Kotaku: Free Games

Meet Midas: A Clever, Free Game With a Golden Touch

Kirk Hamilton — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:30:00 EST

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I was happy to stumble upon the free Kongregate game Midas today. Created by Melbourne-based Kongregate user wanderlands, it's a simple 2D platform/puzzler based around the story of King Midas. More »

A Musical Video Game About Catching Snowflakes With Your Tongue

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:30:00 EST

Rich Vreeland makes music for video games; games like Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter and the upcoming Fez. He's also made a short video game about making music with your tongue and snowflakes. More »

Play Fotonica, A Gorgeous Mix of Rez and Mirror's Edge

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST

You'll only need to one button to play Fotonica, a first-person platform jumping game oozing with style that its creators say is created in the fashion of "ugly 3D of the 90s." More »

Get A Taste Of Diablo III Arena Combat With Bloodline Champions

Mike Fahey — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:20:00 EST

The Arena player-versus-player system coming in Diablo III blew fans away at BlizzCon 2010. Stunlock Studios' newly-released free-to-play PC arena combat game Bloodline Champions feels a lot like Blizzard's competitive multiplayer mode. More »

This Is The Best Doritos-Themed Xbox Live Arcade Game Of 2010

Mike Fahey — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 12:30:00 EST

The voting is over and Doritos Crash Course comes out ahead of Harm's Way as the winner of the 2010 Doritos Unlock Xbox Challenge, earning Jill Robertson of Raleigh, North Carolina $50,000. More »

Which Free Doritos Xbox Game Is The Cheesiest?

Mike Fahey — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:20:00 EST

This year's Unlock Xbox contest has come down to two Doritos brand-inspired Xbox Live Arcade games: Doritos Crash Course and Harms Way. Which should win? Download the games for free today and cast your vote. More »

Score Free Games With Your Darksiders Digital Download

Mike Fahey — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:20:00 EDT

Fans willing to give digital download a try when THQ's Darksiders releases on the PC this week will get a free game for their trouble, scoring Titan Quest, Red Faction: Guerrilla, or Company of Heroes depending on where you buy. More »

Valve Unleashes An Alien Swarm On Steam

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:30:00 EDT

The Alien Swarm Unreal Tournament 2004 mod becomes a full, Source-powered four-player co-op tactics game, available for free on Steam this Monday, courtesy of the nice folks at Valve. More »

Brits Get Their Free Dr. Who Adventures Early

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:00:00 EDT

The first episode of BBC's Dr. Who adventure games is out and already being enjoyed by our British sci-fi-loving nerd brethren overseas. Apparently "it rocks," or so says Kotaku tipster Dan2593. More »

Ubi Apologizes For Asaassin's Creed 2 PC Downtime With Free Games

Mike Fahey — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EDT

Ubisoft apologizes to Assassin's Creed 2 purchasers who found themselves unable to play due to attacks on the verification servers, offering free game downloads in exchange for their forgiveness. More »

America's Army 3 Invades Steam

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:40:00 EDT

The third installment of America's Army is now available for pre-loading on Steam one week ahead of its June 17th release date. More »

Nifflas Releases Knytt Nano Minigames

Leigh Alexander — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:20:00 EDT

You may know indie developer Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren for his clean, surreal and critically-acclaimed platformers Within a Deep Forest, Knytt and Knytt Stories. Nifflas fans already know that his next project, Night Game, is in the works and not finished yet — but on his site's forums, the developer's just released a Knytt minigame pack called Knytt Nano to tide eager fans over until the next release. More »

SAGA MMORTS Free From FileFront

Mike Fahey — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Silverlode Interactive's SAGA is a PC MMO RTS that allows you to develop and maintain your own city and build your army using an innovative booster pack system, similar to that found in collectible card games. There's a free version available at the SAGA website, but in order to participate in trading, guilds, or PVP combat you have to buy the retail version for $19.95...unless you head over to FileFront between now and May 11th to sign up for one of 50,000 retail keys, which gives you access to the full game for free. It really is an interesting game, and with the whole shebang being free to play, relying on booster pack sales for revenue, you've got nothing to lose but some hard drive space. More »

Top 10 Games For $10 or Under

Maggie Greene — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:30:00 EDT

If you're looking for some cheap thrills (and really, who isn't?), head over to Sarcastic Gamer, where 10 bloggers (including our very own Luke and Leigh) weigh in on their favorite cheap options for some fun — and they're not all super obvious. On the list? Knytt, Tori-Emaki, Bloody Roar, and several others. I can think of a few cheapies (or freebies) I'd put on my own personal list. More »

Timewasters of the Day: Best Freeware Arcade Games of '07

Maggie Greene — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 15:30:28 EST

Indiegames has put together a convenient wrap up of their top 20 free arcade games of 2007. There's something for everyone, and games running the gamut from simple to complex, with graphics to match. Garden Gnome Carnage not sounding like your cup of tea? Maybe Cottage of Doom or Winter's Heart will be up your alley. Most entries give a quick overview, screen shots, and a video of gameplay. More »

Ubisoft Reveals Web-Based Might And Magic

Mike Fahey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:20:49 EST

Heroes of Might and Magic is hitting the web, and it is going to be huge! Ubisoft has just unveiled Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms, an all-new game that takes the series' trademark fantasy simulation battles and puts them in your web browser. That's right, in your web browser. There is no download at all. You'll simply log into the website, create an account, and you'll be playing Might and Magic against thousands of players around the world.

"This is a new type of game for Ubisoft, one that allows you to jump into a rich and complex universe just with your Web browser," said Serge Hascoët, Chief Creative Officer. "Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms will open a wide door to the Might and Magic universe, allowing players to immerse themselves within it unlike ever before."

Best of all? The game will be completely free to play. Worst of all? Since it plays in a browser window you can totally get away with playing it at work. More »

Auran Lets Fury Go Free, Bad News Follows

Mike Fahey — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:40:40 EST

Auran's "financial disaster" of an MMO brawler Fury is about to be slightly less of a financial disaster, at least from a purely player perspective. Auran has announced that starting with December 14th's Age of the Chosen update, players will be able to download and play the game completely free using a new mode called "Chosen", which gives access to all items and powers included in the game, only they will earn money and essence at a slower rate and will not be able to trade with other players. For a fee players can upgrade to Hero or Immortal status, where they gain powers and cash at an increased rate. Good news for players, though Auran CEO Tony Hilliam delivered the news to Kotaku Australia along with ominous tidings.

We will then have some bad news to follow (unless a miracle occurs), but there will be a very positive end to the week.

All they need is a miracle. All they need is you. More »

Freedom Suits RF Online

Mike Fahey — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:00:54 EST

Back in mid October, Codemasters announced that their sci-fi anime-styled MMORPG RF Online was switching from a subscription service to a free-to-play business model, and gamers have responded in droves. From empty servers to overfilled in a period of weeks, today Codemasters announces the opening of their second new server in the span of fourteen days. Turns out gamers really enjoy free things. Who'd have thought? Hell, even I went back and played for a couple of days before the fact that I don't have time to play any more MMO games kicked in. The game is available completely free right now at www.rf-onlinegame.com. There are certainly more expensive ways to spend your time. More »

GameTap Nears 1000th Game

Mike Fahey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:20:15 EDT

Way back when GameTap was first announced via a series of viral websites, I was highly skeptical of the service, which at the time only had a handful of older titles that were easily available via other sources or not worth playing altogether. Since then the service has grown into a respectable game delivery platform worth of my $9.99 a month, and with games like Clive Barker's Jericho coming to the service for no charge to subscribers, it's an excellent time to be paying member. As of right now there are 989 titles available, and the company has now announced that November 15th will mark the 1000th game available on the service. They aren't telling what game that is, but they do hint that it will be from one of their publishing partners like Eidos, or Codemasters. Head over to GameTap's website and sign up today for only $.99 your first month. They've got Typing of the Dead, so it pretty much pays for itself. More »

RF Online Goes Free

Mike Fahey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:40:12 EDT

And so another Codemasters MMO gets so 'popular' that it makes the switch to free to play! High-fantasy Archlord is now joined by anime sci-fi RF Online in CM's stable of free MMORPGs. Players can now download the full game plus the free expansion, Episode II: Pioneers of Novus from www.rf-onlinegame.com and start playing immediately.

"RF Online is a great game with a strong community and by making the game free-to-play we're inviting absolutely everyone to come and enjoy this unique Sci-Fantasy online RPG," commented Kyle Rowley, Community Manager, Codemasters Online."

Personally I enjoyed the look and atmosphere of RF Online when I played it during late beta, but felt that the gameplay itself fell flat. Maybe it'll play better free? More »

Candy Mountain Massacre

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:20:13 EDT

From the website that brought you 5 Minutes to Kill Yourself and Viva Caligula comes Candy Mountain Massacre, the latest highly inappropriate game to grace the Adult Swim Games section. It's a 3D 3rd-person shooter which puts you in the shoes of a sexy female exterminator charged with cleansing the creatures of Candy Mountain, who have been turned into vicious killers due to some sort of plague. Dress up in cosplay or don some black-ops gear as you slaughter your way through leprechauns, bunnies, and cooing babies with three different weapons. It's one of the better web-based shooters I've played, running quite smoothly despite the odd glitch here and there. Probably not safe for work, unless your job doesn't mind dying representations of Irish folklore shouting, "Look what you did, ya slut!" More »

Ubisoft Titles Go Free On Fileplanet

Mike Fahey — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:00:12 EDT

Are you a PC gamer who's never tried Far Cry, Rayman's Raving Rabbids or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? Well today all four games have shown up on FilePlanet, completely free of charge for subscribers to the service. Well, not exactly completely free. They are all now in convenient as supported form, meaning you'll get a healthy dose of marketing along with your free game, but hell, these are some pretty awesome titles to get for the low, low price of watching a few commercials. Not sure if this is a temporary deal or what, as Ghost Recon was up there as well but the link is now not working, so you might need to hop on this ASAP. More »

Majesco Titles On GameTap

Mike Fahey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:20:00 EDT

Every week I am feeling a bit better about that $.99 GameTap free trial that I keep forgetting to cancel. Not only will they have Clive Barker's Jericho for the only price worth paying for it (free), but now they've signed a deal to provide Majesco games to lazy folk like me that never got around to stopping the service. If I had actually gone through with ending it only to have Psychonauts suddenly become available I would have kicked myself so hard. BloodRayne 1 & 2 and Jaws: Unleashed I could give or take, but mmmm Psychonauts.

"Given the limited shelf space and relatively quick turn of titles at retail nowadays, we consider GameTap to be a valuable vehicle that can help extend the video game lifecycle," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco.

That's the truth. I've been using the service lately to fill in a few gaps in my gaming portfolio. If you haven't experienced the joy of Psychonauts, now would be an excellent time. More »

Wii Flash Games

Mike Fahey — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:40:48 EST

Albino Blacksheep has posted a repository of Wii friendly flash games. Pretty much games that only really require a mouse pointer to use, so they translate well to the wiimote. There's a Duck Hunt clone, a shooting gallery, puzzles, and my personal favorite... More »

Dice Wars, Like Crack In Flash Form

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:15:18 EDT

This is a call for help. I am addicted to Dice Wars. Let me give you some back story. When I was in college, instead of going to parties and talking to girls, I hung out with a group of fellow nerds on the weekends, ate Kentucky Fried Chicken and played a ridiculous amount of Risk (or NHL 94 on the Genesis). While I don't necessarily miss the people, I miss the fun. More »

Play Multi-Player Asteroids With Me

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:54:53 EDT

Guys, I'm really bored. Play some Multiplayer Asteroids with me, okay? I promise I'm really, really bad and I hardly know what any of the power ups do, so you can beat up on me for hours while I shirk my Kotaku duties. I'll be KotakuMike and I'll just sit there for a few rounds so you can up your kill ratio. More »

Metric Butt-Ton of Free Games

egauger — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:20:58 EDT

Megagames.com has compiled a gigantic list of free games for those blogging hobos that are popping up everywhere. There are approximately 400 in the list, from the unsightly yiff-fest MMO "Furcadia", to the socially-conscious condom shill "Catch the Sperm". More »

Play Grid Wars Now, Before It's Too Late

Michael McWhertor — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 15:20:01 EST

If you agree with any of the following statements: More »