With “Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3″ out now, this week’s free game seems only fitting.

Title: Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Developed by: Westwood Studios
Published by: Electronic Arts
For: Windows
ESRB rating: Teen

As Electronic Arts did with the original “C&C” when “Tiberium Wars” came out, so has it done with the original “Red Alert.”

This “C&C” sub-series is a campy alternate-history counterpoint to the campy sci-fi of the main series. The game opens with Albert Einstein going back in time to erase Adolf Hitler from history, thus preventing World War II as we know it, but opening the door for an even more devastating conflict between the Allies and the USSR.

You can play as the Allies or the Soviets, each side with its own self-contained story line and set of missions. the controls are simple (point and click with the mouse) the graphics are effective, if dated, and the game is still a lot of fun. And that’s to say nothing of the deliciously cheesy between-mission video sequences. Anyone who has played a real-time strategy game on PC should be familiar with how “Red Alert” works — players build bases and throw a variety of units against the defenses of an enemy base, in general, though some levels put you in control of a small force with an important objective.

“Red Alert 2″ got even weirder with its introduction of the crazy psychic Yuri, and the new third installment has the Soviets play turnabout by going back in time themselves to eliminate Einstein before he could build his machine. But this is where the bizarre sub-series got its start.

(Image from Mobygames.com)

Instead of one game this week, I’m going to give you several — because it’s Halloween and I missed last week because I was at Disneyland. So, go and check out this site, which offers a selection of free, spooky Flash games. And don’t forget this free game of the past, which is perfect for Halloween fun.

A few years ago my wife and I played World of Warcraft quite a bit. Actually, we played it in two stints — once for a few months after the original game came out, and then again when we bought the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, and some of our friends from Sacramento started playing as well. It was a great way to connect.

But a game like WOW never ends, and playing it takes a lot of time and a fair bit of money every month, so eventually we canceled our subscriptions and moved on to other things. I’ve missed playing it at times — it’s a fun game, and a great way to stay in contact and spend time with friends who are too far to see often — but not enough to go back to spending three hours a night and $15 a month on it. And that’s how things have stood, until …

Read more

Got little time today, so this’ll be a quickie. No picture or anything. I know, I know!

Anyway, check out “Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War,” yet another game by Midway recently made free for download. It’s a real-time strategy game where you can take direct control of your army’s mythical leader to cut a swath of destruction through enemy forces. I don’t recall it being any great shakes, but it has some neat ideas and the price is right.

I’m pressed for time this week, so this one’s short and sweet.

Title: Dino Run
Developed and published by: Pixeljam
For: Web browsers
ESRB rating: N/A

In “Dino Run” you’re a little dinosaur trying to escape the dino-apocalypse. Keep running right until you reach the end of each randomly generated stage. Eat things as you go. Don’t die along the way. And that’s about it — it’s simple, fast and fun.

Hope you have your hazard suit handy, because this game’s totally rad … -ioactive! Nyuk, nyuk.

Title: Fallout
Developed by: Black Isle Studios
Published by: Interplay
For: Windows
ESRB rating: Mature

Available for free now on GameTap, “Fallout” is a role-playing game set in a future world totally devastated by nuclear war. You take on the role of the Vault Dweller, a player-named and customized character who is sent out from his hardened underground home, Vault 13, to find a replacement chip for the Vault’s water purification system. This initial quest leads to a larger adventure that eventually sees the player facing a monstrous mutant bent on absorbing all the remaining life on the planet.

The graphics look primitive by today’s standards, but they’re effectively gritty, gross and grotesque as the scenario requires. The game is a mix of real-time and turn-based elements. When out of combat you uses the mouse to walk around freely, talking to survivors in their ramshackle villages in the wasteland, taking on quests and doing favors. When fighting a mutant scorpion or a shambling nuclear ghoul or something, you’re given a number of action points per combat round that are used to move, attack and use items and skills. Once they’re gone, you have to wait a bit for them to fill up again.

The game was a bit favorite about a decade ago. The second game is available on GameTap via its pay service, and with the third installment on the way later this month courtesy of Bethesda Softworks, makers of the dense “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,” it’s a perfect time to revisit this classic.

(Image from MobyGames.com)

This week’s free game is a creepy one. But that’s OK, because we’re nearing October, the month of Halloween horrors!

Title: The Suffering
For: PC
Developed and published by: Midway
Age rating: Mature

A caveat first: “The Suffering” is the video game equivalent of a B horror movie, with all the blood and gore and scariness that implies. And like a horror movie, that’s a large part of what makes it entertaining. But take that Mature rating seriously; this one’s not for the kiddies. I first played this one when it came out on the original Xbox. It was pretty good, as I recall, though it has long since landed in the bargain bins of game stores. And now you can get it for free.

The corporeal dude in the picture up there is Torque, the anti-hero of the game. Torque is on death row in a fictional island prison off the coast of Maryland. He’s in for murdering his wife and kids. As the game starts the prison is overrun by monsters in the gruesome image of execution methods — a twisted being with swords for arms and legs represents decapitation, while syringe-studded wretches stand in for lethal injections, and so on.

These monsters are dumb but vicious, and there are also greater spirits at work on the island, like the vaporous guy in the photo, Hermes, who liked executing people so much that he committed suicide in the prison’s gas chamber so he could haunt inmates forever.

And then there’s Torque’s own inner beast to deal with. The most interesting twist of the game is that how you act while playing influences whether or not Torque was actually guilty of his crime. Leave helpless inmates to die — or worse, kill them yourself — and it’ll turn out that Torque murdered his family or was at least involved in their deaths. Work to redeem Torque and he’ll end up being innocent of the crime.

(Image from Mobygames.com)

You might have heard of a game called “Alien Hominid.” If you haven’t, the short version is that it was a banner example of indie-game success, a Flash game on Newgrounds that grew into a PlayStation 2 and GameCube release by The Behemoth, and later into Alien Hominid HD on the Xbox Live Arcade.

More recently the studio behind the game released “Castle Crashers,” a modernized four-player beat-’em-up in more or less the style of the old “TMNT” arcade games and other big coin-operated brawlers — except “Castle Crashers” is funnier and more twisted.

GET TO THE POINT, you say. Fine.

This week’s games are both by the same folks, and both are free browser-based games in the vein of “Alien Hominid,” featuring the singular art style that runs through both. The first is …

“Castle Crashing the Beard” is a spin-off that’s more of a joke than anything else — in it you play as the Blue Knight from “Castle Crashers” against the floating, scowling, bearded head of artist Dan Paladin, who is behind The Behemoth’s singular art style. It’s nothing complex, but it’s weird and fun. And weird. Which brings us to the second game …

“Dad n’ Me”  is more of precursor to “Castle Crashers.” It has similar arcade-brawler gameplay, but with a miniature Jason Vorhees-like character fighting with rival schoolkids on his way to meet his bigger, meaner dad on the other side of town. It plays a bit like a slower, less developed “Castle Crashers,” in fact. The game, like nearly all Behemoth games, has a twisted sense of humor and a fair bit of blood, so beware.

Neither game is rated, but treat them as Teen-rated games, as their content is similar to the T-rated console games these guys have released.

(Screen captures by Justin Hoeger)

As promised, here are this week’s two games, both of which hinge on the same concepts: invulnerability and explosions.

Title: Boombot
For: Web browsers
Developer: Kaiparasoft
Publisher: Ninja Kiwi
Age rating: N/A

First up is Boombot, in which you have a limited number of bombs with which to propel a cute little indestructible robot to the exit of each stage. Sometimes you only have one bomb; other times you have several. Sometimes there are other explosives in the stage you can set off for a boost; other times there aren’t. It’s a lot of fun, in any case. Just don’t run out of bombs or fall into any open pits, or you’ll have to try the level again.

Title: IndestructoTank A.E.
For: Web browsers
Developer and publisher: Armor Games
Age rating: N/A

And secondly we have IndestructoTank A.E. In this one you control an invincible but weaponless tank beset on all sides by helicopters, planes and other vehicles. You use the explosions of their bombs and missiles to propel your tank into the air, crushing your foes with the sheer weight of the vehicle. Same concept as Boombot, totally different execution, and just as fun in its way. There is a bit of animated blood in this one, so beware.

Enjoy!

(Screen captures by Justin Hoeger)

As promised, I have a free game for you.

Title: WeeWar
Developed and published by: WiiWar Ltd.
Age rating: N/A

It’s called “WeeWar,” and it is a free turn-based wargame you play in your Web browser. There is an optional subscription fee for players who want access to additional unit types, the ability to run up to 10 games at once (the game hangs on an absent player’s turn until it’s resolved, and updates  players on opponents’ moves via e-mail) and other goodies. But it’s free to play the basic version, and the colorful graphics make it look a lot like “Advance Wars” on a hex grid. Ands everyone loves hex grids, right? Right.

The game itself looks like it would easily fall in the E or E-10+ range if it were rated by the ESRB. However, as an unrated online game with a number of customizable components (player designed maps, player avatars, etc.), you never know what crude or crass things you might come across, so be aware of that possibility.

(Screen capture by Justin Hoeger)