Thanks to Pyroman[FO]‘s post at GamersWithJobs.com for pointing this game out.

The British stars of Ben There, Dan That! are its own creators, Ben Ward and Dan Marshall. In the real world, Dan handles the coding, the art, and co-writes along with Ben. Within the game, Ben does almost all the heavy lifting while Dan keeps him company, offers funny asides, and stands by for when such erudite tasks as flipping light switches need managing. The latter of which, admittedly, is infrequent; in this particular adventure, Ben and Dan visit a number of parallel realities, most of which are well-lit. What these realities lack in their demand for light fixture manipulation, they make up for in such anomalies as an ever-displaced London skyline, soccer hooligans, zombies, and tolerance for wanton murder.

It usually bothers me when a game breaks the fourth wall, but in Ben There, Dan That! it delights me. Ben and Dan use self-aware self-referential dialogue to carry their game’s plot, to make callbacks to their influences, and to inject some levity into what would otherwise be some truly grim situations. They break the fourth wall with vigor, as a device. They do this all for free; they’re good guys. Good guys deserve compensation, so consider donating some money if you download, play, and enjoy their game.

[Update 8/25/09: Ben There, Dan That! is now available on Steam as a bundle with its sequel Time Gentlemen, Please! for $4.99. This is about what it costs to purchase TGP from Zombie Cow's website (after GBP-to-USD conversion), so BTDT is still free.]

• No more ads!
• We’ve added shadows to the game. You’ll notice a new graphics configuration option to control the quality level of the shadows.
• PvP is now allowed on all worlds. There are no more PvP worlds.
• All Unique and Mythic drops are now Membership Required. Kings Coin purchases are, as always, usable by anyone.

While non-paying customers lose access to some upper tier items, they’ll no longer have an ad eating up screen real estate. I logged in to get a look at the new shadows (they look great) and about half of my items were ineffectual, but I think losing the ad is a fair compromise. Besides, I wouldn’t sweat five dollars per month if I were to play regularly again.

In my original article I mentioned that THQ is bringing it to Wii and DS sometime in 2008. The Wii version dropped a week or two ago and seems to have been met with critical success. It’s currently the 17th highest ranked Wii game on Metacritic with an average score of 82. Worthplaying gave it a 90 and said “It is a rare game that can appeal equally well to both the casual and hardcore crowds, yet de Blob does just that.”. EuroGamer had a grim comment that I hope won’t turn out to be true, “Probably the best and worst thing about de Blob is that it’s got ‘Destined For Cult Status’ written all over it.” GamePlayer felt De Blob worthy of a perfect 10 saying that it is “The first third-party Wii game that would have Mr Miyamoto bowing in awed respect.” Nice.

Reviews aside, the purpose of this post is simply to remind you about De Blob and its roots as a student project on the PC. While the breadth of its gameplay has evolved significantly during its transition to the Wii, its whimsical spirit and aesthetics appear to have stayed intact. Check it out on PC and consider giving it a look if you happen to own a Wii. The DS version looks like it’s going to bake a bit longer before it’s ready for consumption; it’s the version that I’ll be giving a try.

Version 1.08 of Trials 2 was delivered on September 18th with netbooks like the ASUS Eeepc and MSI Wind in mind, featuring a slew of graphics engine updates including a low graphics mode and VRAM usage optimizations. Trials 2 has also been certified for triple-display gameplay at resolutions up to 5040×1050 (somebody do that and send us pictures). Additionally, 14 new tracks were added for free. As a result of the graphics engine additions, changes and optimzations, Trials 2 also has a new set of minimum recommended system requirements. Those revised requirements as well as the rest of the lengthy 1.08 patch notes can be viewed at the official Trials 2: Second Edition forums.

This is a continually updated list of recommended free software by DoSu writers for your Windows PC. We try new software all the time and these are the ones we personally use and recommend. If you have any further suggestions, we want to hear it!

BROWSER

- Mozilla FireFox 3.6 — the default choice, lots of extensions, good support
- Opera 10 — our preferred browser, great built-in features, customization and interface
- Google Chrome 4.0 — streamlined interface built from the ground up for the new web

EMAIL CLIENT

- Gmail — can be used as a POP3 and IMAP client too
- Windows Live Mail — a surprisingly good e-mail client (really!). support for hotmail.
- Thunderbird — customizable (the latest version looks neat, but i haven’t tried it)

ANTI-MALWARE

- HiJack This — tool that displays and allows you to delete auto-starting applications that are not listed elsewhere in Windows tools (msconfig, services.msc)
- Microsoft Security Essentials — has great new virus detection rate, some of the same old AV practices but not that bad
- Your Brain (I can’t find a link for this *wink*)

IMAGE VIEWER

- Irfanview — image viewer & browser.
- Check out Google’s Picasa or Windows Live Gallery for photo gallery viewing

FILE COMPRESSION

- IZArc — the power of 7zip with a much nicer interface

BURNING SOFTWARE

- Infrarecorder — general burning application (don’t use currently)
- CDBurnerXP — another good general burning application (don’t use currently)
- ImgBurn — specializes in burning and creating data images

BITTORRENT

- µTorrent — hands down the best torrent application

INSTANT MESSAGING

- Miranda — best customization. extremely light (what we use)
- Pidgin — best non-bloated out-of-box.
- Steam Friends — ubiquitous for a PC gamer

VOICE CHAT

- Ventrilo — gaming, group conference.
- Skype — 1-on-1 calling. lots of plugins.

VIDEO/DVD PLAYER

- VLC Player — all-around player.
- Miro — internet video aggregator and player.
- Been using Media Player Classic a bunch lately. GOM player is pretty cool, too.

AUDIO PLAYER

- MediaMonkey — great library, light player.

GAMING

- GameTap — Over 30 free games on a rotation.
- Cheap Games Round-Up — our ever-growing list of free & cheap games.

OTHER SOFTWARE

- Process Explorer — view & manage detailed process information.
- CCleaner — clear up hard drive space, clean registry, manage start-up & uninstall software.
- WizMouse — Enables use of mouse-wheel on unfocused windows. (can cause problems in some games, requiring you to disable it during those times)
- Hamachi — easy to use virtual private network.
- FileZilla — handles file transfers using the FTP.
- Daemon Tools — CD/DVD discs emulation.
- Peer Block — an IP blocker to protect your privacy on P2P
- Foxit Reader — light-weight and fast PDF reader.
- Notepad ++ — great text/code editor