Hi WR, many thanks for Your further reply. Seems You come from the same generation of hippy rockers (and in our case also blues lovers) that my husband and I do, and music will always play vital role in our lives - through all decades, not only 60's, which naturally remain unparallel, trying to find something inspiring in bands 'of today'.., here, we constantly share and compare notes with our kids and younger members of family, some decent musicians in their own rights - so we don't stay still and brag only about past:).. Recent Losses that we talked about here upset and effect them too, so much so that our daughter hearing about Bowie on the radio whilst driving a car, had to stop and have a little crying moment on the side of the road!.., and said later he was one of her all-time inspiring heroes! (something even we didn't realized, there you go). To us, all of it is so much more poignant, as 3 years ago we lost (also to cancer) my younger Brother - great musician, rocker, bluesman, biker, and in His youth, like us, hippy. In better moments of His struggle with this short but cruel fate we would play to Him loud on the phone 'On the road again' (Canned Heat), one of our favorites, going back to Woodstock..(again never matched before or after, such was it's unique moment in time, and all who took part in it) My dear Bro's ashes are scattered in New Orleans in Mississippi river, where else!? Thanks for lending an eye here WR.

...........................................Moderator Comment..........................................

I remember going to see the film 'Woodstock' and have loved most of the music from that festival. Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Joad Biaz, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and of course Jefferson Airplane who I have to thank for my online name, also Ravi shankar (it was thanks to Ravi that I got into Indian music), Arlo guthrie, Ten Years After (was gutted when i heard Alvin Lea had passed three years ago), their set especially I'm Going Home' was one of my favorites, though there were many others from the festival besides the ones I've mentioned. I wish I could have attended. I did attend the UK's equivalent (not the Isle of Whites, but Glastonbury several times. Actually worked as a litter picker to get free entry. Used to go every year until I left university (stayed there for 10 years). I still listen to the double album that was released, though not as often as i used to. It is one of my all time favorite collections of artists and music.

Thank you so very much for your help & suggestions. Temporarily disabling my Anti-Virus Software did the trick. Now, I'll be able to, once again, enjoy your downloads!!!

...........................Moderator Comment................................

Glad you got it sorted. :)

Yes Stephen, absolutely, all of Them. Today (31st of Jan. 2016) another big Name to add to that list: Sir Terry Wogan!:((, oh what?!! Ps. I do remember where Your nickname Whiterabbit comes from, I too always loved that song.

.................................Moderator Comment....................................

Hi Fran, of course; the list I created was off the top of my head. I didn't know that Terry had passed as I've not seen today's news yet; he was a national treasure. There are loads more who have passed away over the last year who were in the public eye and who I'd not mentioned. The names I quoted were part of my youth and as such their passing seems to be disassociating me from my youth, which I find sad. Some of the names were probably not as familiar to most as they were part of my youth culture. I was a hippy rocker, so loved particular types of music ( Lemmy, one of the names I mentioned used to belong to one of those bands (called Hawkwind) and would be less known than most of the names I quoted.

White rabbit brings back memories of my youth and is almost a comfort name for me. :) Thanks for your reply.

Oh so sad. Kept getting game not responding after install and trying to play. I have win 10 64 bit

Anu, I have the same issue. I tried to run troubleshoot compatibility, running it with different graphics processors, and even running it in windows compatibility mode for Windows 7 but nothing changed. I was really looking forward to this game but I guess this is one I'll have to miss out on.

The earring is hanging on a hook on the wall at the left, near the window. Loads and works fine on Windows 8.1. Thanks as always for an interesting challenge. Definitely worth a look.

The Game is okay, but it would be a great Farm Management Game, without the HOG. :)

No real complaints. I am enjoying the mix of "find it" and farm upgrading. Seems to be running just fine in Windows 10 utilizing window mode. Thank you for the game!

A really interesting game and varied gameplay that helps to keep it from just a HOG, As has been said the task of finding items in an certain order etc adds an extra changeling point to the game

Downloaded and installed fine on win 7m been playing it off and on all day. Everything has worked fine, but for one screen, the cabbage patch - find the earring, the hints provides nothing, I've been over this screen a dozen times trying to find the elusive earring.
I've even gone over it with a magnifying glass without any luck finding this one item.
Have the farmer half way to the goal, hope this will not prevent completion of the game?
If anyone can find the earring, please let me know where it is. Perhaps just a glitch in my machine?

I couldn't find anything to help me but I am not that kind of geek to know everything which was suggested there.

But thank you anyway - I will have another look tomorrow.

I have been unable to install the last couple of games on my Windows 10 desktop. I extract the downloaded zip file to my desktop. When I double click on the orange colored file with the key symbol to install, it connects to game giveaway of the day & tells me it's been successfully activated but the installation of the game never begins. I have been downloading & installing game from here for quite some time & am only now having this issue. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong?? TY

..............................Moderator Comment..........................................

Hi Christy, from the way you describe your installation, you are doing everything correctly. Have you tried suspending your security temporarily? Sometimes anti malware suites see the giveawayoftheday wrapper, which includes Themida code as a threat because Themida code is very good at hiding malware. so it may be flagged and your installation is cancelled or deleted automatically, the giveaway team opted to use Themida because of hackers extracting the games executable and posting details of how to do it on you tube. The resultant executable enabled you to install the games at anytime without activation codes as a full version. This would have lead to the contributors leaving the project. .

Please read the problem section of my review and the installation paragraphs as they explain the situation. Since the game giveaway has been operating (Dec 2006) there has never been an infected game given away. The three main contributors (Immanatis, Alawar and Playrix are all reputable distributors/developers).

Also check the FAQ's thread over in the game discussion forums:


http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647?replies=4#post-569187


Please let us know if you solved the problem and how, thank you.

:)

Well you tempted me. I always bypass HO games. This hybrid is certainly playable. The time management is less farm frenzy, more gardenscapes. Earning money for upgrades rather than racing a timer. The HO section is fairly simple and the puzzles are minesweeper, sudoku etc. Looks like it will be a pleasant time passer.

to jgf I had a skip button in the top left of one of the puzzles I could not complete. It let me dismiss the puzzle for 75 gold.

Cheers

..............................Moderator Comment..........................................

Thank you for your feedback Calamity Janet :)

Yes, it´s not strictly - but it starts with a HOG and so it was deleted. It´s not my genre and this kind of game where you have only the name of the things to find (without picture) I never will play. Because I´m from Austria and some of the names I don´t know. It´s about 30 years ago that I had english in school. Some things are forgotten - some things (technical terms) never learned. By some things I would need a translator to know for what I have to search and that makes no fun. But I know this is an english site with english games...

..............................Moderator Comment..........................................

I understand, thanks for your feedback. Your English is very good considering it's 30 years since you studied it. I lived in Germany for almost 3 years 40 years ago, and although I was never fluent, I was able to get by in my daily life (shops, bank, socializing etc), now I can barely remember most of the vocabulary I knew and my grammar is non existent. I've had an hankering to re lean the language, and have bought a couple of computer programs, and DVD's as well as books and dictionaries to help, but have yet to start.

Hi, Thanks for another great little Game! Downloaded fine and fast, plays OK on my 4 yrs old laptop (Dell Inspiron 5720, Intel Core i5-3210M CPU, 2.50 Hz, 8.00 GB RAM, Win7 HP), graphics are nice and cheerful. Didn't know this Game before but can see I will enjoy it.

Have been playing this week (madly..:) 'Golden Trails2 The Lost Legacy' - 3rd time round now, after discovering that 'Bonus Chapter' in this CE version won't simply open itself after Game is played to the end.. It has to be earned (bummer!:) by collecting enough lucky clovers (at least 150), which also (somewhere along the lines of playing) opens 'Unlimited Mode' - AND! later on might allow me to enter 'Secret Mission' by collecting even more lucky clovers and not skipping any mini games. So far - 2 out of 3 achieved. - hence not letting it go just yet haha.

Thanks once again for these great Gifts!! I recommend Today's Game as something (no doubt) equally addictive. Keep 'em rolling! As to HOGs, and why so many people like them? I reckon we all hate losing things, but FINDING??:) It's that old 'feel good factor' I guess, hmm. Naturally there are HOGs and there are HOGs.., some ghastly, some delightful.

Ps. On more reflective (and somber) note this weekend - was proper sad to hear about really great Guitarist and founding member of Jefferson Airplane - Paul Kantner..:(( First David Bowie, now another loss, but also brilliant Legacy! Both painted for us colourful and mostly happy Skies, so quoting after Paul, perhaps this is still true of Them?: 'Look, we're having a good time.' Hope so Guys, truly hope so! Read more here if you wish to:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jefferson-airplane-guitarist-paul-kantner-dead-at-74-20160128

.................................Moderator Comment.......................................

Thank you for the excellent feedback, Fran, and Jefferson airplane were one of my favorite bands from that era. I may have mentioned it before, but my online names are taken from one of Jeffersons many great records; i.e. Whiterabbit' sung by Grace Slick while she was with Jefferson. (I also use the name Slickwhiterabbit).

It's been an awful few months with several of my heroes sadly passing away (Lemmy, Omar Sharif, Bowie, Alan Rickman, Cilla Black, Wayne Rodgers from M.A.S.H, Bob Burns - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Leonard Nimoy, Saeed Jaffrey one of my favorite Indian actors, Gary Richrath from Reo Speedwagon, Patrick Macnee, Yvonne Craig who played Batgirl, Maureen O'Hara that I had a crush on as a teenager, and now Paul) . :)

Great game! It's an uncomplicated HO with lots of puzzle and TM elements. Although I like most HOs, this one appeals to me because I don't have to remember in which room I used the hammer when I played the game yesterday. This one I can play a bit each day and still enjoy everything. I hope there are more of these!
Thanks Immanitas and GGOTD and WR.

Oops, sorry WR. Doggy is the default name. Not your choice. :) Noticed the gems in the 1st level kind of dull. Looked more like a bug than a gem to me. :P

really was excited to play this game, downloaded and installed fine, but when I try to open it, it changes my configuration and keeps running the loading "spinning circle" and never gets anywhere. I have a 6 month old, brand new, HP computer running Windows 10, so I don't know what the problem is.

Awfully creative dog name that, WR. Just joshing you a little my friend. ;) Keep up the good work. Will be downloading this one, though neither are my favorite genres, but a good game is a good game, so let's see.

................................Moderator Comment....................................

Actually I named my in game dog an even better name, Rex, lol.

Okay - this time the game won't run.
I use Win 10. The window starts to open and stays this way.

I tried to run it as admin and tried to find out what problems could be solved via the context menu.

If you have any idea I will be back later tonight and have a look. If it's not working, no problem. I have enough other games and can pass easily on this on.

Thanks anyway and I hope all the others have fun.

................................Moderator Comment....................................

Hello Anu, check the FAQ's thread:


http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647?replies=4#post-569187

Hopefully you'll find a fix there????

.

Thank you for your reply. The time and date on my computer is the correct time and date. I have located FAQ, but cannot find the problem (this is the link I've searched, just in case: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647#post-101133

.................................Moderator Comment............................

You've got the correct thread.

Keep checking back as someone from the community may post suggestions. At this point in time I'm stumped. I'm finding it really hard to concentrate at the moment as i was up virtually all night last night/this morning finishing off today's review and starting Sundays so I'm really tired and need to crash, otherwise I'd spend some time researching the problem. I'll try and give some more feedback before the giveaway ends. Sorry I'm not much help at this time.


Edit: Try rebooting your router and also clearing out your internet cache. :(

First thought was 'not another of these'. But the review, comments, and images won me over to give a try since looks a bit different . Especially like the comment about not having to retreat back thru several prior parts to use an item found elsewhere. Thankfully some of the more recent GOTD HOG style games have Easy option that will hint/tell you which location needs further searching in order to progress beyond current location. An overall map now allows you to quickly go from room/store/town so it's less taxing than endlessly tunneling place to place. Thanks guys for this fresh one.

Hi WR as promised I'm here again unfortunately with a similar problem.

I extracted the game with extractnow.exe, but when I try to install (run as admninistrator setup.exe) the winrar selfextracting archive said "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged".

Same with using izarc and 7zip....any ideas?

Thank you, bye.

.................................Moderator Comment.......................................

Hi Gabriele, sorry for not answering your last comment last week. I tend to miss some of the later comments. Have you checked the FAQ's thread that I link to in the problems section of my review (see comment number 1). Also try installing with your security temporarily disabled. Hopefully that will sort the problem. If it doesn't please let us know. Sorry I can;t be of much help :)

Gabriel

Great game, quite addictive. Runs well on my antique Vista 32 system with a meager 2gig RAM (lol, I'm ancient enough to remember when 64meg was the envy of the neighborhood), no frame rate issues (and I'm currently using an old 8500GT vid card, removed from this system seven years ago, while awaiting a new card); loading times are rather long for such a game, but not intolerable. Graphics are good, music isn't distracting, and you can skip the, sometimes lengthy, dialog sections. The HOG segments aren't too obtuse, the worst being seeking something like a tennis racket where only the handle is visible - a handle which could be a hammer or a golf club or ...a tennis racket (this can make it quite difficult if you want the bonus for no false clicks in a certain number of scenes); and while I pride myself on my vocabulary I had to consult a dictionary at one point (how many know offhand what a "corbel" is?) ...who says games aren't educational. Puzzles are quite varied, some can be solved in a few seconds, others can be pondered over for much longer.

My only "complaint" is that you cannot skip a puzzle; you can continue the game without solving one but it will lock you out of one field, and there is a constant reminder window on the screen that you haven't done that puzzle. You can return and solve it at any time but the game nags you until you do. Eliminate the nag screen and just put a notice on the particular field that you cannot use it until the puzzle is solved.

A definite "thumbs up".

.................................Moderator Comment.......................................

Thank you for the excellent feedback, much appreciated. :)

Excellent game. Downloaded and runs well on my HP Laptop running WIN 8.1 with 8 GB of RAM. Thanks to Immatias Entertainment for donating a winner to us and you WR for being on the hunt for such great games.

...........................Moderator Comment...............................


:) Hi Ila in Maine I don't get the games, the giveaway owners do. I only post the reviews and moderate.

If you want to run these casual type games on a tablet, I'd humbly suggest picking up a cheap Windows tablet -- the Intel SOCs [System On a Chip] commonly used should handle it OK, though maybe with an occasional stutter or pause in my experience. The small, relatively inexpensive Windows boxes & sticks [they look like a large USB stick] should be the same, & plug into your HDTV. The cheap tablet I have has a mini HDMI port, so it also plugs into a HDTV. You can normally use a wired or wireless keyboard & mouse -- the sets that use a single USB receiver can work well -- or you can use Bluetooth. My one son uses his small Windows box [maybe 4"-5" square] as a media player for his HDTV, so you could do more with it than this sort of game.

...........................Moderator Comment...............................


Thanks Mike. :)

I HAVE to get this one, because Farmington is the name of the city where my wife was born & raised!

...........................Moderator Comment...............................


:)

"The reason we get so many HOG like games is because they are the most popular genre these days and have been for several years."

No ,methinks the reason is because they are 10 a penny and pretty much worthless.

...........................Moderator Comment...............................


Chris, the only reason they are ten-a-penny is because they are so popular. The developers and distributors would not continue to create and sell them if they were not popular.

Hello,

Can this be downloaded on an Android tablet?

...........................Moderator Comment...............................

I don't know? You could try and see. Let us know if you are successful. I presume you would require a windows environment to play the giveaway version. There is an andrid version, but that's not being given away

I love this game. It's not a typical hidden object where you have to hunt through a dungeon to find things that you need to use five scenes ago and remember where to use everything and find the place again. This is a more enjoyable hidden object game along with building a farm and raising crops. By the end, I was ignoring the crops, but I enjoyed this game a lot. It is varied enough to make it fun. Not a brain teaser, but a pleasant pastime. I went hunting for more games like this when I finished it.

...........................Moderator Comment...............................

There's a sequel to today's game giveaway called Farmington Tales 2: http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/8713/farmington-tales-2-winter-crop/
The Vacation Adventures, although not exactly the same, may be of interest to you as well:

http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/7490/vacation-adventures-park-ranger-2/?pc
http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/8600/vacation-adventures-cruise-director-2/?pc

Bonjour,
Aujourd'hui pour jouer en français :
1-Télécharger et installer la démo gratuite : http://www.bigfishgames.fr/jeux-a-telecharger/21388/farmington-tales/download.html
2-Copier les fichiers : "C:\Program Files (x86)\Farmington Tales\Texts\hoitems.xml"
et "C:\Program Files (x86)\Farmington Tales\Texts\texts.xml"
3-Les coller dans le répertoire de jeu (à la place des originaux que vous pouvez renommer avant de les remplacer) : "\FarmingtonTales_Game\Texts\hoitems.xml"
"\FarmingtonTales_Game\Texts\texts.xml"

Ce jeu promet de longues heures de détente un peu plus complexe que Gardenscapes...

This game promises long hours of relaxation a little more complex than Gardenscapes ... It looks very interesting.
Thank you for this lovely game.

............................Moderator Comment....................................

Thanks for your feedback Bricolou. :)

Hi !

I downloaded and attempted to install this game, but I keep getting this message: Giweaway period for this software is over, please check our web-site for a new giweaway


I don't understand as this is the game of the day ??????

............................Moderator Comment....................................

Hello Tina, have you checked your computers clock? There is a button cell located on the computers motherboard, that, when exhausted will affect the computers clock, causing it to lose time, or stop working altogether, or every time you reboot, the clock may be reset. If the clock is reading a different day than today, that could be the reason why you are getting that message.

I'm sure someone had this problem a few years ago, but I don't know whether it was ever solved. check the FAQ's thread that I link to in my review (see the problems section, comment number 1), just in case.

Only HOG´s now here? All thumbs down...

..................................Moderator comment................................

It's not strictly a HOG, but a combination of farm management and HOG with mini games thrown in.The reason we get so many HOG like games is because they are the most popular genre these days and have been for several years. You just have to visit arcade sites like Big Fish games and you'll see thousands of the things. Even the free games sites like MyPlayCity have hundreds to give away.

Farmington Tales:

In Brief:

A Hidden Object cum Farm Simulation game with decent graphics and game play. Well worth downloading.

Thank you to Immanitas Entertainment for this excellent arcade game, it's very much appreciated

If you miss today's giveaway it is available free 24/7 from Gametop but not from MyPlayCity or TooMky Games. The advantage of installing the giveaway version is that there is no chance of getting toolbars, home page changes, browser changes, and your browser is never opened to the donators web site when you close the game down, like it is if you get the game from any of the other free arcade game sites.


Installation:

Farmington Tales downloads to a 133 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive. The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 169 MB in size and is installed via the following path.

C:\Games\FarmingtonTales_Game



Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. As with other Immanitas games given away here, there is no shortcut installed, so you will need to create one yourself by following the path above and creating one from the games executable.

The game works on Win 7 and Win 10 computers, unfortunately I can't confirm whether it works on Win 8 as I've now upgraded all of my Win 8 computers.

Introduction:

Welcome to Farmington Tales! Let's get farming in this unique Hidden Object farming simulator hybrid. Plant crops, nurture animals and run the farmer's market! Search the farm for rare treasures. Complete quests and hang out with a quirky cast of folk. Build upgrades like a silo or bridge! Plow, plant, water and harvest the perfect crop, even eggs, milk, and wool!

Explore picturesque Dahlia Farms
Innovative quest system
Expansive farm with over 75 upgrades
Unlock 20 wallpapers

Reviews:


You can see some Big Fish mini reviews of Farmington Tales HERE, just scroll down to the middle of the page. You can also find forum discussions HERE.





The Game:

Here’s the game description, coming straight from Big Fish Games: “Welcome to Farmington Tales! Let’s get farming in this unique Hidden Object farming simulator hybrid. Plant crops, nurture animals and run the farmer’s market! Search the farm for rare treasures. Complete quests and hang out with a quirky cast of folk. Build upgrades like a silo or bridge! Plow, plant, water and harvest the perfect crop, even eggs, milk, and wool!”

Sounds like a lot of stuff that has to be done in the game and indeed you will have a lot of work to do – but fortunately it’s all fun and of great quality. The story here is that our main character is in financial trouble (seems like the tough economic times have spread to the virtual worlds as well) and we have to help win the Farmer of the Year award before the Bank takes the farm.

You’ll be planting crops, harvesting them and taking care of the farm most of the day, but there is also the hidden object part about which we’ll talk more right now. The scenes are simple puzzles where you have to find the indicated objects and sometimes they might seem cluttered. But the really nice thing here, apart from the fact that they give you money for your farm, is the mini-quest option that challenges you to find objects in alphabetical order, find items listed left to right or all sort of interesting challenges that are optional but offer a greater challenge and are extremely interesting.

The time management part is really well done itself and I especially liked the story – one that makes you care about the character, plus the characters that you meet along the way. The time management parts might seem a bit difficult and confusing at first, but the learning curve is lean and quick and pretty soon you’ll be plowing and planting and selling and repairing like a pro. Bonus: you even get to choose the name for the farm dog! Aww!


The game also offers us trophies to win (no less than 47) for increased value and everything goes pretty well here: the sound is nice and the voice-overs are great, the graphics are colorful and nice and even though they do seem a bit outdated, they do a great job at delivering what’s required and offering us an overall pleasant experience.

So I can say that Farmington Tales is an interesting experience and clearly a mixture of genres to follow and to love: what can be nicer than mixing a farming sim with the so-popular Hidden Object genre? Nothing, I tell you, and now please let me get back to my crops!

Edited reference accessed HERE 30th Jan 2016





Video:


...........Video footage may contain SPOILERS.......

You’ll find videos of Farmington Tales game play HERE, HERE and HERE.


Music:

If you don't like the in game music you should be able to change it by swapping the appropriate ogg files for ones you prefer. You would have to rename the files you were going to use and change them to the ogg format, otherwise it wouldn't work. If you do decide to change the music i would suggest you keep a backup of the original music. You can find the music files via the following path:

C:\Games\FarmingtonTales_Game\Audio\x.ogg (where x = music_1.ogg to music_12.ogg plus music_intro.ogg)

System Requirements:


OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/8
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 256 MB
DirectX: 8.0
Hard Drive: 158 MB


Conclusion:

If you liked Gardenscapes you'll love this game with hidden bbject puzzles and several okay mini games as well as a decent farm sim all rolled into one; it's well worth the download.

A pleasant family game, ideal for a fun absorbing hour or so playing together as a family or solo if you prefer.




Scoring


Game play: 8.5
Graphics: 7.5
Audio: 7
Replayability: 7.5
Originality: 8
Fun Factor: 8

46.5 out of 60 = 7.8 out of 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting Farmington Tales working, please go HERE for help. I've posted most of the common problems and solutions in a FAQ thread, which you can find in the sticky section of the forums by following the above link. If you do find any other fixes please post them in the FAQ's thread an I'll incorporate them into the thread when I have time (I always attribute fixes posted by the community to the member who posted them. Thank you.

If you think the game is infected - IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

For those of you who are getting hits by your anti malware suites; it's because they are picking up the Themida based protection, which was put in place to protect the game from unscrupulous community members that were hacking the giveaway wrapper which then gave them unlimited access to a registered copy of the game, which was being put on peer to peer sites. Some community members were even uploading video tutorials on You tube telling you how to do it yourself.

Themida based applications are sometimes seen as a threat by anti-malware. I can assure you this game and hundreds before, that have given community members cause for concern have been totally safe. The game giveaway team have managed to secure well over a thousand games for us since they first started giving away games back in late 2006; firstly via the main site (Oct 2006), then via the game giveaway site (early December 2006). There has never 'ever' been an infected game given away.



If you are able to configure your anti-malware suite to allow the 'seemingly offensive' file through security, the game should then install normally. if you can't, or don't know how to, then the other way would be to temporarily turn off your protection. You do so at your own risk, but please do take into account what I've already said above; in a nut shell, every malware occurrence reported here since the game giveaway went live in Dec 2006 have been false positives due to overly sensitive anti-malware suites.

It would be against the giveaway teams best interest to allow such an occurrence as it would destroy their good standing with the big search engines and I'm sure many who have frequented this site for a long time would leave. The giveaway team use several anti-malware suites to test every game given away here.



Another thing to consider when you think the game is infected, if it really was, there would be hundreds of community members posting about the infection; we rarely more than a few posts for any particular game; though, since the gcd file that contains the Themida code was introduced in 2012 I have seen many more community members reporting infections due to the Themida based code found in the giveaways wrapper protection. However, out of the thousands of downloads each week, those numbers are insignificant and supports the fact that the results they are getting are actually false positives. They have always been proven to be so.

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums; in the game discussion section, because I cannot moderate 24hrs a day over the weekend. I've created a thread HERE for that purpose. If you've installed today's game but it doesn’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at a later date. Unfortunately if your problem is actually downloading it, once the giveaway deadline is reached you will no longer be able to download the game unless you've already started downloading it before the cut-off. Sometimes you can still register the game after the giveaway has ended so long as you managed to start the download before the giveaway ends. I've tested this and the grace period lasts for up to 1 hour. Apart from the above instances; i.e. already installed, but having problems running the game, (with the possibility of receiving help from the community via the giveawayoftheday game discussion forum); or still downloading after the cut off period, but within the 1 hour grace period, or registering within an hour of the cut-off period. Once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done to get the game (unless its available from one of the free game sites) until the game is given away again (though that isn't always guaranteed).


It's worth checking the giveaway game discussion forums the day before the giveaways go live to see if we are getting a large sized file (I usually post a comment about approximately how large a file is if it's likely to cause problems for those with slow connections; however, if I'm particularly busy I may neglect to do this). It is especially important for those who have slow connections and even more so if the game is popular. We can have up to forty thousand (40 000) community members downloading over the 24 hour period (if the game is popular), with the bulk of community members downloading in the first 12 hours of the giveaway going live, there is always a massive strain on the giveaway servers. The bigger the file size, the more community members will be downloading at any one time. Because the bandwidth is shared equally among all community members, downloads can become excruciatingly slow, so if you do have a slow connection, its important to start your download as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Because these games are free, the giveaway owners cannot invest in more bandwidth without compromising the whole project, so we have to be satisfied with what we have at present.

A download manager can help speed the download up and also protect the download in case of an interruption. There's nothing as frustrating for those with really slow connections to have the connection break after an hour or so, then have to start from the beginning again. I would ask community members if you do have decent bandwidth please avoid using a manager as it does add to the number of downloads occurring at any one time, for example some download managers will download your requested file in up to 32 packets simultaneously, that effectively will take 32 download spots, thus slowing down everyone's download speeds. For those with slow downloads (due to having a slow connection e.g. a 2MB Broadband connection or less) I would advise using a download manager if the file is larger than around 200MB. My broadband connection is 100MBs, so I don't need to use a download manager, (I do have one called Internet Download Manager, but don't use it when downloading files from the giveaway site). For me a 1GB file usually downloads in about 1.5 minutes or less. My connection is quite a long way from the provider so it is slowed a little, but is still quite good at a download speed of around 12 to 14 MB's per second.

I hope the above goes some way in explaining why we sometimes have really slow downloads.



It’s always worth checking out the free games sites because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity (MPC) has the most with over 1400 games to choose from and TooMky Games is highly recommended as well, though sometimes Gametop will have the game when the others don't. Today's game is available 24/7 from Gametop .






If you do download any games from these free game sites please 'do' watch out for toolbars etc. Make sure you un-check the check-boxes during installation, and, in the case of MyPlayCity, every time you boot the game up, (this may have changed now as these free game sites tend to change the format frequently). I've not downloaded any from these sites in ages so can't confirm whether they have changed....... I've posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the 'games, games and yet more games' section. If you do download a game from any of these sites you do so at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for problems arising from an installation recommended here. :)


The gamegiveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. (BitsduJour is also great for free applications). The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway and if and when you upgrade or buy a new computer legally you aren't allowed to transfer games given away previously, unless they are being given away again after you upgrade, or if you've purchased a license. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. No games given away here since the inception of the gamegiveaway site have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slight annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention; i.e. when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway, called 'the Software Informer' installation window. Some community members have complained that they were given no choice in its installation. That is not true; when the final window pops up, there are two buttons, one asking if you want Software Informer installed and the button to close the giveaway window down. Some community members have clicked on the wrong button, probably because they weren't paying attention. Thankfully Software Informer is a genuine application, that can easily be uninstalled by the usual means. It's actually a useful piece of software, especially if you have a lot of applications running on your computer. Basically the program will list the programs that need updating, or programs that have available updates. They wont be automatically installed (thus cancelling many giveaway registrations); you have to click on individual buttons to update each program/application. :D

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Games, Games, and yet more Games:


There are 590 games on sale this week, with a new batch of games to come on Monday. You can find all of the games on sale HERE. I won't bother listing any of the games, but it should be worth visiting as there are games for all tastes. Of course you do need to install the Steam client, but IMO it is well worth it. There are lots of free games (not just free to play online games) available plus there are always games on sale. You'll often find other game distributors will sell games with a Steam key and most of the bundled games on sale usually come with a Steam key as well.



You'll find some excellent deals over on the following Game sites.

GreenManGaming They usually have coupons to the value of 23% and sometimes more off pre ordered games. I've pre ordered lots of AAA games from GMG and saved up to 25% off the pre order prices you find on Steam.

Gamersgate Summer Sale
GOG (DRM free games)
Gamestop
GameFly (soon to be sold off)

I've removed the Desura link because the owners are bankrupt and there has been no activity on the site in many months. The servers are still live (at least until Bad JoJo's subscription to the servers has ended, Bad JoJo are the owners of Desura and Indie Royale, or were until filing for bankruptcy). If you own any games via Desura I advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform and on the Indie Royale site before the sites are taken down.




Free Game Sites:

Toomky Games
MyPlayCity (over a 1000 games to choose from)
Gametop
FreeGamePick (I've been told by Diane that FreeGamePick games tend to revert to demo's, can't qualify this tohugh as i don't download from FreeGamePick anymore.



To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price. If like me you prefer Steamworks games, many of the above sites also sell Steamwork games.

If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles (there's over 20 of them - If you purchased all of them you'd be paying around $80 for around a thousand dollars worth of games); or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand. you'll find the indie bundles thread HERE. The thread is outdated, but all of the links will still take you to the latest bundles.






The latest IndieGameStand game is Toby: The Secret Mine

A challenging puzzle platformer inspired by games like Limbo or Nihilumbra.

A peaceful way of life in a small village in the mountains was thrown into disorder. Someone has kidnapped most of it’s residents. A couple of brave hearts tried to rescue their friends but none of them has returned. Little Toby didn’t want to just sit and wait so he decided to find them by himself. He went to the near deep forest but he soon realized this is just a beginning.

Go with Toby on an eerie adventure in a dark and creepy world full of dangerous situations, enemies and challenging puzzles.

Features:
- Various Beautifully handcrafted Environments
- Lots Of Different Puzzles
- Many dangerous and challenging traps and enemies
- Controller support

You can get the game for $1; pay over the average to get a map of the game, a prototype game and sourse code for Hadean Lands.. (The price at the time of writing was $1.81). The game includes a drm free download.
The deal ends Thursday Jan 28th 2016 5am (GMT)



The latest DIG game is Ampersand

Ampersand is a furiously fast paced racing game, with futuristic vehicles and environments. Select from multiple crafts, with varying stats and abilities, collect power-ups and drive with skill and precision to come out on top!

Pay £0.99 for the game or you can get two keys if you pay more than the average of $1.08 (at the time of writing ). One Steam key to share with a friend or family member perhaps? You'll find that deal HERE. They also have five bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 each HERE (DIG Bundles 49, 50 & 51, reBundle 10 and DIG Greenlight Bundle 4 and 5 ). You get Steam keys for all of these games apart from the DIG Greelight Bundles. If any of those games are added to the Steam store you will get a Steam key, in the mean time, you can download DRM free copies.

The single game deal ends Midnight Sunday 31th Jan 2016 and will be replaced with a new game.

Most of the bundles available retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars (apart from the Daily Indie bundles that only cost $1.49 for six games), but you can pay as little as a dollar for some. There are some excellent bundles out at the moment. I highly recommend the first four sites as they regularly change their bundles, at least weekly. Bundle Stars is the most prolific, usually with at least 10 bundles, but sometimes a lot more. some bundles stay for months, others for only a few days. I also recommend buying the Greenlight bundles as you will get quite a few being Greenlit and save a large amount of money on newly released games. I reckon at least 75% of the games from those bundles have been Greenlit since I purchased my first Greenlight bundle. (I've bought at least 50 bundles with only Greenlight games and they have never cost more than $3 to $4 per bundle, with savings up to 90%. The flying bundle is the only one that will inform you when a game has been Greenlit and will send you your Steam keys, the rest you have to check your accounts page to see if they have added Steam keys. sometimes it may take several weeks after the game has been released before you get your keys, but generally its either the same day or a few days at the most.





Bundle Stars (26 bundles)
Groupees (3 bundles)
Indie Gala (5 bundles)
Humble bundle (2 Bundles)
Indie Royale (this bundle is no longer live)
Bundle Bandits (0 bundles)
Blink Bundle (0 bundles)
Play Injector (0 bundle)
Get Loaded (0 bundles)
Games Rage (0 bundles)
Flying bundle (1 bundles)

FREE GAME:

The free game from Origin is Jade Empire: Special Edition (Highly Recommended). This game may change soon as it's been available for almost two months now.

Step into the role of an aspiring martial-arts master and follow the path of the open palm or the closed fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of the entire Jade Empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land, or will you crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses his strength and fighting mastery to bring peace, or will you instead use your power to bring pain and ruin?
The choice is yours.

Game Features:


The Original Award Winning Jade Empire
An incredible, engaging story that makes you the noble hero or the treacherous villain!
A wealth of fascinating characters to interact with.
Beautiful, mysterious lands to explore, discover, and save...or conquer.
A rich blend of role-playing and exciting real-time combat.
New monsters and enemies.
New fighting styles.
Customizable, intuitive controls including support for game-pads and keyboard/mouse.
Increased graphics resolutions and new visual effects.
Improved combat AI and difficulty levels.
New world map interface.

Check it out HERE.


You do need a free Origin account and install the Origin client to get these free games. Once you've installed the Origin client and signed into your account select 'On the house' from the 'Free Games' drop down menu. Then select download now. The game will then be registered to your Origin account permanently.

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A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.


Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment, and a big thank you to Immatias Entertainment for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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