Originally developed by Cryo, who were purchased by Microids in 2008, MegaRace was one of the games that ushered in the age of the CD Rom. I remember working at a CompUSA around the time the game first came out, and I wouldn’t let anyone leave the store with a shiny new CD drive without a copy of MegaRace. It was the 7th Guest of futuristic racing. Don’t remember the game? Well now you can pick up it and MegaRace 2 in a bundle via GOG.com for only $US5.99.

Other Microids titles heading to the service include Haegemonia: Legion of Iron with the Solon Heritage expansion and Obscure. Both relatively fine titles, but MegaRace is where the excitement lies here. I bet it’s held up horribly over the years.

After a year spent rolling out premium games for non-playing customers to play for free, online gaming service GameTap has announced that they’re now beginning to roll them right back in.

Come January 22nd, a large chunk of the free content on GameTap is being rolled back into the premium membership, which means that non-paying members of the site have a couple of days to finish what they were doing or pony up some cash for a Gold membership.

There will still be 40 games available for free play, as well as weekly teasers – games that are free to play for a limited time – but for the most part, if you want to get the goods you’re going to have to pay. Check out the link below for a full list of what’s being pulled.

Free Games Returning to the Gold Vault [GameTap Blog via Blue's News]

Those games provide gratification without requiring an overwhelming or annoying amount of effort on the part of the gamer: they’re fun, accessible, and they have worlds or settings that provide enjoyment on a simple level.

I may be more familiar with the world of The Third Age, and it may produce a bit of nostalgia, but I’m equally amused, enchanted, and engrossed by Fable II’s stereotype-ridden Albion. Maybe I’m making the case for less intelligent, less original games, but I think there’s a place for such games, especially when “epic” and “deep” are often code words for ponderous, overproduced, and underwritten.

So here’s to less ambitious, more accessible games, made with care and passion. To be sure, this is a dangerous path to go down. It’s the kind of thinking that might lead us to more Deus Ex: Invisible Wars, or another Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

There’s something to be said for polished competence and gradual tinkering with familiar mechanics and structures; I agree with Cross that it seems somewhat wrong to adore “a game that’s really just super-competent plagiarism,” but there’s certainly plenty to celebrate about the familiar when it’s done really, really well — ’super-competent plagiarism’ or no.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/11/column_diamond_in_the_rough_if.php [GameSetWatch]

They’ve got a pretty nice selection of titles, generally falling between the $US5.99 and 9.99 price range, though they seriously need to get hopping on adding in some adventure games to the mix. The Fallout series is nice and all, but I crave pointing and clicking. Bring me Dark Seed and BloodNet and we’ll talk.

The latest is the “Missile Command Docudrama” although its message is, surprisingly, kind of serious. Tof from Retro Sabotage explained to me in an e-mail: “We wanted an “anti-sabotage” to celebrate the 20th release, and it’s kind of a mirror to Mockumentary (though we got mails of people who somehow believed in that one)”.

In the past I know we’ve linked to some of their other clever redos of classic arcade games. The Xevious Autopsy in particular is worth a look, and I think it’s new since RetroSabotage last got a mention here.

Missile Command Docudrama [Retro Sabotage]