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Freeware Game of the Week (Halloween special: "Penumbra")
PENUMBRA
(Halloween Special: Oct 31)
Halloween is at your door step and what's better than having a horror survival adventure game to play on your PC? This is the best time of the year to give yourself the spooks, with a game that is extremely atmospheric, immersive, bizarre and scary to make you scream your lungs out!
Consider a scene from this game. You're in a dark mine buried below the Earth's surface. The lights around you are fading quickly and you're left with absolutely no weapons to your defense and zero supplies. You just have a flashlight to your aid and all you can hear is an unearthly thing breathing around you close. 
You take a glint around the corner and you see nothing along the straight long hallway to your relief. But then a metal pipe falls and rolls behind you. You whip around and see a rat skittering away into the dark. You steel your nerves and prepare to go down the hallway and you meet face to face with a grotesque monster figure! 
You take a glint around the corner and you see nothing along the straight long hallway to your relief. But then a metal pipe falls and rolls behind you. You whip around and see a rat skittering away into the dark. You steel your nerves and prepare to go down the hallway and you meet face to face with a grotesque monster figure! Watch game (trailer) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaXDvR2sw-4
(Note: This is not just a demo game but is free and fully playable and has a complete different story. The game is actually created as a base to commercial titles of Penumbra and Amnesia series. The game was initially used to demonstrate the HPL engine, physics and gameplay ).
Unlike most horror games, Penumbra doesn't solely focus on blood, gore and plenty of violence to scare the hell out of you. True spine chilling shivers are brought about by its immersive atmosphere. 
This game can give you the thrills you're seeking for and even wet your pants. You are not going around with an M16 and blowing up the monsters into pieces. In fact the lack of firearms makes the game really creepy. You're limited to just melee fighting with a hammer or pickaxe or throwing objects at the creatures. 
This game can give you the thrills you're seeking for and even wet your pants. You are not going around with an M16 and blowing up the monsters into pieces. In fact the lack of firearms makes the game really creepy. You're limited to just melee fighting with a hammer or pickaxe or throwing objects at the creatures.
Gameplay: Gameplay is mostly stealth based and avoidance is preferred over direct combat such as closing doors to hold off enemies. The game uses advanced artificial intelligence to respond realistically to noises and light and also physics based puzzles & combat. Not only is it powered by a 3D engine utilising cutting edge technology, it also has an advanced physics system which allow for a never before seen environment interaction. Environmental objects can be manipulated at will in real time to clear out obstructions, open drawers or read notes and you can combine the items in your inventory to solve puzzles. All in all this is a frightening exploration and adventurous survival game.
Get ready for this scary adventure that can make your neck hair pointing straight into the sky, palms sweaty, knees shaking and every single sound to make you jump and scream. It's time to slide your headphones to the scalp of your ears and sound in full blast, turn off the lights and be in the dark and don't forget to lock your door as you can be scared to death when a hand falls on your shoulder to see that it was just your dad! Its HALLOWEEN! Time to press the PANIC button!
Also the critically acclaimed Amnesia:The Dark Descent and Penumbra series is available for 80% discount. Most of the horror games are having a discount during this Halloween. Steam has 75% discount for most of the games. Also check Game Giveaway of the Day to get a shareware game for free on this Halloween(Zombie Murder).
Homepage: http://www.penumbragame.com/
Patch: Softpedia
Version: 1.1
Genre: Graphic adventure, Survival horror
Rating: Mature, 12+
System Requirements(minimum) : Windows, Linux, Mac OSX , 256MB RAM, 1GHz CPU, 1GB hard drive space, ATI Radeon 8500/NVIDIA GeForce 3
HALLOWEEN PARTY: SCARY GAMES!!
Featured at Game Giveaway of the Day: Euthanasia, Which, All Our Friends Are Dead, Au Sable, Halloween Shooter, Trick or Treat
Similar Horror games for this Halloween: The Suffering , Candles
Enjoy your halloween. Spooky dreams! I'm out for 6 weeks. See you next month 
George.J
Know a great freeware game and want it to be published giving you credit? Contact me here, or comment below. Love this game? Please post your comments below.
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Comments
No luck, I'm afraid.
I looked at their support, which was not especially helpful: the info was for their paid versions (I mean, of course, they're in business!). The list of compatible vid cards did not include mine, but the list is three years old....
Thanks, anyway, George.J -- Happy Halloween!
Their forum is helpful though and open to questions and queries:
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/forum-20.html . In one of the latest threads someone was mentioning a similar problem and the guy's were trying to help the person. It's better to post your query there along with the graphics card you're using . Hope your drivers are upto date.
Happy Halloween :)
If Penumbra didn't make your Halloween special you could try various other games mentioned at the bottom of the article as part of the Halloween special. From the looks of it, Euthanasia and Candles as well as The Suffering posted by me earlier might be worth a treat
Game won't run. I tried downloading from each listed site. Installation was uneventful; game started o.k. Prologue ran o.k. When the actual game loaded and opened, everything stopped. Eventually, I saw a "loading" pinwheel, the screen grayed, and the "program not responding" appeared and that was that.
My drivers appear to be in good order, and I have no problems with other games.
I DO run Sandboxie, which I turned off, but did not disable.
Any thoughts? Thanks!
I have given a new download link (Frictional Games) which has multiple download links to Penumbra download and also includes patch for the game. Try downloading from there if you wish to and/or apply the patch. (first try applying the patch from the Softpedia link at Frictional Games to your already installed game). Let me know how it works out for you.
Forget my earlier comment. Just install the patch from the Softpedia link I've given in the article. See how it works out for you then.
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