From BBC’s iPlayer Broadcasts
• (6)AnyClip – Search and Watch Favorite Movie Scenes

We’ve come to love these tower defense games for what they have to offer — they’re simple, easy to learn and most importantly, really fun to play. But which are the best tower defense games for the iPhone? The first name that comes to mind is Fieldrunners — I’m pretty sure that almost everyone who owns an iPhone would have played or seen this game in action. It’s exciting and honestly, pretty darn addictive.

What? You think I’m just going to hand the trophy over to Fieldrunners? Think again. I’ve found a couple of challengers vying to reign victor. Find out which games got Fieldrunners’ panties in a knot, after the jump.

Giveaway: We have 5 promo codes for every game listed here to be given away to our readers. How do you get one? Instructions are at the end of the post.

Fieldrunners

For those who aren’t familiar with this game, let me run you through a brief intro. If memory serves correctly, Fieldrunners was the first proper tower defense game for the iPhone. During that time, it had no sound (if I’m not mistaken) and only had 1 map but it sure has come a long way since then.

Fieldrunners now has several maps and gameplay modes as well as some exciting new firepower in its arsenal. Unlike other tower defense games, it doesn’t have a fixed path for the creeps to walk in. And that’s not a bad thing because you can create your own path by building your weapons in such a way to determine where the creeps should go. This allowed a certain mode of cheating by directing the creeps back and forth the rows of guns.

Fieldrunners is the kind of game that just goes on and on. Not much planning is involved so you can have fun with it whether you’re playing for 5 minutes or 5 hours. The next version of Fieldrunners will integrate social play networking which will allow you to submit high scores and challenge friends.

What I like about Fieldrunners:

-Its vibrant colours makes it visually-pleasing
-A “boss” every 10 rounds adds some challenge
-Lots of distinctly different creeps, each with their own strengths and weaknesses
-A particular method of cheating makes winning pretty certain

Fieldrunners [iTunes Store link] is available from the iTunes Store at $2.99.

Star Defense

A very worthy contender indeed. Star Defense is a stunning, graphically-intense 3D tower defense game set in space. Your mission is to protect the universe consisting of 7 worlds from alien invasion.

What’s different in Star Defense is the fact that it pulled away from the norm, took a simple tower defense game and made it 3-dimensional. The result? Simply fantastic. When ngmoco debuted Star Defense in WWDC earlier this year, I was blown away. Realistically, playing this game on my 2G iPhone isn’t optimum, to say the least. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop my friends from constantly borrowing it just to play Star Defense.

In this game, the creeps attack in waves; with a small interval in between to allow you to buy new defenses and upgrade existing ones. When you’re done, hit the timer and the next wave of creeps will emerge. There is a fixed pathway so you’ll know exactly where the creeps will start coming from.

Having shown you the galaxy map with 7 worlds to protect, a finishing point was implied. This game puts the pressure on your early. In other words, you have a mission and this game isn’t entirely just for fun. You sort of have to finish it.

What I like about Star Defense:

-Very different gameplay and presentation, 3D does add a “wow” factor
-Mission-based, can be rewarding if played consistently
-Supports Plus+ social play network
-Preview of the next wave of creeps allows preparation for it

Star Defense is perfect for average to serious gamers with the drive to complete the game.

Star Defense [iTunes Store link] is available from the iTunes Store at $0.99. There is a free version called Star Defense Prelude [iTunes Store link] that offers one of the 7 worlds to anyone who is willing to defend it.

Geo-Defense & Geo-Defense Swarm

I’ve grouped these 2 games together because they were developed by the same company but in fact, they’re quite different. Geo-Defense (GD, for short) offers the same type of gameplay as Star Defense i.e. fixed pathway. GD Swarm, on the other hand, allows you to forge your own pathway — akin to Fieldrunners. All I can say for both of these games is: don’t be fooled by the simplistic graphics. My initial (and honest to God) reaction when I killed my first creep was, “Wooooaaaw!”

GD isn’t particularly concerned about its interface and presentation, as you can clearly see from the retro-looking screenshots above. What it lacks in the presentation, it makes up in gameplay — that, after all, is more important. The explosions after killing creeps are nothing less than phenomenal — shock waves spread out over the map and sparks fly everywhere. It’s bleeding chaotic! Sometimes, the blasters kill so many creeps that I can’t see anything through the sparks but still, I’m sitting there going, “Oh, yeeeah.”

GD Swarm is basically the same game but it allows you to place your defenses anywhere you like, molding a pathway for the creeps to go through. The creeps come out through the green hexagon and move toward the red one. And since the starting and end points are hexagons, there are obviously multiple entries and exits.

Static images don’t justify the awesomeness of the gameplay. You have to try it for yourself.

What I like about GD and GD Swarm:

-Extremely addictive and simple to play
-Supports OpenFeint, another social play network
-Not immensely intense on graphics means smooth gameplay on older iPhones
-Plays music from the iPod during the game

Geo-Defense [iTunes Store link] and Geo-Defense Swarm [iTunes Store link] both go for $1.99. There’s a free version of GD with 2 out of the 3 levels of difficulties and 6 maps [iTunes Store link] — still loads of fun.

Sentinel 2: Earth Defense

This is a slightly more complex tower defense game compared to the first four. In Sentinel 2, you play a Commander in charge of defending Earth against alien invasion (sound familiar?). Graphically, the game is way up there with Star Defense and Fieldrunners.

In addition to the weapons you can build around the pathway, there are also several other defense options that can be claimed after accumulating sufficient energy. They come in pretty handy if the creeps managed to pass by your turrets unscathed.

Like I said, Sentinel 2 is slightly more complicated because of the types of creeps and different weapon options. Nevertheless, the feeling of satisfaction you get after killing every wave of creeps is roughly the same. The game is also mission-based that is rewarded by playing it frequently.

What I like about Sentinel 2:

-Interesting variety of weapons
-Many different types of creeps, some are can be invisible
-Challenge friends through OpenFeint’s social play network
-Fast forward mode speeds up gameplay
-Plays iPod music during the game

Sentinel 2: Earth Defense [iTunes Store link] is priced at $2.99 but the prelude, Sentinel: Mars Defense [iTunes Store link] is free for a limited time.

TriDefense

Probably the toughest and most challenging tower defense game for the iPhone, hands down. There is a reason why it’s called TriDefense — creeps attack from the ground, air and water. There are also multiple entry sites, which is what makes this game really difficult to win. Strangely, even though its graphics are pretty good and offers a decent zoom level, it didn’t bog down on my 2G iPhone.

As soon as you start playing, you’ll notice the enormity of the map you’ll have to defend. Entry sites are indicated by waves on the sides of the screen. The game supports 3-dimension positional audio — by using headphones, you can “hear” where the next wave creeps will be coming from. Yup, that’s pretty mind-blowing.

TriDefense allows you to manipulate the map. By building around the entry points (or on water), you can dictate the direction for the creeps move. Although, air-borne creeps continue to travel as the crow flies. Again, the map is pretty huge so you’ll have to keep an eye out for creeps from every direction.

What I like about TriDefense:

-It’s an all arounder: great graphics, mission-based gameplay
-2x and 4x game speeds
-3D positional audio support when using headphones
-Supports OpenFeint social play network
-The emphasize of gameplay is on weapons and strategy, not on the creeps

TriDefense is really hard to beat. It takes a dedicated player to win it; so it offers long-term gaming possibilities.

At $2.99, TriDefense [iTunes Store link] is a steal for hours of fun it provides. There is a free version available [iTunes Store Link] that packages the tutorial and Mission:01.

Giveaway: We have 5 promo codes for each game to give away! Valid for US iTunes Store accounts only. To get your hands on any one of these exciting tower defense games, either:

1. Share this post on Facebook by clicking on the Share button below or;
2. Click on the retweet button to share on Twitter or;
3. Do both!

Then tell us where you’ve shared it and which game you would prefer: Fieldrunners, Star Defense, Geo-Defense, Geo-Defense Swarm, Sentinel 2 or TriDefense. You’re only allowed to choose one. Don’t forget to enter your email so that we can get in touch with you. The giveaway will end after we get 100 requests on Christmas day. Winners will be chosen randomly. Enjoy!

• (26)Never Forget To Pay Another Bill Again With Bills ~ On Your Table + Giveaway
• (19)How To Play Console Games On The iPhone
• (16)How To Make A Kid Friendly iPod Touch Or iPhone
• (10)Two Useful iPhone Apps To Copy / Paste Text
• (17)Twizzle – The Latest and One of the Best in iPhone Twitter Apps

Games don’t have to be that expensive. Sure, we want the developers and marketers to get paid, but why waste all that extra money on optical media, packaging and shipping?

With the internet at our disposal, we can cut our costs to a minimum. Gaming can become affordable – even cheap! You just need to know where to look for discounts. In this article I will share a few solid tips on how to buy video games for cheap online.

Online Game Key Stores

A friend recently brought this concept to my attention. These guys cut their prices by skipping packaging, shipping, and any other vulturing costs. Better yet, they buy their serial codes all over the world, often in Asia – depending where it is cheapest.

As a result, you can buy these game keys at almost ludicrous prices – the very day these games hit the market! On brand new games, you can often save up to 20 bucks. With older games, you don’t even need to pay 20 bucks!

Even the convinced pirates have reason to be turned. Unlike ‘illegal keys’, the ones you buy on this site can be used to play online, on games likes Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2.

Do note that you’re only buying serial codes. Albeit perfectly legal keys, not all of these sites offer downloads. We will expressively state where this is, or isn’t the case – so read carefully.

Otherwise, this means that you will have to find the game somewhere else. Luckily, after purchase, downloading your game from torrents and Rapidshare is not illegal.

G2PLAY.net

The first serial store I ever discovered, G2Play is one of the best you’ll find. They’ve got a number of big titles in their arsenal, and often play close on new releases, selling Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 keys the very day it came out.

G2Play also offers reliable downloads for nearly all of its games. If, and how the download is supported is always included in the game’s description. Regular sources are Steam, the EA Download Manager, and even dedicated servers.

OnlineKeyStore

OnlineKeyStore claims to be the number one CD Key and Account selling site. The store’s content is rather similar to that of G2Play, but small price differences are far from strange. It’s wise to check several of these stores before you decide where to buy – they’re all cheap, but some are cheaper.

This site offers downloads for a lot, but not all of its games. To find out, you will need to look at the game’s details. The icons in the topright corner will tell you what you need to know.

Example given, the above screenshot tells us that the keys are in store and can be sent immediately after purchase. You can download the game via Steam, or using a dedicated server (from the developer). For an icons ‘legend’, click here.

Ozcdkeys

Ozcdkeys looks rather amateuristic compared to the latter two. It also nearly doesn’t offer any downloads. You might be able to download some games via Steam or the EA Download Manager, but that’s for you to find out.

Nevertheless, Ozcdkeys shouldn’t be too readily discarded. They often offer the lowest prices, going below even the two aforementioned sites. The store is slightly less automated, and prices are stated in a random number of currencies, but it’s a small pain to save that extra money.

These are three decent options, but there are others. Do you know any other sites to buy cheap games online? Share with us in the comments section below.

Image credit: TELE2 advertisement

• (11)Wootalyzer – Alerts You Woot! Super Sales and Other Sites
• (3)The Best Sites To Find Cheap Mac Computers
• (53)Top 10 Sites For Online Coupons & Promotional Codes
• (17)How To Buy Brand New & Generic Hardware and Electronics For Cheap
• (8)Choosing A Laptop: 9 Great Review Sites

Nowadays most games are graphic-intensive and have no real story line. These two games are fun and will open up your mind and imagination! The first one is text and ASCII graphics based and the second one is a full on flash RPG! Enjoy.

I love playing online role playing games aka RPG’s. Sometimes I want to play against the system and not against real people. I will show you 2 awesome free online adventure single player RPG games you can play by yourself. The first one is an old time favorite of mine called The Kingdom of Loathing aka KOL.

You go to The Kingdom of Loathing and create a new account. Click the Create a character button.

They will give you a bit of the background story above the dialogue to create your username password and character type. Think of The Kingdom of Loathing as a fun, less geeky type of Dungeon and Dragons. No one will tie you up a flag pole for playing this! No offense D and D lovers.

Get you character created and continue on….

Choose a character class. You would normally see Ogre, dwarf, warrior but here they are replaced with hysterical stereo typical classes like a Seal clubber, Turtle Tamer or Disco bandit!

Once you are ready to play you will have a set number of turns to go on quests, solve puzzles and have fun!

Next up is Darkness Springs. Head on over to their site and create a new character. Your appearance can be any of the following:

Choose you type and continue right into the flash based graphical game like so:

Your tool bar is at the bottom you can move by clicking with your mouse where you want to move to. Click on the sword to bring up your inventory and this screen

You see that you can learn spells, hold items and weapons. The shortcut key for this screen is I. You have the ability to create and rule your own realms, maps and quests. Some of their features are:

• Can be played directly in the browser, nothing to install. (Reported to work on PC, Mac and Linux)
• More than 100 maps in the default realm – dungeons, forests, villages, cities, secret caves and others
• More than 2000 items, including magic and unique ones
• 8 trainable skills, 4 trainable attributes
• 30 magic spells
• Lots of enemy types
• Non-linear gamplay: The player is free to explore the whole world on his own.
• More than 40 quests to solve (in the main realm alone)
• Everyone is free to use the easy-to-use editor to create and publish new realms with new quests, stories and adventures.

If you get into this one their will be no coming back! As you get further and further in it will become more difficult and challenging.

You can see the map of Enthpia below.

Darkness Springs is a awesome role playing game: You have the same options that you are used to in other RPG’s. You can explore the game world, solve quests and gain experience. You gain experience by questing and battling. You are not required to play the game in any linear fashion and may explore and play at your own hearts content!

Do you have a favorite online single player adventure role playing game? Whoa that’s a mouth full! We would love to hear from you in the comments gamers! For some more multiplayer online RPG’s check out MakeUseOf’s RPG tag here.

• (6)The 4 Retro Gaming Classics & Their Modern Counterparts
• (10)Destroy Zombies 3 – Awesome Online Zombie Shooting Game
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (8)Xiah Rebirth – Martial Arts Themed MMORPG
• (9)Water Werks Game – Wet Your Whistle With Some Fun

As freeware gamers, the internet allows us to experience them first-hand. Sure, we’re not talking about Portal and Braid, but simple downloadable and flash games have not yet lost the ability to amaze.

This article will review three of those freeware platformer games, entirely dissimilar, save in two aspects: platforming and brilliance.

Continuity

This first title is an online flash game. You can play it on your Mac/Windows/Linux web browser. If you want to enjoy it from your desktop, read Aibek’s article on how to download and play flash games offline.

Continuity is that amazing combination of platform and puzzle. Although the level design is often simple, beating it is a whole different story. Consisting of four, six, or more parts, you need to rearrange your level several times before you’re able to reach the exit. The game gradually grows harder with more elaborate (and confusingly similar) level designs, and an increasing number of dead ends.

Pressing space respectively zooms in or out on the little guy, the latter option allowing you to view the big picture and start puzzling. Before you even think of running to the tiny fire exit, you need to gather one or more keys around the level. Continuity delivers casual fun, but don’t expect it to be easy.

Hint: if you’re really stuck on one of the puzzles – not uncommon in these games – you can skip the level in the options menu (Esc).

madnessMADNESSmadness

This is not your regular platformer, and you might get seriously hurt here. Turn back now, while you still can. We won’t judge you. On the contrary, it would probably be the wiser decision.

Still here? Good. This is madness. You’ll love it.

Forget what you thought you knew about physics. In here, the levels are round (in a 360° kind of way). There’s only one minor complication, the level gradually disappears. That red beam you see in the screenshot goes round and round, redrawing the ground beneath your feet. If you want to survive, you have to be fast and time it right. And then there are still those spikes. They’re kind of sharp. Madness, if you ask me.

madnessMADNESSmadness is available as a Windows download.

Saut

Saut is an incredibly simple game. You’ve got only one control to worry about: jump. The level flies beneath you when you’re in the air, and you can only choose between big leaps and small hops. Just your luck that you’re on a floating island, who knows how far above the ground.

There are two things that come to mind when you’re playing Saut. First of all, for monotonous space-bashing, the game is incredibly fun and addictive. Second, it’s incredibly difficult – you’ll waste quite a lot of lives before you get the controls down.

Like madnessMADNESSmadness, Sault is available as a Windows download. Perhaps someday we’ll see a Mac/Linux port, but until then let’s be grateful that the game’s so light and emulator-friendly.

Do you like a little challenge in a game, or would you rather have us reviewing more casual games? Let us know in the comments!

• (2)Destroy Some Free Time With Monster Truck Destroyer
• (14)3 Funny Flash Games That Make Fun Of The Gaming Industry
• (22)ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game
• (7)Top 5 Sites With Scary Stuff That Makes You Jump
• (17)Top 5 Most Exciting Bubble Shooter Games