The Free Webgame Round-Up

Well the snow has finally melted, and you can now walk down the street without fear of slipping on an ice-patch and skidding in front of the number 47 bus (my paranoid brain has really thought this through). However, it's still a bit cold , so rather than heading outside to replenish your tea supplies and absorb that horrid Vitamin D, why not close the curtains, nail the letterbox shut, and play some browser games with your trembling, sun-deprived fingers? Read on for Bieber, bull murder, a lot of space to walk around in, and the ritualistic sacrifice of your friends.

Here's that Justin Bieber simulator you were looking for . OUOAAAAH was a Keynote Favourite at the recent Nordic Game Jam (theme: grotesque), and playing it makes me sick up in my mouth a little bit. Thankfully, you only control Justin's lips, contorting them in time to one of his songs, as tweenage girls scream in the background. Mesmerisingly horrible.

Bullfighting is an evil sport, but it makes for a damned tense minigame. Despite the name, the Nordic Game Jam's Press [X] To Give Up isn't some jokey one-button thing; X is the just the 'I've had enough' button, with the arrow keys and space bar being used to control your pixellated matador, as you attempt to stab an animal for the pleasure of a bloodthirsty audience. I didn't manage to succeed in that respect, but I did gore the matador a handful of times.

Sacrifice by Yoshio Ishii

Play it online here.

In this odd little puzzle game, you lead a merry group of adventurers... to their deaths. Placed in a series of fatal situations, you're forced to decide which member of your team will lay down their life to ensure the safety of the rest. I have a feeling it might make a bit more sense if you can read the Japanese, but I managed to muddle through a few stages, until I hit what seemed to be an unwinnable situation. Despite that, I really like the idea of Sacrifice, and I hope it's expanded on one day. (Spotted by IndieGames .)

good morning, commander by allen

Play it online here.

Sometimes it's enough simply to have a space to interact in, with buttons to push, instruments to knock over, and faucets to turn on and off. good morning, commander starts off like that, before taking you somewhere that's (ironically) chock-full of atmosphere. You're left to figure out what you're actually supposed to do yourself, but the slooooow movement speed and obscured controls don't help. ( Here they are .) Stick with it, though, as when it gets going this is pretty much Moon: The Game. (Thanks to Free Indie Games .)

Tom Sykes

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.