Free PC Gaming Blog

Kuma Games has  a new free pc game available to download and play based on the new Spike TV show “The Kill Point“. The show, staring John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg, aired the first episode on July 22nd and will re-air on July 25th at 10pm EST.

The show’s is scheduled for a limited eight hour run.  Its plot revolves around a botched Pittsburgh bank robbery and the standoff that follows.

The free game can be downloaded directly from the Kuma games web site. Using the HalfLife 2 Engine, The Kill Point game allows for up to 16 cops vs. robbers in an online showdown.

From the Kuma Games site:

The Kill Point Game thrusts players into a dramatic world of gangs, guns and glory! Watch  TV’s most intense new series: The Kill Point, Sunday  nights on Spike TV, then enter the ultimate cops and robbers showdown in The Kill Point Game. Wage your own war on the bands of criminals or seasoned SWAT teams in massive multiplayer face-offs, take-no-prisoner style battles for control of the mean city streets. Your team’s goal: to infiltrate and decimate the other team using powerful automatic weaponry, voice communication, and raw instinct. The Kill Point Game: Captivating television comes to life!

I used to be big into Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, and Everquest 2. It always amazed me how much time I would start to invest in these virtual worlds. Real world time would slip away it seemed almost as fast as the much speedier time of a day in an online world. That is eventually why I stopped playing these games all together. I just didn’t have the time to put in to keep up with the guys that had hours and hours available to invest each day.

The idea of real world money in trade for MMO gold starts to become incredibly attractive for those lacking the time needed to really get ahead.  Everyone seems to make out in the end… the people who are putting the work and time into the virtual world can make real world money while those without real time can invest cash to advance their MMO character.

With Ebay stopping the sale of virtual items, a site like MMObay steps in to fill the virtual world transaction gap.  MMObay covers all of the biggest MMOs, from World of Warcraft gold to Runescape accounts for sale. They are also a member of Trust Who, an identification validation service removing anonymity from trading virtual goods and accounts.

If you’re looking to spend the cash for a high level character or trade real world money for online currency, this is the site to check out.

This post was sponsored by MMObay.

I just stumbled onto a very cool site tonight.  Game Giveaway of the Day claims to be releasing a new free full version licensed PC game available to download every day for 24 hours only. An excerpt from their site:

Giveaway of the day is a win-win solution for both publishers and clients
The idea behind this initiative is that many sites and publishers offer trial downloads; but only we offer giveaway downloads. What does that mean?

Basically, every day we nominate one software title that will be a Giveaway title of that day. The software will be available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software will be absolutely free. That means - not a trial, not a limited version - but a registered and legal version of the software will be free for our visitors.

The software product will be presented in its full functionality, without any limitations save for those mentioned in Terms and Conditions.

The download link will remain on our web-site for the agreed period of time, together with the review of the software product and the information about other products from the software publisher presenting the giveaway title.

Both reviews and the information on the product line will remain active even when the Giveaway period is over.

The information about Giveaway of the day and the participants of this initiative will be included in our newsletters and distributed among our visitors and subscribers.

We will pay the software publisher for the Giveaway license, and our visitors will only receive those after downloading a special verification program and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, thus protecting software publishers’ interests and making our initiative beneficial for both clients and publishing companies.

We believe that Giveaway of the day will allow both publishers and clients to meet each other and win together with our initiative.

That sounds good to me!  Below is the “Game Ticker” that they provide the code for.  It should be showing whatever the free game of the say is with a direct link.  I’ll have to keep a very close eye on this to see what kind of games they release!

The new beta build is up and running for the new free to play MMO: Mythos.  You can sign up for an invite into the next phase of beta testing. Looking at the posted screenshots, this Diablo style online MMO is looking pretty cool.  There seem to be a lot of games like this popping up these days that allow you to play for free, but give you more items and a jump ahead by putting up some cash (microtransactions).  This is kind of cool for those who have the cash but not the time to put into these games. It feels like a bit of a cheat for those putting massive amounts of time though, but as long as there’s a careful balance, I guess it’s a decent trade off. It’s kind of like real life that way, those with $$ can jump ahead while the rest of us need to bust our butts to keep up. I’ve found that this kind of model works well in the fact that you can get a good idea of the full game and make a well informed decision on whether or not you want to invest your money into it.  Let”s face it… while free is great for us, the programmers and guys putting these games together deserve and need to get compensated and have inspiration to continue developing great games.

This one for the kids out there (or big Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck fans). Mediaweek is reporting that Disney is starting to beta test a free advertiser supported version of its game.  A full launch of the free MMO is scheduled for sometime this fall.

With 17.5 million Toons already created, the online Disney population is sure to explode.  It sounds to me that with the popularity of games or virtual worlds like Second Life, they are looking to strike the same chord with a younger crowd. 

Disney lists the following as some of the features of the game:

• Creating your own Toon character
• Exploring different neighborhoods
• Furnishing your estate
• Customizing and racing karts
• Training a pet Doodle
• Teaming up with friends to defeat the Cogs

I think it’s great that they will be making this free.  We’ll have to see how the advertisements are integrated and displayed though. I’m also wondering if this will continue to be as “kid safe” once it’s made free to everyone. Keep an eye on the official site at http://play.toontown.com/.

comScore has released their World Metrics global study of online gaming sites. The study looks at unique visitors across sites that provide online or downloadable games (not including gambling sites). They claim that 28% of the total worldwide online population, or one in four people online in the month of May visited a gaming site. A study like this can only benefit gamers… it brings more awareness and legitimacy of the industry to the deep pockets out there. The only problem is that it may become more an more difficult to sort out the good stuff from the over hyped adver-games popping up around the web. That’s what we’re here to make some noise about!

Next year we should to see Kongregate on this list!! Robert Scoble did a post recently on Kongregate. He stated that the site’s traffic in May was 300,000 unique visitors while the traffic in June was up to 750,00, so they are definitely on their way. Spread the word and keep it going! Scoble also has a few videos posted with Jim Greer, co-founder of Kongregate. They are making all the right moves… I believe we’ll see this site just continue to explode as they continue to expand on their already great features and games (and achievements!).

Here’s an excerpt from the comScore Online Game Web Site study press release:

Worldwide Online Gaming Community Reaches 217 Million People

Online Gaming Web sites Average Nine Visits per Visitor Each Month

LONDON, UK, JULY 10, 2007 - comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a global study into online gaming, showing the number of unique visitors to these sites to have reached almost 217 million worldwide - a year-on-year growth of 17 percent.

The comScore World Metrix study took into account all sites that provide online or downloadable games, excluding gambling sites. The sector attracted 28 percent of the total worldwide online population in May and recorded an average of 9 visits per visitor. Said Bob Ivins, EVP and managing director of comScore Europe:

“With one in four Internet users visiting a gaming site, playing games online is extremely popular. The fact that these websites are pulling in over a quarter of the total worldwide Internet population shows what a global phenomenon gaming has become. The potential of the online gaming arena should be especially appealing for advertisers, as the average online gamer visits a gaming site 9 times a month.”

Yahoo! Games was the largest property, attracting 53 million unique visitors. MSN Games followed in second place, having grown by 16 percent since May 2006 to reach 40 million unique visitors in May 2007. Both properties provide a mixture of strategy, trivia, arcade, and board games, with puzzle and card games proving to be the most popular choices for gamers in both cases. The fastest-growing Top 10 gaming property was WildTangent Network, a US company that makes online and downloadable games, which grew by 398 percent year-on-year to attract 11.5 million unique visitors in May 2007. The site also attracted an average 12.2 visits per visitor, notably higher than any of the other top 10 gaming properties.

Regional Breakdown of Top 10 Worldwide Gaming Properties Ranked by Worldwide Unique Visitors May 2007 vs. May 2006 Total Worldwide, Age 15+ - Home and Work Locations* Source: comScore World Metrix
Property		Total Unique Visitors (000)			May 2007
		May-06	May-07	% Change	% Reach	Average Visits per Visitor
	Total Internet : Total Audience	705,644	771,997	9.4	100.0	54.8
	Online Gaming	185,992	216,715	16.5	28.1	8.9
1	Yahoo! Games	52,969	52,796	-0.3	6.8	4.2
2	MSN Games	34,915	40,335	15.5	5.2	2.5
3	MINICLIP.COM	25,554	30,249	18.4	3.9	3.8
4	EA Online	30,525	21,220	-30.5	2.7	9.3
5	Shockwave.com Sites	N/A	15,689	N/A	2.0	2.5
6	FREEONLINEGAMES.COM	10,050	13,660	35.9	1.8	2.3
7	ADDICTINGGAMES.COM	N/A	13,161	N/A	1.7	4.7
8	RealArcade Sites	15,950	12,520	-21.5	1.6	2.7
9	Zylom	7,271	12,471	71.5	1.6	5.7
10	WildTangent Network	2,329	11,584	397.5	1.5	12.2

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Read the full press release here.

This is a bit off topic for this blog, but free is free right? Ever since I posted about the free Transformers flash game, I’ve been seeing traffic coming from Google for people searching for the old Transformers TV shows for free… and sure enough, I’ve come across a great way to see them and many more TV shows on your computer legally for free.

The service I’m talking about is Joost. Joost is claiming to be “the best of the internet and TV.” This service is great! In addition to free Transformer TV shows, they have other classics like GI Joe, Babylon 5 episodes, Comedy Central shows, Adult Swim cartoons, MTV shows, and even full movies! The shows display in a full screen high quality format.

This is more than just free TV on your PC. There are social aspects allowing you to chat and rate content within the system. Here’s a short description directly from the site:

TV’s a fantastic thing, and we’re on a mission to make it even better. We’re combining the best things about television - great shows, great picture quality, something that everyone knows how to use - with the incredible power of the internet to bring people together and deliver entertainment on demand. In the process, we’re creating a new way to watch TV that does something amazing for everyone involved.

So you guys looking for free Transformers TV shows, this one’s for you! And now back to our regularly scheduled free PC gaming news…

Kongregate rocks. Period. And I only joined up for the first time today! This flash game portal has taken many of the best features found on services like Xbox Live and combined them with addicting flash games… and all for free. I love that achievements (nerd cred) are built into select games. This adds a new level to the gameplay and reasons to keep on playing. There’s also a points system where there may be prizes awarded in the future.

The social aspect is cool allowing you to live chat while playing. You can add friends and see when they are online. You can also see your “fans” or people who have added you as a friend. If you want to be a fan of mine, my username is “Boggslash”.

There are challenges available. At this point, for completing these challenges, you get “cards” that you eventually will be able to use in their own CCG game that is currently in development. This is how they describe it:

We’re not quite ready to release the full rules yet, but it’s a battle-oriented game designed by David Sirlin. The basic idea is that each player will have 5 character cards, which can each be equipped with an item card (weapon). Only one character card for each player will be active at any given time, however. Players will choose different moves for their active character, move around a bit (close range vs. long range), and even swap characters out mid-battle in response to different characters having different strengths and weaknesses against different opponents. Think card-based, tag-team, rock-paper-scissors Street Fighter with +10 awesomeness.

For a gamer geek like myself, this is awesome! I can’t wait to see what this CCG game looks like.

This site is a win win for gamers AND flash developers. Anyone can upload their own flash game and participate in a revenue share. Any clicks on ads will be split between the site and the game developer.

Like I said, I just started playing around and checking out this site today. My first impression was wow, this is an incredible idea and seems like a great community to get involved with. I’m sure I’ll be chatting up some of the great games here in future posts.

Check out Kongregate now and start earning those achievements!

Game Domain International has been offering a beta sign up to try out there gaming virtual world named “A World of My Own“. They claim that initially there will be up to 50 games from top publishers available, although there is no mention of the actual titles. I just signed up… I’m curious to see what this is all about. Here’s the official press release:

GDI opens registration for the Beta phase of revolutionary gaming community and digital delivery system, AWOMO

50 games available from top publishers free for select few

London, UK, 25 May 2007: Game Domain International Ltd (GDI) today announced that it has opened the registration for the free Beta test of AWOMO (’A World Of My Own’), a revolutionary game digital delivery service embedded within a 3D “virtual world” island paradise for gamers, in which launching a game is as simple as walking into a building.

Unlike other online delivery services, which require the entire game to be downloaded before the gamer starts playing, AWOMO delivers the same game playable in a matter of minutes on a standard broadband connection using GDI’s new proprietary technology.

There are 30,000 places up for grabs in the Beta test, expected to begin in July. Over 50 PC games will be in the trial, with no charge to gamers who sign up. The first gamers to set foot within AWOMO will also have access to a number of custom virtual items that will forever identify them as founder members of the community.

“Competition to get in there first for the trial is likely to be intense,” said Roger Walkden, CEO of GDI Ltd. “Apart from getting to play over 50 games for free, the early birds will grab the best usernames and have the kudos of being the elders of the island.”

There will also be AWOMO subscriptions to be won, and introductory offers for the final service when it goes live. And for those who take their gaming super-seriously, there is the chance to become a member of the elite tester unit – a group of Beta testers chosen as permanent members of the GDI test team.

To register for the free Beta phase, gamers should visit www.awomo.com and click on the tab ‘Beta test sign-up’. Places on the Beta are on a first come, first served basis so users should visit at the earliest possible opportunity to secure a place.

This could be really cool, we’ll just have to wait and see.

To all of my fellow US readers, Happy 4th of July!! Go enjoy some fireworks…

Being a PC guy myself, I don’t find myself venturing into the Mac world very often. The closest I probably come is firing up iTunes and syncing up my iPod on my PC. When we did the list of 100 full free pc games to download online, there were some comments asking about where the Mac list was. Well, when looking to do my first ReviewMe review, I came across a source for free mac games and more.

According to the about page, Macgamesandmore.com is run by Cate Defrise and focuses on independent Mac shareware developers. There are many categories of downloadable Mac games and software including free games and demos. A few categories mentioned are Mac Mahjong, Risk-like Games, Soccer Games and many others. They also link off to many web based flash games that would work for either the Mac or PC crowd.

A suggestion I would have for the site is to develop a more consistent navigation. I found it a bit hard to navigate when the layout would completely change or I’d wind up in a new window for different areas. Also, the RSS feed seems to be currently empty. This would be great to syndicate the free web games featured on the home page or one of the other categories.

So if you’re a Mac guy or gal, and you’re looking for free games or software or even if you’re a PC guy looking for some flash games to play, check out macgamesandmore.com.