The status bar at the bottom of the picture above shows actions that have been queued – flying, refueling, trading etc. These actions take time; in the case of the picture above the player must wait more than an hour before the queue is completed. Unless you prefer staring at that screen for long periods of time, you can simply hide or even close the tab or window where you’ve got Skyrates loaded and do something else – a bit of actual work perhaps?

But not all of the actions in Skyrate force the player to wait. For starters, you can patrol or take on missions to battle pirates in real-time, as shown above. Dogfighting in Skyrates is a game unto itself. There are planes and character skills devoted to this aspect of the game. Another huge aspect of the game is trading:

To put it simply, you buy goods where there’s a high supply and then fly off to sell them where there’s high demand. As I’ve said before, flying between the floating islands takes time, but this just means that you can earn money without having to grind. As you progress through the game, you”ll have to choose which aspect to focus on – will you buy a plane that’s slow but has lots of room for cargo, or a flying armory that barely has any room for goods? The same goes for your avatar’s skills; the skill trees are grouped into several categories – aerial moves, trading, and fighting.

You can do a lot more in Skyrates, but as I said, the game has its own pace. It’s perfect for people who don’t really have a lot of time to play but don’t want to settle for puzzlers or hack and slash games that end quickly. It’s free to play, so if you have the patience to be a Skyrate, just register and you’ll be flying your first CR-4P in no time at all. And then you’ll have to wait.

It’s much more abstract than Upgrade Complete because there really is no other game. It’s just you and the menus. Still don’t understand how it works? I unlocked the “Nope, no game here” achievement by clicking on the word “Game”. Click the instructions and you unlock an achievement (what’s funny is that there are video games that award you for finishing their tutorial/initial stages). Given it’s mechanic, there’s no real incentive to go through Is This A Game? a second time. That is if you manage complete it. I’m pretty sure I won’t find all of the achievements. Itching to be virtually rewarded? Go to CMSBox to get your fix.

And I just unlocked an achievement while writing this post. Seriously. WTF?

[via Download Squad]

In the browser game Fragger, you aim grenades in order to solve problems. Er, puzzles. Puzzles. Though, in a pinch, I’d bet a grenade could solve an awful lot of problems.

Underneath, this simple game is about strategy (and blowing dudes up), and it’s important to consider each move carefully, because until you can prove yourself, you’ve got a limited amount of grenades.

[Fragger via IndieGames]