A question and a request, of sorts. If anyone has a favorite online game, or gaming site, for quick, free, and of course fun games, can you share it? I've had a few favorites for some months, but they're all losing their luster for various reasons, and I think we could all do with some suggestions.
By "quick" I mean something that is fun to play a full game of, challenging, but that doesn't take more than say 10-15 minutes. Even shorter is not a bad thing, since I generally want to play for just a few minutes to take a mental break before or during or after some time spent writing, but I don't want to get involved in something that sucks up hours of time. That's why I can't really imagine buying any computer games at this point.
Anyway, my current (fading) favorites are:
Heavy Weapon -- This PopCap game is a lot of fun and is very fast-paced, but as I've improved at it it's beginning to take too long to play. Initially I could have a fun and intense game in 5 or 6 minutes, but since it now takes me at least 11 or 12 per game, and more like 15-16 on a good game, it's becoming a time sink.
Bejeweled 2 -- Another one from PopCap, and I've got the same problem here. I used to die on lvl 5 or 6 and in under 10 minutes. I now almost always make it to lvl 8 or 9 (never 10, yet) and games take anywhere from 15-25 minutes. (Sometimes I can't quite get the combos to beat 6 or 7, but I'm fast enough to keep the timer treading water, and it goes on seemingly forever.)
TeaGames.com -- has numerous fun games, most of them relatively quick. For super quick games try the
BMX Ghost tracks; you'll quite often play those for literally 4 or 5 seconds before you die, but with practice you'll improve until you can start to get near the top 100 times ever, all of which are well under 30 seconds per track. I don't have any of them, though I've been very close on several tracks. In theory BMX Ghost should be perfect games for my quick break playing, since each game is 30 seconds at most, but in practice I wind up playing the same track for far longer as I try to improve or get a perfect run, and in any event, I'm pretty sick of all of those tracks and the maddeningly precise button clicking required to compete on them. There are a lot of other fun games on that site too, but
BMX Backflips is too slow and retro,
BumperKarts takes 30 minutes or more,
Funky Truck takes too long and isn't that much fun, and I'm disappointed in the lack of challenge (and ludicrous high score format) of the new
BMX Backflips 2.
Seven Seas -- is another one by PopCap that was my favorite a couple of years ago. It's still fun once in a while, but it also takes too long, and it would take even longer if they had ever fixed the ridiculous bug that causes it to crash, sooner of later, on every level that has a sea serpent on it. (This makes Hard a random crash game of Russian Roulette, and does the same to Medium after lvl 15.)
Yeti Sports -- These games were fun for a while, but I only really liked game five (Pengu Golf) for anything resembling long term play. Game One (baseball) was fun but too simple (even when you remove all skill, while adding
decapitation, gore, and landmines), game six (Bigwave) was only mildly amusing when trying to catch the biggest air possible, and game eight (Jungle Climb) was never fun, only challenging, and when
I reached the top after several hours of obsessive play I vowed never to play it again. (And have not had any trouble keeping that vow.) The new and last one, Llama Spit, doesn't do much for me either.
BlackJack -- I occasionally play this one for a few mintues, which is about as long as it takes me to lose $1000 while rolling more 13s and 14s than R. Kelly (to steal an old joke). It is helpful to remind myself why I would never gamble with real money I didn't fully expect to lose every cent of, though.
FreeKick -- A fun little soccer game, this was fun until I figured out how the angles and heights worked and learned to score a goal every single time. It's still fun for a few minutes here and there, though the constant scroll of UK soccer gambling odds is annoying enough to make you tape something over part of your screen, or squeeze in the right side of the browser window.
Dynomite -- This was my favorite PopCap game for months, but like most of the others, it eventually
got too easy.
Proximity -- This is a nifty little strategy game that I haven't played very often and aren't sick of; I just wish it had better AI, since it can't compete on the default settings (where a placed piece increases the value of other pieces of yours around it) since the computer never learns to play with any thought to defensive position. I'm also not sure how fair this one is, since the computer possesses a seemingly magical ability to constantly draw a 16 immediately after you play a 15.
I could list more, and I still even play a quick game of D2 (Hell Baal runs with my lvl 93 SP v1.10 Javazon.), but these are ones you guys might enjoy checking out. The key issue to all of it is taste, and of course everyone's is going to vary. Games I love other people won't, and vice versa, which makes it a challenge to find one that's free, fun, and fast, and that can stay that way. Heavy Weapon is probably the best bet there, since on the Survival game (which is all I play on the online version) it just keeps getting harder, and you stop getting powerups the big powerups after 9 minutes, and you will eventually get such impossible spawns that it's just impossible to survive them long enough for a chopper to bring you another nuke.
And yes, if I didn't make it clear above, I'm asking you guys to please post your gaming comments or suggestions or questions in the comments, or via email, if you prefer. Also, I know there are tons of PopCap-like sites with tons of games, but the problem there is I've got to spend many minutes trying each one out, playing it a while to see if it's any good, etc. And I'm looking to not spend very long playing, and certainly not very long looking for something to play. I'd just install Warcraft III if I wanted sure fun and had unlimited time to indulge in it. And will, later this summer, with any luck. Once Malaya finishes her big writing project and wants a reward/break.
