Free PC Games (now the Cookie Clicker Thread)

[Bolty]

Stolen from Reddit is a great list of free PC games that everyone should play. Many of these I never knew existed. Of those in the list from the top-rated comment, I have personally played:

Alien Swarm
Command and Conquer
DoomRL
Robot Unicorn Attack
Red Alert 1
Star Control 2
Minesweeper
Team Fortress 2
Sim City 1
Zork 1, 2, and 3

Bolded Star Control II because I think it's one of the best games ever made .

Any other treasures out there? Ones we should all try?

[Jester]

In addition to seconding the recommendation on SCII, I've played a bunch of those.

Beneath a Steel Sky is a very solid adventure game. Worth a look.

Christine Love's "Digital: A Love Story" is worth playing, especially for anyone nostalgic about the BBS era. Its sequel, Analogue: A Hate Story is downright excellent, although not free, and the sequel to that (Hate Plus) just came out this week.

Yahtzee's games (listed under "fullramblomatic games" are, by and large, worth playing. The Chzo Mythos is good, and Trilby's Notes is downright excellent. Trilby: Art of Theft is a great little stealth game.

Facade is... Facade. A glorious experiment in interactivity that almost works.

Katawa Shoujo is the single best h-game/dating sim in existence, head and shoulders better than anything else in the (admittedly godawful) genre. It deals with its theme (disability) with grace and insight. It's vastly less skeezy than most h-games, being pretty much misogyny-free. (It is, however, still an h-game. YMMV.)

HOWEVER... this list is missing so many excellent, free indie games, it's barely scratching the surface. Check indiegames.com, jayisgames.com, and adventuregamestudio.co.uk. For some personal recommendations:

Spybot: The Nightfall Incident
Kingdom Rush
In The Company of Myself and/or Fixation
Fallen London (formerly Echo Bazaar)

Anyone interested in free/cheap/indie games, I'm a little bit obsessive.

Also, not free, but vastly worth it: King of Dragon Pass.

-Jester

[DeeBye]

Black Mesa is a must-play for any Half Life fan.

Moonbase Alpha is a fun albeit short space sim developed in part by NASA.

The single best free game I've ever played is Portal.

[Lissa]

*cough*

[Bolty]

*cough*

This is misleading. Stardock acquired the rights to the Star Control series (e.g. Star Control I, II, and III). However, they do not have the rights to create another Star Control game, since Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III actually own the name to it through Accolade (it's complicated). This is why the open-source spinoff production of Star Control II is called The Ur-Quan Masters (the original subtitle to Star Control II).

Stardock's going to make a game, sure, but it really won't have anything to do with Star Control. They will just get residual money from anyone still buying the Star Control games, which is to say, basically nothing because the free version of SC2 is available (and it's great) and because SC3 was total crap and nobody would ever want it. I just pretend SC3 doesn't exist; hint: it wasn't made by the same people who made SC2.

That article even gets the description wrong of what made SC2 great: it was a total hybrid game. Part adventure, part exploration, part action battle, part resource management, part RPG. In general, such games sell poorly because it's rare to find someone who likes all of those genres and wouldn't be turned off by one of them. A strategy gamer wouldn't have liked the adventure parts. An adventure gamer wouldn't have liked the action parts. Etc.

[Bolty]

Black Mesa is a must-play for any Half Life fan.

And here I thought this was vaporware. I hadn't heard it was finally released. Will have to try it sometime! The nostalgia attack from remembering that moment when I realized holy crap, the soldiers are turning on the scientists, and that means me followed almost immediately by holy crap, the soliders are actually working as a team and providing cover for each other THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVAR MADE will be worth it. One of the best moments in FPS gaming imo. Would seem totally trivial now to today's gamer who is weaned on Modern Warfare games.

[Hammerskjold]

In general, such games sell poorly because it's rare to find someone who likes all of those genres and wouldn't be turned off by one of them. A strategy gamer wouldn't have liked the adventure parts. An adventure gamer wouldn't have liked the action parts. Etc.

What about frungy? If the game has more frungy, it'd sell like galactic hot cakes.

There's one small part that I didn't like about SC2 though, and it's a small one. It's the countdown timer. It gave a sense of urgency, but it took a bit away from the 'vast galaxy' exploration.

Still a masterpiece of a game however.

[Merlinios]

Fantastic Contraption is...fantastic.

[eppie]

Fantastic Contraption is...fantastic.

Nice game. There was a thread about this on the lounge a few years ago. Many members made had some nice solutions to the harder levels.

[Merlinios]

Fantastic Contraption is...fantastic.

Nice game. There was a thread about this on the lounge a few years ago. Many members made had some nice solutions to the harder levels.

Wouldn't surprise me if I participated in said thread, though I have no recollection of it.

[DeeBye]

Nice game. There was a thread about this on the lounge a few years ago. Many members made had some nice solutions to the harder levels.

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-1542.html

[Hammerskjold]

Cookie Clicker. Free browser game.

Currently playing the latest stable version, and the bleeding edge beta because it has dungeons.

[Frag]

I liked Cookie Clicker well enough. My right pointer finger, however, did not.

[Hammerskjold]

I liked Cookie Clicker well enough. My right pointer finger, however, did not.

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Me in my embryonic cookie business stage.

Just based on my own cookie empire buidling experience. Actual clicking to produce cookies only happened during the early phase of your cookie business. The 10 dollar to your name, not even one grandma, and maybe just a few auto clicking cursors at most phase of your business. The you are the baker, accountant, PR, IT, CEO, and janitor all in one early phase.



(Depending on your cookiemindedness, this early stage could be 20 minutes to a couple of hours. Presence\absence of heavenly chips, other random cookie business variables etc.)







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My middle phase. The white powder is confectionary sugar.

After that I find once you've reached the middle phase, say having 50+ buildings of all types, you're really playing more of a supervisor, upper management role. The amount I get from clicking a cookie manually is usually miniscule compared to the Cookie Per Second my growing cookie empire is generating. (It's all about the CpS. DPS, DoT? Who cares. CpS rules all!!!!1111)

As I reach closer to the 100 mark for all buildings, I feel my CpS power grow exponentially. When I do click, it's for golden cookies, cookie chain combos, clicking frenzy combos, and pouncing on another building acquisitions. Click to make cookies? Pfft. I don't click to bake. I click to make things that bake me thousand folds of cookies. Some people are cookie rich. I make rich cookies that makes me -wealthy-. Rich people buy deluxe cookies. Wealthy people buys factories that makes deluxe cookies. And I. Am. Wealthy.

I call this phase the 'Tony Montana on a mountain of powdered sugar cookies, 10,000 cookies a night sexy grammas on my lap hand feeding me Madelaines, bottled milk service at the finest cookie clubs, and burying my cookie competitions with a vengeance.' Metaphorically of course. (and a few not so metaphorically.) The governments of the world wants to rein me in. Men want to be me, women want be with me. With one click I produce more cookies than some plebes lifetimes CpS. I am Tony Stark. I am Heisenberg. I am Ozymandias. I. Am. God.




Enter: The late end game.


I have now surpassed the 100 mark for nearly all but the top tier building (at this moment, that's the anti-matter condenser unit). I have 200 autoclicker and 200 grammas. I am 5 unit shy of reaching 100 antimatter condenser units.

I am growing more melancholy at times. I look at old pictures of younger me, and I wonder was I ever that young and so bold. I look at my worthless progenies and wannabe successors. Not one of them had the chips that I did. Their illegal immigrant nannies and gardeners has more chutzpah and sense than they do. Sometimes I want to see what would happen if I leave my cookie fortune to their servants instead of their spoilt milk bottoms.

I never believed in God, though I do believe I did godly things in the course of my cookie empire building. But good sleep escapes me with increasing frequency. I am plagued with thoughts and memories and questions, I have done both great and terrible things.

But, have I ever done anything, good? My conviction that my empire will stand forever is not as sure nowadays. Will my cookie empire crumble and sink and become silt at the bottom of a milk glass?

I hold court with visionaries, scientist, madmen, and mystics. They tell me the promise of Heavenly Chips, how energy can not be created or destroyed, only change forms. I think more than a few of them are crazy. But, they told me -I- was crazy when I only had 10$, a rolling pin, and proclaimed that one day I will be running a galactic cookie empire.

A few truly crazy ones, tells me of the ways of achieving a state of 'Never Click'. Shadowy achievements made real. Ancient and terrible secrets of the universe. They are so crazy, that I think they might be on to something.

I sometimes wish I could buy a new building that has nothing to do with cookies. I wish I could convert the many acres of cookiefarm-land I have to house and feed the poor. I wish I could buy universities that will offer baking classes for free. I wish I could build museums that houses cookies and show them to the world for free. Has all the cycle tempered my chocolate chips? I've sated nearly all my desires, both gross and subtle. Am I actually seeking atonement for all the great and terrible things I've done?

Then I sometimes think to hell with it all. I would trade all of my cookies, for just a bit more cookies.

[LochnarITB]

'Tony Montana on a mountain of powdered sugar cookies, 10,000 cookies a night sexy grammas on my lap hand feeding me Madelaines, bottled milk service at the finest cookie clubs, and burying my cookie competitions with a vengeance.'

I'm about here - working on the 100s for time machines and antimatter condensers. I'm sitting watching the movie RED but I have to keep glancing over for a golden cookie. I had a 14 cookie chain a little while ago.

[Frag]

I'm only just starting basically, but I picked all of the cookie clicking bonus upgrade and felt that to optimize my output, I should be clicking. My finger cramped so hard after a couple hours that everyone who saw me when we went out for pho later thought I was beckoning them to come closer.

Children ran.

[Taem]

FYI I did not know this, but you cannot get all the upgrades or awards until you RESTART because once you restart, you get Heavenly Cookies, however you only get 1-heavenly cookie for every 100-trillion cookies you've ever made when you restart. These heavenly cookies are necessary for some of the final awards and upgrades (they don't even show up unless you have heavenly cookies), but it's not all doom and gloom; once you restart you get x1% to your cPs for every heavenly cookie you have, so if you restart with 1-zillion cookies like I did, you get x10% cPs and you can get back to where you were in less than 1-hour!

EDIT: That's not the actual formula at all. I was quickly estimating. It's actually: here

[LochnarITB]

FYI I did not know this, but you cannot get all the upgrades or awards until you RESTART because once you restart, you get Heavenly Cookies, however you only get 1-heavenly cookie for every 100-trillion cookies you've ever made when you restart. These heavenly cookies are necessary for some of the final awards and upgrades (they don't even show up unless you have heavenly cookies), but it's not all doom and gloom; once you restart you get x1% to your cPs for every heavenly cookie you have, so if you restart with 1-zillion cookies like I did, you get x10% cPs and you can get back to where you were in less than 1-hour!

EDIT: That's not the actual formula at all. I was quickly estimating. It's actually: here

I was just contemplating whether I wanted to do the reset and go for the heavenly cookie stuff. I also should look into the noclick achieves. Sigh.

[Hammerskjold]

I also should look into the noclick achieves. Sigh.

Don't do it, that way madness lies! (do....it...) Seriously, sacrificing your gains for heavenly chips is one thing, but going for the noclick achivement is flirting with incomprehensible eldritch danger! (Dooo.....It.....) Don't listen to the seductive sweet whisperings of the void. (DO....IT....TASTE THE SWEET ARCANE SUGAR...)

[eppie]

I liked Cookie Clicker well enough. My right pointer finger, however, did not.

Before I click on some bad webpage....do you have a link for this game for me?