Game Giveaway of the Day

#22

OMG - I can actually play this one. I'm not good at it, but I can play. This is a new genre for me. Thank you.

I recommend this one for beginners who are not familiar with this style of game as it would probably not be challenging for an expert (though I have no idea what the higher levels hold in store). My only comment would be that the initial screens (Play, Options, Continue - things like that) are a bit "picky" when you try to click on them, but they do change color when you have the pointer in exactly the right place.

Thanks again for a fun, and for me, *new* toy. Best to you WR.

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

Nice one Lucky Kitty, glad you like it. There are others just as easy as this one such as the Smash Ball series (formerly known as Magic Ball and the Strike Ball series, bith have 3D graphics and some gorgeous level designs. One of my favorites of the 3D type is called Incrediball:The Seven Sapphires. It's looking a little dated now, but it has some amazing level designs a great story line and some unusual power ups.

Reply | Comment by LuckyKitty – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

The link to your forum, http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/, didn't indicate a way for me to discuss technical problems that I could tell. (Your instructions said to comment on the software here, but to comment on technical issues at http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/.)

I've installed the Egyptoid game and tried to run it. When I attempt to execute the game, I get an error that says, "Egyptoid2.exe has stopped working A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."

Is there a known problem and a simple solution to such an issue?

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

sorry Keith, I must have clipped the end of the link while editing the review. Will correct it later. :)

Reply | Comment by Keith Bornmann – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

YES! I love this game and the first one! Lost them when I changed computers.

First out of the gate; installed and runs fine on Win 10 (yes, I invoked that on myself).

Play is good and keeps you occupied. This normally isn't my kind of game, but I like it! Wasn't a fan of pinball when I was younger and I see ones this this as similar. But I do like it, though it gives me a bit of fits getting the ball to go where I want.

While the graphics aren't up to some of what they have now, they are still good and don't bug much. The music is quite good and there are plenty of bits to gather in the game to keep you occupied.

Replayability, for me, is good, actually, as this isn't the kind of game I normally play and I enjoy it each time.

While it could be improved with some updates and better graphics, it's actually just fine like it is by me and I still enjoy it!

Yes, Rabbit, I know—I'm a tad late with this for a review, but was busy with the Win 10 install and the inevitable glitching that came with it.

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

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated. Still got to install Win 10. Will probably start later today. :)

Reply | Comment by DA Myst – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

I lost Egyptoid 2 last year when I had to replace my computer. What's that? I don't hear any sympathy in the background. The program downloaded quickly to my Win 8.1 system which has an AMD 2 GHz quad core processor and 8 GB of RAM. FWIW, the Virus Total scan I made on the download came out at 0/63 (as expected). This is just further confirmation that Stephen only gives us clean games to play with.

The gameplay is fun. I hadn't played a breakout-type game since my last go at Egyptoid 2. There is a great variety of bricks or blocks to hit, which adds variety. Some require multiple hits, some don't. Some have goodies underneath, and some don't. There are so many collectable goodies to keep track of that I don't try to keep track of them. I just grab as much as I can while focusing on the magic symbols which add up to the occasional tactical nuclear strike. On some levels I got nukes, and no nukes on other levels. This adds up, again, to a nice variety which makes the game that much more enjoyable.

I kept the sound effects and music levels as originally set. With the proper volume already set on my speakers I found the preset levels to be just right. The sound effects were appropriate to each given situation and I would hear them without particularly noticing them. This is a big plus to me, as I think the type and volume of the effects should be both obvious and unobtrusive. The music was appropriate but rather monotonous, almost to the point of being annoying. I just tuned it out while playing anyway, so it wasn't a problem.

I was not able to adjust the screen resolution to the settings I wanted, so I played around with it and took the best I could get. I don't really expect 64-bit HD graphics on a free game. What I ended up with was acceptable.

The blasters seemed to fire for only a limited number of times before disappearing from the paddle, and wouldn't shoot immediately when I pressed the firing button. This wasn't a big deal, but it was a minor irritation that I sometimes couldn't shoot when I wanted to.

I give this game a 10++ rating, and I played it on the slower setting. Why such a high score? Well, since I last had the game I suffered a couple of strokes. I have some permanent vision damage and tremors in my hands. There are lots of things I just can't do anymore, and some things I am rather afraid to try. This game worked massively well as a physical therapy/occupational therapy tool. In order to play I had to work on all sorts of problem areas, including visual acuity (concentration), depth perception, eye/hand coordination, and involuntary shaking of the hands. There were fear/confidence problems. It was very difficult for me, and playing exacerbated my head pain, but on the second try I was able to play the game all the way through. This was a a real victory for me and a confidence builder. I had heard of using video games, such as on the Wii platform, for physical therapy, but I had never thought of a video game helping me like this one did.

If this type of game helps me (and it really did), it could help other people who have similar disabilities. Let people know about it! Who to tell? To start with, I can think of disabled people, therapists, doctors, caregivers, and family members, and probably lots of other types of people, too.

My thanks to Stars Ashes for making this game, and to Whiterabbit for making it available.

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

Hi Robert, thank you for your extensive feedback, much appreciated.

I lost Egyptoid 2 last year when I had to replace my computer.  What's that?  I don't hear any sympathy in the background.  The program downloaded quickly to my Win 8.1 system which has an AMD 2 GHz quad core processor and 8 GB of RAM.  FWIW, the Virus Total scan I made on the download came out at 0/63 (as expected).  This is just further confirmation that Stephen only gives us clean games to play with.

The gameplay is fun.  I hadn't played a breakout-type game since my last go at Egyptoid 2.  There is a great variety of bricks or blocks to hit, which adds variety.  Some require multiple hits, some don't.  Some have goodies underneath, and some don't.  There are so many collectable goodies to keep track of that I don't try to keep track of them.  I just grab as much as I can while focusing on the magic symbols which add up to the occasional tactical nuclear strike.  On some levels I got nukes, and no nukes on other levels.  This adds up, again, to a nice variety which makes the game that much more enjoyable.

I kept the sound effects and music levels as originally set.  With the proper volume already set on my speakers I found the preset levels to be just right.  The sound effects were appropriate to each given situation and I would hear them without particularly noticing them.  This is a big plus to me, as I think the type and volume of the effects should be both obvious and unobtrusive.  The music was appropriate but rather monotonous, almost to the point of being annoying.  I just tuned it out while playing anyway, so it wasn't a problem.

I was not able to adjust the screen resolution to the settings I wanted, so I played around with it and took the best I could get.  I don't really expect 64-bit HD graphics on a free game.  What I ended up with was acceptable.

The blasters seemed to fire for only a limited number of times before disappearing from the paddle, and wouldn't shoot immediately when I pressed the firing button.  This wasn't a big deal, but it was a minor irritation that I sometimes couldn't shoot when I wanted to.

I give this game a 10++ rating, and I played it on the slower setting.  Why such a high score?  Well, since I last had the game I suffered a couple of strokes.  I have some permanent vision damage and tremors in my hands.  There are lots of things I just can't do anymore, and some things I am rather afraid to try.  This game worked massively well as a physical therapy/occupational therapy tool.  In order to play I had to work on all sorts of problem areas, including visual acuity (concentration), depth perception, eye/hand coordination, and involuntary shaking of the hands.  There were fear/confidence problems.  It was very difficult for me, and playing exacerbated my head pain, but on the second try I was able to play the game all the way through.  This was a a real victory for me and a confidence builder.  I had heard of using video games, such as on the Wii platform, for physical therapy, but I had never thought of a video game helping me like this one did.

If this type of game helps me (and it really did), it could help other people who have similar disabilities.  Let people know about it!  Who to tell?  To start with, I can think of disabled people, therapists, doctors, caregivers, and family members, and probably lots of other types of people, too.

My thanks to Stars Ashes for making this game, and to Whiterabbit for making it available.

<blockquote>
..............................Moderator Comment..........................

Hi Robert, thank you for your extensive feedback, much appreciated.</blockquote>

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Reply | Comment by Robert W – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

oh nice and it is early access so people should buy now, now it is still cheap :) gonna buy that one later this week (as I just bought myself a new route for TS and I don't want my wife to put an axe in my neck).

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

I need to check what's on sale. There are a few routes released recently that I don't have.

Reply | Comment by Mavadelo – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

Get this. THE best Brick'n'Ball game out there. Absolutely no question, if you're a fan of this sort of game. Great graphics, accurate gameplay, one of the best brick-breaker games ever.

Reply | Comment by Parked Cow – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

Oh, Dear Wabbit,

That list of games brings a tear to my eye. The memories. Everyday was like Christmas. A new game...every single day.

Still got E2, so didn't download. It's still good for a few minutes of blowing up/smashing things.

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

At least we got a good year and a quarter of games virtually every day. I used to savor the moment every morning. I'd get up in time for the new game (in the UK the change over was at 8a.m. in the morning). I'd make myself breakfast, then check what the new game was going to be. I much preferred the games to the applications. I'd hoped they would return to daily gamnes, but I think the recession that hit us all hard in 2008 then other influences such as the advent of Steam sales and Indie Game bundles, plus the devaluation of games (remeber when most arcade games cost $19.99) has led to the giveaway team never reinstigation daily games. At least alawar and Playrix have continued to give games away here throughout the history of the game giveaway. alawar were the first game company to come on board. Most of the first games were Alawar games.

I've just purchased a new breakout game via Steam aobut 3 hours ago, just after writing that we hardly ever see breakouts now. Was really surprised to see a new one. it's called Nanos and looks intriguing:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/389200/

Reply | Comment by delenn13 – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

A fun and very challenging game, lots of fun without to much thought, although getting the right bonus's is a trick in itself.

Reply | Comment by JBart – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

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

I added some more information about breakouts in my review above, but couldn't remember the name of one of the games I wanted to recommend. It's an unusual breakout that is flash based, so I started to search online game sites to see if I could find it and found an excellent site that not only has the game in question, called X-Bound, but loads of other free to play breakouts. I've checked the site and it seems safe to use. X- bound isn't the best of the round breakouts, but its still one of my favorites because of its challenging levels. I will say (admit) I've never got past level 5 or 6.

You can find X-Bound and the list of breakouts via the following links:

X-Bound:
http://www.roundgames.com/game/X-Bound

Round games
http://www.roundgames.com/onlinegame/Breakout

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

Yay (know everybody must be getting tired of this) - another game my external hd ate and I can get it again!

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

:)

Reply | Comment by garbski – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

The ONLY icon on my (totally black) desktop is the Recycle Bin. Everything else is in the start menu (and All Programs). Much easier for me to use. and less distracting backdrop to my computer usage.

Reply | Comment by Diane – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

I love this game and most Breakout games. Over the years, I've downloaded it 3 or 4 times. The first or second times, the game played very well with a few odd things occuring. For example, When pointing the cursor on specific things in the OPTION menu, you must be very precise or the option will not "engage". Minor things like that are a bit annoying, but not enough to prevent me from enjoying the game. Alas, with this installation, the game is exhibiting a very disturbing behavior. for example, In the OPTION menu, the writing completely disapear and there is no way of getting out of there but pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL. Eventually, the menu does reappear. During game play, vases and other things you've destroyed still look intact and then disappear many seconds later. Explosions are the worst. When things explode, the flash of the explosion stay "imprinted" on the screen for 30 seconds or more. It is as if the animation isn't synchronized with the actions. The animation isn't going forward... The worst of the worst is when there are multiple explosions. The screen becomes riddled with stationnary flashes of explosions and you can't see what is happening under them.

Very unfortunate as this is a great game. My kinda games. Thanks!

CrazyCanuck
Running Win7-64 with all the latest patches - Video driver is dated 2015-07-15.

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

Try going into compatibilty mode and make sure you are playing with admin priveledges then try changing some of the graphic confogurations you find in compatibility mode. It could be the screen resolution you are playing on, also go into options and change the lighting configuration.

Btw, are you having any graphical glitches with any other game?

I was playing The Elder Scrolls Online and for the past several weeks after about 10 minutes I'd get glitches that steadily got worse as I played. Sometimes they would get so bad I'd not be able to see, sometimes the screen would appear to be tearing into many shards, at other times I'd get weird color changes that also blocked my view of the environemt, and sometimes the game would crash. I was sure it wasn't my graphics cards becasue other games seemed to play absolutely fine. I'd paid over £1600 for the two of them back in Dec 2011 (2 x Gainward GTX 580 Phantoms with a total of 6GB of gRAM), I purchased a second hand ASUS GTX 780 quite cheaply (around £250) installed it and the glitches are no more, so it seems my Gainward cards are trashed. I've always maintained them, ensuring the fans are not blocked by an accumulation of dust and my large gaming case has nine fans (not counting the six fans on the two cards) that keep the whole thing super cool, so I was surprised that my cards were trashed. I was expecting a lot more use out of them before they needed replacing. :(

I love this game and most Breakout games. Over the years, I've downloaded it 3 or 4 times. The first or second times, the game played very well with a few odd things occuring. For example, When pointing the cursor on specific things in the OPTION menu, you must be very precise or the option will not "engage". Minor things like that are a bit annoying, but not enough to prevent me from enjoying the game. Alas, with this installation, the game is exhibiting a very disturbing behavior. for example, In the OPTION menu, the writing completely disapear and there is no way of getting out of there but pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL. Eventually, the menu does reappear. During game play, vases and other things you've destroyed still look intact and then disappear many seconds later. Explosions are the worst. When things explode, the flash of the explosion stay "imprinted" on the screen for 30 seconds or more. It is as if the animation isn't synchronized with the actions. The animation isn't going forward... The worst of the worst is when there are multiple explosions. The screen becomes riddled with stationnary flashes of explosions and you can't see what is happening under them.

Very unfortunate as this is a great game. My kinda games. Thanks!

CrazyCanuck
Running Win7-64 with all the latest patches - Video driver is dated 2015-07-15.

<blockquote>

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

Try  going into compatibilty mode and make sure you are playing  with admin priveledges  then try  changing some of the  graphic confogurations you find in compatibility mode.   It could be  the screen resolution you are playing  on, also go into options and change the lighting   configuration.

Btw, are you  having any graphical glitches with any other game?

I was playing The Elder Scrolls Online and for the past several weeks after about 10 minutes I'd get glitches that steadily got worse as I played. Sometimes they would get so bad I'd not be able to see, sometimes the screen would appear to be tearing into many shards, at other times I'd get weird color changes that also blocked my view of the environemt, and sometimes the game would crash. I was sure it wasn't my graphics cards becasue other games seemed to play absolutely fine. I'd paid over £1600 for the two of them back in Dec 2011 (2 x Gainward GTX 580 Phantoms with a total of 6GB of gRAM), I purchased a second hand ASUS GTX 780 quite cheaply (around £250) installed it and the glitches are no more, so it seems my Gainward cards are trashed. I've always maintained them, ensuring the fans are not blocked by an accumulation of dust and my large gaming case has nine fans (not counting the six fans on the two cards) that keep the whole thing super cool, so I was surprised that my cards were trashed. I was expecting a lot more use out of them before they needed replacing. :( </blockquote>

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Reply | Comment by CrazyCanuck – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

@Whiterabbit: Thank you for your advices. Your first method I use since years (folder with shortcuts on desktop) but I only have the games in it that I often play - about 60 now. So it shows me not all what I have on my system and much more icons in one folder makes it not easier...
About steam: No, I don´t like it and want it on my system (has no good reputation here in germany) and always make a login to see my games is not what I want.
I hoped anybody knows a good collection-tool like there are for music/films - but for games I find nothing. All I tested was not what I´m looking for. Looks like I must make a simple excel-list - better than nothing...

Regards

Jimmy

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

I'm surprised to hear Steam has a bad reputation in Germany. I have quite a few German friends linked to my steam acocunt and none have ever mentioned problems. I think the main issue with Steam is the constant sales. Games can be purchased so cheap, community members end up buying more than they can play; case in point me, I now have 5577 games (not counting free to play or dlc) in my Steam account and there's no way I can play every game to completion. Considering two of my games have well over a thousand hours each of game play (ArmA 2 - 1900hrs played and doesn't count the times I played the game beofore I got a Steam copy, and The Elder Scrolls Online I've played for 1065 hours, but doesn't count the non Steam versaion i played last year for almost two months every day; and many other games have hundreds of hours each of game play time attributed to them, there's no way i'll ever get through every game.

Reply | Comment by Jimmy – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#9

"FENCES" From Stardock is also a good way to organize, not just your game icons, but all of the icons on your desktop.

Reply | Comment by Habogee – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

I've had this game from one of the first (if not THE first) offering here. It's still in my "collection" of breakout games and very enjoyable but not quite in the realm of Ricochet Infinity with almost 4400 EXTRA level sets now available and growing every couple of days, even now!

Response to #2 (Jimmy).

I never keep the shortcuts made when installing (if any) but I make my own and copy them to folders within the Games folder of Start Menu. They are sorted by my decision on Game Type (not all would agree with my definitions). How many people would have a "Sherlock" category? All but 2 in that category are from EKS but there are 2 Sherlock clones in the mix.

Some have sub-folders because of the number of games included (like HOGs). Cut/Paste from the desktop or wherever you wish to put them in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games is something that has been available at least since Windows ME. The one kicker -- you may have to unhide ProgramData as it is usually a hidden folder. I just unhide it and it's sub-folders as one of the first things I do when I get a new computer before it gets too full which would slow down the unhide operation.

I have almost 1300 games and finding any genre of game (regardless of where I got it from) is a simple few clicks of the mouse. I don't sort by distributor because I have some series from mutiple sources.

A little off topic but it was asked and is germane to games in general.

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

Hi Diane,

The very first game from the official gamegiveaway site was another breakout called Aquaball which was given away on the 8th December 2006, then we had the following each day to the end of December:

Ice Puzzle Deluxe, Aqua digger 3D, Mahjong Artefacts, Strike Ball 2 Deluxe, Word Challenge Extreme, Monster's House, Bubble Bobble Quest, Sky Bubbles Deluxe, Cartoon Xonix, Zak & Jack in Showdown at Monstertown, Brave Dwarves 2, Astro Fury, Feelers, Brave Dwarves: Back for Treasure, Tiny cars, Jeanne D'Pac, Xmas Bloxs, Real Ball, Crusaders of Space 2, Crazy Stuff, Super Cubes, Last Galaxy Heroe, Time Breaker, Dinos and bubbles, so, we got 4 breakouts in that first month (AquaBall, Strike Ball 2 Deluxe {included the original game plus 2 expansion packs} Real Ball and Time Breakers),

However the main giveaway site started up on the 26th October 2006 and gave away a program called Cartoonist, the second giveaway was the first game ever given away via the giveaway site and was called Hyperspace Invader (Oct 27th) then we got the following up until the game giveaway site was up and running on the 8th December:
Bistro Stars Oct 29th
Crystalix Oct 31sr
Snowy: fish Frenzy Nov 2nd
Snowy Treasure Hunter 5th nov
Sea Bounty Nov 8th
Tiny Worlds Nov 10th
Beezzle Nov 11th
Froggy's Adventures Nov 12th
City Magnate Nov 14th
Delivery King nov 24th
Magic Ball 2 Nov 25th
Arxon Nov 26th
Arkanoid TVI (the Virtual sles) Dec 3rd
Then the giveaway site opened and there were no more games given away via the main site until the daily game giveaways stopped back in March 2008. The last game TVI was a really good breakout /shmup game which amazingly I still have.

For the next few weeks we got some games every weekend via the giveaway site until weekend games resumed on the game giveaway site early April 2008. The following were the games given away via the giveaway site. Note SAGA, which is an MMO is about to be released on Steam. I thought the game had shut down because the account I created when I got a licence via the giveaway site was no longer accessible when I tried to access it a few years ago.
Book Stories March 22nd
Fatal hearts March 23rd
Special Event Racing March 29th
Silkwood March 30th
SAGA April 6th 2008
Rise of Atlantis April 6 2008

The breakouts we got when the official game giveaway started included the following (some games were repeated_
Neoball, Phantasia ( actually a bubble popping game, but one mode converted the game into a breakout game)
Troll, Phantasia 2, Arcamania 2, Magic Ball, Egyptoid, Hyperballoid Complete Edition, Boom Ball, Gem Ball: Ancient Legends, Chak's Temple (now freeware), Musikapa, Twinzoind (available from Gametop but name changed to Geometry Ball), Roboball, Nuclear Ball, Ball 7, Real Ball, Arkanoid TVI, Barkanoid, Twinzoid, Magic Ball 3, Phantasia 2, Aqua Ball, Real Ball 2, Aquarnoid 2, Neoball, Hyperballoid Complete Edition, Magic Ball 2, Roboball, Strikeball 2 Deluxe, and finally for the first year of the game giveaway site, Egyptoid 2 which was given away on the 15th Dec 2007.

I've had this game from one of the first (if not THE first) offering here.  It's still in my "collection" of breakout games and very enjoyable but not quite in the realm of Ricochet Infinity with almost 4400 EXTRA level sets now available and growing every couple of days, even now!

Response to #2 (Jimmy).

I never keep the shortcuts made when installing (if any) but I make my own and copy them to folders within the Games folder of Start Menu.  They are sorted by my decision on Game Type (not all would agree with my definitions).  How many people would have a "Sherlock" category?  All but 2 in that category are from EKS but there are 2 Sherlock clones in the mix.

Some have sub-folders because of the number of games included (like HOGs).  Cut/Paste from the desktop or wherever you wish to put them in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Games is something that has been available at least since Windows ME.  The one kicker -- you may have to unhide ProgramData as it is usually a hidden folder.  I just unhide it and it's sub-folders as one of the first things I do when I get a new computer before it gets too full which would slow down the unhide operation.

I have almost 1300 games and finding any genre of game (regardless of where I got it from) is a simple few clicks of the mouse.  I don't sort by distributor because I have some series from mutiple sources.

A little off topic but it was asked and is germane to games in general.

<blockquote>...............................Moderator Comment..........................................

Hi Diane,

The very first game from the official gamegiveaway site  was another breakout called Aquaball which was given away on the  8th December 2006, then we had the following each day to the end of December:

Ice Puzzle Deluxe, Aqua digger 3D, Mahjong Artefacts, Strike Ball 2 Deluxe, Word Challenge Extreme, Monster's House, Bubble Bobble Quest, Sky Bubbles Deluxe, Cartoon Xonix, Zak & Jack in Showdown at Monstertown, Brave Dwarves 2, Astro Fury, Feelers, Brave Dwarves: Back for Treasure, Tiny cars, Jeanne D'Pac, Xmas Bloxs, Real Ball, Crusaders of Space 2, Crazy Stuff, Super Cubes, Last Galaxy Heroe, Time Breaker, Dinos and bubbles, so, we got 4 breakouts in that first  month (AquaBall, Strike Ball 2  Deluxe {included the original game plus  2 expansion packs} Real Ball and Time Breakers),

However  the  main giveaway site started up  on the 26th October 2006 and gave away a program called Cartoonist, the second giveaway was the first game ever given away via the giveaway site and was called Hyperspace Invader (Oct 27th) then we got the following up until the game giveaway site  was up and running on the 8th December:
Bistro Stars Oct 29th
Crystalix Oct 31sr
Snowy: fish Frenzy Nov 2nd
Snowy Treasure Hunter 5th nov
Sea Bounty Nov 8th
Tiny Worlds Nov 10th
Beezzle Nov 11th
Froggy's Adventures Nov 12th
City Magnate Nov 14th
Delivery King nov 24th
Magic Ball 2 Nov 25th
Arxon Nov 26th
Arkanoid TVI (the Virtual sles) Dec 3rd
Then the giveaway site opened and  there were no more games  given away via the main site until the daily game giveaways stopped back in March 2008.  The last game  TVI was a really good  breakout /shmup  game which amazingly I still have.

For the next few weeks we got some games   every weekend via the giveaway site until weekend games resumed on the game giveaway site early April 2008.  The following were the games given away via the giveaway site.  Note SAGA, which is an MMO is about to be released on Steam.  I thought the game had shut down because the account I created  when I got a licence via the giveaway site was no longer accessible when I tried to access it a few years ago.  
Book Stories March 22nd
Fatal hearts March 23rd
Special Event Racing March 29th
Silkwood March 30th
SAGA April 6th 2008
Rise of Atlantis April 6 2008

The breakouts we got when the official game giveaway started included the following (some games were repeated_
Neoball, Phantasia ( actually a bubble popping game, but one mode converted the game into a breakout game)
Troll, Phantasia 2, Arcamania 2, Magic Ball, Egyptoid, Hyperballoid Complete Edition, Boom Ball, Gem Ball: Ancient Legends, Chak's Temple (now freeware), Musikapa, Twinzoind (available from Gametop but name changed to Geometry Ball), Roboball, Nuclear Ball, Ball 7, Real Ball, Arkanoid TVI, Barkanoid, Twinzoid, Magic Ball 3, Phantasia 2, Aqua Ball, Real Ball 2, Aquarnoid 2, Neoball, Hyperballoid Complete Edition, Magic Ball 2, Roboball, Strikeball 2 Deluxe, and finally for the first year of the game giveaway site, Egyptoid 2 which was given away on the 15th Dec 2007.

</blockquote>

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Reply | Comment by Diane – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#7

YAY!!!
Thank you for getting us this one again!
I lost it when I had to get a new computer, and wasn't sure if I would ever see it again.
It's a tried and true Arkanoid, and is always fun to return to when I have some time to kill.

Reply | Comment by Joe – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#6

Thanks Stephen. I remember this game from years ago, or one similar to it, and due to hard drive loss I lost the game. Even tho I dont do much with playing them anymore I will be grabbing this one as a classic. Who doesn't like a good Brick Breaking game to release some stress....lol.

Oh By the way on a side note, was wondering how your Son is doing on his Studies?

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

We are preparing him for his next round of studies. He finished his GCSE's (what we used to call 'O' levels where O = ordinary) over a month ago and has been enjoying an extended summer vacation. His next round will be 'A' level GCE's (GCE = General Certificate of Education - 16 to 18 year olds, GCSE = General Certificate of Secondary Education - 11 to 16 year olds), then in two years university to get his B.Sc or B.A.

Thanks for asking. His results for his G.C.S.E. examinations come out in two weeks time.

Reply | Comment by Samkeymaster – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#5

probably my favorite game that would be like this would be Breakout 2000 on the Atari Jaguar, Have you played that?

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

Sadly that's one Breakout i missed, though I've played similar ones. I checked the internet to see if ROM's were available for Breakout 2000, but as yet it's not available unless it's ripped off. something I don't subscribe to. There are plenty of posts and videos available for the game. I like the classic view, looks almost like the original.

You can see video of game play HERE and HERE

I like the way in two player mode you could knock your ball over to your opponent and gain extra points, either by destroying the opponesnts bricks or your ball being missed by the opponent, which gave you an extra thousand points.

Reply | Comment by Ray – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#4

Thanks for the review, much appreciated.
Hopefully they upload Arkanoid Infinity some day.

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

That would be great. Though personally I've purchased this game thee times, once from the original developer (Reflexive Arcade) and twice via Steam (for two different accounts). I've never seen it on the free game sites or Indie bundles yet, though it was reduced in price significantly when the recession hit back in 2008.

Reply | Comment by xenox – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

I think I got this game the very first time it was offered, and it's been well received every time it was offered here. The visual design and the well-chosen sound effects make this Arkanoid/Breakout style battle very satisfying. I enjoyed the original Egyptoid too and can recommend either or both without hesitation. Here's hoping Star Ashes does more! Thanks to all involved in getting these gems to us.

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

Sorted the omission. :)

Reply | Comment by Dan – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

Good shooter-game that I still have from 2013(?). But no problem: User that don´t have it can have fun with it. My question: Does anybody knows a good tool to organize my installed games? Everytime I must look in different folders to see what I have on my system. Thank you very much and nice weekend!

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

There are two ways that I know off. The first one is to create shortcuts from each of the games by opening up the games main folder and finding the game executable, then right clicking and select 'Send To' then, from the drop down menu select Desktop (Create Shortcut), then you can put all of those shortcuts into a folder so they are all easily accessed, or you can install Valves Steam client, which is free, tohugh you do have to create a Steam profile, which is also free. Once you've installed and opened the client click on the Games link that's situated along the top of the clients GUI then select add a Non-Steam Game to my library. The cleint will scan your computer for Non-Steam games and place them in the Steams 'Library' all you then need to do is sign into your Steam account and Click on the Library link to see all of your games. you can categorize these by right clicking on the entry in the library and selecting 'Set Categories' This opens up a small window that if you've already created any categories, lists them, and enables you to add new categories. Once a category is created it will be available in the main Steam library. A useful way of simplifying your game searches.

If you select the first option, and like to use the Start Menu to search for programs, you can put those shortcuts you've created into your Start Menu. There's a different method depending on which operating system you are using, so if you want to do that, just Goole it for the method.

Hope the above helps? There may be other software that enables you to do this, but I'm not aware of it

Good shooter-game that I still have from 2013(?). But no problem: User that don´t have it can have fun with it. My question: Does anybody knows a good tool to organize my installed games? Everytime I must look in different folders to see what I have on my system. Thank you very much and nice weekend!

<blockquote>.........................Moderator Comment................................

There are two ways that I know off.  The first one is to   create shortcuts from each  of the games by opening up the   games main folder and  finding the game executable, then right clicking   and select 'Send To'   then, from the drop down menu select Desktop (Create Shortcut), then you can put all of those shortcuts into a folder so they are all easily accessed, or you can install Valves Steam client, which is free, tohugh you do have to create a Steam profile, which is also free.  Once you've installed and  opened the client  click on the Games link  that's situated along the top of the clients GUI then select add a Non-Steam Game to my library.  The cleint will scan your computer for  Non-Steam games and place them in the Steams 'Library' all you then need to do is  sign into your Steam account and Click on the Library link to see all of your  games.  you can categorize these by right clicking on the  entry in the library and selecting 'Set Categories'  This opens up a small window  that if you've already created any categories, lists them, and enables you  to add new categories.  Once a category is created it will be available in the main Steam library.  A useful way of  simplifying your game searches.

If you  select the first option,  and like to use the Start Menu to search for  programs, you can  put those shortcuts you've created  into your Start Menu. There's a different method depending on which operating system you are using, so  if you want to do that, just Goole it for the method.

Hope the above helps? There may be other software that enables you to do this, but I'm not aware of it</blockquote>

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Jimmy – 9 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

Egyptoid 2:

In Brief:

Egyptoid 2 is reasonable Breakout (Arkanoid) game (named so after one of the first breakout games called Arkanoid), with slightly better graphics from the first in the series and when playing on hard, a little more challenging, but for an experienced breakout fan, it will still feel relatively tame.

I reckon this is a worthwhile download if you've not still got it from the last time this was given away (version 1.1.4)

Installation:

The game downloads as a 21.4 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me document that contains the terms and conditions and a wrapped dual activation and set up module and a security set up file (setup.gcd). Just for the newcomers amongst today’s users that means the game will be registered once it’s gone through the set up process, so there’s no registering the game with an activation code.

The game installs to C:\Games\Egyptoid2_Game

There’s no shortcut installed to either the Start Menu/Programs list or the desktop, so you’ll need to create your own by opening up the installed games folder and creating one via the games executable. The games icon is an improvement on the original Egyptoid icon. The installed game is 22 MB in size

The game should work on all Windows operating systems from XP upwards. (I’ve previously tested it on XP Pro, Vista and Win 7, and with today's giveaway Win 8.1). If you miss today's giveaway you can get it 24/7 from Gametop though it's known as Egyptoball. See end of the review for a download link.

Introductionl>:

Egyptoid 2 received a positive 76% of votes from 292 total votes back in December 2007 when it was first given away. There were 55 comments which you can read HERE. It was then given away again back in May 2008 where it received a positive vote of 80% out of 548 votes, with 86 comments which you can read HERE It was also given away October 2011 where it received a positive 87% from 385 votes and 49 comments. You can read those comments HERE. It was given away June 2012 where it received a positive 82% out of 379 votes with 31 comments which you can read HERE and Sept 2013 where it received a positive 76% out of 320 votes, with 15 comments, which you can read HERE, finally, it was also given away last year (May) where it received a positive 76% out of 333 votes with 17 comments which you can read HERE.

You investigate 7 deserted temples, find secret treasures, fight ghosts and escape from the evil magician traps. But you are lucky – you have an ancient army, called Egyptoid. Blending it together with the magicians symbols you'll achieve great magic power that none can resist!

Reference accessed HERE 17th May 2014

The Gamel>:

You are a treasure seeker. A piece of ancient papyrus showed you the way to a lost temple that contained tombs of untold wealth and an ancient magical weapon called the Egyptoid. The Egyptoid will show you the way to the secret treasure and help you gather it. Scattered around the temples are forgotten magical elements that when combined with the Egyptoid activate ancient spells. Only when you’ve collected all of Anubis’s keys will you be able to enter the secret chamber to gather the treasures of the Pharaohs.

Basically Egyptoid 2 is similar to the original Egyptoid apart from some graphical enhancement’s plus of course a whole new set of level designs to destroy. There are 17 bonuses, including the lightning cannon and the mega magic cannon, these two are the only new additions from the first version of the game. Other bonuses that are also found in the original, but are slightly different from your normal breakout are the three different levels of ball destruction from high, maximum and absolute. As with the first game there are also seven special symbols to collect. Collecting three of the same of each symbol will give you magic spells that range from ‘the glance of Horus, Breath of Atum, Lightning of Hathor, Fire of Ra, Curse of Atem, Fireball of Oseris, and the ‘Pitch of Darkness’. When adding these specials to the bonus count you get a total of 24 bonuses. The spells will be expended as soon as you collect the three symbols. So ensure your bat is in a suitable position to take advantage of the spells power. That is if your bat just so happens to be under an area of very few bricks you will not make the most of the spell. The spells are basically the same as those you got in the original Egyptoid apart from that the developers have changed the names around a little, for example the Fire of Ra becomes the Flame of Ra (and there’s a Fire of Aten,) and the Pitch of Darkness was known as Outer Darkness. As you clear a level, these specials become less effective, so it's best not to collect the third symbol of each set until you start a new level as they are carried over to the next level. Egyptoid 2 also has improved graphics. To boost your score there are lots of gems to collect.

I've been playing breakouts since the mid to late 1970's so find most of little challenge. This game is no exception. With respect to playability, I found that I've had to set the games difficulty on the hardest setting to make the game even slightly challenging. As for me it suffers the same as many 3D breakouts in that the ball does appear to travel incredibly slow. This would be an ideal game for those who are new to this genre, as well as younger children. If you like 3D breakouts and want more of a challenge I would suggest checking out the games I’ve suggested in the section at the end of this review. The first one has been amongst my favorites for a few years and the second one is much better than its predecessor Action Ball Deluxe; now free from MyPlayCity 24/7 (Actionball 2). Apart from Actionball 2 you’ll also find several more excellent breakouts over at MyPlayCity including hyperballoid 2 (watch out for toolbars being installed) which has a levels editor. Alawar did have a download link for community based levels, but I’m not sure if that exists any longer.

Video:

You can see a video of game play HERE

Conclusion:

In my opinion this version is better than the first one in the series. If you were not in the enviable position of getting it free today and had the choice of buying either one, I’d definitely buy Egyptoid 2.

With respect to playability, I found that I had to set it on the most difficult setting to make the game even slightly challenging (though I have been playing these games for more than 30 years (starting with the very first one); because it suffers the same as many 3D breakouts in that the ball does seem to travel incredibly slow. This would be an ideal game for those who are new to this genre as well as younger children. If you like 3D breakouts and want more of a challenge I would suggest checking out my suggestions below. Acky's XP Breakout and Ricochet infinity (both 2D versions) have been amongst my favorites for many years.

Scoring:

This score has been updated since this game was last given away. I've included new categories to reduce the the scoring bias that is inevitable when a single person is scoring a game.

Game play ------- 8
Graphics ------- 7
Audio ------- 7
Replayability ------- 8
Originality ------- 6.5
Fun Factor ------- 8.5
Power-ups ------- 8.5

Total = 53.5. which equals 7.6 out of 10.

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Problems:

If you have any problems installing or getting today's game to work 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 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 the 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; this 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, 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 amongst all community members, downloads can become excrucatingly 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.

I hope the above goes some way in expalining 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 1000 games to choose from; however, (today's game isn't available from any of the sites I know of but ten of the 12 in the series are available (Farm Frenzy, Farm Frenzy 2, Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party, Farm Frenzy 3, Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age, Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar, Farm Frenzy 3: Russian Roulette, Farm Frenzy: Ancient Rome, Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing, Farm Frenzy: Viking Heroes.) from MPC and TooMyk Games also have a few of the series). Other sites include Gametop, TooMyk Games (I've not included a link for this yet) and FreeGamePick.

If you do download any games from MyPlayCity, Gametop or the other 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 posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the games, games 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. :)

For now I won't be recommending you download games from Jenkat Games. They have changed the way you get games from their site. Diane has posted information about this over in the game discussion forums. If I have time or remember, I'll link to it. TooMyk Games are now safe to download from. They have removed the games that were suspect and have cleaned up their act. As always, you download from those free game sites at your own risk. The giveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway (apart from the instances mentioned above 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 on the day you upgrade, or if you've purchased a licence. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. Zero games given away have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slght annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway. That is the software Informer installation. 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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Similar Breakout Games available for free

You'll find loads of Arkanoid/breakouts HERE, HERE (Giveaway forums) and HERE (Caimans – almost 200 2D and 3D breakout games, however, since Rudy Caimans passing, a coleagues son has taken over the running of the site and he has been forced due to financial constraints to add toolbars and other items in line with other sites like MyPlayCity.) There's also a flash based site that has loads of free to play breakouts HERE

You can also download commercially available Breakouts for free from the free game sites such as Gametop 24/7. you'll also get breakouts from MyPlayCity, FreeGamePick and TooMky Games. You should find at least several others over on Gametop such as A-Ball (which is also known as Nuclear Ball), Geometry Ball, Scaraball, Cosmoball plus others, though you will get your browser opening every time you shut the game down. Please make sure you uncheck all boxes during installation when installing games from these sites. The game giveaway take no responsibility if you download games from any free game site; you do so at your own risk. That said, I've installed many games from all of these sites over the last 10 years or so, and have never had any problems. I don't tend to bother with them these days, simply because there are so many game deals available at any one time, I tend to purchase my games now; that said, I do download the occasional one if I've been unable to get the giveaway prior to it coming live so that I've been able to write a brief review.

You’ll also find quite a few breakout titles over at MyPlayCity HERE, that now include several of Alawars breakouts such as all of the Strike Ball games (Strikeball, Strikeball 2 and Strikeball 3), as well as one of my early favorites called Actionball Deluxe and it's sequel Actionball 2; oh yeah and not forgetting the second Hyperballoid game, which in my opinion was a big improvement on the original despite the first one having a massive number of levels (over a thousand) with gorgeous graphics called (not surprisingly) Hyperballoid Complete Edition (or if you purchase it from Big fish Hyperballoid Gold edition) - the down side w.r.t. the original, was that even with the speed up power-ups, the ball used to go too slow for me, (however; a community meber called GMMan did create a speed-up mod for me); there's also previous giveaways (though not Alawar games) such as Egypt Ball and Egyptian Ball as well as several others that you can download for free. I recommend all of the Alawar titles especially Hyperballoid 2 (Which has an editor for making more levels - there may be custom made levels to download via Alawars site, but I've not checked in some time) and the original Actionball Deluxe (the sequel also has upgradeable power-ups) and Strikeball 3 (The third in the series is similar to the earlier Magic Ball games {Magic Ball 2} but with better graphics and power ups that are also upgradeable, plus the game is slightly more challenging than any of the Magic Ball series (which for some reason Alawar decided to change the name from Magic Ball to Smashball Frenzy)). Unfortunately the best (IMO) arkanoid/breakouts such as Ricochet infinity, Acky's XP Breakout, Reaxxion and Shatter are not available for free via any of the free game sites apart from illegal ones. You can purchase Shatter from Steam for £6.99, though during the big sales over the summer and Christmas period and maybe thanksgiving you can get up to 75% off. Both Ricochet infinity and Acky's XP Breakout have editors and for the former thousands (literally well over 60 000) of downloadable levels for free. There are also free level packs for Acky's XP Breakout, but not to the same extent as Ricochet. You download the levels for Ricochet directly from the game and can upload your own creation from the game as well (which probably explains why there are so many - all the levels are graded for game play, graphics etc and get a score of A to D with +'s and -'s (for example B+; though the best of the best are starred as well)

If you were to ask me what Breakouts to recommend, I'd say Aky's XP Breakout, Ricochet Infinity, Arcamania 2 (there's a free version of this game called Arkamania 2 Retro), Arkanoid: the Virtual Islands, (the first ever breakout given away here), Shatter, Poing (freeware), Incrediball, Actionball 2, Hyperballoid 2, Reaxxion, Little Gods. I will add to this list as and when I can either remember the names or find them in my backups. There are a couple of unusual ones that I'd like to recommend that have a round playing fields, but the names escape me at this time, and there are several others that I love, but again can't remember the names of them at the moment. I have them all backed up on disc's, but I have hundreds of those, many unlabelled, so it's difficult to find them. I am slowly adding the disc's to a data base using a cool database software, but its time consuming so I only use it occassionally. I've added about 150 disk's so far, but there's a long way to go before I complete the job. I have well over 200 commercial breakout/arkanoid titles plus loads more freeware ones. Sadly, there aren't many being released these days. I got a new one via Steam a couple of months ago, but it was disappointing.

There is a breakout I'm after, but again, can't remember the name of it. It was a cross between a breakout and a pinball game, if anyone remebers such a game i'd be really happy to hear the name so that i can purchase it. :)

edit, I've remebered the name of one of the round breakouts. It's called X-Bound and can be played for free HERE. It's not as good as the other round breakout I have, but it's quite challenging and worth a try, especially if you enjoy playing breakouts. :)

Games, Games, and yet more Games:

There are 469 games on sale over on Steam this week, ranging from 10% to 90% off. Also there is a special Steam O.S. sale on with specials heavily discounted towards games configured to play on the soon to be released Steam operating system, for example Dying Light an open world zombie apocalypse game, 7 Days to Die, a open world survival game (another zombie infested game), Football Manager 2015, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor as well as 40 + more games. There's also 50% off the Pinball Arcade season one pack. It has 20 tables and is excellent value for money. All tables are reproductions of original tables.

You can find a full list of all sale items HERE.

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

GreenManGaming
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 a couple of weeks. If you own any games via desura i advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform before the site is taken down.

Free Game Sites:

MyPlayCity (over a 1000 games to choose from)
Gametop
FreeGamePick

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 called Arcana Kira an epic action role playing game with innovative 3rd person platforming gameplay, memorable characters, and a modern aesthetic. You play as the enigmatic Arcana Kira, a space assassin chasing a bounty that will make her rich enough to retire in luxury. But such bounties are hard to secure, especially on a huge alien world and across multiple trans-dimensional boundaries while fighting hoards of elemental beasts and bosses.

The game has been Greenlit on Steam Greenlight, so a Steam key will be given once the game leaves the Alpha stage of development.

This bundle ends around 5am Sunday 2nd Aug (GMT).

The latest Daily Indie game is Larva Mortis (a previous game giveaway):

- 30 frightening supernatural monsters to destroy. Vampires, werewolves, the undead, and more!
- A dark and horrifying atmosphere with mysterious storyline quests!
- A solid arsenal varying from classic six shooters and shotguns to the fancy Dynamo Gun
- Randomly generated missions for high replay value
- Main character development through a set of RPG-like features
- Many environments from spooky manors and catacombs to dark forests and lonely deserts
- An awesome dark orchestral music score
- The gore can be turned off if you like
- Unlock 25 morbid Steam Achievements to gain bonuses and upgrade your character

You can get the game for $0.99 or two keys if you pay more than the average price which at the time of writing was $1.12; (one for a friend or family member perhaps?). You'll find that deal HERE. They also have a few bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 HERE

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. Check out the following:

Groupees (5 bundles)
Indie Gala (? 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 (0 bundles)

The free game from Origin has changed to Zuma's Revenge the sequel to the excellent Luxor style marble popping match 3 game. This is one of the better Marble poppers. 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 immanitas games for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

Egyptoid 2:

In Brief:

Egyptoid 2 is  reasonable Breakout (Arkanoid) game (named so after one of the first breakout games called Arkanoid), with slightly better graphics  from the  first in the series and   when playing on hard, a little more challenging, but  for an experienced   breakout fan, it will still feel relatively tame.

I reckon this is a worthwhile download if you've not still got it from the last time this was given away (version 1.1.4)

Installation:

The game downloads as a 21.4 MB  zip file that unpacks to  a read me  document  that contains the   terms and conditions and a wrapped  dual activation and set up module and a security  set up file (setup.gcd).  Just for the newcomers amongst today’s users that means the game   will   be registered once it’s  gone through the set up process, so  there’s no  registering the game with an  activation code.

The game installs to C:\Games\Egyptoid2_Game

There’s  no shortcut installed to either the Start Menu/Programs list  or the desktop, so you’ll need to create your own  by opening up the installed games folder and creating one via the games executable.  The games  icon is an improvement on the original Egyptoid  icon.   The installed game is  22 MB in size

The game should work  on all Windows  operating systems from XP upwards.   (I’ve previously  tested it on  XP Pro, Vista  and Win 7,  and  with today's giveaway Win 8.1).   If you miss today's giveaway you can get it 24/7 from Gametop though it's known as Egyptoball.  See    end of the review for  a download link.

Introduction:

Egyptoid 2 received a positive 76% of votes from 292 total votes back in December 2007 when it was first given away. There were 55 comments which you can read <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egyptoid-2/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. It was then given away again back in May 2008 where it received a positive vote of 80% out of 548 votes, with 86 comments which you can read <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egy-2-ptoid/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> It was also given away October 2011 where it received a positive 87% from 385 votes and 49 comments. You can read those comments <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egyptoid-2-2/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. It was given away June 2012 where it received a positive 82% out of 379 votes with 31 comments which you can read <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egyptoid2/ " rel="nofollow">HERE</a> and Sept 2013 where it received a positive 76% out of 320 votes, with 15 comments, which you can read <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egyptoid-2-3/#comment-623751" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, finally, it was also given away last year (May) where it received a positive 76% out of 333 votes with 17 comments which you can read <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/egyptoid22/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.

<blockquote>You investigate 7 deserted temples, find secret treasures, fight ghosts and escape from the evil magician traps. But you are lucky – you have an ancient army, called Egyptoid. Blending it together with the magicians symbols you'll achieve great magic power that none can resist!</blockquote>
Reference accessed <a href="http://www.starsashes.com/egyptoid_2.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> 17th May 2014

The Game:

<blockquote>You are a treasure seeker. A piece of ancient papyrus showed you the way to a lost temple that contained tombs of untold wealth and an ancient magical weapon called the Egyptoid. The Egyptoid will show you the way to the secret treasure and help you gather it. Scattered around the temples are forgotten magical elements that when combined with the Egyptoid activate ancient spells. Only when you’ve collected all of Anubis’s keys will you be able to enter the secret chamber to gather the treasures of the Pharaohs.</blockquote>

Basically Egyptoid 2 is similar to the original Egyptoid apart from some graphical enhancement’s plus of course a whole new set of level designs  to destroy. There are 17 bonuses, including the lightning cannon and the mega magic cannon, these two are the only new additions from the first version of the game. Other bonuses that are also found in the original, but are slightly different from your normal breakout are the three different levels of ball destruction from high, maximum and absolute. As with the first game there are also seven special symbols to collect. Collecting three of the same  of each symbol will give you magic spells that range from ‘the glance of Horus, Breath of Atum, Lightning of Hathor, Fire of Ra, Curse of Atem, Fireball of Oseris, and the ‘Pitch of Darkness’.     When adding these specials to the  bonus count  you get a total of 24 bonuses. The spells will be expended as soon as you collect the three symbols. So ensure your bat is in a suitable position to take advantage of the spells power. That is if your bat just so happens to be under an area of very few bricks you will not make the most of the spell. The spells are basically the same as those you got in the original Egyptoid apart from that the developers have changed the names around a little, for example the Fire of Ra becomes the Flame of Ra (and there’s a Fire of Aten,) and the Pitch of Darkness was known as Outer Darkness. As you clear  a  level, these  specials become less effective, so it's best not to collect the third  symbol of each set until you  start a new level as they are carried over to the next level.  Egyptoid 2 also has improved  graphics. To boost your score there are lots of gems to collect.

I've been playing breakouts since the mid to late 1970's so find most   of little challenge.  This game is no exception.  With respect to playability, I found that I've  had to set the games difficulty  on the hardest  setting to make the game even slightly challenging. As for me it suffers the same as many 3D breakouts in that the ball does appear  to travel incredibly slow. This would be an ideal game for those who are new to this genre, as well as younger children. If you like 3D breakouts and want more of a challenge I would suggest checking out the  games I’ve suggested in the section at the end of this   review.  The first one has been amongst my favorites for a few years and the second one is much better than its predecessor Action Ball Deluxe;  now free  from MyPlayCity 24/7 (Actionball 2).  Apart from Actionball 2  you’ll also  find several more  excellent   breakouts over at MyPlayCity including hyperballoid 2 (watch out for  toolbars being installed) which has a levels editor.  Alawar  did  have a download link for   community based    levels, but I’m not sure if that exists any longer.

Video:

You can see a video of game play <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ALWGdzKBaE" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

Conclusion:

In my opinion this version is better than the first one in the series. If you were not in the enviable position of getting it free today and had the choice of buying either one, I’d definitely buy Egyptoid 2.

With respect to playability, I found that I had to set it on the most difficult setting to make the game even slightly challenging (though I have been playing these games  for  more than 30 years (starting with the very first one); because  it suffers the same as many 3D breakouts  in that the ball does seem to travel incredibly slow. This would be an ideal game for those who are new to this genre as well as younger children.  If you like 3D  breakouts and want more of a challenge I would suggest checking out my suggestions below.  Acky's XP Breakout  and Ricochet infinity  (both 2D versions) have been amongst my favorites for  many years.

Scoring:

This score has been updated since this game was last given away. I've included  new categories to reduce  the the scoring bias that is inevitable when a single person is scoring  a game.

Game play ------- 8
Graphics -------  7
Audio ------- 7
Replayability ------- 8
Originality ------- 6.5
Fun Factor ------- 8.5
Power-ups ------- 8.5

Total = 53.5.  which equals 7.6 out of 10.

<u<blockquote>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</blockquote>

Problems:

If you have any problems installing or getting today's game to work please go <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647#post-101133" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> 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 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 <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/257721" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for that purpose. If you've installed the 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; this 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, 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  amongst all community members,  downloads can become excrucatingly 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.

I hope the above goes some way in expalining 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 1000 games to choose from; however, (today's game isn't available from any of the sites I know of but ten of the 12 in the series are available (Farm Frenzy, Farm Frenzy 2, Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party, Farm Frenzy 3, Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age, Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar, Farm Frenzy 3: Russian Roulette, Farm Frenzy: Ancient Rome, Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing, Farm Frenzy: Viking Heroes.) from MPC and TooMyk Games also have a few of the series). Other sites include Gametop, TooMyk Games (I've not included a link for this yet) and FreeGamePick.

If you do download any games from MyPlayCity, Gametop or the other 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 posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the games, games 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. :)

For now I won't be recommending you download games from Jenkat Games. They have changed the way you get games from their site. Diane has posted information about this over in the game discussion forums. If I have time or remember, I'll link to it. TooMyk Games are now safe to download from. They have removed the games that were suspect and have cleaned up their act. As always, you download from those free game sites at your own risk. The giveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway (apart from the instances mentioned above 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 on the day you upgrade, or if you've purchased a licence. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record  since the game giveaway site was created  back in December 2006.  Zero games given away have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor  home pages hijacked or browsers  changed. There is  one slght annoyance, but that only occurs if  a community member isn't paying attention when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway. That is the software Informer  installation.  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

Similar Breakout Games available for free

You'll find loads of Arkanoid/breakouts <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2607#post-17584" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4534#post-48404" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Giveaway forums) and <a href="http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fbreakout.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Caimans – almost 200 2D and 3D breakout games, however, since Rudy Caimans passing, a coleagues son has taken over the running of the site and he has been forced due to financial constraints to add toolbars and other items in line with other sites like MyPlayCity.) There's also a flash based site that has loads of free to play breakouts <a href="http://www.roundgames.com/onlinegame/Breakout" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

You can also download commercially available Breakouts for free from the free game sites such as <a href="http://www.gametop.com/" rel="nofollow">Gametop</a> 24/7. you'll also get breakouts from MyPlayCity, FreeGamePick and TooMky Games. You should find at least several others over on Gametop such as A-Ball (which is also known as Nuclear Ball), Geometry Ball, Scaraball, Cosmoball plus others, though you will get your browser opening every time you shut the game down. Please make sure you uncheck all boxes during installation when installing games from these sites. The game giveaway take no responsibility if you download games from any free game site; you do so at your own risk. That said, I've installed many games from all of these sites over the last 10 years or so, and have never had any problems. I don't tend to bother with them these days, simply because there are so many game deals available at any one time, I tend to purchase my games now; that said, I do download the occasional one if I've been unable to get the giveaway prior to it coming live so that I've been able to write a brief review.

You’ll also find quite a few breakout titles over at MyPlayCity <a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/free_arcade_games/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, that now include several of Alawars breakouts such as all of the Strike Ball games (Strikeball, Strikeball 2 and Strikeball 3), as well as one of my early favorites called Actionball Deluxe and it's sequel Actionball 2; oh yeah and not forgetting the second Hyperballoid game, which in my opinion was a big improvement on the original despite the first one having a massive number of levels (over a thousand) with gorgeous graphics called (not surprisingly) Hyperballoid Complete Edition (or if you purchase it from Big fish Hyperballoid Gold edition) - the down side w.r.t. the original, was that even with the speed up power-ups, the ball used to go too slow for me, (however; a community meber called GMMan did create a speed-up mod for me); there's also previous giveaways (though not Alawar games) such as Egypt Ball and Egyptian Ball as well as several others that you can download for free. I recommend all of the Alawar titles especially Hyperballoid 2 (Which has an editor for making more levels - there may be custom made levels to download via Alawars site, but I've not checked in some time) and the original Actionball Deluxe (the sequel also has upgradeable power-ups) and Strikeball 3 (The third in the series is similar to the earlier Magic Ball games {Magic Ball 2} but with better graphics and power ups that are also upgradeable, plus the game is slightly more challenging than any of the Magic Ball series (which for some reason Alawar decided to change the name from Magic Ball to Smashball Frenzy)). Unfortunately the best (IMO) arkanoid/breakouts such as <a href="http://www.ricochetinfinity.com/" rel="nofollow">Ricochet infinity</a>, <a href="http://www.isotope244.com/games/ab/media.html" rel="nofollow">Acky's XP Breakout</a>, <a href="http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/1276/reaxxion/index.html" rel="nofollow">Reaxxion</a> and <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/20820/?snr=1_4_4__13" rel="nofollow">Shatter</a> are not available for free via any of the free game sites apart from illegal ones. You can purchase Shatter from Steam for £6.99, though during the big sales over the summer and Christmas period and maybe thanksgiving you can get up to 75% off. Both Ricochet infinity and Acky's XP Breakout have editors and for the former thousands (literally well over 60 000) of downloadable levels for free. There are also free level packs for Acky's XP Breakout, but not to the same extent as Ricochet. You download the levels for Ricochet directly from the game and can upload your own creation from the game as well (which probably explains why there are so many - all the levels are graded for game play, graphics etc and get a score of A to D with +'s and -'s (for example B+; though the best of the best are starred as well)

If you were to ask me  what Breakouts to recommend, I'd say Aky's XP Breakout, Ricochet Infinity, Arcamania 2 (there's a free version of this game called Arkamania 2 Retro), Arkanoid: the Virtual Islands, (the first ever breakout given away here), Shatter, Poing (freeware), Incrediball, Actionball 2, Hyperballoid 2, Reaxxion, Little Gods.  I will add to this list as and when I  can either remember  the names or find them in my backups.  There are a couple of unusual ones that I'd like to recommend that have a round playing fields, but the names escape me at this time, and there are several others that I love, but again  can't remember the names of them  at the moment.  I have them all backed up on    disc's, but I  have hundreds of those, many unlabelled, so it's difficult to find them.  I am slowly adding the disc's to a data base using a cool  database software, but its time consuming so I only   use it occassionally.  I've  added about 150 disk's so far, but  there's a long way to go before I complete the job. I have well over 200 commercial breakout/arkanoid titles plus  loads more freeware ones.  Sadly,   there aren't many being released these days. I got a new one via Steam a couple of months ago, but it was disappointing.

There is a breakout I'm after, but again, can't remember the name of it.  It was a cross between a breakout and a pinball game, if anyone  remebers such a game i'd be really happy to hear the name so that i can purchase it.  :)

edit, I've remebered the name of one of the round breakouts. It's called X-Bound and can be played for free <a href="http://www.roundgames.com/game/X-Bound" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. It's not as good as the other round breakout I have, but it's quite challenging and worth a try, especially if you enjoy playing breakouts. :)

Games, Games, and yet more Games:

There are  469 games on sale over on Steam this week, ranging from 10% to 90% off.   Also there is a special Steam O.S. sale on  with  specials   heavily discounted towards games configured to play on the soon to be released Steam operating system,  for example Dying Light an open world  zombie apocalypse game, 7 Days to Die, a open world  survival game (another zombie infested game), Football Manager 2015, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor as well as 40 + more games.  There's also 50% off the Pinball Arcade season one pack. It has 20 tables and is  excellent value for money.  All tables are reproductions of original tables.

You can find a full list of all sale items <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/search/?specials=1&os=win" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.

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

<a href="http://www.greenmangaming.com/hot-deals/" rel="nofollow">GreenManGaming</a>
<a href="http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">Gamersgate Summer Sale</a>
<a href="http://www.gog.com/" rel="nofollow">GOG</a> (DRM free games)
<a href="http://www.gamestop.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">Gamestop</a>
<a href="http://digital.gamefly.co.uk/#!/pc" rel="nofollow">GameFly</a> (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 a couple of weeks.  If you own any games via desura i advise  downloading all of the drm free  games  you have on that platform before the site is taken down.

Free Game Sites:

<a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/" rel="nofollow">MyPlayCity</a> (over a 1000 games to choose from)
<a href="http://www.gametop.com/" rel="nofollow">Gametop</a>
<a href="http://freegamepick.net/en/" rel="nofollow">FreeGamePick</a>

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 <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> 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 <a href="https://indiegamestand.com/" rel="nofollow">IndieGameStand</a>. you'll find the indie bundles thread <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/100253#post-202848" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. The thread is outdated, but all of the links will still take you to the latest bundles.

The latest IndieGameStand game is called  Arcana Kira an epic action role playing game with innovative 3rd person platforming gameplay, memorable characters, and a modern aesthetic. You play as the enigmatic Arcana Kira, a space assassin chasing a bounty that will make her rich enough to retire in luxury. But such bounties are hard to secure, especially on a huge alien world and across multiple trans-dimensional boundaries while fighting hoards of elemental beasts and bosses.

The game has been Greenlit on Steam Greenlight, so a Steam key  will be given once the game leaves the Alpha stage of development.

This bundle ends around 5am Sunday  2nd Aug (GMT).

The latest Daily Indie game is Larva Mortis (a previous game giveaway):

- 30 frightening supernatural monsters to destroy. Vampires, werewolves, the undead, and more!
- A dark and horrifying atmosphere with mysterious storyline quests!
- A solid arsenal varying from classic six shooters and shotguns to the fancy Dynamo Gun
- Randomly generated missions for high replay value
- Main character development through a set of RPG-like features
- Many environments from spooky manors and catacombs to dark forests and lonely deserts
- An awesome dark orchestral music score
- The gore can be turned off if you like
- Unlock 25 morbid Steam Achievements to gain bonuses and upgrade your character

You can get the game for $0.99 or two keys if you pay more than the average price which at the time of writing was $1.12; (one for a friend or family member perhaps?). You'll find that deal <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. They also have a few bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/bundle_2.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

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. Check out the following:

<a href="https://groupees.com/" rel="nofollow">Groupees</a> (5 bundles)
<a href="https://www.indiegala.com/" rel="nofollow">Indie Gala</a> (? bundles)
<a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/" rel="nofollow">Humble bundle</a> (2 Bundles)
<a href="http://www.indieroyale.com/" rel="nofollow">Indie Royale</a> (this bundle is no longer live)
<a href="http://www.bundlebandits.com/" rel="nofollow">Bundle Bandits</a> (0 bundles)
<a href="https://www.blinkbundle.com/" rel="nofollow">Blink Bundle</a> (0 bundles)
<a href="http://www.playinjector.com/" rel="nofollow">Play Injector</a> (0 bundle)
<a href="http://getloadedgo.com/" rel="nofollow">Get Loaded</a> (0 bundles)
<a href="http://gamesrage.org/" rel="nofollow">Games Rage</a> (0 bundles)
<a href="http://www.flyingbundle.com/" rel="nofollow">Flying bundle</a> (0 bundles)

The free game from Origin has changed to Zuma's Revenge the sequel to the excellent Luxor style marble popping match 3 game. This is one of the better Marble poppers. Check it out <a href="https://www.origin.com/en-gb/store/free-games/on-the-house" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.

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.

A Request for help:

<blockquote>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 immanitas games for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.</blockquote>

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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