OpenArena

So, I’m really into free games. I don’t like buying games, but I do like games, so I find free games to play. Sometimes, they are really, really good. Like the one I’m going to talk about today.

OpenArena is a FPS game based on the Quake 3 engine that was open-sourced a year or two ago. Since that time, the developers have been working hard to create a really great game. Right now, it’s showing. The last version (December 2006) introduced bots, allowing the game to have a great single and multi-player experience. With the new version that came out just this month, they have added even more characters and a good number of new maps.

They also upped the ante on the single player mode with their creation of a 5 tier single player game. There’s no story, but you have to play through one map to unlock the next. Sure, you could just create a regular old skirmish and use any of the maps, but it’s kind of fun to play through them all.

The game does have multi-player, but I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know how good it is.

Basically, it’s just a fun, free FPS that has some great potential. They are still actively developing the game and so I expect that we’ll see some more great releases from them. Maybe even a full single player campaign. It’s worth the download.

Edit: Did I mention that because the graphics are a bit dated it will run on almost all computers? And that it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux? No. Well now I have.