Free PC Gaming Blog

EA is giving away the original full version of Command and Conquer for free!! Check out the test from the site:

Today, August 31st, 2008 marks the 13th anniversary of the storied Command & Conquer franchise, which has sold over 25 million copies to date. And to celebrate this milestone and this October’s highly anticipated return to the world of Red Alert with Red Alert 3, we are giving away one of the original games that started it all, Command & Conquer Red Alert, for FREE.

And because we are also offering Red Alert 2 for free for those who pre-order Red Alert 3 before October 27th, C&C fans…YOU can walk away with Red Alert, Red Alert 2 and Red Alert 3 - all for the price of Red Alert 3 ($49.99 standard edition, $64.99 Premier Edition).

Read more and download the free original Command and Conquer here.

While this blog usually focuses on free full version pc games, this post is a slight deviation to list out many of the Flash and Shockwave Christmas games I’ve found while scrounging around the web (in no particular order). I hope you can find something to enjoy here. If you have other favorites not listed here, leave a comment with the link! Merry Christmas to all of you and may you receive all of the games you’ve been hoping for!

• Deep Freeze
• Snowball Fight
• Ready IM Fight
• Santa’s Snowball
• Super Snowmobile Rally
• The Santa Express
• Hitman Christmas
• Turkey X-Mas
• Holiday Express
• Chicken Invaders 2: Christmas Edition
• Santa Balls 2
• Fat Santa
• Snow Line
• Elf Academy
• Polar Rescue
• Rudolf’s Special Delivery
• Snow Drift
• Christmas Elf Game
• Snowcraft
• Winter Workout
• Adventure Elf
• Attack of the Mutant Artificial Trees
• Santa Vs. Jack
• Naughty or Nice

One of the best things about online games (especially free ones!) is the fact that there is new content constantly being developed. This is especially cool when the online content reflects real world holidays. I already mentioned in a previous post that MapleStory had added Halloween content. I just learned that DragonFable is also getting into the spooky spirit with Mogloween!

Here’s the info from DragonFable:

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Myx Bubble! Four beautiful witches and one sinister cauldron bent on world domination… what could possibly go wrong?

This year DragonFable explores the origin of one of AdventureQuests favorite holidays, Mogloween! This cross-over event introduces the Cauldron sisters who are trying to take of the world… of candy making! Their specialty is something that will definitely drive all the moglins crazy.

This years event culminates in a huge titan battle! Make sure to talk to Twilly in Falconreach and get your own dragon and start on the journey to become a full DragonLord!

NEW RELEASES:
* Trick or Treat!
* Visit with Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble!
* Upgrade the Harvest Weapons!
* Get all twelve Masks!
* Get more candy with each mask unlocked!
* CAAAAAANDY!

COMING SOON:
* Special Holiday Pumpkin King Armor!
* Fight the ebil mastermind!
* Prepare your dragons for a holiday Titan Battle!

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.

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!

Being a child of the 80’s, I can’t wait to see the new Transformers movie coming out in a few days. I religiously watched the transformers battle it out and nearly cried during the original “Transformers the Movie.” (Come on, that movie was traumatic to watch!) I know, I’m a little worried about changes, updates, etc. But I’m ready to sit back and be entertained by Mr. Michael Bay and company.

There’s a cool, free to play, online flash game that they have posted called “Battle for the Allspark“. First you choose your side, pick your bot and name him. Then you enter into a map that shows Autobot or Decepticon controlled regions. You choose the region you want to enter into, find an opponent, and battle it out.

It’s very simple combat, but fun to jump in and play. They’ve got a built in chat so that you can chat (or taunt) your opponent. As you gain experience, you can actually rise in rank and develop new abilities to use in battle.

There are also prizes for the highest scoring bot from each faction. Check it out and let me know what you think…

Back in 2000 when I first started to learn flash, I wanted to learn by putting a game together. The Star Wars Trilogy has always been and still remains my favorite movies of all time. I decided to make my first attempt at a flash game a tribute to Star Wars. So that began Star Wars Tie-P Fighter.

The game is a “typing game”. Basically swarms of tie fighters attack and the targeting is based on pressing a letter that is assigned to that ship. As simple as this premise is, it turned out to be a really fun game!

Fast forward a couple years and over time many educators have linked to it to assist students in learning how to type! The game gets a lot of visitors a day. I’m thrilled that teachers have used this game to educate and that others still log in to try and top their highest score.

So, in honor of the 30th anniversary, I wanted to post back out to my little Star Wars game I made in flash so many years ago. I hope you have fun with it, and may the force be with you!!