In this new feature, we highlight the weekly picks from the week of February 1–7 of deals, free-to-play indie gems, hot new mobile releases, and creative byproducts from the modding community of a popular game. You need not scour the Internet for all that because Extra Baggage is your one-stop shop for all the must-haves in the world of Internet downloads (legal-only of course).
FREE-TO-PLAY Game of the Week
Cart Life (PC)
Cart Life puts you in the shoes of one of its three characters, each of whom is struggling with some aspect of their life, be it a divorce or a drinking problem besides the financial woes that life always puts you in. With its retro-stylized graphics that, with their carefully drawn hand-made textures, offer much more detail than other such indie games, Cart Life is an odd take on the retail simulation genre that, through the failures of the players, manages to evoke the difficulty of balancing a healthy personal life along with a successful business.
Screwing up is part of the game, and getting the “perfect” ending will require multiple attempts, but with each playthrough you realize that these characters manage to say a lot about our everyday struggles in this world, even with little dialogue.
Why You Should Be Playing It: Because it is among the five nominees for the coveted Seamus McNally Grand Prize at IGF. That is basically the gaming equivalent of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and many now-famous indie games like Minecraft, Braid, and Terraria won it before they became popular.
Plus, it’s free. The most basic version comes with three characters whose stories are fully playable and can be downloaded for free from the creator, Richard Hofmeier’s, website.
STEAM PICK OF THE WEEK
Legend of Grimrock
On Steam’s Weekend Sale for 5.09USD (66% off)
The Legend of Grimrock brought back the niche first-person dungeon crawling with turn-based combat we mostly saw in the late 80s and early 90s in the form of Ultima Underworld and Realms of Arkania. While, Legend of Grimrock isn’t based on any pen-and-paper RPG rules, it is a fairly deep RPG by today’s standards with enough stats to please old-school fans. There’s an element of mystery, puzzle-solving, and horror embedded in the first-person exploration, which lends it a unique charm missing from many RPGs today.
Why You Should Buy It: The core role-playing genre has kind of lost its way, and while its elements may now be seen in almost every game, many RPGs have now started looking back in order to fix the genre—Dark Souls being a prime example of that. Legend of Grimrock is a good way to relive those times, and it has just the right amount of streamlining to be accessible for those who have never played a game like this.
MOBILE GAME OF THE WEEK – TEMPLE RUN 2
Temple Run is back! only this time with more death traps than you could possibly imagine. Temple Run 2 is a complete makeover of the original. Where the original was a run-jump-slide-repeat fast-paced simple yet fun game, Temple Run 2, on the other hand, takes itself more seriously. With a complete level redesign, and the introduction of new terrains, (railroad and rope sliding), Temple Run 2 has gone through a revamp gameplay-wise. To see what we thought about the game, check out our Temple Run 2 review.
Why You Should Buy It: You don’t need to. Its free!
MOD OF THE WEEK – SWARTZ MOD (FC3)
If you’re one of us who’s finished the Far Cry 3 campaign but still can’t get enough of the game, then you should get the Swartz Mod. It’s something like a “New Game+,” to keep it short. With a bunch of new additions and features, we won’t be recommending this to you if you’ve just started Far Cry 3. Finish the campaign first, then get to the mod to mess around and have fun. Here are some of the changes. For a complete list, head over to Nexusmods.
*All weapons are unlocked at the start, but you have to pay for them (note: towers will still give pop-ups saying you’ve unlocked free weapons, but you haven’t).
“Welcome to Neverland v2” added. It makes it so that you get a choice about whether to take control of a safehouse or leave it for pirates to take over. All outposts that are not unlocked as safehouses will reset to hostile strongholds once you exit the game. Animal Hunt and Wanted Dead quests are available regardless of the option chosen.
- Attachments mod with max attachment slots opened up
- Shotgun silencer attachments are unlocked
- Silver dragon knife unlocked
- Wingsuit unlocked at start
- All crafting recipes unlocked at start (note: except “cheating” ones
