Racketboy Advent Calendar of FREE PC Games: 2011

[o.pwuaioc]

It's great to play with people. It really makes it worthwhile. Just set aside a few hours with a few people, grab some snacks and a few drinks and dive right in!

[J T]

December 20th
A Flipping Good Time



A Flipping Good Time is a side scrolling platformer that uses a flipping mechanic similar to VVVVVV, only you trigger the gravity flips by running into switches, rather than being able to flip at will. There are a lot of little collectible items that light up your way if you follow their path, which makes this an enjoyable game to run through. The game lives up to its name.

[J T]

December 21st
Escape From Puppy Death Factory



It's like Super Metroid, only with puppies.

[J T]

December 22nd
Epic Inventor



The developer of this game was a big fan of Terraria and Minecraft, so much so that when he and his friends kept talking about features they wish they could add to Terraria, they actually set out to make their own game that is kind of their dream version of the game. So what did they add? A robot and a bunch of mechanics from Age of Empires. So now in addition to the usual survivalism and crafting of the Terraria world, you can now chum around with a helpful robotic buddy and invent things like a lumber mill that will provide you with a steady flow of wood, or an auto-crossbow turret that you can use to fortify your developments and protect them while you are away.

[J T]

December 23rd
Dark Ocean



As you can probably tell from the image, Dark Ocean is a survival-horror game. It takes place on a cruise ship where everyone but you appears to have been afflicted with one of those horrible zombie viruses that are so popular these days. The cruise ship setting gives the game a nice Bioshock kind of atmosphere while the limited weapons available to you make you feel sufficiently weak and helpless to create some scares. You have a camera with a flash, which you can use to temporarily blind the monsters. You also have a flare gun that you can use to ignite them, but only if they are doused in oil. If they haven't been covered in leaked oil yet, you're going to have to spray it on them or lead them to a spill and then ignite. You usually have to use the camera flash to get them to hold still long enough that you can actually pull this off, and therein lies the challenge.

[J T]

December 24th (Christmas Eve!)
Gear



I love grappling hook games. Bionic Commando was one of my favorite NES titles. In Gear, you have more of a grappling gear than a hook. You launch out a line with a rotating gear and it links up with other gears to move you around through the world as you swing. It's great fun to chain your grappling maneuvers together so that your feet almost never touch the ground. The graphics aren't much to look at here, but the gameplay is tops and there is a surprisingly excellent soundtrack to go along with it.

[J T]

December 25th




Here are three short tech-demo games with fancy graphics:

Avert Fate

Avert Fate is an FPS that ends with a huge robot boss battle. It's meant to show off the Unity enginge, which can run high-end games in your browser.

The Last Dance

The Last Dance is a cover shooter like Gears of War, with a revenge story like Max Payne, and an art style like Sin City.

Undertown

Undertown is a game about a macho barbarian trying to rescue a woman from a dungeon.




...and since I know you guys don't just care about graphics, here are a few games that are a little more solid in the gameplay department.

Hurrican

This is a well made fan sequel to the game Turrican on the SNES.

Soldat

Sort of like a mix of Worms, Quake, and Counter Strike

Facewound

*alternate download link*
A bloody side scroller from the maker of Garry's Mod.

The Goonies (remake)

A classic game gets revamped.

One Must Fall: 2097

This was once a strong selling commercial release, but it's free now.

[J T]

That's it for this year! Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you enjoyed the games. Feel free to tell me which ones were your favorites (I really liked Void, Deity, and Dream Ball 64).

[ExedExes]

Great games, thanks for bringing them out!

Seeing OMF 2049 on the list was a good choice -- It's been free for years now. What many people might NOT know is that other PC DOS games from the early 90s have also been freely released for non-commercial use. Many great titles from Apogee, Epic and others are freely and legally available over at Classic DOS Games. The games on that page were once shareware or full version titles but their rights have been released by the authors for non-commercial use. Some you may recognize too!