Rainbow Wars

Yet another Geo Wars clone!

"A side project from Volition designer Luke Schneider, part of the team responsible for the development of the Descent series. The background is practically empty, but destroying enemy ships will cause glowing particles to appear on screen. Bombs only appear as a power-up item, and is activated on the spot when collected. A power-up item will appear for every five thousand points earned which includes a black hole that only sucks in enemy ships.

Your ship is equipped with three layers of shield, and you lose one whenever an enemy ship touches yours. Destroying each wave of enemies will increase the level number by one, also replenishing your shields automatically. Losing all your shields ends the game, but you can continue from the last level attempted by selecting it at the main menu. Note that the easy difficulty will only allow access to the first ten waves.

Your ship also has the ability to warp and charge it's shot. Tap the left shoulder button on your gamepad to teleport, and hold the right shoulder button to prepare for a special attack. It's interesting to note that Rainbow Wars is an effort made with Game Maker in only thirty hours."

FR:NO BS
Rating: 7
Direct Download

Grid Wars 2

Grid Wars 2 is a geometry wars clone.
There is a great descripton of it here
Note that this title infringes on Geometry Wars copyright
FR:No BS
Rating:9
Direct Download

Cube 2: Sauerbraten

Today is part 3 of the Cube series, Cube 2: Sauerbraten

"Free single and multi player 1st person shooter game with some satisfying fast oldskool gameplay. A large variety of gameplay modes from classic SP to fast 1 on 1 MP and objective based teamplay, with a great variety of original maps to play on.


Level editing has never been so much fun: a press of a key allows you to modify the geometry / textures / entities in-game, on the fly. Even more novel, you can make maps together with others online, in the unique "coop edit" mode (!)

The engine, though designed for simplicity and elegance as opposed to feature & eyecandy checklists, still competes nicely thanks to its novel "6-directional heighfield deformable cube octree" world structure that is the basis for its in-game editing. Occlusion culling, pixel & vertex shaders, very accurate lightmapping, robust custom physics system, network system, models, sound, scripting...

Much like the original Cube, the aim of this game is not necessarily to produce the most features & eyecandy possible, but rather to allow map/geometry editing to be done dynamically in-game, to create fun gameplay and an elegant engine.

The engine supporting the game is entirely original in code & design, and its code is Open Source (ZLIB license, read the docs for more on how you can use the engine).


Oldskool fast & intense gameplay (read: similar to Doom 2 / Quake 1).
Many multiplayer gameplay modes, most in teamplay variants as well: deathmatch, instagib, efficiency, tactics, capture (domination/battlefield style), coop edit (!).
Masterserver & ingame server browser.
Lag-free gameplay experience.
Two singleplayer modes: DMSP (fight a monster invasion on any DM map), classic SP (progression driven SP like other games)
7 weapons tuned for maximum satisfaction: double barrelled shogun, rocket launcher, machine gun, rifle, grenade launcher, pistol, fist.

"

Sauerbraten is a great game, and there is, as always no reason to not check it out.
FR:No BS
Rating:NR
Homepage
No direct download for this software.

AssaultCube

This is part 2 of the "Cubathon". Today is AssaultCube(formerly known as ActionCube).

"AssaultCube is probably the best Cube "mod" ever created. It comes with all new content and is playable as a standalone game. The gameplay provides a more "realistic" gameplay experience than Cube, featuring more modern weaponry and environments. Many gameplay modes are provided including CTF."

"19mb AssaultCube is provided as a 19mb package of pure fun."


"56k Thanks to the efficient networking code, AssaultCube requires very little bandwith, you can play it with a 56k modem internet connection. "


"OSS Like its origin Cube, AssaultCube comes with full source code, available under a zlib like OpenSource license. "


"SDL Because AssaultCube uses the SDL library, it can be used on multiple platforms. The officially supported platforms are Windows, Linux and Mac OS. "


"old AssaultCube runs on old hardware, with the correct settings you can run it on a P3 800Mhz gf2. "

"edit Create new maps (virtual worlds) together with other people online. The cooperative editmode makes it possible.."

All in all the mod is much better than the original and tons of fun!


FR:No BS
R:NR
Homepage
No direct download yet. Sorry.

Cube

The original cube is without a doubt a fun game. Though out-dated, it still is damn fun.

"Cube is the original game that started it all. Though it has been surpassed in almost every way by Cube 2, it is a game in its own right. Most importantly, it comes with over 100 (!) maps, most of which are not available in Cube 2, with extensive single and multi player content.

Cube is also smaller in every way, in download, in hardware requirements (runs well on older video cards!), and in source code (the absolutely tiny code base is a very easy start for those wishing to experiment).



It also has some unique engine features such as the high precision dynamic occlusion culling, and its heighfield based level format."

"Cube is an open source multiplayer and singleplayer first person shooter game built on an entirely new and very unconventional engine. Cube is a landscape-style engine that pretends to be an indoor FPS engine, which combines very high precision dynamic occlusion culling with a form of geometric mipmapping on the whole world for dynamic LOD for configurable fps & graphic detail on most machines. Uses OpenGL & SDL.



Allows in-engine editing of geometry in full 3D (you fly around the map, point / drag stuff to select it / modify it), which can even be done simultaneously with others in multiplayer (a first!). Has simplistic but effective fine grain vertex lighting that looks like lightmapping and can do dynamic lights & shadows. Doesn't need any kind of map precompilation, even lighting is done on the fly. Has very simplistic quad-tree world structure that can do slopes (heightfields with caps) and slants, water, does decent collision detection & physics, has client/server networking that goes a long way in giving a lag-free game experience, and features a Doom/Quake-style singleplayer (2 game modes, savegames) and multiplayer (12 game modes, master server / server browser, demo recording) game with some uncompromising brutal oldskool gameplay.


Most of the engine design is targeted at reaching feature richness through simplicity of structure and brute force, rather than finely tuned complexity."

Cube is a must download for everyone, even if you soon switch to the better cube 2.
FR:NO BS
Rating:NR
Homepage

Frets on Fire

Frets on Fire is a GH-esque music rythm game, which is totally open source

"Frets on Fire is a game of musical skill and fast fingers. The aim of the game is to play guitar with the keyboard as accurately as possible.
Features
Unique inverted keyboard gameplay style
Support for guitar controllers and generic joysticks
Includes a song editor for making your own tunes
Compete with others on the World Charts
Hundreds of songs composed by the community
Supports importing Guitar Hero™ I and Guitar Hero™ II songs
Multiplatform; runs on Windows™, Linux®, Mac OS X™ and FreeBSD®
Open source, full Python source code available"

The idea behind the game is the same as that of Guitar Hero, hit the notes get multiplier, score points, be awesome.
The difficulties have different names, but are essentially the same.

The songs are all made by the community, the game only comes with two songs.
But community sites have thousands of downloadable songs that fall into three categories
Legal songs and notes(with artist permission)
Legal tracks(no song included due to copyright infringement)
Illegal songs and tracks available via direct download or large torrent pack
By track I refer to the notes you hit along to the song.
Songs are available from these locations:
Keyboards on Fire
FoF Spain
Final Fret
And many, many, more sites most of which can be found via the allmighty google.

The best part is this game is easily modded, and so you can customize it to your liking add features etc. The base game is minimal but once modded, can do awesome things, and just look sick.



Other than the occasional performance issues, FoF is a solid, awesome game that kept my attention for many hours, so go on and check it out.
FR(Freeware Rating):No BS
Rating:8
Homepage
Direct Download to come later. Sorry.

A quick note

In my quest to find freeware/open source games/software I have come to the desision that I am not going to review everything. There are many thousands of games and software, so I will review as much as I can, but will sometimes defer to my own analysis of other reviews/information
In other news, I'm scheduling a bunch of stuff for the rest of the week, as I have AP's so all my posts for this week will likely be premade.

Urban Terror

Urban Terror is an excellent free multiplayer FPS which is a total conversion mod based on the ioQuake3 engine.

"Urban Terror can best be described as, "Where Quake meets reality"; it is realism based to a certain extent (environments/weapons/player models), but also goes by the motto "fun over realism" (fast gameplay and lots of action). This combination of reality and action results in a very unique, enjoyable and addictive game."

Urban Terror features 26 maps, 14 weapons, multiple gear types, and more.

It is a very high quality game considering its price of 0$, and is definitely one of the best free FPS games available, and is even more likable due to the lack of microtransactions, memberships, or any payment options whatsoever.

There is lots of throwbacks to the old school fps, including wall jumping and power sliding. The game also includes a bleeding out system that requires you to stop bleeding with a med pack, and this provides a more tactical feel to the game, even though it is a very fast paced game, somewhat a mix between UT and COD.

I highly recommend everyone to download Urban Terror, as it can hold its own even with commercial games.



FR(Freeware Rating):No BS
Rating:8.5
Homepage
No Direct Download but here are some download links for the Version 4.1 .exe installer(Go to the website for zip which includes mac and linux)
Mirror 1
Mirror 3
Mirror 3

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is a name known to the entire internet community, as Firfox is the most trusted name in browsing. Firefox as a whole excels at a broad majority of actions, and it is very well supported. And with the upcoming new release, it's only going to get better.

Firefox is beyond a web browser at this point, it's an expierence in itself. Firefox is highly customizable, flexible, and with the help of extensions, can do much more than just browse the interwebs.

There isn't much more to say about firefox without getting into the gritty details of comparisons between IE/Opera/FF, so if you don't use it already, go get it NOW!

FR(Freeware Rating):NO BS
Rating:9.5
Homepage
No dedicated download due to the frequent nature of updates.

Software:Web-Browsing

This is an archive of free Web-browsers(other than IE/Safari)

Free Game Portals

This page is a archive of Free Game Portals
Please alert me to nay outdated links

GameTap

GameTap

You might have already heard about GameTap, a service where for 10 bucks a month you can pick from over 1000 pc and classic games, and play them as much as you want.

You might not know they now offer a free solution to access their games.
There is a small ad when you launch a game, but thats it, and then you have access to 120 of their games. For Free. Some of the free games include Roque Trooper, Psychonauts, Warlords 3, Second Sight, Metal Slug, Theif:Deadly Shadows, Commandos 3, Disiples 2, Nemesis of the Roman Empire, Street Fighter 2, Hitman, and Lara Croft Tomb Raider:Legend.

Most of the games are emulated from classic arcade and consoles and work like a charm, but the service is also adding more and more newer games like Overlord, Kane and Lynch etc.

There is no harm in checking these free games out, they could keep you going for a while.
I am creating a new category for these types of free game delivery systems.
Homepage

Kuma Games

I've decided to Roll the Kuma Games all into one post, but don't be fooled into thinking this means they aren't important.The guys at Kuma Games have shown the power of ad-based episodic games. The only thing you have to go through is while you are downloading the game, the client plays ads. Thats it. Not to mention the excellent download system shares files between episodes, so after the third mission or so downloads will be around 3 mintutes

"Using the same business model as TV, Kuma Games develops and releases free, premium entertainment paid for by quality advertising. Thanks to our sponsors, you get more than 100 graphics-rich, state-of-the-art video game titles, along with original videos, supporting news articles, forums, and more, and it won't ever cost you a cent. See? The best things in life really are free."

"Five Power Brands

Kuma Games builds re-creations of real-world events, military training simulations, licensed TV properties, and works of fiction using fresh development concepts and advanced gaming tools.

DINOHUNTERS is a work of fiction that combines hilarious scripted sequences with stimulating first-person shooting. Original episodes of DinoHunters are delivered each month, free of charge, to consumers with a broadband Internet connection. Using the hottest game engine and other sophisticated entertainment tools, DinoHunters combines comedic television-like movies with exciting game play in a revolutionary entertainment package.

DOGFIGHTS lets you climb into the cockpit of history´s most famous fighter planes in this new exclusive game series, produced in cooperation with the History Channel. Fly an American Hellcat over Wake Island, trying to lead a Japanese Zero into a death spiral, or a P-51 Mustang defending our B-17 bombers against German Me-109s trying to crash into them before they can reach the fatherland. With game episodes based on the History Channel´s hit program of the same name, Dogfights: The Game lets you experience history´s greatest aerial battles firsthand, with heart-stopping multiplayer action inside well-researched real war scenarios. Dogfights training missions will teach you how to maneuver your aircraft with great expertise in combat.

THE KILL POINT GAME thrusts players into a dramatic world of gangs, guns and glory! Watch TV’s most intense new series: The Kill Point, Sunday nights on Spike TV, then enter the ultimate cops and robbers showdown in The Kill Point Game. Wage your own war on the bands of criminals or seasoned SWAT teams in massive multiplayer face-offs, take-no-prisoner style battles for control of the mean city streets. Your team’s goal: to infiltrate and decimate the other team using powerful automatic weaponry, voice communication, and raw instinct. The Kill Point Game: Captivating television comes to life!

KUMA\WAR, the first Kuma Game, is a totally free, first and third-person tactical squad-based game that provides multiple updates monthly to the consumer´s computer to reflect unfolding events in the real world. Each month Kuma\War subscribers receive playable missions, video news shows, extensive intelligence gathered from news sources around the world, and insight from a decorated team of military veterans.

SHOOTOUT immerses you in the same suspense and action seen on The History Channel´s hit show, Shootout! Get inside the bloodiest battles spanning WWII to Vietnam, where you load in with authentic weaponry like sniper rifles, Stinger missiles, Katanas and flamethrowers! Play as a fierce Vietcong soldier in the epic infiltration of the US Embassy in Saigon, or be the first American to sink your boots into the sands of Iwo Jima. Play alone or with an army of friends in a first-person battle to survive history´s deadliest shootouts!"

To illustrate the awesomeness I have attached some videos:
Kuma-War


Shoot-Out!



As you can see,the games aren't going to dethrone COD4 or Team Fortress 2, but they sure as hell could take up hundreds of hours of your time. These games lack the polish of the blockbuster games, but they make up for it by being:
Free, Customizable, and damn fun.

Check em' out, theirs nothing stopping you.
FR(Freeware Rating):So-So BS
Overall Rating:7.5
Homepage

Tumiki Fighters

Tumiki Fighters is another freeware shooter made by ABA Games and this one is pure genius.




In fact, its so good, its being brought to the Wii! But the PC version is still full of high caliber fun, and its very simple.

The basic idea of the game is to kill the enemies on screen, and to not get hit. But the catch is that every enemy you kill can be added to yourself. Not only that but they also still fire whatever they fired at you. To allow to get through tight spaces, you can draw them back with a push of a button. The game is a bit tricky to get used to, but this is a game that will keep you drawn in for hours.

There is no excuse for not downloading this, as after all, its free!

How to play

Control your ship and destroy enemies. The ship is destroyed when it is hit by a bullet. The body of the enemy has no collision damage.

You can catch the enemy's broken piece. Pieces are stuck to your ship and counterattack to enemies. You can also earn the bonus score by keeping many pieces stuck. Stuck pieces are destroyed when they touch a enemy's bullet.

While holding a slow key, the ship becomes slow and the ship direction is fixed. Stuck pieces are pulled in and you can prevent a crash of them, but the bonus score reduces to one fifth. Enemy's pieces are not stuck while holding this key.

FR(Freeware Rating:No BS
Rating:9.0
Homepage
Direct Download

Mu-cade

Mu-cade is a freeware shooter made by ABA Games which is an overall high quality, addicting game.



ABA games is a respectable devoper of cool, small free games. Mu-cade hits Geo-Wars vets with instant familiarity, but thats when similarities ends. The idea of the game is to not get knocked out, and if your first few games will teach you, that isn't always easy.

For a freeware game, Mu-cade is good enough to take up the measily 6mb it needs on your HDD, and will keep you entertained for a least an hour, and is a great thing to play while waiting for _____ to get to _______.

Developer Notes

How to play

Keep your ship from falling down and push enemies out of the way.
Controls
Move - Arrow / Num / [WASD] / Stick 1

Move your ship.
Fire shots / Hold direction - [Z][L-Ctrl][R-Ctrl][.] / Trigger 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11

Hold a key to open automatic fire and hold the direction of a ship.Tap a key to take a turn while firing.
Fire shots - [IJKL] / Stick 2

You can also fire shots with the second stick.
Cut off the tail - [X][L-Alt][R-Alt][L-Shift][R-Shift][/][Return][Space] / Trigger 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

Cut off the tail of your ship. This action also wipes out all bullets andyou obtain powerful shots for a while.
Tail multiplier

The tail of your ship becomes longer when you push an enemy out and you get a score multiplier.
Extra ship

You earn an extra ship 50,000 and every 200,000 points.

FR(Freeware Rating):NO BS
Rating:6.5
Homepage
Direct Download

A Note on Conventions

On all software/games I post, I will try to follow the following 'rules'.
1. I will rate the software(out of 10)
2. I will give it a freeware rating(out of 3)
3. I will provide links to the authors page, and a dedicated link to the download(if possible)

So now that thats said, content is coming up shortly.

Games:Shooters

This is a list of freeware Shooters games.
As always I try to keep links updated but if they are broken, pass me a message.

No BS
Mu-cade(6.5)
Tumiki Fighters(9.0)

Games:Strategy

This is a list of freeware Strategy games.
As always I try to keep links updated but if they are broken, pass me a message.

Games:FPS

This is a list of freeware FPS games.
As always I try to keep links updated but if they are broken, pass me a message.
No BS:


So-So BS:
Kuma Games(7.5) includes:
Kuma War
Shoot-Out!
DinoHunters
DogFights
The Kill Point

Welcome to FreeNet

Welcome!
I hope to have the first post soon, so let me introduce you to FreeNet. The basic premise is that I plan to build an archive of free software, and highlight the best. I will attempt to offer both the authors website, and also host the file myself(using MediaFire).

I hope to have content up soon.