Get some free games! For free!

Two of the online video game stores are giving away free games this week to entice people to look at their December sales.

Ubiplay has put up Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag for free for this week. This nautical take on the Assassin's Creed franchise is often cited as the best game in the series and an easy one to start off with.

GoG also has Grim Fandango Remastered up for free for this week. Originally released in 1998 by LucasArts, Grim Fandango is comfortably one of the best video games and certainly one of the best adventure games of all time. The remastered edition adds a revamped and much-improved mouse control system and enhanced graphics.

GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED release date, DAY OF THE TENTACLE REMASTERED announced

Double Fine have confirmed that their remastered edition of classic 1998 adventure game Grim Fandango will be released on 27 January, along with a new trailer.

The new version of the game has been optimised for modern PCs and will also include versions for Mac, Linux, PS4 and PS Vita.

Double Fine have also confirmed that they are bringing back Day of the Tentacle, the sequel to the original LucasArts adventure game Maniac Mansion. Originally released in 1993, Day of the Tentacle was hugely critically acclaimed on release and is sometimes described as the best adventure game ever made (an honour it sometimes exchanges with Monkey Island II and Sam and Max Hit the Road). This new version will likely be more akin to the Monkey Island re-masters from a couple of years ago, allowing gamers to play both the original and a graphically updated version of the game. In fact, it sounds like this new version is based on the already-in-progress remastering work that LucasArts was undertaking when it was shut down by new owners Disney back in 2012.

Meanwhile, Ron Gilbert, the original creator of Maniac Mansion (and The Secret of Monkey Island), is crowdfunding a new, classic-style adventure game called Thimbleweed Park. With more than a week to go, the game has raised more than $100,000 over its originally-requested target amount.

Remastered version of GRIM FANDANGO on the way

Tim Schafer and his video game production company, Double Fine Studios, have acquired the rights to his 1998 classic adventure game Grim Fandango and are working on a remastered version for release later this year.

Schafer developed Grim Fandango for LucasArts and the game received near-unanimous critical acclaim upon release. However, its sales were disappointing and contributed to LucasArts's decision to terminate development of adventure games a year or so later. The recently-released, remastered versions of the first two Monkey Island games (which Schafer also worked on) were a success, likely prompting this move. The remastered version of Grim Fandango will be released later this year on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Macintosh and PC (both Windows 7/8 and Linux).

This is excellent news. I didn't get around to playing Grim Fandango on release, but I'm looking forwards to giving this new version a try.