Welcome to iDigitalTimes’ newest column, Weekly Freebie, a post highlighting great free-to-play games every Friday. That should give you plenty of time to install the game and spend a couple of days playing before the weekend is over. We won’t be beholden to a specific platform. Some weeks you’ll see a console game recommended here, other weeks it might be a PC or mobile release. The only constant will be the game’s F2P business model.
After a short hiatus, admittedly caused by too much Overwatch, our weekly F2P column is back!
And to make up for our time away, we’ve returned with THREE new recommendations to keep you entertained this weekend. Going forward, we’ll be sticking with the one per week format. But this seemed like the only fair way to make up for missing out on the last two weeks. So, without further adieu, let’s dive into this week’s list!
First up, Wasteland 2 is nearly two years old now, following its September 2014 debut, and currently enjoying a free-to-play weekend on Steam. If you’re not familiar, Wasteland 2 is the sequel to the 1988 RPG Wasteland and was created by inXile Entertainment after a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund development. The game tells the story of the Desert Rangers, a group of former law enforcement officials who’ve banded together after a nuclear apocalypse, as they try to bring peace to the Arizona wasteland.
We’re not sure the next three days will be enough time for you to complete the entire campaign, unless you’re willing to stay inside the whole weekend, but it should be more than enough time to decide whether or not you’re even interested in finishing Wasteland 2. Should you get hooked, like we did, Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is available for just $20 until Monday morning.
You can download Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut on Steam.
Next, Prominence Poker made its Steam debut last month but it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I stumbled across the UE4-powered poker game in Valve’s digital marketplace. And boy am I glad that I did. As someone who used to have a regular cash game, before I decided to move to a new state, it’s been difficult to find a replacement for that nightly entertainment now that Congress has taken a much stricter approach to online poker. Free tables on sites like FullTilt or PokerStars are notoriously full of people who push all-in at every opportunity. But Prominence Poker still has a small enough community for players to find good competition.
Prominence Poker has all of the features you’d expect from poker software that doesn’t let you gamble, including the ability to find ring games or tournaments -- with a variety of buy-ins and blinds -- and customizable player avatars that can be dressed by the player. The game also includes a built-in (but entirely optional) voice chat system, bringing a bit of life to the table if you want it, but there’s no text chat for trolls to ruin. Of course, since it’s free-to-play, the player’s chip count serves as developer ‘s primary source of monetization. Each person gets $10,000 in chips when they create their account, along with daily login bonuses, but you’ll have to spend real money on additional chips if you exhaust your bankroll and don’t want to wait for the following day’s login bonus. Players can also use their chips to purchase additional table items, clothing and accessories for their avatar.
Prominence Poker can also be downloaded on Steam.
Finally, Nonstop Knight meshes aspects of action-RPGs, endless runners and the recently popular idle clicker genre to create one of the best mobile games we’ve played all year. Players are given limited control over a knight who is charging headlong through a dungeon comprised of dozens (perhaps hundreds) of floors. You don’t have any control over the knight’s movement, which halts only when the knight encounters a group of enemies, but players do have choose when to trigger the warrior’s various combat abilities. It’s also up to the player to spend their hard-earned gold on upgrades for the knight’s equipment and to decide when their hero is ready to face each boss.
Like many idle games, your knight never stops adventuring in Nonstop Knight, even when your chosen tablet or smartphone is put to sleep. The only thing the knight won’t do is challenge new bosses. You’ll always have to trigger those battles yourself and you’ll probably want to be paying pretty close attention anytime you challenge one of Nonstop Knight ’s bigger foes. Thankfully, the game isn’t particularly aggressive with its microtransactions and getting hours of entertainment out of the game (without spending a dime) seems feasible more than feasible.
Nonstop Knight can be download from the App Store and Google Play.
