It's the weekend.

You got nothing to do.

Might bust out some questionable materials, yeah?

Well don't do that, because Freeware Fridays is here, supplying you with all your freeware needs for the long, otherwise boring, weekend ahead.

Soldat
By: Michal Marcinkowski
Multiplayer Shooter

Well, unless you live under a friggin' rock, Soldat is a pretty big game around here in GamingW. There's a channel (#gwsoldat), a sub-forum (http://www.gamingw.net/forums/index.php?board=152.0), and more!

Soldat is basically worms, but real time, with real weapons, and JETPACKS. How cool is that? If you said not cool, well, you're wrong.

It's a great game, that while yeah, takes awhile to learn, is very very fun either way. You should go get it, and join #gwsoldat and give it a try. Seriously.

DragonSlayer will post a more in-depth article at a later time.

You can download Soldat, at its main site, here: http://www.soldat.pl/main.php

Toribash
By: Hampus Söderström
Fighting Game


Toribash is the most unique fighting game ever period end of story. It's a 1 on 1 fight, and here comes the unique part: you control every individual part of your fighter's body. You can tell each limb to hold (for bigger damage on impact), relax, or extend. There is a pretty high learning curve however, but once you learn what all the limbs do (I recommend learning how your legs work, they are the easiest to grasp, first.) the game is an amazing experience.



You can download the game + view another trailer at www.toribash.com.

Tales of Game's Presents: Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga
By: Tales of Game's
Role-Playing Game


Again, this is one of those "living under a rock if you don't know it" games. This game has been HUGE, landing its own page's on GameFAQs, GameSpot, and being posted on hundreds of websites.

B,SUAJ:G, is an amazing freeware RPG, that everyone should try. It takes itself very seriously, but has a phenomenal soundtrack, great graphics, an innovative battle system, and is just hilarious.

I'd write more, but I'll save that for later, when I review the game in-depth next Wednesday.

You can download the game at: http://www.talesofgames.com/

Dwarf Fortress
By: Bay 12 Games
Roguelike


Do you like Dwarves? I love Dwarves. I also love roguelikes. For anyone who doesn't know what a roguelike is, they are basically the precursor to the entire Hack & Slash (Diablo II, etc) genre. They feature ASCII graphics for everything, random elements, and are dungeon crawlers. You create a character and go kick some ass!

Dwarf Fortress expands on this by letting you use dwarven slave labor to build a fortress, plus it can generate massive worlds that have a history spanning over 1,000 years worth of civilization and people. You can even retire your adventurer's, and meet them with your new guy, assuming you get there before he "dies".

(You can also shoot dwarves out of catapults but WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO???)

It is probably the best "standard" roguelike, that can provide an infinite amount of experiences.

You can download Dwarf Fortress at: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/index.html (NOTE: This game is updated very very often.)

Every Extend
By: "OMEGA"
Shoot-Em-Up


Every Extend is unique in its genre. It's a shoot-em-up....but you don't actually "shoot" anything. Rather, you play a character, and you try to detonate yourself, so that you destroy enemies in chains. Try to blow up the pink boxes to cause more enemies to join the field for bigger chains! Destroy certain foes and collect their yellow boxes to get a time bonus. At the end of the game, you must try to defeat a boss before time is over.

It's a pretty simple game, but once you figure out the process to doing things very well and fast without causing too many loses of stock by wasteful detonations, you will get big high scores in this game! :D

You can check out Every Extend here: http://nagoya.cool.ne.jp/o_mega/product/e2.html
You can download it here: http://www.vector.co.jp/download/file/win95/game/fh327077.html

Every Extend has had a commercial release: Every Extend Extra for the PSP.

I hope these freeware games provide you with hours of entertainment, this weekend and beyond!