The Download Munkey

Games Thursday : Gametop.com - Stop Paying for Games!

Roys — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:00:31 +0000

Despite the overload of flashing ads flooding Gametop.com, some of the freely downloadable games there are actually quite good. There’s currently a list of 80+ (and growing!) free games and as befits Gametop.com’s motto, are genuinely free without any hidden catch - you don’t even need to register to download

Obviously, you won’t find any Game of the Year winners in here but there’s quite a good selection of casual gaming gems at Gametop.com for those five to ten minute gaming breaks.

Below are my five recommended picks with a brief description of each one.

1. RIP3

An arena shooter by Elephant Games with some really quirky characters - how many games give you the chance to play the Grim Reaper?. Blast away truckloads of enemies, upgrade your skills, pick up new tools of destruction and repeat. RIP3 is best savoured in frequent small doses as the over-the-top bodycount tends to numb the mind (and trigger finger) after playing for too long. A more detailed look at this game in the near future.

Download RIP3.

2. Pirates : Battle for The Carribean

Defend your island stronghold, protect friendly convoys or simply survive the onslaught of various kinds of ships from the Age of Sail - galleys, galleasses, caravels, huge galleons and even nasty wooden ballistic submarines. As usual, kill everyone shooting at you, upgrade your little island fortress and repeat.

Download Pirates : Battle for The Carribean.

3. Star Sword

A mouse-controlled shoot-em up which grants your space destroyer incredible agility (and makes it a bit too easy for hardcore shoot-em-up fans). Upgrade your ship and weapons after each stage.

Download Star Sword.

4. Extreme Racers

A decent arcade racer which encourages frequent use of the nitro boost since the other cars are incredibly quick. Graphics are reasonably OK but don’t expect GFX like motion blurring and high quality shadows.

Download Extreme Racers.

5. Forex: Learn to Trade

I’m not too sure this one can be categorized as a game (perhaps a business simulation?) Watch the realtime graphs, plan and send your orders and watch your virtual profits soar. Now if it was so easy in real life

Download Forex : Learn to Trade.

More downloadable games can be found at Gametop.com. Subscribe to their RSS feed to be notified of new additions to the list of free games.

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Wallpapers Wednesday : Springfield Punx Jumble Wallpaper

Roys — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:00:39 +0000

I always enjoy collecting wallpapers featuring ensembles of the various characters in games and comics. Can’t recall the exact word now but I remember reading about a collective noun for superheroes … (Wordlab suggested fraility and a forumer at PPRuNe mentioned halo)

Basically, I meant walllpapers like this one from Marvel Comics, …

… Mortal Kombat : Armageddon, …

not forgetting DC Comics, …

Transformers, …

and of course, the wallpaper of the day by Dean Fraser who runs Springfield Punx - 88 of his creations in a single wallpaper

Download this wallpaper and marvel at Dean’s other Simpsonized creations at Springfield Punx.

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Military Tuesday : Pobediteli : Soldiers of the Great War

Roys — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:00:29 +0000

Pobediteli : Soldiers of the Great War (or Victors in Russian) is an award-winning Russian interactive multimedia resource which retells major events of the war on the Eastern Front during WWII, starting with Operation Barbarossa, the over-ambitious German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Completed in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, Pobediteli was one of the 5 winners in the e-culture category of the World Summit Award that year.

Watch the offensives and counterattacks unfold on a virtual map of Eastern Europe and Russia, complete with rarely-seen footage from the archives and first-hand accounts by Red Army veterans which provide insights of the conflict from the men and women who fought against the German invaders during the war.

A Russian Il-2 pilot recounts a chance encounter with a flight of Ju 87 Stukas

Pobediteli allows you to appreciate the scale of the conflict in ways that books can’t - especially when you visualize the relentless advance of the German panzer armies towards Moscow in 1941 as well as the equally breakneck charge of the victorious Soviet armies towards Berlin in 1945 on the animated map.

The German gains by the end of 1941

The endgame : Berlin surrounded by the victorious Red Army

The video clips show memories of victory - Soviet infantry advancing on the German Reichstag with the Soviet flag in hand.

… of defeat - Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus at the surrender of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad.

… and the devastation of war - the city of Minsk reduced to rubble.

Learn more about war on the Eastern Front with Pobediteli : Soldiers of the Great War.

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Random Monday : War on Terror - The Boardgame

Roys — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:00:52 +0000

A satirical boardgame from TerrorBull Games on the War on Terror. The colourful box art and card artwork by Tom Morgan-Jones initially attracted my attention as the artistic style reminded me of Quentin Blake’s pieces for Roald Dahl’s series of books. However, the Empire and Terrorist cards with their illustrations and witty little captions are quite possibly the main draw among the contents of the game package (which includes a balaclava incidentally )

Whatever your opinions on the actual War on Terror, terrorism and the War on Terror isn’t something that can be easily nor clearly defined as right or wrong. Take this Terrorist Upsurge card from the board game as an example.

Some of favourite cards include Terrorist Attack, Nuclear Disarmament and Spin the Axis of Evil. Yes, this boardgame even comes with a Axis of Evil spinner built into the gameboard.

I haven’t seen this in Singapore before - TerrorBull Games does ship the game worldwide at £29.95 (inclusive of postage and packing) if you’re suitably impressed

Meanwhile, you can go have a look at the official War on Terror - The Boardgame site where you can find Rules and the Empire Cards and Terrorist Cards galleries.

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Art Friday : Killzone 2 Concepts

Roys — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:00:35 +0000

Concepts for Guerrilla Games’ Killzone 2, one of the three games on my must-have list if I had a PS3 (the other two being Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of The Patriots and Motorstorm)

The similiarities of the greatcoat and helmet shape to that worn by German soldiers in WWII (see this Tamiya model) bring to mind the conspiracy theories about a Fourth Reich (the Nazi regime was also known as the Third Reich) that I read about recently in Alan Baker’s book Invisible Eagle - History of Nazi Occultism.

Seeing all those concepts of Helghast troopers in their ominous gas masks make me very curious what actually lies beneath those masks. As quoted from the Wikipedia article for Killzone, it’s pretty obvious that they have mutated quite a great deal from their human origins but the question is by how much?

… the Helghast are a faction of human descendants who colonized the planet Helghan many generations ago. The planet’s harsh environment forced the Helghast to adapt and mutate so much that they can no longer be considered human.

The ISA tank is an imaginative yet believeably practical idea of of future armour design. Looks like an ultramodern spinoff of the air defense variant of the US M2 Bradley, the M6 Linebacker with four additional autocannons and an extra generous allocation of smoke grenade launchers.

Likewise, the ISA’s infantry assault rifle could easily pass off as a bullpup M16A4 with a M203 grenade launcher and and an EOTech Holosight (the one you get to use in the singleplayer missions of Call of Duty 4)

The Helghast infantry weapon with grenade launcer could be said to be a cross between the infamous Uzi (the sights) and the Russian PP-19 Bizon except that the underslung cylindrical object is actually the magazine for the Bizon.

The jaw-dropping lighting FX and the oppresively gloomy industrial cityscape that comprise the battlefields for the ISA and the Helghast are well demonstrated by the screenshots at the official site (a small selection below). And if you have never watched the E3 2005 prerendered trailer for Killzone 2 before, you really don’t know what you’ve been missing out

Download these high resolution concepts, wallpapers and screenshots for Killzone 2.

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Games Thursday : Lego Batman Demo Impressions

Roys — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:00:41 +0000

I’ve been a big fan of Traveller’s Tales’ series of Lego games with the sole exception of Lego Indiana Jones - I didn’t like the muddy palette (khaki, brown and more brown) and the jumping puzzles were too frustrating for reflexively-challenged me. Most of the time spent playing the demo was helping Indy fall into bottomless chasms or exploring spike-filled pits while been chased by a giant boulder

Now, the Lego Batman demo is a different beast entirely. It’s an enjoyable romp through a bright and shiny Lego (Legoized / Legofied ?) Gotham City with excellently animated Lego minifigs of familiar characters from DC Comics’s Batman universe (and less of those bloody jumping puzzles). It doesn’t seem to be tied to any of the Batman films unlike the other Lego games for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises which probably imposes less creative restrictions on the developers.

Lego Batman now sports Hero and Villain modes so that fans of supervillains like dastardly The Joker get to start off as the bad guys immediately rather than having to unlock them first after playing the good guys as in the Star Wars series. Batman is far less “goody-goody” than most typical superheroes but it’s a welcome addition nonetheless. An uzi-toting Joker and acrobatic Harley Quinn are yours to control in the demo.

Robin in his Magnet Suit

New suits which dynamically change the special abilities of your characters allow you to approach some of the puzzles in your adventures through Gotham City in multiple ways. Most puzzles still require that certain suits be worn in order to advance to the next area.

There’s also a new Batarang mode for the good guys which allows you to precisely target and hit distant opponents or objects. It’s something that works better on paper since not everything can be hit with the Batarang and the aiming is rather finicky at times.

The poor man’s batmobile

Top-notch animation : Batman shimmies across a rope with ease while Robin follows along in his clumsy Magnet Suit

Batman prepares to pound a petty thug into tiny Lego bits

As with Traveller Tales’ series of Lego games, Lego Batman manages to appeal to gamers of all ages, non-gaming fans of the Batman universe and Lego enthusiasts. The gameplay won’t exactly challenge any serious gamer but it’s entertaining and endearing (the Lego characters are surprisingly expressive despite the fact that they don’t even speak a single word in the game.)

The series is also highly addictive : I still remember replaying the Star Wars game multiple times to collect enough coins to unlock additional characters and goodies to play with)

I wonder what’s next in store for Traveller’s Tales and the Lego videogames. Since Batman is a Warner Bros license, another WB franchise (Harry Potter or even better, Lord of the Rings) might be already in the works for Traveller Tales. Let’s keep our fingers crossed

Download and play the Lego Batman demo.

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Wallpapers Wednesday : Crusaders - Thy Kingdom Come

Roys — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:00:01 +0000

Wallpapers and concepts from Neocore Games’ RTS Crusaders : Thy Kingdom Come set in the time of the Crusades. The exact Crusade isn’t mentioned on the website, but it’s probably the First Crusade which culminated in the capture (and infamous massacre) of Jerusalem in 1099. No news about a demo version either

Below are the concept art of three of the five playable heroes in-game. From top to bottom : Roger of Hastings, Godfrey of Toulouse and Roberto of Naples.

The background stories for the five characters can be found here.

While the unit models don’t seem to share the randomized look of Medieval : Total War 2, the detail of each model is rather impressive, especially the ornate armour of the knights and their chargers. The terrain doesn’t look half bad either like the rolling hills behind Godfrey of Toulouse below.

Download these wallpapers and concepts from the official Crusaders : Thy Kingdom Come website at Neocore Games.

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Military Tuesday : MINDEF Commemorative Books - Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks

Roys — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:00:16 +0000

A series of books commemorating the anniversaries of the various services and commands of the Singapore Armed Forces. Since the electronic versions of these books are up for download at the official Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) site, there shouldn’t have any issues with OPSEC I hope.

Some nice photos in Once Armour, Always Armour, the commemorative Book for the SAF Armour Formation’s 35th anniversary in 2004, but nothing much new that we guys in Singapore that have served National Service haven’t seen in there.

Locally manufactured Bionix 25 AFVs with an AMX-13 in the top left corner

The 2003 Wings on High book which celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) includes a history of the RSAF starting from the three propeller-driven Cessna planes that constituted the Singapore Air Defence Command in 1968 together with photos of the various warplanes that served the RSAF from the old Hawker Hunters, A-4SU Super Skyhawks with the RSAF to the current F-16s and AH-64D Apaches.

An Apache sporting the current low-visibility RSAF roundel adopted since 1990. You can see the previous Yin-Yang style roundel used from 1973 to 1990 at Wikipedia.

And in the 40th anniversary commemorative book of the SAF Military Police Command, we get several peeks into of the dreaded SAF Detention Barracks (SAFDB), probably the first thing that comes to mind for SAF service personnel when the Military Police are mentioned.

An montage of the Close Protection Operators who provide the security details for both local and foreign military VIPs during state and military functions.

A series of blck-and-white photos from Mission Ready : SAF Peacekeepers in Timor-Leste by local photographer Ken Seet.

And last but not least, the 2002 Shoulder to Shoulder which marked the 35th anniversary of National Service - the rite of passage for all Singaporean guys which all starts with the haircut that awaits all recruits at the barracks upon enlistment.

Download these ebooks and more at the MINDEF e-Books page.

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Random Monday : Edutainment Games (IV) - Sushi! Waxy’s Sushi Party

Roys — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:00:24 +0000

A slick game requiring a rarely seen combination of fast reflexes and wait … mad maths skillz?

Waxy is a sushi chef - a seriously overworked one. Not only do you have to to help Waxy serve up orders by press the correct buttons when the coloured dots enter the zones with the same colours (from two to four depending on difficulty levels), but you’ll also have to double up occassionally as cashier, sum up the totals for the orders and enter the correct amount through the numpad keys (ensure Num Lock is on) after your patrons have eaten their fill.

Waxy’s worth to the sushi restaurant is measured in the amount of yen he generates for the restaurant - it’s pointless if Waxy manages to serve up all orders without missing a beat yet diners refuse to pay a single yen due to incorrectly calculated bills. A correct bill also earns Waxy all the money currently in the tipping bowl : make a miscalculation and lose everything in there. The tipping bowl can also be emptied by Waxy’s irate boss if he fails to continually serve a certain number of orders (watch the mood meter on the left).

To increase the number of yen earned per stage (known as a service in-game) to better keep his job, Waxy can opt to increase the price of each type of sushi sold after each successful service if he receives a satisfactory rank. Get a D for your rank and Waxy’s gonna be out of a job. Changing the prices will also improve your mental addition and multiplication skills, so why not?

To achieve even more points,you can elect to serve one of four special bonuses using the cursor keys and rack up additional yen (if you have any fingers left after frantically juggling orders and bills)

Remember to take the four lessons before starting the game proper as they’ll take you through the basics of taking orders and collecting bills and tips. You can skip lessons 1 and 2 since serving orders and collecting bills are very easy but the bits about tips and bonuses in lessons 3 and 4 are absolutely crucial for understanding the finer details of the game mechanics.

Don’t forget to view your achievements too. Look under Options > Show Awards, I even assisted Waxy in winning an award for being fired

Download Sushi! Waxy’s Sushi Party.

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Art Friday : Warrior Epic Concept Art and Wallpapers

Roys — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:00:15 +0000

Warrior Epic is one of the numerous MMORPGs featured recently on the freeware game release and news site Gamers for Games with better looking art (at least in my opinion). Developed by Possibility Space, Warrior Epic showcases a lot of variety in the substantial collection of concepts available on the official website.

Some of the concepts for Warrior Epic evokes images of abandoned South American temples half-hidden by the surrounding jungle and the Spanish conquistadors such as the works below.

Other artworks come across as concepts for a medieval hack-and-slash with heroes and heroines slaying both orcs and monsters alike (and probably saving the world at the same time)

Some of the characters designs are rather cool, my favourites being the heavily armored ones (as usual). My absolute favourite is the one below which looks a miner armed with two vicious pick-axes

Speaking of character designs, I especially like this series of otherworldly and wildly imaginative looking character designs uploaded on 12 October 2007 - the style reminds me of works created by wood engraving.

Some excellent illustrations of (presumably) the available character classes in action below.

Check out the concept art for Warrior Epic (Currently down. Sorry!)

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