Enjoy your racing games? Enjoy making tracks for your racing games? Enjoy Online gameplay with other 80 other people?

Trackmania Nations Forever is the game for you. I have played this fast paced racing game for over a year now and I am still not bored of it, this free game has a good balance of gameplay. Trackmania also gives you the choice to buy an upgrade known as Trackmania United Forever if the game takes your liking..

There are 2 parts of the game as i mentioned before, the racing and the track making.

The Racing

Upon registering your account you have the option to tell them your country and area, this allows you to have an official rank within the game. You can work on your rank by doing the premade tracks offline where you have certain times to beat.. On the other side of things there is the online play where clans/independent people create servers with their maps for you to play and compete with other players on the server. When i first got the game my main concern was with having so many players on one server you would have to avoid crashing into other players, i was wrong they use a ghost type system where you can see the players while acing but you can go through them, this in my opinion was the best way to do it.

The controls are very simple, all you need are your arrow keys and maybe 1,2,3 to change views. The car you use in Nations is a fine tuned F1 car it is the most responsive car in the United cars.

Track Making

My favorite part of the game is making tracks, Trackmania comes with a huge variety of track pieces which you can place anywhere on the stadium map. From ramps to boosts the dynamic track builder simply works, there is a way of connecting each type of track piece together. Among the track parts there are also scenery to add to your maps to make it more appealing or make it a part of a track, anything is possible.

Summary

Trackmania will provide you hours of fun for months on end not only competing with others but with yourself, i seriously recommend you try it out. As for purchasing Trackmania United Forever i think that decision is based on your needs of the game as there are plenty of thing on the free verison to do. I myself bought it and don’t really use most of the features apart from the 3D car skins.

Trackmania Homepage / Trackmania video

Jets N’ Guns is a fast-paced 2-D action side-scrolling shoot ‘em-up released in 2004 for the PC by RakeInGrass Software. It was later released for the MC OS X in ‘06.

The game play in Jets N’ Guns is, well, pretty much the same as any other game in the genre but still insanely fun. It has all the best things a shooter could possibly have, awesome music that really gets you into the action, great weapons and upgrades Your ship has space for bombs, missile’s, and three guns on the front and one on the back.

In-between each level you are given the option to buy new weapons or upgrade your previous weapons and equipment, the upgrades can increase the power of the weapon or they can increase the rate of fire or even the velocity, depending of course on the weapon. But you have to be careful when using the more powerful weapons because they can overheat rather quickly if you just hold down the fire button, which is a problem when you have to wait for it to cool down… cause it leaves you out in the open for anything to get you, although once you upgrade your cooling system it is much more tolerable.

The amount of enemies on each stage is truly astounding. There is always something to shoot at or drop bombs on. It gets specially gory when you start blasting away the little men around, who are either shooting at you from a platform in space, falling out of storage containers or, in some levels, flying around on rocket packs blasting away at you with lasers. It feels really good to shut them up with a nice big bomb.

To give you the gist of the storyline you start out in the game as a freelancer, hired to get rid of some space Bandit’s. Afterwards you get in contact with your old C.O. Colonel Troubleman (Yes, all of the names in this game are horribly cheesy) on the USS Impotence, who asks you to rescue the scientist Prof. Von Hamburger from the evil dictator Xoxx. From there on you begin to assault Xoxx’s forces over and over again.

The Graphics are nothing big. They’re what you would expect for a game like this, sometimes they become blocky and pixilated, but they do have their moments of being beautiful and crisp. From my experience the game had no lag or slowdowns from the large explosions or when there were a hundred little things going on onscreen which makes the game very impressive.

The control setup is pretty basic and nothing too amazing, basically use the arrow keys or the mouse to move around while cramming the space bar down to shoot. Again, nothing original but it is a tried and true control scheme, very responsive and its done very well.

The music, now here is where the good part starts. The soundtrack of this game was produced by Machinae Supremacy, a Swedish metal band. This is honestly one of the best fitting soundtracks to a 2-D shooter in my opinion and while sometimes the music is drowned out by whatever is going about on screen it is well worth the times when you can just bang your head to the games in the quiet parts of levels. The style of music is of course metal, fast and hard metal. Very well done and honestly the best aspect of this game.

Last but not least, the lastability of this game isn’t the best, Once you play through it and beat it you are able to start from the beginning of the game with all of your previously acquired goodies and money. The point of this is to collect four weapons to use in an ultimate combination. Unfortunately after you have acquired all of them then it is just the same thing over and over again.

If you want to try this game out for yourselves then the link for the demo is below!

Ah Jumpman. The classic title for the Commodore 64 gets an indie rehaul. In this game, you’ll find a simple solid platformer that uses some Echodrome camera flip techniques. It’s definately worth checking out.

There really isn’t a whole lot to say about Jumpman. It’s a pretty standard platformer that controls very loosely (think Meatboy: friction be damned). If you look at the image below, you’ll see future levels outside of the current level “ring” you’re in. Every ten minutes or so, Jumpman gives you a “new platforming concept”, keeping the gameplay fresh and exciting. Give it a try, it’s a free download!

Ever walked in on the last act of a movie to be totally confused yet completely blown away? Well that is what Gravity Bone is like.

Gravity Bone is pretty much impossible to explain, it’s very W.T.F yet still totally awesome in what it does, and what does it do? Well not much as it’s only about 15 minutes long but the charm that comes from it so worth the effort of checking it out.

Gravity Bone is built on the Quake2 engine, yet it’s in such a stylistic manor that you can’t even tell how dated the engine is.

Spec: PC, Size: 23.9megs

“There are people among us who call themselves Manipulators. These Manipulators can take control of your mind and use you.
They are a threat to us; we must get rid of them at once! Be alert! Do not trust anybody!”

The Manipulator is another interesting game to come out of the indie scene, in gameplay it somewhat reminds me of a game from the late 90s where you control a little angel going around possessing peoples to use their abilities (… sadly the name of the game escapes me) but nonetheless ‘The Manipulator’ is quite fun to play through, as mentioned previously you control a manipulator who can take control over enemies and use them to do his bidding, there isn’t a lot of depth to it but it’s still a pretty solid gaming experience.

The Manipulator storyline is pretty vague but it does lead to a few interesting questions on who is doing the manipulating, the art style is minimalist and it suits the game very well.

Source: TIGSource

Fell entire rooms of enemies with the power of your Spacebar. Collect umpteen millions of crystals to buy upgrades, paving the way to destroy thousands more enemies. All this power in you, at a mere 19 pixels high. Welcome to Meritous.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems. That’s why we use crystals!

You start the game in a safe place. Fumbling around, you figure the arrows move you around and the spacebar does something interesting. Stepping outside your safe sanctuary, a monster appears, throwing black and white fireballs at you. Using your only known ability, the mystical Space Bar, you press it and release, causing a pulse of energy to emanate from you, consuming the monsters fireballs and the monster itself, all of which turn into crystals. You’ve made your first kill.

You hunger for more. You find other interesting things in the Dome, teleport pads, save spaces, upgrade points, and realise you need more crystals to pay for lovely shields and psi upgrades. You kill more, then find a compass, pointing you in the direction of your first guarded treasure room. Your vision turns red and you kill its guardians, revealing fantastic artifacts that give you powers to make your crawl ever easier. Wondering what other powers you must be missing out on, you play for just a few more minutes…

The gameplay of Meritous is so simple you have to wonder why we bother with other more complicated genres and controls at all? The game is delightfully easy to pick up, but with steadily increasing difficulty, rewarding diligent players with more powerful enemies and artifacts, eventually leading to difficult but fun and memorable boss battles. So what’s missing?

You could say graphics. Certainly, as someone who owns a 24″ monitor, there’s something irritating about a game whose window is only 640×480 pixels, and cannot be full screen. And for a dungeon crawler, the white background becomes an eyesore if you enjoy crawling at night. But as you play, the retro colours slowly grow in charm, and there’s something wonderful about the rooms of the game changing colour dynamically to reflect their danger. And you can always live with the game’s window by multitasking your MSN and web surfing.

You could say music. And while they are certainly not in the league of Nobuo Uematsu’s orchestral gaming masterpieces, they set the tone of dungeon crawling perfectly, changing to suit the mood, and like the graphics, have a certain retro charm which slowly grows on you.

He’s about to burst my bubble!

You could guess gameplay, but there’s almost nothing to fault. Sure, the author’s name which plays when you start the game is annoying and the map needs fixing as “Shield Upgrade” and “Save point” both appear on it as “S”. But anyone who can operate a computer can play this game, its fantastically well paced, ensuring that you cannot encounter overly powerful enemies before you’re able to face them. The ever increasing challenge of your foes ensures you don’t let your finances stagnate too long, forcing you to upgrade to cope.

Shooting stars, that actually shoot me. With lasers.

Meritous is a polished, shining gem in a sea of indie games desperate for quality control. Shamelessly addictive, a tiny file size, fast gameplay and an easy learning curve, at a mere 2.7MB, unless you are prejudiced against single player games, there’s no reason not to download this right now and give it a try.

Atmosphir is a new 3D platform game (in beta) that allows you to choose from a wide span of player made levels with different objectives or create your own using the simple but well built 3D level builder. The gameplay is pretty simple at the moment, you control the character (known as cameron) around player made levels evading hazards collecting power ups, currently it is all on foot and you only have the option to jump (no tacking yet Prince of persia fans) Though a new implement has been added, the bomb which allows you to blow through special blocks or kill lurking enimies.

The level editor is the winning factor of this game, in the level editor you are given a black canvas, it is a 100×100. There are currently 3 theme packs; Adventure, Treehouse and the Sandcastle pack.

Most objects are the same with different textures but there are a few different special objects that differ from pack to pack.
Going on to the objects you have the platforms and the props. You can have unlimited amount of platforms on the level and take up no usage here are few example of platform types;  Blocks -Your solid building platform, Moving Platforms – using the path tool make them follow a specific path, Falling – After a certain amount of time the platform falls, Connector – A range of bridges, ladders and ramps.

As for props these take up capacity space for the level meaning you can only place a certain amount of them, and again a quick list; Doors - Option to use a key or not with them, Powerups – From running to flying, General – Objects that you might have in that certain theme (no usage).

Now the graphics, in my opinion for this style of game the graphics are ideal, they colorful, animated just what you expect in a platform style game. As the game is less about graphics more about gameplay this allows the game to run on more lower class systems.

I enjoy playing atmosphir after getting into the level creation area. You will also they have a good community already in the forums (link at the bottom) so i recommend you try it.

Official Website /Atmosphir Beta Login

Our friends over at Wolfire Games who are busy developing Overgrowth have just announced the previous installment in their series known as ‘Lugaru’ will be given away for free as a Christmas present! There is a small hoop to jump through to get it (nothing is entirely free), but it still a very small task to do and is well worth it if you want to see where Wolfire games started, check it out after the jump.

From the official site;

In order to bring awareness of our upcoming independent game, Overgrowth, we are giving away free copies of the game that started it all: Lugaru!

Lugaru is a cult classic, indie video game that was created by David Rosen when he was in high school. It is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Since its launch, it has been sold for $19.95 without exception — until now!

This Christmas, we are giving it away for free!

Read here to get more information on the giveway

What would you do with a million bucks? What’s that? You don’t have a million bucks? Well, if you have $9.99 you can grab Space Trader through Steam and then work your way up from being $1.5mil in debt to buying and selling a million dollars worth of bananabis and organs on the black market. Not interested in the black market? Maybe you would like to act as a bounty hunter instead, “taking care of” good-for-nothing criminals. Or you could be a hard and honest worker and act as an intersteller version of UPS. The choice of yours.

What is Space Trader?

In Space Trader: Merchant Marine by HermitWorks Entertainment and Meridian 4, players have the option of two single-player modes, Campaign or Challenges. There is also multiplayer which will be covered later.

Campaign is the story mode where players assume the role of a person who has just acquired their trading license. The player begins the game in search of a way to acquire a ship. As the story progresses, more planets can be visited and the missions increase in difficulty. To complete the chapter the player must earn an amount of money in a set time limit (based on interplanetary travel, not actual playing time.) The story isn’t very complex, but it provides players with some direction and a purpose for accomplishing their goals.

Challenge mode is similar to campaign except that it lacks the story element. There is still an amount of money that must be earned in a set time limit, there just seems to be less distraction and a greater emphasis on the buying/selling (trading) element of the game.

The game is played through the first-person perspective and is broken down into three tasks: Bounty hunting, collecting stash, and trading.

Bounty hunting is the action segment of the game. NPCs, such as bartenders, will offer rewards for your combat skills. The combat scenarios have an arcade feel to them similar to an early version of Unreal Tournament. These scenarios vary in length from 3-10 minutes depending on your skill and focus on the task at hand. There are several enemies that can be shot down for cash and items but there is always a target foe that must be defeated to claim the reward. The controls are the standard of what you would expect for an FPS and these missions are fun to play.

Collecting stash is an integral part of the game if you want to succeed in Space Trader. On each planet there are over at least a dozen bundles of stash, which are boxes levitating in the air. These boxes contain items and you will need the extra source of income if you plan to succeed in the game. Making your way through either mode is unlikely without collecting stash. Don’t worry though, you will want to because as you collect each piece of stash the very rewarding “CHING” cash register sound is made; the perfect sound effect for a collectible item.

The last portion of the gameplay is the trading. This is where the core of the gameplay is. Since the whole purpose of the game is to make as much money as possible, you MUST buy and sell. The game description tries to make it seem complex by showing you a graph next to the inventory items and throwing in percentages, but it is actually simple. Buy items that are in a vendors inventory that have a star, sell items that are in your inventory with a star. So the trading piece of the game isn’t extremely exciting and can feel like a chore at times, but once you’ve made a few trades you should have it figured out. Buy the items with the greatest possible return and you will be all set.

The multiplayer mode allows you to play through the Challenge modes with friends. It’s great if you have a friend or two you would like to play with. Don’t count on just joining a random match. Perhaps you could set a match up with someone via forums but this isn’t the type of game where you can find a “quick-match”.

Review

The FPS action portion of the game is enjoyable and there are a bunch of maps to play as the story unfolds. The trading gets tedious once you’ve got the hang of it. Collecting stash can be fun the first few times you visit a planet but eventually once you know where all the spawn points is the fun is gone.

The lack of a manual save function is disappointing. Progress is saved automatically only after travel. This means if players need to stop the game they must either travel and forfeit all the current earning potential on the planet being visited or leave their system on and waste electricity.

Another feature that has been left out that could be handy is a map with a destination point for objectives (outside of combat). Some of the NPCs for various required missions are not easy to locate. If players don’t have the patience to search for these NPCs the lack of a map could really ruin the experience leaving most of the game unexplored.

Since trading is such an important aspect of the game the developers made it extremely simple to jump from one vendor to the next via a panel on the left side of the screen. This feature pretty much saves the game. Without out…”shudder”.

The interface is attractive in shape, color, and alpha but doesn’t take advantage of high resolution monitors. The interface bars shown above should shrink as resolution is increased but instead they take up the same amount of screen real estate. Note that the interface (aside from the top panel) is only visible while engaged with an NPC but it is still cluttered.

The graphics remind me of a first-gen Xbox title, which is good in consideration of the price and performance requirements, listed here. The environments are polished enough to create an atmosphere for the player to feel a part of. The character models are amusing, but some are reused too many times.

The electronica-style music works very well with the space theme. As mentioned earlier, the sound effects make collecting stash a very rewarding experience.

Conclusion

For the price, Space Traders is a great way to spend a rainy weekend. In fact, I strongly suggest that the next time it rains on the weekend you check out this game. Write that down. Don’t forget. This isn’t the type of game that I would rush to tell friends about, but it’s a good experience while it lasts.

Bubble Bobble is a zany little game from the people who brought Space Invaders to the world. The basic story is simple: Bub and Bob are twin Bubble Dragons who are on a quest to rescue their girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. Or, to be precise, the one hundred Caves of Monsters. Not only that, but the only weapon our heroes have is the ability to blow bubbles. Sound good so far? No, I didn’t think so either…

The good thing about games like this is that storyline doesn’t matter one bit. As long as it plays well, who cares what it’s about? Bubble Bobble is easy to pick up and start playing as the controls are so simple (the NES only had 2 buttons after all…), but difficult to put down after you’ve got the hang of it. The goal of each level is to defeat all the monsters, and this is done by firing bubbles at them to trap them inside, then bursting the bubbles with the spines on your back, or just by jumping on them. If you trap an enemy in a bubble and he escapes before you can pop it, he turns into an angry enemy, who will chase you a lot more frantically than before. A bit like the angry zombies in Resident Evil that you forgot to cremate, only cute, not scary. If an enemy makes contact with you, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and its game over I’m afraid.

This could be the cutest game ever made. It had two cute dinosaur things way before Yoshi burst onto the scene in Super Mario World. Even the monsters are cute in this game. And the music… possibly the most cutesy soundtrack ever created for a game. It is very irritating, and there is a risk you may never get it out of your head, but it goes so well with the game that it can’t really be criticised.

The opening screen sets the tone of the game nicely: “NOW IT IS THE BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY! LET US MAKE A JOURNEY TO THE CAVE OF MONSTERS! GOOD LUCK!” In other words, it’s not going to make a lot of sense, but it’s going to be fantastic, and you’ll need some luck. A lot of luck in fact, as there are one hundred levels/caves in the game. The game employs some classic gaming traits here, such as each level being totally contained in one screen (similar to Donkey Kong for example), and the bottom of the screen connecting to the top of the screen (by this I mean that if a character drops through a hole at the bottom of the screen, they will come back into the screen through a gap at the top. Once you get used to this technique it will free up more ways of escaping hairy situations).

So you’re probably thinking one hundred levels is a bit excessive, right? Nobody’s going to have the skill or patience to finish this game, right? Wrong. You’re more likely to finish this game than most other NES games, as it employs a password system which allows you to come back whenever you want and pick up from where you last died. All you need is a pen and pad handy when you play! The days of playing an old console game non-stop for three days as it could only be finished in one sitting are long gone – welcome to the 90’s my friend!

The game is a lot of fun to play on your own, but – as with most two-player games – it is best enjoyed with a friend. The co-op mode gives your campaign some extra bubble power and should increase your chances of rescuing those girlfriends. I’ve never played the game all the way through, but if I was successful in the quest, the first thing I’d do is ask those girls what the hell they were thinking wandering around in a cave called “The Cave of Monsters” in the first place. They had better be really hot or something, otherwise Bub and Bob might not always be there for them when they decide to go for a ramble in “The Forest of Zombies” or “The Tower of Cannibals”.

This is a game I enjoy playing, but always end up getting a little bit bored of after a while. For this reason the password system is brilliant – you can enjoy your bubble-blowing in small doses and not have to keep repeating the same levels. Bub and Bob make appearances in other games like Bust A Move (another game featuring bubbles, so I don’t think they had a choice in the matter – they are THE bubble guys), but the original Bubble Bobble is a classic example of traditional videogaming, and I’d recommend that everyone should give it a try. It should especially appeal to women and children as it is super-cute. Even the way Bub and Bob wag their dragon tails is cute! The game can be downloaded from Virtual Console, in case you don’t happen to hoard 25-year old consoles like myself…