The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Currently playing the demos for several of the games available for purchase at GOG.com and primarily settled on the racing games for a quick adrenaline fix – today’s all about the demo for Bugbear Entertainment’s Flatout.

Now Flatout isn’t a game that takes itself seriously – there’s the standard races both onroad and offroad but there’s also crazy stunt races which makes good use of the absurd and overexaggerated physics model and even demolition arenas (not in demo).

The demo allows you to belt up and tear up the Finchley Forest dirt track and a proper racetrack at Fairgrass Grounds (and half of the surroundings) in your muscle car. Actually, skip the part about belting up since your race driver alter-ego has an reckless disregard for safety regulations and a even more alarming tendency to crash thorough the windscreen when you collide into one of the many obstacles on track – why anyone would park a container trailer in the middle of the road is really beyond my comprehension Expect to see debris and car parts strewn across the tracks as less unfortunate (or less skilled) drivers run smack into the unmovable obstacles (others can be powered through with sufficient speed).

With over 40 deformable and destructable parts per car, it’ll take a good driver to keep his car unscathed thoroughout the entire race – I usually get my car half busted up during the scrape at the first curve jockeying for position with the rest of the AI drivers and end each race with a flaming engine. While I don’t drive in real life, the traction on gravel and tarmac surfaces feels sufficiently different to warrant different approaches on tackling the curves on each track.

There isn’t much to find fault with Flatout really – unless you’re a purist who demands realistic physics, licensed cars and simulator-like performance modelling – if you prefer fun over complete realism in your racing games, you’ll probably enjoy Flatout. My only grouse is that I would love to play the game with an incar camera view but Flatout doesn’t offer that.

Download the demo for Flatout (Fileshack mirror) or buy the full game as a DRM-free digital download at GOG.com for 5.99 USD.

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Initial D Opening Cinematic

I believe most seasoned (or snobbish) gamers like yours truly don’t exactly regard electronic versions of golf and/or solitaire as extremely exciting games to play and any game combining both seems even less palatable. However Grey Alien Games’ awesome Fairway Solitaire has proven me wrong this time – yep, as much as I hate to admit it but it’s a damn fine game

A single player card game with a golf theme published by Big Fish Games (who are giving it for free till 30 May 2009, see this Jayisgames post), Fairway Solitaire is truly an addictive game especially for Windows Solitaire addicts, golf maniac or card gamers (or even if you’re none of the above).

I don’t understand golf (my very rudimentary knowledge stems from playing the archaic Fuji Golf on Windows 3.1) and neither do I like card games but this game sucked up the time I was intending to spend on playing Mount & Blade .

Like solitaire, its very easy to learn – just match cards from the deck with those numbered one higher or lower (the suit doesnt matter) to remove them from play. Play six or more than cards in a row and get a Long Drive bonus which gives a multipler to your cash earnings at the end of each hole. The number of leftover cards after each round minus the par for that hole constitutes your score and is capped at a maximum of five above par.

Special cards like iron cards which can be used anytime to match any card higher or lower by one, sand wedge cards to clear the corresponding sand trap cards and dreaded water hazard cards make it feel like a day at the golf course. Wild Shot cards add an element of chance to the game and adds a slew of minigames to mix things up and keep things interesting. These features and the Long Drives make winning in games of Fairway Solitaire more about strategy rather than a lucky deal.

If everything sounds too confusing, don’t worry as the excellent nine hole course at The Golf Academy serves as an excellent tutorial. And who knows, you might learn a interesting new thing or two, like wormburners

Graphics are pretty attractive for a casual game and for once I get to choose a granny avatar – you don’t get this in most games, do you? Sounds are minimal at best, the only things you’ll probably hear is some commentary and polite applause. (it’s a game of golf, not soccer, you know) However, Fairway Solitaire still doesn’t change my opinion of golf – golf fashion is really stuffy and yucky

Got to play better, Granny needs a new long skirt at the Golf Shop

Download Fairway Solitaire for free until 31 May 2009 – instructions at this Jayisgames post on 4 free Big Fish Games. (Azada is not too bad, but Fairway Solitaire rules!)

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Read about Santiago Zapata’s Expedition, a ASCII exploration game from Cymons Games’ review for the 2009 7DRL Challenge.

In Expedition, you are Christopher Columbus, explorer and commander of an expeditionary force preparing to embark on a journey to discover the New World.

Before you eagerly step aboard your ships and set sail on your historic voyage, remember to explore the town and outfit your expedition for the impending journey. The shops labelled 1 to 5 in red will provide the necessary stores, weapons, equipment and manpower for a fruitful expedition.

Expedition is a game for those who prefer to simply go forth and conquer, since the primary option available is to hire a company of soldiers, marines or archers, equip them well with suits of armour (only soldiers can wear plate armour) and cold steel (press a to arm the troops or i for troop attack and defence stats) before sending them over to the New World to teach the native tribes there the benefits of modern civilization and technology. Just remember to head west after you weigh anchor – it’s always tempting to sail south for Morocco, but sorry, it’s already been discovered

There is presently no peaceful way to conduct your explorations – you can build (press b) a new town with 200 wood and 100 rogues but it doesn’t seem to offer any benefits when built. Then again, Expedition is currently only at version 0.16 so there’s still a lot of untapped potential in the game (read : unfinished features )

I recommend the MP3 version of Expedition – Dominik Markzuk’s The 3 Caravels included in Expedition is a wonderfully appropriate piece of music.

Download Expedition.

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Over the next few weeks (months?), I’ll be writing about my impressions of the demos for some older games that I’m currently playing. Most of these games ran sluggishly on my hopelessly outdated PC back then so I gave them another shot recently with my new PC. Several titles are actually quite good, although not Game of The Year material, but still enjoyable enough

Today, I start off with the demo of GSC Game World’s Heroes of Annihilated Empires released in 2006. I downloaded the demo for this game solely on the basis of the action-packed E3 2006 trailer released on Gametrailers.

Small horde…

Big horde …

Bigger horde …

The demo offers a single mission from the Elven campaign which you play RPG style, leading solitary ranger Elhant who’s finding his way back to World Mountain in the fantasy land of Aquador. Of course in typical RPG fashion, Elhant starts off at level 1 and tackles progressively larger groups of tougher enemies until he attains enough power (the maximum level for demo mission is 80), items and magic to singlehandedly raze the enemy’s base to the ground while simultaneously cutting down entire companies of skeletons, zombies and other undead beasties defending the stronghold. That’s right, Heroes of Annihilated Empires is also a RTS (skirmishes allow you to play in either RPG or RTS modes – my advice is to stick to RPG mode – the RTS mode is 100% conventional and feels underwhelmingly weak compared to the RPG mode.

As you can see from the screenshots, the world of Aquador is excellently rendered with lush grasslands, glowing red lava caverns, barren deserts and gloomly graveyards. The beautifully illustrated portraits and magic cards, combined with the magical lighting effects for Elhant’s spells make Heroes of Annihilated Empires a very good looking game indeed. Oh, the addition of a wrecked MiG-29 ‘Fulcrum’ fighter jet in Aquador below is rather intriguing too

The RPG mode adds little innovations to the genre but exploring a wondrously beautiful world like Aquador makes up for it. An interesting game mechanic in Heroes of the Annihilated Empires is that when you level up, you either pick one of two randomly selected stat increases or skip both upgrades and choose from the full list of upgrades upon the next level-up instead. The game also colours the display in a reddish haze as a visual cue when Elhant is critically wounded and paintsthe world with a bluish tinge when Elhant is being resurrected from the dead. If I’m not wrong, I believe Normal difficulty provides unlimited lives, Hard difficulty grants a total of 3 lives to your character.

The belligerent critters that inhabit Aquador are very nicely modelled although the same can’t be said of the units of the Elven or Undead factions – they’re easy cannon fodder for high level heroes like Elhant even when they fill the entire screen in the hundreds which probably explains the need for low res 2D sprites to represent them.

I felt that Heroes of Annihilated Empires could be a better game if the gimmicky RTS mode was scrapped – the elven units accompanying Elhant fall like flies when up against determined opposition. Furthermore archers and mages have a habit of taking potshots at enemy units in range while Elhant is busy fighting elsewhere and elicting a furious and usually lethal response from a bunch of very annoyed orcs or other nasties. This RTS-style micromanagement of units simply complicates matters without adding anything substantial to the gameplay.

Download Heroes of Annihilated Empires demo or visit the official site.

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Caught Shotgun FunFun from www.g4g.it back in March 2009. In Chad Chisolm’s Shotgun FunFun, the protagonist Buck Morris must unload as many shells from his trusty pump-action shotgun on the endless waves of claylike man-chomping, soul-sucking demons swarming into the level. Alternatively, he can opt to punch their heads in with the right mouse button when they get too close for comfort.

Firing the shotgun has a nice punchy boom to it (go easy on your speaker’s volume control since it will probably bring a warm fuzzy ring to your ears after prolonged playing ). Not that you will survive for that long since those accursed demons keep coming no matter how many you put down. Although there are several safe spots within the single level in the game to camp and take potshots at those pesky demons, that’s not how Shotgun FunFun’s supposed to be played Besides, there isn’t an exit out of this level – you wouldn’t want to share breathing space with a horde of ravenous demons, would you?

Your sole purpose therefore, is sell your life as dearly as possible and go out in a blaze of glory by taking out as many demons before they tear you to bits. Your final score is measured by your survival time multipled by your aggression level (average kills per 2 seconds)

Overall, a nice little timekiller – it’s not something you’ll play for a long time but it’s quite a lot of fun while it lasts

Download Shotgun FunFun.

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