Note that this game is really just temporarily free to play; it’s not the “claim now and keep it forever” sort of free.
Preemptive Trigger Warning as Wednesday apparently deals with sexual abuse though it also says it’s “Surprisingly hopeful”. Part visual novel, part video game, free until lunchtime on the 21st.
Note that the game is “Wednesdays”, not “Wednesday”, and is unrelated to the Addams Family.
Epic this week:
Godzilla Voxel Wars, turn-based strategy.
Zoeti, rogue-lite battle game where you form poker hands to defeat your enemies.
Can someone explain to me, like I’m a 60-year-old, what “rogue-lite” means.
Sure…first a clarification, there are roguelike and rougelite games.
In general, a rouguelike game is one where no progression carries over between runs. When you die, you die. That’s it. Start over from the beginning.
In rougelite games some progression can carry over but mostly you just die too and start over. These are a bit easier and less frustrating but can still be frustrating.
For example: check out the game FTL (which is a rougelite since you can unlock new ships…still a huge pain in the arse). I have a LOT of time in that game (from a few years ago). I read guides and posts and understood the mechanics. I have never completed a run successfully (I’ve gotten very close though). I have long since given up on it but I would still heartily recommend it. It is an excellent game…if frustrating.
Ever throw a controller at your TV? These games are designed to get you to do that (so to speak).
Okay. I get it now. That has troubled me for so long. I should have asked here before now.
Yep, it’s based on a very old game called, well, Rogue.
An element of roguelike design is generally that you get some sort of power ups or cards or something that changes the way you play. Perhaps one run you’ll pick up buffs / modifiers / cards that give you better damage at long range, so you’d play differently than if you had a run where you got buffs for your melee damage, or how high you can jump. And there’s a heavy emphasis on randomization – that can be randomized enemies, maps, conditions, etc. So each run is significantly different from the others, and finding the right combinations of buffs / actions / weapons / cards for the situation is a key part of the gameplay. Usually you fail a significant fraction of the time and the games are fairly quick (20-40 minutes) though some games that one might consider roguelikes can last hours.
There are a lot of deckbuilding roguelikes/roguelikes where you choose between different cards that are offered to you to build a deck that synergizes well like slay the spire for example. But the roguelike/roguelite genre has a lot of different sorts of games within it. It’s quite a popular genre.
Four-Man co-op rat hunting simulator Warhammer: Vermintide II is free until the 23rd.
That’s big, Vermintide 2 is one of the best hack-and-slash dark fantasy games I’ve played. Kinda like the old arcade game Golden Axe in first person and with 20x the enemies at once. And they keep releasing new free content for it.
Not sure where else to put this…here seems best and this is great (one of my first PC games ever was Zork):
Zork, the classic text-based adventure game of incalculable influence, has been made available under the MIT License, along with the sequels Zork II and Zork III.
The move to take these Zork games open source comes as the result of the shared work of the Xbox and Activision teams along with Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO). Parent company Microsoft owns the intellectual property for the franchise.
Only the code itself has been made open source. Ancillary items like commercial packaging and marketing assets and materials remain proprietary, as do related trademarks and brands.
Every time I see this, I expect to see the avatar customization being various pale shades of red, or at least, their makeup is…
[I accept all boos as fully earned.]
It’s rouge with half the calories!
Sometimes I wonder if cosmetology forums are plagued with misspellings as much as gamers are.
Back in the 3E D&D era, one of the various message board forums for it had a guy with a signature:
“Have you ever caught a rouge red-handed.”
The typo here being intentional, of course. Unlike the frequent times people would make that mistake in their forum posts.
And then there were the people who didn’t get the joke and would point out his typo.
In Goat Simulator one of the free dlcs is an “MMO simulator”. You can choose a class, and rouge is an option.
“The Rouge is a stealthy and dextrous class, able to apply make-up unseen and wherever needed.
Always being one step ahead of danger, Rouges can gain the advantage over their enemy by being adept at a variety of skills, such as applying foundation, stealthily putting on mascara without being seen, using eyeliner in a precise fashion at just the right place, and finishing it off with a rich lipstick.”
There was an old (!) World of Warcraft meme about it, where a character comes up with the name “Rougelord” who was mocked for it. Ah, this seems to be a contemporary mention from 2006:
Recently, a guy named Rougelord spoke up in Orgrimar. He was then mercilessly mocked by some cruel wiseass*, who asked him if he had specced in the Beautician or Cosmetologist talent tree - or whether he felt bad about painting things with such a broad blush.
Though I only poked gentle fun, because between laziness and autocorrect, I will admit it’s happened to me.
Over on Amazon Prime Gaming (if you’re a Prime member) there has been a recent run on GOG based ancient 2ND Ed D&D CRPGS, with the most recent being Dark Sun. I’ve claimed all of these (at the free price) but haven’t dared to install and play them. I remember them happily from years ago, and enjoyed many of those settings, but I know just how stiff and featureless they’ll feel if I actually play them.
Though since I did just download the current Free iteration of City of Heroes because my group of players from 20 years ago have felt like playing again on a casual basis… maybe I should enjoy the memories and ruefully laugh at the bad parts.
Oy! I should know better. 
Rhythm game Aaero is free from Fanatical until Wednesday or supplies run out. You’ll need to have an account with Fanatical to claim the Steam key.
The “How to claim” bit says new accounts only but I had no issue getting a key despite having been a customer for many years.