I know older titles are usually the topic in this community but a lot of the popular f2p games are getting pretty old now too, and if you’re like me you’ve been curious about some of them and even pleasantly surprised now and again.
There are many examples like League of Legends, Apex Legends, Raid: Shadow Legends etc and I usually get hooked on one and play it for some months or more. I’m not really trying to get into the “business” side of things, I personally very rarely purchase anything but if you do that’s absolutely fine too.
The current ones I play regularly:
- PC - Enlisted - A WW2 shooter with vehicles like the Battlefield games. Same publisher and game engine as War Thunder and has been in open beta for over 2 years now. Kinda janky still but regularly updated and enjoyable.
- Android - CUE cards universe everything (I forget exactly lol) - Fun deck builder but very grindy if you don’t buy shit. Pretty unique concept for a deck builder what I’ve come across. Short games too so good for a smoke break or the bus or whatever.
So, what do you play?
Predecessor is the best MOBA I’ve ever played, and it’s not even out of early access yet. Right now just grinding Brawl because it’s braindead action but the normal gamemode is also good.
World of Tanks was the last I was hooked on but burnt out and haven’t played it in forever.
I never could get into World of Tanks. It always seemed interesting but didn’t grab me.
I gotta get back into World Of Warships tho that game is neat.
Pikmin Bloom. It helps me get up and walking and has guided me to cool local public art.
Super Auto Pets and Bloons TD Battles 2
Thinking about getting back into Crossfire. That was a super fun time during high school with a good friend about 15 years ago. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia but I remember some quite fun modes like Ghosts.
I recently picked up Crossout again when browsing free games on xbox. The Battle Bots x Lego kinda thing works for me, sadly it’s very pay to win so you hit a certain level and then the fun is gone.
I have put some 1400 hours into Rocket League, even though I’ve been playing it since it wasn’t free. Easy to learn, impossible to master. Sadly the community is super super toxic, so it’s more fun if you have a friend or two to play with.
I play League of Legends and a couple gacha games all F2P. Genshin, Snowbreak, and Aether Gazer. Wuthering Waves just came out so time will tell if it stays in my rotation or not.
Jesus how do today keep up with the FOMO live service high engagement driven model that each of them ask for you
Right I’m actually kinda addicted so I like make time for my “dailies”. Usually like an hour a day -ish. Don’t think I’ve missed a day for around 250 days now. I know I’d probably enjoy it more if I played story games or something but it is nice to just turn off my brain for an hour. Kinda feels like how my parents would brain-off watch TV for hours.
Also I have an Google sheet with checkmarks to make sure I do everything every day so I spend the least amount of time on each game rather than thinking.
Holy shit. I was not expecting this answer … got more commitment than me
Warframe
Good old Space Ninjas.
Its not a perfect game but its a great power fantasy
A great power fantasy for the Grineer when I hit Steel Path lmao.
Really more space wizards these days, but I do like to sneak around in a spy mission from time to time…
If you mean free-to-play in the sense of a commercial game that one can play without payment, but where it is supported by data-mining or in-app-purchases or ads, I can only off-the-cuff recall playing a few games in that category:
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World of Warships. I played one round against humans.
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Defense of the Ancients 2. I played one round against human players and some time against the computer.
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Fallout Shelter. I didn’t like it much, though I do like the mainline Fallout series.
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I remember some gamebook game on Android that showed ads at the bottom.
I’m not playing any of those currently. Broadly-speaking, I don’t like the model. I’d rather just pay up front.
If you’re talking about free-to-play-with-the-aim-of-selling-you-on-a-larger-game, I’ve played plenty of those – in the 1990s, shareware and demos were a common way to promote a game. But they’ve kind of fallen out of favor in terms of DLC. I don’t think I’ve played any of those for a while.
If you’re talking about entirely free games, then I’ve played plenty of those. I think the two that I’m currently playing off-and-on, both open-source, would be:
- Shattered Pixel Dungeon, an Android roguelike. !pixeldungeon@lemmy.world
- Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, a (mostly PC; there’s an Android build and you can play it on a touchscreen, but it’s really better-suited to a keyboard) open-world roguelike. There’s a not-very-active Threadiverse community at !cataclysmdda@lemmy.ml; the subreddit is much more active.
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I have not come back to it in awhile, but Mobile Legends bang bang. It’s a tower rush game (league of legends knock off) that is free to play, with plenty to buy for those that want. Besides some of the cosmetic stuff (skins and stuff) anything can be gotten through grinding.
It’s 5 on 5 tower rush, with lots of different characters. I had gotten quite familiar with playing a few, and for awhile really knew a bit about playing against most of the regularly seen characters.
Nowadays I get the urge every few months, update app, play for a week or two then put it down.
Sim city build it also stays on my phone, as it is a peaceful and colorful game. Easy to play for 10 minutes or go in and out of on a long ride.
Currently two:
War Thunder - It has so many issues from the grind, to unadressed design issues (IE 10kg HE shells doing no damage on a direct hit), to balance issues including p2w vehicles. That said, under all the shit, theres a solid foundation, and no other game comes close to replicating it.
Super Auto Pets - Its an autobattler streamlined to the point where its the perfect casual game when I don’t feel like anything else. It also doesn’t have any of the normal f2p traps, and is monitized purely on cosmetics that can also be earned for free.
Hey Super Auto Pets was pretty neat actually.
Any time anyone ever says War Thunder all I can think of is people leaking military information on the game forums.
- Classified Challenger tank specs leaked online for videogame (1st time)
- Classified tank specs leaked on War Thunder game forums – again (2nd time)
- War Thunder Forums Have, For the Third Time, Been Used to Leak Classified Military Intel (3rd time)
- War Thunder players leak military documents on forums, again (9th time)
- Military secrets leaked on ‘War Thunder’ forums yet again (12th time)
- For 13th time, sensitive military information leaked on ‘War Thunder’
- Sensitive documents showed up on War Thunder forums. Again. (14th time)
May or may not come back and edit with more links for the other times
There was another one a few days ago, too, from what I heard.
I’ve been playing Palia. It’s a chill MMO focused on resource gathering, NPC quests, and crafting.
Xonotic, tf2
https://www.kartkrew.org/index.html
Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers. A Sonic fan game that’s similar to Mario Kart. It’s kinda drawn me in and it’s very technical.
In terms of multiplayer games to play with friends on Discord; been playing a lot of Apex Legends recently. Sadly I suck at aiming.
Risk.
Not sure why though. I dislike Hasbro, the game isn’t particularly exciting, and I don’t like the monetization, but it’s relaxing for me. I haven’t spent a dime and I only play for 15-20 min/day, but I like it for some reason.
Likewise with Magic: The Gathering Arena. I don’t play as much recently, but I do like it.
Most of my time is spent playing older AAAs and indie games though.
