I've just taken down my Christmas tree. This means that the festive period is officially over. I've eaten turkeys and pigs, and turkeys wrapped in pigs, and pigs wrapped in pigs. I hope there aren't any pigs reading.

What this all means is that I'm sitting here feeling like I should do some exercise. And what better way to exercise than jabbing my fingers at a keyboard while playing some of December's best free games? Here are the five notable ones I've played in the last month.


Endeavour
By Zillix. Play it on Newgrounds.



This is a lovely little exploratory platformer. Or, rather, a lovely big exploratory platformer. While the game initially appears simple and small, it quickly sprawls out across a huge area, interlinking and intertwining with itself, as you follow a request from your deceased father to collect your inheritance from a treasure chest.

It's quaint, and at first feels quite predictable. But as the game expands, it throws quite a few curveballs your way. You gain new abilities as you go along, allowing you access to areas you previously passed but couldn't enter. And the dialogue, while straightforward, really helps to set the tone. A marvellous way to spend a portion of the day.
K.O.L.M.
By Armor Games. Play it on their website.



A story about a robot, K.O.L.M. is one of the most gorgeous, strikingly melancholy and creatively designed Flash games I've played in ages. It's ostensibly a platformer, but like Endeavour it's primarily about exploration. This time, there's also a captivating unfolding story to keep you going as well.

The narration is quietly sinister, while the visual design adapts to its themes. Your robot begins without eyes, so the screen is simply a muddy blur, with vague shapes shifting around as you attempt to guide him to the next area. With each new component re-fitted, you gain new abilities which allow for progress elsewhere. It's Metroid without the action, then, but it's the aesthetic that really sells it: it looks, sounds and feels absolutely wonderful.
Dark Visions
By Tenth Play. Play it on the official website.



This is an interesting one. I pondered for quite a while about whether to include it. The problem is this: it's an impressive game, a fully fledged semi-3D adventure built in Flash and playable in a web browser, all for the handy price of nothing at all. But I'm not entirely sure whether it's any good or not.

It's very traditional. You select whether you want to look at, interact with or move towards an area, then let the actions play out. The puzzles are... traditional adventure game puzzles. Half of me wants to hate them, while the other half totally appreciates what the developers were going for. The setting and story are less easy to defend, throwing in hundred adventure game clichés into - gasp! - a spooky mansion.

But like I said: it's a huge 3D point-and-click adventure that's playable for free in a browser, and it's about a million times better than some of the rubbish that gets released commercially.
One Chance
By Awkward Silence Games. Play it on Newgrounds.



You have one chance to save the world.

The clock ticks down. Humanity will be wiped out in a matter of days. You're a scientist, and if you play your cards right, you might be able to prevent the global apocalypse. But you're also a family man. And if the world is going to end this week, you'd quite like to spend your remaining hours with your wife and daughter. What to do?

That's the question One Chance asks you to make. It's a haunting, gorgeously drawn and genuinely moving experimental game whose mood is occasionally spoiled by some absolutely dreadful writing. Had a script editor looked over this prior to release, it could have been amazing.
Technobabylon - Part II
By Technocrat. Get it from Big Blue Cup.



The first part of Technobabylon was released in October. "Quietly melancholy but always intriguing, it’s a fascinating little game," I said back then. Much the same is true of this second part, but there have been some changes made along the way.

For starters, while the first part was a fairly traditional room escape game, Part II has a more typical point-and-click adventure feel to it. There's a more expansive story, too: where the first game was a marvellous piece of scene-setting, Technobabylon - Part II takes that scene and weaves a more satisfying narrative into proceedings. Once again, it's atmospheric and engrossing, and well worth a play.

Anyone who had a glance through the codex in Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2 will know that there's a hell of a lot of backstory to Mass Effect's sprawling universe. A prequel comic strip called Mass Effect: Evolution, written by the writer for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, has just been released, telling the story of humankind's first foray into the intergalactic limelight. The first seven pages have been thrown up for free online.

The free pages are all available on the Bioware Blog. They depict a time long before the uneasy peace of the Citadel in which the humans are at war with the chitinous Turians. The comics tell the origin story of Mass Effect 2's Illusive man, and are penned by Mass Effect 2 and 3's Lead Writer, Mac Walters with some help from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic writer John Jackson Miller.

The full comic is out now and can be bought from comic book stores or digitally from Dark Horse comics.

THQ's upcoming military shooter Homefront is set to use it's 'Online Pass' in an effort to reduce second hand sales of the game. Those buying the game new will receive the single-use pass free with their purchase. Without the pass, players will only have access to five of the 75 levels available in the online multiplayer mode.

Those who buy the game second hand can buy another online pass for $10, which will unlock all of the online content. It's the latest step in an effort to curb second hand sales, the profits from which go entirely to retailers, instead of being shared between the publishers and developers of the game.

Other companies have tried different methods of reducing second hand sales. Bioware have offered bonus DLC to gamers who bought Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age new. With Homefront, instead of denying second hand purchasers bonus items and characters, the aim is to severely curtail the online component of the game.

Homefront's due out in March, and is set in an alternative vision of America in which North Korea has successfully invaded. Check out the latest trailer here. What do you think of THQ's new system, do you buy many games second hand?

The intriguing fantasy MMO, Rift, is edging closer to completion. The game has recently been running a few closed beta weekends, and now has a release date. The game will be out on March 1st in North America, and March 4th in Europe. Pre-orders are already available. Purchasing the game ahead of release will give you an in game pet, access to all betas before release and a week long head start on players buying on release day.

Pre-orders can now be bought from the official Rift site, and come in two flavours. The standard edition (£39.99/$49.99) grants players extra game time, full beta access and entry to the head start period that kicks off on February 24th. The package also comes with one of three in game pets and a stat-buffing runestone.

The collector's edition (£39.99/$59.99) includes all of the bonuses that the standard edition does, but also offers increased in game storage, a two headed turtle mount and an exclusive Bogling Wastrel pet. Players pre-ordering the game, or buying after the first two weeks of release will have access to discounted 'Founder's subscription' rates. Head over to the Rift subscriptions page for more details.

Rift's most unusual features include randomly appearing portals that spew legions of enemies into the world, and a class system that lets players combine three disciplines into unique builds and then switch between them at will. For more information on the game, check out the Rift website, or take a look at the latest trailer, embedded below.

Bohemia Interactive are launching this year's community awards to reward the best and brightest modders for its military sims, ARMA and ARMA 2, including Operation Arrowhead and other expansions. If you've enjoyed playing the missions and mods offered up by the ARMA community, here's your chance to vote for the best.

Voting is now open and you can make your nominations on the official ARMA 2 site. Voting will close on January 31st and the winners will be announced in March. Here are the categories you can vote for.

Best MOD/Addon Of The Year 2010
Best Mission/Campaign Of The Year 2010
Best Website Of The Year 2010
Best Member Of The Year 2010
Best Video Of The Year 2010

 
For more on ARMA 2, check out our review of the latest expansion, Private Military Company, or see Evan take out a tank with a sniper rifle.

Stardock today announced that they have hired Jon Shafer, the Lead Designer on Civilization V, and that he will be working on saving the troubled Elemental: War of Magic before starting up his own project within the company. Stardock have also hired fantasy and science fiction author Dave Stern to work on storytelling across all of Stardock's games.

Jon Shafer recently parted ways with Firaxis after finishing work on Civilization V, and will be joining Stardock to help out with the game's rehabilitiation and future expansions. After that he's set to start his own stand alone project, of which no details have yet been announced.

Dave Stern may be familiar to many as the author of several Star Trek books, and the man behind novelisations of Tomb Raider and the Blair Witch Project. He'll be casting a writer's eye over the storytelling in Stardock's projects, starting with Elemental: War of Magic

This is pretty great news for Elemental, which recently received it's first major update since launch, and is still being heavily worked on behind the scenes as Stardock try and overcome the game's disappointing release. For more information check out our Elemental: War of Magic review, and our updated impressions collected after patch 1.1.

Cops and robbers MMO APB is due to be reborn this year as a free to play title at the hands of GamersFirst, who bought the game from the ailing Realtime Worlds last year. They've just announced that a closed beta for APB: Reloaded will be kicking off in February.

The announcements were made on the APB: Reloaded Twitter feed, and revealed that the closed beta for the game is just weeks away. A further message promised that details on how to enter the beta will be released later on this week. We'll let you know the details as soon as they're posted.

For more on GamersFirst's plans to relaunch APB, check out our interview with GamersFirst CTO and COO Bjorn Book-Larsson, or check out the official APB reloaded blog for news on how the relaunch is progressing.

When I first started playing Minecraft a few months ago, I played with a rule: if I die, I have to delete the entire world. Now I'm trying to get to hell and back. The diary starts here, and new entries currently go up weekly on Wednesdays.


< Day 18


Day 20 >

 
World 10, deaths 9



In case merely being in hell was too pleasant, I am in a pit, in a sea of lava, in hell. I got to this island by walking backwards into thin air and laying a bridge beneath me as I went, but the floating Ghasts of this dimension smashed it with fireballs and knocked me off. The stretch I've got to cross to get to dry land is even bigger than the one that nearly killed me, so I poke a hole through the rock to check just how big, and do some risk analysis in my head.



No.

That's what my calculations come out as. I'm not doing it. It's a miracle I made it to this halfway house without dying. Now that I know how dangerous bridge-moonwalking actually is with this many flying jellyfish around, the prospect of doing it for even longer with no safe haven between here and dry land is just stupid. I'll just take one of my, er, other options.

I can't dig any further down, because I'll hit the lava sea. I can't build up, because I'm surrounded by Ghasts and there's nowhere safe to go on this island. I can't go across because it would mean bridge moonwalking under fire again.

But wait - maybe I can go up? The nether world is a giant cave, and the roof is made of diggable rock. Building a vertical column beneath your feet is much faster than constructing a bridge as you walk, and once I hit the roof I could dig into it to hide from the Ghasts.



It didn't sound like history's sanest idea, but there wasn't a safer option. I dug around my little pit, hollowing out the small island I was on to gather as much rock as possible to slap down beneath my feet as I went. Then... well, whatever its flaws, my plan wasn't complex. Jump up, look down, place blocks.

The moment I hit open air, the Ghasts scream. It sounds like a pet shop going through a meatgrinder. By the time I've placed five blocks, the first four are obliterated by a fireball smashing into the ground where I started. At ten metres, I lose metres six through nine. I'm fifteen metres up when a shot hits the ground I'm actually standing on, sending me plummeting back to the tenth with a jolt. That's where I am when the first one hits me in the face.

The whole column is gone now, and it couldn't save me if it wasn't - the blast knocks me clean off it and slamming back down to the island. I scramble around the dark rock looking for my hole to hide in, and catch the edge of another blast. I don't have time to look, I break my cardinal rule and dig directly down. The ground gives way, and I drop into the large cave I dug out when I was collecting rock.

I'm almost dead, and my only hope of escape just got demolished. Hope you guys had a good new year, because I spent it in a pit eating ham and crying.

Next: I take the only way out.

A humorous discovery: as it turns out, some of those hyper-literal descriptions of objectionable content that the ESRB publishes about the games it's rating are ridiculous. Logan's tweet yesterday sparked a minor meme in the office, during which we compiled a list of the oddest blurbs-about-bad-stuff penned by the ESRB. If you've found any others, do share.

Don't get me wrong--we're glad to have an independent, non-tyrannical body rating our games--it's just silly to read someone describe your outfit in Mass Effect 2 as a "future-blouse" when the lore-nerd in us wants to utter the word "Clearly..." while re-centering our glasses on our nose and correcting them for using a non-canonical term.



“In one scene, Nancy Drew is threatened at gunpoint and pistol whipped by a man.”
Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill

“Story elements are told through video clips that can include women in outfits exposing their cleavage. Dialogue contains mild profanity (e.g., "hell" and "bastards" ) as well as derogatory remarks towards Russian troops.”
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

“Players engage in quests to gain experience and skills, and use axes, swords, guns to battle enemies in frenetic hand-to-hand combat. Characters grunt or cry out in pain when hit, and collapse to the ground when defeated. Some missions require villains to fight police officers to advance the storyline.”
DC Universe Online

“Some characters are depicted in a suggestive manner: a reptilian female with four breasts exposes deep cleavage; a humanoid with black squares running across her chest is strewn on the ground; and a hermaphrodite character nurses an eager baby by squeezing a breast-shaped pouch.”
Zeno Clash

“In some scenes, the agent draws his gun and fires at some gnomes; however, the gnomes are magical and are not harmed.”
Puzzle Agent

“…The central characters also beat up elves off screen amid the sound of screaming. In a couple of scenes, blood is briefly depicted: characters find a note written in blood; an elf-vampire hiccups as a drop of blood falls from its mouth."
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse - Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak

"Certain species occasionally throw-up food."
Spore

"Players' soldiers use machine guns, grenades, mobile tanks, lasers, and aircraft to kill enemy units. Artillery fire is depicted with realistic sound effects, including battle cries and yells from injured characters; explosions occur frequently, and can be large and detailed. Aliens and soldiers are sometimes depicted bursting into small splashes of blood; gibbing effects and small body parts can also be seen strewn on battlefields; and a few cutscenes may depict small pools of blood around characters, or alien blood spurting across the screen."
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

"One mission requires players to steal a bag of weed from a specific location and give it to a character who replies, 'you high as a kite or what?'"
Far Cry 2

"The dialogue contains numerous jokes and comments that reference sexual acts, venereal diseases, and having sex with one's mother."
Bulletstorm

"Dialogue between various characters references suicidal houseplants, bed-wetting, nose-picking, and current affairs in 'Poopslavkia.'"
Strong Bad Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free

"As players groom, play with, and ride their horses, they can progress through a storyline that contains speculation about a secret romance."
Riding Academy 2

"Players can also choose to have 'romantic encounters' with the alien/human henchmen characters; this involves watching a guided cutscene in which two characters flirt, kiss, and/or embrace: clothed alien/human characters may prop a partner on top of a space console, clear away the clutter from a bed-slab, unzip a future-blouse, or just talk it out."
Mass Effect 2

"The game includes several references to alcohol and sexual behavior; for example, 'This man's appetite for wine, women and song know few bounds,' 'If a man wakes up with a hangover and the memory of a warm woman, it may ease the shock of joining the army,' and 'Sodomy: never, Sir, and damn your eyes!' Other text-based references include 'Pickled in Rum,' 'Gin-soaked Reprobate,' and 'I am drunk.' The game contains several references to 'whores' and 'harlots,' and includes a soldier's remark about 'a man who knows how to shoot his load' on the battlefield."
Napoleon: Total War

"One cutscene depicts a man and a woman wearing translucent, flesh-toned bodysuits as they flee from danger. The digitized lighting effects, the glow from their futuristic suits, obscure most of the details, though outlines of breasts and buttocks are partially discernable (i.e., not definitively nudity)."
Assassin’s Creed 2

"During the course of the game, players will encounter male and female prostitutes: the screen fades to black as suggestive dialogue is heard in the background (e.g., 'Nice charlies, too! Give them a shake for the Ben-man, will ya?'); there is also an extended sequence suggesting (no depiction) sexual activity with a robot.'"
Fallout: New Vegas

"A girl stomps and dances on a character named Dr. Fetus, causing puffs of blood to appear. The game also contains an instance of bathroom humor: after a toilet gets flushed, a brown character, Brownie, emerges and emits flatulence."
Super Meat Boy

"The sound of laser gunfire is prominent; characters stagger back when hit, then lie face down when defeated (though some characters get right back up and others disappear after a short period)…players are able to adjust the bust size of certain female characters to exaggerated proportions. Dialogue/text may also contain mildy suggestive phrases such as 'I'll be your guide to . . . pleasures of the body' and "the pleasure goddess of Rixx.'"
Star Trek Online

"Character dialogue covers a wide range of topics and can include references to suggestive behavior (e.g., 'he beds her stable boys and anyone else she can lay hands on while her husband is away,' 'leaving a string of love-sick women and cuckolded husbands in my wake,' and 'my prowess in the art of the bedchamber, in which I must confess a modest degree of skill.')."
Mount & Blade: Warband

"Players are occasionally required to identify and track traces of whiskey/tobacco."
Batman: Arkham Asylum

“…During one lengthy scene, Wallace’s tea bag accidentally lands on his female neighbor’s chest, resulting in an awkward exchange about where the tea bag is…”
Wallace & Gromit Episode 1: Fright of the Bumble Bees (Thanks, Capt`n Gin-o-Cola.)

Who's hungry for some juicy meat? We've got three Steam download keys for Team Meat's hilariously difficult, Editor's Choice award-winning platformer Super Meat Boy to hand out to carnivorous gamers. Click the grinning meat to find out how to win!

Update: Contest over! Congratulations to Leo Holland, Tom Johnson and Philip Flick, and thanks to everybody for entering.




Just send us an email at Contests@pcgamer.com with "Juicy Meat" in the subject line (one entry per person). We'll randomly draw winners at 5pm Pacific time (GMT-8) today!