F - R - E - E

Advertisers are well aware of how to market effectively. One of the tools they use is including key words in their commercials and advertisements. So which word did they find was most effective at generating a response? Surprisingly it wasn't "sex" or some derivation thereof. The key word is "free." That brings us to Ingava, whose MO is to make tons of freeware games based on arcade and computer classics. LaserAge is your classic top-down space shooter, like Life-Force on the old NES. RoboCrush resembles "Bust-A-Move"/"Puzzle Bobble," while Monday Adventure is reminiscent of Zork or King's Quest. Ingava has several others already available at their site. One of the developers of these free games is Freeform Interactive, best known for the Future vs. Fantasy Quake mod.

Standing tall

Enemy closing in!

Freeform's latest effort is G-Sector. What makes G-Sector unique as a freeware title is that it's a fully 3D game. Indeed, the graphics generated by the homegrown Genesis 3D engine rival those of any high production 3D title from a large software publisher. Another aspect that sets G-Sector apart is the fact that it's totally Open Source. This isn't just some gimmick like Al Gore's "open source website" (and what a joke that was!) - Ingava already has forums set up at their site for programmers to meet and discuss how to improve G-Sector. That means this game isn't going to be abandoned once it's released as sometimes happens with the larger software developers. So long as there are players and a community around the game, G-Sector will continue to evolve and improve thank to the Open Source nature of the project.

Crosshair is green when you're on target

It's yellow/orange when not

Story

G-Sector centers its story around a heroine named Cyra. You'll fly your hover board around futuristic cities and arenas that include ramps and half pipes for you to gain speed and do tricks. To advance to further levels, you'll use weapons to eliminate other hostile hover boarders. The hover board aspect is reminiscent of Acclaim's Trickstyle, but the adversarial aspect is definitely not. Think of G-Sector as the X-Games with guns. One thing's for sure - Tony Hawk never strapped that kind of heat on his cargo pants.