Hi, I've been mighty busy lately, practically since the beginning of Advent, but would like to take a moment to wish Everyone at GGOTD a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday time!! Thanks so much for all the Games leading to Christmas (and naturally many before) and I must say they always create even greater sense when someone visits us, especially at times like present (in my case it's our Doughier) and all good Games can be shared - either finished, or replayed again. We share the same likes and dislikes when it comes to Games genre, so playing becomes a teamwork and fun, not to mention much needed short blissful breaks in all the Christmas preparations, aah.

Well done Stephen for Your hard work here and superb Presentations! Hope You'll get a good, good rest over coming Holidays. Thank You also for Your recent interesting piece of information You shared in one of the replies to my comment about 'Events in the Sky' mid December (unfortunately it was too cloudy here so no joy seeing any of it at all:(, but we too are keen observers of Heavens Above and try not to miss any of these often spectacular Shows. If I wasn't pushed for time I would tell You little bit of where and how we have managed to watch this year's 'shooting stars' in August (it was magnificent!!:) perhaps next time.

missed this for my grandchildren! :(

Oh, what a brutal Santa - ho, ho, ho , I like it...

Merry christmas to Stephen and his family and all other makers and users of this site!

Jimmy

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

Merry christmas Jimmy

regards

Stephen

Thank you for your wishes. I hope that you also spend some great moments with your family.

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

:)

Merry Christmas to you and yours...my furry, long eared Wrascally Wabbit! Thank you for all your reviews and thanks to all the game developers/publishers for the games and to GGOTD for the opportunity to play the games.

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

Hi Delenn, hope you have a fantastic festive season and are feeling much better than previously. :D

To Stephen:

I've been coming here every weekend for years to get the free games (and think at some point they even did this EVERY DAY.) I've never commented on anything. I just thumb up the games I do download. I just wanted to thank you for your reviews which help me decide each week what I would like to download. I'm pretty sure you aren't compensated for the research and time you give each week and that it's simply a labor of love for you. So I wanted to take a moment and wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season. Peace and joy and good will to you my cyber friend!

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

Hi Frank, thank you for your welcome message. I hope you also have a wonderful festive season and a fantastic New Year.

No I get nothing for doing the moderation and reviews each week, it's entirely voluntary. My wife and even my kids have asked many times for me to stop. The original reason I started writing reviews was as a thank you to the game giveaway team for the games I'd got from this site. Prior to joining the giveaway community in November 2006 my choice of arcade games were limited mainly to Breakouts, Shmups and some platformers. Thanks to the giveaway team, I found several other genres of arcade game that i'd always avoided including HOG's, Match 3, puzzle games and Time Management games. I still dislike most TM games, but most others I usually ebnjoy playing. I can't believe how long I've been writing reviews here. I've always commented since the very first game I got from the site a breakout called TVI: Breakout, which was a cross between a breakout and a vertical shmup, combining my two favorite games. I still have that game, but have lost many of the others that i got back then, however, I had started to purchase a lot of arcade games from places like Alawar and the now defunct Reflexive arcade (bought over 900 arcade games from Reflexive, but have since purchased far more from Valves Steam client - over 6600 games).


Yes, up till April 2008 we used to get games 7 days a week, with the occasional few days without. They initially closed the game giveaway part of the project in April 2008 and transferred the games to the main site, and put the games on Saturday and Sunday's. About a month later the gamegiveaway site was reopened and since then we have had games at weekends only.

I believe it was the massive drop in prices that occured at that time that stopped us getting games every day; for examle, prior to 2008, arcade games used to cost on average $19.99 each, then literally over a few months they dropped to around $6, a massive drop in price. Also AAA games have hardly risen in price for over 20 years, and in real terms have also become much cheaper than 20 years ago; for example, I was paying £30 for a AAA game in 1995. £30 back then is now equivalent to approximately £120, so basically we are getting games for a quarter of the price they used to be. Also, since the advent of the indie bundles and virtually constant sales, many independants and some of the big AAA developers have gone out of buisness. I believe those pressures are the reason we still only get games at weekend. I'm sure the giveaway team did say it was only a tempoprary thing, but the gaming indistry hasn't improved with respect to profits (apart from the mega big AAA developers such as Blizzard, Bethesda and Activision etc).

Win10 64bit Home. Great game. Loaded fast and played fast with no problems. Great time waster.

Merry Christmas to all!

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

Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year Dusty :)

Thanks! It worked.

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

Hi Yvonne, nice one. Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year :)

Hi Stephen

thank you very much. Nice game!
Greets,
Nic

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

Hi Nic :( Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year :)

Anything Christmas-y is nice, but this is just click-click-click.

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

Merry Christmas and an even better New Year :)

Thank you, Alawar and game give away of the day. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope everyone gets everything and more this holiday season. Also Happy New Year to all. Lets hope for peace in 2016.
As for the game, I just downloaded it and got a first ever false positive from my KasperSky AV. I had to disable my AV in order to install the game. For anyone reading this, not to worry. This web site goes above and beyond to insure their is no spyware or viruses, ever..
Enjoy the game everyone. See ya all in 2016. P.R.

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

Hi Purple Rabbit, Yeah, they do check every giveaway with several suites to ensure they are safe. As mentioned beofre, it's the Themida code that wraps the setup file that sometimes alerts security software. Partly because themida has also been used to hide malware by unscupulous hackers and other dregs of society. :)

Looks like a fun game for the holidays. Thank you all! (seems to be running just fine on my old Vista machine ;-) )

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

Merry Christmas :)

Installs fine on my laptop, it's kind of a strange game, I have _no_ idea what I'm doing at the beginning but I just click on things and try to get stuff done until suddenly "all done" crops up, or something to that effect. Ignoring that it's a Christmas game works for me, I like elves anyway since I'm a LOTR fan. Also, Winter's my favorite season 'cuz I get to wear lots of clothes. Great game, I look forward to completing it one of these days. (Lots of other games to play!)

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

Hi Therese, have an excellent Christmas and a brilliant New Year :)

A very speedy, straightforward download, with no problems setting up or creating the shortcut (send application to desktop - creates the shortcut). A simple little game - so far! - sending elves to chop down trees and use the wood to repair bridges, having harvested their crops to earn enough money first.

It's seasonally snowy, brightly coloured, with music that is bearable, although - as usual - I'll probably turn it off before long. You can't play real music in the background while it's on, after all!

So, on a fairly brief first acquaintance, it's a nice little game for a busy time of year, and should keep all ages happy while somebody else does the cooking and the washing up!

Thanks as ever to our own elves at GGOTD, Alawar and Santa Whiterabbit. Seasonal greetings to you all!

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

Thanks for the feedback Basilica, have a great Christmas and a successful New Year :)

It's certainly cute, especially if you let your kids play on your computer. I run Win7 and it installed just fine. Remember to go to c:/games to dig out the exe. Full screen doesn't actually amount to much, the play area is just a small box. The graphics are subpar, elves move one direction while their body points another direction, etc. Considering it's a free game today, it's worth that much. It is cute and it is a good time waster. The story is kinda funny and the fact that crazy snowmen and all that come at you is really quite hilarious. Thanks for the game guys!

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

Thanks for the feedback Keisha, have a great Christmas :)

Great game good story line works on my windows 10. Thank you

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

:)

Hi,

Antivir gives a warning when starting setup:

TR/Crypt.ZPACK.Gen7

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

Hi Nic, there is no virus, your security is picking up the themida based code that protects the giveaway from hackers. Unfoirtunately some security software will tag themida based files as a security risk. There is nothing wrong with todays giveaway. If there was we would be seeing a lot more community members posting about this issue.

Interest in your review may be posted later! Meanwhile the rest of us will just carry on as before.

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

:)

Thank you Alawar and GOTD. Cute game. Something kids will enjoy and something to pass time. Not hard. Downloded Win 7 64 bit ok, no problems.

I keep getting a download failure.

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

Hi Allen, it may be your security that is blocking the download. The download does contain a file with Themida coding, which is sometimes seen as a threat, but in this case the Themida code is protecting the games executable from hackers. Try turning off your security temporarily. If that fails check out the FAQ's thread which i link to in my problems section (see comment 1). Also check your event log immediately after trying to download the game as you may find error messages that will indicate what the problem is. Failing all of the above, try using a download manager which you can find for free online.

A comment might be posted later.

But I doubt it.

Santa Claus, BAH!

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

Humbug ;)

Yesterday and today I get the error "archive is either in unknown format or damaged" when trying to extract the game from winrar. Never had this problem before... Does anybody know solution?

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

Check the problems section in my comment see comment number 1. There is a link in the problems section that will take you to the FAQ's thread over in the game discussion forums. There are some fixes that should help.

Fun game, with a Christmas-y theme. Time Management, but kinda like Weather Lord, where you can keep on playing even if you've run out of time to get a medal. Which makes it not too awfully frenetic for me, as I'm playing for fun more than for medals. Of course, I haven't gotten to the higher levels, where it probably gets more difficult.

Thanks, All!

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

Thanks Delilah, have a fantastic Christmas and a beautiful New Year :)

Great games this weekend! Love them both: HO and TM! My favourites!! Played this game for a short while and did not get gold stars straight away. So there is a little challenge. It seems like a nice little TM game, not too frantic. I didn't really like chopping down all the trees but it seems that you can regrow them with the right spell. As for the polar bears...seems like you can only knock them over once they've started eating your crops. The game has great replayability, even records how many times each level was played. Thanks to Alawar & GGOTD for this great game. Looking forward to playing this one ASAP!

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

Thanks for the feedback DJ, Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year :)

Hello,
Pour ceux qui voudraient jouer en français :
1-Télécharger et installer la demo gratuite : http://www.bigfishgames.fr/jeux-a-telecharger/31198/christmas-stories-puss-in-boots-ce/download.html
2-Copier le fichier "C:\Program Files (x86)\New Yankee in Santas Service\data\conf\locale_en.lua"
(Attention ce fichier est nommé "locale_en.lua" mais il est en français)
3- Coller ce fichier et remplacer le fichier existant dans le répertoire de jeux : "NewYankeeInSantasService_Game\data\conf\locale_en.lua"
(Attention, ils portent le même nom, donc si vous voulez conserver le fichier original vous pouvez le renommer "local_en_ori.lua" avant de faire l'étape 3 )
Bon jeu

Hi,
For those who would like to play in French:
1-Download and install the free demo: http://www.bigfishgames.fr/jeux-a-telecharger/31198/christmas-stories-puss-in-boots-ce/download.html
2-Copy the file "C: \ Program Files (x86) \ New Yankee in Santas Service \ data \ conf \ locale_en.lua"
(Note that file is named "locale_en.lua" but it is in French)
3- Paste this file and replace the existing file in the game directory "NewYankeeInSantasService_Game \ data \ conf \ locale_en.lua"
(Careful, they have the same name, so if you want to keep the original file you can rename it "local_en_ori.lua" before doing step 3)
Good game

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

HiThank you for your useful feedback as always Bricolou, have a fantastic festive season. :)

I LOVE THIS SERIES!

First off, installed and runs fine on Win 8.1.

Second; Alawar. 'Nuff said there when it comes to quality.

This is the third game in this series, if I remember right, and there isn't a turkey in the lot. The premise is about the same as most games like this. I do like the main characters and their interaction. The bit with this game is helping Santa. You get to smite evil snowmen with candy canes as well! It's fun. Yes, I already own it as I bought it when it came out because I liked the others.

The pluses are it's a good solid fast game play with all you need to make a time management game good, including cuing up tasks and the like. It's challenging as well. I've not defeated it yet. I get to one of the upper levels and end up stalled. Can't remember which one, but it involves keeping fires lit. For those that like these kind of games, it's good for that reason as plenty are too easy. The graphics and sounds are good (they aren't annoying like so many!) with plenty of ways to get powerups.

The downside is the popup boxes for various bits. Those get in the way and are as annoying as heck because they do and don't want to close easily. The second is the noises the 'alters' make. They are all the same so you can't tell which one is ready without drawing your attention away from what you're doing. Third is it allows you to cue up tasks even if you'll run out of resources from a previous one, thus throwing yourself off with it. Finally, it might be too challenging for those who don't like these sort of games. For those of us who play them a lot, it's a challenge. For those who don't, it will probably end up frustrating.

All in all, I give this a solid thumbs up as the downsides don't outweigh the good for it.

Wonderful giveaway. Thanks again!

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

Thank you for your excellent feedback DaMyst. I didn't have time to write up a review today due to beiong away fgrom home all day. Managed to post the bare bones almost 10 hours after the game went live, but no actual review. Have a great Christmas and an even better New Year :)

Thank you, Whiterabbit, for your reviews; and thank to all the commenters on this site -- I've discovered some great games that I would have missed or passed over because of you all, and found information that helped me understand the game or find other, similar games.

Thanks, too, to GGOATD and the developers who make these games available for free: I have purchased other games in series that I loved, and learned that games from Alawar, Playrix, and Immanitas and others are great quality, and worth looking for.

Merry Christmas, or Happy whatever you're celebrating at this time of year to everyone! :-)

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

Please excuse the very late reply. Been extremely busy the last two days. Didn't even have time to play Sundays game, hence no review. Have a fantastic festive season.

Really sorry for the lack of a proper review today folks, I've been so busy I've not even been able to play the game today. Been out all day till very late afternoon.

Check out the Games, games and yet more games section below for some excellent bargains for Christmas. I've posted details of some of the bargain bundles. There's around 35 different bundles available at this time, most of them available via the links I've provided below. There are a couple of bundles that contain 20 or more games for around $10 each, that's only 50 cents for each game; some of which cost me (when I purchased them as pre orders) almost a hundred times as much just for one game. Most of the bundles range form less than $2 up to around $4 or $5 for anything from 6 games to 10 games (apart from the two that have 20 or more that I listed below at the beginning of the Games, Games and yet more games section)

The following was part of the information I was intending to put into the review, but didn't have the time to create even a rough draft, so there is no actual review of the game today, just incidental info about the game such as installation details, links to video's etc.

later in the day is usually family time so I don't have much time in the evening to write reviews or moderate, and by the time I do have time it's not really worth spending hours creating a review when a large percentage of the community have already been and gone.

To everyone who reads this, have a brilliant Christmas, hopefully see you all on Boxing day for another game. :)

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New Yankee in Santa's Service:



Installation:


New Yankee in Santa's Service downloads to a 68.7 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 68 MB in size.

C:\Games\NewYankeeInSantasService_Game


Music files (just in case you don't like the music and want to change it:

C:\Games\NewYankeeInSantasService_Game\data\sound\music\musicx.ogg (music0.ogg to music4.ogg)


A desktop shortcut isn't installed so you will need to make a note of where you install the game to so that you can create one for yourself. Once installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. I've only tested the game on Win 8.1 and Win 10



Reviews:


You can see some mini reviews over on Big Fish Games via the following link:


http://www.bigfishgames.com/games/7795/new-yankee-in-santas-service/


Developers Introduction:

Mary goofed when casting a spell and scattered Santa's reindeer with a loud KABOOM! Now the bearded one is demanding she and Johnny collect his sleigh pullers before Christmas Eve. Find the missing reindeer to avoid a Yuletide cancellation in this instant holiday classic, New Yankee in Santa's Service!

Complete over four dozen levels
Battle snowmen, witches, Yeti and more
Assemble and repair a variety of buildings




Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByDWk_kOAis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_phSu5pf4hM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKYN21MqrlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbN6CbookQc




System Requirements:


OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8
CPU: 1.0 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 8.0
Hard Drive: 73 MB

pic hostscreen shot windowsimage url upload

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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting Queens Quest: Tower of Darkness Collector`s Edition 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 Call of the Ages 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 isn't available from any of the free games sites i check at this time.


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:

Similar Alternatives:

Cjeck out the latest Groupees bundle 1C Company end of Year bundle with 20 excellent games for only $3 that include:

7.62 High Calibre, A.I.M.2 Clan Wars, Cuban Missile Crisis + Ice Crusade Pack, Death To Spies, El Matador, Elven Legacy, Elven Legacy: Ranger, Faces of War, Fairy Tale About Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya, Freight Tycoon Inc., Konung 2, Necrovision: Lost Company, Parkan 2, RIG´N´Roll, Real Warfare 1242, Stalingrad, The Tomorrow War, Theatre Of War 2: Africa 1943, Theatre of War 2: Centauro, UFO: Aftermath

or the Humble Bundle sports bundle, for $3.62 (subject to change, pay the average) for some excellent games including Max Gentlemen Triple DLC Pack, Qvadriga, OlliOlli, WRC4, Vertiginous Golf, Sportsfriends and for $10 you can get the Out of the Park Baseball 16 as well.

Also for $10 you can get the following 20+ games via the 25th anniversary NeoGeo Humble Bundle:

Art of Fighting 2, Fatal Fury Special, King of the Monsters, Metal Slug 2, Samurai Shodown II, Sengoku 3, The King of Fighters 2000, Baseball Stars 2, The Last Blade, Pulstar, Metal Slug, Metal Slug 3, Shock Troopers, Neo turf Masters, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Final Edition, Twinkle Star sprites, Neo Geo 25th Anniversary Soundtrack, Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, The King of Fighters 2002, Blazing Star, Ironclad, Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad, Samurai Shodown V Special, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Metal Slug X, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match.

If you missed last weeks Queens Quest: Tower of Darkness, you can get that and 8 other HOG's for only £2.99 for the Indie Gala bundles. (the games in the bundle include - Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart, Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres, Fairy Tale Mysteries 2: The Beanstalk, 9 Clues 2: The Ward, Time Mysteries 3: The Final Enigma, Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond, Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope and Queen's Quest: Tower of Darkness)

I've linked to all of the bundle sites below.

There are 320 games on sale over on Steam this weekend.
There are loads of excellent deals over on Steam (320) but it would take me all evening to detail them here; just check out the specials section for all the games on sale HERE. There's loads more in the weekly sales and the 48 hours sales to choose from; and almost certainly something for everyone. The next set of weekly sales starts on Monday with usually a few hundred titles added. :)





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 CAT Interstellar a story-driven science fiction game about humanity's attempt to terraform Mars. Pilot a DOG V4 drone on an alien world and uncover the past of a seemingly barren planet.

Note: This game is currently in "early access" and is not fully completed. Content will change over time. More information via their Steam page: http://igs.io/1Yj74TD
You can get the game for $1; pay over the average to get the soundtrack. (The price at the time of writing was $1.36. It rarely goes above $2 unless the bonus content includes a second or third game).
The deal ends Sunday 20th Dec 2015 5am (GMT)



The latest DIG game is Enigmatis: The Mists of Ravenwood is a critically-acclaimed, beautifully crafted casual adventure game rich with horror, plot twists and shadowy intrigue. Follow the trail of a demonic preacher and unravel the secrets shrouded in the mists of Ravenwood Park! What happened to the abandoned camper covered by enormous claw marks? What lurks in the park's shadows? Will you be able to solve the mystery?

Features

- 36 achievements to unlock
- 30 collectibles (butterflies) to find
- Bonus Adventure: "The Redeemed Memories" is a prequel to the main one. Witness the origins of Ravenwood Park, and rescue your friends from the evil dwelling within.
- 55 stunning, hand drawn locations and graphics with many animated details
- Exciting detective story rich with horror elements and plot twists
- Atmospheric soundtrack
- Picturesque setting of Ravenwood Park
- Evidence Board: draw conclusions based on evidence and clues
Pay £0.99 for the game or you can get two keys if you pay more than the average of $1.32 (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, reBundle 9 and Greenlight 3). You get Steam keys for all of these games except the Greenlight bundle, however, if a game is Greenlit, you will get a Steam key.
The single game deal ends just after Midnight Sunday 20th December 2015 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 has just changed from Command & Conquers: Red Alert 2 to 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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