Best Freeware Games of 2007
These awards were actually the opinion of one person that I came across over on the independent gaming discussion forums. I was so impressed with the presentation and it being after 3am in the morning I’d actually thought they were the Independent games awards of 2007 (because I’d been checking those out previously) as mentioned in the games comments section . I apologize for misleading you, it was unintentional. However that said, after checking out theses games the guy has got a point. There is something for everyone within the list I have compiled from the very long post by Javet. Thank you very much for a great overview of these games and for all the links.
Fraxy:
The download site for this particular game site is in Chinese (I think anyway), but the file download is easily seen near the top of the page: This game won was awarded best game, best shooter, best editor and best graphics and received a runners up award for best replay value
http://mokeron.hp.infoseek.co.jp/zg/fraxy_main.html
Mr Blocko
This game won the award for best replay value and the best hybrid award as well as a runners up award for one of the most original games of 2007.
http://perfectrun.net/index.php?id=pageget/mrblocko
Toribash won the award for the most innovative controls, the best physics and was a runner up for the best game of the year as well as the best sound and the best commercial game converted to freeware.
http://www.toribash.com/download.html
Best platformer went to Knytt Stories which also received a runners up award for best sequel and can be downloaded from:
http://nifflas.ni2.se/index.php?main=02Knytt_Stories
Best RPG went to Last Scenario which you can get from:
http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/download/75249
Best Puzzler went to AcidBomb: Rearmed which was also a runner up in the best sound category and the best sequel award:
http://www.vertigogaming.net/acidbomb2.htm
Best Strategy game went to Battleships Forever:
http://www.wyrdysm.com/games.php
Best writing went to Sam and Max: Abe Lincoln must die. It also received a runners up citation for best sound and best graphics as well as best sequel, replay value and commercial software converted to freeware. You’ll find several different Sam & Max games from the following address:
http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/lincolnmustdie
Best sound went to Synaesthete, which also received a runners up award for best original game, best abstract game, most un-lockables, most innovative controls, best bosses and best graphics. And are the same developers of the game FreewareFan posted the other day called Bossinabox.
Best Abstract Game is called Echoes (It would ave been great to hear the Pink Floyd track, as I lost that albumn years ago – I wonder if it’s available for download :) ) Ignore the reference to Crack when you follow the link below, I think it’s meant to be a joke. I checked the site for problems and it seemed clean. The file download was likewise.:
http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/echoes/index.htm
Best competition entry went to Clean Asia which also received a runners up citation in the Best Shooters award as well as the best abstract game award:
http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/index.php?topic=922.0
Best Browser game went to Portal:
http://www.maxgames.com/game/portal:-the-flash-version.html
Best remake/clone went to Hurican: which also received an award for runner up in the best platform game
Best Sequel went to Trilby: The Art of Theft which also was awarded runners up in the best writing category and best sequel:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/games/yahtzee/artoftheft
Best game with un-lockables was Return to Sector 9 which was also a runner up in the best shooter award and best sound award as well as the best use of innovative controls.
The best commercial game that made it into the freeware ranks was Command and Conquer Gold: Downloads are in ‘iso’ format so you will need to burn the unzipped file to disc before it will work. I think instructions are provided (I haven’t unzipped this file yet as I’m already familiar with command and conquer games (Tiberium Sun), both files are around 580Mb zipped.
http://indygamer.blogspot.com/2007/09/command-and-conquer-free-download.html
Though, if you have a subscription to File Planet the following links are quicker to download. (If you aren’t a subscriber you can sign up for a free account, though the servers are rate limited)
GDI – ISO http://www.fileplanet.com/180462/180000/fileinfo/Command-&-Conquer-Gold---Full-Game-(GDI-ISO)
NOD – ISO http://www.fileplanet.com/180463/180000/fileinfo/Command-&-Conquer-Gold---Full-Game-(NOD-ISO)
Also check out the following games that didn’t quite get a Best of , but did received runners up awards, for example
Chalk, runner up mot original game:
The Cleaner, runner up best shooter and best hybrid:
http://gamemakergames.com/?a=view&id=4733
Ninja, runner up best platform, best editor and best physics:
Sumotori Dreams, (runner up best multiplayer):
http://web.t-online.hu/archee83/sumotori/
The Jeluvian Project, runner up best strategy game and best hybrid
http://pondspark.blogspot.com/2001/01/jeluvian-project.html
Patrol Falcon, runner up in the Best sequel/clone category.
There were other awards, and lots of games featured as runner ups in most categories, which you can find by following the link below. All the games above will be found via this link, but I thought I’d spend some time creating this list as I was really enjoying my voyage of discovery. This is partly thanks to Idahl for giving me a link to a free game called Gem Towers (the link can be found in the first of FreewareFans threads detailing one freeware game a day....
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2326/page/2?replies=58
......which eventually led to this site, as well as FreewareFan for being so enthusiastic about freeware and to BuBBy for giving me encouragement in using the forums instead of the comments section.:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=887.0
I have many commercial games, many of which are probably much better that most of the games within the above list, but I think everyone will find something amongst this treasure trove of free games to satisfy their tastes. (I hope so anyway).
Enjoy
p.s.
The following games weren't included in the awards, but I came across them while checking out some of the above games.
Fantasy Submarine:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/505406
Fishy Fish:
http://www.farbs.org/games.html
Finally, here’s another awards thingamajig, (there seems to be loads of them if you dig deep enough) this time by SHMUP development competition 2007 There are 20 games some of which look interesting: You will need to register first though; but I think some of these games are worth it. Varia, a space shooter is an example (it won). It has some excellent psychedelic explosions. Though you’ll probably have to be an enthusiast to enjoy most of these games, and have plenty of time on your hands. Actually for the game Varia, you don’t need to register as there is a download link below the image of the you tube video, which gives you a good ideas as o weter you’ll like thi game, though if you want to download any of the other 19 games you will need to register; (see second link below):
The competition Results:
http://shmup-dev.com/op2k72/Results.html
Registering so that you can download the free games
http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/index.php
In particular Varia, Waive, Angels of time, Tanks ‘a’ Lot, Sabarella, amongst 15 others. :)
I’d better stop there for now. I’ve just received a belated Christmas present (Call of Juareza) from a close online friend whom I used to play America’s Army with, also FreewareFan will be posting his sixth game in is month long extravaganza. I don’t want to give you people games overload. I think on the face of it, apart from the Command and Conquer game, which was originally commercial and perhaps Toribash which has excellent physics and was also originally commercial, most of these games will not come up to the standard of the games that FreewareFan is recommending, though I suppose that also would be a matter of opinion.
Anyway, I do hope you find something amongst the games above. I’ve checked all of the files (I have downloaded them all) and none have sown any warnings with respect to malware/virus’s. If any one does find a problem with ay of these games, please do post a note here so that I can check it out. Thank you.
I’ll be back with more sometime soon.
WR
p.s.
If you want to check out the awards from the independent games award for 2007 these are not freeware though) just follow the links below:
http://jayisgames.com/archives/2007/03/independent_games_awards.php
http://www.igf.com/2007finalistswinners.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13039
That’s it for now