Thank you to all who took the time to post feedback about yesterdays game, it was very much appreciated. Also, I would like to congratulate the Game Giveaway team for exactly 10 years of service to the community. They opened the game site back on December 6th 2006, exactly a decade ago earlier this week. I know things have changed significantly since those early days, and more so since around Easter this year; however, if you take into account the financial climate since the giveaways went to weekends only (apart from recently where we have been regularity getting games on Fridays and/or Mondays as well) for example arcade game prices crashed from $19.99 to around $7 per game literally overnight (around Easter 2008 and around the time the site went to weekends only with a message saying it was only temporary), the closure of some of the largest arcade game distributor/developers such as Reflexive Arcade and Sandlot games and the proliferation of other free game sites, as well as the availability of hundreds of dollars worth of indie games via indie game bundles for as little as $5 a bundle, I think the giveaway team have done an admirable job of providing the community with free games regularly since October 2006 (we got 2 or 3 games every week via the giveawayoftheday site, until the game site opened on the 6th December 2006; from then we received games every day (apart from the odd weekend when the site was undergoing maintenance).

The recent introduction of Steam games although a little contentious from the point of view of some community members has opened up a whole new community to this project and has seen us get some very different games from the usual fare we've been getting for the past several years since the project went to weekends only, so as far as I'm concerned getting developers who give us Steam keys is a good thing. Sadly it's impossible to please everyone. :)

Please only post comments about the game being given away today; 'most' other comments that are either 'inappropriate', or 'not about the game' will be deleted. That said, light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit will be allowed, and will be judged by the moderator as to whether it is suitable or not to be left.

I am posting this in light of the massive increase in negative comments, usually unrelated to the actual game, inappropriate comments and spam that have occurred over the past several months since the site was updated and in particular since the site started to give away games from the Steam world. I truly believe that if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers will be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints instead of feedback about the game will not persuade developers to give their games away for free. So please bear this in mind when posting your comments. Negative feedback about the game is welcomed as that can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games should be directed to the giveawayoftheday contact form which I've linked to HERE, alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day (I can't moderate 24 hours, please also post in the forums where you may also get a response. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation (for example yesterday's game was blocked by my Zemana Anti-malware suite) Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and/or the FAQ's thread HERE

Today we have two games, Sky Kingdoms and Boom, plus the Steam game Lapland solitaire is still live for another two days (ends Monday morning). At this time, those who have gained the maximum number of entries stand a 1 in 14 chance of winning a key. If you've not applied for the game yet, and complete all of the tasks, you will still have around a 1 in 26 chance of winning a key. :) Today's other game Boom is available via Itch.io and once tied to your account you can either play it directly from your browser while signed into your Itch.io account, or download the game . It's DRM free. :).

Boom

In Brief

A twitch Shoot em up with basic graphics

Whether you like or dislike Boom please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, and how it could be improved from your point of view. If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements 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 have a problem installing or activating or getting Boom to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

Boom was released Dec 15th last year, by the developer Smartolive games, for a $2 game you get about an hours worth of game play. Boom is a very basic shoot em up with no apparent upgradable weapons, movemnt keys are either the arroe or wasd keys and to shoot you use the space key.

There are two modes, survival which is accessed by clicking the load button and is basically one level where you have to survive for as long as you can. The other mode is a level based game where you have to pick up a key to progress to the nex tlevel. It's relatively easy to get the key by detroying destructible walls that block you from access to the key initially. Each time you are hit by an ememy your ship loses health. When it gets to xero you get to use one of you spare ships until all are used up at which point a score board appears. To close the game down press escape. Each level has a save symbol located aroud the perimiter but appears no to work. There are no instructions and no settings.

Once you've signed into your itch.io account and linked the game to your account via the url you received via your email you can either play the game in your browser via the Itch.io site or download the game. On clicking the game I got my first ever warning from windows smart screen, which was easily by passed. After several levels I received an error message and had to close the game.

This occured a couple of times. Basically a twitch shooter, with basic graphics . Personally I got bored of it after a few moments. The idea of combining a shooter with a platformer cum maze has potential, but there is a lot of room for improvement. A good selection of different ships with variable weapons, various enemey tupes, more diverse environments etc and this could be a game worth playing.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank SmartOlive Games for giving away Boom and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games

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 was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The latest free game over on Origin is still the old classic Dungeon Keeper. You can get it HERE and see a couple of videos of game play HERE and HERE Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

Assassins Creed III is now available for free as part of Ubisofts 30th anniversary celebrations (I thought FarCry 3: Blood Dragon was the last, but I was wrong). You can see a couple of videos of game play HERE and HERE. They have given away several good titles over the past several months. You do require a free Ubisoft account and the free uPlay client installed to get the game, which you will find HERE.

Also available at this time from Planet Auran via Failmids site is the very first version of the train simulator Trainz v1 HERE. You can see a video of game play HERE. To get it you may need to create a free Planet Auran account to get the game (I think). I was already signed into my Trainz account, so not sure whether it is necessary to create an account, but would assume you do..

Finally, check out the Steam stores specials tab, you'll find over 849 games on sale ranging from 10% to 90% off, with over 200 games less than a dollar (£0.69p)