OK, it's armorgames.com again, because I still haven't exhausted that site's fun and games.
This game is, well, wacked out. It's called Cattlepult, and it gives you a bull, a china shop full of plates, and a catapult. Launch the bull, and watch the fun begin....
Except that nothing is ever that simple, and Cattlepult makes some simple, destructive fun into a good brain teaser at the same time. Now that's class, I think.
If you've been following this blog, you know that I like destructively violent video games. I admit that freely; if it makes me a candidate to be a psychokiller, then so be it, but I like violent video games. The more stuff explodes, the better I like it.
I also like puzzle games. If it challenges the mind, chances are I'll play it at least once a week.
In Cattlepult, you fling your bull into the china shop, with the object of breaking all the plates. The bull will bounce off of walls, or get flung in different directions by the green arrows, or turn into a fiery rocket if it hits the red chili power-up; the 'trick' is to adjust the green arrows, and the bull's initial trajectory, before the launch, so that you break all the plates with one bull. It's harder than it looks.
There are some other frills, too. You can create levels, and share levels with other players who found the game at the armorgames site. All of this makes this game a winner, and that's no bull.
Pun intended, of course.
I love free flash games: they are easy to play, usually entertaining, quick to find.... there's a whole slew of advantages. I don't think they'll every make the video arcade obsolete, but they are one of the best things to hit the PC, ever. Right now, I just want to talk a little bit about where to play them.
There are numerous sites with free flash games available. Most of these sites do not require any sort of membership; you just surf to the page, choose a game, and start playing. The sites are paid mainly by selling advertising space. Two of my favorite such sites are Freewebarcade.com and Armorgames.com. Each has hundreds of games available, and while there is some overlap (my favorite flash game, The Last Stand, was written at Armor Games, but is available at both sites), each also has a lot of unique games.
Kongregate.com is another very good site for free flash games. One game I've written about here, Battalion: Nemesis, came from Kongregate. The main reason I don't write more about games from there is that I don't like their logo: it features an ant, and I don't like bugs. Yes, I'm capricious that way.
Pay sites will also frequently put some free flash games up. Online casinos are especially good at this, because they usually offer their casino games in both download and flash versions. If you open up a guest account, you can play for free and have full access to the flash casino games. Two of my favorites are All Jackpots Casino and Wild Jack Casino; both offer user friendly sites, with good customer service. Of the two, I like Wild Jack better. It has a greater overall variety of games (including mobile games and a poker room), even though the casino is slightly smaller.
There are gazillions of games out there, and the game makers and distributors want them to be found. Simple Google searches will put you on the right track. Just remember: play at home, or at least turn the sound off at work!
I don't know where they come up with the titles, but I did like this game. A lot.
It's another knock-off of that old arcade classic, "Missile Command." You have control of a turret, guarding a group of targets at ground level, and missiles are raining down on you. Your turret shoots anti-missile missiles at the incoming fire, and protects the targets. Very simple, except that the missiles are very fast.
There are some specific factors which I liked about this game. First, it was fast paced. Their was no pause between levels, and the game action didn't stop. If you're a former hyperactive child, this game will feel natural and comfortable. Second, was the game's simplicity. There were few bells, and no whistles. You have one turret to manage the defense, and the the "bad guys" are nothing more than a barrage of missiles. The only variation are the missile launching shapes that come across the screen periodically to attack you. The game controller is just the mouse; you move the cursor arount the screen to target your shots, and hit the left mouse button to shoot. It couldn't possibly get any easier.
All in all, this game gets two thumbs up from me. I liked the action, and I liked the simplicity. The graphics were good: bright, colorful, and sharp, without any cheesy stories to distract you. I definitely recommend this game.
Unlike many of the games online the WSOS offers the refreshing opportunity to compete against other players for the title of the Slots Champion. Not only that, the luckiest players will also win cash prizes. Considering that the initial entry is free, this is easily one of the best deals that game lovers could possibly be offered. Tryouts take place every week starting the 1st of August.
One thing I like about the various free-flash-game sites online is that they keep adding games. That's to expected, of course, since they need traffic to support the ads, and they won't get traffic without the games. Isn't the free market wonderful?
Anyway, armorgames.com has a new one called Coffee Shop. The premise is simple: you are opening a coffee stand, and you want to make a profit. To make that profit, you need to sell coffee.
And now the fun begins.
The game runs for 14 rounds, corresponding to 14 days. Before each day, you need to set up the basic conditions. There are a lot of factors you can adjust.
You can adjust the amount of inventory you have on hand. You'll need to buy cups, coffee beans, milk, and sugar. You also adjust the recipe of your coffee. You can make it strong or weak, black or creamy, bitter or sweet. Customers like strong, creamy, sweet coffee, meaning you'll need to have a lot of ingredients on hand each day. The more your customers like your coffee, the better your reputation will get. As you get a better reputation, you'll sell more coffee.
Which leads into the final adjusment you can make, the price. Price can range from 5 cents to 10 dollars per cup, but remember that you'll need to buy your ingredients and have a final profit. Here's my only hint: 3 dollars per cup will about let you break even.
Have fun!
Let's talk about interactive fiction. I think you know I like the genre; I've talked about Zork here before, and I've even put up a link to a classic IF archive. I've usually tried to avoid the later games in the style. Starting in the early 90s, they put too much reliance on graphics, and the graphic technology just wasn't good enough, so I stuck with the classic text based games. Lately, however, I've started looking into interactive fiction again. Flash movies make a good base for the story-style, and better graphics make for better puzzles.
So, with all of that out of the way, I want to introduce you to a game called "Escape."
As interactive fiction goes, I'd rate it about average. Some the puzzles were pretty clever, and, as with all games in the genre, you should make sure to pick up as many items as you can hold, because you'll probably need them to solve puzzles along the way.
The game's only control is the mouse. Your cursor will change as you move it across the room, prompting you to look more closely at items, pick things up, move, push, or pull objects, etc. You'll also get instruction prompts along the way. I can't really say anything else without giving too much away. It's a short game, and it's not too hard to figure out. Just be careful, because there are a lot of ways to die in this story-game. You can't save flash games, so if you do die, you'll just have to start over.
One last note: when you start the games, you'll see a little notice that Escape is the third in a series. I haven't tried the first two yet, but I'll be sure to tell you all about them when I do.
Among the online games I love, are casino games. Usually, I play with a guest account (OK, I'll admit that I'm a cheapskate, but that's why this blog is about FREE games), but I do keep some current real player accounts, because sometimes, the casinos run some truly great promotions.
There's one going on now, at All Slots. It's a Free Slots Tournament. Normally, the tournaments require an entry fee, but for the month of July, that's been waived. The prizes are great, too, with a minimum prize of $100 and a 1st place prize of $50,000.
So how do you get into it? Well, like the site says (see my link up there!), just download the casino, and open up a real money account. Once you do that, you'll be able to play the tournaments for free. One word of caution: you will need to deposit money to your account; 'free' means no entry fee. That's a good deal, though, and it's even better if you play the Sit & Go tournaments. These are the best, I think. They run around the clock, sometimes with as few as 5 players. As soon as a Sit & Go game as enough players signed up, it starts. I played several, and never waited more than about 10 minutes for the tournament to start. And better than that, I've won $200 at them!
The main thing I've noticed about online casinos is that you usually don't win the big prizes- I haven't, and I don't know anyone who has- but smaller prizes are pretty common. If you use some common sense, and don't try to gamble more than you can afford, there's no reason why you can't come out even, or a slightly ahead, on the games. You'll have a great time, with some real casino action, in your own home.
One more piece of advice: the site I linked to includes several outgoing links, to other pages with information on the rules and FAQs of the Free Slots Tournament. Make sure you read them. There's a lot of good information there, and you'll know exactly what you're getting into before you start playing. Have fun!
Well, the other day, I had a chance to sit down with my daughters and just play a game. The girls are 4 and 2, so I asked the older one what she wanted to play; she said that she wanted to play with a ball, and then went to find a soft red rubber ball in the toybox. As indoor toys go, it was a much better choice than her sister made. The little heard 'ball,' and immediately picked up an old regulation baseball.
We (which means 'me,' but parents are plural, really) decided to play with the red ball, in the living room. We took up our positions: I was at one end of the room, my older daughter at the other end of the room, and the little one ran in between. She was having a blast before we even got started.
What we got started doing was learning about bounce passes. Mostly, I was showing my older girl how to throw them, while the little one tried to catch them. The older one couldn't really throw with any control, and the little one couldn't catch. It made for an interesting game.
So there we were, all on the living room floor, tossing a ball back and forth. Or, rather, Daddy tossed it forth, and the little ones brought it back. Wanting to stay married, the puppy/fetch jokes stayed behind my teeth. My wife got the camera, and took a whole roll of film while everyone was smiling. A good time was had by all.
I was browsing through some games and I found one that I wanted to share with you.
This is a puzzle game. There's no exploding spaceships, no flesh-eating zombies, and no machine guns. I guess you can say that it is a kinder, gentler sort of game.
Or not, because it will drive you out of your skull. Completely. And without mercy. I mean, you won't be able to sleep, trying to work out these puzzles.
The game starts with you in a lab maze. You are carrying a device that can open two portals, one blue and one yellow. Each portal leads to the other, effectively opening a tunnel between them. You can use the portals to get around obstacles in the lab as you travel through the mazes. Each maze is harder than the one before. There are 40 levels, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Honestly, I am not sure that I will.
The first few levels will give you hints, about how to get around obstacles. On some of the puzzles, you'll need a boost from gravity. On other puzzles, you'll need to solve one part before you can even attempt the rest.
Sometimes, you'll see red arrows on the walls. These are very helpful, as they'll tell you where to go, and in what order to go there. You may also see a bull's-eye on the floor; if you do, open a portal on it. You'll probably need it.
And that's all I'm going to say about this game. It's called Portal, and you should give it a try.
If you like 'em simple, here's a cute little game for you to try.
It's from the ArmorGames website again, and it's called "Birdy." As the instructions say, this game has only one rule: bigger birds eat smaller birds. You use the arrow keys to move your bird (the blue one) around the screen, chasing and eating the little yellow birds and dodging the big purple ones (they'll eat you). The more your bird eats, the bigger he'll get, until he can eat the purple birds, too.
It sounds really simple, doesn't it?
Well, there are a few... complicating factors.
First, you can't stop moving. If you don't keep flying, you'll fall out of the sky and a cat will eat you. Second, you can't back into a meal; you have to catch the other birds head on. You'll understand that better once you try the game.
All in all, this game gets a definite thumbs-up from me. It was fun, it was easy to play, and as mindless entertainment goes, it just doesn't get any better than that.
Well, it can, sort of. Here's what's better: Aside from being a monumental waste of time and brain cells, this game is absolutely clean. There's no nudity, no exploding zombie heads, nothing to make anyone even remotely upset by the game content. I bet you could even play this one at work without the boss-person getting mad. But don't tell 'em I told you so....
