Originally released as a full-price game in May 2010, Heroes of Newerth has just gone free to play – and that means no subscriptions or retail costs whatsoever. Read on to find out whether it’s set to become your next hopeless video gaming addiction.

Inspired By Warcraft

Introducing Heroes of Newerth, or HoN for short, a fairly brisk-paced multiplayer RTS that takes its inspiration from the hallowed Defense of the Ancients Warcraft III expansion map. Those of you who remember the original map, have played the fan-made tribute Defense of the Ancients, or are enjoying League of Legends will instantly recognize HoN’s style of play.

The game pits two teams against each other – the Legion and the Hellbourne – each beginning the match at opposite sides of the map. On a standard map there are 3 main avenues known as “lanes” that lead to the opposition’s base, and these are where much of the action takes place.

Each team has a primary structure in their base which they must defend (the Hellbourne’s Sacrificial Shrine and the Legion’s Tree of Life) at all costs or else it’s game over. These are the basics, and they’re easy to grasp – of course there’s much more to HoN, as any seasoned veteran will tell you.

Download & Register

To get HoN up and running you’ll first need to download the client for your particular operating system from the official downloads page. Download sizes vary, though all are around 600MB.

With your client downloading you can now register a new account. Install the game as per your usual methods (Linux users will need to execute the .sh file, which may require root), launch it and login using the account you just created. That’s that, you’re good to go.

Note: This was tested on a 64bit Windows 7 system, and at first I encountered repeated crashes on the desktop. I later learned that his was an issue with my nVidia graphics card and updating to the latest drivers at nVidia.com resolved the issue.

Gameplay, Heroes & Experience

After logging in, you should see an info-packed menu with news, several options and the lobby chat room. The easiest way to get a game is via the Play Now button, simply choose your map, game mode and player locations before hitting Solo Matchmaking to join up with some strangers or Team Matchmaking if you’ve already got friends who play the game (you will be prompted to invite them). At this stage you may have noticed a few limitations with the free account, which will be “basic” until you reach level 5 and buy some “goblin coins”, the in-game currency.

Once you’ve done this your account will change from basic to “verified” and you will be able to choose to play only against other verified accounts and have access to other game modes, though you can continue to play with a basic account. On the right hand side of this screen there’s a tutorial available, which is undoubtedly the best place to start.

There is actually quite a lot to master in Heroes of Newerth, so don’t skip the tutorial as it’s the quickest and easiest way to learn by example. On a standard 5v5 map there are 3 lanes, and non-player characters called “creeps” will spawn and run along these lanes until they encounter enemies to attack.

It is up to the (human-controlled) heroes to play up to their strengths and abilities without getting quite as involved as the creeps. Experience is gained simply for being near enemies when they die, with gold awarded for damage inflicted and bonus gold for getting that all-important final strike on a foe.

Accompany your hordes of creeps up the lane, killing enemies, destroying structures and earning experience and gold along the way. It is also possible to kill any creatures you encounter along the way (that are not allied with you or the enemy) for additional experience and rewards.

Winning a match will credit your account with goblin gold (which you can also buy, remember) which is used to unlock further characters, of which there are 84 at the time of writing. On average you’re looking at spending 40-50 minutes on a single match, with the option to surrender (4 out of 5 required) after 15 minutes.

Any resemblance of resource or base management (mining and so on) has been removed, and gold is the only commodity you can spend in-match. It’s a strategy game with a twist, though a familiar format to many.

Conclusion

If HoN strikes you as a game you might enjoy, then you should probably start downloading it right now. The game still feels like a full-price retail product, albeit with a few restrictions on free accounts, with fluid graphics, a fitting art style and hordes of players waiting for a game.

If you don’t like magic and goblins then maybe you’d be more at home with a free shooter instead?

Have you played Heroes of Newerth? Did you like it? Did you pay for it? Will you be playing in future? Cast your judgement in the comments, below.

Yes, the “best” first person shooters will probably be available on only those platforms (with exceptions, mainly through tricks and hacks), but today I’m featuring a first person shooter that breaks away from that stereotype.

About the Game

Urban Terror is self-described as a Hollywood tactical shooter, and values a fun experience over realism (although its realism is quite alright with default settings). Playing Urban Terror over other games such as Call of Duty has a couple of  advantages. The game engine (though not the game data built around the engine) is open source. Urban Terror is natively available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The game maintains very high frame rates while offering great graphics, though some maps are better than others. It also offers other features that you expect, such as multiplayer (which is the game’s speciality, as there is no single player mode), and a decent array of weapons to choose from.

Installation

Installation should go as normal. Linux users may have to add additional repositories to get a package for their respective distributions, otherwise you can download the game from the game’s website and run the executable. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users may need to change a few things by right-clicking on the new shortcut, and choosing options like “disable desktop compositing” and “run as administrator” for the game to work.

First Launch

When you launch the game for the first time, you’ll be prompted to enter in a name, which will identify you in all games you take part in. In case you’re new to first person shooters, it’s recommended to use usernames, not actual names. You can also take part in a tutorial to learn the basics of the game.

Before you jump onto a server and play a round, you should probably look through the settings to make sure that you have everything set as you want it. This especially holds true for the graphics settings, where you may still want to lower the settings if you’re not running on good hardware. When everything’s set, you can click on “Play Online” to choose a server (whether over the Internet or via LAN, where you can start a LAN server by choosing “Start Server” instead) and start play.

Different Gameplay

Note that there are different types of gameplay. They are Free For All, Team Deathmatch, Team Survivor, Follow The Leader, Capture And Hold, Capture The Flag, and Bomb Mode. These different styles of gameplay do make a difference in how you should proceed in the game as they each have different goals for winning, so please be aware of this.

If you or a friend ever run a custom, dedicated server (separate from the basic server you can start with the client game), you can tweak almost all aspects of the way the game can be played. Private servers often play around with gravity values, allowing you to jump over great distances. There are also public “Zombie” servers, where it is customized so that one team has no weapons except the mandatory knives, while the other team is well-prepared by default with heavy artillery. On those servers, normal bullets induce very little damage on a “Zombie”, while snipers do slightly more. Provided you have the accuracy, grenades and knives usually do the most damage (their values are unchanged).

Screenshots

Looking Towards the Future

Urban Terror’s future looks fairly bright. Although new development still seems slow, developers are working on a new version that will bring a load of new features. This new version is currently available as an alpha for Windows only.

Conclusion

Urban Terror is a great, fun game that virtually anyone can enjoy. Many people will find joy in the fact that the game values fun over accurate realism for this kind of game. I’ve been playing it for many months by now, and I still look forward to playing it when I have some free time. Any questions will most likely be answered in the documentation. If you have some free space on your hard drive, why not install it? It’ll be there when you have the urge to try it.

If you’ve never heard of the game but would like to give it a try, read on to find out what all the fuss is about, and how you can download it and play World of Warcraft for free, right now.

What On Earth Is World Of Warcraft?

The mother of massively multiplayer online games, World of Warcraft is a 3D adventure/role-play game. Blamed for deaths throughout the world and the breakdown of numerous marriages, WoW has garnered a lot of attention. Is that attention justified? In many ways, yes. WoW is indeed the gaming equivalent of crack cocaine, and has been designed (just like FarmVille) with clever rewards to keep the player engaged for longer.

You could describe it as the epitome of gaming mechanisms, but that would take us down a long path of discussion we probably don’t have time for today. Suffice to say it has spawned academic discussions on topics such as the gamification of life.

Like anything in life, people who have a tendency to addictions and compulsive behaviour are going to have issues with this game. If however you’re a normal human being with a good level of self-control, you can probably just play it like most people do, and have fun without any dangerous consequences.

What’s it all about then? Set in a typical fantasy world, you create a unique character and are soon off adventuring. This may be a vast simplification, but essentially you perform quests (kill something, find something, visit someone), collect treasure, and upgrade your character with better weapons and better/new abilities. A couple of things make WoW unique though.

Firstly, there is a crafting system where you can actually produce items for yourself and others to use in-game – a set of armour from animal leather, for example – or a sword from iron ore. “Great”, you’re thinking! “Now I can work in a game as well as real life!!”. That’s true to an extent, but in WoW you actually see the end result rather than being a drone in the corporate machine like most people. It’s remarkably fulfilling to produce something, even if it is only virtual – and how many of us could skin an animal and make some armour in real life, after all?

Secondly, WoW takes place in a persistent world with hundreds of thousands of other players. For many, it’s this social aspect of joining guilds and adventuring together that keeps them coming back. In the end though, it has a little something for everyone – and if you choose to spend your online WoW life collecting herbs and making ever more powerful healing potions, then the game will reward you as such, and you shall be a famous potion maker!

Download

So how do you get this game? Head on over to battle.net to create an account and download the client.

It’s a hefty download through the installation program – a good 10.5GB, so make sure you’re doing this in your ISPs free-for-all time, or check your download limits for the month. Luckily though, you can begin playing after the first 2GB or so, while the rest is downloaded in the background and loaded as required.

Getting Started

Scroll through and accept the EULAs, then pick a “realm” by clicking the suggest a realm button in the bottom right. Next you’ll need to choose your character, which is perhaps the hardest choice you’ll ever have to make in this game. If you’re unsure about your choices, the panels on the right show you how they will affect your game and what bonuses they might have.

Gameplay

Once you’re actually in the game, I found the help or tutorial to be a little lacking.

First things first, you move around with either the arrow keys or WSAD, as you would a first person shooter. To rotate the camera and look around, hold down the right mouse button.

Right click is also your main action key. Hover over an enemy, other character, or loot to perform the default action on them – either attack, talk, or pick up.

Use the left mouse button to select creatures and generally interact with the on-screen interface. Along the bottom of the screen is your most important interface. Take some time to click around it and see what all the buttons do. The blank spaces are actions you can assign from your skillet as you level up and learn new things. You should start with either some neat fighter actions or some basic spells.

Equipment management is done by accessing your backpack (shift-B), and you can drag and drop items onto your character (shift-C).

I had a little difficulty with getting quests at first – you don’t automatically get quests by talking to people, it seems. Find a quest character – marked on the map by a question mark – and once you’ve chosen a quest, make sure you scroll down to ACCEPT it. When finished, return to them and do the same, but this time COMPLETE – and you’ll also need to have chosen a reward if there is one.

One last tip – you should have a Hearthstone in your inventory. Right click on that to return back to your village when done questing, to avoid the long trek home.

So, are you going to try it now that you can play World of Warcraft for free? Got any horror stories about lost loved ones because of this damn game? Do let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget to check out the minimum system requirements before downloading and getting disappointed. All of the games listed are free to download and play, though don’t be surprised when you’re asked to pay for additional in-game content (they’ve got to fill up the coffers somehow, after all).

League of Legends

Originally based on a Warcraft III: Frozen Throne map called Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends is a session-based 5 on 5 multiplayer battle. Each team starts at opposite ends of the map, next to their “Nexus”, which they must defend. The winner is the team who destroys the enemy’s Nexus, simple as that.

At the start of the game each player chooses a champion (of which there are currently 76 in total), though your choice will be limited based on your progress, or willingness to pay to unlock further characters. There are two game modes, Normal and Ranked, with Ranked introducing tougher restrictions and a Level 30 requirement to play.

Getting started is as easy as registering a free account, downloading the client and logging in. Before jumping into battle and failing miserably you’ll be walked through a tutorial, and given a basic introduction to controls, items and spells. Then you’re free to take on the world for guts, gold and glory.

Battlefield Play4Free

Do you enjoy shooting things? How about driving and flying whilst shooting things? Then the case is clear – you need to play Battlefield. Dating back to September 2002 when Battlefield 1942 was originally released, the Battlefield franchise has gone from strength to strength over the years and this free offering might stave off the hunger before Battlefield 3 lands.

Incorporating heavily team-based capture and attack/defend game modes along with vehicle-driven warfare, your average match can be explosive to say the least. With tanks, planes, air strikes and fully destructible buildings there’s plenty of eye candy and action to keep even the most seasoned players happy.

Certainly one to revisit if you remember the frantic, laggy yet golden days of BF1942 and Road to Rome.

Vindictus

Vindictus is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) with some brutal hack-n-slash gameplay. Running on Valve’s fantastic Source engine, the game is visually pleasing even by today’s standards. The in-game objects can be interacted with, destroyed and picked up to be wielded as weapons.

There are currently 3 classes to choose from (though 5 are planned) and regardless of class, teamwork is essential if you’re to advance the game and beat Vindictus’ 6 story-based episodes.

Combat Arms

Taking its cues from classics like Counter-Strike and the Call of Duty franchise, Combat Arms is a jam-packed free first person shooter from South Korean developer Doobic Studios. The game features a levelling system, with the player earning Gamer Points to spend on additional weapons and customization.

There are a ton of game modes to enjoy, including capture the flag, co-op play and various objective based game modes. Of course there’s always the option of flashing your cash, and this will allow you to buy unlocks with NX (the publisher’s credit system, which requires real money).

Combat Arms also features an integrated clan system and gaming leagues, making it quite a competitive corner of the web.

MapleStory

The final game on our list isn’t quite as meaty as the previous two, but may suit younger and casual online gamers. MapleStory is a side-scrolling MMORPG with simple controls and plenty of bright colours.

The game follows the typical RPG setup, with your character venturing into dungeons to defeat monsters, meeting fellow warriors, levelling up abilities and collecting in-game currency known as “Mesos”.

In addition to developing the ultimate warrior, players can also form guilds, get married and even form families. Unsurprisingly, MapleStory is huge in South Korea where it was initially developed.

Honorary Mention: Duty Calls

War. War never changes. Oops, it just did! Not strictly a multiplayer game (well, it’s not strictly a game at all) Duty Calls is a Call of Duty parody released alongside the recent Bulletstorm as a marketing ploy. If you’ve played Modern Warfare (or any Call of Duty game since) then you’ll be giggling like a school girl for the most part.

Conclusion

Hopefully there’s enough multiplayer carnage here to at least whet a few appetites. The fact that these games are free to play at least gives you the ability to fully evaluate them before deciding to splash out on some upgrades. Then again, you might never feel the need to pay a penny and enjoy some quality games for the sweetest price of all.

Do any of these free online multiplayer games tickle your fancy? Have you got any other suggestions for us? We love to hear what you think, give us the low-down in the comments below.

Intro image: Shutterstock

Since then Sega has published and developed a multitude of games, and not all of them for the console market. Spiral Knights is aimed solely at PC users, and provided you’ve got a compatible browser you’ll be up and running in minutes. If you enjoy quest-based online role playing games with a hint of Zelda, then you’ll probably love Spiral Knights.

Requirements

Despite being a browser game, Spiral Knights is a fully 3D application. On Windows or Linux you’ll need at least a 1.3GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 64MB of video memory and Java 1.5 installed. Mac owners will need the same specification, except with 1GB of RAM instead of 512MB.

A minimum screen resolution of 1024×600 is also required. You can download Java for your operating system here, if you don’t already have it.

Haven & Clockworks

Developed by Three Rings Design and published by Sega, Spiral Knights is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (or MMORPG for short) that can be enjoyed in your browser thanks to the wonder that is Java. Spiral Knights is completely free to play, you do not need to pay a subscription or buy an account; though you are given the option of purchasing in-game perks should you want them.

Your (and everyone else’s) character is as the title suggests, a Spiral Knight. You’ve crashed on a strange planet, and this virtual world is your oyster. You won’t be expected to do it alone, as the game actively encourages teamwork and guild development.

The planet is called Cradle, and the game roughly divides itself between the two main “areas”: Haven and Clockworks. Haven acts as a headquarters for all Spiral Knights, allowing players to socialise freely. Clockworks are essentially dungeons that much of the time require you to team up and quest your way through. If you’ve played an MMORPG before, then this concept will undoubtedly be familiar.

Quests are split into three tiers, and you’ll have to work your way up to the most rewarding tasks. Clockworks are accessed via gates in the Arcade area of Haven. The whole thing is spiced up by having both active and dormant gates within this area. Dormant gates require players to actively spend minerals in order to access them, meaning there should be a decent variety of quests to choose from at any given time.

Clockworks will introduce the player to adorable monsters, pickups and treasure boxes along the way. There are hordes of enemies, hazards and breakables to smash along the way, and all the while you’ll be collecting resources for bigger and better upgrades.

Starting Out

Once you’ve registered for an account, and clicked Play, Spiral Knights will download. When this download has completed, the game will launch in a new window and you’ll be able to login or simply continue from where you were. If it’s your first game you’ll need to design a character, of which you can have three.

Of course you won’t be able to wander around Haven without a heads up, and this comes in the form of the Rescue Camp. This is the area you initially start out in, after having crashed on the planet Cradle.

Here you’ll learn everything you need to know about game mechanics, social elements and controlling your Knight. It is also at this point that you’ll be introduced to energy, an important element in the game.

There are two types of energy, mist energy and crystal energy. Your character develops 1 mist energy every 15 minutes of playtime, with a maximum of 100 energy stored at any particular time. Crystal energy can be purchased with US dollars, and can be stored in higher amounts.

Energy is used for nearly everything in the game, from your very first steps out of the Rescue Camp to unlocking tougher, more rewarding Clockworks. As you’d expect, there are plenty of weapons to come across including swords and handguns, with unique powers to unleash across the world.

For a free browser MMO, Spiral Knights is a surprisingly deep game with plenty of rewards in store for those willing to invest the time.

Conclusion

If MMORPGs are your thing, Spiral Knights is probably worth a shot. There are a distinct lack of good free and accessible games in such a successful genre and the use of Java means Windows, Mac and Linux users can play together nicely. Hats off to Sega for publishing a truly unique online gem for the Internet’s favourite price.

Have you played Spiral Knights? Any other MMO role playing games you enjoy? Let us know in the comments.

There’s just one problem. For all its enhancements, Minecraft doesn’t have a multiplayer server browser yet. If you’d like to connect to a server you need to know its web address, and you’ll have to find that on your own.

Finding A Minecraft Multiplayer Server

The best place to find a Minecraft server is the Minecraft official forums. You’ll find two boards there, one for creative servers and one for survival servers.

Creative servers are cooperative. You won’t encounter monsters and you won’t have to worry about fighting other players. Your only goal is to do what the server type implies ““ be creative, build stuff, and have fun.

Survival servers, which are still a beta feature, replicate the single-player survival mode. The world is hostile and full of monsters, but is now full of other players as well. By default, anyone can attack anyone else on a survival server.

The forums for both types of servers are basically the same. People who are hosting Minecraft servers make a post with their server’s web address and maximum player capacity. In order to join you simply copy-and-paste the web address into the multiplayer menu of the Minecraft client.

One thing that is notably lacking from this system however, is a way to make sure a server is actually running before you try to join. There is one popular community server listing an uptime-tracking website called Minestatus, and the largest Minecraft multiplayer servers are listed on it.

However, even though there are hundreds of servers listed on Minestatus, they are far from covering every server in the game. It’s wise to check a server’s thread before getting too excited, as players will complain about servers that are frequently down. The only thing worse than being unable to connect to a server is joining one, spending three hours building your first base, and then returning the next day to find that the server is unavailable.

Can I Play? Please?

Now you’re ready to join a Minecraft server, right? Well, not so fast.

If you simply try to randomly join servers that look attractive, you may have some problems. Why? Because many servers have what is called a whitelist. If you’re not on the whitelist you should be able to join the server, but you may be booted out shortly thereafter, or you may not be able to actually change the world (any block you destroy will instant respawn).

Getting added to the whitelist is usually as simple as posting in the server’s thread or sending a forum message to the server’s owner. However, some of the more complex and popular servers actually require applications. You’ll need to state why you want to join, how often you want to play, and other information.

Then if you want to stay whitelisted, you better read the rules. While there are some “no rules” servers, they’re relatively rare. Most servers are trying to provide some kind of unique experience, and to do that they implement certain rules. Players might be expected to only attack other players outside of towns, for example. Or there might be rules against setting structures on fire, looting player chests, etc.

Conclusion

Once you’ve found a server you want to play on, read a server’s rules and been whitelisted, you can connect and start playing. Shew! If that sounds like a lot of work, it is. I’ve seen veteran gamers throw their hands up in frustration trying to find a reliable server to play on.

Minecraft is unfortunately not a game where you can just hop into multiplayer any old time and start playing, but if you’re patient, it is a lot of fun. The biggest Minecraft multiplayer servers are essentially mini-MMORPGs with towns, economies, wars and more. They’re worth the time it takes to check them out.

Image Credit :MineStory server thread

Still, sometimes it’s fun to take a break from work and enter into some kind of online competition with a bunch of other players online. One type of game that I enjoy a lot are turn-based strategy games, because they require more careful thought than just quick fingers. This also makes turn-based games a little bit boring at times, because they’ll move a lot slower than real-time war games or shooters.

Recently, I discovered an awesome turn-based strategy game called Darkwind that combines many of the elements of turn-based strategy with real-time action. The game’s logo is War on Wheels, and for good reason. Essentially, you strap yourself to a high-powered vehicle that has machine guns and rocket launchers mounted on the front, and you take part in insane races against other drivers, literally going to war against the competition.

Choose Your Wheels & Go To War!

Learning how to play this game will take you no longer than thirty minutes to an hour. After you sign up for an account, just install the game and when you launch it, you’ll see all of the information you need on the main screen. This includes a chat room and server information.

At the lower part of the main screen you’ll see all active users, as well as all upcoming events. You can also watch any ongoing live events if you want to sit back and be a spectator. There are constantly events going on that you can jump into – at least every ten to thirty minutes.

Before you dive into playing with other players, take the thirty minutes or so to run through the tutorial. You’ll quickly learn how to choose the direction and speed for your car to travel during each turn, as well as how to use your weapons, and also how to change the view so that you can see what’s going on from all angles.

Depending on what the event is, you may face obstacles or a track to navigate through. The tutorial has you manage a couple of jumps and also shows you how to approach and fire upon a truck.  Driving your car isn’t a whole lot unlike other racing games you might have played, but it requires a little bit of careful planning. Depending on how you place your car, and what speed you choose, you could send the car sliding right off the road, or slam it directly into a concrete wall.

The game makes you think about the physics of how a car behaves at a certain speed and direction. When you get good, you can cut corners on a race track by sliding through it rather than trying to cut to the inside like everyone else is trying to do. Or carefully plan how you land after a jump so that you get the speed and direction advantage over other drivers.

Your car also comes with a weapon system that you can arm and target at any time during a race or an arena combat event. The tutorial shows you how to select, arm, target and fire the weapon while you’re driving the car turn-after-turn.

Firing on other vehicles is a matter of keeping them within the “firing zone” and having your weapon repeat-fire. If you incorrectly plan your speed and direction, the other driver may escape your firing zone and then spin around to place you inside theirs.

So, once I got the hang of handing the car in the tutorial, I decided to try the real thing. Looking through the upcoming events I saw a deathrace coming up. This is basically a race a few times around the track while shooting at others and dodging missiles. So, I registered and waited the 5 minutes until the match started.

I have to say, game play might be turn-based, but it’s still fast paced and very fun to play. The list of players names go green whenever they’re done planning their next move.

Once all players are ready, all cars move through their current turn. The clock has a limit per turn, so no one can hold up the race.  Another cool thing about Darkwind is that anyone can create a match. From the main screen, just click on “custom event” and you can create a race or combat arena using whatever parameters you like.

Overall, I’d say that it’s probably one of the more fast-paced turn based games I’ve ever played. Obviously, not as heart-pounding as Big City Racer or some of the other cool online racing games Simon wrote about, but with the combination of turn-based strategy and a fast-enough pace to get you sitting on the edge of your seat, it’s a game that can easily keep you up into the early hours of the morning trying to win your war on wheels.

Give the game a shot and let us know what you think. Do you prefer this turn-based game over other real-time racing games? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!