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.
Dungeons and Dragons Online is now free which is following in the footsteps of other MMO's that have decided to give the free-to-play model a try. I've read reports that some have been successful. If your looking around for something new, this may be exactly what your looking for. It's based on the D&D 3.5 ruleset. Here's some information from the site:
Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™ (or DDO for short) is the only FREE to play premium Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO) of its kind. Set in the vast and dangerous online world of Eberron, gamers discover hidden treasure, pummel monsters, and look to evade traps left behind by an ancient race. By leveraging the most active, most realistic combat system of any online game, DDO players deliver and feel every blow that goes into a baddie’s demise.
System Shock is an action role-playing game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. Released in 1994,[1] the game is set aboard the fictional Citadel Station in a cyberpunk vision of 2072. Assuming the role of a nameless hacker, the player attempts to hinder the plans of a malevolent artificial intelligence.
System Shock may have been the first good RPG implementation of a cyberpunk-style world. It was the first to feature a true 3D environment and it has been placed on multiple hall of fame lists. I'm going to be picking this one up just to save and reminisce from time to time. It wasn't a hugely popular game, probably because it was releases as a non-audio version on floppy disk. Yeah, floppy disk. This is really the technology prequel to a lot of the games we play today, but Deus Ex probably more than others.
Get it now at OldGames.sk:
http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/system-shock/download/847/
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!
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.
