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Freeloading PC Multiplayer Party Games
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.")
Liquid war is one of the most fun open source games I've played. I'm surprised BZFlag wasnt mentioned!
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.)
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.