[Ghizz]

DotA 2 and TF2,

i love you valve

[iSurvivedTheOutage]

I'm quickly approaching the number of hours I've put into TF2 on this game.

Quoted for emphasis.

[mclem]

What free game have given you the most entertainment (hours/fun) ? This includes mods that are dependent on some paid platform.

I've got a lot of hours clocked in Team Fortress 2, but I also started playing when the client cost money, so I'm not sure that should count. A similar thing's true for Deadly Rooms Of Death - loved it when free, so spent money on the sequels and the enhanced original. In principle I could easily answer with Trackmania Nations... except I bought United. And - for that matter - Trackmania Wii.

When you narrow it down to free games that I've never spent money on and have no intention of doing so, it gets rather trickier. Does Chaos count? I recieved it on a covermounted cassette, so I bought the magazine and got the game. Still spent money to get it, though.

La Mulana I played to completion and thoroughly enjoyed, but I'm seriously considering purchasing the remake; in part because I think the designers have *earned* some money from me, even if they've not recieved it yet.

This is the problem: If I enjoy a free game sufficiently much, I *will* seek out a way to reward the designers with money if one exists.


Ultimately, I think I have to fall back to the world of amateur text adventure design, there's an awful lot of high-quality free work in that field. The problem now becomes, though, whether it's possible to narrow it down to just one title, and I don't think I can!

[S. L.]

Counterstrike and also various Flash based tower defense games

[trinest]

Need for Speed Online.

[Myriadis]

Fun, but hard as shit. I don't download many free games as you can see.

I think Star Road is pretty fair compared to other SM64 level hacks, but yes, it's harder than the orginal Super Mario 64. He surely put a lot of work in that hack, and some levels are really well done. Unlike SM74, which has many incredibly unfair sections - I guess that guy excepted you to use savestates.


And Ragnarok online is free? Might try it.
----


I like to mention Zelda Classic.
The standard package comes with a 1:1 recreation of the very first Zelda and a 3rd quest added in. The best thing are, however, the custom quests that some Zelda fans have done and which make use of the improvements added in Zelda Classic. There are over 300 of them now.
Here's a good site where you can download ZeldaClassic and its custom quests. I still would recommend version 2.10 for older games for now.

Recommended quests:
Isle of the Winds (like a 2D Wind Waker, but bigger Islands and three optional dungeons)
Hero Of Dreams (My personal favorite, gets really hard later on, but excellently designed. +20 hours playtime.)
Origins (Excellent recreation of Zelda 1 with some excellent world design)
Links Birthday DX(Classic one, with some optional dungeons)

I surely spent more than 300 hours on that one.

[goonergaz]

Generally, a totally 100% free PC customisable racer which requires the lowest of PC specs - think Skidmarks but the ability to change any aspect - the cars (speed/inertia/look etc) and the tracks from simple ovals to the most complex designs. People have recreated the F1 tracks and everything - yes you can make a track and adjust the speed of the car so it takes a couple of mins to complete a circuit. How add in fuel, damage and tyre wear (all completely customisable again) and a pit crew you can accidentally splatter if they don't get out of the way!

Heck why not watch some youtube action:

A race (see the pits in action @ 1:35)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1H7X...eature=related

F1 2007 tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEdgf...eature=related

Track editor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjOI...eature=related

Then download and try it:
http://gene-rally.com/

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeneRally_(video_game)

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Does Tetris as a pack in count?


If not CS.

[Zevenberge]

Lexicomos. I'd say RuneScape, but I became a paying member on my main account for a while.



Also TrackMania Nations. Again, I've upgraded to the paid version as being limited to the stadium environment isn't that great.

[Tomat]

DOTA2. I've clocked around 150 hours of spectating.

The game has completely replaced television for me. Anytime I feel like watching a video game I boot it up.

Also is Ragnorak Online actually any good these days?

[PetriP-TNT]

what servers did you play at? the main ones i played at were evilsmurfs and GP.

first at GMZ Todezone (which is still running), then when I got into competive ET I mostly played at Efterlyst (RIP, best server ever) if I wasn't playing clanwars or doing Gathers.

[FOOTE]

Half Life 2 -Deathmatch. That game was so fun when the servers were full of people.

[Minion101]

Counter Strike when it was just a humble mod

[ciridesu]

definitely rtcw: enemy territory, so many childhood memories

[coldfoot]

Another vote for RTCW:ET, especially on servers where you got to keep your upgrades between games.

[ZimbAdam]

Either the Halo 1 demo on mac (it was the only shooter I had back in the day, best demo ever as well: blood gulch all day every day) or Pandemic 2.

Fuck Madagascar.

[SamVimes]

DOTA 2, it's not even close.

[Mavromatis]

OpenTTD

Some mad networking skillz



And a nicely developed city



Team Fortress 2
No screenshot needed.


Star Trek Online
And here is my ship alone in space.

[Jader7777]

[Crakatak187]

I'm only counting games that are free since the beginning otherwise games like CS (to be fair it was free during Steam Beta), Ragnarok Online, and Nehrim would be on the list. Only one I can think of that fit that bill for me was Gunbound (the good one, i.e. Thor's Hammer) So many fond memories from that game, anyone remember this baby right here: Shitty community, but damn was it addicting. Got me into Worms-style games.

So much memories. The Spanish players use to crack me up with their laughs.
Jajajaja Jejejejeje.


Wish there was a PSN/XBLA Gunbound for PS3/X360/Vita.

[Lord British]

Nanaca fucking Crash.

[Anteater]

I played those tetris online games a lot, there were a few and I don't remember which is which.

and Yahoo games

[pa22word]

Probably Wolf:ET

Played the shit out of that back in the day.

[dc89]

Has to be League of Legends. Not spent a penny and I've had a sack ton of fun.

[R_thanatos]

TORUS TROOPER

So much fun ....AS long as i find a free computer , i plug my usb key and play this gem

[MarkusRJR]

Cave Story. It's probably my favourite indie game ever. I've even bought every version of the game to support the developer. 3DS, DSiWare, WiiWare. All of them awesome in different ways.

Oh, and a bit on the embarrassing side but RuneScape would be a close second. I played it a ton as a kid/preteen and I'd probably played it for way more than 100 hours total.

[Erasus]

Flyff - First F2P 3D MMO I played, probabaly 500-1000h

LoL - 500h, spend 20 on RP

TF2 - 100h

[RSP]

The demo had 3 maps, but was modded in a way that re-used all the assets upside down, scaled and in any other form to build new maps.

Awesome.

[Maiger]

Dota 2 is addicting..

[Kapoios]

Team Fortress 2: Over 1200 hours.
Although technically i started playing long before it went f2p.

[Lucifon]

The one that currently jumps to mind has to be DOTA2. 210 hours and still going strong. My group of buddies that play it seems to be growing by the week.

[matthwq]

Countless hours in the mid 90s playing Solitaire.

In the 2000s? Probably Cave Story.

[BramVD]

[throwawayname]

dota 2.

[Solstice]

Dungeons and Dragons Online

Best F2P MMO out there

[Shadybiz]

I haven't played much F2P, but I guess my answer is TF2...I've probably only played for around 20 hours, but it's always a blast.

[BurnOutBrighter]

Technically a free mod back in the day, so it's Counter-Strike for me.

[boybrushdRED]

I'll go with Super Mario World. SNES comes with a free copy of it.

[djtiesto]

Gotta be Cave Story and rRootage. Hydorah is another good, free one.

[THACHITS]

Burrito Bison

This is a great game people. Everyone should give it a whirl if they have some free time

[En Ex]

This has to be a joke.

Nope.

[CrookedRain]

Definitely Counter-Strike. Started playing around beta 2 and used to spend all day after school playing the damn game with my cousin and some friends.

[Ghost Dad the Whip]

RTCW:ET 110%

Nice to see so many fellow gaffers with good memories bout that game. I can still play through 30+ maps in my mind's eye.

Someone should make a GAF ET server, bring back the Beerrun.

Oasis, Goldrush, Warbell... Darji2... BRING IT BACK!

[Sir_Crocodile]

snake.

[Lord British]

Oh! Forgot about Flying Slime Volleyball. Hours and hours of play.

Also, Seconds of Madness/Spear Toss.

Nanaca Crash is the king of browser games, though. Probably in my top ten of all time in all of gaming. It's just pure fun.

[Pociask]

I'm not throwing stones here, but does anyone else think about what they could have accomplished with all the hundreds/thousands of hours spent on just one game?

For English speakers, you can gain fluency in closely related languages, like Dutch, Spanish, or Italian, in 600 hours. Less closely related languages, like Greek or Russian, 1100 hours.

Alas, I have spent a ton of free time playing video games instead. If we're letting in Counter-strike, then that sucked up soo much time in college. I think more in spirit of the question, though, was some web based spaceship game that ripped off Star Trek sound effects. Sunk probably dozens of hours into it.

[michaelius]

Megamek net ;)
It was fully implemented java client for tabletop battletech with campaign server i spent 4 or 5 years playing it for few hours a day.

[ShinUltramanJ]

Easily Super Crossfire on iOS.

[jonno394]

I don't donwload or play many free games, depending on if you classify PS+ games as "free", Darksiders and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are definitely up there

[Barrel Cannon]

Halo 1 demo, Counter-Strike, League of Legends

Halo 1 demo would be most but its technically a demo
League of Legends would be second but I pay for skins and champs so it's not free for me :(
Counter Strike easily falls in third with 100s of hours on it.