post #1
02 June 2005, 00:51 UTC#1
Ok for all you cheap bastards out there I have compiled a list of my top 9 fav. freeware games, so if you want to play the best you can get
for free then just try out one of these games.
9.*|Icy Tower|* Website: http://www.freelunchdesign.com/games.shtml
One of the greatest freeware games of our time! Icy Tower combines great graphics, catchy background music and addictive gameplay.
This is another classic by Johan Peitz. This fella writes terrific games.
In Icy Tower you must help Harold the homeboy to impress his friends by jumping to the highest level in the Icy Tower. The higher
you jump the more points you receive. You get extra points for performing tricks. (You’ll soon figure out how.) Enough said. Download it already.
8. *|Leiro Extreme|* Website: http://lieroxtreme.thegaminguniverse.com/
At first glance you can not miss Liero's striking resemblance to the classic worms (That's a good thing). You play a worm, who is hell
bent on destroying other worms, sound familiar? Liero has mode some huge improvements over worms: First of all Liero real time,
no more waiting for your opponent to take their turn. Secondly you play as a single worm instead of a small army of the slimy creatures
and finally the weapons are way cooler, all the basics and a lot more. Liero is a very popular game and has reached cult status in
many countries. Download and see for yourself why Liero is one of the most popular freeware games on the net.
7. *|Continuum|* Website: http://beginners.subspace.net/
Anyone ever played SubSpace? Continuum is the continuation of this freeware game. Continuum is a multiplayer top-view space game. It features 8 different ships
- each with their own unique abilities. The graphics and sound effects of the game are fantastic, and game play manages to keep up
with it. Keyboard shortcuts allow for easy access to all the upgrades you have, and you never have to leave the action. Another great
feature is 'turreting' allowing a second player to join up with another player in one ship, but with two guns. The game also has a central lobby server that you can connect to - making it easy to find multiplayer games. Continuum has a
single player training mode, but there are no bots to play with. Continuum has different styles of play, and it depends on the server.
Some servers have free-for-all death matches, others have team matches, and some have ‘capture the flag’ games. There is a
special Continuum sport, ‘Soccer’. In Soccer, you pick up the ball, and try to shoot it at the enemy’s goal.
6.*|Lemming Ball Z|* Website: http://www.daimao.be/lbz/
What do you get when you combine the violence, destructable terrain, and overkill attacks of Liero, the style and special moves of
Dragonball Z, and a bunch of furry, suicidal lemmings? One heck of a good time, also known as Lemmingball Z. And remember, you
don't have to like Dragonball Z to enjoy this game. In Lemmingball Z, your goal is to kill the other player, using whatever means
possible. You can attack him with a powerful, slow-moving kamehameha, a bunch of ki blasts, a massive spirit bomb, telekinesis,
or just your bare hands. If you feel you have an unfair disadvantage against a highly-skilled player, you can bide your time and raise
your power level, slow down time with taioken, or sacrifice half your HP to go supersaiyan. Lemmingball Z is a fast-moving game that
requires a lot of strategy and a bit of skill. I found it to be much like Liero, but with super powers replacing weapons and flight replacing the grappling hook. Also like Liero, Lemmingball Z is best enjoyed with a friend, whether they be right beside you or across the country. Yes, you can play online, and that's one of the better features of Lemmingball Z. However, if nobody's online and your friends are away, playing against the AI isn't as much of a drag as it is in liero. The AI will play smart, play dirty, and will actively hunt you down, a far cry from the braindead AI found in Liero.
Lemmingball Z's graphics are also a major plus. The graphics are smooth, the effects are very good-looking, and best of all, the
characters are cell-shaded. Lemmingball Z definitely has some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a freeware game.
Lemmingball Z's sound is also very good, but not quite as good as the graphics. There's no music, but fans of Liero, and for that
matter, fans of freeware games in general, have never seemed to be bothered by the lack of music. You'll be too busy gaping as you
destroy a whole arena with a screen-wide kamehameha to care about the missing music anyways.
5.*|Knight Online|* Website:http://www.knight-online.com.my/
Gameplay: Well, it starts off like most other RPG's. You pick some sort of side(in this case it's orcs or humans) and you pick some sor
t of class (warrior, rogue, mage, or priest). Then you're on you're way! It starts out with you just leveling...killing anything you can and
learning what things to avoid. A lot of people get bored at this time, but there are a lot of things to consider. First of all, you can join a
beginner quest, that allows you to party with any other player (normally, the partying would have to be with people within 1.5x of you
r level). You can do this until you reach level 30. Another thing to think about - most people don't know about this for a while after starting.
The city you start out in is infinitely small compared to the other places you can go. What you see is NOT all there is! After reaching level
30, leveling can become a little bit boring, but you can always do some things to "spice things up". Mages can cast spells from far away
and try to kill harder things. Rogues can do the same with a bow or "slide" stronger monsters...etc. Anyway, after you've got a decen
t level, the real fun begins. The best part of this game is the fighting with the other nation. You can participate in huge wars, or go to
colony zone and fight in a smaller scale battle. The only down part to PK in this game is the lag. It's a MMORPG so yes, there's lag.
The disconnect rate is a little high in the game too, but if you have a slightly good connection, it should be bearable and worth it. One
last thing - a great thing about this game is the simplicity. If you want to trade with someone or party with someone, you just click on
the person and click what you want to do. Plus the game tells you tips for controls for as long as you need it.
Graphics: Ok - it's not the best X-Box graphics in existence, but for a FREE MMORPG, it's pretty good. The only one problem that I can
think of with the graphics is that, as stated in other reviews, a lot of the monsters look alike. If you think you're attacking a lard orc
, when you're actually attacking an uruk tron, you're gonna be in trouble. By the way, the glowing effect for some weapons is REALLY
cool :-P
Sound: The one bad category in the game...There are only 3 songs that you can possibly hear. But they're not too bad! :-)
People: This is where the game really shines. The game itself is good, but really, it's all about meeting new people. I find that most
people in the game are also very friendly. A lot of times, I just invite random people into a party and chat with them. It's also great when
you can find lasting friends. For example, I've personally been in the same clan for about 10 months now with the same people. Once
you make a couple of friends, everything starts to change. Just be friendly and don't be afraid to talk to people - it's a lot of fun!
Lifetime: This game might not be the largest in the world, but there's almost always something new to do.
4. *|Grand Theft Auto 1 & Grand Theft auto 2|* Website: http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/
GTA features some of the most detailed and colorful landscapes I’ve seen – the city has everything you’d think a city should have.
There are many different cars on the street that show damage wonderfully well, and you can even skid the street. The characters, on
the other hand, could use some work. All of the characters seem to use the same sprite except in different colors. The sounds in GTA
are wonderfully done. The city has many environmental sounds (honking, shooting, etc.), and the cop chatter is impressive.
The controls are simple, easy, and effective. Just press CTRL to shoot your weapon, ENTER to hijack a car, and use the arrow keys to
move. It’s that effortless! (Of course, there are some more buttons than that, but those were the most important.) I was in the game in
less than 10 minutes, with no nagging feelings that the controls should be different. You can also define the controls using a settings
program included with the game. The interface could be slightly improved. There are only installation instructions included with the
game, but the game is pretty self-explanatory. The only real thing that nagged me in-game was the lack of a mini-map of the
surrounding city. I found myself in many situations where I didn’t know where to go, and got stuck in dead ends often. What makes
this worse is the fact that the camera zooms in and out depending on the speed you move, making it complicated to drive through
certain sections of the city
3.*|Soldat|* Website: http://www.soldat.pl
When I was a younger kid, I drew 2d pictures of armies of stickmen fighting and at eachother across little battlefields (8 1/2 X 11 sheets
of paper). When I came across this game, I hadn't realised why yet, but I loved it. The awesome little army characters moving around
the screen holding realistic looking real-life weapons, such as the MP5, AK-74, Barret Sniper Rifle, and so on. You control your own
character with the arrow keys and aim your gun with the mouse(the whole game is a 2d side view) and you can crouch or go prone.
There are lotsa little modes you can play in, like match(free for all), teammatch, capture the flag, and a few bonus modes. There are a
few maps (20 off the top of my head) that come with the game, but there are a ton out in cyberspace that you can download. There's
even a map editor you can download so you can make your own. And there are a ton of mods to download too. They change the way
your character and weapons look and sound. Some examples are: Halo, Nerf guns, Tom Clancy Weapons, Paintball, Future, WWII,
Unreal Tournament, and lots of others. All these things that you can download make Soldat a game with huuuuuuge replay value.
You can also play online with other people (there are lots of servers to play on).There are lotsa clans out there to join. One last thing,
the game is freeware and there is no time limit, it is optional to pay the $9 for registering. It would be nice to support the guy who made
it (he's still working on more patches and expansions for the game right now), but it is merely a suggestion. Oh, and soldatforums.com
is a great source for maps, mods, and general discussion about the game.
2.*|Enemy Territory|*. Website: http://enemy-territory.4players.de:1041/
Enemy Territory is easily the best freeware first person shooter I have ever played. The game, which was originally supposed to be an
expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released as a stand alone freeware game. While there is no single player mode, the multiplayer kicks major butt.
Once you get into the game, you choose to be either on the side of the Axis, or the Allies. Once you have chosen you then must choose
what class you would like to be. There are 5 total classes: Soldier, medic, engineer, field ops, and covert ops. Each class has certain
weapons that they can use and certain abilities thatcan be used on the battlefield. Once past all of the team and class choosing, you
get to the solid core of ET. You must work together with your team to accomplish certain objectives. The gameplay is what shines,
but the graphics and sound definitely deserve a bit of recognition. Each element in the game is professionally done, so the graphics
and sound seem as though they came out of a commercial game.
Bottom line - ET is pure multiplayer fun.
1.*|N|*. Website: http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/n.html
N is the great kind of platformer that makes you feel almost invincible. There's nothing like the sensation of jumping through the air
dodging a deadly laser, and sliding down a wall to reach the end of level. You'd just have to see how your character moves to
understand why the gameplay rules. Your character, a weird ninja-type guy who prefers avoidance instead of destroying everything in
sight, moves swiftly from platform to platform (or wall to wall) with perfection. However, the real coolness comes when your character
dies. Then, you'll get to witness the excellent ragdoll physics. The quality of the graphics and physics is great. But enough about the
physics, graphics, and overall coolness. The gameplay is what matters in any game, and N's gameplay is excellent. Sliding down
walls (or jumping up them), gliding from platform to platform, trying desperately not to die...it's all very fun to do. However, the game
really picks up in the later levels, where there are mines, lasers, and sentry robots abound. These levels may take you many tries to
beat, but they'll still remain fun, if a bit frustrating. There's no shortage of these levels, either. With 300 unique levels, all designed very
well, you'll be playing this game for a while. There's no music and barely any sound, but the game really doesn't need any. There is a
nice save system added in the new version, too, replacing the annoying password system of the last version. The bottom line of this
game: don't expect to kill things (as you would in other ninja games), but expect to have a good time jumping around, trying to flip the
switches and collect the coins, avoiding enemies and trying not to get killed.
for free then just try out one of these games.
9.*|Icy Tower|* Website: http://www.freelunchdesign.com/games.shtml
One of the greatest freeware games of our time! Icy Tower combines great graphics, catchy background music and addictive gameplay.
This is another classic by Johan Peitz. This fella writes terrific games.
In Icy Tower you must help Harold the homeboy to impress his friends by jumping to the highest level in the Icy Tower. The higher
you jump the more points you receive. You get extra points for performing tricks. (You’ll soon figure out how.) Enough said. Download it already.
8. *|Leiro Extreme|* Website: http://lieroxtreme.thegaminguniverse.com/
At first glance you can not miss Liero's striking resemblance to the classic worms (That's a good thing). You play a worm, who is hell
bent on destroying other worms, sound familiar? Liero has mode some huge improvements over worms: First of all Liero real time,
no more waiting for your opponent to take their turn. Secondly you play as a single worm instead of a small army of the slimy creatures
and finally the weapons are way cooler, all the basics and a lot more. Liero is a very popular game and has reached cult status in
many countries. Download and see for yourself why Liero is one of the most popular freeware games on the net.
7. *|Continuum|* Website: http://beginners.subspace.net/
Anyone ever played SubSpace? Continuum is the continuation of this freeware game. Continuum is a multiplayer top-view space game. It features 8 different ships
- each with their own unique abilities. The graphics and sound effects of the game are fantastic, and game play manages to keep up
with it. Keyboard shortcuts allow for easy access to all the upgrades you have, and you never have to leave the action. Another great
feature is 'turreting' allowing a second player to join up with another player in one ship, but with two guns. The game also has a central lobby server that you can connect to - making it easy to find multiplayer games. Continuum has a
single player training mode, but there are no bots to play with. Continuum has different styles of play, and it depends on the server.
Some servers have free-for-all death matches, others have team matches, and some have ‘capture the flag’ games. There is a
special Continuum sport, ‘Soccer’. In Soccer, you pick up the ball, and try to shoot it at the enemy’s goal.
6.*|Lemming Ball Z|* Website: http://www.daimao.be/lbz/
What do you get when you combine the violence, destructable terrain, and overkill attacks of Liero, the style and special moves of
Dragonball Z, and a bunch of furry, suicidal lemmings? One heck of a good time, also known as Lemmingball Z. And remember, you
don't have to like Dragonball Z to enjoy this game. In Lemmingball Z, your goal is to kill the other player, using whatever means
possible. You can attack him with a powerful, slow-moving kamehameha, a bunch of ki blasts, a massive spirit bomb, telekinesis,
or just your bare hands. If you feel you have an unfair disadvantage against a highly-skilled player, you can bide your time and raise
your power level, slow down time with taioken, or sacrifice half your HP to go supersaiyan. Lemmingball Z is a fast-moving game that
requires a lot of strategy and a bit of skill. I found it to be much like Liero, but with super powers replacing weapons and flight replacing the grappling hook. Also like Liero, Lemmingball Z is best enjoyed with a friend, whether they be right beside you or across the country. Yes, you can play online, and that's one of the better features of Lemmingball Z. However, if nobody's online and your friends are away, playing against the AI isn't as much of a drag as it is in liero. The AI will play smart, play dirty, and will actively hunt you down, a far cry from the braindead AI found in Liero.
Lemmingball Z's graphics are also a major plus. The graphics are smooth, the effects are very good-looking, and best of all, the
characters are cell-shaded. Lemmingball Z definitely has some of the best graphics I've ever seen in a freeware game.
Lemmingball Z's sound is also very good, but not quite as good as the graphics. There's no music, but fans of Liero, and for that
matter, fans of freeware games in general, have never seemed to be bothered by the lack of music. You'll be too busy gaping as you
destroy a whole arena with a screen-wide kamehameha to care about the missing music anyways.
5.*|Knight Online|* Website:http://www.knight-online.com.my/
Gameplay: Well, it starts off like most other RPG's. You pick some sort of side(in this case it's orcs or humans) and you pick some sor
t of class (warrior, rogue, mage, or priest). Then you're on you're way! It starts out with you just leveling...killing anything you can and
learning what things to avoid. A lot of people get bored at this time, but there are a lot of things to consider. First of all, you can join a
beginner quest, that allows you to party with any other player (normally, the partying would have to be with people within 1.5x of you
r level). You can do this until you reach level 30. Another thing to think about - most people don't know about this for a while after starting.
The city you start out in is infinitely small compared to the other places you can go. What you see is NOT all there is! After reaching level
30, leveling can become a little bit boring, but you can always do some things to "spice things up". Mages can cast spells from far away
and try to kill harder things. Rogues can do the same with a bow or "slide" stronger monsters...etc. Anyway, after you've got a decen
t level, the real fun begins. The best part of this game is the fighting with the other nation. You can participate in huge wars, or go to
colony zone and fight in a smaller scale battle. The only down part to PK in this game is the lag. It's a MMORPG so yes, there's lag.
The disconnect rate is a little high in the game too, but if you have a slightly good connection, it should be bearable and worth it. One
last thing - a great thing about this game is the simplicity. If you want to trade with someone or party with someone, you just click on
the person and click what you want to do. Plus the game tells you tips for controls for as long as you need it.
Graphics: Ok - it's not the best X-Box graphics in existence, but for a FREE MMORPG, it's pretty good. The only one problem that I can
think of with the graphics is that, as stated in other reviews, a lot of the monsters look alike. If you think you're attacking a lard orc
, when you're actually attacking an uruk tron, you're gonna be in trouble. By the way, the glowing effect for some weapons is REALLY
cool :-P
Sound: The one bad category in the game...There are only 3 songs that you can possibly hear. But they're not too bad! :-)
People: This is where the game really shines. The game itself is good, but really, it's all about meeting new people. I find that most
people in the game are also very friendly. A lot of times, I just invite random people into a party and chat with them. It's also great when
you can find lasting friends. For example, I've personally been in the same clan for about 10 months now with the same people. Once
you make a couple of friends, everything starts to change. Just be friendly and don't be afraid to talk to people - it's a lot of fun!
Lifetime: This game might not be the largest in the world, but there's almost always something new to do.
4. *|Grand Theft Auto 1 & Grand Theft auto 2|* Website: http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/
GTA features some of the most detailed and colorful landscapes I’ve seen – the city has everything you’d think a city should have.
There are many different cars on the street that show damage wonderfully well, and you can even skid the street. The characters, on
the other hand, could use some work. All of the characters seem to use the same sprite except in different colors. The sounds in GTA
are wonderfully done. The city has many environmental sounds (honking, shooting, etc.), and the cop chatter is impressive.
The controls are simple, easy, and effective. Just press CTRL to shoot your weapon, ENTER to hijack a car, and use the arrow keys to
move. It’s that effortless! (Of course, there are some more buttons than that, but those were the most important.) I was in the game in
less than 10 minutes, with no nagging feelings that the controls should be different. You can also define the controls using a settings
program included with the game. The interface could be slightly improved. There are only installation instructions included with the
game, but the game is pretty self-explanatory. The only real thing that nagged me in-game was the lack of a mini-map of the
surrounding city. I found myself in many situations where I didn’t know where to go, and got stuck in dead ends often. What makes
this worse is the fact that the camera zooms in and out depending on the speed you move, making it complicated to drive through
certain sections of the city
3.*|Soldat|* Website: http://www.soldat.pl
When I was a younger kid, I drew 2d pictures of armies of stickmen fighting and at eachother across little battlefields (8 1/2 X 11 sheets
of paper). When I came across this game, I hadn't realised why yet, but I loved it. The awesome little army characters moving around
the screen holding realistic looking real-life weapons, such as the MP5, AK-74, Barret Sniper Rifle, and so on. You control your own
character with the arrow keys and aim your gun with the mouse(the whole game is a 2d side view) and you can crouch or go prone.
There are lotsa little modes you can play in, like match(free for all), teammatch, capture the flag, and a few bonus modes. There are a
few maps (20 off the top of my head) that come with the game, but there are a ton out in cyberspace that you can download. There's
even a map editor you can download so you can make your own. And there are a ton of mods to download too. They change the way
your character and weapons look and sound. Some examples are: Halo, Nerf guns, Tom Clancy Weapons, Paintball, Future, WWII,
Unreal Tournament, and lots of others. All these things that you can download make Soldat a game with huuuuuuge replay value.
You can also play online with other people (there are lots of servers to play on).There are lotsa clans out there to join. One last thing,
the game is freeware and there is no time limit, it is optional to pay the $9 for registering. It would be nice to support the guy who made
it (he's still working on more patches and expansions for the game right now), but it is merely a suggestion. Oh, and soldatforums.com
is a great source for maps, mods, and general discussion about the game.
2.*|Enemy Territory|*. Website: http://enemy-territory.4players.de:1041/
Enemy Territory is easily the best freeware first person shooter I have ever played. The game, which was originally supposed to be an
expansion pack for Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released as a stand alone freeware game. While there is no single player mode, the multiplayer kicks major butt.
Once you get into the game, you choose to be either on the side of the Axis, or the Allies. Once you have chosen you then must choose
what class you would like to be. There are 5 total classes: Soldier, medic, engineer, field ops, and covert ops. Each class has certain
weapons that they can use and certain abilities thatcan be used on the battlefield. Once past all of the team and class choosing, you
get to the solid core of ET. You must work together with your team to accomplish certain objectives. The gameplay is what shines,
but the graphics and sound definitely deserve a bit of recognition. Each element in the game is professionally done, so the graphics
and sound seem as though they came out of a commercial game.
Bottom line - ET is pure multiplayer fun.
1.*|N|*. Website: http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/n.html
N is the great kind of platformer that makes you feel almost invincible. There's nothing like the sensation of jumping through the air
dodging a deadly laser, and sliding down a wall to reach the end of level. You'd just have to see how your character moves to
understand why the gameplay rules. Your character, a weird ninja-type guy who prefers avoidance instead of destroying everything in
sight, moves swiftly from platform to platform (or wall to wall) with perfection. However, the real coolness comes when your character
dies. Then, you'll get to witness the excellent ragdoll physics. The quality of the graphics and physics is great. But enough about the
physics, graphics, and overall coolness. The gameplay is what matters in any game, and N's gameplay is excellent. Sliding down
walls (or jumping up them), gliding from platform to platform, trying desperately not to die...it's all very fun to do. However, the game
really picks up in the later levels, where there are mines, lasers, and sentry robots abound. These levels may take you many tries to
beat, but they'll still remain fun, if a bit frustrating. There's no shortage of these levels, either. With 300 unique levels, all designed very
well, you'll be playing this game for a while. There's no music and barely any sound, but the game really doesn't need any. There is a
nice save system added in the new version, too, replacing the annoying password system of the last version. The bottom line of this
game: don't expect to kill things (as you would in other ninja games), but expect to have a good time jumping around, trying to flip the
switches and collect the coins, avoiding enemies and trying not to get killed.