Jade Empire: Special Edition

Origin regularly gives away older titles "on the house". This time the offering is BioWare's Jade Empire: Special Edition, an action RPG played out among the myths of China.

PC Mag giving away Steam keys for four games

PC Magazine is giving away four free games this week. You can sign up on their site here. The games included are:

8 Bit Boy


Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! (this is a two pack)



Bionic Dues


Hat tip to Free Stuff Times.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game

This mostly-text-based RPG re-creates the story of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in a puzzlingly humorous way. If you're at all a fan of the HGttG books, you should certainly give this a try. After all, it's mostly harmless.

Monsters' Den

Monsters' Den is an RPG on Kongregate. It's single player and turn based, so you never have to worry about lag, and it's party based, so you can explore several character options at once. The game interface is nothing terribly flashy, but with a good solid play experience, it's bound to become a favorite.

WildTangent's Fate

Wild Games Fate is a fantasy RPG, done old-school style. No need to pick a class or specialty here though. You can build up your skills and spells as you see fit. Want to be a swordsman who can also summon monsters when he sees fit? Go for it. An archer with the ability to heal? No problem. You can build your character any way you choose. This one is only a free trial, but well worth a look!

AlphaBounce

I'm not typically fond of breakout type games, but AlphaBounce is a bit different. It's kind of like an RPG played on a breakout engine. You get three free plays a day, and you can earn more in game. You're playing a space prisoner, serving your time as a galactic miner. As you break bricks, you can earn upgrades and such that will help you out as you progress through the game. Anyway, don't take my word for it -- go try it out!

New Feature: Big Fish Fridays

Yeah, I know... This is a blog about FREE games, but I'm a sucker for a free trial. My favorite site to go to for free trials of downloadable games is Big Fish Games. They release a new game daily and they're usually top quality offerings. I've been downloading there for years and I'll continue to do so as long as they still offer what they do. So, in homage to Big Fish, I'm starting a new feature here on Featured Games: Big Fish Fridays. Every Friday I'll post the link to a game from the Big Fish catalog. You can go and download the trial and play for an hour free, or just go ahead and buy the game.

So why am I talking about this on Monday you ask? Well, to kick off the new feature, I've decided to dedicate this entire week to Big Fish. So every day this week will be a Big Fish Friday... Yeah, I can do that. It's my blog.

Today's game is Aveyond. If you like RPGs, you're going to love this one. Yes, the world is two dimensional and the graphics are pixellated, but the game is amazing. Gather together friends to aide you through your quest to seal the Demon Portal and save the world. The whole game is about as non-linear as it gets, with plenty of options for how you want your story to go.

Featured Game: Swords and Sandals II

Welcome to my second official post of NaBloPoMo 2007! Yeah, I should have announced this yesterday, but I didn't. So I'm announcing it today. NaBloPoMo is a takeoff of NaNoWriMo, in which you commit to writing at least one blog post a day for the entire month of November. I already post games five days a week here, so this means that I will now be adding two games per week for the next month. Think you can keep up? Go sign up! It's not too late!

On to the game! Today's feature is called Swords and Sandals. It's a gladiator roleplaying game in which you create, design, equip and train a gladiator, then take him into battle and show off what he can do. Every time you win a duel or tournament you gain more gold to spend on weapons, armor and the like. As you level up you'll also gain special abilities like Win the Crowd or Psyche Up. And after each tournament you win, your gladiator is saved for future battles.

Kingdom of Loathing - An Adventurer is You!

Kingdom of Loathing, or KoL, is a turn-based stick-figure Role-Playing Game, or RPG, with really terrible puns.


You can choose to play one of six character types: Seal Clubber, Turtle Tamer, Pastamancer, Sauceror (see? puns? You're a wizard who cooks), Disco Bandit or Accordion Thief. Since I like to spend my time in melee action, I generally choose a seal clubber type. Today, I'm going to try out the path of disco banditry, wearing a disco mask but no pants, and wielding my trusty disco ball. Increase the amount of turns per day through what you eat and drink, sometimes things you can buy or wear. Despite such simple design (i.e. rough drawings), KoL is an engaging game that may take some days of your life, and that will be okay, because of all the fun you will be having. Get to it! Have some fun!





Oh, and you can keep your character for as long as your account is active. You don't need to keep changing your mind, like it looks like I did, especially since there's a way to start over once you finish the final quest.

Tales of Pirates

Tales of Pirates Online is a free MMORPG, but that doesn't begin to cover it. There's an extensive world where you can wage battles both on land and at sea. Quests galore will keep you on the right track as you progress through whatever path you choose. Become a swordsman, explorer or herbalist, buy your own ship and sail off in search of treasure. Join a party of friends to conquer monsters, or go PVP and show off your skills. The initial download of the game is a bit long, but well worth the wait!

Avernum 4

I simply can't say enough good things about Spiderweb Software. They continue to put out games whose playability and storyline is remarkably top quality, even if the graphics are lagging a bit behind. Having played the first three games in the Avernum series, I was thrilled when the fourth came out. It is no disappointment! Building on the continuing saga of those who have been forced to live in underground caves to escape the evil empire above, Avernum 4 is all that I've come to expect from this home-grown software company. And to make it even better, the free demo version is so extensive, you can play for weeks without ever hitting the end. So go try it out already!