Most free games are terrible and that's when you can even find them. Type the phrase into a search engine and the water goes murky with links to demos, flash games and a whole lot of online poker.

Still, a little patience and a lot of browsing through sites like Acid-Play , GameHippo and Game Maker Games brought up a lot of hopefuls. That eventually resulted in this list of ten titles - in no particular order - that you should check out, just to see what gamers are up to in their free time. Trust me, some of these are good enough that you'd like to see them appear in a box one day.

For the record, all of the games below are free for download and not time-locked or level-locked. They are just there for you to play and enjoy. When you're done looking at the list, hit the sites above - you'll be pleasantly surprised.