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Weekend Fun Covert Front

Martin — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:11:07 +0000

Covert Front is an ‘Escape the Room’ game with beautiful graphics and nice sound effects. The gameplay is similar to point and click adventures where you have to find items and objects and combine them with each other to proceed in the game. The setting of the game is the beginning 20th century using an alternate time-line.

The first World War began in 1901 and the player steps into the role of an agent named Kara who has to investigate the disappearance of General von Toten in 1904. The first two parts of this episodic game have already been released and can be played on the web.

The two remaining parts will be soon released as well completing the series.

It is relatively hard to spot some of the objects that you are supposed to find. The first part takes roughly ten minutes to complete if you are used to playing games like this one. It might take longer if you get stuck.

Read More:

Covert Front

Tags: covert front, escape the room, game, weekend fun

Weekend Fun Tower of Goo Unlimited

Martin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:23:08 +0000

Unlike most commercial developers the freeware scene is always good for a surprise. Tower of Goo Unlimited is such a pleasant surprise. It is a small game that does not have to be installed at all. The task is to build a tower of goo by connecting drops of goo that stick to each other.

Gravity plays a huge role in Tower of Goo. The players main task is to balance the sides of his tower to make sure that no side is dragging the other side to it which results in a lower tower of course. The drops seem to be unlimited, falling from the sky to the ground and quickly climbing up the structure that you already have build.

A left-click selects a drop which can then be used to support the structure by connecting two drops that are already in place. This is one of the games that I really like. Just jump in, play a few minutes, relax and leave it afterwards. Ideal game for a short break.

Links:

Tower of Goo Unlimited

Tags: game, tower of goo, weekend fun

Weekend Fun H2O

Martin — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:01:14 +0000

Weekend Fun time again. H2O, no not Water but Heaven to Ocean, is a nice plattform puzzle game putting the player in control of a rather large water drop who craves to get back to the Ocean. To achieve this goal the player needs to move the drop around the screen by tilting the screen to the left or the right.

Several obstacles like fans and pipes have a influence on the water drop which could lead to separation. The player will remain in control of the largest part of the separated drop and loose the rest if it scrolls out of sight. Since the goal is to reach the Ocean, or better a sink that leads into the Ocean, with as much water as possible it is a good idea to make sure the water drop does not get split along the way.

Aggregate States are another element of the game. If your water drop comes close to a heat source it will turn into steam which can be used to overcome obstacles along the way. Cold sources on the other hand turn it into a snowflake which is of course more solid than water.

Heaven to Ocean is a wonderful game for the weekend. It takes a little while to get used to the game mechanics but once you get the grip of that it turns out to be fun. Lots of it.

Heaven to Ocean Homepage

Tags: game, h2o, heaven to ocean, weekend fun

Weekend Fun Synaesthete

Martin — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 06:51:22 +0000

Synaesthete is one of those trendy arena shooters that bombard the player with a splendid mixture of color and sound while keeping the game mechanism as simply as possible. The task of the player is to destroy all enemies in an level to be able to cross the bridge to the next level.

Destroying enemies is however not done by firing at them but by pressing keys to the rhythm of the music. This reminds me a little bit of Guitar Heroes without the guitar, that is. If the timing is good enough a stream of colorful light will seek the closest enemy. This has to be done until all enemies in that level are gone.

The excellent tutorial is a must. It explains the default controls of the game and all game mechanics. Enemies spawn for a certain time from so called spawn points which create a limited amount of enemies before they disappear.

The player has access to some spells as a last resort which function as smart bombs in an area. At least the ones that I tried.

Synaesthete is an incredible game offerings lots of fun.

Tags: arena shooter, digipen, game, Synaesthete, weekend fun

Weekend Fun Arachnos

Martin — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:37:26 +0000

This episode of Weekend Fun at Ghacks is reviewing a straight 2D shooter called Arachnos that reminds me of those old Gradius titles that I loved to play back then on the SNES. You choose the type of weapon that your ship is equipped with and realize that this will be a hell of a ride after the first waves of enemy hit the screen.

As with Gradius it is possible to move up and down as well which moves the screen that way. This adds an element of strategy to Arachnos making it easier to play but more confusing as well. The enemies shoot so many bullets in the later stages that it requires good hand-eye coordination to be able to survive.

It is essential to gather as many weapon upgrades as possible if you want to survive. Every level has the usual boss enemy which is hard to beat even if you have the weapon upgrades.

Arachnos uses roughly 22 Megaybtes on your hard drive and does not have to be installed. It is pure fun and motivates the player to try it again just one more time if the enemies again manage to blow a hole in all of your ships.

Read More:

Arachnos Download

Tags: 2d shooter, arachnos, gradius, weekend fun

Weekend Fun Ghouls and Ghosts Remix

Martin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:44:53 +0000

Ghouls and Ghosts was the second game in the Ghosts and Goblins series by Capcom. The story was recycled from the first part of the series: You are the shiny knight Arthur who is on a quest to restore souls stolen by Lucifer including the soul of the princess Prin Prin who happens to be your bride.

To do that you need to advance through a series of levels that are filled with evil undead, other monsters, traps and pits that are best avoided. Ghouls and Ghosts is a jump and run game. You control Arthur with the cursor keys, attack with CTRL and jump with ALT.

Each of the six levels throws a boss monster at you at the end which has to be defeated to make it to the next area. Arthur can find different weapons in the game which help him in his quest. The difficulty is that he can only carry one weapon at a time so be carefully in what you are picking up.

The game has a size of 5.5 Megabyte and looks nice especially if you consider the fact that the current version of the game is 0.42. I encountered one bug though. I enabled the ‘Fullscreen’ and ‘Fit Resolution’ option and the game would not start anymore afterwards.

I had to delete the file config.cfg to reset those settings. No big deal though. The game is quite difficulty especially if you are not used to this type of games.

download Ghouls and Ghosts (Windows, Mac)
via Freeware Genius

Tags: capcom, Games, ghouls and ghosts, weekend fun

Weekend Fun Punishment 1 and 2

Martin — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 06:02:08 +0000

Don’t worry about the game title. Punishment is definitely not a punishment because it is really a unique experience. One of those games that does not look good but makes it up with incredible gameplay. Another one of those games that prove that graphics mean crap if the gameplay rocks.

Punishment is a jump and run game with a twist. All the levels are stacked on top of each other and your task is always to reach the plattform in the current level that gets you in the next area. The difficulty is of course that if you miss a plattform you fall and if you are unlucky you could fall all the way down to level 1.

Not a nice feeling if you ask me. To make things worse several objects in the game change key game elements. The eye for instance rotates the complete level clockwise while the animals swap left and right movement. This is a big challenge but real fun as well.

The game can be played from any location even from usb devices because it does not have to be installed at all.

Punishment 2 is the sequel of the game created by the same author. It adds several new game elements which add even more excitement. A main switch has to be switched whenever you enter a level to open the exit. It remains open until you happen to fall down again.

This in turn means that you have to climb back down again to switch it again to be able to process into the next level. A two player mode has been integrated as well making it a tad easier at the beginning because both players do play simultaneously which means that one player could operate the switch while the second tries to reach the exit.

If the exit is reached both players will be teleported into the next level. If one player falls both players fall. This is a nice twist in gameplay that really makes this game worthwhile.

Tags: freeware, Games, messhof, punishment, punishment 2, weekend fun

Weekend Fun The Last Stand Flashgame

Martin — Fri, 11 May 2007 07:23:39 +0000

Finding great flash games is not as easy as it sounds. I found the game The Last Stand at the donation coder blog and was blown away by the gameplay. It looks like your typical shoot all incoming enemies type of games also known as base defender gamers. At second look it introduces several strategic elements that make every approach different. You have to defend your barricades against Zombies at night and search for better weapons and other survivors at daylight. The goal is to hold out as long as possible and hope that someday a rescue team will come and get you out of this situation.

The game begins with the first night. You only have a weak pistol and no other survivors are going to help you. When you manage to survive the attack you can use the next 12 hours to either repair the barricades, search for guns or search for survivors. Repairing the barricades is rather obvious. Whenever a Zombie reaches the barricades he is reducing their health. If the health level reaches 0 they are going right at you and you will eventually die.

You do need better guns to survive in this game. It is possible to equip a primary and secondary weapon. Unfortunately for you there is no secondary weapon at the beginning. If you do find other survivors they aid you in the defense and also help repair the barricades. If you are alone you can repair 5% per hour, for every survivor this amount is raised by an additional 5%.

The best strategy would be in my opinion to find a better gun first and search for survivors and more guns on the next days. Repairs should not be necessary at the beginning if you got some experience with this kind of shooters.

I enjoy playing The Last stand. Oh, before I forget. The game is rather violent, not really suitable for children.

Tags: flash game, the last stand, weekend fun

Weekend Game Streets of Rage Remake

Martin — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:50:02 +0000

I loved to play games like Streets of Rage and Final Fight in the arcades with a friend. It was tremendous fun to several punks at once with the character that you have chosen to play. A nice feature was the character selection screen before you start a game. Would you select a quick guy who was faster but would not hit that hard, or would you rather select the slow brawler that hit harder ? Streets of Rage Remake offers six playable and two unlockable characters to chose from. All vary in power, technique, speed, jump and stamina.

Streets of Rage Remake lets you fight alone, with a computer at your side and with a second human on the same computer fighting on the same computer against the enemies. The game supports one gamepad which means that the other human player would have to use the keyboard to play the game.

The game uses the typical three buttons of the 16-bit Genesis system. Use C to attack, V to jump and X for a devastating special attack. The B button seems to be a unique feature calling the police who smartbomb the whole screen.

It’s more fun with two players of course but the single player mode plays fine as well. Great free game, if you like those fighting games you should definitely take a look. Download is about 70 megabytes.

Tags: game, street fighter, streets of rage, weekend fun

Game for the Weekend Shadowflare

Martin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:38:09 +0000

Right from the beginning Shadowflare reminds me of probably the greatest action rpg game of all time – Diablo 2. The perspective, game mechanics and even graphics look really similar and are really good for a freeware game. You control a nameless warrior who starts in a small remote village. A dog companion that can be commanded is always at your side and you receive the first task from the commander of that village.

The commander is nice enough to hand you some equipment which you should equip by pressing the I button. Even the buttons for the interfaces are the same. Once you go outside the town you are attacked by the usual amount of low level enemies, namely Goblins, Orcs and bats.

You attack them with the left mouse button. Later in the game you can use the right mouse button to throw spells at the enemies which have to be learned before you can do so. Pressing Space changes the activity level of your dog companion. There are two modes, inactive which is the default mode and active. Inactive means that your dog will not attack but will take no damage as well.

Active means that it will engage in combat and take damage. A nice feature is that you can choose between several dogs that all have distinctive abilities.

One of the most important things in early gameplay is that you can get healed by the healer in the town. Just talk to her if your health is low and she will maximize it again.

Shadowflare is a great game, lots of fun. It has an internet mode that I did not test yet.

Tags: diablo 2, Games, shadowflare, weekend fun

Game for the Weekend Little Fighters

Martin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:20:46 +0000

It is Friday again, time for the game of the weekend. This time I have a great beat em up game for you that reminds me a little bit of the game Power Stone for the Dreamcast. Little Fighters offers an astonishing amount of game modes starting by the usual 1v1 battles which can also be played as team battles with up to eight characters. Stage mode puts the human player against waves of opponents who become stronger over time and championship mode features a tournament.

The main fun in this game is the fact that you can play with up to four human players on one computer and up to 8 if you play over network. Those 4 vs 4 team battles are so great, especially when everyone is sitting in the same room and you can see their faces. (and hear them, hehe)

All 24 characters have special movies which cost energy to perform. Some can throw fireballs, some can teleport around or summon swords. You should take a look at the chart that explains the moves before you start the game.

Remember to open up port 12345 if you plan to play network games.

Tags: game, little fighters, multiplayer, weekend fun

Game for the Weekend Wing Commander Saga

Martin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:42:21 +0000

Wing Commander back in the 90s was a phenomenal successful game franchise and is still considered one of the best – if not the best – space simulation game that was ever created. It spawned lots of sequels and included cinematic story telling. The Wing Commander series was developed by Origin which was later bought by EA where the game series found an abrupt ending. (shame on them)

Wing Commander Saga is a free sequel which takes place during and after the events that happened in Wing Commander III.

You assume the role of 2nd Lieutenant David Markham, a recent OCS graduate in an accelerated flight training program on an aging, dilapidated carrier in a backwater system. Things are not always as they seem, however. Join with Markham’s wingmates as he gets his first taste of the seemingly inevitable doom that the Kilrathi are preparing to unleash upon the Confederation. Fly patrols, work with your wingmen, and struggle to survive as the final battles for the fate of humanity begin to unfold.

The game utilizes the Freespace 2 engine – the looks and gameplay remind me a lot of the old Wing Commander games that I used to enjoy when I got my first personal computer. Currently the prologue can be downloaded and played with the main campaign Wing Commander Saga the darkest dawn currently in development. The main campaign will be free to download as well.

Tags: weekend fun, wing commander, wing commander sage

Game for the Weekend Bloodmasters

Martin — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:58:59 +0000

I write an article every Friday about a new great game that could entertain you during your weekend. The game for this weekend is called Bloodmasters – a top down multiplayer old school arcade game that I enjoy playing regularly for a couple of days. All the known game modes like capture the flag and team deathmatch are available and add to the fast paced game experience. The maps are filled with weapons, armors, health packs and munition to fight the other players / team.

The game could almost be a clone of Quake 3 Arena or Unreal Tournament in 2D. All the classic weapons like the minigun, rocket launcher and lightning gun are available and can be used to vaporize the enemy. Even game modes that I do not like this much (Deathmach) are pure fun because the game is fast and intense and respawn is almost instantly.

You can fall of the edges so beware those positions, it happens often that a grenade explodes near you and the detonation pushes you into the darkness counting as a suicide, bad if you play team deathmatch.

Bloodmasters should run even on old computers the requirements are 1.4 Ghz cpu and 256 MB of ram.

Tags: bloodmasters, game, weekend fun

gHacks technology news » weekend fun

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