Sorry, folks; no free game today. Or next Friday, sadly. I’m away from my keyboard starting today — going on a long-awaited vacation, in fact. But I’ll make it up to you when I get back. Er, maybe.

You do, if you buy the game they’re developing based on the classic graphic novel. The game will take place before the events of the story (and next year’s film adaptation by Zack Snyder, director of “300″), when a still-fit Nite Owl and a less-crazy Rorschach fought crime together.

I have hopes for this, but not high ones considering the generally poor state of games based on comic-book franchises (those score averages make me very glad there wasn’t a game rushed onto shelves as a tie-in for “The Dark Knight”).

But hey, it’s no fair judging a game before even a screen is released.Maybe this one, like Dr. Manhattan’s thermodynamic miracle, will surprise me.

This week I don’t offer just a game … I offer the world! Well, that’s a bit overdramatic. What I’m really directing your attention to is “Freeciv,” an open-source clone of Sid Meier’s long-running “Civilization” series.

Title: Freeciv
For: Windows, Mac
Developed and published by: Freeciv project
Age rating: N/A

Why “Freeciv”? Well, as publisher 2K Games has just released a somewhat pared-down version of the series in the form of “Civilization Revolution,” I figured this would be a good way to direct anyone who likes that game to a more complex version; “Freeciv” is based strongly on “Civilization II.”

Of course, for the most complete modern “Civ” experience, the best way to go is to pick up  “Civilization IV” and its two expansions, “Warlords” and “Beyond the Sword.” The amount of content in this package is pretty staggering, and that’s before taking into account the wealth of user-created scenarios, units and other modifications available for download for free from the Internet.

Ah, but I’m getting carried away; “Civ IV” is not “Freeciv,” though this version shares much in common. In any case, the point of “Freeciv,” as in any other “Civ” game, is to guide a fledgling people from their first humble settlements through the ages on to victory, whether by martial victory, cultural dominance or other means. It’s turn-based strategy gaming at its finest, with players required to balance technological research and popular well-being with defensive and diplomatic concerns.

(Image courtesy of Freeciv.org)

It’s not nearly as large as it was a few years ago, but nevertheless the Electronic Entertainment Expo is in swing this week in Los Angeles. The coming few days will be filled with announcements, so instead of hitting them individually I’m just going to dedicate this post to the show, with updates coming as tidbits catch my eye.

12:39 p.m. Monday
Two very interesting bits of news so far, both reported by 1up.com. First, in a move that will surprise almost no one, an expansion to last year’s wickedly funny brain-teaser “Portal” is in the works. And in the show’s first big piece of news, Square Enix’s upcoming RPG “Final Fantasy XIII” has been confirmed for the Xbox 360.

Originally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, this is a big coup for Microsoft. Not only is the long-running “Final Fantasy” series an extremely popular one, but all of the main series entries except the online game “Final Fantasy XI” (which was on Windows and Xbox 360) and remakes and re-releases of the older titles (which have been all over the map) have been PlayStation exclusives since 1997. That year, I bought a PlayStation to get my hands on “FFVII” — and I wasn’t the only one to do so. There isn’t any new info on the game itself, yet, but this is big news.

3:52 p.m. Wednesday
Well, this is kind of a boring expo. There’ve been a few announcements of little surprise to anyone — “God of War III” is in development, for example, and there was a gameplay-free teaser trailer for it. There’s a “Grand Theft Auto” game in the works for the DS; that was unexpected. But the whole thing seems sort of meeehhh this year. Anything interesting happens in the next couple days, I’ll post it here. In the meantime, if you want a breakdown of all the news you can check out 1up or GameSpot, or one of the other online gaming magazines.

2:53 p.m. Thursday
Just when I was ready to give up on E3, Electronic Arts goes and makes an interesting announcement (thanks to Rock, Paper, Shotgun for the tip): BioWare, of “Mass Effect” fame, is making an online version of its stellar “Star Wars”-themed “Knights of the Old Republic.” That’s right, the best “Star Wars” property since the original films — best largely because it takes place thousands of years before the narrative baggage of the Skywalker saga — is going to be an online multiplayer game, and with BioWare at the helm it’s sure to be at least a little bit better than the widely reviled “Star Wars Galaxies” online RPG, which has undergone radical gameplay changes and an exodus of players to “World of Warcraft” in its five years of existence. Exciting news, indeed!

There haven’t been many posts here lately because there hasn’t been much news. Maybe next week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo will generate some news. In the meantime, here’s your weekly free game:

Title: 8bit killer
For: PC
Developed and published by: Locomalito
Rating: N/A

This great little first-person shooter is stylishly low-tech. It kind of looks like what you’d get if you could put “Doom” or “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” on the old Nintendo Entertainment System. It plays a great deal like those games, and draws inspiration from NES classics like “Bionic Commando,” “Mega Man” and many others. All you do is run around the levels shooting people and collecting items like ammo, guns and keys to open door. The violence is pretty tame with such blocky graphics, though there are little blips of pixelated blood when enemies are shot. In sum, it’s a fantastic little game for those of use who grew up in the ’80s playing our Nintendos.

The game’s Web site is in Spanish; here’s a translated version. Thanks to 1up.com for bringing the game to my attention.

(Screen capture taken by Justin Hoeger)

Yeah, so, oops. In all the Fourth of July commotion I forgot to post a free game yesterday. I make it up to you today by offering two, and a lead on a third.

The first is “Minishoter RS,” a Japanese freeware game by Peposoft. And yes, the title is spelled like that. Anyway, it’s a very simple space shooter — there are several ships to choose from, each with two weapons, an energy shield and a limited dash ability. And it is very, very small — at its default setting the game display looks like this:

Not very big at all. But it’s fun, and it’s free (oh, and the display window can be boosted to about three times that size).

Also this week, I direct your attention to Game Giveaway of the Day, which puts up games each Saturday and Sunday that are free for that day only — you have to download and install them in that time, or lose the chance forever (though demos for many of the games are freely available, and you can always, well, pay). Today’s is called “Troll” — check the site tomorrow for another one.

(Screen capture taken by Justin Hoeger)

It has been nearly eight years since the release of Blizzard Entertainment’s mega-popular computer game “Diablo II.” (Blizzard is the same company that created “World of Warcraft” and “Starcraft.”) Now, after an expansion, numerous revisions and a whole series of spinoff novels, the next chapter in the series has been revealed.

And true to Internet form, some people are already complaining. Addressing them: The game you’ve been wanting for nearly a decade is finally announced and all you can do is carp about how the art design isn’t as dark and dank as you’d like? Seriously? Geez, get a grip.

Anyway, the rest of us “Diablo” fans are looking forward to another habit-forming adventure in the demon-infested world of Sanctuary. Over the weekend I reinstalled my copy of the game at home and started playing, and was quickly reminded why it’s so compelling.

On its face the game doesn’t sound that special: You create a hero, selecting from several different character classes like Barbarian, Necromancer and Paladin, then journey out into the world to kill monsters, pick up the loot they drop, move on and repeat. It’s a simple formula.

What makes “Diablo II” work so well is its nearly infinite replayability. The base game has five character classes; two more were added by the expansion. Each of these classes has its own specialties, with a variety of abilities divided among three distinct skill paths — a Druid, for example, can learn skills in Elemental, Summoning and Shape Shifting disciplines.

As a player player monsters and finishes quests he or she earns points to spend on skills in these trees, but there are only so many to go around and they can’t be regained once spent. How a character’s skill set is customized is as important as the weapons they wield. Add to this a huge array of equipment and items, area layouts that are randomized each time you start a new game and an interesting story, and you have a recipe for a killer time sink.

The complete “Diablo” package is pretty cheap these days —it can be found for as low as $30 or so online — and with the sequel in development now would be a good time to check this classic out.

(Image courtesy of Blizzard.com)