Free Hits on the Net!

The Internet is an unending source of information, games, programs and files of every shape and size. Whatever your preference - first person shooters, real-time strategy, simulators, or something else, the Web has updates, skins, mods, maps, new units and all sorts of editors, along with plenty of other files and utilities to complete or improve upon your favorite games. Probably the most famous example is Counterstrike, a mod developed on the Half-Life engine that is now better known than the original game. It is currently the most popular FPS played online or on a LAN. Counterstrike is downloaded free of charge from the Net, but it only works if you have a complete version of Half-Life. The same goes for Day of Defeat, another mod on the World War II theme.

Available free of charge on the Net, Counterstrike is the most popular FPS played online or on a LAN. It is a mod that only works with Half-Life, so is not a complete game unto itself.

Even though editors like Vivendi and Activision offer packaged versions of these games for sale, they can still be downloaded for free, provided you have a connection that can support several hundred megaBytes. Of course, they can only be played on a network; no solo games here. But there are also complete games you can download - not little action games or commercial platforms or even shareware - real video games. The pioneer was and still is Steel Panthers World at War, a World War II game where players take turns, the ultimate development of the famous SSI.