I hope you're enjoying the lousy Smarch weather, but in the unlikely event that you're getting tired of our permanently grey skies and biting cold, here are some browser games you can play from the comfort of your own home - or someone else's. So bolt the doors, close the curtains, raise the drawbridge and prepare yourself for bombsx1000, a game made for monkeys, the world's worst piano player and a very Deusexy FPS. Enjoy!
Bombermine by persons unknown
A massively multiplayer clone of Bomberman that lets up to 1,000 (and occasionally even more) players fight it out on the same huge map. It's still in beta, there's no music, and it's more than a bit glitchy, but Bombermine captures the brilliant grid-based strategy that makes Hudson Soft's game such an enduring multiplayer classic. Just the thing for when you have 999 friends over to stay, and you're looking for something to keep them busy. (Via IndieGames )
simian.interface by vested interest
I haven't seen a simian interface since Steve Jobs' short-lived Apple Macaque, but this beautifully minimalist puzzle game brings me right back. I don't want to ruin how this works – also, I'm not entirely sure I could describe it – but this is a game that does lovely, clever things with just the mouse. Smart, gorgeous and with a wonderful soundtrack, simian.interface has the whole 'marmoset'.
...Marmoset. Because monkeys. (Discovered via IndieGames )
The King of the Wood by allen
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The King of the Wood is self-deprecatingly described by its creator allen (like Cher, he doesn't need a second name) as “a short fps that rips off deus ex and blade runner and many other things”, but I'd say it has its own minimalist, understated style. You're sent on a mission to hunt down an android – no, not the phone – with one of those nifty guns that has a bullet counter welded onto the side. The resultant brief story is effectively told, and surprisingly rich in atmosphere; over on TIGSource allen mentions a few ideas for possible follow-ups, and I'd urge him to attempt them post-haste.
Drop A Beat, Giuseppe! by Major Bueno
I am very bad at being a bad concert pianist, which must mean I'm... the greatest concert pianist of all time . But before I dash off to a life of fame and glory and a series of calamitous misfortunes , I should probably tell you about Drop A Beat, Giuseppe! It's a wonderfully silly browser game about a terrible pianist (played by you), who has to dodge various missiles thrown by understandably outraged members of the audience. If you're quick, you can actually bounce some of them back, but your initial tactic should be to leg it, so they don't smash up your ivory pride and joy.
You leg it left by randomly mashing the keys on the left side of the keyboard; you leg it right by... well, you get the idea. (Spacebar lets you rebound missiles with the cover of your piano, which is how you start bagging yourself some points.) Drop A Beat, Giuseppe! is exquisitely drawn and joyously stupid – plus, as with Frog Fractions, there's a bit more to it than meets the eye... (Via Free Indie Games )
Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.