Played one game on it which should have been a draw, but the game seems unable to understand the "3 Move repetition rule" ! So not really a very serious effort at chess, but ok for the odd game. Bob

flChess 2

In Brief

What's there to say, It's chess, with a 3D or 2D top down viewpoint and four different background scenes a selection of background colours and several different board and chess piece skins. For those who've rarely played the game or never there's a very basic tutorial (see the third image below) to get you started. However there are some options from the full version game that have been removed compared to the Steam version, i.e. more background colour, scene selections where it says ''More in the extended version''. However, these only appear to be the skins and not the actual game play.

From the main menu you can adjust the Skill level via a slider, so anyone from a novice to an occasional player can be challenged by the games AI. :) Once you've set up your game and started, each move made is recorded on the left hand side of the board. You can save a log of your progress. This game was released on Steam yesterday HERE. The only review so far (that was received for free by the reviewer) gave it a thumbs down and only said ''An insult to the game of Chess.''. That may be true of an experienced player, but for novices, this may be a good place to start; though I'm sure some Chess Aficionados will dispute that. :)

You can see a video of game play HERE and HERE

The latest game from Epic Games. is Surviving Mars, a sci-fi city builder all about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. It includes one free DLC pack, (Mysteries Resupply Pack). There are several DLC packs available for this game, e.g. Colony Design Set, Stellaris Dome Set, Marsvision song Contest, Space Race, Green Planet, Project Laika, In-Dome Building Pack, Deluxe Upgrade Pack and of course the Season Pack DLC; oddly, the season pack isn't available via the Steam version, though it may not be showing on my Steam client because I already have all of the Season pack content, which includes most of the DLC packs mentioned previously. You can get 50% off for each DLC pack over on Epics site at the moment while the base game is free.

On Thursday 18th from 4pm (UK time) we will be getting The Fall; that includes engaging puzzles and tense action. You are ARID, the AI onboard a mark-7 combat suit. The human pilot encased within the suit is unconscious. You must find a way to follow protocol and save his life. It won the 2014 Game of the Year for best story.

Please see Delenn's threads over in the game discussion forums for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favourites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll often miss out on some decent indie, arcade and AAA games. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. I sometimes post more details about these freebies, usually including images and sometimes videos of the games being given away for free, but usually only after Delenn has posted links to the freebies first. (As always thanks for your time and effort Delenn, it's very much appreciated despite not thanking you enough.

Notes on Security

I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game and it found zero hits from 60 antimalware engines. The downloaded executable may include some low level adware that only opens your browser to Falcowares home page after the game has installed, but does not inject any malware into your system. When your browser is opened to Falcowares home page it earns them some money, part of which is given to the developer of the game for allowing the game to be given away free. You can see the results of the scan via the following link:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/65ca76aba27281a7fae728d13e05d59cc20ddc581d56a5fba7d484f20eaf4ff6/detection