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O my god, this is a robocrow!
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| Transformation ahead. |
 I have decided to continue posting news and reviews about free games, but I will do it a different way. The blog form seems to be more adapted to what I do. Therefore, I will open soon a blog on blogspot.com, and continue my work there. It will not be only about free games, but also games I play which are slightly less known, and nevertheless deserve some attention.
I have not decided what domain name I will choose on blogspot, and I will let you know as soon as I manage to find a good one. I hope you won't mind this change and will follow me in my "gaming exploration". Robocrow.com will be closed down in 2 months, after 2 years of loyal service, the domain name will be released, and I will end my contract with my web host. If you have some suggestions or ideas, do not hesitate to post here.
Thank you very much everybody for reading me. This is not the end, only a much needed transformation.
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| Space Civilazation: A new round starting soon. |
Thanks to Gameogre.com, I have discovered Space Civilizations, a free (as in free beer) MP "4x" game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate). A new round should start beginning of July 2008.
I have not clearly found out if it is a MP or MMO universe, but the game is apparently scalable to the amount of players who register to play.
A slim client has to be downloaded to be able to play (a few megs only), but this GUI interface is really adding a lot to the game. It has a map of the whole Galaxy on which you can pinpoint solar systems and planets. Of course the information provided will depend on your scanning range abilities. You will also see what's the exact position of your ships and fleets. The goal of this game is to colonize or conquer planets and to manage your empire without loosing your reputation. You will be able to manage the population and the production on each one of your conquered worlds, researching new technology, designing new ships, building defenses and structures. Diplomacy is a key factor of success and you will have to find reliable allies.
Overall, you can do a lot with this GUI, which is somehow intuitive, but I really recommend to do the tutorial now to get an idea about how it works and not to miss any of its possibilities.
At the moment, you can play a tutorial of it, to get to practice before the big start. I have been told that the new round should start between the 4th and the 7th of July 2008. The game is running on a ticker, which will be set to one hour to fasten your development, then two ticks, as the first skirmishes begin, to keep your social life unaffected.
I invite you to have a look at Space Civ here: Space Civilizations.
Again, the game is free, and unbelievably enjoyable. The galaxy is yours, but you'll have to share it with other players... ;)
There is a live chat (not so live at the moment as the new round has not started yet), a forum, of course. You'll find a screenshots section as well.
Enjoy.
 Update (01.07.2008) : The galaxy 100 is now open for registration and can host up to 80 players. 20 players have already registered at the moment. The game will start in 10 days from now, which is the Friday 11th of July 2008. If you liked the tutorial and really intend to play this game, I would recommend you sign up asap.Taken from the forum today as well: Team Galaxy: The Rules- Starts on July 11th at 20:00 CET
- 2 teams
- both ranked and unranked players
- re-shuffle 12 hours before the galaxy starts, players are divided according to their galaxy-fame
- 1 hour galaxy -> since it is teams playing, one does not need to be online as much and take care of his individual empire
- end of galaxy: 1 team needs to own the entire galaxy
- galaxy is not counted towards fame
- allied with all team members, at war with all others -> no rep loss
- team-members that go inactive for more than 50% can be declared war on and attacked -> no rep loss
- sharing line-of-sight and reports by default
-> however you can turn on/off to see ships of individual players, that information is stored (locally)
- overview of strength of red and blue team
- will have customizable home-planets
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| Robocrow: closing down ? |
I am still hesitating whether or not I should close down Robocrow and use it for other purpose that I have in the pipeline. I get only spammers to post in comments, not sure either my site is actually that interesting for the readers.
So in case it closes down, I would like to recommend Gameogre.com which is a buzzing community about gaming, and free gaming of course, so far the best one I have seen on the net. I also post there from time to time, and found many free games there.
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| Celestial Impact. |
Just found out this evening about this game. As I am too lazy to test it now or write about it (thanks to the beers I just had), I will simply copy paste the description found on their website.At first sight, it sounds good as the terrain is deformable. (this is a first time for a free game)
"What is Celestial Impact? Celestial Impact is a free multiplayer-only game available for PC. Celestial Impact is a team based multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) set in space on an asteroid with spherical gravity. What makes this FPS really special is that the landscape is fully deformable in all directions.
Each player is equipped with, apart from a commonly seen weapon arsenal, a special tool called Dirtgun. With the Dirtgun, players can add or remove terrain during combat as they see fit, simply by aiming and firing the dirtgun. Depending on the chosen action, this will either add or remove a chunk of dirt from the landscape. Ran in to a wall that is too high to jump over? No problem, just build a slope and walk over the wall, or perhaps dig a tunnel going under it.
Need a breather from intense combat? No sweat, dig a cave and go hide inside.
Since the layout and flow of the landscape in the maps depends on the player’s actions, playing a particular map will be a different experience each time. Celestial Impact features several game modes such as a classic CTF (Capture The Crystal in this case), a regular deathmatch mode and Crystal Rounds. Crystal Rounds will prompt the players to defend one of their team-members alternatively assault one of the opposing team-members depending on which team currently has the crystal in their possession. Build and dig your way around the landscape in various strategic ways as you seek out and steal the crystal from your opponents. About the developers Celestial Impact is a PC game developed in Sweden that started with a few university students having an idea of an unusual and fun game. The idea evolved into a larger project and has now reached a complete version. The team behind Celestial Impact currently consists of only three persons all three living in Stockholm and they have created the game from scratch during their spare-time. Celestial Impact is currently competing as an entry in Swedish Game Awards 08" And to complete the description, here is a screenshot. More can be found directly on their website: http://www.celestialimpact.com/
Ok, enjoy!
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| Released games |
I have been busy lately and the free gaming universe is kind of quiet these days. As I try to release at least one post per week on the website, here is a little topic that you may find interesting.
What is be the best destiny of all the games? When they get old, to be eventually released as freewares, so that they never really die. There are too few of them unfortunately as only a few games companies do that. However, there are a few websites which tracks those released games. They are good to check from time to time. I found many "gems" in those three.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_games_released_as_freeware
Reloaded:
http://www.reloaded.org/Strategy-Games/
Liberated Games:
http://liberatedgames.com/
Ok, good surfing and gaming.
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| EVOLUTION: Round 5.9 |
As announced in the shout out on the side of this website, a new round has started for Evolution. Evolution or " Evo" for its community is a mmog browser based. For those who have no idea such game can exist, it simply means that you can play it in your browser (Although Firefox is prefered), and you do not need to download anything else. Do not expect 3D, do not expect moving targets all over your screen, this is not a flash game. Browser based MMOG games are usually with text and images only, and it is all about numbers. I think most of the gamers know that, but I saw too many players loggin in the game, and then never coming back. I have always asked me why ? Maybe they expected something different is the first thing that comes to my mind. I also noted that the first browser based game you play and like, is most likely the only game you will become addicted faithfully and usually, there is no time for a second similar game. It is extremely hard to switch sometimes. There are hundreds of games such as Evo, therefore the competition is hard. So why playing Evolution in the first place and not any other game ? There is definitely something cosy and warm about this game. Of course, the competition is harsh between players and alliances. You may, however, feel comfortable playing it. The game has a very internal logics that you'll get to learn step by step, and even though you think you feel confident, there are always surprises, discoveries or re-discoveries awaiting for you. The game has a firefox toolbare displaying info about your status within the game, and it was the first one ever to use such tools. And in fact, the majority of its players were initially Firefox users, until it got submitted with a silly review written by myself actually in Digg.com - it was also the first game of this kind to be submitted in this social network and reached fame - and new "blood" came in. Evo has never been claiming huge amounts of players unlike other mmog games pretend to have (without mentioning that this is only the number of players they could host if they had them, or that this is only the cumulated number of sign up since they opened). Evo, on the contrary is not looking for quantity but quality. It would do with 2000 active players, it has currently around 400 only but climbing. From one round to an other (mid rounds changes are not so popular), the rules change slightly. The design also evolves a lot and is very characteristic of the game without being confusing. I find the lay out of the current round a bit narrow, it is not disturbing more than that and it might be improved later. I have not talked yet about what you have to do in the game. This a mix between strange critters and science fiction. You get to own a lot of them, load them in fleets of spaceships and send them to attack or defend an other continent. You also own one of the continents (and one only) that you will develop as pass the days, weeks and months. The critters range from monkey to mythological monsters: You get attached to these critters eventually. A last thing I wanted to add that Evo is really a game built around its community, despite the waves and the rows that shakes it from time to time (forum and irc),. And it is totally ok to speak about other things that the game only. To conclude, I would say that if you are a firefox user, and a gamer, slightly nerd even, that you have daily a bit of free time, then Evolution is for you. So I can only recommend you to play it and hang around there for a while. Give it a chance if you feel lost, use the forum, or send a message to players on the same planet as you, and you'll see, the addiction will start to catch up. Have fun with Evolution.http://playevo.com/ |
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| Battlefield Heroes. Xmas this summer. |
To come up with something this weekend, I had to crawl the web quite a lot, I tried two free games, one that I will keep for later on this month, and an other one rather bad and it ain't because it was still in Beta. I won't name it.
Anyway, here is the crusty news for this week, something that will make us looking forward to summer like if it was Christmas. Something tells me that this is going to be huge, 100% free and fun, o yeah, very fun.
It's called "Battlefield Heroes ", there is no ETA for the release yet, but they have a development blog very busy. I also invite you to watch the video teaser of the game on their website. This will be a cartoony humoristic FPS. It sounds very much inspirited from Return to castle Wolfenstein, with a rock'n' roll attitude. I believe this will be one of the biggest gaming hits this summer.
Many weapons, many vehicules, characters customization, score ladder and you'll always play with people of your level.
I never thought I would say one day "Thank you EA". A high quality game, 100% free. I can not see any catch at the moment. It could be add supported, and this would be a nice advertising campaign. The only obvious downfall I can see at the moment is that many of us will not get any suntan this summer because of this game. Do you all agree with me?
Here is the link in case you missed it (You better bookmark it).
http://www.battlefield-heroes.com/
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| RED ALERT: A path beyond. |
Damned, it is sunday evening again. I did not have the time to write a review because the time dedicated to work on the robocrow website got spent playing Red Alert: A path Beyond.
Therefore, I will be quick to describe this game! In a few lines, RA: APB is a free (free as in free beer) stand alone modification from C&C: Renegade.
Remember the bloody war between GDI and NOD in 1996? I bet you do. But today, you are in for real! RA:APB will bring you back in time in the world of "Red Alert", and you will not be comfortably commanding "from above" your soldiers, this time, you are the soldier running to save your life.
A picture will explain everything better and quicker. Do you remember how a Nodian construction yard and a Tesla tower look like?
Suddenly, you feel small and your life becomes insignificant. But relax, this is your base. You are safe for a while until the GDI comes to destroy your base.
And this is what you'll have to face:
This scary black bubble is a gap generator, you can not see through but everything that stands inside can see you (and fire at you). The shiny stones on the ground are of course the precious ore, which needs to be collected and processed to get your base the needed resources to build more vehicles and units.
In RA: APB, you will have the opportunity to play both on the GDI and NOD side, using different technologies and weapons, exactly like in Red Alert.
Below find a screenshot of one of these collectors working in an ore field.
Quite an amazing sight.
In RA: APB, you will not only run, but drive and fly as well. I unfortunately did not get a screenshot yet of all the tanks, boats and shoppers you can pilot, but I will add more screenshots soon.
I think I forgot to mention this game is multiplayer. There is always an official server running and apart from a few crash (easily recoverable) at the exit, I never had any problem getting in. The community has made a huge effort to improve the game's graphics, the gameplay makes you forget that things lack of details and look slightly old from time to time. Don't forget, this is 1996 !
Anyway, I highly recommend this game, which is too good to be ignored and here is the official website with, of course, a download section: http://www.apathbeyond.com/index.php
I have added two more screenshots of vehicules in the "read more" section.
Have fun!
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| The Universal is back |
Sorry for the absence of post this weekend, and no review for "The babylon Project" which did not entertained me as much as I expected. Don't take me wrong, it is a very good free game, graphically very polished, but space can be very boring sometimes... I got tired to run after targets from one end of the "map" to the other, without getting any fun shooting at them, I did not "feel" being in a fighter spaceship at all. I know many will not agree with that. I guess I am still very nostalgic of the X-wing or Tie Fighter space combat games (nearly 2 decades old now) from Lucas Art. The good old time, that was...
The only mod using Freespace2 engine I really enjoyed is "Beyond the red line ", a Galactica reconversion. The development is going slowly but surely, quality prime over quantity.
Anyway, the good news I absolutely wanted to post this week is that the Universal is back. At least, the website is. Zion is still off line at the moment, waiting for a quick fix. It is possible to fly in space, but the chatting system is disabled.
You can read Mit post in full here.
Ok, I guess that is it for now. Not much more I can do or think of on a Sunday evening.
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| A classic, not so classic: Sauerbraten. |
I was about to try "Allegiance" but the installation requirements were too demanding, I would have had to downgrade my Windows software configuration (microsoft net framework) to be able to play it. As I still had to talk about something this week, I re installed the classic Sauerbraten and went online for some MP fights.
I have always tried to keep up with the regular updates of this game and I thought I knew it all... But O surprise...New maps, new guns and more!
Gameplay wise, this is still pretty much the same. Reflex shooting, huge jumps, slower weapons with heavy loads, or sleek high velocity projectiles fired with crossbow. Everything goes fast, very fast. New shiny red and blue outfits and Tron faces for the players. Should the game still call itself Sauerbraten?
See below an old screen shot of Sauerbraten I took 2 years ago at least, when we were thick smelly trolls, real Sauerbraten, wandering in some abandoned castles:
Anyway, the fun is there, even when two players only are roaming the map. I connected at several occasions and there were always at least 2-3 crowded servers.
Mission types are the classical capture the flag, regen mode, free for all, ect, nothing new there.
I could not resist to post this screenshot: This unfortunate red got taken in sandwich between me and an other blue.
If you have 10-15 minutes free per day, after work for instance, Sauerbraten is really the best way to evacuate the stress and pressure. I currently play there with the "killer" nick, usually in the blue team, so come around to say "hi".
You can download Sauerbraten for free here:
Link
Have fun!
(click on "read more" for 2 more screenshots)
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| Revolution. Judal's game. |
Hi there, I wanted to let you know that there is a browser based Evo-like game in Beta called " Revolution" which has opened recently and it is playable. It's free to play and it will remain free for ever. The current game status is in beta. There must be at least 20 players, not all active. The game appears in a very naked version at the moment. However, I always find very interesting to play a game from its begining and to participate to its improvments. The interface is kinda confusing, but after a while, you get used to it. I have posted a screenshot this interface here. There are a lot of job to be done. I believe Judal is doing all the codings.The interface is logical but needs a serious makeup. There is no art works so if you want to try yourself in this field, feel free to give a hand. The game needs players/testers. Nice efforts Judal, keep up the good work. Revolution: http://edgeoftheempire.com/ |
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