I'm really frustrated as I'm trying to start the third island and I keep getting a graphics error,

{This "Portable Network Graphics" image is not valid because it contains invalid pieces of data(crc error)}

so I'm no longer able to play... Really not happy as it was working fine when I stopped playing last night.

I totally forgot to step by yesterday - my bad - will have to wait for another chance.

All the best for your son - hope he's back running around soon and surgery went well.

Hi, thanks Stephen, my 'bionic' husband has the same metal bits as You, they don't use 'rubbish' nowadays, especially in excellent Cambridge Addenbrooke's Hosp. where all mending took place, but ever since my husband feels almost obiliged to mention his metal plates, screws, chains, etc at airport check points (just in case and in joking manner:), as we don't really know what they're looking for when scanning and it's basically all new to us. No need to post this, continous well Wishes to Your Son, we truly feel for You being there ourselves not that long ago..

Please correct the issue with not being able to SEE the full item hidden under the locks and double locks.
I am so sick and tired of having to guess.

I have to say seeing people complain about the info Whiterabbit shares on other games is really annoying. If you do not like EA/ Origin. don't use it to get the free game. It was really nice of him to go out of his way to let people know about the game and also all the other listings he does. This is one of the few places I go to to find such a massive listing here and on the forums. I wish EA never left Steam, but they did so I have to sign up if I want to play The Sims games, it is really not a big deal.

Thank you for sharing all your info with us. I hope you continue to do so. I do hope your son is okay and heals quickly. I know how scary this is.

Now about the game, it is cute, very colorful and it is not a bad match three...I am not nuts about the genre, but sometimes it is fun to play these types of games while watching netflix!! I have a few things I would like fixed in the game but they are minor. One is to be able to tell when the gold timer is up...also for the silver, and to be able to go back and replay a level once you have finished an area. I wish you could save up power ups but they seem to recharge pretty quick. Not a bad game!! Thanks everyone!!

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

Thank you for your feedback Pixiey, much appreciated. W.r.t. the complaints; there will always be some. I never think of warning about the amount of stuff installed when installing clients such as Origin, for me it's inconsequential; I just install becasue for me its the games that are important. If it's a good game I'd install many gigabytes of extra's if it was required. That said, I'm sure many wouldn't. (I expect they only wanted to inform as I do); anyway, thanks for the support, it's much appreciated.

:)

Nice game, but timer mode is stressful. I rather play to complete and not worry about my time. The boss level is rather hard on laptop without a regular mouse. I might delete later, but will give it more of a try another day to see if I can do the boss mode. If not, bye bye game. Real life is stressful enough! I love match three games generally though.

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

Thank you for your feedback Therese

I did download and install and play with no problem on Win7 Home Premium x64. Enjoyed the game without using the tutorial, so I missed some points until I realized a few things (didn't take long). After 2 "stages" I "bought" the upgrade to remove the mist from the kingdom. Silly! :-)

Anyhow, I had no problem with full-screen, which is really loaded to shortest side dimension as full-screen, didn't try turning it sideways since I don't have a touchscreen on my laptop. But I did note difficulty in quitting - you have to go back into the next level/stage, using the "play" button - and then you can see a menu to find the real menu, so you have to use that to go back to quit (losing any progress in current level, all or nothing for leaving in the middle of a "stage") and then back to the prior menu to finally quit, saving the progress through the game.

What a pain! Should definitely be able to quit from within any screen, and also pause during a stage - bathroom and kitchen breaks otherwise would use up your time for the stage. I don't know why they didn't do this, they do it on their other games!

Thanks for offering, maybe we get get a fixed version later, with more levels? Like Fishdom, playable forever!

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

Thanks for your feedback midymac

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

Thanks for everyones well wishes today; my sons surgery was successful. I've een asleep since returning from the hospital. It's now 4am, so will g back to bed. I apologise for the lack of proper moderation today. If you have any problems running the game, please post your queries over in game discussion forums, thanks

:)

Thanks for this - I like match 3, especially with collect-things as part of them. But why won't you give away good stuff like this in the Android GiveAwayoftheDay? Lots of stupid stuff over there, most not even usable on tablets, why not get some good stuff (i.e., real games, useful programs, and usable on tablets) the way the ios people get??? How about if we get some full Alaway and/or Playrix games over there, when we get them here, please please???

Hi!

First, hope all went well with son's surgery and will
recover wonderfully! prayers!

Second, I think you summed the game up best. Its easy
but repetitious. But if you ant something mild to distract
will fill the bill. Graphics seem nice..music etc.
Loaded so quick and easy, I thought something was wrong, lol!

Thanks for another good game!!

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

Thank you for your feedback and well wishes. Cal's okay, he coped with the surgery. Was a little sick afterwards as he drank too much water.

Hi, thanks for two decent Games this weekend and You Stephen for moderating them in difficult Family circumstances. Wishing Your Son speedy recovery and bouncing back to fitness in decent manner and time. To cheer You up and give hope - my husband busted his shoulder and hip last summer in a fall from rather great height, had two major ops piecing it all together and was nearly 4 months out of action..He is walking almost normally now, swinging his arm, driving, no more painkillers, back to work. Oh, I forgot to mention - he's over 60, smoker, not fond of physio or excercises! (tricky at the aiports scanning gates though..:) Trust me, Your much younger Son will be just fine.

@ post 4 (Corstiaan) - did You mean 'Mystery of Mortlake Mansion' game? And if so - what lizard in the door doesn't fit??

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

Thank you for your feedback and well wishes Fran p.s. i have titanium in my body following a motorcycle crash many years ago. Thankfully it doesn't dset off the airport scanners

I liked the game until the Boss Battle. I agree with #17 and all the help screens as well but i consider them as part of the "strategy" of staying focused. The BB though totally turned me off -- hate the noise of the Boss and then the smoke to protect him? Not for me.

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

Thank you for your feedback Jane

Level 1-8 seems bugged. It says I need to collect one more potion but I already collected all the potions available on the board.

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

Thank you for your feedback

Nice little game. I would like to see a map of the levels so that you can see your progress and be able to replay levels. It's frustrating getting a silver level and not being able to rectify the mistakes. Anyway, it's a bit of a fun diversion for a little while. Speedy recovery for your son.

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

Thank you for your feedback

#6: " I don’t really see the use of that Origin client. As far as I know the game itself (Plants v Zombies) runs perfectly well without that huge client thing. "

I wasn't struck by the size of the Origin client when I monitored the installation in a win7 32 bit VM -- I was struck by its relative primitive nature, & didn't get a good impression of Origin when I couldn't use an e-mail acct. from my cable provider/ISP in the form xxxx@XXXX.XX.com -- their sign-in server wouldn't recognize it as an e-mail address apparently. 1st I've ever heard of that having the same address for a decade.

As far as the games go, or at least Plants vs. Zombies, it's setup to purposely be more complicated & won't run unless the client's signed in -- the version they gave away around 10/30/13 was a standalone affair [like today's GOTD] as best I can remember. Overall my thoughts are that if they give away a game in the future that my wife wants, cool, but otherwise we won't be buying anything -- she's got 100+ games she bought from Real Arcade, & they're all stuck in Vista because of the client. [You're supposed to be able to reinstall through GameHouse, but dealing with those folks in our experience is anything but pleasant.]

* * *

#11: "Any time you switch away from the active window to another (say, for example, you turn the speaker volume down using a button on your laptop), the active window restores with the game no longer in full screen mode."

I ***think*** that's related to Direct X & the game engine... I've very seldom been able to switch out of one of these games to the desktop at normal, full rez, then restore everything the way it was.

-----

Best to your son, WR.

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

Thank you for your feedback Mike, much appreciated. Cal'sokay, head his surgery yesterday morning; took some time to recover from the anaesthestic and morphine they gave him; but, by the evening he was chrpy. He's on a childrens ward where they put babies and teenagers together. He had a baby in the next bed/cot for two nights and didn't get any sleep due to the crying. They have a suggestions box, so i'm going to suggest they have a section separate for older kids. The whole childrens section that comprises of four wards, called the treehouse (as it's designed around one) lacks any amenities for teenagers.

:)

Installed fine on Win7/64. I played for a while at full screen, then decided to risk trying for the windowed option. It worked fine on my wide screen laptop, which often isn't the case. So happy for that because I like to multitask.

Wish there was a relaxed or untimed mode, but so far the timer hasn't stressed me too much. If I reach a point where it becomes a problem, I just add another player name and start over. Seems like a waste not to make the timer optional.

I'm glad I can turn off the sound/music, but I wish they wouldn't default to on. When I launch a game for the first time, I have to turn off sound on the entire system so I don't disturb others. Once I get past all the initial prompts to reach the options screen and turn it off, then I can turn system sounds back on. It would be much nicer to just have a prompt at initial program launch to set sounds, then prompt for player name.

Aside from those things, which aren't really unique to this game, I really enjoy this one. It's so different from most of those I have, so it's a nice change.

Thanks Alawar and GGOTD!

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

Thank you for your feedback Dani

I'd really like to try this game but I have a new computer with windows 8 and have not been able to get this game to install. I downloaded it and clicked on setup.exe and nothing happens. Any suggestions?

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

Hi Linda, I'm really sorry I missed your query until it was too late. I was exhausted when I got home from the hospital yesterday evening and slept till the early hours. You can get this game free from Jenkat Games. I've linked to it in my review at comment number 1. You can also get it from MyPlayCity, but iI'd go for the Jenkat version as it doesn't have the same toolbar installation risks

Our thoughts and prayers are with you! God Bless!

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

Thankyou Celestial

My download was for TheEnchantingIslands.zip, I don't know why some are having trouble with a different file. Mine was also only 43.6 MB download. I'm on a Win 7 machine and have had no problems with the download, install or gameplay. The only issue I've found is that when I went to another window it put itself into windowed (tutorial) mode when it went into pause. Easy fix in the menu but still weird. Otherwise it's a cute game to pass the time. Thanks to GGOTD and Whiterabbit I hope your son is okay and resting comfortably.

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

Just got back from the hospital; will answer any questions later.

:)

I have had this game in my favorite folder for years! I'm still playing it from Shockwave and occasionally consider buying it instead of paying the yearly membership fee. However, NOW I can get it for free!! I tolerate the boss level but I enjoy match3 games and this is no exception. If you like match3 you certainly will enjoy this game.

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

:)

The most annoying 3-match game I ever seen! Why should I see all of these numerous “help” screens? And why, after some level ended, I simply can’t see a button to stop all this game correctly, but only a button with a word “play”?

Thanks for this fun match game. It's pretty and easy to play for a short time which means fun for me without the guilt of wasted time. I do with it had an exit button (or did I just miss it) and I wish it said, "your game will be saved." But now I know it is.

Hope your son's surgery went well.

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

Thank you for your feedback Elaine. Yes, it was sucessful. We were a little wprried becasue the surgeon said it was an unusual break. He fell oddly while doing gymnastics. Both the tibia and fibia were broken close to the talus

Dear GGOTD, the only system requirements listed are "Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8; CPU: 800 Mhz; RAM: 256 MB; DirectX: 8.0; Hard Drive: 42 MB." If a giveaway requires a supplemental download of hundreds of megs of supporting software like a separate game engine (and rather intrusive software at that from what I've read about EA) PLEASE require site participants to post specifics. Thanks and your efforts are much appreciated.#

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

The giveaway team have nothing to do with the extra game deals I post. I'm a volunteer moderator and took it upon myself to post details of game deals. If I posted specifics about every game it would take me days to complete the reviews I post. I don't have the time to do that. Maybe I should post a warning at the end of the extra's section warning the community that they follow my suggestions at their own risk. That should cover any disgruntled community members. Thanks for pointing this out.

It's a simple enough job for individuals to check intot hese things themselves if they are interested in any of the deals. Thanks for your feedback

Nice game - more free games for phones - some games expired? 31 Free iPhone and iPad apps and games. Free Rush Bros. PC game download http://www.freestufftimes.com/category/software
GOTD Forever...... would be nice if gotd gave away free trips all over the world....hint!

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

lol

Sorry about family problem. Modern medicine to rescue. Dead Sea Salts to soak in (or Epsom salts tho dries skin) can draw out pain and Salonpas is great product along w/ Zandu's Z-balm (natural, oderless).
Ace elastic bandage compression helps, used right.
Game is a winner. Rare 10/10 for fans. Colorful, right set of options, tutorial for tips, ample clock time. Just played one level using Win 8.1 Update 1. Looked like could be a challenge higher levels but happy enough for now.

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

Thank you for your feedback Beergas, and for the advise

Stephen - My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family today as your son goes through surgery.

I know the agony as both a parent and grandparent waiting for the doctors' report. (I also know the lifelong heartache of losing a grandchild...)

Please let us know when all is well - you have many friends and admirers here who wish you all the best.
John

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

Thanks John. Surgery went well; we were worried because the surgeon had said the fractures were unusual ones. Cal's okay; just looking forwards to being released from hospital

:)

I see two challenges with using the game. When you're at the main screen where you can buy elements or choose to play the game, I can find no way to exit the game. There doesn't appear to be a menu button or any way to gracefully exit the game other than closing the window in which it runs.

That's related to the second issue. Any time you switch away from the active window to another (say, for example, you turn the speaker volume down using a button on your laptop), the active window restores with the game no longer in full screen mode. That setting does not appear to be stable at all.

Thanks to Alawar for offering the game here, but I think it might need more work before being ready for prime time.

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

Thank you for your feedback Gary

@Whiterabbit-uk: Why you make always advertising for other rubbish sites like Origin/EA this weekend? Example plants vs. zombies will you become since years for free (it´s urold) without installing a Origin client and registration!?! Become you money for that? Report about the game from this site and don´t try other people to make registrations etc. on other sites which have chargeable offers. That stinks!

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

Wow! all I'm doing is passing on offers from around the internet for those not interested in todays game. Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed?

Very nice, thank you!

Re my previous comment (not yet moderated, time says 5:36am now):

I think I was confusing The Enchanting Islands with Fruit Lockers 2, also by Alawar. Now that I've gotten my old MyPlayCity version of Enchanting Islands to work (had to change screen res to 640 x 480), I see that it's the same as the GOTD version after all.

Fruit Lockers 2 is available, as Alice and the Magic Gardens, from Jenkat:

http://www.jenkatgames.com/free/Alice-and-the-Magic-Gardens

but I don't find it at any of the other free sites. I think I got it from the Play! game collection that was available on Amazon a couple of years ago.

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

Thank you for your feedback Delilah - I beta tested the fruit lockers games for Alawar, not played them for several years. will hav eto find my backed up copies.

Wish I could leave a comment about The Enchanted Islands but unfortunately, the game and the download I got and the thumbnails shown do not match. Extremely disappointed.

It appears the download is for ENCHANTED CAVEN 2, and I really looked forward to The Enchanted Islands.

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

There's no way you could have got a fdifferent game to everyone else. It was definitely The Enchanted Islands. I'm sure other community members would have posted about this issue if it had been true. Sorry that I couldn't be of help

Hi Stephen - Hope your son's ok.
I too started out with a 20 MB hard disk, long long ago.
Point is: I like to keep my machine clean, yes -but I also don't want anyone else trying to operate it without me knowing about it. Also: I don't really see the use of that Origin client. As far as I know the game itself (Plants v Zombies) runs perfectly well without that huge client thing. And: whose client is he (it) going to be? I suspect: not mine. I'd rather EA would be more explicit about all this.

.....................Moderator Comment....................
I don't particularily like Origin, I think it's a shadow of Valve Steam client. But I still downloaded it becasue of some of the games EA releases such a sthe Battlefield series and Mass effect. I'd much rather see these games on Steam, but Valve and EA can't agree on some issues, so we don't see EA games (apart from some of the older ones). I'm sure this free games drive they are having is because many people don't like their client. Hopefully it will evolve like the Steam client did.

I have another version of this game, almost the same but not quite, from MyPlayCity from 2010. Differences: The previous game gives you a map of the levels, and shows if you got silver or gold, and lets you go back and replay levels to improve your time. There's a little girl called Alice, and the... wizard? doesn't have a name. There are differences in the first island, too; i.e., I don't remember lava and volcanoes.

However, when I went to play the MPC game to see if/how different it was from today's GOTD version, it didn't want to play in full-screen mode anymore (graphics just plain weirded out, and I haven't changed anything [that I know of!]; still running XP SP3). So I installed today's GOTD version, and it plays fine. But is rather different from the previous version. And the screenshots for the current MPC version now look like today's GOTD version. FWIW.

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

Thanks for your feedback Delilah

Hello First best wishes with and for your son.In the game Mistery at Mortgate Mansion The lizard in the door does't fit and I can't find another.Is this only with me or does other players have this problem?Best Regards

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

I'm going to be away again today. My son has just gone into surgery. i want to be at the hospital when he is brought back to the ward. will moderate later today.

Re PLANTS v. ZOMBIES – great game! BUT – download requires a HUMONGOUS download (100s of MBs) of the ELECTRONIC ARTS/Origin game engine. Also: when I de-installed all this, there were 1000s of file-leftovers, left untouched by the EA-deinstallation program. So if you want to play this game: install both game and Origin engine using an program to monitor these installatiobs, otherwise you’ll a huge job of getting rid of all these files later on ( a game in itself! ).
On the UP side: If you installed all this you can also play other EA games for free ( like Need for speed ).
Hope this is of help.

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

Hi Hugo,

That's a good idea using a monitoring program; it should make removal of all the Origin files and registry entries easier, (if you decide the game and future games aren't for you). Most community members computers will probably have hundreds of Gigabytes of storage space at the very least so I doubt the size of the Origin client would impact on their hard drives; that said, if you are fastidious about keeping your hard drive tidy, it's useful to know. (I never even thought to see how large the Origin client took up in disc space, but then I have over 10 Terabytes of hard drive space on my main computer spread over several hard drives, so space hasn't been a concern for quite some time. (My first ever PC that only had 40MB of space back in the late 80's - I could only run a couple of games at a time, then would have to delete them).

It looks like the free games are going to be a regular feature, so there will be more excellent games being givewn away over the coming months, plus of course the already free Need for Speed World (online game). Thanks for the warning though, much appreciated.

The Enchanting Islands:



In Brief:

An interesting match 3 game with spell casting, boss stages and mini hidden object stages. As you progress the game gets quite challenging. Worth a download if you like Match 3 games. One of the better ones.

Installation:

The game downloads as a 43.5 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me document that contains the terms and conditions and a wrapped dual activation and set up module and a security set up file (setup.gcd). Just for the newcomers amongst today’s users that means the game will be registered once it’s gone through the set up process, so there’s no registering the game with an activation code.

The game installs to C:\Games\TheEnchantingIslands_game

There’s no shortcut installed to either the Start Menu/Programs list or the desktop, so you’ll need to create your own by opening up the installed games folder and creating one via the games executable. The games icon is an improvement on the original Egyptoid icon. The installed game is 37.1 MB in size

The game should work Win 7 and 8.1; not tested it on Vista or XP. If you miss today's giveaway you can get it 24/7 from MyPlayCity or Jenkat Games

Introduction:

The Enchanting Islands were filled with light and color until an evil sorceress spread darkness throughout the land. You can restore this fairy-tale realm by collecting the elements you need to cast your spells and watching as glistening pools and verdant meadows burst forth from the soil. Use tools to gather everything you need, in this Match 3 game, and defeat the ferocious guardians in your quest to return life to The Enchanting Islands!

Reference accessed HERE 18th May 2014







The Game:

Do you want to save the world? Alawar's The Enchanting Islands is a match-3 puzzle game that has you casting spells to save the land from eternal darkness, and making your tile matches to gather elements needed for your restoration spells.

Once upon a time, the Enchanting Islands were completely enchanting, filled with light and color. Then an evil sorceress attacked the land, cursed everything she saw, and destroyed everything she touched. It looked like the end of the Enchanting Islands, until Alice, a nearby wizard, offered the people of the land a glimmer of hope. As Alice, you must restore the islands to their former glory by matching element tiles and beating evil boss monsters.

To play, you must swap adjacent tiles to make matches of three or more of a type. In order to beat a level, you need to gather all of the elements required, which are shown at the top of the screen. Sometimes you will need to clear all of the gold tiles, which can be done by making matches on top of them. Other times you may be asked to release a special item, like a potion.

To do this, you make matches underneath it until it reaches the bottom of the screen. For each board you play, you can earn gold, silver, or bronze medals, although this doesn't really impact the game play. Because you advance based on casting spells and not by completing boards, there's no way to replay a board for a better score. Boards take a long time to complete, generally 7-10 minutes each.

There are three power-ups, which are refreshed on a timer. The hammer breaks one block, and the bomb destroys tiles in a small area. The collector tool is really helpful. You can use to collect all elements of one type on the board. It also destroys chains, and clears the gold tiles underneath those elements. Bubble tiles are wild. The images inside alternate, and you can click to select the one you want.

Of course, there are also a bunch of obstacles. Chains can lock a tile into place, and you have to make matches with them in order to break them. Some items are double chained. Spiders can leave messy webs behind, which also trap tiles. You can destroy the spiders by making matches above or below them, and break webs by including those tiles in matches.

While it starts off simple, things can get quite hairy when you have multiple obstacles and goals on a single board. The layouts are involved. Levels are timed, but the timer is generally pretty generous and not too troublesome. If you lose, you can just replay.

In a new twist, you don't actually advance by completing boards. Rather, you advance by casting spells. These spells require a certain number of “elements,” which you gather by playing the main game. For example, you might need 200 strawberries, 2 potions, and 50 gold tiles. Once you have enough elements to buy the spell upgrade, you play a short hidden object board to find the elements hidden on the screen. After you've beaten it, you get the upgrade.

There are several upgrades to unlock in each chapter. When you've unlocked them all, you advance to the next island.

Before you move to a new island, you have to beat the boss battle. This is really cute, and something different. You make matches of three or more, as usual. However, there is a monster scrolling around at the bottom of the screen. You need to make your matches over his head, in order for the tiles to fall on him and do damage.

Some tiles are better than others. Leaves, for example, just float off and do no damage. Bigger items like oranges do more damage. This is my favorite part of the game, and would make a nice stand alone.

The game features upbeat fantasy-inspired music, which really sets an enjoyable and relaxing mood during the game play. The length is good, so you can expect at least 5 hours of game play. The game itself is very smooth and polished.







During the regular chapter play, things can be a bit repetitive. The boss battles are the most entertaining, since they break the monotony. Because of the repetition, it's difficult to sit and play in one sitting. This is the sort of game that's more suitable for playing in short spurts.

There are only 3 power ups, making The Enchanting Islands less complex than many other match-3 games. The artwork is very nicely done, but repetitive. The tiles change slightly as you advance in the game, but you're still mostly dealing with fruits and flowers. It would have been nice to see more variety.

The Enchanting Islands isn't particularly original or complex, but it features everything you'd expect from a match-3 game. The artwork is bright and colorful, the music is fun, the rules are clearly presented and simple, and there's a fair amount of opportunity to form strategies as you play. It's entertaining if you're looking for a game to play during coffee breaks.

Reference accessed HERE 18th May 2014



Video:

You can see a video of game play HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

Pros:

Simple rules. Entertaining music. Polished game play. Fun boss battles.

Cons:

Repetitive levels and graphics. Limited power-ups.



Scoring:

Game play -------
Graphics -------
Audio -------
Replayability -------
Originality -------


Total = which equals out of 10.

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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting today's game to work please go HERE for help, there's a list of FAQ's with answers.



If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. 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). Though, so long as you have the download, sometimes its still possible to activate an hour or so later. (It's been reported as long as 3 hours)

If you do miss the giveaway, or find it won't work, it’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity has the most with over 600 games to choose from. Today's game isn't available from MyPlayCity, Jenkat Games or the other free game sits though you can get the first one (which was given away some weeks ago, from Gametop. they have changed the name to Egyptoball. There are two other Egypt themed breakouts over at MyPlayCity called Egypt Ball and Egyptian Ball, the latter is an excellent physics based breakout with cool brick physics and some novel power ups as well.


Please do remember that these free sites have the potential to install toolbars and change your provider. MPC is quite aggressive at the moment. Every time you start a game up, you will need to uncheck the checkboxes if you install the MyPlayCity version.

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More Games





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 three years, many of which are excellent alternatives to their commercial cousins. I've posted around 15 games over the last week as it's now five years since I started the Free games project (now called Good Games to Grab).




Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:



If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

Steams weekend deals include a free weekend playing Chivalry Medieval Warfare (you will need to install the Steam client to take advantage of this offer. The full game will be available to play until Sunday 1pm PDT. You can also buy the game at 75% off until Monday afternoon. The other weekend deal is 50% off The Stanley Parable (a first person exploration game), there's 76% off the latest 48hr deal which is Magka (all 24 dlc's are 75% off as well), yesterdays 48hr deal, which is still active till later today is Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors Cut (a first person stealth game).

There's also 75% off Guns of Icarus Online, 80% off ArmA 2 Complete collection (only £4.99 for a superb military sim, with hundreds of hours of game play, explore thousands of square miles of almost life like environments ranging from European forests, towns and villages to dry environments not unlike Afghanistan. (I've put in well over 3000 hours on this game since it was released in 2009). There's also 75% off How to survive, 80% off the Take on Helicopters bundle 9a really cool helicopter sim (from the same developers as ArmA), 75% off Sonic % All-Stars Racing Transformed, 80% off Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, 80% off the superb demolition derby and racing game Flatout Complete pack (only £4.49 for four brilliant games), 75% off sonic Generations, 75% off Port Royale, 75% off Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, 75% off Deus ex: Invisible War, 90% off BC Kings, 70% off Postal 2, 50% off Small Worlds 2 (plus dlc), 90% off Bad Rats (a physics based game on the lines of the incredible machine), 85% off Sacred Gold (only £0.89), 75% off Frontlines: fuel of War, 80% off Alpha Prime, 80% off Memento Mori, 90% off Puzzle kingdoms (an rpg based match 3 game), 66% off Gas Guzzlers Extreme, 80% off UFO: Afterlight, 80% off Original War, 80% off Jagged alliance 2 Gold, 75% off Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY, 75% off the superb 3D space sim Darkstar One, 80% off the Ankh pack (two point & click adventure games), 60% off The Bridge, 80% off Alternativa, 60% off Eldritch, 66% off Violett, 67% off Unity of Command trilogy bundle (you can purchase the three games separately for 80% off each, but you get a further discount for buying the bundle), 90% off Blood of the Werewolf, 75% off Men at War, 80% off Pound of Ground. There's well over a hundred games and dlc's on sale at the moment, with a developers sale on for Strategy first. you can see details of all their on sale items HERE


This months Origin freebie is the fantastic tower defence game Plants & Zombies. You do need to install the Origin client and create a free account with EA games to access the freebies (last months freebie was the AAA rated game Dead Space) . Once you've got the client installed, an account created and opened up, click on the Free games tab along the top of the store front page and select 'On the House'. You can find the Plants and Zombies deal HERE

You'll find many more game deals on Greenmangaming, Gamersgate, Gamestop, and GOG, Desura and Origin. 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.


For details of all active indie game bundles check out the thread in the forums HERE. There's around 20 different bundles active at the moment, so you're bound to find some games that will interest you at a heavily discounted price. I've also listed some free bundles.

The latest IndieGameStand game is Attractio a FPS-Puzzle game. The next deal starts on Monday morning 5am GMT. There's a new site called The Daily Indie Game (though games change every 2 to 4 days) that has a heavily discounted indie game every 48 hours which you can access HERE (though I'm also updating the bundles thread in the game discussion forums, so you can usually find details of the latest game available from this site there. If you pay over the average price for games from this site you'll get a second key that you can give to friends. At the moment I've not seen the average price rise above $1.50. The latest game is called Subject 9 a unique game that challenges players to fight to survive, using the environment to help aid the cause, and elemental powers to lay waste to anyone who stands in the way. Set in the future, the game is about a human weapon, Subject 9; is granted super human powers by a corrupted company that's attempting to contain him as he escapes for freedom.

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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.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen