No money? No problem! We’ve got 3 free titles to rocketh thine hard drive.
What an exciting time for PC gaming! Huge names are coming to our computers every month of this year. But in truth, there’s no way even the hardest of the hardcore gamers will be able to complete them all – so why pay $50 for a game that’ll gather dust for months? To fill this void, I present to you some free alternatives. Enjoy!
If you’re a frequent PC gaming visitor to this cyberworld called the Internet, then no doubt you’ve heard of the infamous games critic Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw. Before he became the video reviewing sensation that he is today, he designed independent adventure games. And he was damn good at it. The first entry in his “Chzo Mythos” series, 5 Days a Stranger, really exemplifies his talent. It’s a point-and-click adventure game that deviates from the usually common normality in the style (comic relief) and goes for a more dark and sinister tone. It succeeds in creating an atmosphere that feels genuinely unnerving, and the plot is executed masterfully. I rank 5 Days among the best adventure games I’ve ever played, so it comes highly recommended.
Let me tell a story; I don’t know how it begins, but I know how it ends – with tears forming in my eyes, I yelled out in joy as I found a box of Chex cereal containing a CD-ROM of the new game Chex Quest. Frankly, I don’t even remember getting the desire to play such a game, all I knew is I had to get my hands on the DOOM clone. Spanning five levels, you play as a heroic/creepy Chex man shooting aliens back to their home planet after they’ve invaded another one. You see, it’s kinda like DOOM, but made for kids. That’s really the extent of it. Man, this game was fun when I was eight years old; and it still is!
This is the second time I’ve showcased a remake of Privateer, Wing Commander’s equivalent of Elite. Differing from the “de-make” ASCII Sector, Privateer: Gemini Gold takes the other route and attempts to remake the original game from scratch, all the while polishing it up to modern gaming standards. However, instead of outright redoing everything, Gemini Gold actually employs assets from the original game and does its thing to it. For the Privateer purists, Gemini Gold will feel right at home, and for players having yet to experience the space trade sim, it is a fantastic way to play it for the first time.
You can never mention Privateer-related stuff too often. Carry on. I lurves me some freeware.
I played a few minutes of 5 Days a Stranger a while ago and really enjoyed it, but somehow ended up forgetting entirely about the game. I heard about Chex Quest from PC Gamer magazine several issues back when they put it on their demo disc. I played the game for a while and also enjoyed it, but also forgot about it. However, I liked the sound effects so much that I went online and found a few programs to actually rip the sounds out of the game files and convert them for normal use. Of course I never did anything with them, but they are still sitting in a folder on one of my hard drives…