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Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

Skyfyre is a side-scrolling, shoot-em-up frenzy on the back of a dragon - Time Waster

Something about the frenzied action of Skyfyre made me wish I had Dragonforce blasting out my Altec Lansing three-piece. Somehow I don't think that would fly here at my day job...

If you're lucky enough to be at home (or have a nice set of headphones, though), fire up some fast-paced tunes and get your turrets ready for aerial combat. This challenging and addictive side scroller is a perfect Friday afternoon time sink.

In addition to the stylish, pixelated graphics there's plenty of depth to Skyfyre. Start with four classes - warrior, hunter, knight, and paladin - each with their own advantages. Add in weapon upgrades and the ability to increase your stats, and this casual blast-fest can become quite engrossing.

Skyfyre also gives you three savegame slots so you can return to more productive pursuits for a few minutes and then get back to your game in progress later. Nice!

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Water Werks - Time Waster

Water WerksWater Werks is another Time Waster where the aim is to get the balls to the goal. In this iteration of the well-used concept, you can only influence the balls by spraying water at the objects in the environment around them. The balls themselves are impervious to the water's effects.

You can move your hose around and adjust the spray nozzle from a wide to narrow stream, which influences the strength of the stream as well as its direction.

I found Water Werks to be more difficult than an average time waster, but certainly not impossible. It's a fresh take on a potentially tired genre.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Destroy the Wall 3 - Time Waster

Destroy the Wall 3Destroy the Wall 3 is a straightforward puzzle game. Your goal is to throw a ball so that it knocks down a wall (or walls) in such a way that a specific number of blocks fall out of the level, without losing your ball out of the level. The challenge is that you can only grab the ball in a small pink area, so you really have to actually throw the ball in the direction you think will cause the most destruction.

The more difficult levels later in the game can involve using levers to knock the blocks about, or pushing larger balls around. There are even levels featuring teleports that move your ball about the screen in confusing ways.

The somewhat random result of throwing the ball using your mouse (this is not a game that plays well when using a trackpad) means that even though you might have the right idea, it can take multiple frustrating tries to pass the level. The game unfortunately does not remember your progress, but you can start from any level, so you're not stuck back at square one if you reload the page or come back to the game at a later date.

Destroy the Wall 3 is one of the more addictive time waster's I've tried recently. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think. What levels are the toughest?

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Gravitex 2 - Time Waster

Gravitex 2Gravitex 2 is a classic gravity-based time waster. You pick a direction and amount of power, and shoot a ball off into space where various orbs' gravitational pull affect its trajectory. The goal is to collect all the green coins and get the yellow ball safely to its goal.

Interestingly, the green coins are not persistent; if you collect one and get the ball to the goal, that coin does not return again if you replay the level. That means that you don't have to come up with a single magic trajectory that will collect every coin in one go, but instead you can tackle a level multiple times in multiple ways to try to conquer it.

The graphics in Gravitex 2 are simple but do the trick, which can also be said for the soundtrack. The game offers both mouse-based control, and keyboard control. Given that this is very much a trial-and-error based game, you'll want to get comfortable with the keyboard controls, though for very tough levels the only way to finely control the settings is to use the mouse.

Gravitex 2 is pretty much a perfect casual game for people who enjoy physics games. You can play it for five minutes on your coffee break, and come back to it for a few minutes on your lunch hour.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Savanna Blocks - falling block puzzle Time Waster

Savanna BlocksSavanna Blocks is a falling-blocks puzzle game created by Clockwork Monster that uses a fresh take on a tired genre. In Savanna Blocks your goal is to draw a line through groups of blocks that are touching either horizontally or vertically (not diagonally) to clear them from the board. As soon as you release your mouse button, the blocks that you've drawn on will disappear, but if you draw outside of the group of touching same-color blocks, your line will disappear.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that while you're busy connecting 10 blocks together, rows are being added to the bottom of the screen, shifting the blocks in play and potentially ruining your current line.

There are also special blocks available that will slow down the addition of new lines, blow up an entire line, or simply give you bonus points. The special blocks can be added on to any adjacent grouping you are making.

Savanna Blocks takes only seconds to learn, but I was surprised at how addictive the gameplay is given how tired I am of falling blocks games. Give it a try, you might be surprised too.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters

7 Talk Like a Pirate Day Timewasters

[Creative Commons licensed image removed at the request of the rights-holder]


Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye filthy barnacles!

In the spirit of the day, we've put together a few fun, Pirate-themed timewasters. We've got trading games, tower defense, hack-and-slash (and cannonfire), and other saber-rattling goodness. It's all in the gallery after the break -- so crank up the Alestorm, grab yourself a rum, and enjoy!

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Go Home Ball - Time Waster

Go Home BallGo Home Ball calls itself a physics game, but is really more of a time-based puzzler. Your job in the game is to get the red ball from the top of the screen, where it rolls out of an opening in a tree, to the bottom of the screen where an opening in the top of a tree trunk awaits, ensuring to collect all the gold stars along the way. Your tools to move the ball along vary across the levels, but they are typically a stick that you can temporarily lay to allow the ball to cross gaps, and a hand that you can use to nudge the ball in the correct direction.

Don't let the simple and cute appearance of the game fool you; the timing and placement for each move is crucial, and your skill with a mouse will play a big part in the success you have at the game.

(after the break, Happy Gilmore weighs in with his thoughts about balls going home...)

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Filed under: Fun, Time-Wasters, Humor

Kanye West apology generator - Time Waster

To appreciate the Kanye West apology generator, you may need some background: by now you've probably heard about rapper Kanye West's outburst at the Video Music Awards, interrupting teenage country star Taylor Swift as she accepted an award. Even if you don't have a TV, I'll bet you've noticed that "interrupting Kanye" has gone viral, and it's almost unavoidable on the web. While Kanye's stunt is kind of played out as a joke already, his blogged (but quickly deleted) apology to Taylor Swift is a more fertile comedy goldmine.

Kanye's propensity for blogging in all caps is already mildly hilarious, but when you combine that with a heat-of-the-moment defense of his actions -- written and posted while he was still at the awards that night -- you've got something really special. All you need to do is fill in the required fields, Mad Libs style. No description I could write would do justice to Kanye's original post, so I'll just present this apology I generated for some of Download Squad's lead bloggers:
I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO GRANT ROBERTSON AND VICTOR AGREDA, JR. FOR WRITING THE POST. I SPOKE TO VICTOR AGREDA, JR. RIGHT AFTER. GRANT ROBERTSON IS VERY UPSET !!........... I'M IN THE WRONG FOR POSTING AND DELETING!!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT DOWNLOAD SQUAD. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO GRANT ROBERTSON 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF BLOG!!! Y'ALL KNOW!!! BOOOOYAAAWWWWW!!!!!!! AIGHT I GAVE MY APP TO MIKE ARRINGTON WHEN THEY DESERVED IT... THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL, I'M JUST BEING REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!!MUCH RESPECT!!!!!
It probably won't be as funny next week, when this whole thing is ancient history, so strike while the iron is hot. Post your own Kanye Apology in the comments.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Semantic Wars - Time Waster

Semantic WarsSemantic Wars is a castle defending game with a little bit of hangman thrown in. The idea of the game is that you are building various types of combatants to advance across the screen from your castle to the enemy castle, fighting any opposing warriors they encounter. The goal is to protect your castle while advancing far enough to attack the opposing castle.

Creating combatants costs you points, and aside from getting lucky and acquiring some through a bonus box that is dropped by the blimp overhead (really), the only way to increase your points is by guessing letters in secret words, hangman-style. You earn 8 points for each correct letter you guess, but you lose 3 points each time you guess a letter that is not in the word.

Though the fighting element of the game isn't particularly well done, the combination of that aspect of the game with the word game is enough to really get your head spinning. It can be challenging to shift gears from guessing letters in words and ensuring that you are creating enough troops to defend your castle, but if you space out for even a little bit, you will get overrun.

Semantic Wars is a fun little time waster that should get your brain juices going.

Filed under: Games, Freeware, Time-Wasters, Web

Johnny Rocketfingers 2 - NSFW mature Time Waster

Johnny Rocketfingers 2First things first, we need to put up a big Not Safe For Work / Kids warning on this one. This Time Waster is strictly for adults 18+. Johnny Rocketfingers 2 is a point-and-click puzzle game that follows the story of the title character through an adventure that involves mature themes, situations, violence, and naughty language. If you're easily offended, you'll probably want to take a pass on this one. And if you're not at least 18 years old, please don't continue reading.

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Filed under: Freeware, Social Software, Web

Your World of Text - a collaborative text editing experiment

Your World of Text

I hesitate to call Your World of Text a Time Waster, though that might be all it's really good for. The concept of Your World of Text is that you are looking at an infinite grid of text that any anonymous user can edit. If you're thinking "Warning, warning Will Robinson!", then we're on the same wavelength. Beware -- if you visit this site, you're looking at the uncensored internet.

Users can click anywhere but in the center of the screen that loads when you first load the site and edit text. That first area is locked as it gives you a description of what you're looking at, as well as a list of other Your World of Text sub-sites.

Scrolling around a bit, the site seems to be full of ASCII art, random ramblings, and more than a few impromptu chat sessions. It's hard to see what the point of Your World of Text is, but like a train wreck, it's also hard to look away.

Filed under: Design, Games, Macintosh, Apple, Freeware, Time-Wasters, Mods, Web

Download OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard's desktop pictures now

Snow Leopard desktop picsIf you're anxious for Snow Leopard to ship, you might be excited to know that you can grab copies of the built-in desktop images, thanks to the developer previews and a crafty blogger over at Uneasy Silence.

While there are four images out of the set of 35 that feature leopards, the rest of the images run the gamut from beautiful landscape photography to classic pieces of art. The images are offered as JPEGs, so even Windows users might like to pick up a few.

It seems to be a requirement now that major operating systems release with a relatively substantial set of beautiful images to be used as desktop wallpaper.

No longer can OS manufacturers get away with offering eight photos and a few tiling images -- remember tiling your desktop? Does anybody ever do that anymore?

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Balltoucher - Time Waster

BalltoucherThough it's a very unfortunate name for a game, Balltoucher is a fun little quick Time Waster. The concept is painfully simple - you're a black square, and light and dark colored balls are flying at you from all sides. Dark balls are bad, and when one touches you the game is over. Light ones are good, and the more you touch, the more points you get. There are also gold balls that give you special powers like slow-motion, invincibility, or they can even make all balls light colored for a period of time.

Each game is very short, less than a minute. Maybe the games are so short for me because of my skill level, but I like it because you can play three or four times without making any sort of real time commitment.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Kids, Time-Wasters, Web

Graphics are Everything - Time Waster

Graphics are EverythingGraphics are Everything is a tongue-in-cheek name for a game that is anything but fancy graphically. The game involves bare-bones wireframe shapes on a plain white screen. You control a circle, and can make it bounce by clicking and dragging it in a direction. Releasing the mouse will send the ball flying in the direction of the cursor.

The goal of the game is to collect certain shapes while avoiding others. There are also special shapes that will interact with your ball by making it more or less bouncy, and other behaviors.

For such a simple-looking game, Graphics are Everything actually contains compelling gameplay, which I suppose is the point. It can be addictive trying to manage to writhe your ball through a small gap to successfully collect triangles or large circles while avoiding the squares. I realize how boring that sounds written out, but Graphics are Everything is worth a try.

Filed under: Fun, Games, Web

Mad Men yourself - create your own avatar in the style of AMC's Mad Men

Mad Men YourselfI'm a huge fan of the AMC TV show Mad Men. My wife and I have gone as far as making ourselves gin martinis to sip while watching the show, though I haven't yet tried an Old Fashioned. If you're as much of a fan of the show as we are, check out AMC's new Mad Men Yourself site.

Just like the site that lets you create a South Park character with the distinctive features you choose, Mad Men Yourself lets you create a stylized version of yourself in the vein of the late-60's era when the show is set. You have your choice of hairstyles, clothing options, and even accessories, all perfectly appropriate for the period.

While these sites are simply blatant marketing efforts intended to raise awareness for the shows they represent, I think this is marketing at its finest. Give us something fun to play with that lets us associate with the show, and lets us take away a little creation that somehow feels uniquely ours, even though it's simply one of a set number of overall options. Clever, and a win-win for the user and the network.

Now excuse me while I try to find a way to make myself look a little more like Don Draper.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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