So sorry to hear about your son, Stephen. I can understand what he's going through, having had some bad breaks myself. My thoughts and prayers are with him and your family.

This game is a lot of fun. I downloaded it version 1.1.4 last year. As I recall it was a clean download and setup, and there's not much of a learning curve to it (which I like). The default speed is fine for me, as I would not find it to be fun if it ran too fast. It's exciting to see and hear the special effects when there's going to be a big bonus blowout of the tiles.

One criticism I have is that there might be too many matches to make or icons to follow to build up bonuses. I am not big into gaming, but I have enjoyed playing this type of game for many years. Eventually I just tried to hit as many symbol tiles as I could, and the bonuses would come at random since I wasn't able to keep track of 'em and enjoy the game at the same time.

I like the graphics, the music, and the flow of the game. This game would definitely be worth buying if I hadn't received it free through here. I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys tile or block breaking games.

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Thank you for your well wishes and feedback Robert.

This looks like what used to be called "Egyptoid II". Same as "I", but more explosive. It was given away here years ago. I played it alot. Great game!

Fantastic game. If you like break-out style games, just download this and play it. Don't think. Just do it. You'll thank me later.

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:D

I am so sorry to hear about the boy. Don't let it stop him from keeping on. AND don't let this harm your health any further!
jjc

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Thanks for your well wishes

Already had both of the Egyptoid games. Decent Breakout games.

Thanks Star Ashes and GGOTD.

Ahhhhh, Boys will be boys.... At least he will have his cast off before it gets really hot and itchy. Be thinking about him tomorrow...

Hugs to your family and you, Wabbit!

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

Thanks Delenn, much appreciated; that's true, had forgotten about the itchiness of casts. Had a lot of broke bones (pelvis, several ribs, collar bone, wrist, fingers, ankle, toes, vertebrae) myself via motorcycle accidents (worked as a motorcycle courier while at university), tobogganing etc

Steve, I hope your son's ankle heals well and he's able to be up and about soon. As far as todays game, it downloaded with no problem at all in my Win7/64 system and I played it for about 45 minutes with no glitches whatsoever. IMO this is a lot better than Eqyptoid 1 with the addition of better graphics, more power ups and ghosts. The transitions to the next levels are also very well done. Thank you Starsashes and GGOTD for giving away a nice game today.

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Hi Kathy, Thanks for your well wishes. Hopefully they will let him home for the night. his surgery is tomorrow afternoon.

About advertised steam, Caveat emptor; 'Steam and your Subscription(s) require the automatic download and installation of Software onto your computer. Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal, non-commercial use (except where commercial use is expressly allowed herein or in the applicable Subscription Terms) in accordance with this Agreement, including the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold.'
So, remember that 'you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software'

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Hi Takiainen,


There's around 60 million community members now use Valves Steam client. The 'let the buyer beware' (Caveat emptor) message you quote above is standard practice; I very much doubt they would leave millions of Steam users high and dry; still, thanks for the warning.

I still have it from last time it was given away. I have pulled it out several times to replay and still enjoy it. I rarely finish it because there is not enough diversity of play or intriguing challenges to keep me for long but the fun factor is certainly worth an hour or so.

That being said it installed fine and has never glitched or crashed. Thank you for the giveaways and for the time you give up with your family to moderate.

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:D

Hi Stephen,

Sorry to hear about your son's injury and hope he is back on his feet soon. Fortunately, youngsters recover from most broken bones better than oldsters -- my husband may never get back to normal after fracturing his heel in his auto accident back in Feb. If he is feeling better later, I will ask him to help me download this game, as I have not yet had the chance to get it (or the first Egyptoid). I really do appreciate all you do, and thanks also to GGOTD and Stars Ashes for offering us this game.

Cara in NC

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Hi Cara, thanks for your well wishes. My wife has just gone back to the hospital to see if she can take him home for the night. He's having his surgery tomorrow afternoon.

What an improvement over Egyptoid 1! I especially like that power-ups, weapons, etc. carry over from one level to the next, I've not seen this in other such games.

Only two issues. There are no widescreen resolutions; if I run 1600x1200 some data is partially off-screen at the top, so I must run a lower resolution to see everything on my 1680x1050 screen. And control (mouse) sensitivity is noticeably lower than my default, it would be nice to have an adjustment for this (I'm not changing my default then try to remember to reset it after exiting the game).

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Hi jgf, does your mouse have a sensitivity button? sometimes they are located on the bottom of the mouse. All of my recent mouse purchased (over the last several years) have had sensitivity buttons, so that I can adjust the sensitivity of the mouse on the fly. My latest mice have a +/- button which makes it quicker to adjust (great when you are playing certain games that may require less sensitivity, or more)

oops I mean started eating its own storage. Duh.

cool - one of the games I lost when my old external hard drive started eating. Thanks!

Hello,

I really like this game and have been playing it on and off for a few years. But, I just read something in your reviews that perhaps I was unaware of or already did it and didn't know I did...

You said " 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."

What are the keys? And where is the secret chamber, please?

When I get to "the end", I get the following message (verbatim including spelling)

"ADVENTURE be COMPLETED
The way further is closed, all the temples are completed, and all the treasures are found and will be exhibited in museums. You mission is carried out.
To be continued."

Am I missing something?

Please advise.

Thank you.

Sending positive healing thoughts for your son.

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Hi Subhadhra Gunn,

I've never completed the game so can't answer your question, sorry. I think it's just an end of game message. you probably unlocked the hidden area's over the time you've played the game?

Had Egytptoid and Egyptoid 2 in the past.
Lost both in a hard drive crash.
Got Egtptoid back in a recent GAOTD, but really missed version 2 - and now today, I can get it back.
Love the game. HIGHLY "addictive." Must have played Egyptoid 2 hundreds of times.
A real "keeper."
Thanks to Stars Ashes and GAOTD for this really fun game.
Cheers,
Glenn Norman

Hi Stephen, thanks for sharing the freebies giveaway.
Love Plants vs Zombies on the iPad and am happy to get for free to play on the pc.
Hope your son recovers well.

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

I won't be able to moderate for most of the day because my son broke his ankle last night while doing his gymnastics. I'll be at the hospital for most of the day sitting with my son.

Will sort moderation later today.

b.t.w. there will be another game tomorrow.

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\Egyptoid 2\

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. Tt was given away June 2012 where it received a positive 82% out of 379 votes with 31 comments which you can read HERE and finally last year where it received a positive 76% out of 320 votes, with 15 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:

Game play ------- 8
Graphics ------- 7
Audio ------- 7
Replayability ------- 8
Originality ------- 6.5


Total = 36.5. which equals 7.3 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, there's a list of FAQ's with answers.



If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time.

Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed). Though, so long as you have the download, sometimes its still possible to activate an hour or so later. (It's been reported as long as 3 hours)

If you do miss the giveaway, or find it won't work, it’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity has the most with over 600 games to choose from. Today's game isn't available from MyPlayCity, Jenkat Games or the other free game sits though you can get the first one (which was given away some weeks ago, from Gametop. they have changed the name to Egyptoball. There are two other Egypt themed breakouts over at MyPlayCity called Egypt Ball and Egyptian Ball, the latter is an excellent physics based breakout with cool brick physics and some novel power ups as well.


Please do remember that these free sites have the potential to install toolbars and change your provider. MPC is quite aggressive at the moment. Every time you start a game up, you will need to uncheck the checkboxes if you install the MyPlayCity version.

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More Games





If today's game doesn't take your fancy then check out the game discussion forums and the free games synopsis. We’ve posted a couple of thousand free games over the last three years, many of which are excellent alternatives to their commercial cousins. I've posted around 15 games over the last week as it's now five years since I started the Free games project (now called Good Games to Grab).




Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:



If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

Steams weekend deals include a free weekend playing Chivalry Medieval Warfare (you will need to install the Steam client to take advantage of this offer. The full game will be available to play until Sunday 1pm PDT. You can also buy the game at 75% off until Monday afternoon. The other weekend deal is 50% off The Stanley Parable (a first person exploration game), there's 76% off the latest 48hr deal which is is Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors Cut (a first person stealth game). There's also 75% off Guns of Icarus Online, 80% off ArmA 2 Complete collection (only £4.99 for a superb military sim, with hundreds of hours of game play, explore thousands of square miles of almost life like environments ranging from European forests, towns and villages to dry environments not unlike Afghanistan. (I've put in well over 3000 hours on this game since it was released in 2009). There's also 75% off How to survive, 80% off the Take on Helicopters bundle 9a really cool helicopter sim (from the same developers as ArmA), 75% off Sonic % All-Stars Racing Transformed, 80% off Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, 80% off the superb demolition derby and racing game Flatout Complete pack (only £4.49 for four brilliant games), 75% off sonic Generations, 75% off Port Royale, 75% off Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, 75% off Deus ex: Invisible War, 90% off BC Kings, 70% off Postal 2, 50% off Small Worlds 2 (plus dlc), 90% off Bad Rats (a physics based game on the lines of the incredible machine), 85% off Sacred Gold (only £0.89), 75% off Frontlines: fuel of War, 80% off Alpha Prime, 80% off Memento Mori, 90% off Puzzle kingdoms (an rpg based match 3 game), 66% off Gas Guzzlers Extreme, 80% off UFO: Afterlight, 80% off Original War, 80% off Jagged alliance 2 Gold, 75% off Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY, 75% off the superb 3D space sim Darkstar One, 80% off the Ankh pack (two point & click adventure games), 60% off The Bridge, 80% off Alternativa, 60% off Eldritch, 66% off Violett, 67% off Unity of Command trilogy bundle (you can purchase the three games separately for 80% off each, but you get a further discount for buying the bundle), 90% off Blood of the Werewolf, 75% off Men at War, 80% off Pound of Ground. There's well over a hundred games and dlc's on sale at the moment, with a developers sale on for Strategy first. you can see details of all their on sale items HERE


This months Origin freebie is the fantastic tower defence game Plants & Zombies. You do need to install the Origin client and create a free account with EA games to access the freebies (last months freebie was the AAA rated game Dead Space) . Once you've got the client installed, an account created and opened up, click on the Free games tab along the top of the store front page and select 'On the House'. You can find the Plants and Zombies deal HERE

You'll find many more game deals on Greenmangaming, Gamersgate, Gamestop, and GOG, Desura and Origin. 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.


For details of all active indie game bundles check out the thread in the forums HERE. There's around 20 different bundles active at the moment, so you're bound to find some games that will interest you at a heavily discounted price. I've also listed some free bundles.

The latest IndieGameStand game is Attractio a FPS-Puzzle game. The next deal starts on Monday morning 5am GMT.. There's a new site called The Daily Indie game (though games change every 2 to 4 days) that has a heavily discounted indie game every 48 hours which you can access HERE (though I'm also updating the bundles thread in the game discussion forums, so you can usually find details of the latest game available from this site there. If you pay over the average price for games from this site you'll get a second key that you can give to friends. At the moment I've not seen the average price rise above $1.50. The latest game is called Subject 9 a unique game that challenges players to fight to survive, using the environment to help aid the cause, and elemental powers to lay waste to anyone who stands in the way. Set in the future, the game is about a human weapon, Subject 9; is granted super human powers by a corrupted company that's attempting to contain him as he escapes for freedom.







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)


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 Jenkat 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 8 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; 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)

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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.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen