A whole lot of action for a whole lot of nothing…

A major benefit of being a PC gamer is the glut of free games that are widely available – easily totalling more than the back catalogues of any single console. Freeware has been an established part of PC gaming culture ever since early Nineties shareware games proved to the industry that giving something away for nothing could be very lucrative. Admittedly there’s a fair amount of chaff to sift through now, but even if you take the dross out of the equation along with indie freeware (whose artistic intentions are often more honourable than corporate offerings), there’s still an impressive roster of titles; impressive enough to keep a gamer busy for the rest of their lives without ever having to shell out a single penny.

We’ve grabbed ten of our favourite free titles and listed them here for you to dip into at your convenience. These games don’t compromise on quality – if they weren’t free they’d be full-blooded retail titles (and were originally, in some cases) every bit the equal of their contemporaries. Enjoy!

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Developer: Splash Damage
Publisher: Activision
genre: Team first-person shooter
Year: 2003
Website: splashdamage.com
Download size: 271MB

Why Download?
An offshoot of Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Enemy Territory is a team-based FPS played online or over a local area network. Naturally it adopts the WWII theme from its progenitor, splitting teams into Axis and Allied factions and fighting on a range of different maps and modes. Its popularity has as much to do with its quality as the price.

The Story…
Originally slated as a retail expansion for Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Enemy Territory was released as freeware when the team encountered problems with the solo portion. Splash Damage released a retail follow-up in 2007, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which is based on the Quake universe.

PC Requirements
CPU: PIII 600MHz
RAM: 128MB
GFX: 32MB with full OpenGL support

Trackmania Nations Forever
Developer: Nadeo
Publisher: Ascaron
Genre: Racing
Year: 2008
Website: trackmania.com
Download size: 503MB

Why Download?
Part of the TrackMania series, Nations Forever is the basic free version of TrackMania United Forever and lacks a fair amount of the retail game’s content and features. However, the core racing features are superb, with its extreme accessibility yet high level of mastery, track building, ghost modes and leaderboard submission making it a highly addictive title.

The Story…
The original TrackMania game made its debut in 2004, in which time there have been several successors and ports to handheld consoles. Last year’s release of TM Nations alongside TM United has garnered the series some much-deserved recognition.

PC Requirements
CPU: 1.5GHz
RAM: 256MB
GFX: 16MB DX8-compatible

Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Genre: Real-time strategy
Year: 1996
Website: commandandconquer.com/redalert
Download size: 26MB

Why Download?
The highly anticipated sequel to the original Command & Conquer, released just a year before it in 1995, reignites Cold War hostilities in an alternate universe where Soviet Russia and the Allies are at odds. It introduced navy and air force units along with acclaimed interface features that made a dramatic improvement to the blossoming genre. Red Alert also continued the kitsch cut-scenes and theme that prevails in the series today.

The Story…
Red Alert was the point where the Command & Conquer series branched into a franchise, with the Tiberian games and Red Alert series stemming from it. It was also the world’s first online RTS. EA made Red Alert freeware in 2008.

PC Requirements
CPU: 120MHz
RAM: 16MB
GFX: 1MB

… continued