Best Of: 8 Free to Play PC Games That Are Too Good to Be True

[Julio Franco]

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[VitalyT]

The original DOTA has a rare distinction: it actually gave birth to an entire genre

Really? This doesn't sound right... Games like Starcraft pioneered such battles across the Internet, as I know. Even according to DOTA information in WikiPedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients

The first version of Defense of the Ancients was released in 2003 by a mapmaker under the alias of Eul[14] who based the map on a previous StarCraft scenario known as "Aeon of Strife"

 

[Guest]

An alright list. But what the heck is up with Star Wars?

That's not really free to play... You can barely do anything in the game. If you only play the free to play version of it, they actually demand you pay up, if you want to do a basic thing like hiding your characters equipped helmet for example. You also only get access to the main story line and that's basically it. It's such an extremely stripped down version of the actual game, that I don't think it DESERVES the free to play moniker. It's a disgrace.

 

[WillemVanVliet]

OpenTTD is free. (http://www.openttd.org/en/)
And there are a number of games based on SpringRTS that are free too (not counting those made with content from Total Annihilation, because you would need to own TA for those to play, legally speaking). (http://springrts.com/wiki/Games)

Those two are both amazing.

But as for the list above. I've played some LoL, was great!

 

[TS-56336]

I love League of Legends. I think I own almost 90 Champions of the game since 2010. Fun game for me.

 

[Hollow Fox]

Ghost Recon Online and Blacklight Retribution are far better than Planetside in my opinion, free to play and way more fun than COD series.

 

[SexyMan]

Where is "Heroes of Newerth"(HON).. This is better than DOTA2 or LOL.. why is not on the list?

 

[Guest]

Heroes of Newerth is missing.

 

[Adnel]

Is there a delete button for that reply? I was gonna Post about SW TOR but someone beat me to it. Game is sooooo ridiculously restricted, you can barely TALK in chat, you get exp slower, Can't carry stuff, can't sell stuff (and Im not talking about bound eq, you can barely carry stuff until you buy expansion slots) can't send proper mails in game, have access to less eq, everything is far more expensive. Can have a very limited amount of money and so on. You can buy a few licenses to deal with some things which is fine, yet you'll soon notice you will be battling in 2 fronts: the game and the game restrictions. It should not belong here IMHO which is sad, because its a good game.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Game is sooooo ridiculously restricted

If SWTOR is as restricted as you say, I will agree it should not be in the list.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Here's a couple more if anyone is interested(I have been a free 2 play gamer for the last couple months because of some money problems), Ghost Recon online and blacklight retribution (I see now someone else beat me to those ones) and new guy on the block would be Warframe but its been getting around 20,000 players a day on steam alone, and also tribes ascend is fun as well. Heck even battlefield play for free has its moments. For racing games you have raceroom racing experience, Auto club revolution(new release), you also have stronghold kingdoms, and APB reloaded, Airmech as well, and Microsoft Flight is a fun basic flight sim.

 

[TheDreams]

PlanetSide 2 is actually really fun when you become a platoon leader and if you utilize the vehicles and planes, the only bad part about it is it is really pretty taxing on your CPU.

 

[TS-56336]

Where is "Heroes of Newerth"(HON).. This is better than DOTA2 or LOL.. why is not on the list?

Heroes of Newerth is missing.

HON is quite underrated compared to League of Legends. In our country, very few users played the game, and so is DOTA 2

 

[Guest]

The REAL LIFE is the best free play game ever

 

[lalaman]

After seeing DOTA2 and LoL on the list, I really though HoN would follow up, but no dice =[

 

[Guest]

HoN is fun for its fast paced action, but they really should take the time in balancing almost everything.. it still feels broken compared to LoL or Dota

 

[MrBlkfx1]

TERA is a fun game until you hit cap and run out of endgame to do. Played it when it was still P2P.

 

[avioza]

What about Mechwarrior Online? Well it is still in Beta I suppose....

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Game is sooooo ridiculously restricted

If SWTOR is as restricted as you say, I will agree it should not be in the list.

I think SWTOR is a bit of an exception. When it came out it was $40 (I think) for the game, and they charged $15 a month. Then a while back they went F2P, which meant no more $15/month subscription fee, but you still needed to buy the game. If I remember right, you could collect gear faster or get some other in-game benefit if you subscribed though. Now it sounds like they'll let you play in a restricted way WITHOUT buying the game. I think F2P means something a little different for an MMO.

Even WoW is F2P at the beginning. You can get a trial account and get up to like lvl 20 or something before you buy the game, but I think they restrict you from using the mail and chat system because it would encourage spammers. SWTOR probably restricts chat and inventory before you pay also because it would encourage gold (do they use gold in outer space?) farming and/or spamming of websites.

 

[LinkedKube]

I love League of Legends. I think I own almost 90 Champions of the game since 2010. Fun game for me.

1v1 bro.

 

[Guest]

Based entirely on that one screenshot, You Have to Win the Game looks awesome.

 

[Guest]

On the topic of SW:TOR, the entire story is awesome right up till 55. The endgame.... It's still lacking a fair bit of the basics, but it seems to be moving in the right direction. Operation (raid) fight mechanics require more than just face rolling the keyboard now, and hard mode and nightmare mode content do give it a bit more life. Gear progression for pve has been redesigned so that it'll slow down even the most hardcore group of players compared to how it used to be.

The devs seem to be listening to the community right now (though you can't please everyone) though the cartel market( cash shop) seems to feature quite heavily in non major content patches, though thankfully no pay to win requirements. It's all cosmetic stuff.

 

[TomSEA]

I think it's a misnomer to categorize games that use micro-transactions as "free to play." I think a better descriptive would be "pay as you go."

 

[lipe123]

What about neverwinter?!

Also a +1 to openTTD for the awesome nostalgia factor.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

I think I would count total conversion mods as "free" even if you have to own a copy of the game which provides the underlying game engine.
There are some total conversion mods that are certainly worth looking at. Nehrim using Elder Scrolls Oblivion (URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehrim:_At_Fate's_Edge is good.There are several full mods for Jagged Alliance 2 ( URL: http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com/ ). I also have been told that other major total conversion mods: Brazil for Fallout 3 at URL: http://www.moddb.com/mods/fallout-3-project-brazil and Enderal for Skyrim at URL: http://enderal.de/?lang=en are in process.