Gaming is expensive, but it does not necessarily have to be. When I started to research on the topic there were many sites that kept talking about piracy being the only way out if you want to play good quality games. We at iLLgaming will always defer you from piracy. (Unless you live in Australia and want to play Hotline Miami 2. If you have the developers blessing who are we to judge.) There are a lot of ways to game on the free and sometimes we just need to make a nice clear list to reflect back on all the choices available to use as gamers now. Sure they may not be the biggest or the prettiest. They’re as as much fun as pull price games and in some cases, even more so.
Do checkout our featured editorial by Chirantan Raut as he iLLvestigates: Can you game for free without resorting to piracy?
Prerequisites
Before we begin here are a few things that you need to check to ensure that your system ready to handle the awesome games that you can download for free.
- Update your drivers. Weather you have AMD, NVidia or built in graphics. Updating them means better gameplay and less crashes. Update links to the auto detect page, which will read your card model and update it automatically. Intel, AMD and NVidia.
- If you are not sure about your system’s configuration, you can use Speccy to find that out.
- Update DirectX and. NET
- Make sure your web browser has the latest update for Adobe Flash, Java, Silverlight, Shockwave
What kind of a game are you looking for?
Mini Flash games
Remember Zapak, once a popular trend among teenagers to host LAN parties in one of the many gaming centres. It now has changed into a flash games website. Like the indian version of Bigfish or Armour games. You can check out the link yourself here to find the many mobile ports or simple games to keep your small cousin off overriding your saves in your Steam library.
My top picks for the free flash games market would be Miniclip, Bigfish and ArmorGames
Recommended games:
Kingdom Rush
Spelunky
Little Alchemy
Browser games
These are games hosted by the game developers and publishers themselves and offer much better quality and gameplay than flash games. Your progress is saved in the browser itself and you can continue on your quest with ease. These offer great game experience all the way from the classic old twitch shooters to interactive stories. Don’t underestimate browser games, trust me. I would recommend these.
Doom
Coma
World’s Biggest Pac Man
Runescape
Angry Birds (Chrome browser)
Drakesang Online
Mobile games
Apps are the new craze and there is nothing better than switching on wifi and browsing through thousands of free games on the app store. All you need is an account with your phone OS developer and you can download and play any of the free games.
- Here is a list of the top rated free android games on the play store.
- A list of top free apps on the Apple app store.
- Top free Windows Phones
Operating System games
We all remember playing Solitaire and Pinball on windows XP. Unfortunately Windows 8 does not comes with any preinstalled games but you can use the modern (Metro) start screen to browse the built in windows 8 app store. Link.
Similarly there are games available through the App Store on Mac.
Game clients
Generally the highest quality games are the biggest download size. They contain the biggest names and latest games from a wide variety of genre. They not only allow games to be installed but also allow you to manage your gaming library. These are also digital stores for you to buy or get free games. To download games from here your will need to register a free account with them.
A few of the most notable examples are:
Desura – Register / Download Client / Free Games
Steam – Register / Download Client / Free Games
Steam is known for some of the biggest and the best free games. Including Team fortress 2 (FPS), Neverwinter (MMO RPG), Marvel Heroes 2015 (Action RPG).
GOG.com – Register / Free Games
This is an online client which means nothing to download. Their Client GOG Galaxy is currently in Alpha testing phase. But they offer neat free games.
Publisher Game clients
Then there are clients not from 1st party developers/publishers that although have limited availability of games offer some of the best games out there. They follow the similar Register / Download / Play pattern.
Battle.net (Hearthstone) – The legendary gaming client by Blizzard. They have trial editions of some their best paid games too. A must have to any PC gamer.
Origin (Check out the free games available here): EA’s attempt to take on Steam. While Origin is nowhere close to Steam’s robustness, it does offer some variety in games that Steam doesn’t. Can’t complain.
Self-Hosted Games
Then of course there are games that are only available through their own site and nowhere else. They include from the most played Moba games to most MMO’s. Generally though they require a small client to be installed in order to load the game or the launcher.
Tracking Sales and Discounts
Now of course there are several promotions running at any given time and it is not always possible to keep a track of games that go on discount. IsThereAnyDeal has all the current offers in one, consolidated place. Just search the game you want and you’re good to go. The link will get you to the site page with games sorted by price and as you can see the list is topped by the best price of them all. Free!
