Play Where's My Water for free in your browser

You can play Where's My Water for free in your browser as part of a conservation fundraiser. (One of my favorite iPhone games. I've just about recovered all the ducks.)

Half-Life 2 mod Elevator Source

Elevator Source:

Elevator: Source is a single or co-op elevator experience that is different each time you play. What floor will you stop on next? What will happen? Who knows! We don't even know! And we made the game. It's THAT EXCITING.

Elevator: Source brings you:
Up to 28 randomized floors to stop on (with DLC packs possible in the future!)
A thrilling co-op experience
Realistic elevator physics
Cunning, state of the art AI that REALLY GOES INTO THE ELEVATOR AND WAITS!
Real moral choices! What floor do you get off at? Do you ever get off? Only you are able to craft your elevator story.

No video game to date can bring you the quality of elevators or as realistic a simulation as Elevator: Source can!

More interesting than it sounds. You can just enjoy the 45 minute video above (strong language). Via.

Link roundup

1. Black Market - - a free browser game where you play a space smuggler. Via.

2. Funny review of the latest episode of Rachael vs. Guy, Week 2. Sample:

Each team brainstorms in the glorified green room Guy refers to as “the dojo.” Guy calls them “dojos” because, as evidenced by the French fry and BBQ steak sushi roll on the menu of Tex Wasabi’s, he’s extremely respectful of Japanese culture and traditions. Once again, Guy and Rachael take a firm hand in steering their respective team members. They are also amazing at accidental synergy. Both Guy and Rachael instruct their teams to put the savory ingredient inside a cannoli shell. I already pitied the 13 judges for having to eat the celebrities’ regular desserts, but now they’ve got to take down both a wasabi and an anchovy cannoli. I’m going to hurl. “The Anchovy Cannoli” sounds like a racist name for an Italian prizefighter in the '30s.

3. Fun in Google Maps - - click the woman. Via.

4. Kotaku on Star Wars: The Old Republic:

It just feels like BioWare enjoyed creating the Empire more than the Republic. It shows in every bit of writing for the Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, and Imperial Agent. All of the deception, cruelty, cowardice, and backstabbing is crafted with just a hint of a devilish smirk.

In contrast, most of the Republic-side plot reads as if it was written by George Lucas. Recently written by George Lucas.

Abobo's Big Adventure is now available to play

Abobo's Big Adventure, the tribute to 80's NES games, is now available to play for free in your browser. (Like the games it emulates, it's a little too tough for my taste.) Via.

Play Cut the Rope in your browser for free

Play Cut the Rope in your browser for free.

Link roundup

1. Fun, silly browser game - - Upgrade Complete. Via.

2. Absurdly arcane viral game for The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Cool prize, though.

3. Gabe Delahaye's latest hilarious The Walking Dead episode summary.

4. 50% off posters at Zazzle today with the code PERFECTPHOTO - - I recommend posters by Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, and Adam Koford.

What if the Abobo from Double Dragon was the star of all the classic NES games?

You get Abobo's Big Adventure. (Sign up for the beta at the link.)

Link roundup

1. Play Duck Hunt in your browser.

2. How the Mexican Mafia works.

3. The secret origin of Tori Amos's Cornflake Girl.

Link roundup

1. RPS on Glitch (which I played for a few minutes and then turned off):

It’s a lovely concept, and has a great many lovely ideas. It’s a shame, then, that they’re hung around one of the worst games I’ve ever had the misfortune of playing.

2. Here's a fun free game for Chrome - - Z-Type is a shooter/typing game.

3. Cory Doctorow's latest book, a collection of essays, is available Amazon and as a free download.

Illustration roundup

The Queen of Chinatown posters available at eBay. Via.



Skaters commission by Hellen Jo.



Doctor Who by Mike Dialynas. Via these sites.



Character designs by Ben Steers for Nightmare High - - "Flesh eating teachers, brain scanning machines, evil sky rockets and the most mighty packed lunchbox in the history of the universe all feature in Nightmare High, a new game . . . designed to help 10-13 year olds as they move up to big school, and with life transitions in general."



Big oil by David Drummond.

Link roundup

1. Maybe it gets better later, but why would I keep playing Glitch when the first actions it makes me do are collecting a hamburger and watering a tree?

2. Speaking of games, here's three free games: Psychonauts iOS app; Team Fortress 2 demake; Broken Sword.

3. Joel McHale describes his college football career.

4. Walter Russell Mead:

Our educational system isn’t nearly user-friendly enough. Modeled after aristocratic and elitists institutions in Reformation England, American undergraduate colleges still accept as a default model four years of full time residential study. A deep confusion about different kinds of education means that the model of liberal arts education is stretched to fit subjects like “business administration” and “water safety management” which have much more to do with training than with education in the classic sense.

5. Thomas Barnett:

My advice here is simple: It is time for both Afghanistan and Pakistan to stop being our problem and ours alone to solve. The Bush-Cheney unilateralism segued right into the Obama-Biden version: We simply refuse to deal with the regional powers, all of which want a far bigger say in how this whole thing settles out. Instead of working with India, China, Russia, Turkey, and Iran — and accepting that their more vigorous management of the situation would mean "victories" for them and not us — we've chosen consistently to side with Pakistan, which not only wants but is committed to keeping the region unstable.

Link roundup

1. The tap water in a Pennsylvania town is so polluted with methane that you can light it on fire. Via.

2. Today's new free games: City of Heroes and Glitch (haven't tried either yet as I've been spending my video game time enjoying Lego Clone Wars).

3. In light of the way Google has cancelled projects under Larry Page, it's reassuring that they keep rolling out new improvements for Blogger.

4. Cheating by the Redskins apparently caused those bad snaps in last night's Cowboys game.

Retro-style Twin Peaks video game

Black Lodge is a free Atari 2600-style action game for PC and Mac, created by Jak Locke. Via these sites.

*Previously: Twin Peaks merchandise.

Link roundup

1. Hellbreed's a fun, free Diablo clone that ran smoothly on my ancient computer.

2. And speaking of free games, I haven't tried it, but there's a free game based on The Thing. Via.

3. Futurama on the speed of light (which might not be the fastest thing in the universe anymore). Via.

Link roundup

1. Video from 1967 showing a baby gorilla frolicking in a bathtub.

2. A commenter at Gawker:

I hate to sound like a Republican here, because I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat, but...

You can't expect to get a liberal arts degree, move to New York, find a great job and a great 1-bedroom apartment, and have enough money left over to eat out once in awhile. You never could. My parents were artists in New York in the 50s and 60s and they were broke ALL THE TIME.

You don't need that new iPod. You don't need to eat out 4 times a week. You don't need a new car every 3 years. You don't need the fucking designer clothes. The true "middle class" people of a generation ago never lived like that.

You know how you rebuild the middle class? You stay in the community you grew up in. You and your smartest friends have to go to college, and then go back to your shit town with your shiny new degree and be what used to be called a "community leader." You have to get married, have kids, raise them with good manners, and encourage them to stay in the community and take over the family business.

Republicans and Democrats conned us all into believing that we could have it all, get any degree we wanted, go and live like the cast of "Friends."

Well fuck that, because its not true. Its a pernicious lie that both parties and the media foisted on us. Live frugally, find a partner, get involved in your community, start a family. Families and strong communities are the way out of poverty, Republicans got that much right.

3. Corpse hotel with refrigerated coffins in Japan. Via.

4. Portal is apparently a free download from Steam for the next few days.

Nightmare House 2

If you're in the mood for something scary, enjoy this playthrough of the free game Nightmare House 2.



This segment from later in the game has several particularly clever chills:







And from the same creators, enjoy these Portal levels and play the flash version of Portal (which I might have posted before).

Link roundup

1. Kingdom Rush is a really fun tower defense game. It's basically a fancier-looking version of Cursed Treasure, which I believe I've posted before.



2. Deadline looks at the failure of that Conan remake. Somehow it cost $90 million, despite looking like a SyFy movie in the tv commercials.



3. New contest at Threadless: design a t-shirt for 826 National. (Seems like the last thing they need is help with their design work, though.)



4. "If someone had made a horror movie about alien wasps and hired H. R. Giger to do the designs, the resulting monsters might have looked something like this. But this "warrior wasp" is real: it lives on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and it is 4 centimetres long."

Wonderputt (free minifgolf game)

Wonderputt is a fun, simple, and visually interesting minigolf game by Damp Gnat. Via.

Link roundup

1. Jane Eyre cover redesign contest.



2. LEGO Universe is now free to play. Via.



3. Sign of the times: Serious Eats now has a column focusing on cereal.

Link roundup

1. Wired on Google's demand for real names on Google+, except for celebrities. Via.



2. There's an overabundance of brilliant musicians and chess players.



3. This is a pretty cool low-fi scary game. Via these sites.