Awesome Games

While it’s not exactly the kind of freebie we like to feature, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa will be free to play until the end of February when the sci-fi MMO gets shuttered.

Inside Digital Foundry has some demo gameplay up for Ninja Blade; it’s visually similar to the trailer, which is a good thing, although there’s a heavy reliance on Quicktime events.

Generic name notwithstanding, Space War Commander is a slightly more involved version of StarBaron; it’s basically an RTS with overtones of Master of Orion. Demo here.

Black Knight will never replace real chess, but a number of innovations including irregularly tiled boards, unlockable regions, hidden tiles and teleport pads keep things interesting.

Cortex Command may be a work in progress, but it’s already loads of fun: this game is all about the explosions, with showers of debris rendered with a detailed physics engine.

From the same guy who brought us those sweet Portal magnets, these sixteen Team Fortress 2 Achievement Buttons should be familiar to regular players you happen to meet IRL.

This epic battles developer diary for Battlestations: Pacific is a bit of South Pacific paradise for WWII combat buffs; it’s chock full of both cinematics and gameplay battle videos.

Putting the wow in WoW, The Craft of War: BLIND is a superbly crafted machinima by Percula with a cool storyline (Blood Elf Rogue + Onyxia) and awesome choreography. Thanks, Ash

Compiled in less than a week by 23 year-old Fredrik Larsson, this one-man Wind Waker music video (a-la Zelda) shows him playing everything from an accordion to a pan flute.

Command & Conquer fans will love this GDI construction yard case mod by Frenkie Janse; he uses a Recom RC-9B case, polystyrene, old Pentium I fans and perforated steel.

Pyro is a bit like billiards, assuming you set your cue balls on fire and tipped the table over vertically; your objective is to light torches using elastic fireballs and combustible crates.

Take your gaming on the road with this converted Suzuki SX4, whose dash has been modified to accommodate two Xbox 360s; the integrated controlled on the wheel is sick!

Our favorite psychotic rabbits with aggression issues have a very special holiday message courtesy of Ubisoft; there’s nothing quite like having yuletide joy screamed at you.

Above: Burnout Paradise remixes “Twas the night before Christmas…” with gameplay videos of the Jansen 88 special hovering and flamin’ through the streets of Paradise City.

Merry Christmas, Master Chief: Microsoft has dropped a grunt-astic amount of info on Halo Wars, with detailed UNSC and Covenant descriptions, artwork and in-game screenshots.

Hardcore Wii partiers would be hard-pressed to pass up Nyko’s Charge Station Quad, which will charge up to four controllers simultaneously via matching NiMH battery packs.

Vectoroid may be nothing more than a bunch of lines and points, but this homage to Asteroids is a literal blast with upgrades, enemies, hit points and a gun that never stops firing.

Made by RMIT student Kyle Downes, A Short Visual History of Videogames starts from 1972’s Pong and stops just short of current gen consoles, but is wonderfully rendered nonetheless.

Madden NFL-era kids won’t care much for Mattel’s Football, but for 70s kids, LED Football 2 is a nostalgic iPhone app; it includes running, punting, field goals and passing.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is out in Japan; this runnin’ / flyin’ / jumpin’ opening cinematic is both gorgeous and torture for North American fans, who will have to wait until mid-year 2009.

Do want, please: the Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition includes a limited edition figure (Ryu/PS3; C. Viper/360), an anime movie (Blu-ray/PS3, game disc/360) and CD soundtrack.

This trailer celebrating the 5th Anniversary of TrackMania is a walk down memory lane from the French-made game’s 2003 beginnings; you can download the free version here.

Connecting the real and virtual worlds, Mightier is an indie game where players draw the solution to a puzzle on paper, draw the main character and scan both of them into the game.