The free games are
The Games:
America's Army: Special Forces
The original version of America's Army, released in 2002, was a better-than-average online multiplayer shooter. But what set it apart from the legion of other Counter-Strike clones were its impressive visuals (powered by the Unreal graphics engine) and its price--or lack thereof. Unlike all the other games on this list that began as commercial ventures, America's Army was always intended as a giveaway. That's because it's an unapologetic recruiting tool for the real U.S. Army, which paid for its development. While it's unclear how many people the game has converted into real-life soldiers, the game itself continues to rank among the top 10 online shooters, thanks in part to frequent updates; it's currently up to version 2.4. Just make sure your rig meets the somewhat formidable system requirements before you download the nearly 900MB installation file
Battlecruiser 3000 A.D.
Until John Romero's famously disastrous Daikatana bowed to yawns in 2000, Battlecruiser 3000 A.D. was easily the most notorious game of its time. Derek Smart's space combat and strategy sim remained in development for years (three to ten, depending on whom you ask), becoming the original poster child for gaming vaporware. By the time publisher Take Two Interactive shoved it out the door in 1996, GameSpot declared that "it will go down in legend as the most bug-ridden, unstable, unplayable pieces of software ever released" and slapped it with a 2.6 rating. Undaunted, Smart followed up with a flurry of patches and upgrades, which were consolidated into a "version 2.0" in 1998. Three years later, Smart released BC3K as freeware; version 2.09, linked below, is the "final" release. Is it the Ishtar of gaming? Judge for yourself.
Grand Theft Auto & Grand Theft Auto 2
When the original Grand Theft Auto first hit the PC in 1998, the game was already courting controversy: its brazenly amoral gameplay actually rewarded the player for wanton criminal conduct. But competing titles such as Carmageddon--a Death Race 2000-inspired car combat racer that awarded points for mowing down as many pedestrians as possible--were an easier lightning rod for critics. By comparison, GTA's cartoonish, top-down 2D point-of-view seemed like little more than an amped-up Hot Wheels. Grand Theft Auto 2 refined the gameplay of the original title the following year, but Rockstar wouldn't perfect the formula until taking the mayhem 3D in 2001 with Grand Theft Auto III. For gamers familiar with only such 21st-century GTA landscapes of Vice City and San Andreas, the company has subsequently released the original two games--reoptimized for current PCs and Windows versions--as free downloads. The price of a taste of GTA history? You'll need to sign up for Rockstar's mailing list before you can pull down the files.
Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe
When Hidden & Dangerous was released in 1999, setting games against the background of World War II was still a fairly fresh phenomenon; Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was still three years away. Czech developer Illusion Softworks crafted an impressive squad-oriented third-person game that focused more on tension-filled stealth missions behind enemy lines than run-and-gun action. Despite a laundry list of bugs, glitches, and stability problems, the game built a core of enthusiastic fans. To promote the release of the 2003 sequel, publisher Gathering of Developers released the original game as a freebie. The Deluxe version incorporates a host of bug fixes, though some system configurations, apparently, still have issues, and the Devil's Bridge expansion pack into one convenient download.
Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe
When Hidden & Dangerous was released in 1999, setting games against the background of World War II was still a fairly fresh phenomenon; Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was still three years away. Czech developer Illusion Softworks crafted an impressive squad-oriented third-person game that focused more on tension-filled stealth missions behind enemy lines than run-and-gun action. Despite a laundry list of bugs, glitches, and stability problems, the game built a core of enthusiastic fans. To promote the release of the 2003 sequel, publisher Gathering of Developers released the original game as a freebie. The Deluxe version incorporates a host of bug fixes, though some system configurations, apparently, still have issues, and the Devil's Bridge expansion pack into one convenient download.
The Marathon Trilogy
Marathon was one of the initial wave of first-person shooters that hit in the mid-1990s. Often dismissed--unfairly--as Doom for Mac (Marathon 2 was the only game in the series to be published for the PC), the game's rich storyline and then-impressive graphics cultivated a loyal following that persists to this day. Marathon's developer, Bungie, was scooped up by Microsoft just so the software giant could secure the rights to a promising title called Halo--which Bungie was developing, ironically, for the Mac. Halo, of course, went on to become the raison d'être for owning Microsoft's Xbox console. Is Halo really Marathon 4? Download the original trilogy--which Bungie has since made available for free--and decide for yourself.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Enemy Territory began life as an expansion pack for 2001's Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Activision ended up canceling the game, but it released the multiplayer component of the game as a free standalone download in 2003. The result was a game that--two years later--holds its own against such heavyweights as America's Army (above), Call of Duty, and Unreal Tournament 2004 as one of the most played online multiplayer shooters out there. The game's legacy will live on in the form of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, a multiplayer spin-off of the upcoming Quake 4.
Starsiege: Tribes
Sierra's Starsiege series made a successful transition from strategy to action with 1998's Starsiege: Tribes. Released a year before Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament, Tribes' online multiplayer-only gameplay was a revolutionary step forward in the way games were marketed. The inclusion of player-controlled vehicles--years before Halo, Battlefield 1942, and Unreal Tournament 2004--was similarly visionary. The original game was given away free as a promotion for the 2004 release of the updated sequel Tribes Vengeance. It's not as popular as America's Army and Enemy Territory--the once vibrant online community has largely moved on--but those with older PCs will appreciate the easygoing system requirements.
Wild Metal Country
If you've never heard of Rockstar's 1999 tank shooter, you're not alone. It lacks the notoriety of the company's Grand Theft Auto series, and the game's reviews were hardly stellar, with GameSpot awarding the Dreamcast version a mere 3.7. But when you're not paying for it--Rockstar made it gratis in 2004--it's a bit easier to see the Wild Metal glass as half full. Unlike many of the multiplayer-only and graphically intensive games presented here, Wild Metal offers a decent single-player experience, and its Windows 98-era system requirements mean it'll run well on many current laptops and business desktops. But the lack of a hot coffee mod means those looking for some tank-on-tank action will have to point their turrets elsewhere. Like Rockstar's GTA freebies, you'll need to register for their newsletter before downloading this one.
The Zork Trilogy
Yes, it's true: once upon a time, there were computer games that had no graphics. Back in the early 1980s, a company called Infocom published a series of so-called text adventures that relied on little more than clever writing and good old-fashioned storytelling to entertain. The progenitors of the genre were the three Zork games, set in a fantasy world that combined elements of Dungeons & Dragons and Lord of the Rings with a healthy dose of humor. In the late 1990s, to promote the release of an updated and graphically intensive wave of Zork titles, Activision--which bought Infocom in 1987--released the original Zork trilogy as freeware, along with a specially commissioned free sequel, the Undiscovered Underground. Because the original Zork games were designed to run from floppy disks on computers with a fraction of the power of today's machines, the game files are positively miniscule: well short of a megabyte. Yes, the interface may be crude, but the games--which use a surprisingly flexible text parser that allows commands to be typed in plain English--remain challenging and entertaining. Twenty years later, Zork's intricate puzzles will have you scratching your head or searching Google for answers.
