Aero Style
 
Flight-combat games are pretty lacking in the freeware realm so games like Aero Style are pretty refreshing for the stagnant genre. As such, I give Aero Style it's decidedly positive score just for being a decent flying game with decent graphics and decent gameplay. Nothing here will make you say wow, but Aero Style is still a very fun game, albeit a very simple fun game.
You cotrol your aircraft by sliding the mouse back and forth, using the left button to fire and the right button to perform barrel-rolls or to go over-and-behind your opponents. Enemies come to you in waves -small at first and then, gradually, bigger and bigger-, after clearing a few waves you beat the stage and move on to the next one. There are 3 difficulties with 5 unique stages each and plenty of different enemy types so for a game of its size (403kb) Aero Style packs a considerable amount of game. Reccomended for someone looking for 10 minutes of fun that you can keep coming back to.
PC REQUIREMENTS: DirectX8 |
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America's Army Pack
America's Army is probably the only freeware FPS with a massive, constantly populated server. Users cannot play in roles they have not trained under (in single player mode) so most people will be reasonably skilled even on their first multiplayer game. For example, a player will not be given a role involving jumping from aircraft unless they have successfully passed training tests in such jumps. America's Army is designed as a simulation and has a lot of (skippable) information on the army, giving it a very strong storyline. The realism of the game makes this game less enjoyable for those who are not skilled in FPSs. Sniping and camping cannot realistically be discourages and one-shot kills are quite possible. Fans of Goldeneye: 007 will probably enjoy this game far more than fans of Doom.
Download links to download page.
Note: As of this review, Homelan has a contract with the Army that states that it will not give your information to the US Army. You do not need to give the army your information in order to get or use this game. However, you must register with Homelan in order to play it.
This game does not contain excessive gore. However, because the violence is very realistic, this game is marked as violent.
PC REQUIREMENTS: Officially you need a strong graphics card that supports DirectX; at least a 32MB RAM GeForce2. However, my 16MB ATI works fine. |
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Ata
The full title of this game is "Ata - Extracts from the American Civil War". The game was created by a Finnish team of programmers who calls themselves Badgers. It took them 2 years to finish. Ata is a masterpiece without flaws! It's an awesome wargame with lots of strategy and fun action on the battle field. The graphics and animations are very good with a grain of humor added. I will not go into details about the gameplay because it's well described in the Readme.txt file that comes with the game. But basically, this 2-player game is about the war between the North and the South. One player controls the North troops and the other player controls the South troops. You each start out with only a few stats. There is a neat feature called Observation screen that allows you to look at any state and see what troops are there. I also noticed that in order to move your troops you need to click on the actual soldier for that state and not the state map. This will give you a foot for each state that you can move to. Ata also deals with trading as part of the war strategy. Don't forget that you have to click on the "TURN" icon when you are done with your moves. This game was created with DJGPP.
There is a patch (v1.15) to the download that you need to install too. This patch has a number of features, such as corrects problems with historical menus, improves internal menu handling, adds indians and mexicans, makes footmen capable of stabbing, stabilizes the game and uses VESA-handling code.
You can download the patch here. First you install the regular download, then you install the patch in the same directory. ATA was developed with DJGPP, however VC++ will be the tool of choice for the sequel ATA2.
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Battleships Forever
In Battleships Forever, you take control of a force of spaceships of varying sizes, each with different weapons and abilities. It looks and plays great.
There is a campaign mode with several missions, but also contains several modes. In Sandbox, you can freely spawn units and set up a battle to test things out. In Raid, you play the part of Pirates who must terrorize the local Shipping Lanes.In Blockade, you are defending a convoy. In Grinder, you battle ever stronger waves of foes. And Finally, in Leviathan, you must take down a titanic battle station.
All the modes play well, and the interface is intuitive. You can tell your ships to strafe, select individual guns, destroy individual sections of enemy ships, and wield many special abilities, like the Grav-Beam, which moves other ships, or the Flux Projector, which allows you to draw a temporary shield.
You can create custom ships quite easily, and use them in-game. Battleships Forever is still in development, so expect more to come!
PC REQUIREMENTS: Win98 or later 128mb Graphics Card 512mb of RAM Intel Pentium 2ghz and equivalent |
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Bobbyville Gold
Bobbies are happy simple souls who are forced through nefarious means to work in a mining camp. You are a lucky owner of this camp and it is up to you to ensure that you turn a nice profit from your 'employees'.
You must use the cash gained from mining to buy food, entertainment, shelter, medicine and other things for your Bobbies . You can force your minions to go without sleep while they work, but an unhappy Bobby might commit suicide. The choice between cruel and benevolent is a tricky one in this entertaining game; which will you choose?
The graphics on the menus and intro are intentionally very budget and lend a great charm to Bobbyville Gold. The same applies to the language used. When in-game the graphics are smoothly done pixel art.
There are a few problems here and there, but they are only visual and do not affect gameplay. Bobbyville Gold is a humorous timewaster which will indulge the meglomaniac in all of us.
Coming soon is the sequel: Bobbyville 2!
ADVISORY: This game contains spyware and adware.
PC REQUIREMENTS: Windows 95 or greater |
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SOURCE CODE
ASCII/TEXT GAME