Unfortunately I found a couple of issues with this game that made it unplayable until I'd changed a few of the compatibility settings, but there were still issues where I had to restart the game to get the levels to work properly. Firstly there was an issue accessing some of the buttons with the mouse pointer; for example, when I tried to access the linear mode or the options menu the game would crash/close to the task bar. I found that the mouse pointer appeared to be duplicated. After some jiggery-pockery, I finally managed to access both the options menu and both modes of play. From the options menu I changed the screen resolution to it's maximum 1280 x 960 x 32 bit (bear in mind this game is at least 15 years old and was created when XP ruled the roost), so there are likely to be some issues, depending on how you have your computer configured and which operating system you may be using..

If you encounter the above issues, try going into compatibility mode and changing some of the configuration settings for the graphics and select XP as the OS used (It was already selected with service pack 2 when I did it, so changed it to the option with service pack 3 plus I disabled full screen optimizations, ran it as admin and changed the high DPI settings to override the high DPI scaling behaviour for the application). Once I was able to access both modes I then started the game in each mode, and was finally able to get blocks appearing on the left hand side of the arena, but it was temperamental and I had to restart the game several times to progress. I then changed the screen resolution via compatibility mode to r8un in 640 x 480 screen resolution and that seemed to fix the issues. (see the last image below)

Cubozoid has been given away three times previously,

https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/cubozoid/?preview=1 January 2, 2007! Where it received a 80% positive rating from 149 votes with 22 comments (one of my earliest comments on the site).

https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/cubozod/?preview=1 December 1, 2007 where it received a positive 49% from 259 votes with 52 comments.

https://game.giveawayoftheday.com/cubozoid-2/?preview=1 June 9, 2018! where it received a positive 73& from 26 votes with 14 comments.

Cubozoid

In Brief

Cubozoid is a match three block puzzle originally distributed by alawar games. You can see a video of game play HERE. The following is a review I posted of the game back in December 2007

The Game

There are two modes of play, linear and group modes. The difference between the two is that you can only destroy columns of three or more of the same colour in the linear mode and with the group mode any group of three (or more) in any configuration be it in a column, row or L shape, or with more than three virtually any shape imaginable from square onwards – I’m sure you get the picture. :).

The linear mode is the harder of the two to play IMO. Both modes share the same level selection maps but obviously are different maps if you know what I mean. When starting either of the modes you also get to choose a full game that takes you through different levels and through the different themes or a quick game. The quick game takes you straight into the action and is basically a single game. As you progress through the ‘story mode’ you can select any level to play using the quick game option. However apart from that there is no difference between it and the main game, although in the main game you are taken to different themed countries such as China, , Africa, Europe and the Wild West. Each country consists of 6 levels. Throughout the game there are power ups available such as pause which stops the movement of the cubes for a short time; bombs that destroy the cubes around them and others that destroy columns or rows or both. To earn these power ups you have to include the cube that is displaying the power up within a group you are destroying. There are also special cubes that can be fired at the moving column of cubes, that slowly (or fast depending upon how you perceive it) approaches the shooting platform such as the chameleon cube and the lightning bolt. There are a few more but I’ll let you discover these. Watch out for the trick cube though as it speeds up the moving blocks. You can dump unwanted cubes in the basket to the bottom left of the playing area. Once the green Indicator to the left fills up, additional cubes are added to the playing area, which effectively reduces the bonus scores you can receive by completing a level quickly (see below for explanation. The more cubes you have on the playing board the less likely you are to win the level as they may reach the end of the board. The purple indicator to the left shows how near you are to completing the level. You can pause the game by using the Esc key. At the end of each level you are shown your score statistics. Which include bonus points for how quickly you completed the level and how much empty space you had unoccupied by coloured cubes. During each level set which represents a country that I mention above, you will unveil an image appropriate to that country that also creates a more unusual shaped playing area as the level set progresses, and also makes it harder as there is less space for the cubes to go. The fewer misses you make the better your score will be. That is there are cumulative bonuses for the more hits you make in a row.

The initial boards are straight forwards and will look a little boring, but as you progress through the levels you will come across more and more intricate maze like boards. The orientation of the boards also changes from a sideways to a top down view. See the Googled images for details of a few of these boards.

Although there is no accessible help menu apart from the very brief read me document that I’ve already mentioned, there is a reasonable tutorial system that crops up whenever something new is introduced to the game.

Conclusion

This is definitely a keeper for me as it’s more challenging than most match three games of this genre. Don’t confuse this game with tetris which is a totally different genre. Also don’t be deceived by what looks like boring board sets because as you progress they become more complex.

In my opinion this is worth 7.5 out of 10, just not quite there for me to consider buying it (at the moment at least) It’s quite challenging with the cubes relentlessly moving towards the shooting range, It’s the movement of the cubes snaking their way towards you in a sideways manner that makes this game challenging because the configuration of the cubes is ever-changing. This is definitely one for my games library.

The latest game from Epic is the excellent Lovecraftian Steam punk roguelike and atmospheric top down RPG Sunless Sea; i.e. Take the helm of your steamship and set sail for the unknown! Sunless Sea is a game of discovery, loneliness and frequent death, set in the award-winning Victorian Gothic universe of Fallen London, with 84% of over 6000 community reviews giving it a positive thumbs up. Definitely a game worth having, especially if you like any of the descriptive words I've used to describe this game, and, more importantly for free; usually costs £13.99. There is a dlc for the game available called Zubmariner, which isn't free (I think)?

Please see Delenn's threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favourites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep.

I'm posting the following information about another game series i.e. the ArmA/Operation Flashpoint FPS franchise, which I highly recommend you check out. They are another of my all-time favourite games (ever since I bought the original Operation Flashpoint game back in 2001) and in my opinion is still the number one first person shooter series available today (far better than the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchise games which tends to be quite linear'). All versions of ArmA (stands for armed assault) are on sale at the moment from 75% to 80% (apart from the later Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, which is dirt cheap anyway (i.e. £6.99 when not on sale; I paid £30 when it was released). Sadly Operation Flashpoint Red River (the sequel to Dragon Rising) has been removed from sale at the behest of the developer (don't know why)? .

If you want a brilliant but very cheap FPS game, the original 'Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis' and it's expansion ' Operation Flashpoint: Resistance', released in 2001 (the spiritual successor to the 1995 Gravon: Real Virtuality); renamed ArmA: Cold War Assault, is on sale for only £0.69/$0.99/0,79€ It's a massive game with an open world feel, but with loads of missions, and the ability to drive vehicles and fly helicopters. It includes all the original expansion packs. You'll find it on sale HERE, better still you can get the original, plus ArmA Gold Edition (contains ArmA 1 plus the expansion called Queens Gambit and ArmA 2 with all dlc's. ArmA 2 is still an amazing looking game and has three large environments to explore from arid far east scrub land and desert to European grassland and forests. There are hundreds of Steam workshop items available to download for free (from weapon vehicle and clothing skins to new area's to explore and different vehicles and weapons to use. You'll find the ArmA X: Anniversary Edition HERE, for only £5.99 (I paid more than that for just one of the four DLC's for ArmA 2 when they were originally released. It's still one of my top five FPS games ever and is more a true simulation than an arcade shooter.

If you want the latest ArmA 3, which has amazing graphics that are up to date, you can get it for 75% off for £5.99 HERE. There are hundreds of workshop items available for free, though many of them require various dlc packs for them to work. But there are still a massive choice just for the base game. There are quite a lot of dlc's for the latest game, most of which are also on sale; however, the base game is still an amazing game as a standalone and for the discounted price amazing value. I bought this when it was still in alpha and was amazed at the realism and graphic.