Ashford Malayalee Association - Free Games Downloads

Adventures of Fatman: An excellent and well-produced adventure game, in the style of the old Lucasarts ones. Recently released as freeware.

Beneath a Steel Sky: Created by Revolution Software back in 1994 for the Amiga and the PC and based on Dave Gibbons' artistic vision, this is a perfect free download. A cult classic nonetheless.

Room War: A very small first person flyer-shooter, that (in my case at least) proved to be extremely addictive. Decent 3d graphics and a lot of Alienware-advertising textures.

Porrasturvat: Throw people off a stair. A production that is considered an absolute classic, as long as you know what scene, the demoscene is.

Grand Theft Auto: Yes, the same that spawned the GTA: San Andreas smash hit. It is offered for free, along with GTA2 and Wild Metal, by the beautiful, magnificent, generous and over-all good guys of Rockstar!

Cedric and the Revolution: An adventure. Follow the link, read the review and (if interested) download it. Simple as that.

Halo Zero: HALO in 2d? Yes. HALO in 2d. Oldschool gaming with a French contemporary touch...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The best and funniest text adventure ever created, was written by the late and much beloved Douglas Adams, and is offered in an enhanced and free version by the BBC.

The Ur-Quan Masters: This is basically the classic Star Control 2, only enhanced and with much better graphics (and deeper storyline etc). The name-change was due to legal reasons. Of course.

Dofus is a MMO. Almost a MMORPG, but more tactical, thus a MMOTRPG. Still, it looks great, plays better and it's free.

Air Hockey: Obvious. Air Hockey.

Cirque de Zale: A 2d, 3rd person point-and-click adventure. Very good humor, nice graphics and quite easy. Very easy actually. Still a weird, funny little game.

Heroquest: The old (classic some might argue) MB and Games Workshop board game on PC. Quite entertaining and doesn't cost a thing.

FreeCiv: Remember Civilization 4? Well, FreeCiv isn't nearly as good, looks dated and simple, but it's free. And it is Civ (FreeCiv, but still...)

War Rock: Shoot people in the head.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory: Shoot more people in the head.

Bloom: Be a flower! Or something like that, in a beautiful and innovative game.

Dink Smallwood: The well known freeware, zelda-like RPG. Formerly a commercial game.

Hacker: Be a Hacker in a (I believe, I guess, I don't really know) rather realistic game.

Star Wraith 2: A space shooter created in Dark Basic. Rather basic, but good fun. They actually used to sell this game(!). Apparently a Star Wraith 1 must have existed too.

Apprentice: Already reviewed by me. Read the review. Then enjoy it (the game that is, not the review, which is quite enjoyable too. Anyway. You know what I mean...)

S.W.I.N.E.: I guess most people refer to it as SWINE, and believe it is a very good RTS(for a freeware at least).

Defender of the Crown: The old arcade-strategy-action classic by Cinemaware, is now being brought back to you by Cinemaware. Wow!

Eye of the Kraken: An amazing, strange and funny-at-times 3rd person adventure. It's a full blown former-commercial production.

No-Action Jackson: Another adventure, only not a professional one. It is excellent though. Great cartoon graphics, good dialog, good jokes, Lucasarts style and a plot that has to do with (pen and paper) RPGs.

Anarchy Online: The well known commercial, contemporary MMORPG. Well, part of it is free. Go play with the big boys.

DOOM, the roguelike: Combine ascii graphics, Rogue dungeon-based gameplay and the Doom atmosphere and this is what you get.

The last time I presented you with my favorite free games, I strived to achieve collage-perfection. This time I tried something easier. Photo-manipulation, using the most advanced digital tools. You can see the results on the nice hand-crafted (ahem) pic, that's right above this paragraph. But, I digress. Nobody is here to read about my artistic and/or technical endeavors. You are all here for the games.

Well, the games that made it to this list, were carefully hand-picked in my rather picturesque cyber-garden. They are not shareware titles, trials or mods. They are all full free (100% legal) games, and each and every one of them has given me at least a few hours of clean-godly-gnomish fun. (America's Army is not included, and no matter how many of you moan, it will never be. I hate this game). Well, without further ado then, on to the list...

The Top of the Crop

Xenon 2000: A Xenon II update, by the Bitmap Brothers themselves. Joy, oh joy! Respects, bows and generally dances around. In a happy way. Oh, it's a classic shoot em'up if you must know.

SimCity: The original, society-altering, pseudo-scientific, but exquisite game (cyber-toy, more like it) for city planner wannabes, is at last free.

GunZ: That's one for my gore-minded friends. Go on, download, install and murder polygonal entities to your heart's delight.

Trackmania Nations: Race race-cars and have mindless fun. For free of course.

Zork I, II and III: The best adventure games ever, made it to the public domain, and there was much rejoicing. Brilliant. No screenshots provided. (They are text-adventures. Aaaah...)

Cholo: A beautiful and groundbreaking (it's an 8bit game remake) 3d action game. Requires some strategic thinking and should be avoided by epileptics. Obviously.

KKrieger: An impressive First Person Shooter in under 100kbs? Of course. Marvel at this creation by the demoscene's finest...

NetHack: By popular demand. The ultimate hack-n-slash time sink. Respect the addictive power of ASCII.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena: Apparently Oblivion's grandfather. An immense RPG, with basic but functional 3d graphics. Thank you, Bethesda.

Hidden and Dangerous Deluxe: The same. Also included are: Devil's Bridge expansion pack and H&D game editor.

Facade: The next step in AI development or the evolution of the Sims and cyber-voyeurs? No matter what you think, you really have a look at this innovative almost-gamy piece of software.

The List v.2 (TM)

....MMOGs

Planeshift: Nothing to do with planes or planets, Planeshift is a pretty standard fantasy-themed MMORPG. It's in 3d too!

Gunbound: An amazing-looking on-line game, that's actually fun and simple.

Urban Dead: The best free MMORPG. Web-based, popular, simple and humorous. Plus you can be the Zombie.

Wyvern: It's a MMORPG, it looks like a MUD and it's in beta. What is it? Wyvern, of course.

....Strategy & Wargames

MegaMek: Live the excitement and all-around sexy action of ...er... the BattleTech board game on your PC.

Invade Earth: A sci-fi version of Risk.

Chart Wars: Apparently a management game, that has something to do with music. And charts.

GameBiz: Like Chart Wars, only with games.

Bontago: Interesting, real-time, requiring abstract strategy and in 3d.

Dark Oberon: The best freeware 2d RTS around, featuring amazing clay stop-motion animation.

....Shooters

Nexuiz: A pretty decent deathmatch FPS. I must admit it was rather enjoyable.

Starsiege: Tribes: Calling this a shooter is an understatement, but I just don't feel like elaborating. An amazing game, and I guess you'll have to thank Vivendi.

Red Planet Arena: Another highly-polished FPS, but for free.

Alien Breed: Obliteration: At last. A 2d shooter and a remake/expansion/improvement of one of the better games on the Amiga. Classic.

....RPGs

Ultima IV: A remake.

Zelda Classic: Another remake.

Eternal Daughter: Not a remake.

Dungeoncrawl: Neither a remake, nor a novel idea.

....Adventures

The Black Cauldron and more Al Lowe games: Have a look at legendary Al Lowe's creation after he did Softporn and before doing Leisure Suit Larry.

Flight of the Amazon Queen (CD version): A classic 90's point and click adventure, with great humor. Quite a tough one too.

Betrayal at Krondor: Based on the works of R.E. Feist, this is an excellent adventure. By Sierra of course.

Space Quest 0: Replicated: A funny fan addition to the Space Quest saga.

Kings Quest I, II: Great VGA remakes of the classic Sierra games.

Spooks!: Short, gothic and fresh. Reviewed by me right here.

....Games in Space

Elite: The ueber classic space-trading game, available for free through your browser. Immense.

Battlecruiser Millennium: A very complex, but ultimately rewarding game. In space.

Babylon 5: I've found her: Simply brilliant. Perhaps the best space sim of our day, and it will cost you nothing. Nada. Nichts. Rien.

Wing Commander Privateer Remake: Self explanatory and very well done.

....Arcades

Zombie Farm: Destroy 3d zombies the old fashioned way.

One Must Fall 2097: Great 2d graphics and typical beat 'em up (one-on-one) action.

Beats of Rage: Nothing to do with the Beat generation, just a very well done Streets of Rage tribute.

Horace and the Spiders: Typical platform action from the Spectrum era. Nostalgic.

GL-117: A very-very arcadey flight simulator.

FlightGear: A rather more realistic flight simulator.

A game with a kitty: Beautiful 2d platform action with great visuals.

Little Fighter 2: Decent and with anime style.

Cave Story: Arcade-adventure-platform gameplay and retro visuals.

Rumble Box: Artsy 3d beat 'em up. Worth a look.

....Unique

Cloud: What can I say for this one? It's beautiful, innovative and very playable. Makes me wonder why I didn't include it in the Top of the Crop games. Really great.

[N]: Not unique in terms of gameplay, but with highly original visuals.

Klass of '99: Relive your school years and cry like a baby.

Ocular Ink: Plain weird. You get to control an eyeball...

....Casual Time Wasting Thingies (CTWTs)

Lemmingball Z: Quirky little game, that's got Lemmings in it.

Plasmapong: Pong with fancy graphics. Guaranteed to break the ice at parties.

Future Pinball: A work in progress it might be, but an impressive pinball game it is.

Grid Wars and other nice and short casual games.

FooBillard: 3d Billard would have been more appropriate, me thinks.

Oh, and ABA Games are offering a modest collection of interesting and mostly 3d freeware games.