I really love service provided by the good folks at Good Old Games, mostly for finally delivering to me a version of Fallout which actually works the way it's supposed to in Windows XP. Today, they've given me a whole new reason to love them as they've released one of my favorite point-and-click games and it's totally free.
Beneath a Steel Sky is a really cool cyberpunk story set in a dystopian Australia. The game has a great mechanic where you can put the personality of your childhood robot into a number of different bodies for solving puzzles, with often humorous reactions from the bot as you switch him around. If you're a fan of adventure games, this one is totally worth taking the time to download. A word of warning, however: Turn off the voice acting as soon as you possibly can. That aspect of the game has really aged poorly.
Also released for free today is another adventure from Revolution Studios, Lure of the Temptress. I have not had the pleasure of playing this one but, hell, it's free. No reason not to download it and give it a try too.
A press release follows the jump. Have any of you played these games before? If not, I think now would be a good time.
Warsaw, Poland - December 18 - 'Tis the season at GOG.com (http://www.gog.com), the digital distribution platform with DRM-free classic games, where "GOG.com fever month" continues with today's release of two totally free games. Beneath a Steel Sky (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/beneath_a_steel_sky) and Lure of the Temptress (http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/lure_of_the_temptress), two classic point-and-click adventure games, are now available for download to every registered GOG.com user at the site's newest price point - $0.00. That's nothing. Like, totally free.
Both games were developed by Revolution Software and famously introduced the Virtual Theatre game engine, which enabled non-playable characters to interact with the environment without players interaction. The two games have been wrapped with GOG.com's smooth and slick installers, and “Beneath a Steel Sky” even includes Dave Gibbons’ comic book inspired by the game itself.
“We're very happy that we've managed to get those two great classics before the holidays. The free games are a sort of ‘thank you’ to GOG.com users who have been supporting us since our beta launch”, said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “We like to get things for free as much as anyone else, and we think that these games represent great introductions to classic PC gaming and to the entire GOG.com experience.”
Both games are now available on GOG.com. Everyone who creates an account at GOG.com can download both games and all additional materials for free. The release of free games on the service is part of the “GOG.com fever month” action which has seen the additions of classic PC games like Arx Fatalis, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Simon the Sorcerer to the games catalogue. As always, expect news about new features, new releases and more in the coming days.”
Contest:
12:40 PM on 12.18.2008
| 
"Pipes, my boy, are the foundations of any civilised society!"
In a comic fanboy related sidenote, most of the art in the game was done by David Gibbons of "Watchmen" fame.
You could also do far worse than Lure of the Temptress for a way to pass a few hours.
I think Flight of the Amazon Queen was, like these games, also made free a while ago and can be downloaded from the ScummVM site. Although I'm pretty sure anyone interested in point & click adventures is already familiar with ScummVM.
...maybe that's because those developers don't even exist anymore.