text: This is the one to seek out. |
  This is officially the latest I've ever gotten the Monthly Free Games up, I think. Especially given that the first Tuesday (when the Sony stuff drops) wasn't that deep into the month. Especially sad given the paucity of good stuff this month, although a bunch of you get to enjoy the best game here for the first time, while I already owned it.
  The Escapists (XBox One)
  The second-half of October game for XBox One is a game that is constantly on sale in the Playstation Store and a game I know almost nothing about. Turns out I don't like it. It's a prison escape simulator with 8-bit level pixel art and complicated mechanics. If you like crafting cudgels out of bars of soap and socks, you might be interested in this.
  Super Dungeon Bros (XBox One)
  I can put up with long loading times. I can put up with awkward controls. But Super Dungeon Bros has both of these. and the main, Gauntlety, action-RPG gameplay just isn't that compelling. It feels like a game where the developers just decided on a date it would be done and then shipped it.
  Everybody's Gone To The Rapture (PS4)
  As slowly paced 3-D interactive stroy walking simulators go, EGTTR is a stellar example. It's very beautiful, and the game stays pretty good about giving you the next bread crumb right around the time you're sick of walking slowly through and English village, checking doors to see which ones open when you press the interact button, which ones make a locked noise, and which ones don't do anything. That said, it is slow and deliberate and beyond the writing, voice acting, and 3-D modeling, there's nothing you can get from this that you can't get from reading a summary of it. I mean, the player literally does nothing from start to finish.
  The Deadly Tower Of Monsters (PS4)
  Now this, this is my jam. Light Action-RPGing set in a pan-50's-60's-70's sci-fi B movie, with director's commentary on that movie throughout and lots of interesting, not overly complex mechanics and upgrades. Good use of 3-D space, as you climb a tower, but it can get frustrating at times as you fall down the tower because you missed a shot and the monster knocks you off and you gotta climb back up. Still. My jam.
  Far Cry: Blood Dragon (XB ox 360)
  If you don't habe this, or never got it for free (I know it was free at least once before), give it a go once it goes free on November 16. It's short, and it's chock full of early 90's retro glory mixed with decent modern FPS stuff.
  The Secret Of Monkey Island SE (XBox 360)
  I feel bad about it, but whatever there was in my brain that let me play the shit out of Lucasarts adventure games back in the day - Monkey Island, Zak McKracken, the Indiana Jones games - is no longer a thing. I've tried a few times. I think I've tried with this at one point. And they don't grab my interest anymore. They're not bad games, and it's free, but the point and click thing leaves me cold nowadays.
  Dirt 3 (PS3)
  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP. I can't play another last-gen racing game for free. I can't even tell them apart anymore. I don't know how many free Dirt games I've downloaded in the past year. I may well have played Dirt 3 already. (UPDATE: I was perusing my XBox One "Ready To INstall" and sure enough, free Dirt 3 from some months ago. Feh.)
  Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
  I enjoyed this quite a bit six months ago when the actual next-gen port of it was free on the XBox One. If you don't own an XBox One and do own a PS3, you could do worse. It's a light RPG with a battle system not dissimilar to your Paper Mario RPG or Mario and Luigi.
  Pumped BMX (Vita)
  No. No no no no no. Not gonna even try to get this. It's gonna be like Dirt 3 only without a motor and probably with a horribly-thought-out back touchscreen enabled trick system to justify the Vita port. Nope. It's called PUMPED BMX. You can extrapolate the entire game from that. The only question is could they afford to put Sum 41 on the soundtrack.
  Letter Quest Remastered (Vita)
  Letter Quest is one of those games I return to periodically on iOS because it fills a void. It's a not-really-an-RPG where you go through levels and battle monsters by spelling words from a constantly refillng set of 15 letters. It's light and it's breezy and entertaining. The "Remastering" is a new soundtrack and an Endless MOde, so I'm not going to bother charging the Vita this month, but if you have a Vita and not a smartphone, or have a weird thing going on where you don't play games on your phone, grab this.