Freeware PC

http://www.fyrebug.com/

This site allows you to make your own Flash games without all the complexities of Flash programming. The game engines are already built so all you need to provide is the material to construct a game. For example, if you're going to make a 2D platformer, then you're probably going to need to provide sprites for the main character, power-ups, blocks, enemies etc. The rest is built by the game and you can enjoy a simple Flash game partially built by you.

For example, I made this Metal Gear Solid game, all did was create Snake, Ocelot, upload the background and music and voila! I had a game in about 15 minutes that I can call my own. Check it out below.


Click here to make your own Fyrebug game


There are many other types you can make like a match games, shooters, puzzle and even tennis like games. There is a limit to this but what more do you want? Everything on the site is free.

You can also share materials that other people have uploaded from their games and use them in yours. The community is also growing fast, you can earn medals for doing different things on Fyrebug and increase your point level. There is also apparently some more advanced tools coming in the near future to help you make more complicated games.

If your tired and fed up with those other game creators and just want to make something simple, this is the place. Check out Fyrebug, it's not a waste of time.

I am currently working changing the format and aim of this website. Instead of just focusing on just free PC games, I think opening the forum to free applications in general. This would still include free games but now anything that is free like PC management software.

Stay tuned!

Penguins are all the rage today, especially this one. You play as Pablo who has been experimented on and now he's had enough. He is ready to give out some revenge, so be prepared for blood and bullets. This 2D side scrolling shooter is great and should not be ignored. Penguin DT brings you TAGAP.

The action is solid in TAGAP as you'll make your way through various levels. The gameplay is rarely dull, leaving you constantly firing your guns at other enemies and dodging the fire from their weapons. You are initially equipped with a machine gun but your arsenal will quickly grow as you pick shotguns, plasma rifles and other weapons.

Controls are easy to learn and customizable. My only complaints about the controls are that Pablo moves slow and when he jumps, he floats instead of falling.

The sound and music are superb. The guns sound cool, the music fits the game environments and even Pablo chimes in with some of his own commentary.

The graphics in TAGAP really stand out. Lighting, animations and everything else very well done. Your enemies explode into clouds of blood, which I thought was very amusing and satisfying.

Anybody who has played Jazz Jackrabbit or any side scrolling shooter will feel right at home. The difficulty even on the easiest was a little bit hard for me but after awhile I got into the groove. TAGAP is a full packaged game. It has achievements and allows for plenty of save spots.

Don't miss out on this excellent game, because TAGAP 2 is on it's way. No release day has been announced as of this post.

The Bottom Line: 8.5 out of 10

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The game can be downloaded and other goodies can be found over at http://www.tagap.net/tagap1.htm

After much time looking for some free games to review, I stumbled upon Perfect World and Monato Esprit. I don't know which one I'll get to first but my first 15 minutes of play time was pretty good.

Netts introduces a nice concept for a MMORPG but really leaves out the "oomph" that makes me want to keep playing.

Florensia is very standard when it comes to MMORPG but has a very relaxing feeling to it. The one thing that is pretty cool about the game is the mix of land and sea combat. While the land combat is slow and sluggish, the sea combat can become very intense. You create your own ship with different techniques and such to combat enemies or to get to neighboring islands faster.

The sea combat is a whole different part of the game which is really nice because you really don't have to do land quests if you don't want to, you can just do sea quests if you feel the land quests are boring. Creating your ship is like having a second character, it's awesome to have a choice in a free MMO.



However, the land combat was I found to be rather boring. In the beginning there were a limited number of quests. I found myself grinding a lot just to activate a quest with a required level. As I said above, the combat was very slow, it may have helped to increase the speed just a little.

The controls work just fine and the detailed tutorials definitely helped, no major complaints here.

The graphics are great. The cute anime style graphics fit the game's feel and environment very well and not only that, the game engine was very scalable when I played. Playing with the bloom effects added a nice feeling to the game too.



The soundtrack I almost immediately turned off, it just didn't appeal to me. The sounds were pretty low volume, so I had to turn them up and very cartoonish but they I guess they had to fit the style of the game.

Overall the game is pretty average and I have no major complaints but the best part about the game without a doubt is the sea combat. Check out all the different classes you can choose from and any other things I didn't go into detail at the Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florensia . Photos from mmosite.com and mmotaku.com

The Bottom Line: 7.5 out of 10

Your rhythm game craving can now be adequately fulfilled.

Straight from the Osu! website: "osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of the popular Nintendo DS series Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and its overseas counterpart Elite Beat Agents. While trying to keep an authentic feel gameplay-wise, osu! has a wide range of online features, such as player rankings and replay exchange. Also available is a fully functional in-built editor allowing intuitive creation of your own beatmaps, and a quickly growing library of user-created content."

As mention in the above description, Osu! remains faithful to the DS rhythm game but brings it the PC and adds a lot of user created goodness. If you don't know what Elite Beat Agents is like, watch the video below for what the gameplay is like.



The greatest thing about Osu! is the community, there are thousands of songs to download from their website right off the bat but unfornutely none come with the program.

An editor comes with the game so you can make your own beatmaps as well as a great online component so you can challenge other players and your friends.

The menu system, interface, graphics and controls are really simple. My one and only complaint is the not so simple learning curve. Most of the songs I downloaded took a number tries to complete, even on the easiet difficulty.

Other than that, you've got a great rhythm game with limitless potential.

Download beatmaps and the game at http://osu.ppy.sh/ for free!

The Bottom Line: 9 out of 10
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Keep an eye out for the Florensia open beta impressions!

Free online FPS's are hard to come by and when they do, it's a hit or a miss. In Combat Arms, I would consider it a shot in the foot.

Right after downloading I felt like something was going to be wrong with this game. It wasn't the graphics, it was the controls and it wasn't the sound. It was just the feel of the game: the feeling that I just wasn't going to like it, at all.

Before I get down and dirty, let me tell you what CA does right, well sort of. It has the normal gameplay modes like deathmatch and CTF which are all fun if you aren't playing with people with bad Internet connections. The graphics are far from stellar for a free game but allows some cool effects like bloom.

The game controls and plays like a normal FPS but I found myself constantly adjusting the mouse sensitivity for the right type of gun. And in many firefights, this did not help one bit. You can't aim from the hip without a scope, which will cost you some in-game money.



The sound is rather forgettable, it has the normal bangs and explosion sounds but they really lackluster. Sometimes it seemed like the sounds didn't match the gun animation or reload animation at all. It was all very awkward but I just ignored it after a while.

Now to one of the most annoying this of all: THE IN-GAME LAG. Because of the way the game is designed, you can only get game money (used for buying weapons and equipment) and experience (for ranking up) at an end of a match. Now if you get disconnected from the server, you'll lose all your earned experience and money that you would get at the end of a match. So if you're in first place and lag out, good-bye EXP and money.

There's another frustrating aspect of the game. The guns you buy aren't permanent. They only last for a certain amount of time. The maximum amount of time is 90 days and that will cost you lots of in-game money. The same goes with the equipment and outfits you buy.



One other upside to the game is that it is completely free, just like most Nexon games but there are bonuses for those who want to pay in micro-transaction system. But having to keep paying for items you have already bought is just doesn't make any sense for an online FPS.

As I mentioned in the CA impression post, there are no assist kills and I can't get over the inconsistent lag and the damage it does to the gameplay experience. If you can get over that or if somehow Nexon improves the lag, you still only have a pretty terrible to mediocre experience in Combat Arms.

The Bottom Line: 5.5 out of 10

Screenshots from http://www.atomicgamer.com/gameScreenshots.php?id=4186

Nexon's new online FPS is actually fun...when you or the other players aren't lagging! Everything plays smoothly for the most part the only major problem that occurs is Internet connection issues which is a huge problem and really annoying if you get disconnected during the middle of game because your experience or in-game money won't be tallied (they won't get tallied until the end of the match).

Another annoying thing is that there is not assist kills. The person who gets the last shot gets the kill, so theoretically I could fill a player full of lead until he/she is about to die when out of nowhere a sniper on my team blows his face off with a kill shot. It's frusting....very frusting.

The TrackMania series has blessed with a second installment of it's free online racer: Trackmania Nations Forever. All the services offered by the game are free, now let me briefly explain the details.

If you're not familiar with TrackMania, than do some quick research off site, you'll be happy if you like speed. TMNF offers a wide variety of challenges to keep you coming back and really brings the term "track mastering" to life. A lot of the tracks are extremely difficult master.



That's just the single player, the multiplayer offers immense online competition from around the world, hence the "Nations" part. You can race others from France to China to wherever someone has an Internet connection. The track editor is great, easy to use and once you have completed your own masterpiece, you can share it with the thousands already playing TMNF ( http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx ).

The graphics are great and the engine scales well with lower end PC's. Sound is pretty generic (typical engine buzzes...). Control wise...a keyboard can be cramped but yet they are simple enough not to have a game pad.



This game has a large appeal and it's hard not to like aside from it's difficulty level and learning curve. Give it a shot, what have you got to loose?

The Bottom Line: 8.5 out of 10

Download at: http://www.trackmania.com/en/index.php?lang=en&rub=nations

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Next up: Nexon's Combat Arms (Open Beta)

Along with a more famous racing franchise releasing this week Trackmania Nations Forever, comes Driving Speed 2 from developer Wheelspin Studios.

This free racing simulator features sports cars, a decent amount of tracks and LAN/online play. I'd say this game is best for a coffee break but, not much else.

The graphics aren't bad but they aren't great. The models look pretty good and the surrounding environment is rendered smoothly. One thing I like about racing games is the sense of speed, which DS2 fails to present. Sadly, no physical damage is shown on cars. The cars aren't licensed but this a free game you must remember. Licenses cost money but the models do look like their real life counter parts. Load times were also pretty fast.



Each car controls differently and in realistic fashion. This game is definitely not an arcade racer. Since I was stuck using a keyboard, the controls were frustrating but with a gamepad I am sure those frustrations can be solved easily. The AI is solid and competition can be tough sometimes.

Sound is pretty lackluster without any real "ooomph" put into the engine or collision noises. It's not something to cry over. The download and install is pretty small. The system requirements are easy on the eyes too. The menus are easy to navigate which is also a plus. The online ranking system is also there to keep track of scores and course times.

Like I said, this isn't a game I would easily become addicted too or play that often, maybe only on lunch breaks or when I have some downtime.

Check out http://www.wheelspinstudios.com/drivingspeed2/index.html for more screens.
Check out http://www.fileplanet.com/185728/180000/fileinfo/Driving-Speed-2-(Free-Game) for the download.

The Bottom Line: 7 out of 10

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Trackmania Nations Forever releases tomorrow! Stay tuned for my review!

I've been playing MMORPG's for a quite a bit now, mainly free one's that don't charge monthly subscription prices. I have found that the majority of them have wasted my time because of the unrewarding gameplay, terrible tutorials, starting difficulty, and even sometimes the translation. The list goes on I assure you. Rarely to MMO's keep me playing for more than a week.

Although I have gotten stuck on one that has been at the top of my playlist, Cabal Online. It was picked up OGPlanet early this year and I've been playing it since the open beta. I am surprised that this game still has me playing because I'm not really a MMORPGer as it is.

First let me start by saying, as far as free MMO's go, graphics usually aren't top of the line. As for Cabal, they are pretty decent. Animations are smooth, environments are detailed accordingly, and with a good graphics card I was able to pull out some nice frame rates. Monster design is not out of the ordinary but appropriate for each landscape. As for some quests I did grow tired of seeing a lot of the enemies. The armor and weapon design for each respective class is very cool, something I have come very accustomed to. If a game has cool armor, it is always something to look forward to each time you gain a few levels. By my judgment, you should be able to play this a semi-low-end PC and fast internet connection.



Control wise, the HUD is pretty helpful and not overwhelming to say the least. Hotkeys, inventory, map (GPS as the game calls it), and the quest list are all pretty standard but I have to say that it is a lot friendlier than other games. You can use the WASD keys or point and click to move which is always a plus, hold right-click and you can rotate the camera 360. And I must further note the GPS, it has the ability to tell you where your objective is and even where to the stronger enemies are. I found this very helpful since I like to wonder far and wide, I knew what areas to avoid so I didn't get insta-raped.

The quests are pretty standard (kill X amount of X monster. gather X amount of X item , talk to X NPC to complete quest etc.). Sometimes I became fed up with quests and sometimes I didn't but most of the time I find it pretty enjoyable to complete a quest.

The battle system is fast but I found it weird that you had to select the option for auto-attacking. For a good portion of the game I was constantly hitting my attack hotkey, leaving my finger sore. Experience is based upon how much damage you do to the enemy and the enemies strength. For example, If I do 50 damage, I may receive 70XP or so if the enemy is around the same level I am.

I don't want to explain the different classes and weapons because Wikipedia does a great job of doing it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabal_Online
Character creation is simple but be warned you won't start with the awesome armor you see at the character creation screen. A nice thing is that every ten levels you get challenge to take on. If you can complete the challenge, you are granted new abilities like a combo system (I find the combo system pretty hard to use) and "aura" mode which sadly doesn't last very long.

Sound is pretty mediocre. Slashing noises aren't annoying but tolerable. The music is pretty decent but I ended up turning it off and blasting my own tunes. Still I could easily play this game with no sound at all and notice no difference.



Now I did find a few problems with the game. For one there are too many bots advertising/spamming power leveling and such, something the GM's should look into. At first the game is a little laggy from loading but that's expected. Sometimes it takes 1-2 minutes for me to play lag free after server and character select. Once that's done, it's smooth sailing. Other times I have been disconnected for no reason, this has only happened a few times though.

Some more monsters would be nice. For example, there are some "+" monsters but I have only two of them in my playtime. For now there only looks like a few areas (from start at least) but on the GPS there are a bunch of "???" areas I have yet to reach.

I haven't really payed attention to the story and I'm not sure there is one, as far as I know, I am a dude going around doing favors for the local villagers for a living. But each quest has its own little background and story, always nice to know that at least some thought went into them.

Like I said, I find it very hard to play MMORPG's just because I feel like it is wasting my time and repetitive nature of the gameplay but for some reason I feel drawn to Cabal. Maybe it's because the game is very well designed? Or maybe it's because I have nothing else to play? Who knows. Either way, I was very impressed with this free MMO. There are perks to Premium account though: more item storage, faster leveling....I might have to invest.

Check http://www.ogplanet.com/ for more info, game client download, and screenshots.

The Bottom Line: 8 out 10

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Next up: Trackmania Nations Forever. Get a preview at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32542.html
Trackmania Nations Forever is set to release April 16th 2008.