Educational games - How can I find the best games without having to wade through everything?

I'm coming back to this post eight years later, a little saddened by the broken links - but that's okay... Let's see what's still out there.

I've just completed the MITx: 11.127x: Design and Development of Games for Learning through the edx platform and one of the fabulously helpful things that we learnt about was how to quickly go through the best educational games that are available online.

So, here goes. The following list are the sites I would highly recommend to anyone interested in exploring their options around games in the classroom.

• The Institute of Play is focused on preparing students for the new global environment through games, game-design and cooperative play. They have developed fantastic games such as GameStar Mechanic (which has free and premium access levels), although all of their projects are here (including things such as print and play games that teach maths and socratic thinking, quest schools and more).
  
  
• Common sense education is a group that focuses on digital citizenship. This site is free to register. The three main games are: Digital Passport, Digital Compass and Digital Connections. There are also sections exploring teaching strategies, Professional Development and an extensive searchable collection of rated apps, ordered by curriculum area, essential skills and some have lesson plans. There is a clear indication whether they are referring to a free or paid resource. I find it an incredibly useful site - Here's a link to the Educators' section.
  
  
• Teach with Portals focuses on the game Portal (which is available for free on Steam to educators - http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/Portal_2_-_Educational_Version. The educational version consists of singleplayer mode and the puzzlemaker). There is a range of lesson plans and also a blog that has some very interesting links to webinars and thinking around games in education.
  
  
• MineCraft EDU is a comprehensive site in terms of preparing you as an educator. It starts from downloading the app, as an educator, admin or student. There is a starter kit, a range of training materials, a collection of lesson plans from primary (elementary) through to secondary level, and a collection of starter worlds for use in the classroom.
  
  
• Lure of the Labyrinth is no more, but Thinkport has a range of other games that they share here.
  
  
• Playful Learning was sponsored by The Learning Network and is based in Massachussetts. It is no more =(
  
  
• Educade is no more that I can see, but here is a review by Edshelf - https://edshelf.com/tool/educade/.

Not bad! Only 3/7 were no longer available. Eight years ago was practically an internet life-time!