There are so many games and game sites out there it could make one's head spin. I follow all the bigger game blogs and let me tell you, there are hundreds of online games released a week! Can you imagine? Who has the time to play them all?

Well you don't have to! I've go through our whole site and compiled all the best FREE ONLINE PUZZLE games on Games.com. The puzzle genre is too huge to do all at once, so I started with all the Bejeweled like games. If you didn't know, we call those games Match 3 games.
Without further ado....the best of Online Puzzle games- The Match 3's

You may have noticed some changes to our site in the last week. We did a slight color change and rebuilt our games pages. The goal of these changes was as follows:
1. Make the site better looking.
2. Make getting help for a game easier.
3. Clean up the site overall.


Here is a quick visual rundown:
We've made the buttons on our launch pages bigger and with more descriptive icons.
You can see that some of our games now have 'single player' and 'multi-player' options.
Single player games you will play by yourself or against computer opponents.





Our game pages now check your computer to make sure you meet top level system requirements like JavaScript, Java, your browser type or whether you need Flash. If any of those items are not compatible the check mark will be a red x rather than a green check.
If you don't meet the requirements there are links to help you install the necessary software.

For the past several years Games.com has sent winners of our online tournaments to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It is always a highlight of our year and we extremely proud of our players.

Last year a Troy O'Brien, a fireman from New Jersey, got to live his dream and won over $50,000 with his free seat to the World Series of Poker. I thought that was a pretty big deal and we so happy to highlight Troy O'Brien's fine poker play.

This year, our team was a bit smaller. Six of our online tournament winners were going to go to the World Series of Poker. I thought it would mean the end for our big blow out coverage. I thought our coverage would consist of our free online tournaments; we'd send our team of six and that would be it. For instance last year we created video interviews of every player and this year we just ran pictures of the team. You can forgive me if I underestimated our team? Boy was I wrong.

Free Games Here! Free Games There- Free Games are Everywhere!

There are free online games everywhere on the web these days. There are new games sites and new games cropping up all the time. You can play games on myspace, on facebook or anywhere. If you want you can bring games with you on your mobile phone.

With all those games its easy for some of the great games slip through the cracks. At games.com we try to have the best free online games but sometimes that just doesn't happen. There are too many reasons to list why we don't have everything but let me tell you it is not for the lack of me trying! If it were up to me, we'd have every game on the web on our site! Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on where you stand on such matters) I do not control which games we take or don't take. Without getting into a huge debate; here are the three greatest games not currently on games.com

Apparently playing games online can increase productivity at work and help you kick your bad habits!

Now, I am not one to rain on parades (ok I am) but these two items are both research work sponsored by games companies. It seems to me that both Popcap.com (makers of Bejeweled 2, Zuma and Peggle) and Real.com (owners of GameHouse Games) are trying to get the rest of the world involved in what anyone who plays games already knows. What does everyone know? That online games are fun and they can help you take your mind off of things. It's really a no-brainer and the fact that people are just getting this is not news to me or any of the people who play games on Games.com.

I bring this up because I am a bit of a contrarian and hope that people will question when they see reports like these. Question the source of where information comes from and why they are putting it out there. For Popcap and Real it is about letting people know that they make games and their games can make you better worker or help you kick bad habits.

What do you think about these sorts of news items? Do you think games can really help people? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Have you ever looked at your buddy list and wondered what the best way to reach out to your buddies would be?

Ask about the kids? Ask them about the latest television show they might not have watched? How about inviting them to a game? With the latest version of AIM you can invite anyone online to play a game with you. The best part about it is, there is no catch. You don't need to download anything extra, no tool bar, no crazy extra software nothing. The game invite system is right there and part of AIM.

For some of us at Games.com this integration has been in the works for the better part of five years. (Yes, I am completely serious.) We're all really excited about this product and hope that everyone will at least try it out. We've tried to make it as easy as possible but there are always things that we don't see.

We need your to help us make the games on AIM experience better. If you can think of ANYTHING, anything at all that you'd like to see in the games on AIM experience please do not hesitate to let us know.

Let me take you through the Games on AIM process:

That's right folks it is your friendly neighborhood bingo caller! For any of you who have played Games.com Bingo this man is immediately recognizable. He takes his time calling numbers and makes sure the games flow. Some people love him some people think he is the creepiest person on the planet. He is just that polarizing a force!

Unbelievably, this famous man is UNNAMED! We never had a name for him! When we were developing the game I called him 'Creepy Bingo Guy'
Mostly he just got called the "Caller" When I review chat people call him all sorts of things. Peoples ideas about him are all over the map. What I am looking for is answers. Answers to the most pressing question that is out there for the whole game community.

The question I have is: What do you call him? What should his name be? Please let us know!

I am am the luckiest person on the planet. I get to play games online at work and I am encouraged to do so. Not only that my boss doesn't even work in same state as me! Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky. Most people have to look over their should to play games or worse yet have their favorite game playing sites blocked by the dreaded IT guy.

How do you get around it? Well some people beg their IT people to give them access others well, who knows what others do. Most of us just sneak the games in trying to not get caught. Companies constantly spend time fighting to stop people from playing and us fine workers constantly strive to find ways to play. What does that do? Makes people unhappy and and no one has a good time at all.

Well someone decided to do something about it! You'll now have ammo to take on your boss or anyone else who says playing online games at work is counter-productive. Popcap, the developers of the some of the better online games like Bejeweled, Peggle and Chuzzle, have sponsored a study that says ONLINE GAMES INCREASE WORKER PRODUCTIVITY! According to the study of British workers, ten minutes a day of online play keeps stress down and the mind focused. Seems that taking endless breaks for tea is ok, but five minutes of playing online games is faux pas in England.

There is no doubt that a happy worker is a productive worker. However, I question the source. Popcap, A GAME company, is pushing this report out. Maybe, just maybe there is a conflict of interest here? I love, love the idea of folks taking this article over to their boss and trying to get them to give them a ten minutes break to play Hearts online, but I just can't see it working. I guess I just don't trust bosses that much to let people play at work.

What do you think? If you brought an article over to your boss saying you should be allowed to play games at work what would they say? Would they tell you to stuff it? I want to hear you gaming at work stories!

For as long as I have been here I have wanted there to be a community news section as a part of games.com. I have been here for over a year and half and learned so much from all of you in our community. You are a passionate group of game players who only wants to best from Games.com and each other.

In the time of been here we've been through a ton. From the removal for Game Talk (which we should not have done) to the redesign of the games site (which many of you hated but are now used to) to the Slingo issues there has been one constant. What has been constant is your level of passion. I am happy to have been able to communicate with all of you over these months and years and hope there is more to come.

Do you think this game is the greatest game ever?

If you loved "Where's Waldo?" or spend hours in a bar playing "Photo Hunt" then have I got the list for you!
I compiled a gallery of the all of games.com free online hidden object games in one location! All the Mystery Case Files are there along with both Hidden Expeditions. Swing by and click through!

FREE ONLINE HIDDEN OBJECT GAME GALLERY