Tag: PHYSICS

Sticks is another one of those rare games where the intro is actually worth watching. It introduces you to office worker Bob, who is basically a wage slave fantasizing about a better existence. Then, on his way back home from another grueling day at the office, he passes a huge sign which says "Sticks." This is where the game starts. Each level has a number of coins hovering in mid-air, and ...

Imperfect Balance is a very simple game: You have a bunch of blocks on a "stage" in the middle of the screen, and your goal is to make them all fall off. You do this by using other blocks: There are several blocks you can use on each level; you pick a block and rotate it using A and D (or W and S for finer angles). Once you have it at the angle you want, simply click to drop it. It's not an ...

Remember Effing Hail? Well, Effing Meteors belongs to the same genre, but with a couple of interesting twists. You're looking at a side-view of a planet, complete with its layers of atmosphere. Above the planet, in space, there are meteors. These are hurtling towards the planet, but they're often not large enough to survive entering through the atmosphere, so they burn along the way. Your ...

Slash Boom is one of the easier time-wasters I've played recently, but I still enjoyed it. The rules are very simple: Your goal is to blow most of the structure off the screen. At each level, you get two "slashes" and one "boom". The "slashes" are click-and-drag motions you make across the structure, which cut it. Once you've placed two strategic cuts, it's time for the "boom": simply click ...

Balance is a very simple game that manages to be surprisingly engaging. All you have to do is just balance the stick on your virtual finger. I call it a "stick" for lack of a better name, but it seems to be a rudimentary 2D representation of a rotating plate, or a platform with a weight on it. You use your mouse to move your hand and you just have to keep moving it in the right direction so ...

2010 has come to a close, and that means it's time for us to kill what little remains of your final Friday productivity with a look back at some of our best Time Wasters. Grab your mouse and keep your eyes peeled for the boss, it's time to fire up some casual gaming goodness in your Web browser! Each screenshot is linked directly to the game pictured -- so when you see something which catches ...

Back in June, I covered the original Aequilibrium; if you liked that game, then you're going to love the new version, Aequilibrium 3. It's a game that's ostensibly about balance, but it's really about agility. Each level starts off with several pieces resting in perfect balance on a fulcrum. You have to remove all of the red blocks by clicking them, while keeping the whole thing from toppling ...

The rules for Hanger are quite simple: You've got to reach the end of each level merely by swinging back and forth and grappling with your rope. You use LEFT and RIGHT to swing back and forth; once you gather enough momentum, hit SPACE to let go and fling yourself on; then hit SPACE again to latch onto the ceiling once more. Careful, though: If you swing too high and hit the ceiling, you start ...

Time-wasters can sometimes be frustrating; after all, when I just want to distract myself for a few minutes, I'm not really looking for something that's going to make me feel like I'm not good enough. That's what work is for, right? Blow Things Up is a nice game, because you will be good at it. You get a number of bombs which you can plant anywhere on the screen, even midair. Once you put a ...

So... you're a rabbit, and you seem to have some anger management issues. And you have a fairly large supply of explosive toilet paper. Oh, and you really don't like neanderthals. Tracking so far? If so, you're going to enjoy Rabbids Travel in Time. What you see in the screenshot is an adorable rabbit taking aim at the last remaining caveman for this particular level (it started off with ...

In Rocket Science, you control a bunch of rockets. There aren't very many, mind you (between one to three on each level), but it's what you do with those rockets that counts. You see, this is a game of careful manipulation, calculation, and observation – brute force has no place here. Basically, you have to hit the planets with your rockets. Hit all the lava planets, and you're done. At the ...

I love World of Goo. I bought it a while back, and it's one of the most addictive games I've played. That's part of the reason why I was so excited to find Moonlights. It shares a lot of elements with World of Goo, but is very different, too. Like in World of Goo, you have to construct something stable out of unstable elements, and your structure needs to get to a certain destination. But that's ...

So, the other day I wrote about a website that helps you figure out whether or not it's raining somewhere. It turns out that this is a whole category of websites, but I think I just found the most useful "minimalistic information" website yet: It's called Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet, and seeks to answer just that question. At the time of writing, the answer is "Nope" ...

Wired, proving yet again that it strives to cover only the most important and socially conscientious news, has published a couple of stories on the physics of Angry Birds. In the first part, the height of the slingshot and red bird are discussed, while the second part deals with an even stickier question: does the Angry Blue Bird multiply its mass? Angry Birds, if you're not "with it," is a ...

At first glance, Deconstruction is just a play thing, an experimental fiddle with Flash physics. Heck, at second glance it's still nothing more than a way to take your angst out on a priceless painting -- or, as the case may be, the face of whoever you like. All you can do is drag blocks around and change the gravity -- but I'm not ashamed to say that I spent a good five minutes reducing the ...