Enthusiastically Reviewed Text Adventure of the Chicago World's Fair
Available Online for the First Time
Price Reduced to $14.95

An old school text adventure dressed up with hundreds of period photographs and other images, 1893: A World's Fair Mystery takes place at the Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in that year, the last and greatest of the 19th century's World Fairs. Coupling a well-researched and evocative depiction of the Exposition with interesting puzzles and a mystery to solve, 1893 proves there's life in the text adventure yet. Both fans of the genre and those interested in Chicago's history will enjoy it greatly.

But don't take our word for it: the Chicago Sun-Times called it "excellent," and Adventure Games called it "one of the most fantastic adventure games I have ever played."

Your Daily World-Conquest Fix

Aevum Obscurum is an online-only multiplayer game of world conquest. Played on a map of Europe (though other maps can be downloaded and used), each player starts with a single province, a small army, and a treasury. Your ultimate goal is to become the dominant power, controlling much of the map.

Online only? Yes; its primarily a multiplayer game, with up to 50 players possible in a single instance. You play your moves, send them to the server--and when all players moves are in (or the deadline hits), the sever resolves players orders. You then view what happened last turn, and plan your moves for the next. Games can be started either in long-term or "blitz" mode; in blitz mode, turns update every few minutes, while in long-term mode, they update every day or so.

Adventure Gamers Rejoice

With adventure games abandoned by the majors, and high-profile indie projects few and far between, fans of the genre find the pickings meager. But here's reason for celebration: a big, well-executed game that feels like a cross between Monkey Island and Leisure Suit Larry, with the sort of humor adventure gamers learned to love from Infocom and Lucasarts but is now almost entirely lacking on the gaming landscape.

"Defender Clone" Doesn't Do it Justice
Now Free!

Yes, the basics of the gameplay derive from Defender--it's a sidescrolling shmup in which you can 'flip' your ship to move and fire either right or left, and enemies approach from both sides of the screen. But Alien Abduction features trippy late-80s graphics, excellent sound and music, 30 levels, and 3 gameplay modes.

Can a Gory, Third-Person Shooter Be Called 'Elegant'?

Imagine a game with something of the aesthetic of Doom III, the combat intensity of Diablo, and the care and attention to detail of a Blizzard title--in an isometric third-person shooter at an amazingly low price given the days of continuous gameplay it offers.

The Risks of American History

American History Lux, like Sillysoft's Lux Delux, uses the rules of Risk. But in this case, you play through a series of maps representing American wars (from the French and Indian War through the Iraq War), with armies and geography that shape the experience into a reasonable recreation of those wars. Not an intensive simulation, in other words, but something that does give a cool sense of historial progression. Before each level begins, you're presented with a little bit of information about the war (and a link to Wikipedia if you want to know more).

Risk In the Ancient World

From developers Sillysoft comes a new installment in their series of history-related Risk-like games. In Ancient Empires Lux, the first scenario starts in ancient Sumeria, and the last with the Roman empire; in between are the Indus Valley civilizations, the Babylonian empire, China under the Zhou (and later under the Han), the Greek city states, the rise of the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great, and the Maurya in India.

In each scenario, you can play as any of the contending powers--with the interesting twist that since there's generally one power set up as more likely to win, you earn more points playing as one of the less powerful contenders.

Deep, detailed simulation? Well, no; this is a Risk-like game, after all. But it's colorful, there is a sense of history, and kids, at least, may learn something from it.

Support an Independent Development Project by Pre-Ordering

Derek DiBenedetto of Stormcloud Creations is currently developing a unique RPG/sports management game on a very thin budget, and needs your help to fund development. By buying now (click the Buy button to left), you get access to the game on release (as well as builds during development), plus all patches and support. Manifesto takes 0% of proceeds during the development phase, because we're happy to support this kind of original effort.

Dragons and Unicorns Meet... The Space Shooter?

Archmage is a classic vertical strolling space shooter--except that instead of controlling a spaceship, you control a dragon or unicorn, and instead of shooting at enemy ships, you're shooting at a variety of fantasy beasties--using spells instead of science fictional weapons.

Innovative? No--but the controls are smooth, the bosses are interesting, and its graphically appealing--cute, in a word.

One of the best reasons to play a smaller MMO (like Ashen Empires) is that they provide a far better sense of community than the blockbuster titles. You'll often find the developers in-game, in-game help and customer support tends to be handled more quickly and better, and it's easy to play with your friends, because everybody is on the same server. (Well, in Ashen Empires' case, on one of two servers--a PvP one and a non-PvP one.)

Ashen Empires has been around for many years (it was originally called Dransik), and as a result the kinks have been worked out and it's now a nicely polished game with a depth of content and many wrinkles you won't find in other games. It's also a 2D title more reminiscent of Ultima Online than the current high-end 3D titles; if eye-candy is the main thing you find appealing about MMOs, it may not be the right title for you. If, however, a rich world and a friendly community are what you like, it may be right up your alley.