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Freeloading PC Multiplayer Party Games

Posted by simoniker on from the cramming-down-gullet dept.

Thanks to 1UP for its 'Freeloader' article profiling little-known but free multiplayer party games for the PC. The author explains of the featured games: "All of them are quick to download, easy on the system requirements, free of charge, and support six or more players. Perfect for the next time you throw together a quick gaming session", before pointing to Little Fighter 2 ("Super-deformed kids hitting each other in the face with baseball bats"), Soldat ("about as close as you can come to a side scrolling Quake deathmatch"), and Liquid War ("Definitely the most fun you'll have playing with puddles since you were six.")

48 comments

  1. Liquid War by angryLNX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Liquid war is one of the most fun open source games I've played. I'm surprised BZFlag wasnt mentioned!

  2. Soldat and Liquid War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll have to second that article. Soldat's really fun if you're got a bunch of people playing.
    Liquid War's fun too, although it gets boring after a while. I haven't played that one multiplayer though.

  3. Soldat problems by Sparr0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The biggest problem with Soldat as a party game is that it has very bad LAN support. 90% of the time at least a few players at my LAN parties cant see the server (or connect by IP) at all, and sometimes NO ONE can see it. But for playing online, it rocks.

    PS: doesnt work under wine or winex :(

  4. another one? by CompSurfer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    how about gunbound? haven't played it yet, a friend sent me the link not long ago. It's not OSS, but it is supposed to be free. (I think it's Spyware/Adware free, but I haven't checked yet.)

    1. Re:another one? by sigh71 · · Score: 1

      i played it for awhile it appears to be spyware/adware free....

      its more a massivley multiplayer game tho...
      you need to be on the net ans connect to there servers....

      It is good fun... kinda like worms or scorched earth....

    2. Re:another one? by Rallion · · Score: 1

      Gunbound is great fun. Sometimes. It depends on who you play with...you get a lot of little immature, annoying kids, for one thing, and a lot of people who make you remember why SC players all hated Koreans in general, because of a few (many?) idividuals (aside from getting their asses kicked by them!!!!!! kekekekeke!!!).

      I witnessed a wonderfully intellectual verbal skirmish between two players in one game. "Yo momma sucked my dick and it was good!" "Yeah well my momma's dead you sick fuck!" "Yeah I like it like that!" "You're sick!" "Sick like yo momma!"

      And I love the rare times when you get players who will fill the screen with lines of a single character. And the people who respond to the tiniest mistake on the most difficult shot with "Omgz youz arez teh nubz!" And, geek that I am, people who fail to understand the differences between network lag and slow machines cause me far more annoyance than one might expect.

      I still play though, that's a statement about how fun the game can be, and usually is.

  5. Soldat by Lisandro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Soldat is INSANELY fun. I've played online and on LAN on the cybercafe i work now and it's a riot. It's one of those games you pick up in minutes but becomes very hard to master. If you like 2d side scrollers and CounterStrike, you owe to yourself to give it a try. PS: I'd kill for a linux version.

  6. This seems a good a time as any by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 4, Informative
    to pimp my favorite free online multiplayer game: Enemy Territory.

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    1. Re:This seems a good a time as any by digitalgiblet · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Captain Splendid said: "to pimp my favorite free online multiplayer game: Enemy Territory."

      I have been playing Enemy Territory (ET) consistently for a longer period than any other game I've ever played. And I've played a lot of games...

      The fact that it is free is icing on the cake. The game does a great job of balancing different roles on each team and making sure you need a good mix of those roles.

      Few games reward teamplay as much. A small team who actually comminicates and coordinates can butcher a larger team that fails to do so.

      Good example is the soldier character with the mortar weapon. The mortor deals devastating damage but is rediculously difficult to aim. HOWEVER, if the team has a field ops character using binoculars to spot the target for the soldier with the mortar, then it becomes a withering weapon. Two guys can hold a choke point very effectively. The soldier can be VERY far from the target and the field ops can be reasonably far, so stopping them can be difficult.

      However, a good covert operative can steal an enemy uniform and infiltrate the enemy and whack the soldier with the mortar (via a variety of methods including sniper rifle and knife).

      Most maps require engineer characters to build or destroy objectives in order to win. I personally favor playing the engineer since I don't have time to play enough to justify joining a clan (thereby being part of an organized team). Since I'm usually on teams that are functioning individually without coordination (I am an army of one), I like to play the character that can achieve the map objectives. That way even if my team is playing pretty much at random, there is a chance they will distract the enemy enough that I can accomplish the mission.

      The other thing I really like about ET is that the matches are usually about 20 minutes long. That means I can jump into a server, play for 20-60 minutes and have a great time without committing a huge amount of time.

      Last point (I promise) is that I love the fact that ET uses PunkBuster to limit cheating. Nothing will ever completely stop all cheating, because cheaters can be a determined bunch, but PunkBuster has kept me from seeing much cheating. 99% of the times I've heard people complain about cheating the truth has been that a noob is simply unable to believe the skill and practice shown by an experienced player. ET rewards skill and practice... Headshots from an M1 Garand HURT. They are also hard to do without a LOT of practice. Occassionally I'll turn off PunkBuster and walk on the wild and wacky side. It is fun to play on a server where some admin is jacking around with the gravity settings. Occassionally. Like cake icing: great if taken in small doses. Jumping 60 feet in the air and shooting at bouncing NAZIs is fun in small doses.

    2. Re:This seems a good a time as any by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1

      Hey, if you don't mind playing shrub mod (some people can be picky about this) drop on by my regular server at 67.18.55.148:27965. The clan that runs it has forums here if you're interested. We have a pretty good crew, although summer's been slow. Couple of caveats, though: No panzer, stopwatch and limited lives. But to me, that's the only way to play.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    3. Re:This seems a good a time as any by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "No panzer, stopwatch and limited lives. But to me, that's the only way to play."

      I concur absolutely.

  7. RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by shaitand · · Score: 1

    Read my sig to find a neat one.

    1. Re:RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by DarkGreenNight · · Score: 1

      What an impressive game! I wish there were more games like this one!
      Game developers, listen to this dude, he's got the keys of the kingdom of fun!

      P.S. What about clicking the preview button before submitting ;)

    2. Re:RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      to many fuckers have stupid ads in their sigs so i have them turned off and wont make an exeception - whats the link in your sig please?

    3. Re:RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just turn on sigs for a minute or two to check, it won't kill you. (Well, actually it will.)

    4. Re:RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the parent AC's father, and I'm here to tell you that your advice just killed my son.

      Thanks alot.

    5. Re:RPG are still the best Multiplayer games by FlopEJoe · · Score: 1

      Bah! http://www.progressquest.com/ is the only way to go!

  8. Marathon by FLAGGR · · Score: 2, Informative

    What about AlephOne/M1A1?? Can't beat it's FPS'n platform'n action! /me goes back to his Marathon-athon

  9. Server Setup by Llynix · · Score: 4, Informative

    I downloaded liquid war and set up a server. If any other slashdotters want to play it's at 68.201.157.203

    It should be in the menu there.

    Seems the only other server that was up was password protected. And no one was playing.

    1. Re:Server Setup by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      I'm emerge-ing it; be there in 5'!

    2. Re:Server Setup by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, it won't connect for some reason. Maybe the game isn't NAT-friendly?

  10. Missing a few games by colk99 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well they missed a few games out including Allegiance which is still going at http://www.freealleg.net/

    1. Re:Missing a few games by Errabes · · Score: 3, Informative

      Looks like it moved there : http://www.freeallegiance.org/

  11. Physics Based by Joff_NZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Bontago - very cool physics based multiplayer game.. fun to play too


    http://www.bontago.com/

    --
    The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
    1. Re:Physics Based by Bazzargh · · Score: 2, Informative

      Be warned - Bontago will bring your system to its knees on bigger maps, more players.

      In larger games you end up with a standoff where each player is constantly disrupting the others lines of communication, and the only way to attempt a win is to build a rubble road to the flags. This means that you end up with huge numbers of objects on the map, and thats when the game falls apart. It takes so long to recalculate your area of influence, which is constantly changing, that all your drops time out and you are no longer able to play.

      If the game changed just a bit so it didn't completely reset your area of influence while it figures out the effect of a change, it wouldn't be so bad.

    2. Re:Physics Based by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      It only lets locked blocks (i.e. those not currently handled by the physics engine) act out influence, that's why you lose all influece during an earthquake, anvil or rotor effect. With a rubble road it sometimes doesn't lock the blocks, though, which is really annoying.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    3. Re:Physics Based by Two+Scoops · · Score: 1

      In Bontago there's a solid fix for that particular lag problem. You can turn off the most cpu-intensive area of influence processing in the game options screen. Just uncheck "require flag connection". This makes linking back to the flag unnecessary to win, but the game still plays very much the same.

  12. Split Screen by Schlaegel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My biggest requirement for a party game: multi-player on the same screen.

    Networked multi-player is nice when you can't be in the same place. but, if you are in the same place, then games that share the screen are more fun.

    The consoles have this right. Don't add another system and monitor, just add another joypad. This brings people together rather than separating them.

    1. Re:Split Screen by J�r�me+Zago · · Score: 2

      Try heroes (screenshot). The resolution sucks (320x200 - I run it like this: heroes -F -J -2 -i), but it's lots of fun in 2-player.

    2. Re:Split Screen by nabasu · · Score: 1

      I agree with parent but there are fun splitscreen games on the PC too! Like the Heroes of Might and Magic games...And freeware fun? Liero comes to mind.

    3. Re:Split Screen by BinLadenMyHero · · Score: 1

      try this

  13. 2d Quake Deathmatch by I(rispee_I(reme · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think Abuse fits that bill better, and it's public domain, with a Win32 port here
    That is the full game with all media. It comes with a level editor, and only supports 4 player deathmatch. Still, one of my favorite LAN games.

    P.S. I understand the author of this port has a slashdot account. Be sure to let him know what you think.

    1. Re:2d Quake Deathmatch by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Abuse is cool. It was the first game I ever played over network (even the 486s our school used could run it) and also the first game I played at 1600x1200. The latter is really fun, I forced a crappy 14" to do that, had to up the gamma so far there was no lighting anymore and the size of the sprites was reminescent of Lemmings...

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  14. I have to mention (but not recommend).... by fm6 · · Score: 2

    Sissyfight. The concept is original and intriguing (as are most games from the same shop) but the implementation is really disappointing.

  15. Jump'n'Bump by BinLadenMyHero · · Score: 2, Informative

    Speaking of 2D deathmatch, I found Jump'n'Bump very fun and skillish.
    I even supports four people playing on the same computer! I tried with three. It's cute and full of gibs and blood.
    It's also on Orkut.

  16. offtopic by BinLadenMyHero · · Score: 1

    cool, it works.
    every comment on /. has a <a name=CID> tag, so you can jump-link to it.

  17. controls by kisrael · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've always loved "party games"...on PC the usual issue is the controls...

    I remember playing a port "Rampart" in college, around 1992 or so...one player on mouse, one on keyboard, one on joystick...and the mouse player had a HUGE advantage.

    I guess now, you can just get 6 cheap USB gamepads and a few of those USB splitter ports? Is that how it usually works?

    --
    SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  18. Runescape by webscathe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not a party game, but an absolutely awesome, and free, mmorp. Runescape. I've been addicted since I started a few months ago. If you decide to check it out, i also highly recommend RuneHQ as it's an incredible resource for playing the game.

  19. What about generally? by 't+is+DjiM · · Score: 1

    generally is a free race-game that allows multiple people to play the game on the same keyboard. Great fun. And a good community creating tons of maps to race on.

    --
    --Use ant to make .war
  20. Scorched 3D by DavidBlewett · · Score: 3, Informative

    Come on, no one remembers the original Scorched Earth? Now there is an open source, 3d version: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/.

    1. Re:Scorched 3D by rice75 · · Score: 1

      Countless hours were wasted playing Scorched Earth, thanks for the link for the update! It looks a little more complicated that the old version I used to play. Who knew a weapon called "Death's Head" actually existed?!

  21. Armagetron by Dekar · · Score: 2, Informative
    I'm surprised no one mentionned Armagetron yet. When configured correctly, it's great fast-paced multi-players light cycles action for the whole family.

    Little Fighter II and Soldat are great games too, but in our local Lan Parties, Armagetron was definitely the most succesful. We found out that Little Fighter II is best when played with less than 4 players, hopefully about the same skill level, as there is a huge learning curve. Soldat used to be more succesful in earlier versions, when it was even faster and crazier :)

  22. oldie but goodie by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Informative

    circa 1995

    I still play Subspace, which you can download among other places at www.subspacechaos.com

    There's still plenty of people who play in the various zones, but I'm sure the current population wouldnt mind getting a noob or two thousand.

  23. Cube3d, bzflag... by CarrionBird · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://cube.sourceforge.net/, for a fast 3d game similar to Q3 but with a Doom-esque theme.

    Also, bzflag, is easy on the requirements and easy to play.

    --
    Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
  24. Little Fighter by mutewinter · · Score: 1

    My brother has been playing little fighter for years. Usually the control scheme involves about 3 people on one keyboard.

  25. Soldat! by focitrixilous+P · · Score: 2, Informative

    Soldat is quite the game for when you are stuck on a low end computer. It never ran quite right on my laptop, which is another story, but even on dial up you can play a 8 player deathmatch. It works okay over the network, for me at least.

    --
    SAILING MISHAP
  26. Doom2D: Arena (shameless plug) by aerton · · Score: 1

    Doom2D: Arena

    Open source (GPL) cross-platform side-scroller multy-player only arcade made in spirit of the famous Doom2D.

    Unfortunatelly, still in early beta: http://aerton.rushumor.com/arena/

  27. hotseat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Computer games have always had hotseat. It's better than split screen in a way. Of course the game has to be turn based.

    Some good hotseat games:

    Heroes of Might and Magic
    Worms (or any other scorched earth variant)
    Civilization

    I mean, anything turn based will have a hotseat mode. I just found this website that's rife with old, freely downloadable games. There's also those other games multiplayer games that don't need split screen like You Don't Know Jack and such.

    We were having more fun with multiplayer games way before this whole "internet" thing came along.