On my previous attempt on the game, I got about half-way through the campaign missions...

Basically, the problem at Arcade level 20 (or whatever it's called) was that I needed to quickly clean out columns to survive, and doing so causes the rows to advance much more quickly. This can result in a much faster loss than if you simply did nothing. I noticed this exact cause after retrying that level with a better mouse.

It was good for the first levels, but I can no longer progress through the game.

It's a good game, but the locked levels are too hard. I gave up and probably won't try again because it gets difficult too fast and doesn't give clues.

Interesting game, different. Installed without any problems on Vista. Nice graphics and music. Challenging and fun. This game is a keeper.

Thank You Merscom

I left a comment here a number of hours ago and has not been posted. I imagine others (shortly more than five comments have been submitted) wonder where their post is also.

I note that so far there have been no negative comments made about todays game giveaway of the Day,Exocubes. While that might speak well for today's game, I think that additional comments whether a negative comment or not, should be included in this comment section to add additional depth to Whiterabbit's excellent game review.

Bigun

This is one cool game.

Nice graphics, excellent sound track, and different than any match 3 I have ever played.

Thumbs up :)

I can see the good and bad here. Some tension, especially because I'm slow on the draw. Action is kind of repetitive. One of the basic game secrets is to create horizontal rows as high up as you can. In other words at the highest block which is at the bottom of it's row, because the horizontal matching blocks in adjacent rows will cut loose all the lower blocks below them. Obviously, similar to a lot of ball shooters. Not too much difference between arcade and classic modes, which takes some of the novelty out of it. Mainly, arcade has Space Invader like shooting bases which shoot and take out blocks somewhat independent of your efforts. That keeps you rethinking your next move, which has an interesting aspect. At least in the early levels, arcade seems to drop down faster. Of course, in the hour I've played I've only gotten to the fourth level in each mode, so I'm hardly an expert.

I think Whiterabbit probably put it best. Slightly above average. Decent time killer. Whether it will be more to you depends, probably on whether you enjoy immersion in this type of repetition. If it intrigues you, then likely worth the download. I'll have to play a few more times to see if it exceeds my boredom threshold.

The game looks like it'd be fun to play. I tried, but after successful unpacking and GAOTD registration (XP SP3) the main program just starts and then quits immediately. I even tried various OS compatibility modes but nothing works.

I did notice some sloppiness in the installation. In the SFX dir, there's a backup of an existing sound for some reason, just taking up space; there's a shortcut to the game in the install folder with the assumption that it'll be located in "c:\program files," and the uninstaller doesn't do much of anything.

Somewhat unusual match 3. Interesting enough to play now and then, not so interesting that you will get addicted and not do your work.

It must have a un-installer program before I could download it

Thank you very much GGAOTD.

Monday's free game has been posted over in the forums. I'm back for the rest of this week, then as mentioned previously, Wizzard of Oz and myself will be taking weekly turns to post games. The game is called Theseus: Return of the Hero, a sequel to Alien Shooter. I've also included two Gametop games, RIP3 and Crimson Road, which are still being sold commercially elsewhere. In fact Crimson Road is made by the same developer as Theseus:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4344

Installs & runs fine on XP sp3. Great FUN! Merscom has done it again! They have some EXCELLENT games & this is 1! If you haven't tried Ingenius from Merscom, do try it! It's one of my all-time faves! I spend hours playing it. Thanks much GOTD & Merscom!

I had this game last time it was given away...really enjoyed it! Very excited to see it back.

It is indeed a very challenging game that'll leave you coming for more.

Thank you for todays game!
I have waiting for this one, my mom likes this one so now she can add to her game game collection!
Thanks for all do for all of us!
SuZuDu

Looked interesting but would not work on my new Lenovo ThinkPad

Liked it last time, still like it, a great time killer! Installed to XP SP2 laptop with no problems.

Exocube, the game GiveawayoftheDay for November 30, 2008.

I find it amazing that there's not a single negative comment on this game so far. We cannot let that stand.

Thank you Whiterabbit or such a complete write up. I especially thank you for mentioning that the control device is the mouse "To do this you use the mouse to drag and drop cubes".

There just a couple things about this game that bother me. The first is that it takes fourteen pages to explain how to play the game. Most games that we get either have very little or no explanatory material associated with them. A jump to fourteen pages is quite a leap.

It also bothers me that the developers stopped at forty-nine rooms - now why would they do that? Doesn't fifty sound better? Maybe the number forty-nine in some foreign languages is the same thing is fifty in English. How would I know unless somebody tells me these things? That's really Whiterabbit's responsibility. Boy you are falling down the job.

Whiterabbit, I'm working like a fiend on the matter that I wrote you about. I'll explain what the problem has been in an e-mail.

Great game guys! This one's different from the rest so don't think it's a typical match 3. Love it! Thanks GOTD!

Whiterabbit....thanks for another detailed review. You always amaze me....Not only do you know when the game was previously given away but you know where you were that day a year and a half ago......I can barely remember where I was yesterday.....you're amazing......hope all is well. Thanks again!

thumbs down!!!!!!!! didn't like at all. this weekend wasn't very good at all. hopefully next weekend will be better.

A fun & challenging game. Installed easily on XP professional SP3 with no problems. Thanks GGOTD.

This game is pretty awesome.

the only problem i encountered is that the flashing lights that warn you that you are about to die somewhat block your view of the column that is about to die.

it wasnt that bad though, its a great game!

It's quite addicting and challenging.

good job GGOTD

Fantastic...right up my street, big thank you.

well i tried installing it one last time (4 times in all). it still doesn't show anything on the screen when i try to start in the action and classic mode. the tutorial won't even load.

i have installed the game 2 times. the first time it didn't go any further than asking me for my player name. nothing else showed up or worked.

i uninstalled it and downloaded it again. the second time it showed the main menu. when i clicked both the action and classic mode it showed a blank screen.

i tried it for a 3rd time and still not loading. i will try one last time after deleting everything again and restarting my computer. if it doesn't work this time that's it. too bad. it looks like a good game.

i'd like to see more sims games like cathy's hotel and the like.

I agree with Stephen. It looks like Tetrus but isn't, and is surprisingly fun once I found that out.

Thanks, GOTD.

Thanks for this one.

I found it interesting but not worth $19.95. Not with the sophistication of games like Luxor. 5 out of 10. The music rates better than the game play!
Maybe next weekend's offerings will be better. Thanks anyway GOTD.

Nice game ! if you like this you should also try Astropop, by Zylom..
Works fine, on Vista. The prog doesn't place a link in my menu Start.
good sounds, nice graphics.
Nice work, GGOTD!

A very challenging game with different levels of difficulty worth trying the game you may find that you like it.

THE GAME IS FUN TO PLAY I THINK YOU WILL LIKE IT TO. I DO THANK YOU FOR THE GAME.

A different spin on match three gaming. Excellent music. A must have if you're into this sort of game.

this game is actually quite challenging (more than i thought it would be from the description). definitely a keeper!

Exocubes is a 19.9Mb download that installs to about 27Mb. It received a positive 85% of 200 votes when it was given away a year last summer 07. I missed it the first time around because I was sunning myself in Turkey at the time. You can read the games intro below and the 48 comments that were made by the giveaway community by following the link:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/exocubes/#
Quote:

Dive into world of Exocubes to aid in the great escape! Manipulate magical cubes, ENERGIZE them with scanners, and BLAST the walls away! Looking for a way to escape from the seemingly endless barrage of rooms? Form combinations from magical cubes, ENERGIZE them with scanners, and BLAST the walls blocking your way to freedom! The world is populated with 49 different rooms, each with different hazards and challenges. Use the items present in the rooms to help you in dire times. Cubes can also turn nasty and make your life even harder. Gather up your wits, skill and survival instincts, you will need them in this great escape!

Reference: http://goodpremiumgames.com/game/980/Exocubes accessed 28th Nov 08


The Game:
The game starts with a grid of colored cubes that slowly move towards the bottom of the screen. If you allow these to reach the bottom the game ends. To stop this happening you must destroy the cubes before this happens, (ob). You can do this by creating a vertical or horizontal line of at least three or more cubes of the same color that must also be adjacent to the bottom of the grid. To do this you use the mouse to drag and drop cubes so that the same-colored ones are next to each other before a bar like scanner reads the cube configuration that you’ve created and destroys successfully aligned cubes. You can only move one block at a time by clicking on it with your mouse and dragging the block to where you want it to go, so you need to work really fast. This is not as simple as it seems because you can only move blocks vertically, that is up and down and not horizontally, (sideways), within a short space of time before the scanner bar moves. You have to complete a move between the times that the scanner bar moves for the move to be accepted.
There are two modes Arcade and classic, of which there are 49 levels in the former and nine in the latter (classic). The difference appears to be in the time it takes to destroy the wall at the bottom of the screen, which takes a lot more hits in the classic mode than it does in the arcade mode. Once the wall has been broken into sections they will start to move, making it harder to hit the wall pieces still surviving. Once the wall has been destroyed you are able to proceed to the next level (room). The options menu allows you to change the volume of sound effects and music as well as toggle to windowed mode and also toggle on or off the hints. The help menu contains fourteen pages each with an animated series of screens showing you the various effects achieved by some of the power ups that are available, which include color changers, bombs, one that slows the scanner down and lockers, plus a few others. Power ups are introduced gradually as you progress through the levels. You can also choose from five different custom cursors, and there are four different block sets, which initially are blanked out but are unlocked after level 5. There are no difficulty settings, but in the action mode the first 20 rooms are labeled beginners. I’m assuming later levels will be labeled differently, but I haven’t the time to play it out to past level 20 at the moment. While in game you can bring up the main menu by clicking on the link provided. This initially brings up the options menu with links to the help menu and main menu. When you first start the game you are asked if you wish to follow a tutorial, which takes you through the first few simple moves. In my opinion, it’s worth the effort as it makes clear the moves that are explained in the help menu. You can see all the help pages and the tutorial messages by following the link to my images below. It’s worth checking out the slideshow as the images are in a semblance of order, but there are nearly 80 images so it will take about four or five minutes to flick through the lot, though you can use the arrow key to zip through them much faster. Alternatively follow the link to the page with all of them on, though they are only thumbnails and are much harder to see.
Images:


All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Exocubes/?albumview=grid


As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Exocubes/?albumview=slideshow


Googled:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=exocubes&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2



System Requirements:

O.S…………………………………………...Windows 98/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP;
CPU………………………………………….600MHz and above
System RAN………………………………..128MB
Graphics RAM…......................................32MB
Graphics Emulation………………………..DirectX 8 or greater or Open GL

Conclusion:
When I first installed and saw this game I wasn’t impressed, it looked like a Tetris clone, which we’ve seen plenty of over the last ten years or so, plus I posted several free versions over in the forums as part of the free weekday games project about a month ago. However it’s nothing like Tetris, so those of you (like myself), who overloaded on Tetris when it first came out on the original Game boy back in the early 90’s can breath a sigh of relief.

Overall I’d give this game a 6 out of 10; it’s challenging enough, especially when you’ve only got a little bit of the moving wall to destroy, but I found after several levels I became a little bored. The game is very colorful, but it lacks something; maybe some mini games that are all the rage in some genres of games at the moment. I do think when the blocks are almost at the wall there is no need for them to flash white, which obscures the colored blocks and makes it almost impossible to make correct matches at the most crucial time. There is a siren which should suffice. The music is rather dull as well, but you can easily turn off the volume and play something on your stereo, or alternatively go into the sound folder found in the games resource folder and exchange the appropriate ogg file. As it stands I regret buying the game (from Reflexive over a year ago), but hey, I’m mad anyway, lol. Thankfully, you can check it out and keep it for free if you think you’ll like it.



Other reviews worth reading:

http://www.zimbio.com/Razor+Sharp+Reviews+of+Various+Software+and+Web+Sites./articles/4/Exocubes (by SWAN an old member of the giveaway community who used to write excellent game reviews here)
http://www.reflexive.com/Exocubes.html