| Product: |
giveawayoftheday.com |
| Date: |
11.01.08 (118 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: free..thats a big one, good variety sometimes
Disadvantages: will re post games some times, great if you missed it, not if you already have it
Games sites have become ten a penny nowadays, too many flashy sites asking for too much money to play barely entertaining puzzle games that will probably leave you square eyed and deeply unsatisfied. Models like king.com are a good example, "Oh I'll just play one more round..."
You can buy game off sites like these, usually in $ not £ they tend to cost around a tenner and will keep you amused for a few hours, or end up being so addictive that you will never sleep again. Big Fish games are a guilty of this, and well known games like lemonade tycoon, dinner dash, bejewelled and luxor are almost household names.
There is a way to get games free. Software too, but I am reviewing specifically the games portion of the site today, since I don't often use the software giveaway and therefore cant be very objective.
Giveaway of the day.com's ethos is that they provide one free download a day to the masses, you must download, install and activate this game within the 24hr time limit or you'll miss it.
They are promotional, basically software developers/publishers allow the site to give away these games, and then listen to the feedback and hope people buy more of their games, which rarely happens but you can't blame them for trying.
Basically what you end up with is a complete game for free, but you can't move it from one pc to another, and you cant back it up. Since its rare that you would want to keep one of these games for that long I'd say that's a pretty good trade off, since you're getting it for free.
The iste is guaranteed free of spyware and virus, and I have never picked up anything from their site.
The majority of the games are puzzles, match 3 or arkanoid type clones, and break out games and whatnot. You'll never want every game on there I don't think, but if you don't like the offering, leave it for that day and look again tomorrow.
Usually you'll get a description of the game, a couple of screen shots and that's it, you click on 'download' and you'll be given a zip file, the readme inside this zipfile will explain how to proceed in order to activate your game and get the full version (as opposed to the demo or free trial) but usually it involves, either just running a setup file and it wil activate automatically, or running a setup file and then a separate .exe which works like a patch and unlocks the game. These will only work within the day time limit, since after that you'll only get the free trial. As long as you install/activate within the time limit, the full game is yours for as long as you want it.
I have rarely had a problem with installation or activation, sometimes the download link is broken but usually that's fixed in enough time to get the game, you just have to check back later.
Once you have the game and you wish to leave a comment or review it, you can do so on the game's download site, you simply fill out the form at the bottom and leave your name and email (which is not deisplayed on the comment) and submit. People can then read what you have to say. Often I wait for a while to read what people say before downloading a game as they often point out if there is a problem with vista or a glitch and will often indicate if the game is awful ;)
Overall it is a great way of getting free games for yourself or the kids.
Summary: although some games have glitches, most are fine, usually there is at least one game a month for me
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