QOTW: Which free PC games should we all be playing?

[joike]

Marvel Heroes 2016. Just got its 2016 overhaul. Very playable. You can play as one of over 50 Marvel characters.

[OilSheikh]

Chess Titans!

[Whiternoise]

Trackmania Nations

[Ross1]

Dota 2 is to me the standard for a F2P game. Absolutely no P2W, keeps itself fresh though quality updates, you can put in almost an unlimited amount of hours and the skill ceiling just seems even further away.

The only downside is probably its pretty complex to pick up for new players. Theres so much to learn just to be able to play the game well enough to find it fun, it can be daunting, frustrating and unforgiving.

[Wrinkly]

World of Tanks.

[jonny440]

Sorry I don't like online multiplayer games or games with micro-transactions so I tend to stay as far away from free games as possible.

I would rather pay for a game and have an enjoyable single player experience.

I am the same although I have tried a few so called "freebies" to see why people rave about them. World of Tanks is one example. I gave it a go only to realise what a crappy experience it is due to some players thinking it's funny to shoot at their own team, players who won't do anything but hide and other's who can kill you with a single shot. That was uninstalled in less than a week. I gave Path of Exile a go as well and just like Diablo III it quickly got boring after the first playthrough.

I've been playing World of Tanks for a couple of years now. There are very few cases of friendly fire in my experience. Regarding tanks that can kill you with one shot, yes, some tanks are more powerful than others, but you have to adapt. Typically a gun that does higher damage will take longer to reload. You use that to your advantage or choose a different target.

About 12 years ago I honestly thought I was growing out of gaming as I couldn't find anything to hold my interest, then I found online multiplayer games and haven't looked back

[LeetyMcLeet]

Sol.exe.

Needs GTX 980Ti to run smoothly though

[Mentawl]

Enjoying World of Warships myself. I'll also throw another vote in for OpenTTD.

[abychristy]

Dota 2 & Team Fortress 2, these 2 are the only ones that follow a true F2P system for me and I have tons of fun with these.

[Saracen]

Sorry I don't like online multiplayer games or games with micro-transactions so I tend to stay as far away from free games as possible.

I would rather pay for a game and have an enjoyable single player experience.

I'm in that category too. My experience with "free" games is that, mostly, they don't stay free for long. And fair enough. Games developers have to eat, too. But the term has been so heavily abused as a marketing tool that I rather regard it as the kiss of death to my interest in a game.

Give me a really good single player experience and I'm happy. The one "free" I do insist on, though, is DRM-free. I would even put old with old-style CD-check type DRM, but these days, DRM seems to consist either of Steam or some Steam-wannabe, and either are a redline for me. So, DRM-free it is, then. Three cheers for GOG, and the mod here (he knows who he is) that told me about them.

[Racksmirh]

World of Tanks, World of Warships, Planetside2 and Armoured Warfare. As you can see I'm a fan of big steel killing machines and even with the micro transactions you don't have to pay to win.

[Akay47]

Neverball, open ttd, oolite

[failquail]

World of tanks.

On a similar vein, World of warships.

Same company and a very similar game, i just greatly prefer the warships personally

[Pokeracid]

World of Tanks, SWTOR, Smite.

[cheesemp]

Was really enjoying World of Tanks but hit a grind wall trying to get level 5 tanks and just got bored when my underpowered tanks couldn't even scratch the tanks I was going up against. I've yet to find a free to play game that doesn't do the same and to be honest I'd rather pay a sensible one off cost than have to buy a £50 item to advance (A tank for example).

[crossy]

I'm going to be contrary and say "none". From the replies it looks like the online/multiplayer folks are well catered for. But if you don't want a fix of pew, pew, then what's there for you?

If I want to go F2P then I think that mobile devices are better provided for. Plus, there's a tendency to do F2P where to get anywhere you HAVE to pony up for that "optional" (and expensive!) DLC. So your 'free' game ends up costing a lot more than a proper AAA title (cf Simpsons: Tapped Out)

Bah, humbug...