Ok, another week on, and I got to the end. Probably won't uninstall, as I'll revisit for a quick blast-em-up every now and then.

The comment about being samey stands, the developer needs to address this to increase the value of the game - I think this is what the 'boss' sections are about, but they are not engaging at all.

I'm still unsure how you get more 'money', and only manage to acquire a couple of upgrades in the whole game. This doesn't seem right.

Anyway, thanks for the game.


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

Thank you for your feedback Stephen. It's unlikely the gae will be updated now as its several years old. PersonallyI think there are better freeware versions around. There's a site that specifically deals with shmups and shooters of this kind. Offhand can't remember the name of the site, but it does have shmup in the title. :)

Just to say that it has become a bit of a favourite. In a way, the fact you can't save progress means that every now and then you give up, reset and start all over again, enjoying the lower levels again, hopefully doing them better.

The game is a little samey as you go through, although the 'boss' levels seem a little out of character with the rest of the game. Mind you, if there was more variety, I spend too long on it.

I agree with another poster who said something like that it's a fun blast-em-up diversion. Nothing you have to take too seriously, which is part of its attraction.


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

Thank you for your feedback.

I'm truly enjoying the design and layout of your website. It's a very easy on the eyes
which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often.
Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Excellent work!

Hi Linda, somehow I accidentally deleted your post. including all the feedback I'd given you. I went to add the following next thing I'd save it not realizing I'd accidentally highlighted everything while editing.

As for yesterdays game. Over the last three years it's been given away six times, so you will probably have an opportunity to get it early next year.

:)


You can get both of the prophecy games and I think last weeks TM game free from MyPlayCity:

http://www.myplaycity.com/free_match3_games/


There's over a hundred match three games available for free so you should be able to find loads that will entertain you. Just make sure when you install the games you uncheck all of the check boxes otherwise you'll find ask toolbars and a new homepage linked to MPC. all these problems can easily be remedied though.


You'll also find on closing any game downloaded from MPC that your browser will open, but this is totally safe.

I to use my computer to have a window on the world as I'm virtually housebound. I love Google earth. I also use it for distraction therapy to dull the ever present pain. :)

Grazie GOTD; è anche un gioco simpatico, però è già stato proposto almeno un paio di volte...
Qualcosa di più nuovo no eh?

Very nice graphics. The only drawback is you have to use mouse to steer and it isn't my favorite or most precise gaming device.

I installed this years ago just when I found out about GGOTD. I was never disappointed with it and my family loves this game. It is hard - at first - but it's actually easy to master with practice.

It is true that we are in a major economic crisis - at lest here in the U.S. Some people won't recognize this and continue to spend wildly. But the number of abandoned homes and closed businesses tells the true story and no 'election' is ever going to fix it. So when a company like Stars Ashes is willing to give away something for free, I applaud them.

Thank you too White Rabbit for everything. You have brought a lot of enjoyment to my family and to my fellow GGTOD'ers, one of whom is sitting right next to me anticipating what great game might be offered tomorrow.

oops, sorry wr. please delete this message and the duplicate post above.

I just finished building a new computer (i7 and lots of comparable goodies). This game really plays much better than it did on my old system and I'm glad that I finished building it in time for this giveaway.

It's sort of mindless, but blowing stuff up is better than yelling at your wife, kids, boss, etc. I get tired of it after about 15 minutes or so, but games like this have a place in almost everyone's collection. I haven't played enough of it to decide if it's worth $10 or not but I've bought a lot of worse games for more money than this.

Can't rate this game because I can't play the game. I already have it, but I can barely get to the first (or, I guess technically the second depot) and not much farther if I even get there. This kind of shmup which requires fast dodging and keeping track of a lot of different inputs is beyond my coordination level and my ability to juggle that much data.
Only posting to say I'm glad that all the players who thrive on this type of game have finally had their patience rewarded, and to remind those good folks that there are many of us who can't even get started on something that they find so easy. That explains why there are all those HOGs and Match 3s out there. I hope, though, that there'll be a few more challenging giveaways for those of you that are less coordinationally challenged as I am. Thanks GGOTD.

site has been involved in scams i knwo for a factthefeds have it on file


..................moderator comment...............

Which site?

I have this game, it is a LOT of fun.
I wanted to post a THANKS to WR & his team. WR don't get discouraged by folks crying and moaning about the Repeat. Some of us get computer crashes and lose the game(s) so, it is helpful to some!
THANKS! :)

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

Thanks G. Unfortunately we will never please everyone. I just find it remarkable that community members complain about free software even if it has been repeated several times. The game has never been badly reviewed by the community and as you point out many community members lose the games because of reinstalls, getting new computer or because of HDD failures (amongst other reasons). Some of the game giveaways are actually free standing when compared to the applications given away over on the main site, but not all. So sometimes you will find that a game still works even after an OS reinstall. I had to reinstall my operating system a few months ago because the SSD I'd purchased last Christmas died on me; yet the previous version of Incinerate (which I'd installed to another HHD {I have five hard drives on this computer} was still registered)

Hi, Whiterabbit aka Stephen.

I really want to thank you in particular for your entusiasm sharing games, knowledge,and the advices you share with the users of GAOTD. It has been on my mind for a long time, and today, is the day for some kind words right from my heart. Greetz from Denmark.


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


Thank you Allan, much appreciated. :)

ok it's 3 hours later and it still won't download. What's wrong with the server and my comments are not even here.

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

Hi Linda, firstly I apologise for taking so long to reply. I am a volunteer and can only do so much depending on my circumstances. I was involved in a nine hour litigation meeting yesterday that ran from mid morning until 6pm in the evening. After a serious injury seven years ago I was left disabled due to lack of treatment following the accident (basically my back was fractured in four places following a road traffic accident in which I was hit from behind by a speeding car while cycling to work) and was sent home from the emergency rooms after being told all that was wrong with me was a strain and bruising. Two of the breaks were very serious. It took 10 months for my NHS to do anything as they thought I was just a layabout. Yesterdays meeting left me utterly exhausted and in a lot of pai. consequently today I've had to take a lot more breakthrough medication to alleviate the pain (more opiate meds) I've slept for virtually all of today from around 1.30pm this afternoon until about 30 minutes ago (just after 9pm).

There is one other moderator who generally only visits 2 or 3 times a day, and even then never replies to requests for help.

I would think the problem is from your end as no one else has posted asking for help with this issue. Have you checked the FAQ's section that I've posted over in the Game Discussion forums? You'll find the thread linked in the stickies section that are always on the front page and at the top of the main Game discussion forums. to access the game discussion forums specifically go to the bottom of the main forums and you'll see several links to the various forums offered on the giveawayoftheday forums. I've also linked to the thread near the bottom of my review just above the request for help paragraphs; (see comment #1 above).

Usually rebooting your modem and/or router may fix the problem. Check that your security software/firewall isn't blocking the download and try clearing out your internet cache. Depending on what operating system you are using (i.e. win XP, Vista or win 7) there are slightly different paths to doing this, so Google it for help. I may have posted the various paths in the FAQ's section but I can't remember exactly what I've posted as its not been updated in several months. There is also the faint possibility that other programs running in the background may be conflicting with the giveaway download.

If none of the above suggestions work, please do request more help and I will endeavour to help in any way I can.

W.R.

Why is Incinerate ALL UPPERCASE SHOUTING?

(perhaps too it should multiple exclamation marks !!!!)


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

Who knows? Maybe they thought it would make people sit up and listen, or more likely they may not know internet etiquette. ;-)

I check the trainer out my AVG said had a trojan so I passed on it.


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

I didn't get any warnings.

Have you tried one of those online scanners, which give a better overview of whether there is a problem. Usually they employ up to 30 or more well known security programs and give you an overview of whether particular programs are throwing out a false positive. If most of the programs utilized are showing results then its likely that the program may be infected, but not if its only one or 2. Just because a program detects a problem doesn't always mean there is one. ;-)

p.s. I'm not trying to be flippant, just trying to put things in perspective. My rule of thumb is, if I'm not certain then I avoid.

#11: "Probably 1-2 years ago it was good… by then, I’ve discovered a lot more games that were a lot better. Now, the game is dated and like what others have said, given away numerous times.

………………………Moderator comment………………..

I agree with you. There are some briliant games in this genre that have recently ben released. I’d say they sem to be geting beter and beter as time moves on. :) That said I still think incinerate is a reasonable game. "

* * *

FWIW, some of the games may be a bit dated, others don't suit everyone, but there are loads & loads of people who are *Very* grateful for the weekend GOTD game offers.

That isn't meant to be at all critical, GAOTD Installer, of anyone.

An awful lot of people can't afford anything nowadays, so these are a rare bit of luxury. Lots of people don't comment because they're scared they won't have anything worthwhile to say, &/or might be criticized for it -- I know that isn't the case here on the game download page, but it's hard to overcome a fear that's become deeply embedded.

When you consider the sometimes quite large sums of money developers can make putting their games in the various app stores, & that those games are often simpler/easier to write/develop, I think we're really fortunate to even have a game GOTD to check out on the weekends.


..............................Moderator Feedback........................

Thanks for your input Mike. You are right, The last four years since the recession hit and beyond have been very hard on many community members. One of the reasons I started posting comments every time there was a giveaway was because I felt I owed it to the giveaway team for bringing us these games. (I also enjoyed posting on the forums, which has led to some very good friendships over the last six years with community members with similar interests or who are in a similar position to me) . I speak on Skype with one friend virtually every day now because of this project and have other friends scattered across the world. (by the way I'm still open for friendships :) )


Back then in 2006 arcade games were much costlier; retailing at almost $20 each (compared to now that's almost 75% more than what you pay for most arcade games). I was very narrow minded in my choice of arcade games that I played before I downloaded games from the project (I played mainly breakout games of which I had a few hundred of at the time and space shooter/action games). The giveaway project widened my horizons significantly. I don't think there's been a week that I've not posted something on the giveaway site since then apart from when I've been on vacation or in hospital partly because of my gratitude as well as the other reason mentioned above. The giveaway forums are one of the friendliest I've ever visited. They aren't as active as they used to be, but there's a small kernel of regulars that are always happy to help others.

This site has been live since October 2006 and the game side of the project started early December 2006. I've not found any other project similar to this one that's survived more than a year. some developers do have game giveaways, but they have never been as giving as this project. What's great about this project is the win/;win scenario that's developed where both the developer/distributor and the consumer win. (We get free games and the developer gets customers from the project who are grateful for the freebies and give back by being faithful to the developer who had given freely)

This is a good game to blow off steam and blowup things. :) Yes, it's been given away before but it's still fun to waste some time.


Thanks Star Ashes and GGOTD for the game. Thanks Wabbit for the time you spend on reviews etc...

P.S. Wabbit, I sent you an email a few days ago. I know you been busy so you can answer it whenever..It's just good to know you are OK.


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

Hi my dear Minbarian princess; yesterday was a very exhausting day having spent nine hurs sitting in a legal companies chambers discussing the various aspects of my compensation claim. We were having a meeting with the two defendants to see if we could come to an agreement. Consequently i'm well behind in checking y emails. I'll go check and respond soon. :)

as always thanks. ;-)

Myself, I appreciate reruns of games at times as it gives me a chance to get them if I (1) miss the day, (2) have computer issues, (3) have problems getting game to work the first time around, etc. Yes, I do wish there were more games given away and possibly at times offered for a bit longer. Understandable given the recession and little feedback for companies/developers however plus a whole lot of other reasons. Then there are some games that I don't believe should be offered at all here. To each there own however.

Tip: Having issues installing or playing? - Try right clicking on the install file and run as Admin (not just using an admin account). Once install completes close without running the game the first time. Allow the activation to complete it's process first then go back and start the game. This resolves the install issues many times as well as the activation issues. (Works for the regular gotd offers as well.)

Today's game is a decent game. Downloaded and installed on one of the previous giveaways. Downloads and installs quickly. No issues found in that aspect or in playing the game on my Win 7 64 bit laptop. The graphics were good and I found no hesitation or lag when playing. Any game or (any program for that matter) that uses graphics will use more resources, just something to remember. This one didn't seem to use any more than normal. I'm not one to use cheats, especially downloadable ones as most come with viruses of some kind. If anyone can say how the one linked to today works I'm sure many would appreciate it.

That being said I found the game pretty good for the type and agree that games can be used for many reasons. I too have medical issues and severe chronic pain. Any type of distraction for that even for a few moments is a blessing.

Btw, the gov, military, and a great many companies use video games for training purposes and other reasons as research has proven they work in many ways.

Have a great week and thanks to you Whiterabbit and other mods, the developers, and ggotd!


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


Thank you for your feedback and insightful remarks Vana, much appreciated. :D

Trainer mode is detected by AVG as a trojan when run.

Otherwise the game seems fun enough. Thanks.


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


Hi Stephen, I didn't get any warnings. Have you tried scanning with one of those online scanners to confirm your suspicions. Are you using the free version of AVG? The result may be a false positive. I find it useful to use an online scanner in situations where a single piece of software is flagging up a problem just to be sure.

Not my kind of game - I got killed in the first level. It works fine on Windows7 64-bit. I would suggest proof reading all the text. There are quite a few simple mistakes that should be corrected. Supply Deport s/b Supply Depot, etc. Beautiful graphics, but just not the kind of game I enjoy.
Thank you, as always, for these interesting freebies.
Best, LuckyKitty

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


Thanks LuckyKitty, lets hope Star Ashes see your comments and correct the mistakes. :)

Stephen - whiterabbit please give me more info on free game sites. I like match 3 and can't find the free alaware and treasures of montazuma site even from their website. TIA (Thanks in advance)


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

Hi Linda, please excuse the delay in replying to your request. I've explained elsewhere why its taken me so long. You can find a download link over in the Game discussion forums for the free game. you do need to install Alawar's free game box to be able to get the free games. The game box is an unobtrusive client that's not required to actually play the game. Alawar use it to give the community easier access to other games as well as a way for you to manage all of your arcade games. you can set the box to scan for games on your system which it then lists for you. If its an Alawar game it will also give you other information about the game.

For future reference you can easily find the game box online via Google. Just type 'Alawar game box' into the browsers search engine. The download page is usually found within the first 2 or 3 hits. You can download it via the following link:

http://company.alawar.com/technologies/a_player.php

Once installed click on the game box icon. A window will open that advertises the top alawar game as well as a list of new games (down the right hand side of the window). You'll also see three tabs named 'Hits', 'Top 10' and 'Free Game'. Just open the 'Free Game' tab; the rest is obvious. :)



Please do let me know if you have any problems.

W.R.

The game is not downloading the server must be down please check it. 12:39PM EST.


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

Hi Linda, please check my reply to your last post.

Addition to my other comment, add sentences to second paragraph:

The second of the 'icons' on the task bar having to do with the game had a title something like "failure to initialize" or some such, which was sufficient for me to have speculation that hitting ENTER may get me out of the problem. I DID try hitting ESCAPE, to no avail.

Thank you for the game.

First - to this game: I installed, and ran it. When I did so, I got a totally black screen on my COMPAQ netbook which has 1024x600 max resolution with Intel Atom processor. I could not even get to the task manager with CTR-ALT-DEL, since the game had full control of my puter. Finally, by hitting ENTER, I apparently responded to an "OK" that was an invisible "active window" in front of the blank screen. I did not try ALT-F4, but that may have worked too. The only reason that I can believe that speculation about "active window" is that the task bar WOULD come up, and though nothing on it was selectable, there were two icons having to do with the game.

I see a comment above that suggests a driver upgrade for Intel driven netbooks, but I don't see how that can change the hardware screen resolution, and I am scared to try such a thing for fear of overdriving some fool component and wrecking it. I may do so anyway, though I am very interested in this offering. I would appreciate any comments, positive or negative, someone knowledgeable might have about my "overdriving" fears.

/Comment

Moderator(s): For your information, about a third of the time that I download a game, I never install it since it takes so long for me to do the "TotalUninstall" process, and I don't install anything unless I do that. Foolish maybe, but that might explain some of the response situation. In addition, even if I DO install, I very seldom end up playing with the game for enough time to make a constructive comment for the community to decide whether they would like to download, although I almost always run the game quickly so as to get registry values set up and initialization files created for my uninstaller to properly detect. Perhaps a 3-day giveaway window would help to encourage responses?

By the time I have had the time to PLAY the game enough to comment, it may be a month or more. By that time, it seems a little useless to comment to the community here. I have at times written to the software developer directly with comments. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that it is common that they do not respond to my EMail comments, which has the effect of me not being as willing to write to any developer. I have also spent time here on GGOTD writing comments to developers, and believe that I have never gotten a response from THEM. Again, that makes it less likely that I will spend my time to write.

I KNOW that my lumping all the developers into the same basket like this may be unfair, but I'm trying to be honest about my tendency for lack of responsiveness.

Some developers make it a habit on GOTD to have a representative respond to comments. I find that very important, and useful. They seem to really CARE about comments the community makes. I am much more prone to write useful comments then. If in addition to that, when I write a comment on that Giveaway thread a week or so later, if I got feedback from the developer letting me know that they saw my critique, I would again be much more happy about spending my time.

/EOComment



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


Thank you for your feedback AFPhys, much appreciated. I do agree that if developers make an appearance we are likely to get more feedback and I appreciate that not everyone has the time to play the game immediately thus precluding the ability to leave competent feedback about the game. Still I think even after a month its worth posting feedback. I really don't know whether any of the developers that contribute to the project actually bother to check the comments. If they don't its their loss. It makes sense to me that a developer should check back as there are always some community members who do give very useful feedback that could be used to make the developers game more acceptable to a wider audience or at the very least inform the developer of possible problems.

I'm sure some developers do check the comments; otherwise it would make me wonder why they are bothering to give the games away in the first place. I know the giveaway team do pay each developer, but its only a small amount. when you consider some games downloaded here number in the tens of thousands, the amount they get for allowing the giveaway team to give the game away for 24 hours pales into insignificance.

Incinerate is a great game, when you just need to get rid of some stress. It installed witout any troubles on Win7 Ultimate Edition 64 bit. It's a little annoying, that it cant fill the whole screen as it did before. However it's a minor thing. Thanks a lot. Greets from Denmark.

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


Thanks Allan. I agree with you on the widowed aspect. I just temporarily change my screen resolution so as to make the window as large as possible. ;-)

Nice game but gets too hard too fast.
i check this site every weekend hoping for playrix's royal envoy 2[finished v1]


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

you never know. Playrix have been giving us games for a long time now. Keep on checking. ;-)

Kinda nice some people needed a repeat of golden oldie. Won't be trying it for umpteen time given how hard (unfair? lol) gets at higher levels. Good mind waster for kids and we were all there once.
See if Sunday brings a fresh, deep thinking game. Maybe a good strat one? Appreciate all the good work!


.................................moderator Comment..........................

Hi Beergas. Have you checked the free games over on Desura? There's an excellent free shmup called Naev as well as a couple of others (names excape me at the moment)

Probably 1-2 years ago it was good... by then, I've discovered a lot more games that were a lot better. Now, the game is dated and like what others have said, given away numerous times.



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


I agree with you. There are some briliant games in this genre that have recently ben released. I'd say they sem to be geting beter and beter as time moves on. :) That said I still think incinerate is a reasonable game.

Installed with no problems on a Windows 7 machine. Overall a good shooter arcade type game. Good background music and sound effects.


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

Thanks Jim

@ Moderator

Regarding your comment that few people give constructive criticism, I have done so in the past. Some of it was positive, and some of it was negative (and always polite), depending on the functionality of the software, and the security of the website that said software was downloaded from. A large percentage of my negative comments disappeared within a short time of my posting them. These comments were valid evaluations regarding functionality, usefulness, or security of the download websites. After a while, I decided not to bother wasting my time commenting, since my post would probably be removed within an hour. I have to wonder how many other users posting here have had similar experiences, and have given up also. It's just possible that your moderation practices discourage people from taking the time to write their thoughts on the giveaways.

I realize that this post is not related specifically to today's giveaway, and will be removed shortly, but I thought you might like to know of a possible reason that there are few comments, but lots of votes. Thank you.





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


Hi MCBarker,

When I say few people give any constructive comments if you could see the number of actual downloads we get for each game you can then work out the percentage of community members that bother to post a comment and from those work out the even smaller percentage of those comments that were constructive. On average 0.1% of the community bother to comment at all despite getting a free game (that's 1 in 1000) and of those only a tiny fraction actually post constructive feedback. Last time I calculated the percentage it came to 0.04% of community members. That's approximately only 1 in every 4000 community members who took the time to write something constructive, so hopefully you can now see why I say few people bother to comment.

As for any previous comments you may have made I don't seem to be able to find any unless you use different addresses to post your comments. I can see all previous posts made by a community member by clicking on their address.

I've always considered both positive and negative feedback to be useful, so long as its constructive and I would never delete a comment that's giving negative feedback about a game unless, as mentioned below, it was offensive or bullying). I'm sure a sizeable portion of the community would back me up on this as well

Of course its the prerogative of the community member to post a comment or not, (they may not have time, or they may be ill or be to busy with life in general). That said, I've always tried to suggest that the more constructive comments we receive for each game giveaway the possibility of getting more games and/or more developers interested (IMO) would or could improve.

I can assure you that unless you were using offensive language, or bullying other community members, your negative comments would not have been deleted by me because I consider those very important as they can help a developer to improve their software (as can positive feedback).

The game side of the project is very friendly compared to the main site and I've rarely had to delete a comment in its entirety. Usually I'll just remove the offensive language and leave a little note asking the community member not to swear as this is a family site.

I really don't know where you get the idea that we delete loads of comments? Its just not true. It could be that your comment has gone into the spam bucket, but I can't confirm that as it's emptied frequently.


The other moderator tends to let everything through without answering queries. I will always try to give feedback to community members (though sometimes I may take a few hours to respond as I am a volunteer).

p.s.
Could it be that you are talking about the other side of the project?

First of all.... thank you for GGOTD! Yes this is a repeat but I lost this game when my computer crashed along with several others... glad for the repeat. This downloads and installs without problems running Win7 64bit Home Edition. Graphics are great, the gameplay I find challenging. Thanks again Stars Ashes, White Rabbit, GGOTD for offering a variety of games for us to review and enjoy!

To the Author: "Thousands of machines **stock** the mineral deposits"
what you meant was "stalk" - you may want to correct that in your description, as it is, it makes little sense.
Nice looking game, I do not play this type of game, but it looks like a fun and entertaining one. Best of luck with it!

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

Thank you for your feedback promytius. The introduction is a reference from the developers site, not my own words. i just copoied it to use as the introduction to the review. With respect to the word stock, it makes more sense thank stalk IMO. It's definitely poorly written at that point, butreading it over several times it would seems to indicate that the minerals that have been brought to the surface were being stored in machines. I don't see how changing it to stalk would improve the context? ;-)

Thanks, but enough for me when other people waste their time on such mindless "games".

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

Sometimes community members want a mindless game just to chill out or in the case of a shooter maybe release some pent up frustrations/stress.

Personally I don't see playing such games as a waste of time. they can often be great tools for hand/eye coordination, which is a possible tool for stroke rehab patients or those suffering from other nerve related problems. I personally use such games as distraction therapy from chronic pain as I soon discovered after my accident that they worked as well as my opiate meds without all of the side effects that opiates entail. Its just unfortunate that as son as you've finished playing the pain son comes back into your minds eye. ;-) It's definitely not a waste of time for me but, each to their own. ;-)

I've played this before. After a minute of play I was dead. After an exhaustive search there were no game cheats to be found for it. It's an incredibly difficult game to play but the graphics were beautiful. Does anyone know of any game cheat codes for Incinerate?

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

I've posted a link in my review above to a trainer/cheat that gives you unlimited health, rockets etc. I've not tested it so can't cofrm that it works.

Really appreciate the effort of all involved in the giveaway projects, but I seemed to have a problem when trying to play the game. My screen went black and I had to turn off the machine from the power (twice now this has happened).

I'll have to pass on today's giveaway game, but once again thanks anyway.


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

Hi Tentacles, have you checked the FAQ's in the Game Discussion forums? I've linked to it above in the problems section. There is a specific Q&A on black screen problems, hopefully it will solve your problem. :)

AGAIN?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!
Isn't this like the 10th time in 2 years?
either get some new games, ( ones that are worth playing)
or get someone running this board that CAN get new games!
the site has gone completely stale !


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

Most developers who did give games away either no longer exist or run their own versions of a giveaway. since the recession hit the price of games have nose dived significantly, for example arcade games used to cost $19.99 and AAA games cost between $50 to $70. The price of AAA games hasn't changed in over a decade and arcade games can now be purchased for less than $6. Not only that, sites like MyPlayCity and several others hold a massive stock of over 500 good quality arcade games that are totally free (if you discount your browser being opened when you close the games down and which is totally innocuous). Then there's the ever present indie bundles where you can pay $1 for several good quality indie games and places like Steam, Gamersgate and GameFly (Oh yeah and Green Man Gaming) that are able to sell games that have only been released for several weeks for half price and less. I've seen AAA games that are due for release already having big discounts from places like GMG.

It's partly because of the above and the fact that we are deep into a very serious financial depression as well as other reason that I've previously mooted such as a lack of response from the community when games are given away. Barely 0.1% of community members bother to leave any constructive feedback, be it positive or negative, with hardly anyone posting suggestions for improvement. It'd hardly surprising that the giveaway team find it hard to get more new games. That said we have been getting reasonable and good games on a regular basis that we've never had before. As for Incinerate, even though it's been given away five times previously, its still always had an above average score from the first time it was given away at 53% and has then crept up each time it's been given away to what could be considered a good score of 69%. There's always been an above average download tally and generally the community hasn't had anything earth shatteringly negative about this game. Granted, it's only an average shooter, with similar freeware versions available on the net if you know where to look.

Please remember all of the games given away here are given for free. The developers who donate these games are losing potentially thousands of sales as the numbers that download these games can approach over 25 thousand depending on how popular the game is.

A darn good shooter to say the least. It has the true aspects of a good arcade shooter but goes at a nice pace that everyone can enjoy. You need a reasonably fast system in order to get the smooth graphics. Dual core recommended.

If you are on a Netbook. Unfortunately this game launches in 1024x768 by Default. Whiterabbit-UK had posted something previously about going into the registry and turning on some kind of desktop scaling thing to allow their games to launch. In the event you cant do this , you can hook up your Netbook to a external monitor and it will launch. The performance on an Atom processor is pretty good with the exception of some particle and smoke effects slow the game down.


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


Thank you for your feedback Little Bear. Much appreciated. :)

In Brief:

Today's game is a typical level based vertical scrolling planet shmup . Unlike many shooters of this type you are able to move your ship anywhere on the playing arena. There are several power ups such as rockets and repair droids that appear when you've destroyed enemy ships, vehicles and buildings that enhance your game play.



Incinerate

Installation:



The Incinerate zip file once downloaded should be 47.1Mb in size and when installed to the default path mentioned below is 72.1Mb. The zip file is several megabytes larger than the last time it was given away, but this is because of the new security setup.

Installation is a breeze; the unzipped setup file installs Incinerate to the following path:

C:\Games\Incinerate\Incinerate.exe

Once installed you can delete the wrapped setup file (for those that are new to the giveaway project that's the orange colored file with a key symbol on the icon; you can also delete the Setup.gcd security file and the read me document.

There is no desktop icon created during installation so you will have to create your own via the above path or via whichever path you chose for yourself. If you want aloso want a start menu shortcut you will have to go into Documents and Settings which is found in the root directory (C:\).

i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\name\Start Menu\Programs\ (XP) or C:\Users\(User-Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ (Win 7 and Vista)




where 'name' equals administrator, or whatever name you use for your account. Just create a new folder within the program folder and add a shortcut from the games executable file. (right click and select create shortcut then copy that to the folder you've just created - you can also use the same shortcut and copy it to the desktop or select send to desktop {create shortcut}).

Apart from the increase in size due to the new security setup file, the size of the downloaded file and the installed game are both different to previous year's but the versions seem to be the same.

The game works on Win XP Pro 32bit, Vista Home Premium 64bit and Win 7 Pro and Ultimate 64bit. (Not tested on other iterations of Windows). ;-)




Introduction:



Incinerate was originally given away June 2009 and received lots of positive comments and out of 497 votes received a 54% positive vote, then again February 2010 where it received a positive 58% out of 355 votes. And last year it was given away twice (Feb 2011) where it received a positive 69% of the votes from a total of 299, and August 2011 where it received a positive 68% of 281 votes. Finally it was given away earlier this year (April 2012) where it received 69% of the votes out of a total of 320.

There's plenty of opportunity to see what the community though about this game from the 171 comments that you'll find from June 2009 HERE (77 comments), Feb 2010 HERE (48 comments), Feb 2011 HERE (49 comments) and HERE (34 comments) Aug 2011 and April 2012 earlier this year HERE (43 comments)

Quote:

It is 2074. Astronomers from around the world are watching an asteroid crash into the surface of Mars leaving a huge crater. Clouds of dust and vapor hide the surface of the planet for several long months. Communication with all Martian research stations is lost. When the clouds clear away, people send new spaceships to the Red planet. The spaceships send back shocking news. Hundreds of plants producing arms have been set up on the maimed surface of Mars. Thousands of machines stock the mineral deposits that had been brought to the surface by the massive explosion. A huge geothermal unit is running in the centre of the crater. Its energy creates a protection shield that extends beyond the planet's atmosphere. The objective of the unknown aliens is absolutely clear: they're building an army to conquer the Earth! So people are sending a small spaceship to the Red planet with one mission: blow up the shield generator so they can launch missile attacks from the orbit. The spaceship will have to land in an isolated area, and then try to infiltrate into the alien conspiracy. You are the commander of the spaceship, and the fate of the Earth is in your hands!

Reference: accessed HERE 26th June 09

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The Game:


Today's game is a vertical scrolling shmup (space shoot'em up), with a small ship that you control with the mouse. The left and right mouse buttons select primary and secondary weapons. You can move the ship anywhere on the playing arena, avoiding buildings and other objects. You can destroy buildings, objects and enemy ships before they destroy you. Crashing into buildings and ships destroys your shields, but you can do this occasionally. You can pick up extra power ups once buildings have been destroyed. Repair droids will repair any damage caused by enemy fire or by crashing into buildings. On the way you have plenty of opportunity to pick up a variety of power ups that you can also purchase from supply depots that you'll find shortly after starting a new level. You just have to fly your ship over the symbol that denotes the supply station. The supply depots contain several items such as rockets, armour, magazines for your guns as well as various upgrades such as your weapons and shields. You primary weapon requires magazines and the secondary weapon, which is fired using the right mouse button requires rockets. Occasionally in game you will also come across branching routes. This aspect of the game gives some re-playability to the overall game, though choosing either route doesn't look much different. :) . Provided you have completed a checkpoint, you can return to the beginning of a checkpoint by clicking on the continue button. Otherwise you'll start a new game from the beginning.

Video & Images:



You can see a 5min 45sec video of game play HERE

You can also see loads of screen captures HERE as a slideshow or all on one page HERE where you can then select individual images to look at.

The main menu gives you access to an options menu that allows you to change screen resolutions, starting from 640 x 480 x 16 to 1600 x 1200 x 32. You can toggle between full screen and windowed mode plus change the lighting from normal to advanced, though I haven't checked what the difference between the two settings is okay, and finally there's a sound and music slider for adjusting the volumes. The help menu is rather basic, with nothing more than the story line and an image of the various power ups available. There's nothing about how to play the game either.

On starting the game a page opens up that allows you to create a new profile. You can set up more than one profile if you wish. Once this is done, a level map appears. I'm not sure if you can re select previous levels as I only played the one level (left it too late to play an extended game earlier this morning). Once in game you can see several symbols around the periphery of the playing area. These give information telling you how many rockets or magazines you have as well as informing you about the state of your shields.

Conclusion:




I was only able to play the demo which consisted of six levels so cannot describe the later parts of this game I thought the construction of the game was quite well made and the difficulty was good enough to create a reasonably decent game, that I would say is worth a good 6 out of 10; though, that said there are many 'shmup's' out there and overall I think this one is an average shooter. The above images and game play video should give you a good idea of the game.

You can find a trainer for Incinerate play HERE that gives you unlimited health, guns, rockets and money.


I've listed loads of related games below (all with hyperlinks). some are full price, others on excellent deals and even some that are free for example Moonbase Alpha and Moon Breakers. you'll also find a thread in the Game Discussion forums dealing specifically with shmups which you can find HERE

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Alternative Games some free some on great deals:





You can get today's game giveaway free 24/7 from Gametop HERE. Remember to watch out for toolbar installations and home page hijacks via check boxes during the games installation.

There are hundreds of space themed games available, many of which are free. They are amongst my favourite genres. The following two links will take you to threads that have links to loads of free space shooters and strategy games, then I've included a couple of sites that giveaway commercial games, after that I've listed several games I own that I can honestly say are excellent time wasters which you may consider buying - all are bargain bin games by now, then a link to a brilliant commercial site that has gathered older DVD/CD based games and removed the DRM from them and now you can download the games, ranging from a few hundred Mb, to upwards of 4Gb in size. (So you'll need a broadband connection to download them) :)

The first one is the Space Shoot 'Em ups or Shmup's: A longish list of FREE games, where you'll find a massive list of Freeware, abandonware and even a long list of browser based space orientated games. I highly recommend the following one from that thread: Fraxy, Universal Combat, Realms, and Chalk . Unfortunately I've not kept the list up to date of late, so there are actually loads more free games that are space related which you can find via the Games Synopsis HERE. I'm sure you have lots to check out now. :) I hope you find something of interest. I would certainly consider buying Freespace 2 and/or Darkstar One from Good Old Games (GOG) or DotEMU, both are 3D space simulators, with amazing graphics and a real feel for being in an imaginary space shooter. I've listed several very good space orientated games at the end of the review. The X3 series of games are some of the most realistic space games I've ever played together with the online game Shattered Horizon. You'll find the Free Games synopsis HERE



There's also several free Shmup's (Shmup's = Space Shoot 'Em Ups) available from Gametop, MyPlayCity (Where you'll find Star Defender2, Orbital destruction, Astro Avenger 1 & 2 plus loads more good quality Shmups; so if you missed those that were given away previously you can now get them free 24/7 ) You'll also find a few over at FreeGamePick, but the last time I downloaded anything from freeGamePick they had become more aggressive w.r.t. toolbars and in some cases forcing you to change your home page before you could play their games.

You'll find Arial Fire, Air Shark, Air shark 2, Forbidden Galaxy, Forbidden Galaxy 2, plus many more that are linked to via the Shmup's link I've posted above. all the games from these two sites are commercial quality games that are given away free through sponsorship. When installing these games you do need to watch your installation as some of the games do ask if you want toolbars installed or even to change your home page, however, these can be avoided simply by making sure the boxes that show up during installation are unchecked. All the games from these two sites do open up your browser when you close the game down, but there's nothing untoward about it. you are always taken to the sites home page where you can check to see if there are more games. Once you close the page, that's it.

Finally I'll list a few really good DVD based and/or digital downloads for space shooters/strategy games that aren't free and can cost cost anywhere between $a few dollars to $50. I've got most of the games listed below apart from the most recent releases and IMO think that all of the games are excellent. If you love anything to do with space you'll probably love most of these games. All of them are available via steam, GOG, Gamersgate, Desura as well as others such as Gamefly and GreenMan Gaming (plus others) or as a DVD from places like Gamestop, Amazon, EBay or Game UK.


Genesis Rising (Strategy)

Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect (FPS/RPG)

Spaceforce: Rogue Universe (Strategy/shooter)

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (Strategy)


Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity (Strategy)

Sword of the Stars (Strategy/shooter)

Light of altair (Strategy)

X3: Terran Conflict (Action Simulation)

X3: Reunion (Expansion to Terran Conflict)
X2: The Threat (earlier version of the above)



Shattered Horizon (Brilliant First Person Shooter set on and around the shattered remains of the moon and the international space station – amazing visuals – now with more maps, extra weapons and a single player mode - requires Vista or Win 7 - XP not supported. I highly recommend this one, especially if you've ever dreamt of being an astronaut) ;-)

Gratuitous Space Battles (Shmup)

Gratuitous Space Battles (Strategy)


Star Trek DAC
(Strategy/shooter)

AI War Fleet Command (Strategy/shooter)

Jamestown (Shmup)

Solar 2 (Strategy)




FTL - Faster than Light (Strategy Simulation)


Galaxy on Fire (3D Third person)



Moon Breakers (Free to play)


Lunar Flight (Simulation)




Starpoint Gemini (RPG Tactical space Simulator)


Sol: Exodus (Space Action Simulation)




Evochron Mercenary (the third of a trilogy of Evochron gamesSpace Action Simulation)



Legends of Pegasus (Space Action Simulation with very low metascore)


Moonbase Alpha freeware simulation)




The following are available from Good Old Games for between


You can find even more Sci-Fi based games from Good Old Games and DotEMU for $5.99 to $9.99 as well.

For example:


Earth 2040 Trilogy

Earth 2050 Trilogy

Earth 2060



Freespace + expansion (Space combat simulation)


Freespace 2 (Space combat simulation)

Darkstar One (3D space adventure)



You'll find more freeware links to space oriented games in the original comments for this game when it was given away back in June 2009; the link is above in the Introduction to the review.

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Yet More Related Bargain Gamesl>





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 four years, many of which are excellent alternatives to their commercial cousins.


Steam has several games on sale at the moment including the 24 hr Steam deal which today is an espionage RPG called Alpha Protocol
(this changes to another game at 6pm GMT) and this weekends deals are Payday: The Heist
and Sleeping Dogs. I've also posted several links to sites where you'll find loads of decent game deals. Just look in the Game Discussion sticky section for the thread. (Was originally called Didimatic, but that site is closing at the end of the month so have updated the thread to include all of the better known gaming sites and sites where they list all of the current deals.

This months Alawar game is The Curse of Montezuma. for those that are new to the game giveaway project you will need Alawar free game box to be able to download their free monthly game. this months is an excellent match three.






Oh yeah, nearly forgot, the next Indie Royale bundle is still available called the Indie Royale Fall bundle (minimum price at the moment is less than $4 which you can find HERE
and Indie Gala have just released their tenth bundle that contains 9 excellent strategy games HERE
. you can find details (one of which is also found in the greenlight bundle). You can get all nine games plus three mystery gifts for less than $6. The Greenlight bundle has several games included. you can get the first four (Pixel blocked, Omegalodon, Startaxis: Light Hunter for as little as $1 or for $5 or more you'll find an extra five games including the excellent Dawn of Fantasy and a DLC for Awesomenauts. Click HERE
for details. There's a huge SFI Super bundle (Strategy First) that contains almost 30 excellent strategy games such as 9th Company (based on the Russian film of the same name about a group of raw recruits that undergoe training then are sent to Afghanistan) Disciples II, Iron Warriors (tank strategy sim), Jagged alliance II, Emergency III etc. The usual cost of these games totals over $400; however, you pay only $9.95. You can find the SFI deal HERE
Also check out the latest game available on IndieGame stand HERE
. You can pay as much as you want but no less than $1. The present bundle is Cardinal Quest that includes download links (once you've created a free account) for Windows, Mac, Android and Linus. You also get a Desura Key plus if you pay more than the average which at the time of writing was $1.06 you get extras that include the sound track and a DLC for the game. There are several $5 bundles available from the Indie bundle site HERE . There's quite a few decent deals over on Desura HERE Virtually all of the bundles mentioned above include a combination of Steam, Desura keys as well as DRM free copies or a combination of 1, 2 or all three. Sometimes you also get a choice of operating system .

Finally you'll find details of all the bundles still available over in the first two pages of the game discussion forums as well as several of the main game distributors that seem to have permanent sales on a thread in the Game discussion forums HERE

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Problems:

If you have any problems with the game, either installation issues or getting the game to work check out the FAQ's section over in the Game discussion forums. you can find it HERE



In response to the following problem that some users experienced last time this game was given away i.e. w.r.t. Netbooks and problems with resolution, Markus posted a possible fix via registry editing. He said the following:

"If you install the latest Intel GFX driver and
1) Run regedit2) Search and modify all values “Display1_DownScalingSupported” from “0″ to “1″3) Restart the system
New resolution 1024×768 will be available then.#"

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game Game Discussion . 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). It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.




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