Action/FPS

GamesRadar.com has a list of great commercial games that have been released for free.  Included are some of my favorites like Archlord, Battle Chess, Fallout, and many more. 

From the site:

We like free stuff. That’s why we posted links to download and play 365 free games so you could have a decent game to play for every day of the year, free of charge. Unfortunately, GamesRadar has yet to wrestle the most formidable type of free games into submission so that they can be preserved in their proper list form for eternity. We’re talking about the free games that were good enough to sell, important enough to review, and memorable enough to warrant a second play through years later.

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/30-commercial-games-released-for-free/a-20100202122153157099

From the site:

For two weeks starting December 22nd, enjoy "Silent Night", a holiday-themed remake of the popular arena "Distant Screams" from Team Arena. During this time Santa himself along with his festive helper Vixen, will be playable character models across all game types.

Quake Live is a completely online version of Quake that is free for everyone.  It features 50 areas, 5 game modes, off-line bot competition, and you can select your skill level so that you can play with others like you. 

http://www.quakelive.com/#preview/winter2009

Alien Arena 2009 is now out with some great new features. These games seem to be gaining steam and that is good for the free PC gaming world. Freeware looks to be here to stay for a while, so get on over to the site and check it out. Here's what's new:

You've seen the screenshots, the videos, now it is time to face the alien invasion head on, armed to the hilt with disruptors, beamguns, and vaporizors. The amount of improvements to the game engine are staggering. The game comes alive with the full implementation of GLSL per-pixel lighting on all surfaces, OpenAL audio system, and new gameplay features. Optimization was as always, another aspect that we've addressed. No longer does one have to be leary of cranking the settings up, the game plays remarkably faster with the switch to GLSL for per-pixel operations. Alien Arena has transformed into a lean, clean, fragging machine, with stunning visual effects that are usually reserved for commercial titles. This isn't your daddy's Alien Arena - it's not even last year's model, with a host of new and improved maps, sounds and music.

Some of the new features in this release:

* GLSL per-pixel lighting on meshes(now all surfaces).
* OpenAL 1.1
* Ogg-Vorbis support.
* GLSL post process framebuffer effects.
* New scoreboards.
* New HUD.
* Stereo music files.
* Seven new maps.
* Two new player characters.
* Voice taunt system.
* Doppler sound effects.

Alien Arena 2009 is open source, free to play, and sets a new standard in freeware FPS gaming!

Download mirrors are here

Nexuiz 2.5 is a FPS based on the Quake 1 engine, but they have really taken it to another level after years of hard work. I can't believe this game is still improving after many others are long gone. The list of changes is long and the number of people that play this game casually and in tourneys is amazing. Here are the new features:

* Completely redone HUD and user adjustable scoreboard
* Totally rewritten Client/Server communication to cut the bandwidth usage in half
* New gamemode "Race". Try to get from start to end of a level as fast as possible. Available as free-for-all and team variant. Further allows to play with or without a qualification period.
* Added several new weapons (on-hand Grappling Hook, Port-O-Launch, T.A.G. Seeker, Heavy Laser Assault Cannon, Rifle)
* Map editor NetRadiant included
* Improved all effects for eye candy and tweakability
* All maps recompiled with external lightmaps which allow for much crisper shadows
* Added maps desertfactory (DM, TDM, MinstaGib), racetrack (Race) and made aggressor support Key Hunt
* New player sounds, announcer sounds/voices, textures, crosshairs, weapon models, effects and menu skins
* Added support for video capture to OggTheora
* Integrated the Havoc mod into the menu! Havoc servers use quite different physics and weapons, give it a try!
* Fixed a crash with ATI drivers on shutdown or vid_restart
* Fixed several problems with lagging gameplay/crashes/wrong display of effects
* Improved bots (teamworking, bunnyhopping, swimming, better way finding, support for ladders, less CPU usage, faster map loading)
* Better visual display of carried items (Strength, Shield, flags and keys)
* Better parental guidance support with cl_gentle and cl_nogibs
* Lots of tourney-related features (timeout/in, spectator-slots, allready, warmup mode, lockteams, unlockteams, movetoteam_red/blue/..., nospectators, records, cointoss)
* Added some effects customization options like cl_casings, cl_weaponpriority
* Many more map entities allowing for more dynamic maps
* Restructured and improved menu: demos menu and multiple campaigns are back, also added an advanced menu containing ALL settings of the game

They are also looking for help for the next release, so if you are needing to add some game design or coding experience to your resume, contact them.

http://alientrap.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4448

Tribes 2 was a very popular multiplayer FPS that I used to love playing along with Unreal Tournament. It featured expansive maps and great CTF play. Apparently, even though Vivendi shut down the Tribes 2 authentication servers, TribesNext is offering a patch that appears to be able to handle the authentication process through their service. Since Tribes 2 is now free, this appears to be good news for bargain gamers everywhere.

TribesNext