Another Giveaway:

Mysterious Island Remastered-Free Download until March 28

From Itch.io:

https://itch.io/s/6036/save-the-myterious-island-sale

great game

Thanks for the game, whiterabbit. It seems pretty interesting, especially since I enjoy adventure games with good stories. Good luck to everyone :)

On a side note. The free game on Origin has changed to Syberia 2, so you might want to consider updating that.

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Thanks, this is actually the first week I've not bothered to check whether it had been updated. Will sort it now.

Since there is a lot of VPN talks currently in the comments I think I find this appropriate.
VPN is NOT a security solution, it does NOT help you keeping your data safe. It just hides the location of your PC, Nothing more. It will not keep you from not getting hacked if a hacker wishes to do so (really? you think a hacker cares if you are behind a proxy? because that is what a VPN is, a glorified proxy)
Maybe this link will explain it better
https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
I am sorry the url is "vague" but I am sure your moderator will check the url before allowing the post to stay ;)

I fully understand that people want to be safe on the internet and I fully support this. Make sure you have a decent firewall (believe it or not, the inbuilt Microsoft one is actually very good) make sure you have a decent anti-virus (believe it or not, the inbu... well you know) Make sure you have anti-malware (there is no acceptable inbuilt version) I could throw up some names but it really comes down to personal flavor I noticed.

You really want to use a proxy/VPN then there are several options for on-demand VPN. Tunnelbear, for example, let's you turn it on and off from within your browser. You want to have it always on, fine... but when you come to a trusted site like GAOTD you can turn it off.

A short word on Steam
As far as disk space goes. Both the Windows Add/Remove Programs as Iobit uninstaller mention 0kb for the client itself so I did a fresh install (rename original steam folder, reinstall steam, check folder size) and it came down to 261MB. As far as resources go. With the client open and running an update on a game it asked about 245MB of memory, this dropped to about 40MB when the update was done. additionally, background services when not running the main client came down to about 70MB. However, there is no need to have the client running when not running the game, same goes for the background services. You can shut off Steam when not playing.

As for the games on Steam. Just to make it completely clear. If you have a game on Steam that you don't play anymore (or yet) there is no need to have it installed. Once you have bought or activated a game on Steam you can install and uninstall it as many times as you wish. You will in most cases don't lose your progress either as your saves are stored in the Steam cloud. I have perhaps a terabyte in games on Steam but I only have about 300GB installed since those are the games I currently play.

If you have something against the "social platform" function. You do NOT have to participate, you can set your profile to private and you do not have to share ANYTHING with the world if you do not wish to do so. If you never play online games you can even set Steam in offline mode and still play all your games. If moderation allows I even welcome comments explaining why people don't like Steam, I know we could do so in the forums but there are many that don't use them for similar reasons why they don't use Steam :)

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With the increased number of Steam keys being given away either globally or in limited quantities I think a discussion on the where and why fores of Steam is a very good idea. It would be good to see why some don't like the platform, and hopefully the different reasons why those who do like it explained. Maybe the Steamophobics have misconceptions about it? I've always tried to explain why I like Steam now; though before I installed it I would have been as voraciously against it.

Judging by the user reviews on Steam really good game. Participate in the raffle, I would like to win and get Your game.

Nice.

Never did a game like this but I think it sounds interesting so I try to win a key.

All the best to everyone involved, especially to WhiteRabbit for his always great and devoted work. I really appreciate what he does for us!

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Hi Anu

Thank you for your kind words. One of the reasons I've continued to offer my services voluntarily is becasue of comments such as yours; again thank you.

love these kind of games, gets the brain working

WOW, 100 keys?! The dev is so generous!!

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Don't know whether you are being genuine or sarcastic.

In my opinion 100 keys for a £6.99/$9.99 game is actually very generous. That's almost £700/$1000 worth of games he's giving away. Times are very hard for small indie developers, struggling to stay afloat, while they see their games being added to indie bundles selling at up to 95% off their usual price, and constant sales on all of the big distribution platforms or being forced to add their prized game to one of the free game sites just so that they can earn a pittance from the money earned by the free game site etc. Unfortunately many indie developers have gone under or been swallowed up by bigger development houses as well as some big AAA game developers such as THQ (Red Faction Guerilla franchise/Saints Row franchise, Company of Heroes franchise and Dawn of War franchise/MX vs. ATV franchise) and 2K/Irrational Games (Bioshock franchise/Borderlands/Civilization/NBA/WWE ) going into liquidation and having their assets auctioned off, with most of their staff being laid off over the last few years due to the economic climate we've been in for the past several years since the financial crisis of 2008.

The price of an arcade game over the last 10 years has gone down significantly in real terms, for example back in 2007 we were paying $19.99 for most arcade games. $19.99 back then is equivalent to around $40 now (taking into account inflation etc), yet we can now buy arcade games for $6 or less. That's over six times cheaper than 10 years ago. The same goes for AAA games, though they have countered this by releasing partly finished games, then releasing dlc to bulk up the release. I bought an indie bundle with 10 top notch arcade games (mainly decent HOG's) for less than $5 the other month; that's equivalent to less than 50 cents for each game in the bundle, yet buying the same games from a distributor such as Steam, or Big fish Games would have cost me a minimum of $9.99/£6.99 for each game because they were collectors editions and fairly recent releases. Also, I was paying £30 for a AAA game over 20 year ago; £30 in 1997 is equivalent to around £120 now, yet most AAA games are still selling for £30 (except the big names like Call of Duty, Battlefield etc). When I compare that £30 game from 1997 to the £30 game I bought recently, virtually everything about the game I purchased recently is far superior to the game I bought 20 years ago. One of the first computer games I ever purchased was for a PC like console called the Einstein 84 It was a text based adventure game that came on the original protected floppy disk that was 3.5 inches in size instead of the later one developed for the PC. That game cost me £24.99 in 1985, which at the time was a quarter of my weekly wage. It was rubbish then and now I see text based adventure games selling on Steam for £2.99 that are far superior to the one I purchase back then (£24.99 in 1985 was equivalent to around £200 now. Hard to believe but absolutely true) I look back and wonder why I was willing to pay so much for a game that not only turned out to be really boring, but had hardly any content. It was called ''The Island of Artuan' originally released in 1982.

Thank you GOTD and Night Light Interactive for another chance to win a license of Wispering Willows.

A little review from me. I like many things in this game. Controlling your physical and astral body to interact with the environment and solving the puzzles its absolutely great. I like the designs [physical and astral] of the character; the physical body is not overloaded with fancy clothes and the astral body has wonderful gosty-like white hair and moves like it is submerged in a swimming pool or an ocean. The background art is fantastic; I remember this type of furniture in a lot of movies that I saw on tv while growing up and getting.. of course older, and surely not wiser [never seen wise people to play video games], so for me, it is a plus to see a familiar style in that background art. The souls you encounter along your journey, because of their design -especially facial expressions- made to look more like a childish drawing than full adult-like hardcore horror, makes the game available for younger[<18] an older[>18] people alike - great marketing decision!!!

I have to say, that the previous time when Whispering Willows was here as in a giveaway contest, I participated, and when I did not win [glad for the people who did :) ] but I did saw like hundreds of comments containing only one or two words, and I hat to scroll "A LOT" just to find some nomal/real comment, I got upset by realising that if the commenting got "rigged" with so much spam, maybe the contest got too, by using bots and multiple accounts just so they could farm those licenses, and probably selling them somewere online, so I did not participated on contests here a about 1 month. Glad to see those one word/two words spam comments are gone. Who ever uses a VPN on a giveaway website that has no country limitation, deserves his/her fate. So what if anybody [gov or no gov] finds out you won a license code of Whispering Willows or something else! It's not a crime to win a license and not something bad to be known about yourself, no matter who knows it, legally or not. Just my own silly opinion. :)

Have a good day and good luck to us all ...ok ok ok, mostly me, but you too :)

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Hi idluckyone

Thank you for your feedback. Yes we had a lot of spam, a lot of it from a couple of trolls who didn't like being told not to post unrelated stuff that was inappropriate. But since the vpn blocker has been added things have calmed down significantly. with respect to the Steam games. It does appear that keys are being farmed, but this only really happened the first time a Steam key was given away last spring. i forgot what the game was now, but the giveaway was stopped halfway thorough when the team realized what was happening. a community member posted that keys were appearing on a particular Steam key sales site, and it was almost certainly someone farming the keys from this site. so the giveaway team fixed it so that it was much more difficult to farm. I'm sure some community members are managing to get more than one key, but not on the scale that some community member shave suggested. when we first started to get Steam keys, they would last all day, but as more steam users became aware of these Steam key giveaways, the keys started to go much faster. now when a giveaway goes active, Steam groups, Steam key sites have advertised the giveaway within minutes of it going live, plus Steam community members post details in their activities feed, which all of their friends then see. With up to 14 million Steam users being online at the weekends (rarely dips below 12 million from Friday evening till Monday morning) its no wander the keys now go so fast. This weekend for example 5000 keys went in less than 2 hours and in previous weeks 15 000 keys have gone in less than four hours. The team always ask for more keys and quite often they get them. The giveaway tech team have looked into whether many of the keys are being farmed, but have found no evidence to support the idea. I believe most of the keys do go to genuine users. I've not seen any evidence to the contrary. i have started to check some of the Steam sites before the games go live to see if there are any keys for sale and then once all of the keys have gone and so far have not seen any increase in key sales. for example i checked one site on Friday, they had nine keys available for Action Alien before the game went live. After all of the keys had gone there was 8 keys left. I'm sure if someone had been farming them, I'd seen some activities on one of the sites I visit.

Check this thread HERE and list some games in order of preference. i'd like to give you a steam key for your comment.

I'm growing tired of seeing the join and win on here,knowing that the keys will be gone by the time I get the email,plus I'm not a fan of Steam. I do appreciate the games lately from BigFish,I can at least get those easily,without the feeding frenzy for keys.

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Hi Donald

Unfortunately due to the way gaming has gone over the last several years (the advent of loads of free download sites, indie bundles where you can get up to 95% off several games as well as a massive reduction in the cost of arcade games since 2008 (i.e arcade games used to cost $19.99 back in 2007/8, by mid 2008 they had come down in price to around $6 that was almost 10 years ago, so in real terns the reduction is even more significant now. We used to get free games every day, but since the financial crisis of 2008, developers have been reluctant to give away their games. So the giveaway team have found other ways to secure games. If you don't like the way the games are given away, then move on to the next one. I'm sure there will be something you'll find enjoyable. as for Steam, unfortunately it's here to stay. Being the largest community of gamers ever, with over 140 million active community members and at weekends with a minimum of 12 million users on line at any time its no wonder the keys given away by developers, which on some days amounts to up to 30 000 keys goes very quickly thanks to the power of the internet and the many steam groups and Steak key sites that announce the game giveaway keys being available. I didn't like Steam, and when I purchased a couple of Steamworks games, not realizing I had to install Steam, I was very annoyed, but the games, were ones i really wanted to play (one of them called Defense Grid: The Awakening has turned out to be one of the best tower Defense games I've ever played), so went ahead and installed Steam. I complained, but too be honest it was my fault for not finding out what Steamworks meant. Though when i actually purchased the games I'd not noticed the word 'steamwork' as it was in the small print. Still, within weeks i realized that the Steam platform was actually brilliant for gamers, with a news section, a store section where very generous discounts were available virtually all the time, plus the community was excellent. i've made some very good friends thanks to the Steam client. However, that said, it's not for everyone. Personally I've never had an issue with the Steam client; it hasn't affected the running of my computer and I cannot ever recall having any security problems apart from when I allowed my Steam profile to be fully public. I ended up receiving a lot of friends requests, most of which were begging for various items in my Steam inventory. At the moment I have around three and a half thousand items in my inventory, at least 450 games , loads of TF2 and CS:GO items as well as item drops from various other games and most of all Steam trading cards, I'd get requests for all items including games. Most of who wanted them for free, plus I received some messages purporting to be from Steam friends, which in reality were not and contained spam bots that sent out messages to all my Steam friend with a similar message that appeared to be from me when I clicked on their messages. Once that was sorted (I spent all evening and part of my afternoon sending out messages to all of my friends warning them about the message, and not to click on it). I now have a friends only profile, and have not had a re-occurrence of the issue, nor any begging for free stuff. The Steam library enables me to arrange my large library of Steam purchased games as well as any other non Steam game I have installed into a multitude of categories, which makes it much easier for me to find my games (of which I have around 10 400 + Steam games and thousands of non Steam games installed that have been added to the Steam library. Due to a serious head injury over 10 years ago I have memory problems and cannot remember more than about 5% of the games I own, but I know what types of games I have. To counter this problem I have created multiple categories for each game, that then helps me to find what I'm looking for. for example, I love a particular open world game that involves me riding a sleigh with dogs over a snow bound world, being attacked by wolves and bears etc while i explore the world, but I can never remember the name. I don't bother with shortcuts as I have too many games, so they become useless, so I rely on the Steam library. Before they introduced categories, I used to have real problems finding games I wanted to play, simply because I couldn't remember their names. Sometimes I'd spent ages scrolling through my library until I found the title of the game, quite often I'd start at z only to find the game began with an A or a B, when I started at A, it was nearly always a game towards the end of the alphabet. Using categories as simple as as snow, wild animals, open world, exploration, survival etc I've been able to find that game easily. I find the library extremely useful since they added the ability categorize games multiple times. now i'm hoping they will add nested categories. I've still got thousands to categories as each game can take 20 or so minutes to add to the various categories I've created. (I've created over 500 categories so far). Please excuse the long Steam sales pitch. If you've not actually tried Steam, you may not realize how useful the platform is. You can even set it up to open on your TV, and using the Steam link box even play your games like it was a console, though personally I prefer playing my games on my PC. :)

WoW! nice game! :D

A VPN blocker? Really? I run a VPN always when on the internet as many private and intelligent individuals do. And it doesn't denote that people that run them are trolls with bad responses to anything.

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We were forced to do this due to the very high volume of spam, and some very disturbing posts from a couple of posters who were constantly using very inappropriate language, and who we were not able to block them due to their IP address changing each time they posted due to the vpn servers they were using. They even boasted that we would not be able to block them because they were using vpn servers.

My statement does no call all users of vpn servers trolls, it says ''Those Trolls posting stupid and inappropriate comments will no longer be seen before moderation has taken place''. It does not accuse all users of vpn servers as being trolls. I also says elswhere that community members who are using vpn servers will be moderated as normal and removed from the blacklist if their comments are appropriate to this site, or words to that effect. Unfortunately there are a lot of users out on the web that do use vpn servers to hide their true identity exactly because they are trolls and often cause a lot of upset on various web sites they have latched onto. I've posted that small paragraph to let those trolls know that we can now stop them from being seen, which basically defeats their whole purpose for posting. Since the vpn blocker has been active, spam has dropped significantly and those two poster have only been seen once since. I was having to sort through literally hundreds of spam comments every weekend, some of which were very disturbing. The whole point of this web site is to give free games away, so why do such people post such nonsense? It really beggars belief.

I'm sorry you feel offended by my comment. I can assure you it was not meant to. Unfortunately there are a lot of users out their on the world wide web that use vpn exactly for that purpose. Using the vpn blocker has enabled me as the moderator to stop those posts from being visible on this site. If you are using a vpn server that's your business, once your comments go through moderation, so long as they are polite and to the point they will be unblocked and allowed to be seen. This comment would normally be sent to the spam bin as it has nothing to do with today's giveaway, but I did feel you deserved a reply. Please in future comment only on the games being given away, thank you. Also please read the moderation policy HERE. If you are not happy with my explanation, please feel free to complain to the giveaway team. You can contact them via the contact form HERE

Thanks for another chance to get this, was unlucky previous time it was on here :)

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Fingers crossed. That said, if you don't win a key, I'm sure I have a couple of keys spare for this game as it was featured in at least two indie bundles that i know of, both of which I purchased, i.e. 'Groupee's Be Mine 14' and 'The Cubic June bundle'. If you don't win a key you can have one of those. :) :)

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or not about today's game will be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however a little light banter among community members and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. All comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed not appropriate, will be deleted with no explanation. Please see the end of this review for further details about posting comments and links to the teams contact, moderation policy and the FAQ's thread, thank you.

The giveaway at my request have just implemented a VPN blocker, so those Trolls posting stupid and inappropriate comments will no longer be seen before moderation has taken place.

Whispering Willows

In Brief

A limited giveaway of 100 keys running for the next week. Whispering Willows is a story rich atmospheric indie horror/supernatural platformer with a female protagonist. It won several wards and was successfully funded by crowd sourcing to which I contributed back in 2013.

Suggestions:

If you win a key for Whispering Willows please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about it, or how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What, improvements, if any, would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?

If you don't win a key, don't mind playing games via Steam or miss the offer totally you can get the game 24/7 via Steam HERE. It usually costs £6.99/$9.99.

Introduction:

Interact with the spirits of the dead, solve the puzzles of the mysterious mansion and help Elena find her missing father in the horror/adventure puzzle game: Whispering Willows.

Reference accessed HERE 6th March 2017

Installation:

Assuming you win a Steam key for Whispering Willows, once you've found it (it should be sent to the email you used to enter the giveaway - and it must be the email you first used to sign into the game giveaway site. If you’ve used a newer or throwaway email there may be problems getting a key, because the key may be sent to that email. If you have any problems use the contact form HERE. You have to activate the game via your Steam client. Once activated it will be permanently tied to your Steam profile and you'll be able to install the game at any time, anywhere and on any computer, so long as you can validate who you are (usually via emails etc.). If you don't have a Steam account you will first have to download and install the Steam client HERE

Then create a Steam profile/account. Once that has been completed you can input the Steam code that you've received (after completing the form filling) via the game button along the top of the Steam client, (located between friends and Help). From the drop down menu select 'Activate a product on Steam'. This opens a product activation window. Just follow the prompts to complete activation. Once the Steam code has been accepted, the game will be permanently associated with your Steam account and can be installed any time you wish.

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Whispering Willows to work, please visit the problems section over in the Game Discussion forums, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

The Game:

Main Features:

⦁ Immerse yourself in a beautifully hand-drawn 2-D world as you traverse the Mansion grounds
⦁ Allow the haunting music and chilling sound effects to send goosebumps across your neck.
⦁ Let the history of the Willows Mansion draw you into a plot full of twists and betrayal.
⦁ Explore the vast Mansion and unlock its puzzling secrets as you search for your missing Father.

Young Elena Elkhorn embarks on a harrowing journey to find her missing father and discover the secrets of the Willows Mansion. Aiding her journey is a unique amulet, she received from her father, which allows her to astral project her spirit into a ghostly-realm and communicate with the dead. Play as Elena to find her missing father, use your astral projection to solves the mansion’s tricks and puzzles, help the lingering souls and discover so much more in Whispering Willows.

I loved playing this game when it was released by Light Interactive (now called Akupara Games) almost three years ago (July 2014). The graphics are gorgeously rendered and the game play although fairly short was good.

Whispering Willows is an adventure in archaeology with a supernatural perk: it lets you speak to the dead people who once owned the artifacts you discover. It twists the haunted house investigation premise by giving its heroine ghost transformational powers. This adequately serves both the narrative and the gameplay, the latter comprising some of the most simplistic and easy exploration puzzles in recent memory. This is a minimal detriment to the game overall, which is well-supported with touching themes of regret, lost love, and one's spiritual connection to nature.

Protagonist Elena Elkhorn isn't above admiring the opulence of the Willows Estate, the game's setting. She is not a classic heroine, pre-destined for great things or exuding a profound sense of self. She simply wants to find her missing father, who is employed as a caretaker on the estate. Clearly an adolescent with a good heart, Elena's amiable interactions with many of the local spirits please her immensely, especially since they're helpful companions on this dark and grim journey. Like some of the ghosts in The Sixth Sense, Elena's spectral aides are in desperate need of closure. And yes, some of them don't know that they're dead. Every soul Elena successfully assists gives her immense solace. Yet as each ghost departs its state of purgatory, she suffers the loss of each brief friendship. As a teenager with metaphysical powers and few friends, Elena is relatable to Maxine Caulfield from Life is Strange.

Elena alters herself into an apparition with the aid of a spiritually loaded tear-shaped amulet. The practicality of this transformation is akin to Dracula turning into a rat who can travel through ventilation ducts in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. A vent in Whispering Willows almost always leads to a key item or a switch that only the ghostly version of Elena can access. As she is a protagonist of Native American descent, this ability adds mild depth to the narrative and gameplay. It's her means of speaking to the estate's ghosts who remain in limbo and an opportunity for her to learn about the nation who first settled on the land, the Kwantako tribe.

Whispering Willows' adherence to the basic adventure game blueprint is so faithful that it lacks any sense of ingenuity. Tasks almost always involve finding a proverbial or literal key to open a proverbial or literal door. In Whispering Willows, it's a knife to cut vines or a love letter to appease a ghost. The estate boasts a greenhouse, an observatory, a garden maze, and a mansion, but many of these locales are initially inaccessible. There are almost always multiple paths to choose from, but figuring out the mainline route takes little to no time. Anyone who's explored a dungeon understands the deduction game of first picking the path that will lead to a dead end. In classic mansion game design, bathrooms are almost always dead ends and corridors with stairs and ladders are often the mainline path. Puzzles are seldom cryptic and clues to solve those riddles are often just a few paces away. There's never any ambiguity and you're never in a situation where you have to think obtusely like in so many similar adventure games. Whispering Willows serves as a reminder that not all adventures need to tease the brain.

This makes for a predictable and predominantly linear playthrough, but it's seldom boring in Whispering Willows. Between the artifacts and notes that litter the estate, Elena learns about the land of her Native American ancestors and the settlers from the east who spilled blood in order to take over the territory. These documents are filled with pangs of regret from the carelessness of ambition, the trauma from killing under orders, and the varied emotions of maintaining a secret affair. These notes are no different from the optional collectibles found in other games, but given the limited exposition in Whispering Willows, they become all the more poignant. It's also probably that you will find all the notes on your first playthrough, making a return adventure all the less likely.

Whispering Willows makes a positive case for the sparseness of scares. There are very few hostiles in and around the mansion, which heightens the impact of their sudden appearances. The mere sight of a demon head relief sculpture can raise the suspicion that a real demon is nearby. It's a nod to The Exorcist in the same way that a scene in a well echoes The Ring. Terrors can come from the ceiling or the walls; they're not approaching you continuously like Medusa heads from Castlevania. These few scares effectively break up the sense of routine as you item hunt and explore the Willows estate. Last, there's a handful of disturbing images that can only be seen when Elena turns into a ghost. One haunting example is a portrait where the unsuspecting subject is surrounded by demonic hands. It stands out because none of the other paintings in the estate changes when switching to the spectral plane.

It is a minor miracle that Whispering Willows can induce the occasional bout of goosebumps. The crudely drawn cut-scenes that frame the story leave a disconcerting first impression. At least this low-budget introduction is brief, transitioning to gameplay where the hand-drawn animation of Elena is well-conceived. The background art is even more effective, capturing the weathered nature of the wallpaper and antique furniture, which are accentuated by the dim lighting. This makes for a persistently spooky play through.

Whispering Willows' reliance on the classic "Don't go in the barn" horror trope--the same premise of Alien: Isolation--speaks to the game's pervasive simplicity. For a game with few challenges, appreciating Whispering Willows means embracing the role of a tourist exploring this storied manor. While there are shades of Gone Home, the items in Whispering Willows aren't as loaded with meaning. Objects primarily serve as keys, figurative or otherwise, to the game's many barriers. Its history is more literal, found in the revealing notes left by the ghosts and Elena's own heartfelt diary. If you were to treat this as part of a weekend meal of horror games in old houses, Whispering Willows would be the amuse-bouche, White Night would be the appetizer, and Fatal Frame the entrée. That would make Luigi's Mansion the dessert.

Edited reference accessed HERE Original review posted by Miguel Concepcion on July 6, 2015, edited by Whiterabbit-uk 6th March 2017

Other Reviews, Videos and a Slideshow of images:

You can see Steam community reviews of Whispering Willows HERE, most of which are positive. You can also read other reviews of this game HERE, HERE and HERE.

You can watch some videos of game play (spoiler alert) HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. There are lots more videos to see in various languages via You Tube.HERE.

Conclusion:

A great story with beautiful art work but what lets it down for me were the stealth area's and the game ended just as I was really enjoying it. Personally I regret paying full price for this. The artwork attracted me to it when it was released. You can usually get the game on sale at 75% off. The next big sale isn't due until late June/early july. Good luck to all who enter. :)

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer Akupara Games (formerly Light Interactive) for giving away 100 keys for this horror adventure platformer and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case a Steam key.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If Whispering willows doesn't appeal, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The free game over on Origin is still the excellent atmospheric Sci Fi RPG third person Shooter Mass Effect 2, but it will probably be ending soon. If you've still not got a copy, get it now, it's well worth. It usually costs £19.99/$19.99 (though I paid the pre-order price of over £30 prior to it's release back in January 2010) . You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

You will also find lots of deals over on Green Man Gaming and Big Fish Games usually have 70% off the first game you buy from them, plus they also have other deals occasionally. Desura was purchased from Bad Ju Ju games last year by One Play. If you already have a Desura account you can read details of what is happening HERE. As yet you can't access games you previously purchased via Desura (I have around 1400), but One Play are working to recover everyone's accounts and hope to do so by the end of March 2017. Indie Royale will also resume on a weekly basis, though at this time I don't know if previous Indie Royale Greenlight bundles will be honoured? Alawar, Gamehouse and Playrix entertainment have free games available (usually online versions) and other game houses such as the AAA distributors Ubisoft and Origin always have some games on sale. I've updated the Weekly roundup of game deals HERE to include a large list of other sites where you can find games on sale ( e.g. Origin, uPlay, GreenManGaming etc, as well as links to free online games and other game houses such as Alawar, Playrix and Gamehouse plus gaming news sites such as Rock Paper Shotgun and Game Seek, and included a list of free to play Massive Multiplayer games such as World of Tanks, World of Warships, Liberators and Allegiance to name a few. For more details please go to the Weekly roundup of game deals over in the game discussion sticky section HERE.

There are 672 games on sale over on Steam at the moment, with up to 91% off. Game prices range from as little as £0.15p (most of these cheap games are actually cheaper in the UK than the US, so if you are a US citizen and have a UK friend, get them to buy the game for you). There are almost 200 games and dlc less than $1 and almost 250 for less than £1. You can find all of the deals HERE.

If you spend more than $3 in the Indie Gala store you'll also get a free copy of the old school anime rpg '200% Mixed Juice' worth $6.99/£4.99There's 60% off the enhanced version of Dying Light The Following, plus there are loads more deals with excellent discounts that you'll find HERE.

The Humble Bundle site has two excellent bundles plus their monthly package that is excellent value for money. A new monthly bundle has just gone live. There are two game bundles, the Humble Civilization bundle that includes Civilization III, IV, V and 20% off Civilization VI, or 25% off the deluxe version. Plus the ArmA (Armored Assault) bundle that includes all versions of ArmA plus the original Operation Flashpoint which combined with it's expansions (Red Hammer and Resistance) was renamed ArmA: Cold War Assault for the 10th anniversary of the games release back in 2001. The ArmA franchise is my favorite FPS game ever. It's nothing like Call of duty. ArmA is a tactical FPS game with realistic tactics. There's no run and gun in this game, you have to really think what you are doing. the environments are basically open world and massive. ArmA 3 is amazing, but ArmA II is also brilliant despite being almost 8 years old. The Humble store features loads of discounted games (usually Steam codes). If you subscribe to the Humble Monthly, which costs $12 a month (or less if you choose various monthly plans) you not only get a large collection of decent Steam games you will also get for the first month of the subscription The Witness (worth £29.99), which was released last year (Jan 21016). The great thing is, you can cancel at any time, so only need to receive the first bundle of games. I personally haven't bothered, but only because I usually have already purchased most of the games included in the monthly bundle. The usual savings on the games you get are around 90%, not counting the introductory offer. There's also lots of games on sale over on the Bundle Stars and Indie Game Stand (IGS).

For those who missed out on the Alien Shooter 2 - Conscription giveaway from last month or Zombie Shooter from last October or Alien Shooter 2 - Conscription from last June or Zombie Shooter 2 from last May you can get six games from the series including Alien Hallway, Zombie Shooter 2, Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded, Alien Shooter: Revisited, Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter for $1.49. HERE. Pay an extra $0.50 and get a second bundle to give to your friends. All keys are Steam based. This offer ends mid March. ;) stores.

If you don't already own the game Sang-Froid - Tales of Werewolves which is an excellent and unusual Tower Defense game with a horror feel to it. The developer Artifice Studio has now converted it to freeware. You can now install it for free on Steam. I originally paid about £12 for this when it was released about 4 years ago. It's an excellent game that is well worth installing. You'll find it HERE

Check out RPS's review HERE and Eurogamers review HERE and a Walk through from GameFAQ's HERE

Giveaway Team Contact and Moderation policy:

Continued from the first paragraph at the beginning of this review ........... I am posting this in light of the massive increase in negative comments not related to the game being given away, inappropriate comments and spam that have occurred over the past several months since the site was updated and in particular since the site started using Facebook, Twitter and Steam. Almost 700 spam comments were posted over a 24 hour period last month. This is a site that gives free games away, so it's quite shocking to see the number of negative and sometimes inappropriate comments being posted here, especially when they are not even related to the actual game that we receive. I always though getting something for free was a privilege/perk/treat/ and deserves at least some thanks or gratitude and cannot understand why we get so many negative comments that possibly turn away potential developers who would otherwise have given the project their games. Of course we have freedom of speech, but as mentioned in my review above, there are rules to posting in this comments section; even a free society requires rules and regulations to run properly, so please bear this in mind when posting a comment.

I believe if we get lots of decent feedback about the games we get here, more developers would be happy to give away their games. Seeing lots of complaints (and spam) instead of feedback about the giveaways will not persuade other developers to give their creations away for free, especially when they may have spent thousands of hours working on them. So please also consider this when posting your feedback. Any comment not about the game for example complaints, or if deemed unfriendly or inappropriate, will be deleted (usually with no explanation) or added to the spam folder, which automatically black lists the IP address you used. Although I have enjoyed responding to many of those comments in the past, I will no longer waste my time answering comments from community members who should have read the moderation policy.

Negative feedback about the games given away will always be welcomed because they can also be very constructive for developers, however, complaining about the way the site is operating or problems about downloading or installing the games or about Steam keys not received should be directed to the giveawayoftheday team via the contact form together with evidence of completed tasks, the name and email you used to enter the competition, or giveaway). You can find the contact form HERE; alternatively, if the problem is game related and it is late in the day, please also consider posting your issue in the forums where you may get a response from the community because I cannot moderate 24 hours a day. All games given away here have been thoroughly checked using several anti malware suites to ensure a safe download and in the 10 plus years this site has been operating, there has never been a game infected with malware. If your security software flags an issue, it's probably the Themida code that is used to protect the game from hackers or sometimes the non invasive adware that MPC games use. Themida code can also be used to hide malware, so some security software's will automatically block anything with Themida code, even if it's absolutely safe to install; also, other computer configurations (i.e. the way your computer is set up) may have blocked the installation. Often, such problems are related to your computers set up. i.e. your security may block the installation; for example, quite a few game giveaways I've installed have been blocked by my copy of Zemana AntiMalware. Also please read the moderation policy which can be found HERE and if you do have a problem please check the FAQ's thread HERE. Thank you for reading.

FREE game offer from the moderator in exchange for quality feedback:

There were more winners for posting good feedback, which I mentioned in reply to their comments. Some I haven't as yet and those that have won do need to post a comment in the appropriate thread over in the forums with their section of games they wish. First come first served if more than one chooses the same game. If you think you wrote feedback that may win a key from the last two weeks, do please check those comments on Sunday evening/Monday evening to see if I've left a comment letting you know you've won a key. then go to the forums and let me know what you want. I'm hoping to add more games to the list this weekend. That said, I do have multiple keys for some games. , but will be doing over this weekend. Been a little busy since last weekend. One particular community member has excelled and will be receiving yet more keys. He knows who he is I've already given a couple away so far, but I'm still waiting to hear from others.

So far I've posted a list of over 200 Steam games in the forums HERE and will be adding more as time permits over the coming weeks. It is quite an extensive list of games taken from the 10 000+ Steam keys I've collected over the last several years. All keys were either purchased by me, with a few received free for pre-ordering games on Steam, plus a few others for entering competitions and other offers). There will be a limited number of other keys available, such as Origin, uPlay and Desura keys as well as some DRM copies. Desura has recently been purchased following the original owners demise and should be up and running by the end of March. I will announce winner's from each giveaway the following week. If no announcement is made, it means no one posted feedback that qualified for a free game that week. If you have won a game, I will also post details in the thread I've created specifically for that purpose HERE. Once I've given a key away, the game and any comments by the winner will be removed from the list the following week. I will assume if you don't reply within a few weeks you aren't bothered about a key. Please post your preferences (list at least 3 games in order of preference over in the forums HERE. Thank you. Happy gaming.)

Depending on the quality of the feedback, I may choose to award games to more community members for each game given away, 'at my discretion'. The feedback must be about the game, and it must include a couple of paragraphs of feedback following the guidelines I've posted in the suggestions section of my review. i.e. your opinion of the game, what you liked and/or disliked plus suggestions for improvement. If you choose a game that is very cheap I may give you a second game; so, when choosing from the list I provide, please list more than one choice. If a game is chosen by more than one community member and only one key is available the key will go to the one I deem the most useful. I do have multiple keys for quite a lot of the games I've listed, so, don't be put off if you see someone else has chosen the game you want. I haven't indicated any of the games I have multiple keys for (though for example I do have several keys for the excellent Western themed AAA game Call of Juarez, which i picked up for free for purchasing several games via the Indie Gala store several months ago. spending a few dollars got me a copy of the game, so I made several separate purchases over a couple of days while the offer was still live.

I do owe at least three community members a game from the previous giveaways that I posted several months ago. I'd totally forgotten about those. I do have a document with their names on, so they will get a game from the original list when I find the document (I'm extremely disorganized); or they can peruse the new list and choose something different. Just post a comment over in the forums in the appropriate thread. If you do post feedback with a view to getting one of the games and think you have covered the requirements, you don't have to do anything until I announce the winners the following week.

Please remember, this comments section is mainly for feedback about today's game giveaway. If you're not sure, read the moderation policy, which you can see HERE