When a game is finished it immediately covers the completed picture with the level score. It would be nice to see what the completed picture looks like for more than a second or two. If it completed then had an arrow or button for score, to move to the score screen, that would be nice.

Really enjoyed this game. I would've liked higher levels with more than 15 squares for the down part of the grid.

Agree that a save option would be nice as I had to leave games in progress too.

Thanks for another good game.

I have the same complaint, though, from the last one from this developer. When I'm done with the puzzle, I don't have enough time to understand the finished grid. All the green squares are there, 90% of the tick marks, and some white squares. The game only gives you two seconds to look at it.

After completion, it should change all the tick marks back to white (or vice versa), and then wait for me to click. For some of them, it'd be nice, too, to have a description of what the pixellated picture is..

Dave..

I had the same problem, dobromilka. Although changing screen resolution higher didn't help at all. I suspect that it doesn't play well with all video cards. Mine is an nvidia GE Force card. What happens is: the panel which contains the tallies - mistakes, coins earned, and the slider to change from filling a block to xing out an empty block - is almost completely off the right side of the screen. Windowed mode doesn't change that either. The good things are: as said above, you can just right click to x out an empty block (which usually results in less mistakes for me), and the slider control to change from fill to x is actually a vertical slider, so there's enough of it showing on the right edge to change the mode anyway. But not being able to see the error count means that I would have to go all the way through a puzzle to know that I didn't have it perfect. That's a definite negative!

Hi Stephen,

I'm happy to get another fill-and-cross as I enjoyed the last one. Both games do need a little more tweaking, such as improved English, clearer instructions for novices and a better explanation in she shopping area. Also the buttons are not self-explanatory (replay grid etc). I also notice that I have to readjust the volumes each time I return to the game. Thanks to you, GGOTD and Immanitas for this offering. Hope you had good holidays and that this new year brings wonderful things.

Cara in NC

Unfortunately this classic type of puzzle IS a bit complex and needs explanation for players who haven't encountered it before. My first experience was similar, but I was able to find examples on the net which explained the thought processes needed to uncover the solution and I found it to be really enjoyable. Very similar to Sudoku, but with patterns instead of numbers. If you Google for "nonograms" you'll find good explanations.

I can't get the installation of this game to work today :( :( so I don't know yet how well this version explains things.

Hi
OK it downloaded and installed fine on WinXP laptop. Playing however is a problem. During tutorial when I am supposed to click on X I do not see it as that part is off my screen. My screen resolution is 1024 x 768 which might have something to do with it. The last FillAndCross game had no such problem.
Thanks for reading.

well ok, but please at least blame yourself for that, and not the game.

Must be an old game, as it fully fits only the now-virtually-obsolete 4:3 screens. The unused/wasted space at the sides on the current 16:9 monitors they just fill in with colored bars, not a very elegant solution.

You can use your right mouse button to X off spaces instead of switching off- a far less clunky method. The reason numbers don't always get crossed off is because it isn't obvious *which* number to cross off. Say there are two ones and you expose one of the tiles. You notice that there is still at least one open space to the left and to the right of the tile. Which one should also be exposed? If the game did that, it would be solving part of the puzzle for you. Once you are able to X off the space(s) on one side (or expose the other tile), then the '1' will be crossed off. Hope this helps.

looking forward to this - in RL, Fill-and-Cross are not my fave because of the pain of having to erase, LOL

Came back to say that I like this game a lot. Very tired of hidden object games which are so hard on my sensitive eyes. This one is somewhat challenging but not stressing because there is no timer. I did have a difficult time understanding the directions. Seriously, they need to be rewritten. Also, I have trouble noticing when I've made a mistake. Maybe if I read the instructions more carefully I can figure it out. In the meantime, I must get back to the game.

Thanks.

I mean in later levels. lol. Not intending to scare anyone away. Whiterabbit gave a hint, let me give one too. It's all about process of elimination. That's the logic technique that folks are using/developing here. If you take your time, you'll see that the answers have an inevitability to them. This block HAS to be full, and that one HAS to be empty. If the puzzle is literal, that will always be the case, though, like a Sudoku, sometimes you may have to do an occasional trial guess. But I didn't see that in the levels I've gone through in Royal Riddles, all the puzzles so far there where literal, meaning there really is only one possible answer, you just have to take your time and find it. (Contrary to many of my fellow American's opinions, thinking can actually be fun (!), and has NEVER been known to make anyone's head explode. ;) )

Folks who liked Royal Riddles I hope will note that the puzzles in today's giveaway are much more complicated than anything I remember given away here. I don't remember any other fill and cross given away here to have had any more than 15 x 15 grids, which this clearly does.

Xilolee, why don't you rephrase your constant complaint? I had to go to that link and find comment 32 on the previous giveaway to have any idea what you are talking about. Since your statement is obscure, just saying something obscure over and over is not going to bring about change. If this issue was high on the minds of the Giveaway team, they would have fixed it already. If you want it to be a high priority for them, you can't expect to say something confusing that the team will have to search old statements to understand. What you want to say is: "I still cannot get the Game Giveaway ticker embedding link on the Spread the Word page to work. It does not embed the ticker on my forum page - but the regular Giveaway of the Day ticker embedding link does work - so I believe the problem is on Game Giveaway's end. Please fix it so I can help advertise your great site. Thank you." In my experience, nothing ever gets fixed or done if you are vague about what you want. Feel free to copy what I said and put it in your posts in the future. Your current post is confusing, ineffective, annoying, and a waste of time for both you and the other posters here.

*buy (I can BUY sugar...)- Okay, I made my own spelling error. Moving on...

Now that I've played a while, a few additional (unfortunately negative) comments: Since they don't automatically x out empty spaces once you've fully filled a row or column properly, you have to insert the x's yourself, but in a way that invites disaster---you have to click the checkmark to change it to an x and then click the spot, and time and time again, it somehow doesn't change (or does and changes back?) and I get dinged, though I was correct. Additionally, one big help in these puzzles is when you complete one section of a row, the game crosses out that number, so if, say, you filled one spot and the 1 isn't crossed out, you'd assume that that spot is part of a larger number sequence and not the 1. But sometimes they just don't cross the number out, even when, say, there are two ones and you fill one spot, which obviously completes one of the 1s, it doesn't always cross that out. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, so no help there. This just doesn't seem that well thought out, compared to some others I've played.

No problems with install on W10 Pro/64. Had to place shortcut on desktop (or wherever), no big deal. Love these games, and glad to see one that's supported on W10. Thumbs up from this player.

Well, this is my first time with such a game. I don't like Sudoku, but I might start to enjoy this after I have had time to get used to it. It might even be good training for eventually learning Sudoko, which everyone assures me is lots of fun, but which I am unconvinced of. (I prefer crosswords.) Nice change of pace from hidden object games. No problems installing or playing on a laptop with scroll mouse and 2 GHz CPU so the specs seem right. This would be a good game to play while travelling because it's fairly simple and yet simply vexing.

Oops, meant Mystery Mosaics, not Monster Mosaics, from Anawiki.

Love nonograms! Thanks. I wish, though, that developers would either not grey out numbers until X delimiters have been placed and/or leave the greyed out clues more visible. My old eyes too often miss the greyed out values & I wind up getting marked off with an error because I treat the remaining visible clues as the only ones. Sort of understand why they do this, particularly when they consider a game complete once all designated (not X'd) cells are done. But in general I much prefer the way Jolly Bear (World Riddles) and Anawiki (Monster Mosaics) handle this, since I am less frequently driven to inadvertent errors with their puzzles. Nonetheless, nonograms are really fun puzzles. Thanks.

No problem downloading and installing on Win10 - I am not sure if this is something for me but will give it a try.

World Riddles with a clunkier interface. I appreciate a game that's not a match three, hidden object or time management game, but this doesn't inspire me to go to the developer website and buy something else from them.

Like others, the download and install was FAST; as always, I like when games extract instead of install, cleaner and easier to delete after done. I liked the last one this genre and am happy to see this as a change, though I can see that this genre should only be an occasional offering, as most are the same basically. I agree that I'd like the game to insert the x's automatically once you complete a row or column, as some do, but overall, thumbs up on this one! Thanks.

I am confused as to the disparity (not the first time) between the comments, which in this case are mostly positive, and the votes, which show a full third of users voting it down. Ordinarily I would not bother with a game that only had a 67% upvote, but I'm glad I did! Happy New Year, all.

My comment is on the last fill and cross game posted here. While I really like this type of game, the last one annoyed me because you sometimes needed to guess the correct answer at the very end because of poor grid planning which occasionally left two possible end outcomes. I want to be able to deduce the entire puzzle by pure logic and not guess work. I hope this one has no poorly designed grids. There should be just one possible right answer each and every time.

This game = a great BIG eh! If you like it, you like it.

Whatever happened to those really cool PHYSICS based games we used to get? They were COOL! I can't even remember the name of the company that made them. Do you, W HIT ERA B BIT?

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

Wheemplay Ltd was the name of the distributor who supplied the games. the last one was given away Aug 2013. I think they may have stopped giving us those games because of the very negative comments and poor up votes that virtually every one of them got. I still have virtually every one of those games apart from the Justin Bieber one.

Thanks nice addition to prior game Royal Riddles. Once get hang of it the game can be played at leisure in relaxed way. Ok Windows 10 x64 Pro.

Did not like this at all could not figure it out. Am deleting it.

A very speedy download - done, unzipped and all in place inside two minutes! Much appreciated by anyone not on unlimited access. No shortcut provided, but easily home-made by right-clicking on the Application file, and then selecting Send to Desktop - which creates the shortcut in a moment.

When I first met these games they seemed much too simple - I couldn't really see the point. But they do up the ante as you progress through the layers, and can be quite fiendish in the upper regions. However they are finishable, which is always a plus to those of us who normally have to give up a quarter of the way through . . .

Nice bright, clear colours - kinder to elderly or fragile eyes - and the music is pleasant and in keeping with the theme. As usual I didn't play far into the thing to begin with, but first impressions are very favourable. I'll definitely go back and see how much further I can get with this one.

A winner, and a keeper, for me! Thank you again to GGAOTD, Immanitas and of course - The Man Himself, Whiterabbit.

:-D

I love nonograms. However, the Fill and Cross don't do two things which I much prefer in nonogram games. First, you can't close the game and have it save the puzzle you were working on. You have to start from the beginning again. Second, once a row or column has all the indicated squares filled, it doesn't automatically fill the open squares with x's. The x's are very important in working very large squares. Those are the two things I would change in this game.

Thank you. This is by far my favorite type of game. I have quite a few of these and its always nice to get a new one.

I really like this sort of game. It seems like this company does a lot of this game as I have gotten many from MPC and they all use mostly the same music, with the same spelling error (engrish?). Like- "in the raw" instead of "in a row." I can by sugar in the raw, but I don't think that has anything to do with this game.

In the past I have also visited Griddlers.net - they have a ton of user-created content there. For android I have purchased several FlipPix Art and Jigsaw games, though there are also many ad-supported ones like Griddlers Plus.

Additional comments: I have never experienced any download problems with any games from GOTD. Running Win 7 with Avast Full Internet Package. Every game I've downloaded (for years) has always run properly the first time. Also, yes, this game is a clone of the previous style of game and so far, so good. Thumbs up!

Haven't even downloaded it yet - and I will - but if this game is like the other from last year, I think, it should be a good one. It's an interesting style of game that really gets you thinking. The only complaint I had with the former game was the frustrating mouse control. We'll see if they've improved that with this one. Thanks for all the games! I have at least 4 on the desktop ready to go, but not touched because I've been busy playing 3 others from a couple of months ago! :)

FWIW etc...

The way VirusTotal [& I dare assume similar] works, is security researchers &/or companies upload samples of code [files] that they've found bad or suspect. Those samples *may* be tested later, after being added right away so that fewer people are infected with what could be brand new malware.

So, while the majority of their data is accurate, the VirusTotal database(s) contain inaccurate information or samples, & in fact VirusTotal was *allegedly* gamed by Kaspersky uploading samples that would trigger false positives for common software files -- the [AFAIK unproven] charges were that Kaspersky was upset that too many others were benefiting from their hard work, so they wanted to sort of poison the competition.

Regardless, the fact remains that some security software does block GOTD's setup.exe, most all security software companies upload samples to VirusTotal, and so VirusTotal will contain samples Falsely identifying that setup.exe file [& Activate.exe when used instead] as malware.

Please remember that companies making/selling security software are no different than any other company -- their interests, & those of any investors come 1st, while you come 2nd or 3rd or something. That's not necessarily bad -- it's just business as usual -- but it does mean that you shouldn't blindly trust them either... The latest dustup in the news is Google blasting AVG over a Chrome extension intended to drive traffic their way, increasing AVG's income, but allegedly [according to Google] making users more vulnerable in the process.

I downloaded and installed this game on my desktop running Windows 10. Fast download and no problems with installation. Norton Security and Malwarebytes never blinked during the download/installation.
I realized when I first started testing this game that I do have similar games from waaaay back and I enjoy the challenge. As I'm familiar with games installing to the games folder, I immediately went there to create a desktop shortcut.
It's an enjoyable game (I only went to level 3) with nice visuals.
Thank you GGOTD for another fun way to "waste" time. This one is a keeper for me.

The game crashes every time at the same place.

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

check your event log immediately after it crashes to see if there are any error messages that will indicate what the problem is.

Download quick due to tiny size, installed and played perfect. I love HOGs, but something different that stimulates the brain in other ways is great for us old folks with slow reflexes (hard to win SHUMPS when over 50) . Love this genre too.

Thanks GGOTD & Immanitas (and all other game creators) for all the great games in 2015; and we look forward to more great games in 2016 from all who have given them away. Look forward to some indie games here periodically as well!

Finally, thanks to Whiterabbit for all your moderating and comments. I know a lot of time goes into moderating and reviewing, and the community appreciates it. Ignore the few idiots who cause issues and accept my sincere thanks and blessings to you and your family! May you have a Happy, Blessed, and Prosperous New Year!

Didn't know this type of game before - JUST LOVE IT!!!

Game is nice (I have Fill and Cross: Royal Riddles), but installation does not work.
While connecting to GOTD server for activation, setup.exe crashes with error "Failed to launch the program". :-(
Downloaded second time - same result...

Nice little game. Downloaded fast, installed quickly and works well on W7 pro. Very peaceful game. A bit fiddly with the changeover from yes to X square but getting use to it. Thanks everyone :-)

GGAOTD TICKER still NOT visible; for more informations, see 32nd comment here: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/questerium-sinister-trinity-collectors-edition

I submitted the compressed package, and the unzipped files, to WinDefender, SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes and EmsiSoft Emergency Kit (those programs are installed or portable on this PC): no problems detected.
I also submitted the GGAOTD setup.exe to virustotal, virscan, metascan and Jotti: they found false positives, but imho they are becoming too many. I'll post the results at the end of this post for who's interested.

The game has been extracted well on windows 10 standard x64.
I install/extract all the games in d:\games and usually I move the shortcuts from the desktop to that folder... But when the shortcut isn't created by the setup application of the game, I must do this task myself.
This time I HAD to create the shortcut by myself.
The game started and finished without problems.
On the exit, the windows compatibility app didn't manifest itself (it seems the program enabled/ticked/selected, by itself, Disable display scaling on high DPI settings in its properties – compatibility tab, because I’m using high DPI settings at 150%).

Thanks for this game, as usual, to Whiterabbit-uk (aka Stephen), to GGAOTD and to Immanitas!!!




Results about G/GAOTD setup.exe:
- Jotti found nothing.
- Virscan found two false positive --> fprot found W32/Felix:P:Lastsect_unkn!Eldorado, jiangmin found Packed.Multi.ebd, but the other 37 engines found nothing.
- Metascan found four false positives --> K7 found Riskware ( 0040eff71 ), jiangmin found Packed.Multi.ebd, Zillya! found Adware.OutBrowse.Win32.77031, VirIT found Trojan.Win32.DownLoader16.CH, but the other 39 engines found nothing.
- Virustotal found five false positives --> K7Antivirus found Riskware ( 0040eff71 ), K7GW found Riskware ( 0040eff71 ), rising found PE:Malware.Generic(Thunder)!1.A1C4 [F], jiangmin found Packed.Multi.ebd, Zillya! found Adware.OutBrowse.Win32.77031 but the other 48 engines found nothing.

Oh, yes! I do enjoy Fill-and-Cross or Griddler puzzles, and I'm a fan of Anna Loginova's puzzles: I like feeling my brain's logic circuits working -- but it's still relaxing, because it's untimed.

Thanks, Immanitas and GGOTD; and Happy New Year, everyone!

It is so small. I blinked and it was already done downloading.

Thank you. I like this game better than others like it that were given away a long time ago.

No time to write up a review today, was out all of yesterday until early this morning and have to go out again today. Moderation will be sporadic until mid afternoon.

I've posted the bare bones of my usual review such as the installation, introduction, system requirements, problems section and of course the games games games section.



Fill & Cross: World Contest:

In Brief:

Todays giveaway is donated by Immanitas Entertainment. The game is a type of nonogram or Fill and Cross type game similar to the game we were given last August called Royal Riddles. If you miss today's game giveaway, it is available from TooMky Games and MyPlayCity 24/7 (see the problems section below), however, the game giveaway version is free of any toolbar, change of home page and/or provider and doesn't open your home page when you close the game down. It's also free standing, which means there's no uninstaller or shortcut included. you can easily create your own shortcut and to uninstall just delete the game folder.

Installation:

Fill & Cross: World Contest downloads to a 24 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive. The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 26.5 MB in size and is installed via the following path.

C:\Games\FillAndCrossWorldContest_Game

There is no desktop shortcut installed. Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. I've only tested the game on Win 8.1 and Win 10 and it works on both platforms.

Introduction:

If you like the logical puzzles then a game Fill & Cross. World Contest is just what the doctor ordered. At first there will be a small playing field. Figures in front of the rows and columns show the number of consecutive cells. That is if you see number 5 written on the top of the column, you can mark only 5 cells one by one as the filled ones. Sounds confusing? Don't worry! You can use the tutorial at the very beginning. Here is a tip for you: it is more convenient to start with big numbers. You need to mark the filled cells with a tick, and the empty cells – with a cross. But watch out! You'd better think twice because the number of mistakes is limited. There are 6 different rooms in the game so you will feel the atmosphere of the real contest. If you are at a dead end, you can always use a hint. The better you cope with the level the more stars you will get for it. A lot of trophies are waiting for you in the game Fill # Cross. World Contest! You can get them for different achievements: for passing 3 levels without using hints, for passing 5 levels in a row without mistakes or for getting 3 stars in 20 levels. Make your own collection! The game Fill # Cross. World Contest is a perfect time-killer. The puzzles are so tricky and interesting that you for sure won't get bored! Are you ready to test your wit and logic? Solve all puzzles in the game Fill # Cross. World Contest!

Reference accessed HERE 2nd Jan 2016

Reviews:


You can see some Big Fish mini reviews of Fill & Cross: World Contest HERE and forum discussions HERE.

Video:

You’ll find videos of Fill & Cross: World Contest game play HERE and HERE.

Music:

If you wish to change the in game music for something more to your taste, you should be able to exchange the four music files (track01.ogg to track04.ogg) to whatever you wish, however, you will need to convert the files you are going to use to the .ogg format and relabel them to the files you are replacing. I'd keep the originals as a backup, just in case. You'll find the music files via the following path:

C:\Games\FillAndCrossWorldContest_Game\Resources\data\share\audio\music\track01.ogg to tracko4.ogg


System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 10
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 31 MB




Conclusion:

Scoring

Game play: 7
Graphics: 7
Audio: 7
Replayability: 7
Originality: 7
Fun Factor: 6.5

Total = 41.5 out of 60 which equals 6.9 out of 10.

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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting Fill & Cross: World Contest working, 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 think the game is infected - IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

For those of you who are getting hits by your anti malware suites; it's because they are picking up the Themida based protection, which was put in place to protect the game from unscrupulous community members that were hacking the giveaway wrapper which then gave them unlimited access to a registered copy of the game, which was being put on peer to peer sites. Some community members were even uploading video tutorials on You tube telling you how to do it yourself.

Themida based applications are sometimes seen as a threat by anti-malware. I can assure you this game and hundreds before, that have given community members cause for concern have been totally safe. The game giveaway team have managed to secure well over a thousand games for us since they first started giving away games back in late 2006; firstly via the main site (Oct 2006), then via the game giveaway site (early December 2006). There has never 'ever' been an infected game given away.

If you are able to configure your anti-malware suite to allow the 'seemingly offensive' file through security, the game should then install normally. if you can't, or don't know how to, then the other way would be to temporarily turn off your protection. You do so at your own risk, but please do take into account what I've already said above; in a nut shell, every malware occurrence reported here since the game giveaway went live in Dec 2006 have been false positives due to overly sensitive anti-malware suites.

It would be against the giveaway teams best interest to allow such an occurrence as it would destroy their good standing with the big search engines and I'm sure many who have frequented this site for a long time would leave. The giveaway team use several anti-malware suites to test every game given away here.


Another thing to consider when you think the game is infected, if it really was, there would be hundreds of community members posting about the infection; we rarely more than a few posts for any particular game; though, since the gcd file that contains the Themida code was introduced in 2012 I have seen many more community members reporting infections due to the Themida based code found in the giveaways wrapper protection. However, out of the thousands of downloads each week, those numbers are insignificant and supports the fact that the results they are getting are actually false positives. They have always been proven to be so.

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 today's 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 (I usually post a comment about approximately how large a file is, though if I'm particularly busy I may neglect to do this). It 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 among all community members, downloads can become excruciatingly 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.

A download manager can help speed the download up and also protect the download in case of an interruption. There's nothing as frustrating for those with really slow connections to have the connection break after an hour or so, then have to start from the beginning again. I would ask community members if you do have decent bandwidth please avoid using a manager as it does add to the number of downloads occurring at any one time, for example some download managers will download your requested file in up to 32 packets simultaneously, that will take 32 download spots, thus slowing down everyone else's download speeds. For those with slow downloads (due to having a slow connection e.g. a 2MB Broadband connection or less) I would advise using a download manager if the file is larger than around 200MB. My broadband connection is 100MBs, so I don't need to use a download manager, (I do have one called Internet Download Manager, but don't use it when downloading files from the giveaway site). For me a 1GB file usually downloads in about 1.5 minutes or less. My connection is quite a long way from the provider so it is slowed a little, but is still quite good at a download speed of around 12 to 14 MB's per second.

I hope the above goes some way in explaining 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 and Toomky Games is highly recommended. Todays game is available from MyPlayCity HERE and from TooMky Games HERE







If you do download any games from these 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 and yet more 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 recommended here. :)


For now I won't be recommending you download games from Jenkat Games. They have changed the way you get games from their site and until someone informs me that they have reverted to their original download schemes I won't be recommending downloads from them. Diane has posted information about this over in the game discussion forums. 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 gamegiveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software (BitsduJour is also great for free applications) 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 license. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. No games given away here since the inception of the gamegiveaway site have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slight annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention; i.e. when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway, called 'the Software Informer' installation window. 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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Games, Games, and yet more Games:


The Christmas Sale is on over on Steam, with over ten thousand titles (including dlc's) on sale HERE. I won't even bother to list any of the games, but it should be worth visiting as there are games for all tastes. Of course you do need to install the Steam client, but IMO it is well worth it. There are lots of free games (not just free to play online games) available plus there are always games on sale. The Sale ends Monday 4th January.




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

GreenManGaming They usually have coupons to the value of 23% and sometimes more off pre ordered games. I've just pre ordered Just Cause 3 XL and XCOM 2 using a voucher and saved £22 on the price paid in the Steam store
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 months. The servers are still live (at least until Bad JoJo's subscription to the servers has ended, Bad JoJo are the owners of Desura and Indie Royale, or were until filing for bankruptcy). If you own any games via Desura I advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform and on the Indie Royale site before the sites are taken down.




Free Game Sites:

Toomky Games
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 Toto Temple Deluxe

Toto Temple Deluxe is a fast-paced, local-multiplayer king-of-the-hill style game in which players must steal an egg-laying goat from their friends and try to keep it on their own head for as long as possible. You know, normal stuff.
Dashing Gameplay
Infinitely dash in any direction to swiftly move around and powerfully headbutt the goat carrier to steal its four-legged booty. Escape your jealous opponents and protect the goat by blocking their attacks with a well-timed shield pop! You’ll "get their goat", guaranteed.
Classic Mode
Prove you’re the ultimate shepherd in Classic mode: Gather 3k points first by holding on to the goat, collecting coins hatched from goat eggs (yeah… don’t ask) and harnessing the power of powerful power-ups! Play as teams or in free-for-all.
Bomb Mode
Blast everyone’s face off in Bomb mode: Be the first to grab the explosive goat (we know, stop interrupting us) and keep it long enough for it to detonate near your soon-to-be-dead rivals. Lose the goat and the timer resets! Play as teams or in free-for-all.
Temples
Each temple offers a unique, exploitable mechanic for you to discover. Use them wisely and outsmart your opponents like they don’t even... what?… how did you..?
Bots
Bots will play with you whenever you want and for as long as you want. They never complain. They also never open up your fridge and ask if they can eat that pizza slice you got left from last night. Bots are awesome. Oh, and you can change their difficulty level too, because they will probably kick your ass-tonishing little bottom.

You can get the game for $1; pay over the average to get another game called Knightmare Tower. (The price at the time of writing was $1.66). Both games come with a Steam code.
The deal ends Monday 28th Dec 2015 5am (GMT)



The latest DIG game is Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma

Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma is the epic finale to the time-travelling adventure series. In the face of the looming magical cataclysm, Ester Ambrose has to fight to save her future once again.

Destroying Viviana’s crystal tomb was supposed to turn Ester Ambrose’s fight against evil powers into nothing more than a distant echo of her past, a faint memory of a nightmare never to befall her again.

However, the most difficult and dangerous, but also the most fascinating, part of the story is yet to begin for the Ambrose family heiress. To save the future, she has to face the past on another journey through time and space.

Pay £0.99 for the game or you can get two keys if you pay more than the average of $1.26 (at the time of writing ). One Steam key to share with a friend or family member perhaps? You'll find that deal HERE. They also have five bundles of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 each HERE (DIG Bundles 47, 48, 49 & 50, reBundle 9 and DIG Greenlight Bundle 3 ). You get Steam keys for all of these games apart from the DIG GreelightBundle. If any of those games are added to the Steam store you will get a Steam key, in the mean time, you can download DRM free copies.
The single game deal ends just after Midnight tonight and will be replaced with a new game.

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. I highly recommend the first four sites as they regularly change their bundles, at least weekly. Bundle Stars is the most prolific, usually with at least 10 bundles, but sometimes a lot more. some bundles stay for months, others for only a few days. I also recommend buying the Greenlight bundles as you will get quite a few being greenlit and save a large amount of money on newly released games. I reckon at least 75% of the games from those bundles have been Greenlit since I purchased my first Greenlight bundle. (I've bought at least 50 bundles with only Greenlight games and they have never cost more than $3 to $4 per bundle, with savings up to 90%. The flying bundle is the only one that will inform you when a game has been Greenlit and will send you your Steam keys, the rest you have to check your accounts page to see if they have added Steam keys. sometimes it may take several weeks after the game has been released before you get your keys, but generally its either the same day or a few days at the most.





Bundle Stars (26 bundles)
Groupees (3 bundles)
Indie Gala (5 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 (1 bundles)

FREE GAME:

The free game from Origin is Jade Empire: Special Edition (Highly Recommended).

Step into the role of an aspiring martial-arts master and follow the path of the open palm or the closed fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of the entire Jade Empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land, or will you crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses his strength and fighting mastery to bring peace, or will you instead use your power to bring pain and ruin?
The choice is yours.

Game Features:


The Original Award Winning Jade Empire
An incredible, engaging story that makes you the noble hero or the treacherous villain!
A wealth of fascinating characters to interact with.
Beautiful, mysterious lands to explore, discover, and save...or conquer.
A rich blend of role-playing and exciting real-time combat.
New monsters and enemies.
New fighting styles.
Customizable, intuitive controls including support for game-pads and keyboard/mouse.
Increased graphics resolutions and new visual effects.
Improved combat AI and difficulty levels.
New world map interface.

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 Playrix Entertainment for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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