Top ten hardest games
So you fancy yourself as a bit of a mean gamer. You always opt for the hardest settings when playing games. Well, we have a challenge for you - ten of the most difficult online games we could find.
They're tricky, they're testing, they're downright infuriating. They'll make you laugh, they'll possibly make you cry and they'll almost certainly have you coming back for more, just to show them. Just to show them good! They are the hardest games you can find online.
Now, burying the needle on the Casual Girl Gamer hard-o-meter takes more than flooding the screen with overwhelming waves of bad guys - the candidates here are less bashing and blasting, more baffling, befuddling and bewitching. Indeed, there's hardly an enemy to be seen in our collection of brain teasers, tests of skill and just plain maddening fun.
Published by Andy Jowett on 11th November 2010
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The ten best online platform puzzle games
Fancy something a bit more mentally challenging than usual? Then check out our list of the best online platform puzzle games.
The platform genre of games has proved incredibly durable. It is almost 30 years since classic titles like Manic Minor first brought the platform format to the attention of the general public. And here we are, three decades later, in a time of unparalleled variety in the games on offer, and we still can't get enough of platform action.
One reason for the genre's continued popularity is that game developers have become increasingly inventive in what they are doing with platform games. There are indeed now so many weird and wonderful platform games out there that you almost need to have sub-genres to categorise them all.
Published by Tasha on 3rd November 2010
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Ten scary online games
Wooooooooh. Woooooooooh. Yeah, it is halloween again, and - surprise surprise - we have some scary games for you to play. Well, I say scary but, to be honest, they are nowhere near as frightening as my trick or treaters.
I'll be honest here. Halloween absolutely terrifies me. No, it's not the prospect of being inundated by witches, undead and evil spirits that concerns me. I have become very adept at dispatching such gruesome wickedness in games like Left 4 Dead and Silent Hill. No, what fills me full of dread are the feral little kids who play trick or treat on me each year. The first time they came a-knocking at my door, I answered their question of "trick or treat, madam?" with no little nonchalance. "Oh, trick sounds so much more fun," I said, daring them to do their worst. I was not feeling so cocky the next morning when I heard that my granny's house had been burnt down, witnesses reporting four evil-looking urchins cackling to themselves near the scene.
Thankfully, Nana was out at bingo at the time. So no serious damage done. But it meant that the next year I was a lot more careful. No sooner had they started knocking on the door than I was there thrusting a brand-spanking new X-Box games console into their grubby little hands. That should get them on my side, I thought, as I quickly closed the door on them and retired trembling to the tent I had made out of my duvet. It didn't of course. The next day, as I entered into my car for work, I noticed the words 'PS3 rules' etched neatly into the window screen. I don't know what I am going to do this year. Maybe I'll give them a bottle of whiskey in the hope they will get drunk and forget me. Or perhaps I will simply leave the country.
Published by Tasha on 29th October 2010
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Con Artist Games
Chris Condon of Con Artist Games has a reputation for developing some of the most polished games on the web. Casual Girl Gamer speaks to him about his gaming philosophy.
You probably will not recognise the name Chris Condon. You may not even have heard of his highly-respected Australia-based games studio Con Artist Games. But, if you have taken more than a passing interest in Flash gaming in recent years, you are bound to have come across some of his games.
For Chris - or Con, as he prefers to be called - is responsible for some of the most popular games on the web. His two most famous games are The Last Stand and Warfare. The Last Stand and its sequel The Last Stand 2 are zombie-themed defend-your-base games, while the Warfare titles (Warfare 1917 and Warfare 1944) are highly-polished war strategy games. Con has also created some lesser-known titles such as action RPG Sin Mark and futuristic survival game Juggerdome.
Published by Alex Kearns on 25th October 2010
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New Game Round-up
Yet another crop of great new games, including a sequel to one of 2009's best point-and-click games, an underwater game based loosely on Herman Melville's legendary novel Moby Dick and an unusual game that aims to unleash your poetic potential.
We really are living in a Golden Age of online gaming. Our hardest task when compiling these new game round-ups is not finding titles that are good enough to be included, because there are literally hundreds. No, our biggest challenge is sifting through all the great new games out there to ensue that we pick only the most brilliant.
There are simply too many fantastic games being released, to make this an easy job. Take The Trader of Stories (the latest point-and-click game from the legendary Mateusz Skutnik and his studio Pastel Games) or Fragger: Lost City (the sequel to one of the most popular physics games ever). Both of these are seriously slick, well-produced games. But they don’t even make it onto today’s main list.
Published by Alex Kearns on 22nd October 2010
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Top ten launching games
There is something about the idea of wantonly launching objects - in particular small animals - into the air that tickles human beings. We would never do it in real life, of course, but give us a game that let's us do it, and we simply can't stop playing.
This list of games will probably get me in trouble with the Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Campaign to Save Shopping Carts and the League Against Meanness to Trucks are also unlikely to have me in their good books after reading this. The games we are featuring today are totally irresponsible. Anyone who did in real life what you can do in these games would be severely punished. And rightly so.
But, in their defence, there is [giggle] something insanely entertaining about launching a hedgehog into outer space, blasting a turtle [snigger] into the unknown using a nuke or driving a truck up a ramp so fast that it flies like a bird [suppressed guffaw], before crashing destructively down on some buildings. And what self-respecting student has not dreamed of launching themselves into the air in a shopping cart when drunk.
Published by Tasha on 20th October 2010
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Zombie Trapper
Funnaut's new platform-cum-defence game Zombie Trapper might have a few holes in its plot but this is more than made up for by beautiful graphics and unique and enjoyable game-play.
Being a tad absent-minded, I often forget the dates of special events in the calendar. I wake up on Easter morning, for example, completely oblivious to the importance of the day, and then feel intensely embarrassed and guilty when I see the chocolate eggs my husband has bought me, I having of course forgotten to get him anything. However, there is one day that I never forget. Halloween. That is because in the days and weeks running up to it I am continually reminded of its imminence. I am not talking here so much of the ever-more frequent knocks on the door from grubby kids demanding treats in return for not playing tricks (though that does help). No, I am referring to the tsunami of undead-inspired Flash games that flood the web in the weeks before 31 October.
Many of these games are of a pretty low quality - thrown together by the developer over a couple of days in an attempt to cash in on Halloween. But occasionally you will find gems like the game we are reviewing today: Zombie Trapper. I say it is a gem but, if you were to go by the storyline alone, you might think the game more of a dud. The plot, you see, may well appear fairly standard on the surface - your town in under attack from zombies and you, a lone policeman with an armoury of weapons, have to stop them at all costs - but on further study reveals some glaring issues. For a start, there is the holy altar that you must at all costs prevent the zombies from destroying.
Published by Tasha on 18th October 2010
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Best One Button Games
It is amazing how much fun you can have with games that use just one button.
There is something almost magical about one button games. You would have thought, given the simplicity of their controls, that these games would not offer much in terms of game-play. What, after all, can you do with just one button. And yet, in spite of this severe limitation, one button games can have surprisingly complex game-play (just look at the fully-fledged RPG in this list). Not only that, some one-button games - Poto and Cabenga, for example - can actually also offer a very stiff challenge to gamers.
This ability to unleash complex and challenging game-play using the simplest of controls is what makes one-button games so magical and fun to play. Here, we present you with what we consider to be the ten best one-button games that can be played online.
Published by Tasha on 14th October 2010
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Gregory Weir
By combining great story-telling with imaginative game worlds, Gregory Weir has created some of the most thought-provoking games on the internet.
To say that Gregory Weir thinks outside the box with his game designs is something of an understatement. He was never in the box in the first place. This is a man who draws the inspiration for his games not from what others in the gaming industry are doing but from his own dreams and hyperactive imagination. As a result, Gregory's games are like nothing else you will have seen, and they are all the better for it.
We first came across Gregory when we were undertaking research for our Five games that make you think about life article published around a year ago. One of the games we included in the list was (I Fell in Love With) The Majesty of Colors, a brilliant but disturbing adventure game where you play a scary-looking sea monster. In spite of your terrifying appearance, you start the game as an innocent creature, curious about the world. But your first contacts with humanity threaten to corrupt you. Feeling rejected and persecuted, do you turn bad and use your considerable powers for evil purposes, or do you strive to do good?
Published by Alex Kearns on 11th October 2010
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Top 10 robot games
Robots make great characters in games. Don't believe us, then check out these ten great robot games, all of which can be played in your browser for free.
According to Wikipedia, robots are "virtual or mechanical artificial agents guided by computers to do tasks on their own". Yawn. Could you possibly make them sound more boring? That bone dry description might be true at some base level but it does not do justice to what robots really mean to us as human beings. What robots really are are devices through which we can explore our own humanity. They are blank canvases on which we can sketch out simplified or extreme versions of ourselves.
Take Arnold Schwarzenegger's terrifying android in the first Terminator movie. With its calculated ruthlessness and unwavering murderous intent, it was a terrible parody of a person, all the worst aspects of humanity assembled into one machine. Then, to contrast, there is the sweet-natured rubbish-cleaner drone in the 2008 Walt Disney film Wall-E, again a parody, but this time taking many of our more generous, child-like attributes.
Published by Tasha on 10th October 2010
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Game reviews
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Lume
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ClubWorld
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Developer spotlights
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Jake Elliott
You won't find any resource-management or mindless slash and dash games in Jake Elliott's portfolio. What you will find are thought-provoking games that encourage you to ponder on the human experience.
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Con Artist Games
Chris Condon of Con Artist Games has a reputation for developing some of the most polished games on the web. Casual Girl Gamer speaks to him about his gaming philosophy.
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Gregory Weir
By combining great story-telling with imaginative game worlds, Gregory Weir has created some of the most thought-provoking games on the internet.
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John Cooney
Armor Games' head of game development John Cooney - or jmtb02, as he is better known - is one of the most prolific and imaginative game developers around.
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Evan Miller
In ImmorTall, indie developer Evan Miller created one of the most emotionally moving games to grace the internet. We speak to him about his gaming philosophy and plans for the future.
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Mateusz Skutnik
Mateusz Skutnik is a rarity: a gifted artist who is also a skilled coder. He is responsible for some of the most beautiful casual games on the web.
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