Helicopter arcade game. Shoot-'em-up action with plenty of adventures and adrenaline. The game is aimed at all players, from novices to hardcore action gamers.
http://www.freemahj.com/free-mahjong/

This is a brilliant arcade air combat game. The scenery is great and very nicely drawn and you can have some great dogfights as well as air to ground attacking. Do get it from MyplayCity if you missed the giveaway. The MyPlayCity install for this game is innocuous, just check the custom install and uncheck the two boxes. Not sure why the MyPlayCity version is 149Mb as opposed to the stated 52Mb for the GAOTD version, perhaps there are more missions, larger game area? :)

Finally had the chance to try out a giveaway and my poor old laptop can't run it (it's running an old Intel 965 Express - doesn't even have hardware T&L lol). So it's completely on my end, not the dev's. Thanks anyway GGAOTD and Fly Games. Looked like a fun game. :)



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

Thank you for your feedback. Maybe save the game for when you upgrade. The game is free standing.

It is a cute little game, and it reminds me somewhat of an older game called, the RED BARON. That game in and of itself was good, and this one is no different. I like the airplane games / simulators.

I would rate this game a 6 out of 10 due to the controls being hard to understand, but I like knowing that I do not have to use the W-A-S-D keys to make the game work, and only use the arrow keys, and space bar. Also the audio is a little sluggish, but I do not really judge a game on the merits of the audio alone.

I have had no issues installing this game across 3 different machines to test where it would end, but it played well and even played on a Pentium II machine. The last machine I have tested it on is my Laptop which is a older model processor, but still an INTEL CORE DUO with
the Intel Video Card (DELL Brand Machine). I have tested it under Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows 7 and so far it has not given me any issues at all, and it played well.

Thanks to the manufactuer (Fly) and GGOTD for bringing this game out, and if any suggestions that I would like to make are the following:

1.) Make the controls a bit more responsive

2.) Update the information so that the player can get better info on how to control the airplane.

3.) Update the sound coding a little so that it is more inline with the game instead of a brief 1/2 second pause between the gun firing and the sound the gun makes when it is being fired..




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

Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated.

Regarding #15 and #19, I guess it may have been my fault that it did not work. I re-downloaded the latest NVidia driver and re-installed it. That did it. It is working wonderfully now.
Thanks to GGOTD for all the games!


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

Thank you for your feedback. Glad you got it to work. :)

No problems for me installing and running on 64-bit Win7 (other than my own problems getting used to the controls - seems like they may take some getting used to for me).

I did find that it was slow to respond to mouse input on my system and a list of the keyboard controls during the training mission would be very helpful.

All in all, it looks like a fun game.

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

Thank you for your feedback.

This game looked a lot like Combat Wings which I have on Steam, and I just love flying games in general so I was pretty excited when I saw the thumbnails. It's fine graphically for a low-budget (i.e. Free) game, but it feels a little crazy trying to play. There is not much of any sense of freedom of movement as things come rushing towards you. By the time something is visible on screen to shoot it is already to late to steer towards it or fire upon it. It quickly devolves into a feeling of chaos for me. Sometimes I win the level, sometimes I don't, but I can't get a handle on what's supposed to be going on. It does seem rather straightforward - shoot enemy planes and targets, but what you see happening on the screen in relation to your ability to have control over it is very confusing.

I had been trying to play with the Xbox 360 controller, which really is a must for this type of game. I found however that movement was extremely slow. I grabbed the mouse and found much quicker response that made the game a little more reasonable. However, there was NO OPTION to change the sensitivity of the Xbox 360 controller that I could find, and NO OPTION to reverse the Y-coordinates of the mouse. It is instinctual to pull down to go up and push up to go down in flying games. These options are imperative and should be incorporated into the software immediately.

The game has potential if the following areas are improved: Explanatory tutorial levels or help pages, ability to adjust calibration or sensitivity of the gamepad because as it is the gamepad support is worthless since it only moves the plane very slowly, ability to toggle Y-axis inversion (for all control methods), gamepad control in menu screens.

Thanks GGOTD and Fly Games for the opportunity to experience and enjoy this software.

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

Thank you for your feedback. The latter part of your feedback can be addressed if you have a decent mouse such as the Razer Lachesis, which has the ability to change the sensitivity on the fly and reverse movement; that would mean using one of the memory slots just for one game. Personally I love flight sims of all shapes and sizes and found todays game to be okay. For me it wa splayable, but I do agree with a previous comment that other titles in this series of games are better.

Yeah, definitely needs a better icon. What does a falling girl have to do with this game?



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

American planes, especially bombers used to have symbols just like the falling girl stuck on the side of their planes. check this link out for details:

http://northstargallery.com/aircraft/sensualilty.htm (not suitable for children)

I wanted to like this game, too, but the controls are terrible. Need to be able to customize the controls. Also, when using mouse to aim the plane, when you normally use a cursor to go up or down, this game is frustratingly just the opposite. The Sky Aces games were much better and easier to control.


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

Thank you for your feedback. I'm not sure which game in the series was released first, but from the way todays game performs it would seem like this was the first. As mentioned above, I found changing my mouses dpi settings really helped. (I have a Razer Lachesis which can be changed on the fly, so the game plays much better for me) If you have a mouse that can be configured to increase it's DPI, you would find this game much more pleasing.

win 7 64 bit sp1 starts then freezes tried changing res then whole pc crashes . drivers are up 2 date


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

Thank you for your feedback.

Rarely had issue lately. This gives Memory access violation and small black screen behind it. If rem right this series caused me issues in the past but usually in game. 8 megs ddr3 ram. Latest Nvidia driver. Win 7 sp1 x64 Ultimate. No loss. Thanks anyway GOTD.


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

Sorry beergas; looks like a few are getting this issue. Strange. It works on my i7 with the latest Nvidia drivers.

I resolved the problem I had in comment #9. I had to disable Data Execution Prevention for this game (it’s the only one I have requiring this).


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

thank you for the feedback

I enjoyed playing this game and I'm not usually into flight sims/dogfights. The only thing that holds the game back is the mouse sensitivity. The game could really do with an option to increase or decrease this setting. I spend most of my time on my laptop so don't have a dedicated mouse, and whilst the controls for this game work really well using a trackpad, the sensitivity of the mouse means I spent a lot of time swiping left or right on the trackpad to get any response out of the plane. If the developer could fix this I think they'd be on to a good game here.


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

thank you for the feedback. I have a Razer Lachesis which has two buttons behind the mouse wheel for changing the mouses sensitivity. By increasing my mouses senstivity to it's maximum the game played really well. The plane responded quickly to my movement; yet if i went out of game the mouse pointer would whizz across the screen far to fast just with a small movement of my hand. The game definitely needs the sensitivity uppig for the majority to appreciate this game. Unfortunately unless you've paid around £70+ for your mouse you probably won't have that facility on your mouse. For those who can adjust their mouse sensitivity on the fly via their mouse buttons you may be pleasantly surprised at how changing the sensitivity improves the game 100%

Ok, I seem to be having a problem un-installing this. I can find no uninstall option in the game folders nor does it appear in my list of programs in the windows uninstall utility.



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

Most game giveaways are free standing which means to uninstall you just delete the installed folder. There are no registry keys directly related to the game, just those involved in unpacking the original zip file. Sorry, i should have mentioned that in my review. I forgot to add it to the instructions.

EZ install here on Vista Home, personally prefer fullscreen so that's not an issue for me-
uhhh- mouse up raises my plane to the sky & mouse down crashes me into the ground-
I played that helic a few times also so got into the habit of leading my shots & this seems to play out the same way-
Hated to see so many bashing this so hard, but hey-that's what the comments are for, eh ?

Downloaded fine and ran first tie on my old Asus Laptop.

Controls seemed a little sluggish during the training mission but then maybe some of that is aircraft dynamics? Basic but a lot of fun. Thanks GOTD, well worth the download.

Don't normally comment on the game giveaway page but I'm getting a bit fed up of people saying that "this, that and the other didn't work"
I believe that your complaints should be addressed to Microsoft and the various PC manufacturers.
For a software developer to make a programme that will work across all versions of Windows and all the different specifications of PC's, not to mention all the variations in personal setups this is an impossible task. ( Ask yourself why did Apple stop licensing 3rd party manufacturers of their personal computers? )
So if you download a programme from GOTD that doesn't work correctly, don't blame the software or GOTD, look at your equipment.
By the way this is a nice, average game that at least doesn't expect me to be a qualified fighter pilot in order to play it. I'm hopeless at flight simulators.
P.S. Hi Stephen, hope you are well. Thanks for doing a great job on the game Giveaway. Mike.


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

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Usually it's the users fault that a game doesn't work. A configuration problem or incompatibility. I can't ever remeber having a game giveaway that wouldn't work on my computers.

Thanks.

I'm running Win-7 Pro and I've just recently updated my ATI graphics software a few days ago. This is the only 'flying' type game I have on my system and I like it! Trouble is, I can't get beyond the first campaign.

The program crashes with a Memory Access Violation on the last screen of the level 1. I have installed it into Program Files (x86) and then tried Win7 - Program Files\Games... Same problem exactly on both. I have attempted compatability mode changes and adjusted resolution downward, (which makes performance worse.) All other games on my system (24) work perfectly. I even tried the Mirror 1 download - same.

After four attempts at getting through the level 1 battles, I give up. But, I want the developer to know that I have enjoyed playing the game. I don't want to uninstall it. I want more like it! I can only play 'Mouse driven' games.

Also, it may be my imagination but, there may be a potential problem with the audio (Music.) It generally starts out fine -- with the propeller sound - but it all begins 'breaking up' as the screen changes. I can load the two .ogg tracks individually and they play fine. Same with the MP3 files. It seems the music WITH the propeller sound is the culprit. (Just running standard WMP stuff - nothing fancy)

It may indeed be something I have overlooked. Maybe I'll try to fix it again tomorrow. Thanks for providing me a rather entertaining, if not interesting afternoon! I appreciate your work.


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

Thank you for your useful feedback

loaded fine on my satellite pro running vista but after starting and letting me select levels and aircraft i also get the "cannot set graphics mode."

Do these guys have friends ???
Do they not test it on at least couple of systems first ???

If you have to go into your set up and start changing thinks that many people will not understand then the game is not playable yet and should be better developed before wasting everyones time.

Looked like a great game but as it is not ready to run on an average laptop then i have just wasted 30 mins on a download, an install and several attempts to run a game that is not ready.

I understand the point of GAOTD is to try this but when it wont even run on basic systems then it aint ready to be here.

I never have to do this with other GAOTD games so i know this one needs work first. At least give us a chance too.



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

Thank you for your feedback. I've got the game running on four different systems ranging from a Vista home basic laptop with a single core cpu throguh to dual and quad core machines, all of which have different configurations and operating systems and the game worked on all of them.

Usually it's the fault of the user that they can't get a game to run (though maybe not always). Personally I've always been willing to change the configuration of my computer to play a game, whether it be the screen resolution or my mouse sensitivity.

Changed to various screen resolutions, dropped down to 800x600 in combination with various compatibility modes as suggested, even 640x480, Win XP, etc. all give the same "Unable to set graphics mode" error.


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

Did you read the problems section at the end of my review? If not check to see if there is anything else that you can do. Hopefully someone more technically minded than me may be able to make a suggestion. You say you've got the latest drivers. I'd suggest you roll back to the lastest drivers and see if that's what's causing the problem. sometimes the latest drivers can be the problem. Was it a beta or full release? also update your Direct X, (if you haven't already) :)

There may also be a conflict with other software. You could try doing a clean boot, or try the free version of Game Booster from IOBit, which can emulate a mini clean boot. :)

Could use a better icon, but the game looks interesting. Will try it out :)

I wanted to love this... I really did, but the controls are very sluggish and don't seem to get better contrary to what someone else said above. As well, when I "loaded training" from the controls menu (figuring maybe it was just my fault and I needed to learn how to properly play the game) the sound started stuttering horribly. I have a beefy system, too, with an i5 @3.30GHz, 8gigs ram, and a GeForce GTS 250 running Windows 7 64-bit Pro.


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

I would say this version os the worst of the group. most of them you are able to manouver your planes or helicopters in circles and the controls feel much better. Maybe this was the first of the group. You can download some of the others from MyPlayCity, but please bear in mind what i said in my review at comment #1.

Once again (this is the LAST time) your software has crashed a computer of mine into an unrecoverable state. This time, even my restore points are gone. Never again will I download from you. This has happened before on 3 different computers. Seems to be an ongoing problem with your offerings.Feel free to reply. I'd like an explanation.

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

Hello Eric, if there was a problem with the giveaway games we would be getting many more complaints about the issue you describe. I'm sorry you've not been successful in getting a game to work, and that you feel it's the fault of the games that your computer has crashed; however I think that it is very unlikely. Obly a few game giveaways impact the system. todays game doesn't install any registry keys of note (only associated with the zip file). the game is free standing and really could not do what yu describe. Why hasn't anyone else had this proble???? It's more probable that you have an underlying problem with your system.

I'm not trying to be funny about it at all, just trying to explain to you the facts as they stand.

I've been installing games from the game giveaway site onto up to four computers every week ever since the project started back in Dec 2006 and have never had any game giveaway crash or cause my computer to freeze ever. (we are talking over a thousand games). If game giveaways were so prone to doing this the project would have ended long ago. There are thousands of downloads every weekend and it's very rare that someone complains of problems such as you describe. I can't explain wht it's happening to you becasue I don't have your system in front of me. I would suggest you check everything down to all the programs you run, whether your discs are healthy, conflicts between programs and check to see if your discs need defragging. All of these things can cause undersiable effects. I'm no teccy, but I can see that the problem is at your end not the game giveaways.

Everything went fine; download, extract, install, and activation. But when trying to run it, it give error message "Unable to set graphics mode". I have Win7 64bit SP1, i7-920, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 with latest driver V285.62. sigh!
Any suggestions?


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

Right click on the executable and select properties then try the different compatibility modes to see if it works (eg disable display scaling on high DPI settings or Disable visual themes). you could also see if it works by changing your screen resolution

*** PROBLEM *****
The mouse works backwards and there is no option to change it.

left and right mouse works fine
up and down are reversed. mouse forward is equivalent to pull the stick back... mouse back is equivalent to push the stick forward....

This is counter intuitive.

Solution: needs option to change it....(It's an easy "if" statement and check box option)

Too bad .... I was looking forward to playing this game

Installed fine on Windows 7 HP pavilion machine.....

The mouse probably will keep me from playing the game....

Also noticed... there are no options for changing the keys, didn't see anything for a joystick. Using W-A-S-D is OK for somethings ... more customary is using the cursor arrows.

The initial screen looks like it was meant for a old style Nintendo type controller(shown), yet there are no options select(change) it or even a mention of it in the controls menu.

It all hurts an other wise possible great game ....

Like last Sunday's offering of a football based game, this is just not my cup of tea, so I'll not be testing this either.

Another shot myself in the foot exercise.

After about 3 tries to unzip the file it unzipped. then it horsed around trying to get into a network! (Why??)

Finally it appeare to download files... ok.

NOW THERE IS NO AIRATTACK.EXE ON MY MACHINE.

tHIS GAME OF THE DAY JUNK REALLY ISN'T WORTH THE AGGRIVATION!


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


Unpacking the downloaded file then installing is a simple process. The only negative is the fact that we have to manually place a shortcut. If you didn't read my review above you'll find the path where the game installed was C:\Games\AIRATTACK\GAME\Air Attack, if you don't find the executable there you've done something wrong, or there's something wrong with your system.

There are thousands of users downloading these games every week (on average anything between 4 to 16 thousand, though there are the odd times when it's as low as 2000 ()eg Beiber kicker and last weeks game, but that one was affected by the reports of malware which was in the end a false positive.

Everyone has different ideas as to what's good and whats bad. Personally I think most games are brilliant. The work that's been put into them, the technicalities and computing in general are amazing to me. I was in my early 30's when I got my first real desktop computer back in 1989, and don't take anything to do with computing for granted. It's all still magical to me. There are few games I would call Junk. If you think all the games given away here are junk then why are you still here?

Your question about it trying to get into a network doesn't make sense. All game giveaways are tested throughly and do not try to install to anywhere other than where you direct them to. What you may be seeing is the game being registered. The game is usually wrapped in a key wrapper, which phones home back to the giveaway servers, where it then sends data to your computer that registers the game. Also the game is bundled with a program called Strategy Informer, which is a tool for updating drivers and finding the latest versions of installed programs on a users computer. It's offered for free every time we get a free game to give away, but it doesn't automatically install on your computer. you, the user have to agree to it being installed first. The only way the program installs is if you allow it to or if you've blindly clicked on buttons without reading instructions.

If you don't fid the game installed via the path I've posted above you are possibly doing something wrong. Follow the simple installation process mentioned in comment #1 or read the readme for instructions.

One last thing; how can you call something junk before you've even tried it????

Installed and registered with no problems on my win7 x64 machine. Played the first level so far and didn't do very well I might add :). Trouble with picking targets in time I guess.

As noted above the game does feel a little sluggish, playing on an Asus G74Sx gaming rig so KNOW its not the machine,and will take ME at least a little getting used to.

All in all is a keeper for me, at least for a bit. Would rather play Time management games (Kings Smith 2 where are you?!). Thank you to the developers and to GGOTD.

My 7 y/o son was bugging me - check "gamegiveaway!". After playing a flight simulator at a friend's place last night he was so excited to see this one. It didn't play on my old Pentium -M 1.2GHz notebook which he has - "graphics" problem when I click "play". However, it plays great on my core i5 with integrated graphics. He enjoyed it.
It would be better if it had a save option for multiple players, so he and I could come back to it.
Still, much appreciated.


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

that's a good point; however once it's been installed you could clone the game and change the name slightly or place the clone elsewhere on the computer; then rename the shortcuts with a suffix i.e. one for you and one for your son. :)

I only get a small black window and a message box saying

---------------------------
Error!
---------------------------
Memory access violation
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I’m using Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit, an ATI Radeon HD 5770 and a Intel Core i5 2500K on an ASRock Z68 Extreme4 motherboard.

Hi Martin, it works fine on my Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit, 2x Gainward GTX 560's in SLI with an i7 core 2600K on a ASUS P8z68 Deluxe/GEN3 motherboard. ;)

Our systems are very similar, so it's possibly a driver issue from your side. try the fix that I have posted at the end of my review at comment #1.

Normally I don't like it when a play doen't give you any choise but starting up full screen only, but at least you can correct that later (if that is what you want ofcourse).

But no Windowed mode at all is almost an insult to me (thanks #4 'boomer', I won't even try now..)

After all, this is not my type of game http://goo.gl/UprSu , so it will not keep me sad for ever :)

Froze up during start-up (installed fine, as far as I know) on my older comp. It it an older XP Pro.

I had to jump to desktop and force close it and found that CCC.exe also went unresponsive. Probably means there is a conflict with my ATI vid card (possibly screen resizing?) as CCC is part of that software package. It is an older Radeon X1300 512k (just discovered my 1 button does not work, had to resort to keypad).

Not a great morning so far, lol.

Hello All,
Thanks FLY & GGOTD for another one. It's not really my type of game but is fun for a diversion(the main point of games like this). Keep 'em coming.:-) @#1 Stephan-hope your appointment worked out well for you.GOD bless


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

Thanks Bobby, yes the meeting with my Queens Council and thhe rest of the team (Spinal surgeon, Barrister and Lawyer) went very well

nouw kijk hier maar eens zonder code. (trqanslated using google Translator = Here's hardly see it even without the code.)


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

You can get this free from freedownload6.com, but I've removed the link you posted Ram58 becasue I don't trust this link. The game is available for free 24/7 from that site as well as from myPlaycity. Community members download from those sites at their own risk. If you miss todays giveaway and tyou really think you'd want this game, then perhaps try one of those sites, but for today you get a totally free version of the game that's been tested for malware and has no hidden toolbars or doesn't open your browser to the hosts website when you close the game down. In other words, if you download it today you'll get the safest copy. :)

no windowed mode?


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

Unfortunately no

Looks fun, thanks!

The arcade style (no loops, bounce off ground, etc) tales a little getting used to, but should be fun for my daughter. The sound (at least for the training mission) comes across not as the rumbling roar of a WWII-era plane but a whiny whistle that grates after a short time; also, the computery noises don't seem to fit in with the era this is portrayed - seem transplanted from a more modern-day flying game. And the dialog comes across as "clipped" English - respect to the Russian game designers, but a little more care with that will make this more immersive for Americans. Flight physics takes some getting used to as well, but should be fun once I do get accustomed.

Nice offering, looks fun to play, but could use a little polishing. Thanks to the designers and the GGotD team!

i am not really in to flying games, but thought i would give it a chance. it was pretty much as i expected. the controls were veerryyy sluggish, the training mission didnt really train you, you just fly through rings (doesnt matter if you actually hit them or not, get the same response either way), then its target practice time. the game tells you what to aim for (planes, submarines, ect.)again, doesnt matter if you do anything or not, you still get a gun upgrade after the first round, and i dont know about the rest. i had to stop playing and uninstall it before i lost my mind from boredom.
all in all, i guess if you like flying games, it will be okay, but if not, dont even bother with the download.


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

The training mission is pretty much follow your nose, so the controls do feel sluggish, but once you've completed the first mission, it gets better. you do have to suceed in hitting several of the designated targets to progress to the next training session, starting with collecting gold stars then firing at targets, attacking target aircraft, sme of which have bonuses attached, then onto larger airplanes. following that ollecting bonuses and weapon upgrades then firing at ground targets such as ships and subnarines and buildings. Provided you manage to hit or collect a suitable number of each tqrget then you can progress to the game proper.

As i said, this is one of those games you'll either love or hate :lol:

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 more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain why your reasons for the feedback you post. Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment. Thank you.

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

Installation:

Today's game giveaway Air Attack downloads to a 52.2MB zip file that unpacks to a dual activation and set up file and a read me that contains installation instructions and the Terms & Conditions. To newcomers to this Game Giveaway that mans that once the game has been installed it will automatically register itself, so there's no need to look for a registration key. :lol: The game installs to:

C:\Games\AIRATTACK\GAME\Air Attack


I think the install path may depend upon where you last installed a Game Giveaway. Please do check the install path because I've found some games even install into the last games folder, which could cause problems. (I think this has something to do with the Temp cache). If this appears to happen please would you report it here, thank you. It was fine for me this time becasue i'm using my new computer for the very first time today. (Onnly finished installing all the drivers etc early this morning, otherwise I would have finished the review earlier.

As with most Game Giveaways there is no shortcuts created to either the desktop or Start Menu/Programs list, so please follow the default path (or the one that you changed it to), then select the executable which as a standard icon that you normally see with games that are created with Game Maker ( a buff colored icon with a red colored styalized rocket). I presume everyone knows how to create a short cut to the desktop, but just in case there are novices to the project you just right click on the executable (that's the file that runs the program and basically opens the game) and select 'Send to', then from the drop down menu select 'Desktop (create shortcut)'; lternatively you may like a shortcut placed in the Start Menu/Programs list. If you wish to do that, right click on the games executable and select 'Create shortcut, then cut and paste into a folder that you've prenamed Air attack, or if you wish Fly Games with a sub folder Air attack then cut the whole folder to the following path:

C:\Users\named account or administrator\app data\roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

To find the above path you will need to make your hidden folders visible, which can be done by selecting Folder options from the Control Panel (found in the Start Menu). you may have to change the view from 'Category' to small Icons via the view by deop down menu to the top right of the control panel window. when the folder Options window opens select the 'View' tab, then scroll down to where it says 'Hidden files and folders' and select Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Make sure once you've completed the task to change this back otherwise there is a danger that you may delete or move folders from the system. If you feel this is risky create a restore point before you start the task, but to be honest, it's very easy and unlikely to lead to any harm to your operating system.

The path will be different if you are using XP or earlier. I've posted a tutorial in the Games discussion forums if you want to add to the Start Menu\Programs List in XP (you may have to use the search engine to find the thread though becasue i removed it from the Stickies section some time ago so is likely to be way back in the forum listings).


Introduction:

Get your fill of shooting, adventure and adrenaline pumping action. One hero is fighting to save all of mankind, and this hero is you!
The game is comprised of three campaigns: "The Battle of Britain," "U.S. Defense" and "Liberation of Europe." A variety of airplanes and weapons, more powerful enemies await as you advance through the campaigns. Create a number of unique game and surprise situations. Sensible management properties allow you to quickly master the game controls. Are you ready? Go for it!


Reference accessed November 2011 HERE

</blockquote>

Some of these games are available free 24/7 from places like MyPlayCity and a couple of others, but i'll njo longer link to them due to their changed practices. MyPlayCity have reverted to installing toolbars and hijacking your home page (not all games), so you download these games at your own risk. They definitely have todays game and Sky Aces: Verden Sky (aka Sky Aces: Kampf der Reichsadler)

The Game:

We've already had three or four of this type of arcade flight sim, for example Helic, Sky Aces: Cold War and Sky Aces: World War II. I think the only one we haven't had yet is the Red Baron version. All of the games are very similar, with the flight models differing and the terrain being slightly different, but not by much, so if you've still got one of the above titles you'll be very familiar with this type of game Basically you fly some very basic planes in a colorful world on several missions. your plane is equiped with machine guns and missiles. all the buildings are destructible as is the air ballons, ships and other enemy planes.

The game starts with a tutorial that introduces you to the game mechanics then you can start the missions proper. This is a basic arcade flight sim which if you've never fancied or don't own games like Microsofts Flight Simulator X, IL42, Blazing Angels, Wings of Prey, DCS: Warthog and a whole host of other decent flight sims, it'll give you some basic flying fun without having to learn a whole host of controls, some of which, for example for Microsofts flight sim or the Digital Combat simulators require you to learn many key combinations to get the most out of their games. Microsofts flying game even has enough perhipherals to take the place of your keyboard to cost over $2000 that include flight yokes, dials, radios and a whole host of other working equipement. all you need for this game is a mouse.


From the main menu you can access the options menu which is rather basic with resolution, quality and music sliders. unfortunately there is no windowed mode. The help menu shows you the keyboard and mouse controls as well as being able to access the training mission at any time during the game (just click on F1 then select training). This is useful if you've forgotten the basic premis of the game following a long abscense from playing. The game save each mission once it's complete, so you can progress from where you left off.
Each Mission starts with a short description, for example:

Mission 1:

Take your first training trip as a pilot of military aircraft forces. Follow the instructions of the instructor. (Yeah I know, very poor grammar etc)

Mission 2:

The first dogfight. Stop attack from the air. Destroy everyone in your path.

The game play is relatively easy whichever difficulty setting you choose; though make sure you know which way to move the mouse for diving and climbing. I think the mouse needs to be inverted for a more intuitive set up. There are three difficulty settings from Easy, Medium and Hard, but I found little difference between the three. (I still haven’t figured out what the differences are),

The plane is controlled by either the mouse or the keyboard, (See the control menu below for details; you can access all of this information in game by pressing F1. The keyboard is probably the easiest to use becasue it's more responsive than the mouse, unless you have a suer duper mouse such as the Razer Lanches that has two buttons that enable you to change the sensitivity on the fly. Unfortunately there’s no joystick or game pad facility, but I’m sure that the Xpadder program that’s been mentioned previously will enable those with an aversion for the keyboard to play this game. (Unfortunately it’s no longer freeware, but you may find the original freeware version still available if you surf the net). The campaign consists of three Campains based on American, russian and British WWII planes (see features for a list of planes you get to fly). Each mission comprises of 24 missions all of which are mapped out on a levels map that you see at the beginning of each level.




I do think the maps are rather similar to the earlier games that we've had over the last few years and each campaign looks similar apart from the planes you get to fly. These are unlocked as you progress. All ground, water and air targets are destructible. If you crash you even make a dent in the ground or come plummeting to earth if you hit a barrage balloon or other plane, lol. Weapons can be upgraded by collecting power ups and you'll also find repair power ups in the form of a red cross. There’s no facility to change the key bindings which is a pity as we all have our own preferences.

Features:

12 Airplanes: USSR: I-15, I-16, La-5, MiG-3, Yak-3 USA: P-38 "Lightning", P-51 "Mustang", F4u "Corsair", F4f "Wildcat" England: Defiant, Seafire, Spitfire
3 campaign, 24 scroll-mission
Original soundtrack

Controls:

Keyboard:


W - Forward
S-Down
A - Left
D- Right
Q - Strafe Left
E - Strafe right
F1 - Help
F2 - Map
Esc - Pause/Restart

Mouse:

LMB - Gun
RMB - Rockets
Forward movement - Down
Backwards movement - Up
Left - Turn & Strafe Left
Right - Turn & Strafe right


System Requirements:

Microsoft Windows 98, ME, XP, Vista, Win7
- Pentium III processor
- 256 Mb RAM
- 50 Mb hard drive space
- 32 Mb video memory
- Sound card
- DirectX 7


Conclusion:

If you've never played a flight sim beofre, then you still won't have when you've played this. The game is basically an arcade shooter that ues WWII planes to fly over various terrans that look rather similar shooting at Air, Ground and Water targets. It'ss fun for a while, but, if you're like me and love flght sims it gets a little tedious after a while. Overall, it's a worthwhile including this title in your games library, especially if you don't own anything like it. It's easy to play and colorful to the eyes. Basically a nice little arcade shooter.

It's probably one of those games that you'll either love or hate. for me it's worth a good 8 out of 10 for game play, but overall, taking into account other factors I'd score it a 7 out of 10.

Score:
Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 7
Audio - 6.5
Replayability - 6.5
Originality - 7

Overall 7 out of 10

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Problems installing, activating and running today’s game:


If you have difficulty downloading or activating the game you can try again later or do one of the following – for example once downloaded when you click on the dual activation and set up file you may get the message “Failed to connect. Please try again later” Check to see if your internet explorer isn’t offline (thanks to MrSnoozles/Mike and GMMan for that fix). If the previous suggestion doesn’t work go check out previous comments from the last several weeks and look for comments from GMMan and Mike. They have also posted their possible fixes for this problem.

Mike suggests that you check to see if Internet Explorer is offline (even if you use firefox). If it is make sure that it’s online thn try again. I’ve always tried re-booting my modem and/or router with some success, though Mike has said that doing that does nothing. Still, it’s worth a try if all else fails.

If you are getting the black screen problem right click on the games executable and select properties then click on the compatibility mode and select the disable visual themes. This should fix the problem, if not try disabling the display scaling on higher dpi settings and disabling the desktop composition.

Other fixes include changing your screen resolution, installing the latest direct X (remember that XP uses DX 9 or earlier only, Vista uses DX 10 or before and Win 7 DX11 or before). Also try updating your graphics drivers. The main two chip manufacturers are NVIDIA and ATI both of which offer driver downloads for free. Just go to the respective manufactures home page and you’ll find a link to the driver download page. To find out which graphic card or graphics chip your computer uses type in Dxdiag in the search field (Vista or Win 7) or the run command (XP); this opens up the DirectX diagnostics panel. click on the display tab and look to the left panel. You should easily see what graphics card or chip you are using. (This is required information when selecting the correct download from the developers site).

If you are having problems unzipping the game giveaways zip file, for example getting a message saying the file is invalid try using a different file archiver such as 7-Zip http://7-zip.org/ , J-Zip http://www.jzip.com/ , CAM UnZip http://www.camunzip.com/ , Hamster Free Zip Archiver http://ziparchiver.hamstersoft.com/en/home , GZip http://www.gzip.org/ , B Zip2 http://bzip.org/ , peazip http://www.peazip.org/ , ZipUnzip http://www.info-zip.org/UnZip.html , FreeRAR Extract Frog http://free-rar-extract-frog.pwpw.de/ , RAR File Open Knife http://www.rar-file-open-knife.com/rar_file_open_knife.php , ALZip http://www.altools.com/ALTools/ALZip.aspx , The Extractor http://theextractor.org/ , RarZilla Free Unrar http://www.philipp-winterberg.com/software/rarzilla_free_unrar.php

Okay, that should be enough. there are actually many more free versions available. also there are other commercial titles such as the well-known WinRAR, Stuffit, WinAce, NXPowerlite and Corel Winzip Pro, but IMO 7-Zip is probably one of the better freebies. I did purchase a copy of Stuffit when it was on sale a few years ago, but didn’t like the interface for some reason, so hardly ever use it.

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You'll find several excellent alternatives in the Game Discussion forums or via the free games synopsis (which is stuck to the front page. here's some true flight sims , arcade versions and even an apollo simulator, all of which are free. The synopsis is very out of date (not updated it since week 100), but the free games are easy to spot in the games discussion lists becasue they all begin with a week number e.g. Week 56 We changed the original name of the project from Free games for the weekdays to Good Games to Grab on the suggestion of one of our community members (Goodgotd). You can find the Free Games Synosis HERE
and the Games discussion forums HERE