The Steam community, of which there are throughout Friday anywhere between 8 to 12 million community members means key will be taken very quickly. The game giveaways are advertised on many of the Steam key giveaway sites and Steam groups. with so many Steam users online when this game giveaway went live, it's certain that the keys will be taken quickly. 5000 keys went in around 2 hours. The giveaway team always endevour to get more keys, so, if you have joined the site after the keys were taken, check back later as there is always a chance more keys will become available, but it's not guaranteed. It all depends on the generosity of the developer.

The developer gave another 3000 keys late afternoon/early evening (UK time), again all keys have now been taken up. I'd like to thank the developer for his generosity and do hope we get some constructive feedback from the community. I have offered to give away Steam games (from my own personal stock of spare keys) to those that do give decent feedback.

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or not about today's game will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however a little light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. All comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed not appropriate, will be deleted with no explanation. Please see the end of this review for further details about posting comments and links to the teams contact, moderation policy and the FAQ's thread, thank you.

The giveaway at my request have just implemented a VPN blocker, so those Trolls posting stupid and inappropriate comments will no longer be seen before moderation has taken place.

Action Alien

In Brief

Action Alien is a casual single player first person action adventure shooter created by a one man game studio called DevDan Studio.

Suggestions:

If you get a key for Action alien please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about it, or how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What, improvements, if any, would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?

If you don't win a key, don't mind playing games via Steam or miss the offer totally you can get the game 24/7 via Steam HERE. It usually costs £3.99/4.99$,

Introduction:

Jump into the action and battle your way through hordes of aliens from canyon deserts to tropical islands !

Reference accessed HERE 4th Match 2017

Installation:

Once you've found your key for Action Alien (should be sent to the email you used to enter the giveaway - it must be the email you first used to sign into the game giveaway site. If you’ve used a throwaway email there may be problems getting a key, because the key may be sent to that email. If you have any problems use the contact form. Hopefully the giveaway team will repost the information they posted several weeks qgo explaining the email situation. ) you have to activate the game via your Steam client. Once activated it will be permanently tied to your Steam profile and you'll be able to install the game at any time, anywhere on any computer, so long as you can validate who you are (usually via emails etc.). If you don't have a Steam account you will first have to download and install the Steam client HERE

Then create a Steam profile/account. Once that has been completed you can input the Steam code that you've received (after completing the form filling) via the game button along the top of the Steam client, (located between friends and Help. From the drop down menu select 'Activate a product on Steam'. This opens a product activation window. Just follow the prompts to complete activation. Once the Steam code has been accepted, the game will be permanently associated with your Steam account and can be installed any time you wish.

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Action Alien to work, please visit the problems section over in the Game Discussion forums, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

The Game:

Action Alien reminds me (vaguely) of a couple of games I played extensively a few years back called Fallout: New Vegas and Dead Island, mainly for the environments portrayed in todays game, with even a little Crysis thrown in, tthugh the game engine used (Unreal engine) gives the impression of an older FPS game. Still, as a buget FPS game this is a decent shooter, with lots of upgradable weapons and perks that improve health, speed, jumping abilities as well as the ability to carry more ammo, reload your weapons faster and even improves melee such a s stronger leg kicks, which are useful if you are being attacked in the middle of a reload.

Keyboard controls are fixed, i.e. you cannot change the key bindings, but are pretty much standard FPS controls, i.e. left mouse click = fire, right mouse click gives you melee numbers 1 and 2 enable you to switch wepons, Tab gives you your objectives, E allows you to grab weapons, G is throw grenade and shift is sprint. Selecting from menus is standard i.e mouse left click That's about it.

Complete the story-driven levels by collecting gas cans and defeating boss aliens to unlock upgraded weapons and perks to achieve the maximum fire-power, or play the survival game mode and try to hold on for as long as possible ! There are many different kinds of aliens to fight in various environments, as much as weapons and items to find !

Action Alien was formerly known as The Alien Wasteland, HERE is a blog post explaining the reasons of the change. Basically the developers of the game Wasteland and Wasteland 2, InXile Emntertainment (who I supported during their Kickstarter campaign for Wasteland 2), threatended DevDan Games (a one man development studio) with legal action over the original name of the game, so it was changed to the less impressive Action Alien . Personally I think it it was ridiculous and I've lost repaect for inXile for their action against a small struggling studio.

Edited reference accessed HERE 4th Match 2017

Features:

3 large open world maps set in different places and guided by story lines
2 survival maps with the goal of resisting against aliens for as long as possible.
8 weapons ranging from the revolver, the tommy gun to the grenade launcher with each one having 2 levels of upgrade increasing their efficiency.
3 species of aliens requiring different tactics and weapons to defeat them.
Fully destructible environments as much by the player as by the aliens.
Perk system using credits points earned during playing to increase health, speed, jumps, melee kicks, etc...
19 achievements to unlock
Support of Steam trading cards.
Support of Steam cloud to keep all progress available on any computer.
Playable with Xbox-like gamepads.
Many customisable settings and tweaks.

Other Reviews, Videos and a Slideshow of images:

You can see Steam community reviews of Action Alien HERE, and some videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

This is a cheap First Person Shooter, not the best I've seen, but for the price it's actually quite decent. The graphics are alittle dated, but that's down to the older unreal game engine used . Personally I love wastland type games like this. Action Alien was possiby inspired by games like the Fallout Series created by Bethesda Studios but I do see other influences such as Dead Island (especially the beach area's of the game). For free you can't go wrong. Get it before all the keys go.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer DevDan Studios for giving away 5000 keys for this First Person Action Adventure Shooter and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case a Steam key.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If today's game giveaway 'Action Alien' didn't appeal, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The free game over on Origin is still the excellent atmospheric Sci Fi RPG third person Shooter Mass Effect 2, but it will probably be ending soon. If you've still not got a copy, get it now, it's well worth. It usually costs £19.99/$19.99 (though I paid the pre-order price of over £30 prior to it's release back in January 2010) . You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

You will also find lots of deals over on Green Man Gaming and Big Fish Games usually have 70% off the first game you buy from them, plus they also have other deals occasionally. Desura was purchased from Bad Ju Ju games last year by One Play. If you already have a Desura account you can read details of what is happening HERE. As yet you can't access games you previously purchased via Desura (I have around 1400), but One Play are working to recover everyone's accounts and hope to do so by the end of March 2017. Indie Royale will also resume on a weekly basis, though at this time I don't know if previous Indie Royale Greenlight bundles will be honoured? Alawar, Gamehouse and Playrix entertainment have free games available (usually online versions) and other game houses such as the AAA distributors Ubisoft and Origin always have some games on sale. I've updated the Weekly roundup of game deals HERE to include a large list of other sites where you can find games on sale ( e.g. Origin, uPlay, GreenManGaming etc, as well as links to free online games and other game houses such as Alawar, Playrix and Gamehouse plus gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and Game Seek, and included a list of free to play Massive Multiplayer games such as World of Tanks, World of Warships, Liberators and Allegiance to name a few. For more details please go to the Weekly roundup of game deals over in the game discussion sticky section HERE.

There are 714 games on sale over on Steam at the moment, with up to 91% off. Game prices range from as little as £0.15p (most of these cheap games are actually cheaper in the UK than the US, so if you are a US citizen and have a UK friend, get them to buy the game for you). There are almost 200 games and dlc less than $1 and almost 250 for less than £1. You can find all of the deals HERE.

If you spend more than $3 in the Indie Gala store you'll also get a free copy of the old school anime rpg '200% Mixed Juice' worth $6.99/£4.99There's 60% off the enhanced version of Dying Light The Following, plus there are loads more deals with excellent discounts that you'll find HERE.

The Humble Bundle site has two excellent bundles plus their monthly package that is excellent value for money. The game bundle is the Humble Civilization bundle that includes Civilization III, iV, V and 20% off Civilization VI, or 25% off the deluxe version. They even have a software bundle at the moment with apps such as System Mechanic, Air Parrot, EaseUS Partition Master, all three worth over $100 for a dollar, or for just over $6/less than £5 you can get Daemon tools Pro 8 lifetime, Blackblase Online backup, 3D Mark Advanced Edition, worth £110 or for $12 /under £10 PC Mark 8 advanced, VR Mark Advanced and Dashlane Premium (1 year) worth around £110, plus you get 10% off the humble monthly bundle for $12 worth over $100. If you subscribe now (ends in just over a week) you'll get as a bonus Total War: Warhammer. The Humble store features loads of discounted games (usually steam codes). If you subscribe to the Humble Monthly, which costs $12 a month (or less if you choose various monthly plans) you not only get a large collection of decent Steam games you will also get for the first month of the subscription Total War: Warhammer, which was released last Spring and costs $59.99/£39.99. The great thing is, you can cancel at any time, so only need to receive the first bundle of games. I personally haven't bothered, but only becasue I usually have already purchased most of the games included in the monthly bundle. The usual savings on the games you get are around 90%, not counting the introductory offer. There's also lots of games on sale over on the Bundle Stars and Indie Game Stand (IGS).

For those who missed out on the Alien Shooter 2 - Conscription giveaway from last month or Zombie Shooter from last October or Alien Shooter 2 - Conscription from last June or Zombie Shooter 2 from last May you can get six games from the series including Alien Hallway, Zombie Shooter 2, Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded, Alien Shooter: Revisited, Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter for $1.49. HERE. Pay an extra $0.50 and get a second bundle to give to your friends. All keys are Steam based. This offer ends mid March. ;) stores. Or you can join the competition to win a copy of Alien Shooter TD HERE.

Giveaway Team Contact and Moderation policy:

Continued from the first paragraph at the beginning of this review ........... I am posting this in light of the massive increase in negative comments not related to the game being given away, inappropriate comments and spam that have occurred over the past several months since the site was updated and in particular since the site started using Facebook, Twitter and Steam. Almost 700 spam comments were posted over a 24 hour period last month. This is a site that gives free games away, so it's quite shocking to see the number of negative and sometimes inappropriate comments being posted here, especially when they are not even related to the actual game that we receive. I always though getting something for free was a privilege/perk/treat/ and deserves at least some thanks or gratitude and cannot understand why we get so many negative comments that possibly turn away potential developers who would otherwise have given the project their games. Of course we have freedom of speech, but as mentioned in my review above, there are rules to posting in this comments section; even a free society requires rules and regulations to run properly, so please bear this in mind when posting a comment.

I believe if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers would be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints (and spam) instead of feedback about the giveaways will not persuade other developers to give their creations away for free, especially when they may have spent thousands of hours working on them. So please also consider this when posting your feedback. Any comment not about the game for example complaints, or if deemed unfriendly or inappropriate, will be deleted (usually with no explanation) or added to the spam folder, which automatically black lists the IP address you used. Although I have enjoyed responding to many of those comments in the past, I will no longer waste my time answering comments from community members who should have read the moderation policy.

Negative feedback about the games given away will always be welcomed because they can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games or about Steam keys not received should be directed to the giveawayoftheday team via the contact form together with evidence of completed tasks, the name and email you used to enter the competition, or giveaway). You can find the contact form HERE; alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day, please also consider posting your issue in the forums where you may get a response from the community because I cannot moderate 24 hours a day. All games given away here have been thoroughly checked using several anti malware suites to ensure a safe download and in the 10 plus years this site has been operating, there has never been a game infected with malware. If your security software flags an issue, it's probably the Themida code that is used to protect the game from hackers or sometimes the non invasive adware that MPC games use. Themida code can also be used to hide malware, so some security software's will automatically block anything with Themida code, even if it's absolutely safe to install; also, other computer configurations (i.e. the way your computer is set up) may have blocked the installation. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation; for example, quite a few game giveaways I've installed have been blocked by my copy of Zemana AntiMalware. Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and if you do have a problem please check the FAQ's thread HERE. Thank you for reading.

FREE game offer from the moderator in exchange for quality feedback:

There were more winners for posting good feedback, which I mentioned in reply to their comments. Some I haven't as yet and those that have won do need to post a comment in the appropriate thread over in the forums with their section of games they wish. First come first served if more than one chooses the same game. If you think you wrote feedback that may win a key from the last two weeks, do please check those comments on Sunday evening/Monday evening to see if I've left a comment letting you know you've won a key. then go to the forums and let me know what you want. I'm hoping to add more games to the list this weekend. That said, I do have multiple keys for some games. , but will be doing over this weekend. Been a little busy since last weekend. One particular community member has excelled and will be receiving yet more keys. He knows who he is I've already given a couple away so far, but I'm still waiting to hear from others.

So far I've posted a list of over 200 Steam games in the forums HERE and will be adding more as time permits over the coming weeks. It is quite an extensive list of games taken from the 10 000+ Steam keys I've collected over the last several years. All keys were either purchased by me, with a few received free for pre-ordering games on Steam, plus a few others for entering competitions and other offers). There will be a limited number of other keys available, such as Origin, uPlay and Desura keys as well as some DRM copies. Desura has recently been purchased following the original owners demise and should be up and running by the end of March. I will announce winner's from each giveaway the following week. If no announcement is made, it means no one posted feedback that qualified for a free game that week. If you have won a game, I will also post details in the thread I've created specifically for that purpose HERE. Once I've given a key away, the game and any comments by the winner will be removed from the list the following week. I will assume if you don't reply within a few weeks you aren't bothered about a key. Please post your preferences (list at least 3 games in order of preference over in the forums HERE. Thank you. Happy gaming.)

Depending on the quality of the feedback, I may choose to award games to more community members for each game given away, 'at my discretion'. The feedback must be about the game, and it must include a couple of paragraphs of feedback following the guidelines I've posted in the suggestions section of my review. i.e. your opinion of the game, what you liked and/or disliked plus suggestions for improvement. If you choose a game that is very cheap I may give you a second game; so, when choosing from the list I provide, please list more than one choice. If a game is chosen by more than one community member and only one key is available the key will go to the one I deem the most useful. I do have multiple keys for quite a lot of the games I've listed, so, don't be put off if you see someone else has chosen the game you want. I haven't indicated any of the games I have multiple keys for (though for example I do have several keys for the excellent Western themed AAA game Call of Juarez, which i picked up for free for purchasing several games via the Indie Gala store several months ago. spending a few dollars got me a copy of the game, so I made several separate purchases over a couple of days while the offer was still live.

I do own at least three community members a game from the previous giveaways that I posted several months ago. I'd totally forgotten about those. I do have a document with their names on, so they will get a game from the original list when I find the document (I'm extremely disorganized); or they can peruse the new list and choose something different. Just post a comment over in the forums in the appropriate thread. If you do post feedback with a view to getting one of the games and think you have covered the requirements, you don't have to do anything until I announce the winners the following week.

Please remember, this comments section is mainly for feedback about today's game giveaway. If you're not sure, read the moderation policy, which you can see HERE