Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I am constantly acquiring new video games to play, especially because I review a new video game for FCM on a monthly basis. However, this is not to say that I'm always buying new games. In fact, I often don't pay a single cent for some of my games. This is thanks in part to the new phenomenon that's been gaining popularity over the last couple of years: the Free-To-Play model (or F2P as it's widely known). Generally speaking, Free-To-Play games usually, but not always, fall into some sort of multi-player online games category with MMORPGs and MOBAs being the most common, but other genres are also included. In the past, most F2P games were Free-To-Play but, unfortunately, were also Pay-To-Win – which meant that unless you were willing to invest money buying in-game items, you would most likely not be able to compete with other players who might have spent a ton of money to level up. So, the question as to whether Free-To-Play games are worth playing is very relevant. The answer comes down to preference, but speaking only for myself, I can honestly say that YES, Free-To-Play games are definitely worth my time.
Although originally Free-To-Play also meant Pay-To-Win, lately that hasn't been the case. In recent years the Free-To-Play model has been shifting from a Pay-To-Win to a fully functional, 100% Free-To-Play, and even Free-To-Win model. Nowadays, you can play most Free-To-Play games without spending anything, while still being able to competitively keep up with the rest of the players. So the question rises, how are game developers and distributors able to make a profit or at least stay afloat with such a model? The answer is simple. Most of the money generated from Free-To-Play games comes from what are known as micro-transactions consisting mostly of cosmetic items. You give the players the game for free, and the money that they would have originally spent on the game itself is often spent buying cosmetic in-game items which they do not necessarily need but which will make their character look different from the rest. In the long run, most people actually end up spending more money while playing Free-To-Play games than they would have if they had bought the game. It's sort of reverse psychology in a sense. You download, install and play a game for free, then, once you decide you like it, you start spending money because in your mind, you haven't paid for this awesome game that you're playing so “why not spend a few cents to get a custom color for your vehicle? or how about a funny looking hat for your character?” Besides cosmetic items, some games also offer an alternate soundtrack, alternate loading screens, or alternate narrator voices. The possibilities of what you can buy in Free-To-Play games is limited only by the creativity of its creators or distributors. The fact of the matter is that if players like a particular game enough, they'll end up spending money buying things they really don't need. Little by little, the few cents you spend here and there start to pile up and you end up having spent more money via micro-transactions than you would have if you had originally spent $50+ upfront. Not all games follow the exact same model, but most follow some sort of variant of it. Read on to find out where to get some of these games and for a brief description of some of the most popular Free-To-Play games out right now.
A good source for Free-To-Play games is undoubtedly Steam, a digital distribution platform specializing in video games developed by Valve Corporation. On Steam's Store page, if you click on Games, the drop-down menu will actually give you Free-To-Play as one of the choices. Once you've selected Free-To-Play, in order to see the games available on Linux, you should first change the setting from “Popular New Releases” to “Most Popular” and then, on the right hand side, scroll to the bottom to “Narrow by Operating System” and select “Linux/Steam OS” so that all non-Linux games get filtered out and you're left with over 5 pages of games that you can play. At the top of the list you will see DOTA 2, this is followed by Team Fortress 2, both titles by Valve. You can also go to https://www.gog.com/ for a few more options as well as your distribution's Software Center. So what kind of games can we get for free? Let's take a look at a few of them.
Undoubtedly, perhaps the most played Free-To-Play game available for Linux at the moment is Valve's DOTA 2 which was covered in detail back in FCM#79. DOTA 2 is considered a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA, in which two teams of five players battle it out against each other. There are over 108 heroes to choose from at the time of this writing – with more being added at about 2-3 per year. This game is entirely free, and you need not buy anything in order to win. However, this is one of Valve's biggest money makers as it is perceived as more of a sport instead of just a video game. There are various DOTA 2-related tournaments throughout the year held all over the world, The International being the biggest. Last year's The International 4 was such a big event that its final match was even broadcast live on ESPN. The champion team won over $5 million dollars and the overall prize pool was $10.93 million dollars – making it the biggest electronic sports event in terms of money to this day. This year's The International 5 is already on its way to break last year's record. The funds for The International's prizes come from sales of The International Compendium as well as other Compendium-related sales. The Compendium is an electronic interactive booklet that accompanies the tournament. Only 25% of the total sales profit is used as prize money which means that last year's TI4 earned over $40 million dollars. Tournaments aside, in DOTA 2 you can always buy cosmetic items, loading screens, alternate HUD's, alternate voices for various aspects of the game, alternate animations for some of the heroes, etc. This is a game that often gets compared to giants such as World of Warcraft and especially League of Legends. If you haven't played DOTA 2 you may want to look into it; just keep in mind that the hardcore gamers take the game very seriously and in order to not be insulted when you begin online play, you should not only train extensively against bots but also watch some training videos and read some of the many guides aimed at newcomers.
Another game worth checking out is Strife, also a MOBA. Strife is in many ways similar to DOTA 2 which is to be expected since they are both the same genre, but it's different enough to stand on its own. Strife was developed and distributed by S2 games and was released May 2015. One of the main differences that make Strife more appealing to people is that the typical match lasts about half as much as a DOTA 2 match. Most Strife matches last about 20-30 minutes; in DOTA 2 a match usually lasts about 40-60 minutes. Being still an infant in the MOBA scene, Strife currently has 32 heroes from which to choose. Teams are made up of five on each side, but this is where the similarities with DOTA 2 end. All heroes in Strife carry with them a pet and each one also has their own personal courier that carries their items, while in DOTA 2 the courier is shared between the entire party. The graphics in Strife are quite colorful and very cartoon-like – which makes it a refreshing change. I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about this game in the future, especially as more people begin to play it. You can find out more about Strife by going to https://strife.com/, but ultimately to play it, you need to have Steam.
If MOBAs aren't your thing, you can check out War Thunder, which was reviewed back in FCM#94. War Thunder is a combat Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) game in which you get to either fly a plane or navigate a tank in historic battles based around the WW II period. In this game, you can buy other planes or tanks that are not included in the standard game. However, War Thunder also has bigger packages for you to get which have incredible savings built in – if you factor in how much each individual item costs. With new vehicles being added all of the time, this makes for an appealing option for some people. The most expensive of these packages is $99.99, and the “Starter Pack” currently runs for $4.99. War Thunder was developed and distributed by Gaijin Entertainment and released for Linux in November 2014. Although you can download and play War Thunder through Steam, you can also download the game from the War Thunder website at http://warthunder.com/en/game/.
Shifting gears to the fast moving world of car racing, it is my delight to inform that in addition to Tux Racer, you can not only race against other cars but also destroy them in the game Need for Madness? (yes, the ? is part of the name). This game was developed and distributed by Radical Play and to get it you can go to http://multiplayer.needformadness.com/ and at the top of the page click on “Play Game” which should take you to the download page. This game is cartoon-like – in both its graphics as well as its content. The instructions on how to play the game tell you that, to win a race, you can either get to the finish line first, or destroy all other cars. If your car takes damage or if you just want to make it faster, you can try to pull off some stunts when your car catches air after going through a ramp. If you succeed and land properly after a stunt, your car will be stronger and faster (or be repaired if it had previously been damaged). This game is very easy to play, and, so far, I haven't encountered any glitches or bugs while playing it.
If you're more into zombie-survival first-person shooters, then you should check out No More Room In Hell which is a stand-alone mod based on Half-Life 2. NMRIH was chosen by the Steam Greenlight community. It's a pretty good FPS zombie game and follows the traditional FPS design. When you first start out, you must find some sort of weapon to defend yourself, otherwise you'll be trying to fight off zombies with your bare fists. Being a co-op game, when you start the game you can either try to “Find a Server” or “Create a Server” in order to play a game. I haven't yet tried to create a server but there are some good guides on how to do that in the game's forum on Steam. I also recommend that you try to read through a guide on how to play the game as it is rather difficult to survive the first few times you play it. The lack of a true tutorial make it even harder to play when first starting out. However, getting killed early also made it like an obsession for me, making me play again and again over and over because I cannot accept defeat.
You can get No More Room In Hell through its Steam page.
There are many more Free-To-Play games available at the moment that are worth looking into; I've listed only a handful of the games I've actually played. All of the games I mentioned here are easy to install and fun to play. All of the games run with little to no glitches in my Linux box which is one reason I decided to include them here.
My custom made Linux box: • AMD FX-6100 3.3GHz CPU (over-clocked to 3.5GHz) • Asus M5A97-EVO motherboard • Gigabyte Windforce GeForce GTX 960 graphics card with 346.59 proprietary driver • 8GB of Kingston Hyper X RAM & 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive • Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS with Unity desktop