Late to the Game(s) - Retro! Reissued! Remastered! Oh my!

  It’s free games time again!  Honestly, it’s free games time all the time if you do a little searching – and take advantage of services you might already be paying for like Amazon Prime that include gaming assets and full games. (Seriously, check out gaming.amazon.com if you have a Prime account and get your free games.) This week, though, we’re looking at the Epic Games Store again. Instead of the typical one or two free games, beginning Thursday, Epic will feature three free games to claim and download. There are no catches. No hidden costs. Just create an Epic Games account – you can even log in with your already existing PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, or social media accounts – and download the games. They are yours to keep forever. The first is the complete collection of the Deponia series. The adventure comedy, with plenty of puzzle elements, is rated M for Mature gamers age 17 and up. So, despite the cartoon like visuals, this isn’t a freebie you...

Right now, in celebrate of Sega's 60th Anniversary, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is free to claim on Steam.   Go claim your copy, fire up your desktop or laptop, and enjoy some high speed retro fun. Rated E for Everyone.  Read more about the history of Sega in our Late to the Game(s) column at Carter County Times .

Battle Planet – Judgement Day a fun and challenging rogue-lite shooter Sometimes you want a deep story in a video game. Sometimes you want a challenging puzzle. And sometimes, well, sometimes you just want to shoot things and watch them blow up. If that's what you're looking for Battle Planet – Judgement Day – a twin stick shooter, top down, rogue-lite – delivers in spades. The game isn't hard to grasp, but it does take time to master. Different game modes require the player to wipe out all the enemies on the screen, fend off enemies while defusing bombs before they can blow up a significant portion of the plant, or to beat bosses at the end of a planet level. Along the way you pick up various power-ups and weapon mods that can help you stay ahead of enemies or wipe them out in large swathes of death and destruction.  Boss fights are how you unlock new characters, like the Spy. The level-end boss fights, which pit you against various types of new and unique enemies while a...

  For the next 24 hours you can get A Total War Saga: Troy for free from the Epic Games Store . The PC version of the game doesn't have an ESRB rating listed on the game page, but other games in the series have a rating of "T" for Teen. If you've enjoyed other games in the Total War strategy game series, this one - regularly priced at $49.99 - is probably worth checking out at the low price of FREE .  In addition, Epic also has their regular Thursday freebies up today. Remnant: From the Ashes is an "M" for Mature rated action shooter, with co-op or single player game play, from developer Gunfire Games and publisher Perfect World, while their other freebie, The Alto Collection , from developer Team Alto and publisher Snowman, is rated "E" for Everyone.  The Alto Collection bundles Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey , two snowboarding themed Indie adventure/endless runner games that have garnered a lot of attention in their mobile versi...

You've got 6 days to get in on this one.  The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality over at indie game marketplace itch.io  is getting a lot of love from developers, and growing in leaps and bounds. When I bought the bundle yesterday you could get 742 games for $5 from a long list of developers. This evening, that number has grown to over a thousand games. Technically, it's at 1,427 "items" - "items" because not everything in the bundle is a game. There are art assets in here too, and game engines, among other tools to help you build your own game, as well as digital tools for tabletop RPGs. But with 1,427 "items" (and possibly more growth as more creators contribute), there's bound to be something you find interesting. And, your $5 - or more, if you're feeling generous - will go toward two good causes. All money raised in the project will be split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund  f...