A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda is a new platform shooter from Extend Studio that's heavy on the fantastic sci-fi art as well as the action. Its gameplay is reminiscent of classic sidescrolling arcade shooters mixed with a little modern-knowhow and Metroidvania-style level design and progression. While it may feel old school in concept, the game is anything but outdated, and the heavy dose of action and exploration you'll receive will keep you in a trance for many hours.

Baby barbarians, guns with serious kickback, and a little guy who can travel between dimensions as easily as we eat pancakes. That can only mean one thing: somebody switched out my Flintstone vitamins with an off-brand replacement!!!

New from Namco comes Eternal Night: Realm of Souls, a finely-crafted adventure game that employs hidden object elements and some very creative puzzle solving. It appears the great Ra has abandoned his people, forcing them to starve under harsh, sunless conditions. To discover the cause of the god's anger, the pharaoh asks for a volunteer to venture to the afterlife. You are that volunteer, and you must root around in the mystical ancient Egyptian afterlife as you search for clues, solve puzzles, and experience some genuinely strange imagery.

Another weekend, another round of games! This edition features an accidental theme of retro-style games. Oops! Hope you're not mad at Weekend Download. Because if you are, you only get one hug from Weekend Download instead of two.

At long, long last, Jordan Mechner's (creator of the original Prince of Persia game) adventure gaming masterpiece The Last Express is available as a digital download! The game was first released in 1997 where, despite being an amazing interactive experience, it failed to gain much commercial traction. Its cult status survived the turn of the century largely due to the unique nature of the gameplay, the incredible writing, and a visual style that's more like an animated television show than a video game. No more tracking down rate copies of the original CD-ROM. Just download, install, and enjoy!

Being born to a destiny of studying at the local Aztec temple isn't the most exciting of fates. But when a sacred artifact is stolen, a grand adventure quickly ensues. Our hero Huitzilo is up for the job in Aztaka, an indie action/RPG platform game from Citeremis.

As hidden object games go, you can pretty much bet you're either trapped in a haunted mansion/castle/town, trying to find your lost adventure-loving grandfather/uncle/sibling, or are wrapped in some sort of ancient magic that does nothing but bad. The latter happens to be true with The Curse of the Ring, a quirky, cheesy sort of hidden object game with a good battery of puzzles and a storyline that involves a ghost pirate as well as lost treasure!

Ever wonder what your humble garden gnome is up to when you're not looking? Apart from hours of practice standing completely still and grinning incessantly, gnomes are sneaky and underhanded. Apparently. Looks like some conjuration of magic is in order, and what better way to help than by exploring the world of gnomes and creating potions in Hodgepodge Hollow, a mesmerizing and charming hidden object game.

Demakes are the new remakes, and remakes used to be the new... makes? Whatever. Anyway, as gamers, we're eating up these indie projects that come along and remake our favorite games as if they existed on older hardware. Something about those blocky pixels and simplified music makes the blood flow.

The classic point-and-click game Myst is still alive and well, living on over a dozen gaming platforms (including the iPhone) with a number of sequels and a few remakes, all going strong. Even decades after its original release, Myst is still a force to be reckoned with.

Got a novice gamer that you want to introduce to the world of hidden object adventures? Consider this quaint tale of time going weird, thanks to a nosy girl...

Ready for another game of ambiance and intrigue from Nifflas? NightSky is the latest release from the designer/artist known for creating enchanting atmospheric settings in his games, and this one certainly doesn't disappoint. It's simpler and more streamlined than Knytt Stories, but there's no shortage of challenge or variety to be had!

It's the first Weekend Download of the new year! We should celebrate or something, shouldn't we? How about with showers of gold, rainbows and candy? Mmm, tempting, but difficult. Our airship is in the shop. What about with a bunch of games that celebrate retro gaming mechanics?! Perfect!

A spaceship filled with traveling orbs has crashed on a strange planet. The crates holding its living passengers have been scattered across the world, and as the lone captain, it's your job to find them all. Ballville: The Beginning is a matching puzzle game that emphasizes characters, unlockables, and action over tile swapping, creating an experience rich in variety that will keep you interested level after level just to see what strange new things you'll uncover.

It's the last weekend before Christmas, so a lot of people are out shopping for presents and such. Not us. We're sitting inside playing games. All. Weekend. Long! Take that, thinly-veiled incentives to buy gifts!

Lylian Episode One: Paranoid Friendship is a new horror-themed platform adventure from Pixelpickle Games. You play as the titular Lylian, a girl who may or may not be completely unhinged, as she tries to escape the mental institution she's being held in. Unfortunately for her, it seems like something much more sinister is going on, as nurses, other patients, and even the janitor are working to thwart her moves. Using Lylian's "imagination", you can change the scenery to make your way through the dark and disturbing passageways in and around the twisted hospital.

It's more Cake Mania in the Jill's latest outing, Cake Mania: To the Max! Once again our heroine is trying to make a bakery a success by filling customer's orders as efficiently as she can. It's a great-looking and tuned-up sequel in the successful time management series.

Re-experience this classic, fantastic example of adventure gaming and storytelling at its finest, or discover the series for the very first time. Follow Nicole Collard and George Stobbart on a trilogy of adventures that take them across the globe. Uncover the secrets behind an ancient order, find out what a drug cartel has to do with a Mayan artifact, and escape from the depths of the jungle after a plane crash. The Broken Sword series mixes adventure, humour, mystery, and even a little romance, and the complex narratives and challenging puzzles will keep you busy for a long time.

Meat Boy is back in his first commercial release! When the evil Dr Fetus absconds with Meat Boy's beloved Bandage Girl, he leaps to the rescue across more than 300 levels, braving saw blades, syringes, mutant blood clots, toxic waste, and much, much more. As twisted as it is charming and devious, Super Meat Boy is a fantastic and fantastically hard platformer that is tremendous fun.

The Journey Down: Over the Edge is a classic-style point and click adventure game released by SkyGoblin. Bwana and Kito, longtime friends and mechanics in Kingsport Bay, are having a bit of a cash problem. The all-powerful and evil electric company is demanding massive payments from everyone, and to top it off, they've made it a punishable offense to visit the area known as "The Edge". Couple that with a woman loaded with cash who's asking questions about Bwana's missing friend, and you've got a great start to what is guaranteed to be a strange and intriguing adventure!

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator is an isometric role playing game designed by Valkyrie Studios and released in 1999. The game had a rocky start, with its development team struggling to find a publisher, but when the title was finally released, reviews were extraordinarily positive, with many publications calling it "RPG of the year". Septerra Core's story is rich and intriguing, weaving an intricate steampunk-style world that's thick with history and interesting characters.

Here's a bit of a blast from the past for you: BatMan. Not Christopher Nolan's dark, brooding Batman, not even Tim Burton's interpretation of the caped crusader. This is old-school Batman with old-school gameplay, and you'll love every minute of it! Where does he get those wonderful toys, anyway?

Going back to its roots, the latest game in this match-3 series is all about making you serious about spheres. Luxor: 5th Passage takes a sideways step in the matching genre, introducing some new facets while never forgetting its core gameplay.

Time to roll up your sleeves, don your chef's hat and prove to the world that you are not a great cook, but faster than a striking cobra in a Formula 1 car. May the assembly begin! Based on a popular flash game, Family Restaurant is the very familiar "assembly line" type of puzzle experience. Create the ordered dish as closely to the desired specification and as fast as possible: grab ingredients from the side and arrange them over the dish as required. It might include some baking or frying. It will involve much shouting and gnashing of teeth.

And we have returned! After this author experienced a little lumbar calamity, Weekend Download is back and more weekendey than ever! So, what are your plans for the weekend? A light hoverboard ride through the forest? A teensy jog through a cave? A plain and simple walk through the forest? Or, just maybe, if you're feeling wacky, all of the above?!

When Amber receives an urgent letter telling her the threat she thought she saved Westwind Village from thirty years ago has returned, she hurries home to put an end to it. Unfortunately, she returns to find the villagers under a dark curse and sinister magic affecting the lush landscape. Help Amber use the abilities taught to her by the shamans to banish the Dark Priests, thwart their resurrection of the Chaos God, and keep the world from falling into darkness in this stunning hidden-object adventure hybrid.

With the world under the spell of an evil spirit, set upon a quest of restoring the tribe totem, inconveniently smashed to bits by the evil spirit and spread across several locations. It's up to you to visit each exotic spot and get those pieces together in this absolutely gorgeous hidden object adventure hybrid, with an assortment of hidden objects and puzzles standing in your way.

Magnets, levers, buttons, switches, gears, springs, rope, blocks of wood... They all exist for one purpose: to create puzzles for us to solve! Or, at least they do in A Magnetic Adventure, a physics-based puzzle solving game from Alawar Games. Tied together with a loose story you'll forget the minute you learn it, A Magnetic Adventure is all about moving totems to special marks on certain parts of the stage. Getting there requires some creative puzzle solving of the "drag stuff around" nature.

In The Ball, a first person 3D adventure/puzzle game, you play an unnamed archaeologist who accidentally falls into an ancient system of ruins during a dig. You discover a gigantic metallic orb that you must use to solve puzzles and destroy underworld enemies, all while working through ancient temples trying to find a way out!

The Machine is a simple-looking but intricate building puzzle game created by Bumpkin Brothers. Just like The Incredible Machine, The Codex of Alchemical Engineering, Armadillo Run and countless other "assembly line" titles, The Machine charges you with fulfilling certain orders using machinery, moving parts, and bits and bobs that change the size or color of the product being manufactured. Things start off simple enough, but as any great puzzle game, before long you'll have plenty to contend with.

Antiques Roadshow, drawing inspiration from the television show of the same name, is the story of Julia, a young woman who is such a fan of the show it inspires her to apply for a job at a local antiques shop. Turns out Julia is in for more adventure than she thought, as the owner of the shop sends her across the United States searching for clues to unravel the mystery of an old decoder ring that's been in his family for years. It's a challenging hidden object game that's certain to please fans of the show and casual hidden object fans alike.

In this hidden-object adventure title, a series of increasingly violent murders brings an FBI Agent back to her small hometown for the first time in years. What follows is a genuinely creepy and well-crafted horror mystery full of things that will make you jump and scenes that will make the hair prickle on the back of your neck.

Escape from the Underworld is a short exploration platformer that shares some design elements with some of the most successful indie games in recent history: Knytt, Iji, Seiklus, Cave Story, and, well, we could probably go on. In short, Escape from Underworld is a Metroidvania and it's really, really good.

From the developers of Delicious Emily's Holiday Season comes another gem of a time management game every casual gamer needs to experience. Heart's Medicine: Season One takes place in a hospital where the newly-arrived Allison Heart is just beginning her residency. Help sick patients by tending to their needs, shuffling them through the hospital as efficiently as you can, never forgetting to take good care of each person. The storyline is fantastic, the presentation is superb, and both the variety and the game's pacing are perfect. Heart's Medicine is simply one of the most well-balanced and entertaining time management games you can find!

Bioware's classic single and multiplayer experience finally goes DRM free. Is it worth your time after eight years? Absolutely. This computer adaptation of classic Dungeons and Dragons fantasy roleplaying not only features three robust campaigns, it also allows you to play a massive trove of community content completely free... or create your own. Explore new realms, create great heroes or villains... and maybe take a buddy along with you. Just remember to shout dibs on loot.

Oh, brains. You are as delicious (to zombies) as you are useful (to anyone running from zombies). You're also apparently quite explodable, as evidenced in this colorful cartoon-like physics game BrainSplode!. Created by Rust Red Games, all you've got is a cannon, some highly-useful missiles, and a few mid-air power-ups that help you control things. Oh, and an inexplicable hatred of squishy pink brains.

Lisa will do anything to get a good recommendation from the Dean for medical school... including babysitting his twin daughters. Maggie and Libby are more than a handful, but Lisa is convinced she can handle them... at least until the phone calls start... and she starts to realise that Libby's "imaginary" friend might not be so imaginary after all. A spooky point-and-click adventure game that's just the thing for the Halloween season.

Past and present collide in this eerie murder mystery adventure game. Victoria "Vic" McPherson is an FBI agent in present-day Chicago, while her grandfather, Gustav, worked as a P.I. in Prague over eighty years ago. There may be some similarities between the serial killer Vic is after now and the murders her grandfather was investigating decades ago, but surely it's just coincidence, or a copy-cat. After all, it isn't possible that it could be the same killer... is it? Despite some slow gameplay, Still Life is a chilling and immersive game that could be just the thing to keep you up at night.

The Island: Castaway is a new simulation-meets-RPG game that combines a Virtual Villagers kind of atmosphere with gameplay reminiscent of Wandering Willows, putting you in the role of a castaway on a lonely tropical island. Gather tons of items you'll use to hunt, fish, build, cook and more, all while fulfilling the needs of your friends and uncovering mystery after mystery on the fog-shrouded land. Play it casually, but be prepared to sink a lot of time into this excellent game!

Trinklit Supreme is a puzzle game from the purveyors of the equally-addictive Slingo series. Match up grids of blocks to form whole pieces, unlocking tons of game-changing power-ups as you play. The more you unlock, the better the experience gets, creating a hyper-addictive experience you'll pick up and play countless times during the day.

When we last left our nameless, amnesiac hero in The Fall Trilogy Chapter 1: Separation, he was plummeting down through a metal chute after having been indeterminably shot with an anaesthetic dart. Now, in The Fall Trilogy Chapter 2: Reconstruction we find our hero regaining consciousness in the basement of a 22-storey office block in an unknown city, and not unlike his adventure in the temple he has to find hidden objects and solve puzzles to regain his memory and find his family.

Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing takes the Farm Frenzy series in a slightly new direction: to the sea! Instead of messing about with chickens, cows, and sheep, your new friends are fish of all types (and maybe even a mammal). While the basic set-up remains the same, the new visual direction breathes a bit of life into the game, and as always, a Farm Frenzy title is bound to keep you busy for many afternoons on end.

As anyone who has ever worked in the customer service industry knows, pleasing the general populace is right near impossible. Fortunately for us casual gamers, Paradise Beach 2: Around the World not only makes it possible, it makes it entertaining! AstarGames' follow-up to the original time management/simulation game Paradise Beach puts you in the role of a vacation tycoon, pleasing beachgoers by building fruit stands, lounge chairs, planting flowers, and by meeting the needs of the ever-needy consumer.

Play Knight or Princess in this third installment of the Knightfall series. Destroy groups of like colored blocks to help our heroes slay monsters, collect keys, and get safely to the exit. Survive long enough and you may find out what happened to your stolen loot, and what's behind this mysterious "Taxman".

Melrose's life hasn't been easy, and when she hears about a device that could let her live inside her dreams, she jumps at the chance to live out her fantasies and escape her hardships. But she's about to find out that you can't outrun your problems, and everybody has to grow up sometimes. From Rose Portal Games comes this turn-based RPG fantasy with over 40 hours of playtime, and an entirely original soundtrack and design.

Instead of playing the usual part of "hero who saves the world", Recettear fits you in behind the scenes as shopkeeper, the thankless job of providing an endless supply of items. You'll haggle with customers, make smart purchases as the guild, and even hire adventurers to strike out on your own, looting dungeons in true action/RPG form!

After taking over her grandfather's failing cafe and turning it into a thriving business, intrepid barista Amelie returns for more in Amelie's Cafe: Summer Time, a new time management game from Boolat Games. Summer Time trades the bustling city setting of the original for a summer beach motif, but the gameplay is just as enticing

We've been fortunate enough to receive a number of big indie releases these last weeks, but the "even more indie" small devs aren't sitting on their hands, as evidenced by the games below. Behold, free awesomeness!

The road to magical greatness is difficult, littered with dragons, enchantments, adventure... not to mention test scores, rival students, detentions, and trying to keep your ghostly familiar in check. This incredibly ambitious text adventure from Black Chicken Studios is one part life simulator, one part fantasy RPG, and a whole lot of fun if you have the patience to let yourself become immersed in the tale of the making of the greatest mage of all time... you.

Give the rural life a go with this fast-paced management game. Plow, sow and harvest your crops to keep the local towns fixated on your watermelons (and other crops). And shoot a few crows for relaxation.

CUUUUTE games this week. So unabashedly cute. Sugar cubes and tiny block guys. Squeaking mushrooms and elevators that play elevator music. Ohhhh, I'm gonna burst with sugary sweetness.

Far to the north in an ancient tower a paladin may have gone astray and awoken something dangerous deep beneath the ice. It's up to you to investigate... provided you have the stones for it. The smash-hit rpg/match-3 puzzle hybrid returns with all the addictive adventurous gameplay you remember plus some significant additions. Clear your agenda for the next week and turn off the phone... adventure awaits.

Enlightenus II: The Timeless Tower, a sequel to the original Enlightenus, is an utterly intriguing adventure game. Calling it a hidden object title is not only inaccurate, it doesn't do the game's style justice. Think of it as a modern-day casual Myst, complete with hidden worlds warped by magic, puzzles that require toting inventory items around, and mini-games worth their weight in pixels. Enlightenus II is exactly the kind of game any casual adventure (or even hidden object) fan is craving.

Pop quiz! The fact that there is now a game about poking cats is: A) Awesome or B) AWEsome. Your answer will greatly influence your future. Think carefully.

The exclamation mark. It is thought to have originated from the Latin word for joy, lo, and made an appearance in printed English literature in the 1400s. Now, developers can append it to the end of their game titles to denote happiness, excitement or, indeed, to encourage you to exclaim the name outloud.

Jumping on the picross wagon with a new downloadable release is World Riddles: Seven Wonders from Funny Bear Studio. Similar to the World Mosaics series, World Riddles sends you on a journey as you fill in picross grids across the globe, learning about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as you go. One key difference here is the addition of mini-games, small diversions that break up the logic puzzles for a quick round of jigsaw, picture completion, missing objects, and more!

Today, Carrion is struggling to hold off an enemy attack long enough to allow civilians to escape while his country burns around him. But how did he get there? As a respected soldier, Carrion has lived in his father's shadow his entire life, and keeps butting heads with the new regent. When he and his adopted brother Maric are assigned a task by the prince, Carrion has no idea it will start him on a long path that will threaten the fate of the realm and cause him to question not only those closest to him, but himself. Will he make it out alive? Find out in this high quality retro RPG that will keep you adventuring for a long time.

Build-a-lot is back with a newly-themed release that takes us all the way back to the time of Shakespeare. Build-a-lot: The Elizabethan Era is more of the same building/management sim we've grown to love, only this time there's a distinct 1500s England slant. Gone are fancy upgrades, modern conveniences, and indoor plumbing. In are pubs, apothecaries, outhouses, and wall sconces. That's right, sconces!

A lot of indie games have rolled off the presses in the past week, including several as entries in the TIGSource "A Game By Its Cover" competition (which ends today). We've featured one of these games below, but look for more in the weeks to come!

mania for cake. She'll just have to do it sitting down. With a movie in town and a ton of hungry people clamoring for her delicious desserts, she'll need to rely on her husband Jack—and you—to make the crowds happy in Cake Mania: Lights, Camera, Action, another fun time management game from Sandlot Games.

Originally released in Japan back in 2007, Recettear is the story of an item shop, a girl, and a fairy. Recette's father took out a loan and then skipped town, leaving her to pay off the debt. Soon, she meets Tear, a fairy who is as persistent as she is... well, persistent. She teaches Recette to run an item shop out of her house, purchasing stock for adventurers who head out into the world to slay monsters. Buy and sell swords, shields, food products and more, haggling with each customer and placing items in ideal locations to attract business.

One of the games featured on this Weekend Download is a product of the GameJolt Indie Game Demake Contest, a recently-completed competition that tasked game creators to strip their favorite indie game of anything more complex than a few elements and scale it down to a retro size. The results were excellent, and you can find dozens more to play on the contest page, including some browser games!

Caught somewhere between a time management game and a restaurant sim (but leaning heavily in the direction of the former), Burger Bustle puts you in charge of a busy cafe that somehow has the ability to exist in many locations throughout time and space. Flip burgers, create desserts, swap employee roles and collect tips as you work your mouse hand off keeping everything running as efficiently as possible!

Have you heard about Gatsby? He's a millionaire, but that's all anyone seems to know about him. Some say he's a thief. Others say he killed a man. And what's the deal with his curious preoccupation with his neighbours? Find out in the remarkably well presented hidden-object game adaptation of the classic novel.

The Silver Lining is a fan-created King's Quest adventure game that got the unlikeliest support: the backing of publishing giant Activision. This ten-year old project has nearly been shut down twice by lawyers, but it has finally seen the light of day in the form of its first episode, What Is Decreed Must Be. But is it what fans of the series wanted? And what about people who never donned Graham's cap?

Weekend Download contains 80% of your recommended weekly allowance of awesome. It is recommended you supplement your intake of downloadable games with a balanced diet selected from other sources, including Flash games, mobile games, and that game you play with a paddle where you hit the ball on the rubber band.

Kate Arrow: Deserted Wood is a new hidden object adventure game created by relative newcomer to the casual gaming scene, Mariaglorum. Kate's grandfather, an explorer with all the trimmings, saved a native tribe decades ago, and now he's devoted his life to tracking down the sacred idols the tribe has lost. He finally accomplished his goal, but in his haste to return them, he left the final idol at home. Your first tasks in this gradually unfolding story are to find the idol, find grandpa's map, and locate your camera so you can set off to adventure.

Divine Divinity is a classic action RPG that borrows a few style points from the Diablo series. Despite its appearance, this isn't a game for "serious" role playing fans, though it still tells a fun story and features a lot of engaging gameplay.

The Oil Blue is a clever mixture of a time management game and a tycoon simulation where you lead a crew of workers who strike out into the sea to discover new locations to drill for oil. Each island you reclaim opens the way for your employer, United Oil of Oceania, to establish a permanent operation there. All you have to do is manage the drills, sell the oil, and do everything as efficiently as you can.

In 4:50 from Paddington, it's Agatha Christie of course, so the plot is better than 95% of the hidden object mysteries out there. If you don't know the story, you're in for a real treat. If you've already read the novel, the murderer is the same, so it won't be surprising for you, but the hidden object finding and mini-games are still high quality enough to make this game worth the purchase.

What goes into a Weekend Download feature? The recipe is a secret, but it involves lots of game playing, internet searching, and cinnamon. Especially that last one.

Nothing like a tall, cool glass of game to wash the week out of your system and get you ready for the weekend. Dubloon could easily keep you busy until Monday morning rolls around, but Surphasm is unique enough to deserve your attention. Rein is a great diversion when you're ready for an adventure that won't take you a week to complete.

Piling on the clichés can be fun, and the heaviest-hitting release this weekend, GunGirl 2, does just that. So, ig releases come in small packages. Also, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And there's no time like the present.

What lies beneath the shifting sands of the desert? Could it be untold riches? Or sweet, sweet love? In this cute little sim with tones of resource management and good, ol' fashioned puzzling, take control of a team of archaeologists hunting for treasure in the desert. Dig up ancient artifacts, solve puzzles, and maybe even play a little matchmaker. Just hope you don't mind sand in your socks.

More than a time management game, Farm Craft 2 combines pieces of gameplay from simulation genres into an extremely captivating (and satisfying) game. Grow and harvest crops, raise livestock, pick fruit from trees, hire workers, it's all there, and it's all great!

Pizza Chef 2 does what few time management and match-3 puzzle games care to do: try something different. Instead of fusing the former with the latter or the latter with the former, Pizza Chef 2 has made both genres equally reliant upon the other, meaning you can't take the matching out of the time management and vice versa. What you get is a strong casual game of simple strategy, quick thinking, and spatial reasoning combined in a very rare balance.

One of my favorite things about independent games are not the games themselves. It's the games' names. When you don't have to attract a certain demographic to plop down cash for your game so you can keep your massive studio in California air conditioned, you're free to have fun and call your game Mr. Heart Loves You Very Much, Squid Yes! Not So Octopus!, or Punishment: The Punishing! We love you too, indie game creators!

Fire Nuclear Crocodile Killer (FiNCK for short) is a puzzle platformer, but don't let the title fool you. In fact, out of the four rather unrelated things it suggests, I only encountered one during the whole game. As a Nifflas game, FiNCK must live up to a certain standard of cool relaxation instead of firey, manic arcade action. However, it differs from the author's previous offerings in that it forgoes atmospheric exploration in favor of a puzzle-driven, often hair-pullingly-frustrating experience.

A call in the middle of the night drags you out to an abandoned hotel out in the middle of the English countryside. Find yourself thrust into a night time ghost hunt in this enthralling point-and-click adventure from the past.

Certain conventions in video games will never change. Platformers always involve hopping on enemies' heads. Zombies want to eat your brains. Role playing games will always start with the main character being woken up from sleep. And swinging from walls and ceilings is fun. Let's keep it that way for a very long time, shall we?

BugBits is a light-hearted real-time strategy game built around a war between hives of bugs. Unlock and send troops across the paths to your foe's base, all while harvesting bugs dash out to gather nectar. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses that can be used to leverage your victory, and with each passing stage, you uncover more details in a sinister plot.

A few games for your weekend perusal, all of which summon that coveted "oh, neat!" moment at least once! Also, it's a miracle I didn't type a D instead of a T at the end of the first game.

Resurrected from 2007 where it rested in relative obscurity, Crazy Machines: Inventor Training Camp is a follow-up to the original Crazy Machines game that features more Rube Goldberg-like physics puzzles. Use a variety of objects to assemble crafty "devices" that accomplish different tasks. The setup is something you might see in The Incredible Machine, though Crazy Machines streamlines the process with much simpler building mechanics, fewer pieces to fuss with, a better visual presentation, and more directed goals.

Strap on your point-and-click shoes, because these robots are assembled and ready for adventure! In this latest from Wadjet Eye games take control of a group of newly invented miniature robots with unconventional abilities who unwittingly cause trouble for their human creators when they stumble across a villain's strange secret. Fun, funny, and cheerful, Puzzle Bots is a quality adventure that, while short, is great for everyone.

Clearly, sticking diligently to your academic studies is just going to end up making a lot more work for you, as aspirant wizard Catherine discovers in Magic Encyclopedia: Illusions, the third game in the hidden object/adventure series. While studiously hitting the books at the academy library, she escapes the wrath of a mysterious wizard who uses a magic book to cover the world in illusions and trap her teachers. Can Catherine stop him before he raises an army and destroys the academy?

KrissX ("criss-cross") is a rare and well-polished entry in the downloadable word game category. It's not a spelling game, it's not a word search/scramble game, it's not a guessing game (well, it kinda is); instead KrissX combines a familiar mechanic from matching games with letters and clues, creating something that resembles a mixture of Bejeweled and a crossword puzzle.

New releases from either Daniel Remar or Ben Chandler, both highly-recognizable figures in the indie community, is always cause for fun-type celebration! Their games aren't as widely known in the mainstream gaming community as they should be, giving us cool people that smug, superior feeling of having a secret source of great entertainment.

Incredible Express smoothly blends a time management game with a track-switching arcade experience. Think of it as a cross between Youda Farmer and Mystic Mine with a few elements from Farm Frenzy thrown into the mix. A young entrepreneur named Maria has inherited a shabby steam locomotive and discovers her services are in demand. Lay sections of track and control the direction your train runs to make pick-ups and deliveries as efficiently as you can!

It's Ludum Dare time again! Another competition, another healthy round of entertainment and creativity. Over 200 games were submitted this time around, each involving the theme of "islands". Below you'll find a few of our choices out of the lot. Be sure to check out all the games and, if you're cool, cast your vote for the winners!

Do you believe in magic? How about voodoo? If you don't, Jessie Bodeen might just change your mind in this eerie, engrossing hidden-object/point-and-click adventure. When a voodoo priestess succumbs to greed and gives in to the request of a jealous woman, how will the spirits repay her? Find out in the start of a fun new series and this tale of jealousy and revenge gone wrong.

This edition of Weekend Download is all about failure. Failure to escape a missile attack, failure to create a non-ordinary game, failure to climb over a wall, and failure to, well, not die. Failure is part of playing video games, as without risk there's no reward for succeeding, but the titles below use failing in some creative ways!

Meta challenge! If you can choose the game featured below that's clearly better than the others, you win the meta game! Too bad that's impossible, 'cause all of the games are extraordinary pieces of gaming art. :-P

Don the role of Gabriel Knight, bookstore proprietor and horror novelist at large. Explore the city of New Orleans, investigate a gruesome series of murders, and delve into the dark underbelly of voodoo in this classic horror mystery point-and-click adventure.

Got a hankering for some logic puzzles? Ideas Pad has your fix with Puzzler World, a collection of over 1,200 puzzles ranging from crossword to sudoku to Link-a-Pix. Featuring a big, friendly interface and a straightforward setup, Puzzler World lets you jump right into the games without having to fuss with anything. It's just pure puzzles and a whole lot of head scratching.

Bucking the trend of ever shorter hidden object games, Settlement: Colossus is an odd, unique, and fun hidden object/casual simulation hybrid, and it will keep you occupied for hours and hours as you work towards your final goal. Gorgeous to look at and fun to play, this unique hybrid is a winner. Now go build a civilization!

A handful of simple games to help you pass your weekend! Nothing that will entrance you for hours, just a couple of action arcade games and a platformer that's actually two platformers running at the same time. Nice, simple fun.

Mortimer is back with another hidden object adventure in Mortimer Beckett and the Lost King! In case you couldn't tell, this time around a king is missing, and even though Mortimer is still stranded in the Time Paradox, he hops to it to set things right. Beautiful cut-scenes, superb inventory puzzles, and a well-made game on every front!

Welcome to the woooooorld of tomorrow!!!! That'd be really profound if you read it yesterday. Why isn't it profound to read things about yesterday today? I, for one, am pretty darned impressed people can remember events of days past. Things like the release of Dissipate or Jesse Venbrux's older games. Not that those were small events, mind you, just that they happened at a moment in time that is not this very moment in time...

Little Folk of Faery is a gorgeous, whimsical, amusing casual simulation game that takes place at the base of an ancient tree inside an antiques shop. The faery realm has endured some setbacks since your grandparents passed away, and it is your job to rehabilitate the faery realm, as well as help clean up the musty, dusty shop. Little Folk of Faery will appeal to a wide range of people, from those who enjoy its fantastical look and feel to those who enjoy the casual sim genre as a whole.

If you ever felt that making breakfast should employ at least a ball, some strong and a winding mechanism, The Incredible Machine is the most brilliant game ever made. It uses the idea of a Rube-Goldberg machine, an overly elaborate setup to achieve a simple task. The Incredible Machine has spawned its own share of sequels, nearly all of which are present in this mega-pack. The idea is simple: each puzzle presents you with a different challenge to construct an elaborate chain-reaction towards a goal.