Probably want to snag that one quickly before Disney becomes its usual C&D self.
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I’ve got a girlfriend who plays that game.
That’s why you’ve never met her.
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Oooo, free gaming!
I highly recommend the above linked Marathon series. Fantastic stuff.
Of course, you can’t talk about free games without mentioning one of the titans:
Dwarf Fortress.
Yes, it’s also available on Steam now in its “Premium” version (and I highly recommend buying that to show the brothers Adams some love), but it can be downloaded and played for free from Bay 12 Games: Dwarf Fortress
If you do download the free version, I highly recommend using DFFD - File: PeridexisErrant's Starter Pack
For those not in the know, DF is a fantasy world simulator. It has two main modes of play, Fortress and Adventure.
Fortress mode sees you start the game with seven dwarves and strive to build a working community while weathering the numerous threats the world throws at you, be that murderous zombie elephants, highly contagious werebeasts, drunken cats or any number of possible civilisation ending events.
Adventure mode is more along the lines of a classic rogue-like, but with the added draw that you can explore the same world you have built your fortress in.
The game has been a direct influence on many others since it first burst onto the scene in 2006, including heavy hitters such as Minecraft and Rimworld, and to those of us in thrall to it, none of its immitators have come close to replicating the sheer amount of depth.
It takes a while to learn to play, and is continually in develoment with more features being added continuously, so can be quite buggy.
But when it clicks, there is nothing else in gaming like it.
It’s the closest I’ve come while playing a game to getting that same feeling of creative satisfaction that I get from more traditional artistic pursuits, such as playing guitar.
It encourages experimentation and creative play, and drives its players to write passionate stories about the exploits of their dwarves.
The dwarves themselves are remarkable, and while no-one talks about Dwarf Fortress when they talk about AI, it comes remarkably close to a convincing facsimile of intelligence. They have desires, needs, relationships; they enjoy and create music and literature; and they drink like fish.
Developed by the brothers Tarn and Zach Adams, it’s a labour of love, and has never felt exploitative. It’s always been about creating the most complete fantasy world simulator they could, and to this day, if you chuck them a few bucks in support, you’ll get a crayon drawing by Zach showing a scene from your fortress.
Even if you don’t end up playing it, I highly recommend reading the patch notes at the very least. With a simulation this complex, there’s always something amusing and unexpected happening.
Edit:
Like many others, I first started playing the game thanks to Boatmurdered, and there’s many excellent and incredible stories written by the community, such as The Fable of Catten and The Eagle and the saga of the Elven king of the Dwarves, Cacame Awemedinade.
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Oh, and one of the most important games in my life, and one that still holds up today, Dungeon Master (and its expansion / sequels) can be downloaded and played for free over here:
http://dmweb.free.fr/
To this day, DM has my favourite levelling and experience system of any RPG I’ve played, as well as the best magic system.
Mon Ful Ir.
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For masterful narrative around playing this game I will always recommend watching Kruggsmash Videos, the Crimsomtrumpet saga being a good starting point 
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Kruggsmash is great, although I must admit I haven’t watched a huge amount of his stuff.
Blind is also good, but a little more focussed on the technicalitites.
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OpenTTD is a classic game I spent WAY too many hours (much much more if we count classic Transport Tycoon, Transport Tycoon Deluxe and the patches that eventually lead to OpenTTD) playing all my life.
Completely Free. You PAY WITH YOUR TIME MWAHAHAHAHA
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Unreal (the game) and Unreal Tournament are now free.
The downloads are here, not tied to any game store/frontend.
https://www.oldunreal.com/downloads/
No UT2004 though, I assume that still has some value to Epic.
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Diggles: Myth of Fenris is free on GoG for the next couple of days.
It’s over
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Offer expires on 2024-11-18
In case you don’t already have it…
Half Life 2 (Now including Episodes 1 and 2)
Steam
Free to keep - Offer expires 2024-11-18
If you don’t have it, get it, even if you don’t intend to play it. It means you also can play free games that need the Source SDK.
Weekend Play for Free offers.
Left For Dead 2
Steam
Play for free - Offer expires 2024-11-18
Millennia
Steam
Play for free - Offer expires 2024-11-18
Isonzo
Steam
Play for free - Offer expires 2024-11-18
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Castlevania Anniversay collection is the freebie on Epic Games this week. I prefer playing them on emulators (for the better support) but Kid Dracula IIRC was never published in english, and you have things like achievements and cloud save if you care about those things.
Snakebirds is an old freebye so if you been adding them regularly you may already have. Is a physics puzzle game with nice graphics.
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And why you wouldn’t want to play it is a mystery to me. The gameplay may be a bit dated but the story and voice acting is still superb, puts many more modern games to shame.
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HL2 is great though Portal 1 & 2 is perfection
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Portal 1 in particular because it just seemed to come out of nowhere and was a revelation. Not to forget Team Fortress 2 which was also included in The Orange Box - maybe the greatest collection of games in one package.
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Also, they will soon be releasing Half Life 2 with RTX, similar to what they did with Portal, so anyone who owns it will be getting a free graphics upgrade before long.
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This showed up on my discovery queue today. Good be good dark humor stress relief.
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