Cow Clicker is a Facebook app which encapsulates everything that is great about social games. The game accounts for all different playstyles and makes for riveting gameplay.

Ian Bogost, the developer, explains Cow Clicker in his blog.

You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Clicking earns you clicks. You can buy custom “premium” cows through micropayments (the Cow Clicker currency is called “mooney”), and you can buy your way out of the time delay by spending it. You can publish feed stories about clicking your cow, and you can click friends’ cow clicks in their feed stories. Cow Clicker is Facebook games distilled to their essence.

You start with a single cow and a pasture. In your pasture, you can house your friend’s cow. When your cow moos, the other cows in your pasture moo. Clicking your cow earns them clicks and when they click you get credit. This is viral game sharing at its best.

In the barn, you can collect different cows. You start with a plain cow but you can swiftly move up the ranks and get exciting upgrades like a Holstein Cow or a Hereford Cow or even a Bacon Cow! If you are impatient, you can buy Mooney which allows you to click more often or simply buy that handsome new cow you have your eye on. At a rate of 1,000 Mooney for $10, it’s a bargain!

Visit the herd and visit your friends to find their status update. When you see one of them broadcast I'm clicking a cow, you can choose the option Click my click and earn a Mooney for both you and your friend. The game also includes an exciting ranking system based on clicks. Watch the leaderboard to see who is clicking the most. You can earn a gold, silver or bronze udder for making the top ranks of all time!

There’s great information on the Facebook discussion forums including this useful thread of Favorite strategies for cow clicking?

I like to click with the left button on my mouse every 6 hours. Anybody else have a good strategy?

I like to forget about the cow, then suddenly remember that several hours have indeed passed before I frantically click it. That “Moooooo” is really a thrill.

I just click constantly, maybe 120-180 times a minute, so I don’t miss the time turnover.

I alternate between my right index and right middle finger in order to avoid clicking fatigue.

Note that some players are discussing Greasemonkey scripts and mechanical clicking devices in order to get ahead, which, in my opinion, is not in the spirit of Cow Clicking. But I guess if you really want that Bling Cow, you might want to consider it.

I recommend reading Ian Bogost’s post about why he developed this game and his thoughts on the latest breed of social games which encourage compulsive clicking without effort nor gameplay. He concludes the piece with an uncomfortable insight into his own time spent developing the game.

Even over the few days I spent developing Cow Clicker, I found myself watching people play, listening to feedback, and imagining changes. I “listened to my players” and made enhancements far beyond what was reasonable for a work of carpentry or a simple parody. It’s hard for me to express the compulsion and self-loathing that have accompanied the apparently trivial creation of this little theory-cum-parody game. Have I fully represented the distillation I hoped to accomplish? Or is some feature missing? And ought I not to add it if so? Where’s the vampire cow or the werewolf cow or the cthulhu cow? Ought I not to make them? Perhaps I became consumed myself. Such is the spirit of the day, it would seem: mundane, outward obsession whose worst trick is to disguise itself as fruitfulness.

And with that, my six-hours are just about up, time for another click! That golden udder will be mine…

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Sponsored by Pfizer, Quitter’s Arcade has three video games for you to choose from, which have been modified to reinforce negative messages about smoking so you may even find they help to keep you focused on your goal.

There are three simple games based on video arcade classics. You have to give your name and email address to save your highscore on the scoreboard (and you can share your score on Facebook) but you can opt out of the newsletter. I tested this with a custom email address and I can confirm that as yet, I have not received any unwanted emails.

Blast and Quit is a side-scrolling shoot-em-up where your mission is to save your body by fighting off the effects of smoking. You race forward and move up and down the screen with your arrow keys, picking up blue willpower tablets and shooting down those evil addiction monsters.

Bin ‘Um is a mouse-based game with a rubbish bin bouncing around a grid. You need to line up your cigarette-grasping hand with the bin and then use the right amount of power to toss your cigarettes in. It’s more difficult than it sounds but luckily you have six packs to dispose of.

Escape from Planet Smokey is a platform game using the arrow keys to jump around and collect the coins without letting the bad guys blow smoke on you. It’s just as bizarre as it sounds: I’ve embedded the game so that you can see for yourself!

An interesting angle is that all the games are available to embed so if one of these games catches your fancy, you can add it to your blog to share with your friends. The best score on your blog is saved on the Scoreboard at Serious Quitters’ Arcade with your site name, making for an interesting competition amongst bloggers. The designers hope that making the games available this way will be an incentive to pass the word about the campaign and reach more smokers.

This is a Sponsored Post

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

In the spirit of giving, I’ve spent the day playing mediocre games so that you don’t have to! Here are my favourite seasonal browser games with a variety of gameplay. Now grab a glass of mulled wine and get playing.

RSVP

Christmas dinners can be so stressful – even the virtual ones. RSVP is a simple card game in which you have to find a seating arrangement that keeps your guests from sitting next to life-long enemies. In this Flash browser game, you need to arrange your guest cards so that the colors on each person’s card match those of the people sitting on either side. If you can get everyone happy, you move on to the next table.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/rsvp

X-Mass

X-Mass is a hybrid of Tetris and Connect4. You have to line up three presents of the same type in order to drop them off the tree but – and this is the tricky bit – you have to keep the tree balanced.
http://www.mindless-labs.com/games/x-mass

Snow Line

Snow Line is a line-rider style game with a Christmas twist. You need to draw lines of snow in order to help Santa collect all the presents. Then click play and watch him follow your tracks in his sleigh! Touch it up until you get the perfect route.
http://www.miniclip.com/games/snow-line/en/

GROW Ornament

We told you about GROW on our Addicting Flash Games feature but I can’t resist this holiday riff. GROW Ornament is a very similar puzzle game focused around ornaments to put on a bare Christmas tree. Click on the decorations in a specific order to make the perfect holiday scene.
http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/tree/

James the Christmas Zebra

Slightly bizarre, even for a browser-based Christmas game, James the Christmas Zebra has you swinging through the sky looking for Christmas goodies. You must keep hitting the up-arrow key to reach for the stars so you can swing through the sky to collect your cookies – but watch out for the exploding puddings!
http://armorgames.com/play/204/james-the-christmas-zebra

Seasonal Bloons (Bloons Player Pack 5)

If you enjoy Bloons, you’ll love Bloons Player Pack 5, the Christmas edition of Bloons. 50 fun levels in a Christmas theme with traditional Bloons gameplay. Use your mouse to aim your dart and press and hold the mouse button for power settings. Then just click to fire.
http://www.ninjakiwi.com/Games/Bloons-Games/Bloons-Player-Pack-5.html

Rudolph’s Revenge

Rudolph’s Revenge is a straight forward shoot-em-up. You have one red nose and two pistols and your goal is take out all the reindeer before they get you. Aim and shoot with your mouse, use the arrow keys to move. Quick and simple and a great way to work off holiday stress.
http://www.freeworldgroup.com/games2/gameindex/rudolphtherednosedreindeer.htm

Present Panic

In Present Panic you have to catch the falling presents by moving left and right. You simply need to stand underneath them as they drop onto your tray and then keep hold – but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Strangely addicting.
http://www.joyjam.com/games/present-panic

ElfYourself

Although not strictly a game, ElfYourself is so much fun I couldn’t resist including it. It can be a bit slow but once you’ve completed your elf, you can download it and dance to your hearts content. Simply load the flash application and upload photographs of faces: your own or Aunt Mabel’s or whoever you like!
http://www.elfyourself.com/

And with that …

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best over this holiday season.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The August sunshine has been calling me and I’ve been spending my evenings outside, not a computer in sight, sipping cold drinks and watching the seagulls. This means I’ve not finished collating the T3 shard armor information that I have been meaning to post.

And then to top it all off, someone who shall remain nameless sent me a link to this rather addicting little browser-based game which has been filling my time:

GemCraft | Armor Games

GemCraft is a tower-defense style strategy game and I’m finding it completely addicting.

You build towers along a path, as with the traditional versions of tower defense, but you can’t simply purchase the firepower that you want.

The towers use gems to fire on the monsters. You create gems with your mana and you can determine the level of gem (if you can afford it) but not the color.

Each gem color has a special attack and you will have to keep creating them to get the set. You can combine the colored gems to create higher level gems of a single color or combine colors to gain multiple attacks.

There are a few towers set up at the start of each scenario and you can place more along the path. Place your gems into the towers and take out all the monsters. If the monster makes it to the end of the path, it is banished and uses up a set amount of your mana, as well as circling around the path again. If you run out of mana, you fail the scenario.

If you can successfully take out all of the waves of monsters and win the scenario then you can to move onto the next one.

The score is counted in experience points so the more you score per scenario, the faster you will level up. As you level, you gain access to new skills. The initial skill you can put points into allows you to increase your mana pool, which means you can make more gems, which means more firepower and death to all monsters!

I am having much too much fun trying various configurations to maximise my scores. As you complete the scenarios, the map marker outline fills with blue: the glowing frame. Each scenario has a high score which, if you reach it, puts a glowing frame all the way around the map marker. That means more experience and more skills!

You can increase your points within the scenarios by clicking on the waves to make them appear early. You will need to launch each wave as quickly as possible to get glowing frames.

Glowing frames can also unlock hidden bonus levels that you would not otherwise see.

You can also collect achievements, called amulets, which award points for specific game moves, such as killing 30 monsters in a row or throwing at least 15 gem bombs in a single battle.

The strength of gameplay in GemCraft is that although you can progress by “just surviving,” there are so many benefits to getting a higher score, it is worth revisiting scenarios you’ve already achieved to get the glowing border or collect amulets for more points and more skills.

The skills can be reset at any time, so for any given scenario, you can choose the skillset that will serve you best. As an example, the armor skill can be a life-saver for the first Epic boss who has 10,000 hitpoints. Armor reduced the mana cost of banishing and so allows you to survive multiple laps of the boss mob.

Armor Games offer a full Gemcraft Strategy Guide (Walk Through) with basic tips and detailed defenses which really helped me to expand my tactics.

And once you beat the game, you can play the follow-up prequel at Armor: GemCraft chapter 0

You weren’t planning on getting anything done the rest of the day anyway, were you?

(If you enjoy this, make sure to look at some of the other browser-based games, all free, which have caught our fancy: Browser Games)

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The premise is simple:

You are a virus infecting humans. Survive by making your human host sneeze and infect other humans. Infect the target percentage of the population to reach the next round.

You can sneeze only ONCE in each round. Move your human with the arrow keys, then press the Space Bar to sneeze.

Once you let loose your sneeze, the population will continue to spread your virus.

You must infect a minimum percentage of people per round or else it is game over. Everyone you infect adds to your point score, with bonus points once you reach your minimum.

For a high score, you’ll need to balance your victims: Children (dressed in red) spread the virus quickly but are only worth 5 points each, whereas the Elderly (dressed in yellow) move slower but net you 15 points per infection.

It’s a simple little game with edgy graphics, fun sound effects and gameplay with just a touch of strategy. I’m hooked.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

The concept is simple: Legends of Zork is a persistent adventure game based on the original Zork text-based game. It’s a browser-based “casual RPG” developed by Jolt and meant to offer short spurts of gameplay offering MMO-type features. If you’ve ever played Kingdom of Loathing or the Tiny Adventures on Facebook, you’ll recognize the gameplay immediately.

Every day you receive 30 action points to spend on turns. You can use those point to explore a zone or to fight other players in the PvP arena or to return to base to heal up and sell up. You can get more action points (and thus more turns to play) with coconuts. Coconuts are purchased with cash or you can earn them by signing up for spam referral sites through Offerpal.

I was surprised to see that I only received 30 turns on the first day (I would have expected more to get me sucked into the game before they start limiting me) but to be honest, that’s more than enough to take see the extent of the gameplay.

Like Tiny Adventures, the fighting and looting is done automatically. You take a turn, the stats are laid out, the dice are rolled and you are given the result.

Unlike Tiny Adventures, you do not get weapon and armor upgrades as loot from the fight. Part of the excitement of winning a battle is finding out what you got. In Legends of Zork, you do get loot as a result of winning battles but it’s all cash loot – when you go back to your base, it is sold automatically on your behalf. This makes the process very boring – I don’t know how much individual items are worth and as a result I don’t care what I receive.

After clicking “Continue Adventuring” repeatedly, your character bcomes encumbered from the cash loot and hitpoints are almost certainly getting low. Time to return to base. Here you are automatically healed and your items sold. Back to the adventure where you continue adventuring until you level up and have a skill point to sell. Up until this point, the game very much feels like a grind.

Once you level up, there is some interaction. There are three sets of skills with a number of different entry level abilities that you can purchase to increase your probability for winning. I think the wording puts me off. A skill called Tactician sounds interesting but the effect of “+1% Win Probability vs Attitude: Smart Moves” is too clinical for me. Also although the stats and upgrades are not too detailed, they are a bit much for a “casual game” to be played a few minutes a day. I found myself saving up skill points waiting for the time and motivation to go through all the different options so that I wouldn’t “waste” them (you can reset your skills but again it costs coconuts, which can be purchased but are not available as a part of the game).

Going through the skill points caused me added disappointment when I saw a skill called Puzzle Solver with an effect of +25% probability of solving Mechanical Puzzles. I’d hoped that the mindless adventures would be broken up by puzzles and quests but it seems that they, too, are automated.

As you progress through the locations, you will find new trainers to buy skills from but they do not seem to differ much from the skills available from points and it didn’t feel like there was a real benefit for increasing my stats. Most games of this nature give you some sort of goal to focus on – a quest of some type to give you a reason to go to a place and fight the monsters. Legends of Zork seems to simply assume you’ll go to your current fighting grounds for the sake of it. I felt a mild ping of excitement when I was told I had new hunting grounds but the pleasure of a new backdrop image faded quickly. I never felt I had a reason to go someplace new and although the artwork is very pretty, it’s not exciting enough to make me want to work to see more of it.

The only “real” items in the game that directly result from adventures are Fanucci cards. These are rare drops which are added to your stack of cards. When you are at base, you have the option to look at your cards and place them to enhance your mind, body or spirit. Matching suits seems to give a bonus, I’m not sure what else you can do to increase the effect. The developers have released a basic Fanucci Card Guide on their blog but it wasn’t particularly clear to me whether I should be focusing on a certain sequence or even if there was anything I could do to effect my chances of getting cards of a certain suit (or even for getting them at all).

The PvP aspect seems to be very much the same as adventuring. You click on the arena, choose an opponent and get told what the result of the battle was. I know I’ve been participating in PvP because I have 27 mails telling me the results of battles where players have chosen me. I honestly could not be bothered to click through those mails to find out how I did. And that’s my real issue with this game: it simply does not make me care about the results.

I wanted to like this game, I really did. I am a sucker for simple, fast games that give me a feeling of progression. However, something is missing from Legends of Zork. I never felt that I was advancing. I’ve done my share of mindless clicking but I need to feel like there is a real goal. The mobs have no depth and I can’t even tell you what I’ve fought, let alone which mobs were difficult. To increase my abilities to fight more nameless mobs for more cash loot – it just doesn’t ring my bell.

I’ll pop in a few more times to see how it is progressing but at the moment, it is simply a good looking interface without any actual gameplay or immersion.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I am a bit wimpy about serious blood and guts, so although all of these are gleefully gory, they are all stylised and focused on cartoon characters and stick figures. That said, here are my top ten games for relieving tension through mindless violence.

Caution: Cartoon Violence

Stickman Madness
http://www.dragongamez.com/stickmanmadness.htm
An old-school first person shooter, this game is slow to load but fast to play. A brief introduction sets the scene and then it’s on: point and click to take part in the shoot-out in a diner, space bar to reload. This has been one of my favorites for years.

Nanaca Crash
http://megami.starcreator.com/nanaca-crash/
Tired of those pesky pedistrians in the cycle lane? Then this is the game for you: simply choose the speed and angle with which to run over a trendy looking young man with your bicycle, to see how far you can send his body flying. Click the mouse when the Aerial ability is highlighted to hit him again. Bizarre but fun.

Mad Monday
http://www.mausland.de/453.maus
This arcade game looks like Frogger turned inside out. You are in control of a car driving down the freeway, on a mission to clear the roads. You can use your weapons or simply ram the other vehicles off the road. Strangely fulfilling.

Urban Sniper
http://www.freeonlinegames.com/shooting-games/urban-sniper.html
Get a target, head on out, shoot to kill. Yours is not to reason why – just do it. The controls are simple: getting the mark is not. Top tip: watch for someone who matches the description rather than just shooting wildly. Check your email for new missions or nasty notes of failure.

Sheep Cull
http://www.designegg.com/sheepcull.html
There are too many sheep and it’s up to you to sort it out. Grab your rifle and blast them away in this twitch game – just mind you don’t run out of bullets!

Clubby the Seal
http://www.addictinggames.com/clubbytheseal.html
The hunted becomes the hunter in this surrealistic game of a baby seal focused on revenge against the Eskibobs. Move around using the arrow keys and press A to attack.

Headless Havoc
http://www.kongregate.com/games/Void/headless-havoc
You are the horseman and your quest is to decapitate all the villagers to keep your havoc bar full – the more that escape, the faster the bar dissipates. Extra points for a perfect swing so get chopping!

The Last Stand
http://armorgames.com/play/269/the-last-stand
You have a list of things to do: barricase yourself against the zombies, search for weapons, look for survivors. How long can you keep your brains protected?

Kill Crazy Jay
http://www.stickpage.com/killcrazyjaygameplay.shtml
Crazy Jay the ninja is going to die and your job is to decide how. Not so much a game as interactive performance art but if you feel the need for visolence against stick figures, Kill Crazy Jay is exactly what the doctor ordered.

And last but certainly not least:

Don’t Shoot the Puppy
http://www.rrrrthats5rs.com/games/dont-shoot-the-puppy/
This is the converse of the other games in my list: the point is to avoid violence and save the cute little pet. This game leads you into a sort of zen-like state: you achieve your goal by not twitching. Can you keep still long enough to avoid shooting the puppy?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Here’s a rather different top ten: bizarre browser games. This collection celebrates the weird and wonderful mishmash of games available on the Web – all of these are “off the beaten track” but also very playable and surprisingly addictive.

Makibishi

Makibishi is a mouse-based puzzle game where you have to think outside of the box to make sense of the clues.

After a somewhat bizarre intro, you can click on the red parasol to move into a cityscape where your goal is to find the five dummy dolls (pictured on The Bingo Map). Watch your mouse pointer to change to show you what you can interact with. Click on the … er, people … for clues and other items to change the world. The Bingo Map shows you the bad guys: dummy dolls that you need to find. Don’t give up too quickly, once you explore around the area and begin to see how the puzzles work, it begins to make some semblance of sense. Kind Of.

Note: The initial “broken television” intro screen seems to be lasting for a long time at the moment. The game will load, but you have to be patient. Hopefully this is a temporary issue.

http://comic.makibishi.co.jp/

Good Night!

Go to bed!
Good night! is an odd little puzzle game where your goal is to find coloured dots. Click around the area and look for spots that match the colors in the row above the image. Once you have found all four red dots, you can enter the red picture frame. Putting the picture into the frame opens up the next room on the left. And so it goes until you open the yellow picture frame to find the key for the rabbit.

http://skyrabbit.jp/a017.htm

Dolphin Olympics 2

In Dolphin Olympics 2 you play a dolphin with exactly two minutes to impress the world with your swimming antics. Use the arrow keys to accelerate, roll and turn to score as many points as possible before your time is up. You can flip right up into space – what more could an aspiring dolphin want! Just don’t belly flop on your way back down.

http://www.rawkins.com/games/do2/

Fishing Girl

Fishing Girl is exactly what it says: you are a girl and you need to fish. This game is oddly soothing as you toss in your line to catch the fish. Catch the most valuable fish in order to upgrade your rod and lures until you can get to the other side and save a lost soul.

http://www.lunadrift.com/play/fishing-girl.html

Boohbah Zone

The Boohbah Zone is based on a kid’s show by the same people who designed Teletubbies … and it shows. Bright colors and blob-like beings wait for you to interact with them and squeak with delight as you do. The minigames involve clicking objects with your mouse to see what psychedelic results you can achieve. Spinning rainbows and funky music will soon have you wondering what drugs the developers were taking as they designed this bizarre game. Warning: may cause your brain to melt.

http://www.boohbah.com/zone.html

The Majesty of Colors

Fall in love with the majesty of colors. As an underwater tentacle, you interact with the world by holding down the mouse to reach for things and releasing the mouse button to let go. This simple puzzle game has five different endings.

http://chat.kongregate.com/gamez/0003/1509/live/MajestyOfColors.swf?kongregate_game_version=1229113531

To-Suta

To-Suta is a fast paced action game where you play a toaster shooting, er, things, with your rainbow lasers and navigating through with your arrow keys. Who needs drugs with games like this?

http://www.donpixel.com/play/en/060511170010/

Samarost 1

Samorost 1 is an adventure puzzle game where you are trying to help spaceships avoid a head-on collision. Start the sequence by clicking on the lighthouse and then solve the puzzles to save the day.

http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/

Funwari

To succeed at Funwari is simple: Raise the marshmallow into the sky, don’t touch the other objects. Not recommended for people who suffer from seasickness. Make it to level 2 for funky marshmallow music!

https://www.forrent.jp/house/JJ/funwari/index_pc.php

Hatch

There is food falling from the sky and you have to catch it – but only if the color is right. Hatch is an action game where you need to change your body color to match the food before catching it to gain the most points. After five levels of color-shifting mayhem, you can hatch your egg and see what result you got. More eat!

http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2005/01/hatch_ver0.html

Five Minutes to Kill (Yourself)

Five Minutes to Kill (Yourself) is a puzzle game where you have five minutes in which to avoid yet another meeting – by killing yourself. Use the arrow keys to move around and the space key to interact with people and items. Watch for green arrows to help you on your way.

http://www.adultswim.com/games/game/index.html?game=fiveMinutes

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

In the spirit of giving, I’ve spent the day playing mediocre games so that you don’t have to! Here’s my top ten seasonal browser games with a variety of gameplay so that you can quickly find a favorite. Now grab a glass of mulled wine and get playing.

RSVP

Christmas dinners can be so stressful – even the virtual ones. RSVP is a flash card game in which you have to find a seating arrangement that keeps all of your guests happy. Arrange your guest cards so that the colours on their card match those of the people either side of you. If you can get everyone happy, you move on to the next table.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/rsvp

X-Mass

X-Mass is part tetris, part connect4. You have to line up three presents of the same type in order to drop them off the tree but – and this is the tricky bit – you have to keep the tree balanced.
http://www.mindless-labs.com/games/x-mass

Snow Line

Snow Line is a line-rider style game with a Christmas twist. You need to draw lines of snow in order to help Santa collect all the presents. Then click play and watch him follow your tracks in his sleigh! Touch it up until you get the perfect route.
http://www.miniclip.com/games/snow-line/en/

Pingu Throw

Pingu Throw is an old classic that’s still great fun. Click the mouse to swing the bat and time the yeti’s swing to knock the penguin as far as you can. Simple but effective and still one of my favorites.
http://www.freeaddictinggames.com/play/925.html

GROW Ornament

We told you about GROW on our Addicting Flash Games feature but I can’t resist this holiday riff. GROW Ornament is a very similar puzzle game focused around ornaments to put on a bare Christmas tree. Click on the decorations in a specific order to make the perfect holiday scene.
http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/tree/

James the Christmas Zebra

Slightly bizarre, even for a browser-based Christmas game, James the Christmas Zebra has you swinging through the sky looking for Christmas godies. You need to keep hitting the up arrow key to reach for the stars so you can swing through the sky to collect your cookies – but watch out for the exploding puddings!
http://armorgames.com/play/204/james-the-christmas-zebra

Seasonal Bloons (Bloons Player Pack 5)

If you enjoy Bloons, you’ll love Bloons Player Pack 5, the Christmas edition of Bloons. 50 fun levels in a Christmas theme with traditional Bloons gameplay. Use your mouse to aim your dart and press and hold the mouse button for power settings. Then just click to fire.
http://www.ninjakiwi.com/Games/Bloons-Games/Bloons-Player-Pack-5.html

Rudolph’s Revenge

Rudolph’s Revenge is a straight forward shoot-em-up. You have a red nose and two pistols and your goal is take out all the reindeer before they get you. Aim and shoot with your mouse, use the arrow keys to move. Quick and simple and a great way to work of holiday stress.
http://www.freeworldgroup.com/games2/gameindex/rudolphtherednosedreindeer.htm

Present Panic

In Present Panic you have to catch the falling presents by moving left and right. You simply need to stand underneath them as they drop onto your tray and then keep hold – but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Strangely addicting.
http://www.joyjam.com/games/present-panic

ElfYourself

Although not strictly a game, ElfYourself is so much fun I couldn’t resist including it. It can be a bit slow but once you’ve completed your elf, you can download it and dance to your hearts content. Simply load the flash application and upload two photographs focusing on faces: your own or Aunt Mabel’s or whoever you like!
http://www.elfyourself.com/

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Today’s xkcd puts it perfectly:

In this spirit, here’s my top ten list of addictive flash games which will guarantee to disappear a few hours from your weekend:

1. If you haven’t lost an hour to Boomshine it’s because you haven’t tried it yet.
2. Portal: The Flash Version is based on the popular Valve game and incredibly detailed. I actually bought the Orange Box to see the full game after realising how addicting this little web version was.
3. Cat with Bow Golf? You don’t need to speak Japanese but you do need a bit of a warped mind to play this game. Can you get a hole-in-one bulls eye?
4. And speaking of Japanese games, there is the classic Hoshi Saga: a set of point-and-click puzzles in which you must find the star. And if you thought that was fun, there’s also Hoshi Saga 2 and Hoshi Saga 3! There goes the weekend…
5. Your mouse controls a single black square. Move it around the playing area to pick up all the black squares and not the red ones. That’s the incredibly simple basis of the Squares Game … so why can’t I stop trying again?
6. You’ll need Silverlight for the latest version of LineRider with lots of fun new features. Although I have to admit I’ve still not seen anything as impressive as the original viral stunt run.
7. How to explain Grow? It is a puzzle game where you click the items to choose the order to add them to your world. They interact with each other to level up the panels of the cube. Perhaps you’d do as well to just go play it and come back when you are done.
8. The basis of the Helicopter Game is deceptively simple: don’t crash. Press your mouse button to go up and let go to go down. That’s all there is to it. Somehow that just makes it even more frustrating…
9. Physics fans will love Fantastic Contraption where you get to make your own machine to move objects across the screen. The first sequence may seem simple but the game rapidly gets more difficult until you are having to create contraptions that are, without a doubt, fantastic.
10. Bloxorz is sci-fi golf: you are simply maneuvering a block to fall into a square hole. I say simply but once you start to see the bridges and switches and fragile floors, you’ll realise that it is anything but.
11. 10 Gnomes is a set of photographs with gnomes hidden within them. When you are near a gnome, the area is clickable and you can zoom in. Click on the very bottom to zoom back out. You have 10 minutes to find 10 gnomes. Go!

I know. That’s eleven. I could have even carried on from there but trying to list my favorite games has meant playing my favorite games and I really do need to eat at some point today.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.