[PC] This game is free? Really?

So I'm sure there's plenty of you out there who have seen or even played a few freeware games. Maybe you've just browsed through a freeware game site and thought that most games were total crap. Well, maybe you're right. But every now and again, something comes along that totally shatters your previous perception about freeware, that someone can put an honest effort into a game and produce something absolutely fantastic and even rival some retail games in sheer awesomeness. You get the impression that the people responsible for the awesome game you just scored off some site on the internet CARE about the quality of their work.

This thread will be about all the cool freeware games you think are worth someone's time. Like I said before, there's a ton of freeware games out there, and a lot of them are not that awesome, so please try to keep the games you link at a somewhat decent quality. And don't just say it's awesome just to say it's awesome. Give a brief little summary of the game, you know, what it's about (if it has a plot), how the gameplay works, maybe even list some pros and cons, let us know WHY you think a game is worth playing.

I just hope I don't break my own rules here.

I'll start off with one for now, I get the feeling this is going to be a pretty big opening post.

Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

Story

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The Great B-Ball Purge of 2041, a day so painful to some that it is referred to only as the "B-Ballnacht". Thousands upon thousands of the world's greatest ballers were massacred in a swath of violence and sports bigotry as the game was outlawed worldwide. The reason: the Chaos Dunk, a jam so powerful its mere existence threatens the balance of chaos and order. Among the few ballers and fans that survived the basketball genocide was Charles Barkley, the man capable of performing the "Verboten Jam"...

Flash forward 12 years to the post-cyberpocalyptic ruins of Neo New York, 2053. A Chaos Dunk rocks the island of Manhattan, killing 15 million. When the finger is put on the aging Charles Barkley, he must evade the capture of the B-Ball Removal Department, led by former friend and baller Michael Jordan, and disappear into the dangerous underground of the post-cyberpocalypse to clear his name and find out the mysterious truth behind the Chaos Dunk. Joined by allies along the way, including his son Hoopz, Barkley must face the dangers of a life he thought he gave up a long time ago and discover the secrets behind the terrorist organization B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S.

So from a first glance, the story seems pretty silly, and for as much as it revolved around basketball, they managed to keep it interesting.

Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa
Get the Flash Player to play this youtube video file.

As I'm sure you can gather from watching the video, the game is a turn-based RPG. Getting into encounters from the map works much like Earthbound. Charge into the monster to start a fight. If you charge into it while its back is turned, you'll have the initiative. Likewise, if you let a monster charge into your back, they'll get the first strike.

The battles themselves are a little more interactive than some of the older RPGs. I haven't played a jRPG since Final Fantasy 10, so I'm a little out of the loop, but it's nice to see this kind of interactivity in a battle. For example, the party member proficient in zaubers has an attack that shoots an element at a monster. Rapidly pressing a button before it reaches its destination will increase the damage dealt significantly. Again, that's just one example. Each character you get in the game has a differing form of how to utilize damage most efficiently against the enemy.

Anyway, here are some pros and cons.

Pros

• While it's pretty silly, the storyline actually manages to remain interesting throughout the course of the game.
• The combat is a little more interactive than just selecting a command and watching it happen when it's that character's turn.
• Grinding is kept to an absolute minimum. You won't have to fight monsters for three hours just to be able to fight the boss of a dungeon.
• Most of the game's music is original. There are a few samples that aren't, but you'll be able to identify them easily enough.
• There are a few Easter eggs and side quests to be found.
• The savepoints. You'll see what I mean when you use one.

Cons

• The game isn't very long. If you do everything there is to do, you should reach the end of the game by a little after the five-hour mark. However, this is the first of a series of games, so we'll just have to see what happens from here.
• Some sprites and backgrounds are recycled from other games. I didn't find this a problem, but I've heard people complain about this.
• The music samples are a little on the short side, and they loop quite a bit because of this.
• Healing items are a bit overpowered. It's incredibly difficult to lose in this game. That could be seen as a pro, but not for someone who also wants a decent challenge. The Quick Time Events shown in the video are probably where you'll see a Game Over screen, but those are few and far between.
• There are some typos in the game if that sort of thing bothers you.
• The savepoints. You'll see what I mean when you use one.

And there you have it. Let's see what kind of cool games you guys have found while poking about on the internet!

TrackMania Nations



Download here

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This free, stand-alone game has one new environment, Stadium, and many features also in Sunrise, including the advertisement panels, which show ads from sponsors streamed from the internet. The game contains 100 single player tracks, the earlier ones relatively simple in both design and gameplay, but it is chiefly an online game. One of the main attractions is the leader board, in which people compete for the best times and points. The top 5 players can be seen on the homepage. Due to the extremely high popularity of Nations (there were almost 1 million registered online players within weeks of its launch), the leader board was taken down soon after launch, and improved to meet demand.

The simplicity is appealing and I like the fact you're racing against other players' times rather than players' vehicles. Unless you play on the same server repeatedly you stand a high chance of rarely catching the same course twice, what with there being so much user created content out there. (Speaking of, the track designer is just loads of greatness).

Regarding all those tracks: some are almost maddeningly hard, demanding you maintain your speed through all manner of obstacles just to make most of the jumps or wall climbs. Within the period of a five minute race, however, it's usually *just* possible to learn the track well enough to post a competitive time, and perhaps even stand a chance of placing. And if you're playing familiar tracks it's back to the ol' racing formula of shaving off hundredths of seconds, knowing one light brush with the siderail will put you into 8th place. Very fast, thrilling course designs, lots of customization, and a crisp, "international" feel. Buckets o' fun.



And here's some great ones which have since slipped into the free arena:

(Note: they're not all freeware in the traditional sense, what with the two sponsored versions. But hey, still free and clear.)

Free gaming:

Command & Conquer GOLD



Download here

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Command & Conquer, also known as Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, is the original title in Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy computer and video games, telling the story of a three year struggle between two warring factions; the UN-backed Global Defense Initiative and the ancient quasi-religious terrorist organization known as the Brotherhood of Nod.

Far Cry (ad-supported)



Download here
(requires Fileplanet membership)

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A first-person shooter computer game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft in 2004. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release and has currently sold over 1 million copies worldwide. The game's story follows an ex-Special Forces man named Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious archipelago in Micronesia. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their sailboat was destroyed by mercenaries. Crytek developed a new game engine called "CryENGINE" for Far Cry. Reportedly, the game was born out of a technology demo called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island made by Crytek to showcase the capabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce 3. The game features relatively long view or draw distance, similar to Operation Flashpoint, but has a more advanced rendering system for vegetation. Also, all of the level territory is accessible to the player without loading pauses. The game engine features seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor areas (for which slightly different lighting and rendering models are utilized).

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (ad-supported)



Download here
(requires Fileplanet membership)

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A third-person action adventure video game published by Ubisoft. It was released in 2003 and is a continuation of the landmark MS-DOS game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989.

The Sands of Time, developed internally at Ubisoft Montreal, successfully captures the mechanics of the original platformer and extends it to the 3D generation. An earlier attempt by The Learning Company to transfer the game to 3D (Prince of Persia 3D) was released in 1999, but failed to meet the standards set by the franchise. The Sands of Time was praised for its visual design and finely tuned game mechanics, and won several awards.

Savage: The Battle For Newerth



Download here
(Note: see main site's download page for cd-key and instructions. "Savage 2" is also available for download and LAN play, although a key must be purchased for online play.)

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Savage is played completely online with other human players. The game has 2 or more teams (usually Humans vs. Beasts) attempting to destroy the opponent's Stronghold/Lair. Each team has one commander, who plays the game from a Real-Time Strategy vantage point. The commander researches weapons, places buildings for constuction, and—of course—give commands to individual units. Everyone else takes the role of those units, playing from a First or Third-Person perspective with melee and long-range weaponry. Most of their job involves killing enemies, but they can also help build buildings and gather resources.

Starsiege: Tribes



Download here
[Update here]

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Tribes was one of the first online-only games of its kind and sported several multiplayer features to which other games owe a lot (such as 32+ player support, troop transport vehicles, & several different player classes). Most of the standard maps were outdoors in a variety of climates, from sunshine to snow and hail. In general, bases were scattered throughout the map depending on the gametype. The outdoor environments were and still are relatively huge extending for several kilometers in any direction, but "jetting" and "skiing" gave Tribes a fast-paced feel.

Marathon Trilogy



Download here

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Marathon was first released for the Macintosh in 1994 and introduced many concepts now common in mainstream video games such as dual-wielded weapons. The sequel, Marathon 2: Durandal, expanded the engine technologies and the story universe. Unlike its darker prequel, Marathon 2 has often been perceived to be a brighter, vivid and more atmospheric game. It introduced several types of multiplayer modes beyond the deathmatch and cooperative game such as king of the hill. In 1996, the game was ported to Windows 95, and the Marathon Infinity package was released, including a new scenario using a modified Marathon 2 engine, and most importantly, the tools used to build it, Forge and Anvil. In 2000, Bungie released the source code to the Marathon 2 engine, and the Marathon Open Source project began, resulting in the new Marathon engine called Aleph One. Finally, in 2005, Bungie released the full original Mac OS trilogy for free distribution online. Using Aleph One, Marathon, Marathon 2 and Infinity may now be played on any of the major platforms.

Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe



Download here

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The player takes the role of a four man British Special Air Service (or SAS) team executing a number of important sabotage and/or rescue campaigns during World War II. The game takes a realistic approach where the player must use stealth to complete objectives.

An expansion was also released; Devils Bridge in the US and Fight for Freedom in the UK. This added new missions in new locations, for co-op and single play plus new weapons.

Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2



Download here

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The games allow the player to take on the role of a criminal in a big city, typically a lowly individual who rises in the ranks of organized crime over the course of the game. Various missions are set for completion by the figureheads of the city underworld, generally criminal, which must be completed to progress through the storyline.

Pretty awesome finds there, BlindMonk.

Streets of Rage Remake

Streets of Rage Remake Gameplay
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Streets of Rage Remake is basically an amalgamation of all three Streets of Rage games, and Bombergames certainly knew what they were doing when they put this together. Unfortunately, it's still a work in progress, so there's still some things here and there that need to be ironed out, but what's there will be a treat for fans of the Streets of Rage series or anyone pining for the brawlers of old.

The game plays pretty much like the old Genesis versions, and you go around, beating the crap out of anyone that gets in your way. There's no real story here except Mr. X is trying to take over the city and it's up to you to stop him.

You start the game with six characters off the bat, all spanning the three different games, and there are two more you can unlock by meeting certain conditions within the game. Likewise, the stages you play through come from all three games, with the addition of some brand new ones and an added bonus of having the path branch off at times, allowing you to pick where you want to go. In some instances, this will affect what boss you fight at the end of the level.

Adam hasn't been a playable character since the first Streets of Rage game, and it wouldn't make sense to take his sprite set and mix it in with the SoR2/SoR3 sprites, so the guys behind this game thoughtfully created an updated version of Adam, and they kept his moveset faithful to the original.

All the music has been remixed for this remake, and anyone who liked the soundtracks from the original games will more than likely enjoy the remixes. I know I got goosebumps listening to a few of them. If you're looking to score the soundtrack, you can download it here.

Like I said before though, this game is still in the works, so naturally, there's a few bugs in the game, one of the more annoying being that environmental hazards will hurt you just fine, but any enemy running through it comes away unscathed. There are also instances where the game won't let you progress after defeating a boss, and I'm not sure what causes that to happen. I've tried to replicate the glitch, but no dice. Also, some of the level progression doesn't always make much sense. An example of this would be in level three, when you go through the arcade and the area before the pirate ship in SoR2, you end up in the pitcher's mound elevator from SoR2's fourth level.

Aside from those flaws, this is a sweet package that's faithful to the original games and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the old brawler games.

At the risk of seeing this thread sink back into the archives, I'm going to post another game I think worth playing. I'm not exactly sure when it came out, but it seems I have somewhat decent timing considering Mega Man 9 is on the way out.

Rockman 7-FC

YouTube Video
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So basically, this is a remake of the SNES version of Mega Man 7. If you've played that, then you pretty much know the score here.

Aside from the absence of an intro level, the lack of Auto's Bolt Shop and having all eight robot masters available to you from the very beginning, Rockman 7-FC is incredibly faithful to the SNES version, right down to the Ghouls 'n Goblins theme you can pick in Shade Man's level, as seen in the video above. Of course, since there's no shop, the items that you would have normally bought are instead found throughout the different stages you'll go through.

The only negative for this game is that it's mostly in Japanese, and I can't read that. If you can, however, then you can enjoy the plot, but like I said, it's pretty much the same as the SNES version. In any event, it's worth a look.

When it comes to free games, I'm constantly amazed that more people don't know about Home of the underdogs. It's essentially an abandonware site that was initially set up to get a wider audience to older, unappreciated games but now basically just has a bunch of really high quality games for free. If you can't find something you like there then you're very difficult to please.

Quote:

But every now and again, something comes along that totally shatters your previous perception about freeware, that someone can put an honest effort into a game and produce something absolutely fantastic and even rival some retail games in sheer awesomeness.

N

N is more or less the greatest platformer ever made, in terms of level design and pure longevity of gameplay. Essentially it's Loderunner meets Sonic. My opinion of the game only grew when /v/ unanimously hung shit on it for being non-proprietary.

Tiny as, ridiculously addictive, elegantly designed, fantastic community. More user levels available at nmaps.net (and at later stages the potential for design brilliance really does dawn on you).

More freeware stuff aspiring to N's standard is equivalent in world progress terms to defeating HIV-AIDS in Africa or a peaceful Israel-Palestine.

Originally Posted by Cal

N

N is more or less the greatest platformer ever made, in terms of level design and pure longevity of gameplay. Essentially it's Loderunner meets Sonic. My opinion of the game only grew when /v/ unanimously hung shit on it for being non-proprietary.

Tiny as, ridiculously addictive, elegantly designed, fantastic community. More user levels available at nmaps.net.

Lacks blast processing.

FAHGEDABADDIT

No mention of Cave Story?

It can be best compared Metroid or Metroidvania game which is somewhat shorter but none the less sweet. It has a number of innovative features, not least of which is the way you power up your weapons. You collect crystals from your defeated enemies which will make your weapons more poweful. Some weapons will fire a larger round, others will fire more rounds at once or have a longer range. It depends entirely on the weapon. If you get hit, you lose some of the power you've gained for that weapon.

The story feels like it belongs in an RPG rather than a platform game, but is none the less effective for that. The character designs and characterisation are pretty much universally adorable. The gameplay is quite perfectly executed. When compared to other similar games it would be hard to find fault with any aspect of the design.

There's so much variety. So many areas, so many weapons... you can't get everything in the same playthrough, so it has a certain amount of replay value too. It was originally in Japanese only, but was translated by the incomparable Gideon Zhi of AGTP.

project "Cave Story" ~ aeon genesis ~ Aiyah! Thank you for the always and always.

Thread challenge - are there any worthwile freeware FPSes? Native, original stuff, not abandonware.

Originally Posted by Shin

When it comes to free games, I'm constantly amazed that more people don't know about Home of the underdogs. It's essentially an abandonware site that was initially set up to get a wider audience to older, unappreciated games but now basically just has a bunch of really high quality games for free. If you can't find something you like there then you're very difficult to please.

Some of the coolest games I remember from my childhood are there. I scored Strife from that place a long time ago, but DOSBox didn't support that game just yet, so the game was only partially playable. Low frames per second, blah blah blah. But that was some time ago. Strife now works just fine in DOSBox, and while incredibly difficult at times, is still a fun game.

Right now, that site is loading slow as shit. I can't figure out why, but thanks for the reminder. I haven't been there in a while.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

No mention of Cave Story?

It can be best compared Metroid or Metroidvania game which is somewhat shorter but none the less sweet. It has a number of innovative features, not least of which is the way you power up your weapons. You collect crystals from your defeated enemies which will make your weapons more poweful. Some weapons will fire a larger round, others will fire more rounds at once or have a longer range. It depends entirely on the weapon. If you get hit, you lose some of the power you've gained for that weapon.

The story feels like it belongs in an RPG rather than a platform game, but is none the less effective for that. The character designs and characterisation are pretty much universally adorable. The gameplay is quite perfectly executed. When compared to other similar games it would be hard to find fault with any aspect of the design.

There's so much variety. So many areas, so many weapons... you can't get everything in the same playthrough, so it has a certain amount of replay value too. It was originally in Japanese only, but was translated by the incomparable Gideon Zhi of AGTP.

project "Cave Story" ~ aeon genesis ~ Aiyah! Thank you for the always and always.

I kinda thought everyone had heard of it by now, even people who hate the game (Gech ), and that's why I didn't include it in the opening post. All the same though, it's more than welcome in this thread, as it most definitely fits the criteria of freeware games that don't suck.

I'm happy to see more people contributing to the thread and the cause for finding awesome freeware games. Keep it up, guys!

Originally Posted by Garr

Some of the coolest games I remember from my childhood are there. I scored Strife from that place a long time ago, but DOSBox didn't support that game just yet, so the game was only partially playable. Low frames per second, blah blah blah. But that was some time ago. Strife now works just fine in DOSBox, and while incredibly difficult at times, is still a fun game.

You should try using the ZDoom or Skulltag source ports instead of DOSBox. I think they have pretty decent Strife support. The frame rate is excellent on those source ports plus you get extra stuff like console commands, freemouselook, and a bunch of other stuff.

Originally Posted by Cal

Thread challenge - are there any worthwile freeware FPSes? Native, original stuff, not abandonware.

GunZ

Rpg FPS
I've heard some pretty awesome stuff about it.