The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Introducing Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, a little freebie I found at the official World of Warcraft goodies page while looking for a HD version of Mr T’s old WoW commercial featuring his custom Night Elf Mohawk. (What? You don’t know Mr T?) While I’m not a fan of World of Warcraft, but hey, a free game is a free game

Popcap’s Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition is essentially a free sampler of their original best-selling Peggle comprising 2 stages of five colourful World of Warcraft themed levels each. Resembling pachinko or “Japanese pinball”, the player has to eliminate all orange pieces by play by shooting at them directly or indirectly (duh )

It differs from pinball in the sense that that are no flippers which greatly simplifies gameplay since it’s a game intended for casual gamers but apart from that, it’s loaded with lots of blinking lights, whizzy sound effects and insane scores in the hundreds of thosuands, just like being at a pinball table.

Despite its apparent simplicity, it’s oddly addictive since most of the later levels require more than a fair bit of logic and puzzle-solving skills – you can’t just mindlessly shoot and hope to clear the level with pure luck – just see this strategy page for Peggle. As for replayability, there’s really little incentive in replaying levels after you’ve completed them unless you’re aiming to bust the high scores table. There is however the Challenge mode to boost the longevity factor although it’s mainly aimed for the masters or hardcore fanatics.

If you like Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition, there’s always the original Peggle with 55 levels and playable on a mind-boggling array of platforms – PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, iPhone, mobile phones, online and even as a free 12 level World of Warcraft addon.

Download Peggle : World of Warcraft Edition.

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An enhanced shareware version of Battleship, the classic turn-based game for two in which each player attempts to be the first to sink all his/her opponent’s ships, Strategy Lights Series’ Battleship WW2 Gold Edition is an innovative PC-based version that adds substantial depth to the original game with a selection of well-thought out features.

Don’t judge Battleship WW2 by the archaic in-game graphics because under those utilitarian visuals lies a solid, engaging naval strategy game – or a wargame-lite if you will. Definitely more realistic than pencil-and-paper Battleship, Battleship WW2 is no hardcore naval stimulation by any means though – lightly-armed corvettes aren’t likely to sink a battleship, not in this modern age and definitely not back then in WWII, but they do in this game.

Loads of stuff to play with … if you buy the full version, of course

If you can overlook this slight lapse in realism, you’ll find Battleship WW2 perfect as a simple introductory naval strategy/wargame. With 50 types of ships, submarines, planes and coastal artillery and a larger fleet that can move around on a significantly larger playing area, you can simulate historical scenarios with ease – something you definitely cannot do with the original Battleship game.

Since ships have different radar ranges to detect enemy ships and planes and in addition, only select classes have sonar to detect those nasty submarines, there’s loads of strategy involved in tailoring your battle fleet before starting each mission and when manuevering during the actual mission – a battlefleet comprising only the mightiest battleships may look good on paper but will quickly succumb to enemy submarines which can approach undetected and then make quick work of the entire fleet of behemoths without any fear of retaliation.

Sure, you’ll still need battleships, heavy cruisers and their heavy firepower to destroy enemy capital ships and/or aircraft carriers with fighters to defend against marauding torpedo-bombers and bombers to attack coastal fortifications but a combined fleet with corvettes/destroyers steaming farther ahead to screen these larger ships from prowling enemy submarines stands a much better chance of completing the mission successfully. Other essential ships to reinforce your fleet include unarmed auxiliary ships to repair damaged warships and of course, submarines to hunt for unwary targets.

Battleship WW2 uses attributes like movement range, firing range, radar/sight range, number of shots per turn (simulating the number of guns/torpedoes on each ship) and armour (hitpoints) to represent the different classes of ships available. It does a very good job differentiating the various ships, but the fact that hits from a cruiser and a corvette both cause exactly the same amount of damage does jar the realism somewhat.

Hunting the Bismarck

Different mission objectives call for different fleet configurations and range from the direct annihilation of enemy shipping to liberation of enemy ports or the defense of friendly ports in the area of operations.

More missions! … if you buy, buy, buy

The full version of Battleship WW2 contains a total of 110 missions, 4 campaigns of 10 to 15 missions each and allows the construction of all 50 types of units to equip your forces. The shareware version lacks the campaigns and most of the missions and ships. Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had experimenting with the optimum fleet build and testing them out in battle

Download Battleship WW2 Gold Edition.

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Federation Wrestling is just one of Mat Dickie‘s many games from a prolific game development career spanning nine years from 2000 to the present day. Essentially an one-man development team, you gotta respect someone like Mat who took it upon himself to code and create the accompanying graphics and sounds to implement his own gameplay ideas into real, playable games.

Mat Dickie, da Man!

Federation Wrestling is a freeware release of one of the older games in Mat Dickie’s portfolio. While the 2D sprites may turn off gamers used to the photorealistic 3D graphics in today’s games, I find these old-skool graphics nostalgic as they remind me of a time when pro-wrestling was more entertainment than bloody violence that the current WWE has become.

While there are no licensed wrestlers in Federation Wrestling, any wrestling aficionado will surely appreciate the sheer customization options offered by this game. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Federation Wrestling was developed by a big wrestling fan

After tweaking your wrestler’s appearance, fighting animations and moves (and even the entry theme music) to your heart’s content, lead him (sorry, there’s no option to create a female wrestler) to fame and glory though a 12 month contract to prove himself as the best in the game. Thankfully, the story in the 48 match Contract mode isn’t half bad either (for a wrestling game, that is )

action

Standard moves like punching, kicking and grappling are available to everyone together with loads of different bodyslams, suplexes and submission holds and other special moves for each wrestler. While climbing up the turnbuckle for more risky aerial moves is possible, there’s unfortunately no way for running clotheslines and the like since the ropes are static (and your wrestler can’t run).

Aku Rinne staring intently at a stick of dynamite as he enters the arena. It’s gonna be one explosive match tonight

As you make your entrance into the ring with your custom theme music blaring in the background, note the bewildering array of handy tools like microphones, baseball bats (and wait, dynamite??) lying around conveniently outside the ring for the dirty players. Some of the largerprops like glass panels and crates are interactive too – try tossing your opponent through the glass and see what happens next

Aku Rinne just busted Benjo onto a long table

Watch out when you use your dirty tricks though since not every match allows the referee to turn a blind eye to your wrestler bonking his opponent over the head repeatedly with a microphone. Different rules, scoring systems and optional gimmicks like steelcage matches will ensure that the matches in Contract mode never end up being overly repetitive.

Download Mat Dickie’s Federation Wrestling (scroll, scroll, scroll).

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Behold Alien Assault, a recently released freeware offering by Swedish development team TearDown, the rules of which will be instantly recognizable to players of Games Workshop’s Space Hulk.

Your team of soldiers in their green S.P.A.R.T.A.N battlesuits will take the fight to vicious aliens lurking behind heavy steel doors and prowling along dark claustrophobic corridors. But not to worry, a very intuitive mouse-driven interface and a comprehensive tutorial campaign makes learning the ropes of Alien Assault a breeze even if you’re no Space Hulk veteran.

Unfortunately, the close quarters combat in Alien Assault is brutally unforgiving and your troops rarely survive once those pesky aliens get to servo-gauntlet’s range to use their sharp claws Positioning your soldiers in areas with clear fields of fire, mutual support between soldiers (the standard issue Thunderbolt assault carbine can be frustratingly inaccurate at times) and the proper use of overwatch mode will hopefully retain enough survivors in your team to enable you to complete the mission objectives.

Uh-oh. Blips = BAD!

Sound effects are suitably atmospheric – from the crunch of your soldiers’ heavy armoured boots to the growl of hungry aliens attempting to tear your team into bite-sized pieces. I haven’t really got much other information to offer about Alien Assault apart from the rather obvious stuff stated above since I’ve been constantly sending soldiers to become alien snacks in Mission 7 : Onslaught

Don’t get too attached to your soldiers – the lifespan of each soldier is violently short

Download Alien Assault.

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Downloaded this free Falcom game Lord Monarch at the same time as Vantage Master Online (two years back!) but didn’t get the hang of it until recently. It’s actually quite fun once you understand how to effectively command your troops in battle.

Lord Monarch is essentially a grand strategy game where you have to defeat and destroy your opponents by conquering and holding to their territory. More territory means more troops for your military maneuvers and troops are the only resource that is important in Lord Monarch. Everything else is pretty much abstracted out in its depiction of military power since the army with the most troops always wins.

The modelling of war might seem simplistic but this is what makes Lord Monarch so fun because only the strategic skill of opposing commanders will make or break their armies fighting in the field. By default, settlements in friendly territory will generate troops at regular intervals who will then expand your territory by building more settlements or rush to the nearest skirmish in scattered little units. While this automatic behaviour is usually sufficient when there are no huge enemy armies rampaging nearby, challenging an enemy with superior numbers in this way is akin to throwing eggs against a stone wall. You can adjust the default orders by right clicking anywhere in the map – you’ll also need to click Start in the same menu to actually commence each level too

A competent commander will assemble troops behind the frontlines into larger armies to defend chokepoints, open multiple fronts, conduct raids or simply as a reserve for future operations. Raiding is particularly effective as it diverts enemy troops from the front lines and temporarily disrupts the quantity of enemy reinforcements from the captured settlements until they are retaken.

Building up an army to assault the enemy stronghold

Securing the bridge

To amass a huge army, left click to select one of your units, left click the location where you want it to assemble and then select Standby from the popup menu. Troops moving towards that unit will then join the army while it waits for your next order.

Once the army is large enough, select it and give a destination by left clicking and choose Standby to advance to the new position while your reinforcements mop up all resistance in its wake. Alternatively order it to Build or Destroy, the latter commanding it to wipe out all opposition before settling in.

Blocking reinforcements from the enemy castle while another army destroys all in its path

Supply is equally abstracted in Lord Monarch. An army isolated in the midst of enemy territory will eventually bleed itself dry from prolonged combat as it can only receive reinforcements from settlements that are not blocked by enemy armies. Also, troops that are not in a settlement slowly lose strength.

Lord Monarch is not always about war in the traditional sense – this stage requires you to dominate over 3 other rival fast food chains

To advance to the next stage, you need to complete the map within the alloted number of days. If you find the days run by too fast, adjust the game speed by moving the slider to the left in the progress window (below).

Download Lord Monarch. Remember to create a SAVE folder in the game folder, otherwise you will not be able to save your games!

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