Posts (page 2)

I like to talk about competition.  I like to watch competitions, too.  And sometimes, just to make sure that I don't miss anything good, I set my Tivo to record random games (basketball, football, baseball: the American staples), and watch them later.  Recently, I saw a total blowout.

It was the Nuggets versus the Sonics, on March 16.  Final score, Denver 168, Seattle 116.  Wow.

To start with, there's the obvious: the Nuggets scored 168 points in one regulation game.  I figured that had to be a record, and it is: a season high for the NBA, and a second-best high for the Denver franchise.  Eight Nuggets players had triple doubles that night.  No wonder Seattle lost.

But here's something not-so-obvious: the Sonics scored 116 points.  If a teams scores 116 in an NBA game, they usually don't lose.  Somehow, I think that both teams left their defense at home.

I a new article about the game, here, I read this:

Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "It matters a lot because we're professionals and we're trying to compete, and we didn't compete tonight."

Looking at the score, I'd have to disagree.  The Sonics had a high-scoring game, and on almost any other night, they would have won with 116.  That game was exceptional.  And very bad luck for the Sonics.

But sometimes, competition involves luck.

Growing up, I spent far too much time in video arcades.  Most of that time was spent putting my initials (and quarters) into Defender and Pac Man games.  But there was another game that I had a lot of fun, called Duck Hunter.  I was never into real-life hunting, but this game definitely fed my hardwired male need to shoot harmless waterfowl out of the sky.  If it were real life, there'd be a Labrador retriever to get the ducks, and a fire to cook 'em on.  But I digress.

Here's the link to the game.  As I said, the game is old school.  Here's how it goes:

You have a faithful retriever, and 3 shots per duck.  The game starts when the dog runs out into the grass and the first duck starts flying around.  If you hit the duck, your dog picks it up and you move on to the next duck.  When the game opens, you can choose 4 levels:

Level 1 is easy: one duck and 3 bullets at a time, 10 ducks to a round.

Level 2 is hard: 2 ducks and 3 bullets at a time, 20 ducks to a round.

If you miss a duck on these levels, it'll fly away and your dog will laugh at you.  Unfortunately, you can't shoot the dog.

Level 3 is very hard: shooting at clay pigeons.  I don't do well on this level.

Level 4 is fun: infinite bullets and infinite dogs.  Did I say that you can't shoot the dog?

Have fun! 

I circulate through a lot of different online game sites.  It's nothing serious; I just like to find the best games to pass the time.  And I enjoy the search, too.  So with that in mind, I was at www.ugotgames.com again, and found Pushies 2.  I have to say, this had everything I look for in a free flash game. 

This one was fun, and challenging.  You have a small square, and you need to keep it on the game board.  It's that simple.

The challenge comes in because lots and lots of other squares are falling down from the top of the game board, and trying to push your square off the through the bottom.  All you have to do is avoid them, but there's a lot of them, they never stop moving, and they move fast.

The game controls are easy: the arrow keys, or ASDW, move your square, and the space bar activates the Power Ups you can grab.  You can select, before starting the game, whether or not to have Power Ups, as well as what sort of background color and patterns to play on.  The background is irrelevant, but take the Power Ups.  They'll let you make your square briefly invincible, so you can move back up to the top of the board.  Other than that, I have no hints.  Just go for it, have fun, and whatever you do, don't start on the hardest level

Back in college, I used to waste a whole lot of time, and even more quarters, in the video arcade in the basement of the student center, mostly on two games.  The games were Lethal Enforcers, a basic shoot-'em up, and Rampage, a monster-eating-a-city game that was great for working out stress.  Of course, plowing through a roll of quarters usually meant that the laundry had to wait, but sometimes, that was worth it...

Anyway, while I was surfing around www.freewebarcade.com, I found Rampage again.  It felt like a breath of my misspent youth, coming back to tap me on the shoulder.  Before I wax to poetic, here's the direct link so you can share the joy: http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/the-hulk-rampage

This flash version is much simpler than the arcade classic.  You don't get to choose your monster, and there's a strict time limit.  You play as the Hulk, and try to do as much damage as possible in 4 levels.  Each level has three buildings plus assorted vehicles to smash.  The vehicles get tougher in each level, moving from streetcars, to HumVees, to tanks, to attack helicopters.  When your time runs out, you revert to David Banner and the game ends.  The game will also end if you win the fourth level.  When you finish the game, it tells you the dollar value of the damage you've done.  The controls are simple, so I won't explain them.  Try the game, and read the instructions.

Overall, I really liked this game.  It was a nice trip down memory lane.  Have fun!

One thing I like about surfing around and looking for free games online is the sheer number of absolutely mindless entertainment out there.  There are times when you just want a simple game to play, when you don't want to have to worry about strategies, or tactics, or high scores, but you just want to play a game.  Squidgy fills that need quite well.  Here's the link:

http://freearcade.com/Squidgy.flash/Squidgy.html

This game was just plain cool.  And simple.  In fact, games don't get any simpler.  The object is to destroy as many of the enemies as possible, before they shoot you.  'You' are a bouncing ball, the enemies look like little round bombs.  They get stronger as the levels go on, but even in the higher levels, you'll continue to encounter the weak enemies.  Don't hit the spiky mines.  Do hit the power-ups.  How's that for easy?

It gets simpler, though.  You move your bouncing ball with the mouse.  You can bounce off the edge of the screen.  There are no other game controls.

And that's it.  When you start, you can choose a difficulty level, and then get started playing right away.  One word of warning, though: this game is very, very, highly addicting.  I'm not kidding.  You can get hooked on this, and there's really no way off of it.  So have fun!

I've always liked fire.  I never played with matches as a kid, but I'll admit that I did always enjoy watching candles burn, and the best part of my first apartment was the fireplace.  And with that in mind, let's take a look at this little game:

http://armorgames.com/play/586/light-people-on-fire

It's called Light People on Fire.  There's actually alot of things I like about it, besides the arsonist aspect.

To start with, the game is timed.  Win or lose, high score or low score, you only get 60 seconds.  You can goof, lose, and have the game end earlier, but at the 60 second mark the game ends.  That definitely makes this a good game for the workplace.

The point of the game is pretty simple: You're a stickperson (sticks again!), on fire, and every other person you touch burns up.  You need to avoid the clouds that dump rain on you (fire and water, you know?).

There are only four controls.  The left and right arrows move you back and forth, the space bar sets you on fire, and the 'control' key turns you into a tree.  As a tree, the rain will make you grow, just as, as a flame, it will put you out.  You can take advantage of that to keep the game going for as longs as possible.

Even if the rainclouds don't get you, you'll need to grow as the tree, because when you're a stick person your own flames will slowly burn you up.  If you burn up, or get completely doused, before 60 seconds are up, the game's over.

I give this one a thumbs up.  Got a light?

Here's a game I had some fun with recently:

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/strategy-defense-3/

It's called Strategy Defense 3.  The objective is to defend your own castle while attacking the enemy's castle.  You can build two defensive towers, and lots and lots of offensive/defensive soldiers.  The enemy (always a computer player) gets an identical setup on the other side of the screen, and the game is on.

There are three routes between you and the enemy: a land route, a sea route, and an air route.  As the game progresses, you'll be able to to build ships and planes in addition to soldiers, and to attack on each route.  Your soldiers will first attack any enemy units they encounter on their road, then the enemy towers, and finally the enemy castle.  Remember, this works both ways.

As games go, this one is exceedingly simple.  But it was fun.  The graphics are pretty good, and some of the units you can build are pretty creative.  I like that ships and planes are not ready as soon as you select them; they have some construction time involved.

One thing the game lacks, however, despite its title, is any sort of strategic component.  This is strictly a "go out there and shoot 'em up" battle game.  On that level, I thought it succeeded.  Try it out for yourself.

So you know I've been playing lots of Tower Defense lately.  I gotta admit, I like the genre.  I like strategy games, I like science fiction, I like shoot 'em ups, and Tower Defense games manage to combine most of that in one package.  It'll sometimes throw in some serious whimsy, too, but I haven't reviewed those games yet.  Maybe next time.

Anyway, today's game is called Vector Tower Defense.  You can find it here:

http://www.candystand.com/play.do?id=18047

I really liked this game.  It had the shoot 'em up action that I like, with pretty good shattering effect when creeps are blown up, combined with a very fast pace.  It did include an option that I thought was very good: two buttons near the top of the screen, to either send the next wave, or send the waves automatically.  If you want constant action, send them automatically; if you want to catch your breath between waves, choose the manual option.

So far I haven't won this game yet, but I have discovered a few bits of strategy.  First, sell off the old towers and use the proceeds to buy the more powerful towers.  You'll never get past level 31 or so otherwise. Also, combine the fire-booster bonuses.

Other than that, I won't spoil the game with more advice.  Make sure you scroll through the various maps before you play.  The difficulty ranges from hard to nearly impossible.  Enjoy!

I wrote once about a game called Escape, in which you play a cop who has to get out of a rather nasty cell, find the evidence against the badguy, and reach the endgame.  It's a puzzle game, of course, but it starts out as a simple room escape game.

In room escapes, you start out locked in a room. You can use the mouse to point and click your way around the room, and see everything that's in there.  Clicking on an object will usually show a close-up view of it; if an object is not clickable, it is usally of no value.  Make sure that you click on absolutely everything you see.  Sometimes, even clicking around the room at random can help. 

It easy to spend a lot of time trying to figure out these games.  They're fun, they're addicting, and once you get stuck on a puzzle, you won't be able to sleep until you solve it.

These games are usually evilly clever.  If you like the puzzles in the old text adventures, like Zork or Enchanter, you'll love these.  If you didn't like the text games, then these room excapes are not for you.  One point of advice: do not play these games at work, if you want to get any work done in your lifetime.  Or at least, get your boss hooked on them first.

You can find a good collection of room escapes here:

http://www.freewebarcade.com/room-escape-games.php

Enjoy!  And don't forget to eat before you go in that room!

By now, you've all seen my love of tower defense games.  It's an endless love, because it's an enless genre, but they are some pretty cool games.  Here's another one for you to try:

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/vr-defender-y3k/

In this one, the creeps are viruses, and you're defending your firewall to prevent a system crash.  You can set up various types of towers, from the basic machine guns, to flame throwers, to plasma cannons, to voids that suck up anything in their range.  All towers are upgradable, and the creeps grow stronger with every wave.  Much stronger.  So far, I haven't been able to get past about the 30th or 32nd wave.  That's not a bad score, though, and I like a challenging game.

As with any tower defense game, the key is figuring out where to set your towers for maximum effect.  Each tower has a specific range, shown as a circle, but upgrades can (though not always) increase the range.  Some towers fire slowly, and others have specific effects.  Some work well in combination with others.

I won't give any secrets, but that's mosly becaue I haven't hit on a winning strategy yet.  And I also haven't moved off the easy map, yet, either. 

That last, by the way, is probably my favorite feature of this game.  You can choose what path the creeps take on their way to the target.  The maps range from easy, which is very twisty with a lot of turns, to impossible, which  is a short, straight line.  This game is definitely a keeper, for me.