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Puzzle Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Play Free or Die - The Best Free Web Games 69

Posted by timothy from the aunts-and-butlers-is-clever-too dept.
mlimber writes "Slate has an article up on the best free web games. Just what is needed for testing out that new laptop you got for Christmas." These games are considerably more fun than I thought they'd be -- most of them seem to work well with Firefox on Linux (though some require a Windows-only download). And when Salon says "Ayiti: The Cost Of Life makes the Oregon Trail look like Candy Land," they mean it -- most games don't need to caution you that "if the whole family is dead, you lose."
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Play Free or Die - The Best Free Web Games More

Play Free or Die - The Best Free Web Games

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  • One of the best Flash games released this season is Key to Adventure. It's playable on the PC or Wii [wiicade.com] over on WiiCade, and currently holds a front-page spot over on NewGrounds [newgrounds.com]. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that WiiCade sponsored the game [wiicade.com], meaning that it's now possible to get paid for creating Flash games for the Wii [wiicade.com].

    • DIsclaimer (Score:4, Informative)

      by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) <akaimbatman@gmaiBLUEl.com minus berry> on Thursday December 27, 2007 @12:00PM (#21830654) Homepage Journal
      To add a disclaimer to my post, I am associated with WiiCade, so take my post with a grain of salt. That being said, the game really is good. Feel free to check out the NewGrounds reviews [newgrounds.com] (I am NOT associated with them) or just play the game for yourself. :-)
      • i'm on an azerty keyboard, so the wasd keylayout is unusable... are you guys planning on letting the players configure the keys so it's playable, or am i supposed to temprarily change my keyboard settings just to play your game?
        • Go ahead and try using the arrow keys. Last time I checked, they worked as a backup. :-)

          FWIW, a lot of Flash games are hardcoded with WASD or ASD controls. This has always had me a bit concerned due to the issues surrounding international keyboards. Of course, the solution at WiiCade is to just play on a Wii. But that belies the much larger issue. An issue that I'm afraid I have very little say in fixing.
          • yup, it is indeed a serious problem. i'm always happy to see games that simply use the arrows, or allow players to actually configure the keys :)
            • If you're using Windows, just add an English keyboard layout and press left Alt + left Shift to quickly switch between AZERTY and QWERTY layouts.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fbjon ( 692006 )
      I must say I haven't thought of playing flash games on the Wii, but it's so blindingly obvious now. The game you linked seems to have a limited frame rate of about 16 fps regardless of quality setting, making it somewhat choppy. Is there any comparison between how fast games and other flash apps run between PC and Wii?


      Also, what the heck am I supposed to do in cave 1-8? The cryptic hint in the previous cave is too cryptic for me..

      • Is there any comparison between how fast games and other flash apps run between PC and Wii?

        You can try running most of the games on WiiCade on both the PC and the Wii to see how they compare. I'm sorry to say that the Wii's performance levels are not great, but a well-optimized game is more than playable. Try playing NG Rumble [wiicade.com] on both the Wii and the PC. You'll notice that its performance on the Wii varies somewhat, while it remains constant on the PC.

        On the other hand, you can't exactly have four friends d

    • Your site refuses to work without a cookie. The page won't even display unless I allow a cookie.

      The page isn't redirecting properly

      Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

      * This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
      cookies.

      Now, I'm not a huge cookie conspiracy theorist, but I refuse to allow cookies until *I* decide that a site needs one.

      Tell your webmaster to fix the site and maybe then I'll check out your game.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Threni ( 635302 )
        > Tell your webmaster to fix the site and maybe then I'll check out your game.

        Tell him also that until his lousy site works on Mosaic, then I for one am also not interested.

    • Re:They missed one of the best of the season (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Goaway ( 82658 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @07:56PM (#21835524) Homepage
      I can't believe I just wasted a minute of my life trying to play that. It's really just another argument for why Flash should be fucking illegal. That was the worst thing I've played in a year.

  • Portal... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @11:52AM (#21830582)
    http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/ [wecreatestuff.com]

    For those for whatever reason without the 3D one. Maybe even for those who finished portal...

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      R.I.P. Weighted Companion Cube
  • Not so much of a web game, but surely one of the best free games on the internet.

  • TD (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lord Byron II ( 671689 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @12:13PM (#21830792)
    How could they forget Desktop Tower Defense?

    handdrawngames.com
    • There are a lot of good games they didn't mention. Someone already mentioned Portal Flash Edition, and I already mentioned Key to Adventure. A few others are:

      NewGrounds Rumble [newgrounds.com] (Wii Version [wiicade.com] - For that Super Smash Bros. fix while waiting for SSBB.

      Fancy Pants Adventures [kongregate.com] - Kind of like classic Sonic, but with its own appeal.

      Unreal Flash [newgrounds.com] - Sort of like Portal Flash Edition. Except that it's an Unreal Shoot'em Up rather than a platform/puzzle game.

      Artillery Live [newgrounds.com] - Simple, yet amazingly fun multiplayer take on Sco

    • Maybe they wanted to save people countless wasted hours by not exposing them to the most addictive game since solitaire?

  • The *BEST*?! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chelloveck ( 14643 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @12:16PM (#21830820)

    Those are the best free web games out there? Damn, I'd sure hate to see what the crap games are like! Even Kitten Cannon has more to redeem it than these things.

    • Those are the best free web games out there?

      No, of course not. Indeed, the article writer is obviously not a webgame player at all. I have no idea why they bothered to write it. The recommended games appear to have been chosen almost as randomly as the categories.

  • They missed a great time waster (Score:5, Informative)

    by dwillden ( 521345 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @12:35PM (#21831010) Homepage
    That article missed a great time waster. I haven't played any of the others but http://www.puzzlepirates.com// [puzzlepirates.com] has certainly eaten up a lot of my free time.

    • I haven't played any of the others but puzzlepirates.com has certainly eaten up a lot of my free time.
      Doesn't (didn't) puzzle pirates have a monthly subscription? That would therefore bring it out of the running for free web games. It's like saying GuildWars is a good free time waster because it DOESN'T have subscriptions, but you still have to buy an account...

      I think you where using the wrong meaning of the word free... We where looking for free as in beer.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ThePhin ( 525032 )
        You can play for free on a 'Doubloon Ocean', with restricted rank, limited puzzles and less fancy clothes. To get more, they suggest paying to play on a 'Subscription Ocean': costs [puzzlepirates.com].
        • I stand corrected, I may have to give it a try sometime again. A buddy of mine was addicted in college and recommended it, but, the subscription aspect turned me off to the idea. I may just have to play on Doubloon Ocean once in a while to see what it's all about. Thanks!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tokah ( 859694 )
        They switched over a while time ago to a different scheme. Instead of paying monthly, you can optionally give them real world money for in game money, making your game life easier. In game money is called PoE, out of game bought money is called doubloons. There is an in game interface for trading PoE for doubloons, such that if you want to you could never give them a dime. I bought doubloons exactly once, and only to thank them financially for making a great game.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cgenman ( 325138 )
      I didn't realize they had released a web-version of the game. Thanks for the pointer!
  • RASTERWERKS [rasterwerks.com] I waste far too many a lunch hour at my desk! Pretty full featured for a FPS in your browser. Enjoy!
    • Shockwave Director == Lame. You might as well make QuakeGL a browser plugin for all that buys you. In any case, Jake2 [bytonic.de] (Java Applet) preceded Rasterwerks by several years.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 )
        Sorry, I'm mildly confused. This is what I was thinking about:

        http://dzzd.net/demo/QUAKE/ [dzzd.net]

        Jake2 is a standalone app.

        There also used to be a Quake III based engine over on http://www.jpct.net./ [www.jpct.net] I don't know what ever happened to that.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by DzzD ( 1210426 )
          Hi there, just want to add some more informations on 3DzzD http://dzzd.net/ [dzzd.net] All demos shown are only "snippets" of what you can do with the free API, so it is possible to do multiplayer FPS with it, I did ;-) but those demos are not public and are not planned to be public, as they are prototypes that we do for test bottlneck of the API. The purpose of http://dzzd.net/ [dzzd.net] is to present a Java 3D API engine enabling 3D with all Java version without security privilege, it can also use opengl on demand but requ

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SLot ( 82781 )
        by no means do I disagree that shockwave is teh lame. Still, I enjoy rasterwerks. I was simply pointing out that thier list had n o mulitplayer fps on it.
  • What about the ever popular Particracy [particracy.net] political simulation?
  • http://seekler.com/lists/Best+Online+Flash+Games [seekler.com] This combines about 8 different peoples best online games lists... My personal list is as follows: 1. Warcraft Tower Defense 2. Flash Tetris 3. Flow evolution flash 4. Bejeweled 5. Line Rider 6. Desktop Tower Defense 7. Ownage Burst 8. Planarity 9. Goldminer 10. Portal Anyways a good and large collection of different games can be found their and filtered by game type.

  • A whole whack-ton of them (Score:3, Interesting)

    by halcyon1234 ( 834388 ) <halcyon1234@hotmail.com> on Thursday December 27, 2007 @01:25PM (#21831466) Journal
    What about Neopets? It has seventy billion (rough estimate) flash games. You get points for playing them, so you can inflate your ego as you work on your mad neoTetris skillz. And you get to giggle like a schoolgirl every time you feed your pet.

    (All kidding aside, the games there are pretty well done, and all you need is a Flash player and a working copy of Adblock to kill the Ritalin-inspired banners)

  • KoL? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Preebs ( 998605 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @02:00PM (#21831872)
    I'm sorry but how could they forget Kingdom of Loathing? I've played that game for years and it has still kept me entertained.
  • That tower defense is good. :)

  • Time to Loathe (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Endo13 ( 1000782 ) on Thursday December 27, 2007 @02:43PM (#21832386)
    Of course no list like this is complete without a mention of
    Kingdom of Loathing [kingdomofloathing.com]

    An Adventurer is You!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by zeet ( 70981 )
      Seconded! It probably didn't make the list because there's hardly any glitz or glimmer, but the game has depth and replayability.
    • The article says that the games it lists are "exemplars of the casual gaming genre--video games meant to be played incidentally, as a break from work, for instance, or in lieu of sending an e-mail."

      Kingdom of Loathing (kingdomofloathing.com), of which I am a long-time player, isn't really casual, as I'm sure you would agree. Could you, for instance, only log on for a couple of minutes of Knob goblins, then log off?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Endo13 ( 1000782 )
        Given that the average adventure takes about 10 to 30 seconds, and you can stop at any time between adventures without losing anything whatsoever.. I'd have to say yes. The only real exception to this rule is if you're farming ultra-rares. And you and I both know that's nothing essential to enjoying the game. The game is as casual or hardcore as you make it. I'd say it fits the casual category better than most quick free games.

        If you're hinting that the game is so addictive it's hard to stop when you need t

  • runescape (Score:1, Informative)

    by Cyko_01 ( 1092499 )
    this game [runescape.com] is addictive!
  • I've yet to find many games with the replay value of Proximity or Bloxors. Fancy Pants Adventure, Magnetism, Circlo, and Circlo 2 were pretty cool, too. Games that have a definitive best trick for each level don't quite replay as well as games with a more random element AFAIAC.
  • Try out Ankhet at http://www.ankhet.org./ [www.ankhet.org] For an introduction, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankhet [wikipedia.org].
  • Strange how no one mentioned Utopia yet.

    Pretty famous team-based strategy browser game. It's changed dramatically over the years, but it's still alive.

    Obligatory wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(online_game) [wikipedia.org]
  • One of my favorite browser games is at http://worldofdungeons.net/ [worldofdungeons.net]. It plays like a classic dungeon crawl game where you make a hero, equipt them, then run them through adventures every 7 hours. It's very group oriented (group play is almost mandatory) and has a lot of depth. It's been translated into 4 languages (french/german/spanish/english) and has active communities in all of them. It's not completely free, you can only pick your hero from one of 3 classes (out of the game's 14) with a free account.

    If
  • I've spent many-a-hour on Ngame http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_(game) [wikipedia.org] Why isn't it on the list? One of the best platformers I've ever played.
  • He completely misses Maple Story, Rappelz, and Dungeon Runners, among others.

    Maple Story, a cute side scrolling MMO.
    Rappelz, an MMORPG by GPotato who has a total of 5 free online games to play that'll kill a lot of time.
    Dungeon Runners by the makers of Guild Wars. For Dungeon Runners think a spoof of Diablo 2 meets WOW.
  • Please free games /slovak-czech/ for web site. Today main site www.finty.sk . Neomyz.games 3 games. tetris, a..

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