Ask HN: Best free games to play on PC?

Epic Store has a list of free games here: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/free-games

Edit: also GOG: https://www.gog.com/partner/stay_at_home

Xonotic [0] is an amazing game if you're into quake style arena shooters. It's a fast paced multiplayer shooter and like 0 A. D. also OSS.

Easiest to get up to speed in the "minstagib" or "instagib" mode, where basically one shot kills and "bullets" arrive at their target instantly. Once you're familiar with the mechanics, the other modes are quite fun, too.

[0]: https://xonotic.org/

Just remember that the free to play model is about using tricks to encourage you to spend money, usually with shitty game mechanics unless you pay. If you are not going to pay on a multi-player game, your role is to improve the user experience for other players that are actually spending money. To replace an AI, so they spend more.

So I would skip the free to play games if you don't have a budget for them.

My personal favorite free and open-source game is OpenTTD but it's a bit dated.

I've heard good things about Path of Exile, if you're into Diablo type games: https://www.pathofexile.com/

If you're willing to shell out $6, I can't recommend Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri enough, especially if you're into turn-based civ games. GoG has a ton of older stuff for less than a Hamilton. https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri

I have been playing a lot of Mindustry lately, not just free, the game is open source too.

"Mindustry is a hybrid tower-defense sandbox factory game. Create elaborate supply chains of conveyor belts to feed ammo into your turrets, produce materials to use for building, and defend your structures from waves of enemies. Features include a map editor, 24 built-in maps, cross-platform multiplayer and large-scale PvP unit battles."

https://anuke.itch.io/mindustry

itch is oozing with free-to-download or pay-optional games by hobbyist and new game developers. I'm a big fan of it. Some of the stuff is very raw though, compared to Steam or Epic pages being more product-oriented.

I don't think my picks will be similar to 0 A.D., but some interesting ones that stick out to me are:

https://alt254.itch.io/triforce

https://namatakahashi.itch.io/i-want-eat-the-sun

https://seregsarn.itch.io/taraman-castle-oni-story

https://aetherinteractive.itch.io/sol-hemochroma

https://minkcv.itch.io/urbansnake

https://cyangmou.itch.io/fantastic-fetus

https://co5monaut.itch.io/do-not-take-your-eyes-away-from-th...

No One Lives Forever 1 and 2: http://nolfrevival.tk/

The Dark Mod: https://www.thedarkmod.com/main/

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly: https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly

This is HN so if by "free" you mean open-source ignore this.

Rocket League

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Team Fortress 2

Starcraft 2

Fortnite

Diabotical

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is deep, rich and hard as hell to master. I great rogue like with a nice tileset.

There's UnCiv, also on the FDroid store. FOSS CivV on Android and desktop.

https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv

One of my favorites is my own game: http://vnav.io

Disclaimer: Still in beta. Move around to fight people.

Dwarf Fortress