It's not often that a freeware game can truly be called a masterpiece but Daniel Remar has finally released Iji, an action platformer with touches of RPG, in which you control a female heroine with a whole lot of engineered superhuman abilities. What makes this game so good is the sheer of polish that has been put into the production and the large amount of choices there are to make. You can choose what abilities to level up with, whether or not to bother killing enemies and the path you take through each sprawling area, which can effect the outcome of the unfolding story.
posted on Sep 5, 2008 - View this thread

Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game! Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy! *Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."
posted on Jul 14, 2008 - View this thread

"We're not building a themed adventure for Mega Man; just kill him!" Where does Mega Man's nemesis get his wonderful toys? How much does it cost to construct big spikes? Can one add ice blocks to the magnet level without violating a building code? It's not easy being in the Dr. Wily business.
posted on Jul 1, 2008 - View this thread

Epic Theft? Epic Fail. "Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher and Laurence Francis, all from Maidstone, have dreamt of seeing Limbo of the Lost played across the globe since they first started discussing the game 10 years ago."* Conceived in the 90s as an Amiga 1200 title, the three Kentish lads went with the PC for the decades-deferred realization of their creative dream. Unfortunately, the long-delayed release of Limbo of the Lost is leaving reviewers with a profound sense of deja vu, as if they've seen this game somewhere before ...
posted on Jun 12, 2008 - View this thread

Liberty City vs New York City
posted on May 14, 2008 - View this thread

You Have To Burn The Rope (Flash)
posted on Apr 4, 2008 - View this thread

Kings of Power 4 Billion% [12 min AVI] - A new release from pixel artist Paul Robertson, known for such previous works as the video for "Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006" and Architecture in Helinski's "Do The Whirlwind."
posted on Mar 23, 2008 - View this thread

Next Generation presents the Hot 100 Game Developers of the year. See which developers are lighting up the world of games in 2008. For the impatient: skip to the end.
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

The Top 5 Game-Inspired Music Videos (via, with one more)
posted on Jan 22, 2008 - View this thread

Mass Effect has been released. So why should you give a damn? Developed by Bioware as the spiritual successor to KOTOR, Mass Effect has received many positive reviews, has a unique and widely touted conversation system, features omnipresent videogame voiceover actor and "that guy" Keith David, and was briefly banned in Singapore due to a human female/monogendered species sex scene.
posted on Nov 28, 2007 - View this thread

Ghostbusters: The Video Game [Flash-based site] is coming soon to a console near you. Featuring the original cast doing voices and motion capture, it looks to be very impressive graphically [video], but will it be better, gameplay-wise, than the previous attempts at a Ghostbusters game? [More videos, NSFW]
posted on Nov 17, 2007 - View this thread

Video game soundtrack, sans video game. Cicada gives us two albums Technology Crisis, and Technology Crisis 2. Not that this is that unique, even Mefi's are getting into the act.
posted on Nov 8, 2007 - View this thread

City 7 is a Half-Life 2 mod of Toronto.
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - View this thread

A chimpanzee plays Ms. Pac Man (WMV, some Japanese)
posted on Sep 25, 2007 - View this thread

Want to become the sixth person to get a perfect score in Pac-Man? Here's how.
posted on Aug 30, 2007 - View this thread

Hamsters are pretty good at video games. Maybe he would have done better if he and his hamster coach had mastered the super hamster wheel. Or maybe he should have brought along his slithery pal for backup. At least he tried, and didn't turn to the bottle for comfort. Here little guy, have some popcorn and some Elvis as a reward.
posted on Aug 27, 2007 - View this thread

BioShock was released today for the PC and XBox 360. Why should you care? Well, it's the 2nd best reviewed game of the last 10 years, it's an interactive commentary on Objectivism, it features a great Art-Deco style and atmospheric sound design, and is the spiritual sequel to one of the best games of all time. If you still don't care, make sure to stay away from Big Daddy.
posted on Aug 21, 2007 - View this thread

The Japanese Trailer to Kokoro Scan. Japanese game trailers always seem pretty interesting and fun. And, well, most often more-or-less nonsensical. This is for the new game Kokoro Scan, which, um, looks like it might be a dating sim of some sort? Maybe? The animation and segues are pretty interesting, and, though it's 6 minutes -- awfully long for a trailer, particularly one sans any gameplay (I think) -- it's interesting/off-the-wall enough to be engaging. What do cartoon nipples, pixellated white things and bananas have in common? (via)
posted on Aug 3, 2007 - View this thread

“A typical C64 game took nine months from start to finish,” laughs David Crane, the game’s designer. “Ghostbusters took six weeks!” Remembered as one of the better games on the Commodore 64, Ghostbusters still has a fan base after all these years. Never played it before? You really should see it in action, or, better yet, download the modern retro remake.
posted on May 11, 2007 - View this thread

Bible Fight [Flash game]
posted on May 7, 2007 - View this thread

Everybody loves Zombies. Everybody loves killing Zombies. Nobody wants to suddenly wake up surrounded by Zombies. Not when you thought you were just playing a video game.
posted on Feb 18, 2007 - View this thread

Venezuelan State TV aired a show yesterday in which they complained about a certain videogame, in which the goal is to overthrow the "power-hungry tyrant who messes with Venezuela's oil supply." In Venezuela, people are a bit offended by the images of Caracas being destroyed in the game, outside, some people are offended because one of the owners of the controversial company that created the game is Bono, The Defender of the Poor, Bono, and they are trying to stop it.
posted on Feb 7, 2007 - View this thread

Buggy Saints Row: The Musical
posted on Dec 29, 2006 - View this thread

Mission in Snowdriftland It's been snowing all day in Denver, and work's been cancelled, so Flash Friday comes early, courtesy Nintendo. Mission in Snowdriftland is a SNES-flavored sidescroller: control a snowman through 25 levels of jumping, snowflake-collecting, sea-otter smashing action. Find all of a level's snowflakes, and you can download a sekrit prize. I don't know what they are, because some goddamn fish skeleton keeps knocking me into the drink and killing me. Fun, challenging action here.
Did I mention it's an advent calendar, too? One level a day until Christmas.
posted on Dec 20, 2006 - View this thread

Play history: Noughts and Crosses (EDSAC, 1952) begat Tennis for Two (Donner & oscilliscope, 1958) begat Spacewars (PDP, 1962) begat Star Trek (SDS Sigma, 1971) begat Hunt the Wumpus (Mainframe, 1972) begat Maze War (Xerox Atlos, 1974) begat DECWAR [warning:telnet(!)] (DEC-10, 1978) begat Zork (PDP-10, 1979) begat World of Warcraft... with a few steps in between. All names (but Maze Wars) go to playable versions. Dates have information on the game itself
posted on Dec 8, 2006 - View this thread

Infinite Mario Brothers Did you love Mario Brother 3? Would you like to love playing it forever? With randomized maps and worlds? Oh, yes, you would.
posted on Nov 25, 2006 - View this thread

Sonic Invaders - videogaming without the video. [Windows]
posted on Nov 17, 2006 - View this thread

Tetris - From Russia with Love (Google Video) A BBC documentary about Tetris and its creator Alexey Pajitnov.
posted on Oct 27, 2006 - View this thread

Fun Motion - a blog dedicated to physics-simulating games, currently with 49 reviews (and counting) of well known favorites like Stair Dismount and Truck Dismount, Towers of Goo, Toribash and many, many more. (A follow up to my previous YouTube post.) Kiss your precious, fleeting motes of productivity goodbye, cube-farmers!
posted on Oct 19, 2006 - View this thread

"Over the last few weeks I have been introducing you to eight schools of criticism – Biographical, New Critical, Marxist, Structural, Jungian, Psychoanalytical, Feminist, and Post-Colonial – giving a little history behind each, and showing how they can be used to critique the video game Katamari Damacy for the PlayStation 2." [Part One | Part Two | Part Three]
posted on Oct 16, 2006 - View this thread

Bitflicks : very large and accurate representations of video games made out of Lego blocks.
posted on Oct 9, 2006 - View this thread

GridWars 2 is superlative shooty thing for Windows; download here.
posted on Sep 7, 2006 - View this thread

What the f* were the parents of these kids thinking when they let them film these ads? (via Kotaku)
posted on Aug 4, 2006 - View this thread

The National Symphony Orchestra, celebrating its 75^th anniversary, "will perform this Friday about two hours' worth of soundtracks from hit games -- your Marios, your Halos, your Sonic the Hedgehogs -- as game highlight clips play on Wolf Trap's large video screens" in Vienna, VA. "Play: A Video Game Symphony" is the latest offering in the "new mini-industry of video game music performance," competing with "Video Games Live" (previously discussed). "The two companies putting on these productions -- Jason Michael Paul Productions and Mystical Stone Entertainment -- pretty much hate each other and are engaging in a fair amount of trash talk as they fight for the same gigs....Each accuses the other of stealing a good idea and of confusing the market."
posted on Aug 3, 2006 - View this thread

Real-Life Tekken.
posted on Jun 19, 2006 - View this thread

Oblivion Domino Day. Some fun from The Elder Scrolls.
posted on May 27, 2006 - View this thread

Nes Micro To go along with your portable snes, playstation, and Atari 2600 of course. Want to do it yourself? buy the book. Lots more stuff on Ben Heckendorn's home page (how quaint!). (found all this googling for pictures of NES cartages)
posted on Apr 19, 2006 - View this thread

Not your older brother's Burger Time. Burger King is developing three XBox videogames starring its eponymous mascot. And not just any games: they'll be modeled after such titles as Halo, Mortal Kombat and Need for Speed. But, you know, with fast food. Confirmation of the plans came in the form of a lawsuit threatened against Kotaku, the blog that broke the story.
posted on Apr 17, 2006 - View this thread

Video game studies? Yes, please. And I don't just mean in gaming schools. Critical perspectives have been developing as well. Metafilter is already wise to ludology,but what about its mother discipline, ergotics? Don't forget narrative and storytelling. Of course, if cultural studies, or education is your thing, that's covered too. Other programs focus on application and aesthetics. Perhaps MeFites are catching on?
posted on Apr 17, 2006 - View this thread

Famed for its unusually cinematic look (for the time), Another World is a classic vector-based game from the early 90s created by Eric Chahi. A new version with updated (but not too updated) graphics was released for Windows XP today; you can download a demo here. (direct link to 22MB installer .exe)
posted on Apr 14, 2006 - View this thread

Concerned (Half-Life 2 comic)
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - View this thread

Mario Adventure - SMB3 hacked into an entirely new high-quality game
posted on Feb 17, 2006 - View this thread

A time attack of Megaman X and Megaman X2, played simultaneously on one controller by one person. (Torrent download link provided on page)
posted on Dec 22, 2005 - View this thread

Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter 2 has too much dialog, but once it get's going, it totaly kicks ass.
posted on Dec 2, 2005 - View this thread

Armagetron Advanced is a free network enabled Tron lightcycle racer for windows, OSX & linux. Attractive graphics and interesting camera controls make up for a fairly difficult opponent skill level. Screenshots here, download link here.
posted on Oct 31, 2005 - View this thread

I guess if you already have X-Box, this will have to suffice. [Warning: Embedded WMV file]
posted on Oct 30, 2005 - View this thread

We believe that a power greater than Sid Meier can restore us to sanity. Yeah, World of Warcraft may currently be ruining your life, but I'd bet good money that over the long haul Civilization and other games by Sid Meier have ruined more lives than that upstart. Don't give in! NO MORE TURNS!
posted on Oct 26, 2005 - View this thread

You say you want a Revolution? This morning at the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unveiled the unique controller for the company's upcoming video game console, code named Revolution. Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated the device to the press with a series of hands-on demos. While no full games have yet been shown on the system, the controller offers many possibilities for novel, accessible, and compelling game experiences.
posted on Sep 15, 2005 - View this thread

Witness the Whiteness as borderline-albino Canadian nerdcore MCs kick it Konami-school [Windows Media/Quicktime; more]
posted on Aug 16, 2005 - View this thread

SMW - The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo.
posted on Aug 13, 2005 - View this thread