If you're a fan of Game Giveaway of the Day, you'll be happy to learn that they're back from their "holiday," and will be offering games each Saturday and Sunday again... hopefully.

They're kicking things off by giving away free SAGA accounts today and tomorrow. It's a MMO collectible (pay-for-boosters, optional) persistent RTS. I have no time for such things myself, but y'all might be interested.

Here's the link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/saga-06-2009/

Here's more info on SAGA: https://www.playsaga.com/saga_index.php

Enjoy, and keep you eyes peeled. I'll try to report back here each weekend that these guys keep giving things away with my opinions/recommendations.

"And now we'll toss it over to our man in the field Johnseeking, John?"

I can't wait for your weekly reports, you're providing a great service to the Game Heroes community.

Today's free offering is a SHMUP called Incinerate. It's a vertical-scroller set on Mars. It controls entirely with the mouse. It offers some limited customization via several "supply depots" set within a given stage, and some limited branching within a level, where you literally click on a directional arrow to pick the path your fighter will take.

It runs just fine on my 2-year old vanilla Dell laptop with Vista SP2.

It retails for 9.99 USD normally. It's not worth THAT much, IMO, but if you're a fan of the genre it might be worth the 72MB free download.

VERDICT: pass

Download page link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/incinerate/

Fun game

Certainly worth the free download!

I haven't played a new vertical shooter in awhile, so heck yeah I'm downloading this.

Just beat it. It's alright for a free game, but if I'd pay $10 for it I would have felt ripped off.

Today's giveaway, Ashton's Family Resort, is a VERY CASUAL "time management" game with a few minigames tossed in between levels for variety's sake. If you played and loved Jane's Hotel, Stand 'O' Food, Cake Mania, etc., then add this to your twisted little collection while you still can. (As of now, you have about 3 hours left to download it.) If you've never heard of these games, I'd at least give it a shot. If you can muscle past your gag reflex at the cutesy presentation, you might find yourself enjoying this. If not, you're not out any cash. Just precious minutes of your life that you'll never get back.

VERDICT: Grab it, just don't fork over any cash if you read this too late.

Download page link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/ashtons-family-resort/

Grab a FREE download code for Larva Mortus, a Mac/Windows compatible retro-style horror game that kicks serious ass! All you have to do is sign up to follow the developer's Twitter account. Do it fast, not sure how long they will keep this up!

https://twitter.com/rakeingrass

Here's more info on the game itself -- http://larvamortus.rakeingrass.com/

GET THIS B*TCH WHILE YOU CAN!!

Happy Independence Day, fellow Yanks! (EDIT: Not sure why/how that got deleted, but whatever...)



Today's free game, Funny Creatures, looks like a tight, simple little puzzle game. Too bad it won't run on Vista, so I'll never really know...

VERDICT: Vista/Win7 users = pass; XP or earlier(??) = give it a shot

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/funny-creatures/

Monster Truck Trials is an ExciteBike wannabe that should have been left as a flash game, rather than this 100+ MB P.O.S.. I had a hard time finding screenshots that WEREN'T of the flash game of the same name, and they all seemed to show the first level -- probably because it's im-trucking-possible to get past it.

Still, it's free. So is herpes.

VERDICT: skip

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/monster-truck-trials/

Hey L@@K!!1!!!11! Chess!!!
Today's offering Falco Chess is... well... a chess program. It's only a 7.1 MB install, but that's about the best thing going for it. Oh, that and the orgasm-sound the computer makes when it puts you in check.

VERDICT: Don't pay money for this.

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/falco-chess/

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BONUS NEWS!!! Bethesda has released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for free download!

If you're like me and never played this, here's your chance.

1: Download the game files HERE: http://static.bethsoft.com/downloads/games/DFInstall.zip
2. If you don't have DOSBox (or an old computer,) Download it HERE: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/dosbox/DOSBox0.73-win32-installer.exe?use_mirror=softlayer
3: Read Bethesda's install instructions HERE: http://static.bethsoft.com/downloads/games/daggerfall_legal_and_installation.pdf

I haven't had a chance to crack into this yet, but I'm looking forward to killing a weekend sometime soon to give it a shot. Let me know how it works for ya!

Intergalactic Invaders is a vertical-scrolling SHMUP (which is a GOOD thing, because it would be a lousy name for a dating sim.) You control and shoot with the mouse. It's kinda shiny. It's fun for about 30 seconds.

Then the suck kicks in. This literally feels like a student project in C++, only not so inventive. There are literally two kinds of enemies: swaggering hubcaps and flippy laser-b*stard things. The power-ups are unclear, and all but impossible to see with all of the ZOMG, EXPLOZHUNZZ!!111!! going on. And it's not very hard, unless you consider boredom or mouse-finger cramps valid sources of challenge.

VERDICT: Unless you really, REALLY hate hubcaps, and want a chance to shoot their asses (?) with LAZORZZZ, I'd skip this steaming pile of rabbit sh*t.

Download Page (DON'T!): http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/intergalactic-invaders/

See you next weekend. Hopefully we'll have better pickings then.

WHY??

Verdict:

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/falco-checkers/

If you like the craptastic monster truck game from two weekends ago, you'll love THE SAME #%#ING GAME WITH SNOW.

Verdict: Meh.

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/monster-truck-trials-arctic/

Give me something good next weekend, GAOTD... I can't keep up this facade forever.



*If you feel like spending money for a game, do what I did this morning and go pick up Plants Vs. Zombies for $7.50 on Steam while it's still on sale. Awesome sauce.*

ShellBlast is a puzzle game which sort of combines picross with minesweeper. Your goal is to diffuse a bomb with a limited tool set and a limited time.

Be sure to play the tutorial. The first few levels are easy enough, but the difficulty ramps up tremendously as new bomb types are introduced. The sense of tension as you struggle to stay cool and find the last few pins is incredible.

VERDICT: Finally! A GOOD game! Download this mutha'.

Download link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/shellblast-09-07/

EDIT: You might want to check out some of the other freeware and (cheap!) commercially available software from the same developer.

http://www.vertigogaming.net/games.php

Spirits of Metropolis is another game from the developer of yesterday's giveaway, Vertigo Games. (BTW - Shellblast, yesterday's free game, should be showing up on XBOX Live soon for 400 points, if you happened to miss out on yesterday's free download.)

Since I'm a busy, lazy git, I'll go ahead and recommend you download and install this before the time limit runs out. I'll play it later and write in a review, but I'd grab it just on reputation from my good experiences with the other game.

VERDICT: Pending, but download it anyway.

Download link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/spirits-of-metropolis/

See you next weekend, folks!

Yeah... it totally rocks. Think Lumines + Chain Reaction. Very mellow soundtrack. I foresee hours of pleasure with this one.

You have two hours to grab it as of now. See the previous post for the link.

GO GET IT.

John, just wanted to say good job on tracking these down for us. Although I'm not downloading all of them, I'm checking the thread every time you post. Thanks.

I can't be arsed to download and review this today, as I'm knee-deep in garage-saleing, packing, home repair, and getting ready for the BIG MOVE in less than two weeks.

It's a free racing game, using keyboard controls. Let me/others know what you think of it if you try it out.

VERDICT: Eat At Joe's

Download page: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/streetracer-2-abandoned-city-racing/

Heileen, today's free game, is a Japanese-style interactive novel similar to the "Choose Your Own Adventure" pulpy kids' books of my (and possibly your) youth.

I've played the first chapter. Pluses so far:

1. Unlockable "quests" you can find through certain dialogue trees, and can reference by hitting "Q." Completing them (meeting certain criteria) awards you points and presumably different endings.

2. Anime hooker on the boat! Woo hoo!!

Minuses:

1. I'm going to feel sooooo gay-nerd-tarded the first time my wife catches me playing this.

VERDICT: Get it. It's different. It's free. It could get interesting.

Download link: http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/heileen/