Update: There are some new US bundles available to order now. Scroll down to our bundles section to find out more.
Nintendo Switch deals are out now and already selling out at many stores. We wouldn't expect much difference between retailers for the Nintendo Switch's price with stock already being an issue, but we'll list as many Nintendo Switch deals as we can find from reliable retailers. We've also rounded up the best deals and prices for extra Joy-Con controllers, Pro controllers and even some cheap Nintendo Switch memory cards.
Thanks to our automatically-updating price comparison charts, if a retailer does opt for a cheeky discount, you'll see it below. As retailers open up their Nintendo Switch bundles with extra games and controllers, we'll give the best ones a shout in this article too. Note: US stock is generally sold out for now, so US deals may not appear below. There are lots of Nintendo Switch deals on eBay though if you don't want to wait.
The latest Nintendo Switch deals:
Want to know where to buy a Nintendo Switch? Check out our comparison chart below for the latest Nintendo Switch prices.
The best Nintendo Switch bundle deals
As with any new console there will be bundles available containing extra controllers or games. You need to be careful though as not all bundles actually save you money. The worst offenders we've seen actually charge more than buying the items separately! We'll add the best ones below once they're back in stock.
In the US, GameStop has just started taking orders for a trio of large bundles to be released May 19. They come with Zelda: breath of the Wild and/or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe along with a selection of indie games and accessories. They're far from cheap and if you shopped around you could save about $20 when buying separately, but seeing as this is one of the few stores with orderable stock, you might want to take a look at the Nintendo Switch deals at GameStop.
Nintendo Switch Q&A
As with any new console announcement we imagine you're wanting to know a bit more about the console before you put any money down. So in addition to finding the best Nintendo Switch deals, we're going to help bring in answers to the burning questions.
What are the Joy-Con controllers?
The Joy-Con controller is actually a pair of controllers that attach to the sides the the Nintendo Switch when not in use or when playing in tablet form away from the TV.
When playing the Nintendo Switch on the TV though, you can remove them and play with one in each hand. The left hand gets a controller with an analogue stick and d-pad, the right hand handles the one with a second analogue and the usual A, B, X and Y face buttons.
What's the Joy-Con Grip controller?
The Joy-Con Grip is an additional accessory that joins the two Joy-Con controllers together, forming something something a bit more solid for you to hold thanks to the extended handles and plastic block between the two sides. The square dimension form-factor may remind older gamers of the Dreamcast controller, while everyone else will mainly be thinking how it resembles an odd-looking dog face. Nintendo is providing one in the box with the Nintendo Switch, so you won't have to buy one separately.
Is there a Nintendo Switch Pro controller?
Yes and it doesn't come with the console. But you won't actually need one to play certain games, so don't feel pressured in to buying one. The Nintendo Switch Pro controller is a more traditional-style pad and launched alongside the Nintendo Switch. Prices aren't cheap though, starting around $69.99/£64.99. There's currently no sign of a Nintendo Switch Premium Edition console with one included, but that could change the closer to the Black Friday shopping season.
Do I need to buy extra controllers for multiplayer on Nintendo Switch?
Possibly not! Remember how the Joy-Con controller splits in two? Turn them sideways and you get two basic controllers, each with their own analogue stick and face buttons – the d-pad acts as face functions on the left controller. So far we've seen 2K's NBA series, Snipper Clips and Mario Kart being used this way for local multiplayer in both docked and tablet modes. So you get multiplayer functionality straight out of the box with no additional purchase required.
However, if you want to play four-player games, then you're going to need to invest in an extra pair of Joy-Con controllers or some Pro controllers. We'd buy the Joy-Cons as a pair (see our comparison chart above) as you'll save a bit of cash over buying them separately. Better yet, if your friends own a Switch, ask them to bring their controllers to the party!
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild deals
The reviews have heaped huge praise upon this eagerly awaited launch title, making it an essential purchase for any Nintendo Switch buyer. As with any new console, the prices of the big games can be more expensive than usual. We've shopped around for you though and have found the best prices for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch. Take a look below.
Nintendo Switch Micro SD memory card deals
With only 32GB of internal storage, you'll be wanting to pick up a cheap memory card or two for your new Nintendo Switch for any digital purchases or the inevitable game-fixing patches. Don't fret though, they're actually surprisingly cheap, with even 64GB ones coming in at under £20/$25.
What memory cards does the Nintendo Switch need? Those will be Micro SD cards also known as, depending on their size, as MicroSDHC (up to 32GB) or MicroSDXC (up to a huge 2TB soon). Nintendo will be releasing their own branded cards, but you'll be paying more, just for a label. So for now, we'd take a look at this range of cheap MicroSDXC Nintendo Switch-friendly cards.
Over at Build 2017, Microsoft has revealed that the next major update for Windows 10 will see the introduction of a new (and much-requested) capability: OneDrive Files On-Demand.
With the new system, files which are stored in OneDrive will appear seamlessly within the folders on your PC (i.e. in File Explorer), and you’ll be able to click and open them just as if they were files which are stored locally on the hard disk (or SSD).
But of course, they won’t take up any storage space on the drive, because they’ll be stored in the cloud on OneDrive – which will be a major boon for those with ultra-thin laptops that only have small SSDs.
Files will be given new status icons which show at a glance whether they are stored locally (green tick icon), or if they’re in OneDrive (cloud icon). If all this rings a bell, that’s because it’s essentially the same system of OneDrive placeholders seen in Windows 8, which many folks have been clamoring for the return of in Windows 10.
Obviously, when you’re offline with your device, you won’t be able to open files in OneDrive – but you can always select critical files which are online with a right click, and specify ‘Always keep on this device’ to download them to the local disk. That way, they’ll be present when you’re offline.
It’s also worth noting that Files On-Demand will let you open files in OneDrive from within desktop or universal apps. Furthermore, the system will work across personal and business OneDrive accounts, along with SharePoint Online team sites.
OneDrive Files On-Demand will come to preview versions of Windows 10 in the early summer for testing, and will become fully available with the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Phone powers
Microsoft has a couple of extra OneDrive tricks up its sleeve, too, aimed at mobile users. OneDrive Offline Folders lets you save entire folders to your mobile device in order to open them when offline.
Any changes other users make to these files while you’re offline will be automatically synced when your device is back on the internet.
This feature is actually available now on Android smartphones for those who have an Office 365 Personal or Home subscription, and for OneDrive business accounts. It’ll arrive on iOS in the next few months, Microsoft promises.
The second extra is actually for iOS folks: OneDrive for iMessage allows users to easily share documents or images during an iMessage conversation. It’s possible to share single files or entire folders, and conversation participants will be able to instantly preview documents and photos which are shared with them. This feature is live right now.
Microsoft has announced that its next big update to Windows 10 will be the Fall Creators Update and it’s coming later this year.
You might be thinking, ‘wait a minute, didn’t the Creators Update just roll out?’ And you’d be right, but Microsoft says their not done making its operating system even better for creative types.
At the center of this upcoming Windows 10 build is a new creative app. Its most interesting aspect is that it allows users to create mixed reality content. Microsoft demoed the app by adding 3D objects to photos and video to help tell stories users can explore.
Otherwise, the new app is essentially about helping users create shareable memories out of their photos and videos by automatically stitching them together. From there, users can add little creative touches, like a soundtrack, theme, cinematic transitions (read: star wipes), or even draw and write on them with Windows Ink.
While this app is currently untitled, it seems like it will be an interesting new wrinkle to the Windows 10 experience and feels like a perfect fit for Windows 10 Mobile and its lineup of smartphones – which we have no doubt it will land on eventually.
Fluent Design System
At the heart of the Fall Creators Update is a new user interface called the Microsoft Fluent Design System, which both changes the look and how you interact with apps. Originally code named Project Neon, Fluent Design will drive more expressive and engaging apps for a wide range of devices.
Secondly, the new design language hopes to tackle input diversity head on. With a modern Windows 10 device, users can interact with touch, ink, voice, gaze and gesture. Simply put, Fluent Design hopes to create a more harmonious and responsive cross-device experience.
Pick up and go
Speaking of cross-device experiences, the Fall Creators Update comes with new features specifically designed for those who flip from one device to the next.
Microsoft introduced Timeline to help users jump back into what they were working on. It works by showing users a visual timeline of their desktop so they can get right back into the files, apps and sites they were accessing at the time. At a basic level, it’s a lot like MacOS’ Time Machine, but for revisiting your desktop state from an earlier time and place.
Beyond your PC, Cortana enables the same Pick Up Where You Left Off across a wider variety of Windows, iOS and Android devices. Microsoft gave the example of being able to work on a doc on the PC and Cortana asking a user whether they would like to finish it up on a phone.
Last but not least, Clipboard brings universal copy and paste to Windows devices and beyond. Aside from just clipping text and web links, Clipboard also allows users to transfer photos and animated GIFs from a Windows PC to their preferred mobile device.
The Fall Creators Update will be the perfect addition to the Surface Laptop
This feature has been brought to you by ExpressVPN.
More than just a VPN
Today, more people than ever use a VPN when they’re on Wi-Fi to protect their browsing activity from prying eyes. But you can do better: Put a VPN on your home router to get secure, encrypted Wi-Fi on every device in your home, instantly.
So why is VPN on your router better than the VPN apps you already have running on your devices? Here are some key benefits:
Superior leak protection
VPN apps are convenient, but even die-hard privacy geeks can sometimes forget to switch them on, leaving their WiFi-connected devices temporarily exposed. But if the Wi-Fi itself is protected by a VPN router, there’s no break in coverage, and all connected devices are secured by default.
Some operating systems can also leak DNS traffic outside the VPN tunnel, even if you’re using a VPN app on your device. It’s called a DNS leak, and it can reveal your browsing history to your ISP’s DNS server even when the rest of your traffic is protected. (Curious about your current connection? Try using a leak test to check whether your DNS queries are visible).
VPN routers prevent these leaks because routers have simpler logic that isn’t bound by the complex rules of your device’s OS. ExpressVPN routers ensure every single bit of data that leaves your devices bound for the internet goes through the VPN — or it doesn't get sent at all — forming an airtight seal around your internet traffic.
Faster, easier connection for each new device
Think about how many devices are connected to your home Wi-Fi right now. Your computer, your phone, your partner’s laptop, their phone, your Apple TV, your Xbox, and so on. You could manually install VPN on each individual device, but that might take a while. “Hey honey, can I borrow your phone? It’ll just take a second, I swear!”
Or you could install VPN once and have it magically beam the same protection to every other device. That’s what a VPN router does. Protecting any new device is as easy as joining the protected Wi-Fi network.
Unlimited Devices
VPN routers also let you enjoy the benefits of VPN on devices that don’t support traditional “apps”, like smart TVs, game consoles, and streaming media players. There’s also no limit on the number of devices that can share a VPN connection through a router, so there’s no need to purchase a separate VPN subscription for each device or worry about simultaneous connection limits.
Other VPN providers have manual configs for routers that can be tough to set up, tough to connect, and tough to change location. But ExpressVPN makes the whole process trivially simple with an app you can control from your computer or smartphone. Use it to select any one of 145 VPN server locations around the world and click “Connect” to instantly hide the IP addresses and browsing activity of every device on your network.
Thanks to devices like the Samsung Gear S3, Tizen is now the second-most popular smartwatch out there, with only the watchOS on board the Apple Watch ahead of it. That's according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.
Samsung began phasing out Android Wear on its wrist computers back in 2015, pushing ahead with Tizen instead – an OS that has also found its way to the occasional low-end smartphone and Samsung's range of smart TVs.
At the time it seemed to have little chance of usurping Android in any category, but Google's smartwatch OS has now slumped to third place in the market, despite a slew of new devices running Android Wear 2.0 launching this year.
Battle for the wrist
Tizen's share of the smartwatch market now stands at 19 percent, Tizen Experts reports, with Android Wear at 18 percent and Apple's watchOS at 57 percent. Tizen watches work with both Android and iOS phones, as does Android Wear, to an extent.
It's perhaps a testament to the quality of the smartwatches (and fitness trackers) that Samsung has been churning out as well as a sign of the way Android Wear has languished over the last 12 months. Google's recent major smartwatch OS update only recently rolled out, having been announced at last year's Google I/O.
More market share of course means a potentially bigger audience for developers, so we might see more app makers embracing Tizen with wrist widgets and add-ons. As for Google and Android Wear, it's got a battle on its hands (or wrists).
It's strong, it's flexible, and it's here. After a long time cooking in the labs, the first graphene-based products are beginning to trickle out into the world of smartphones, wearables, batteries, virtual reality, sports equipment, super-capacitors and supercars.
It's a material that some believe has been coerced from abandoned space ships, left on Earth by distant races years ago. While that's a little unlikely, the power of this super-thin, strong, conductive and all-round amazing material is deserving of such a conspiracy.
It's been over 60 years coming as scientists and manufacturers alike have struggled to harness the power of this awesome material, but it's closing in on revolutionizing so many things we're using day to day.
Super-thin graphene Kindles
Credit: Jamie Carter
At MWC 2017, FlexEnable showed-off a full color, graphene-based mechanical pixel system for low-power displays and e-ink displays – that’s a paper-thin Kindle-like device to you and me.
The big breakthrough for the e-ink screen is using printed graphene instead of brittle titanium oxide. “We try to replace some of the metal conductors with printed graphene to make the devices more flexible,” says Dr. Rouzet Agaiby at FlexEnable, whose plastic electronics still tend to include some (non-flexible) silicon. “A Kindle is only thick because it’s on glass.”
Graphene cars
Credit: Jamie Carter
It’s all very well having an electric car, but only if it accelerates as quickly as its petrol counterparts. That means they need to be super-light. So how about we replace glass and metal with plastics, carbon fiber… or graphene?
Cue a limited-edition supercar starting at £130,000 (around $163,000/AU$215,000) from British manufacturer Briggs Motor Company, whose structural components include graphene, so are lighter and stronger than carbon fiber composite, and therefore much more energy-efficient.
Another way of using graphene to increase acceleration is super-capacitors containing graphene for energy recovery; its super-conductive properties create a super-efficient KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). Skeleton Technologies has shown exactly that using curved graphene, which saves on fuel consumption (or reduces electricity use).
Wearable tickets
Credit: Jamie Carter
Printed electronics are the next big thing, and graphene is at the forefront. Costing just a few pennies each are paper wristbands or tickets, which have graphene ink printed onto them. In a recent demo, the proximity of a graphene RFID tag to a reader caused a picture to be taken of the wearer or holder.
"This could be used in closed environments such as airports for monitoring passengers boarding a high security flight, or on the London Underground to track which entrances and exits passengers take just by tracking their ticket," says Dr Thanasis Georgiou, VP, Graphene Security Ltd., Photon Science Institute, University of Manchester.
"Products in supermarkets could have [graphene-based] RFID technology on them so you could know in real-time where products are."
As well as making shop-lifting much harder, and perhaps even getting rid of the checkout altogether, a connected Internet of Things-like system would be able to see instantly when stocks of specific products are running low.
Robotic graphene hands
Credit: Jamie Carter
How about a totally wearable prosthetic hand like Luke Skywalker wears in The Empire Strikes Back? Graphene inks have been used by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) to make the Prosthetic IIT-NAIL Hand, which uses graphene ink on paper as the electrodes, replacing titanium.
Doing so gets rid not only of titanium and all cables taking biomedical electrical signals from muscles to the hand, but it means the control system can have direct contact with the stump. The Prosthetic IIT-NAIL Hand is flexible, more comfortable and cheaper to make than existing techniques.
Graphene to cure blindness
Credit: ICN2
It conducts, it’s flexible, and it’s safe when used against flesh. Cue a graphene contact lens – officially an ‘electronic retinal prostheses’ – that helps patients that have lost their sight but still have a functional optic nerve.
The brainchild of Jose Antonio Garrido, director of the Group of Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices at Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), graphene is used to effectively detect and translate more light into electrical signals, increasing the resolution of images perceived by the patient's brain. It’s still under development.
A battery that charges in minutes
What if you could charge your phone in five minutes? That’s the thinking behind the Zap & Go charger, which takes full advantage of graphene’s conductive prowess to fully charge in five minutes, though the prototype is only a 750mAh battery. It's due to launch later in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Watt Laboratory (under Huawei's Central Research Institute) also recently used graphene to allow lithium ion batteries to run at temperatures of 60°C, roughly 10°C hotter than standard batteries, thereby prolonging the lifespan of the power pack. It also held a charge for twice as long.
Soon, Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit and other fitness 'wristables' are going to look clunky – and dumb. Graphene promises not only much thinner (even paper-thin) wristbands, but they'll have integrated graphene light sensors and circuitry that bring extra functionality just by using light.
Wearables that measure your activity and heart rate are everywhere, but they’re bulky, and their one-trick function is becoming boring. Cue graphene-enabled health patches for patients in hospitals, for sports, and for everyone else.
“Wellness sensing in the future will be something like a disposable e-tattoo, which has graphene that senses vital signs like heart rate, oxygen saturation, and skin temperature, breathing rate and even UV light exposure when you’re at the beach,” says Stijn Goossens, Postdoctoral research engineer, Nano-optoelectronics, Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona.
“With oxygen saturation alone you can predict if someone is getting the flu,” he says, adding that even the digital circuits are one-atom thin, including a Bluetooth chip.
Enabled by a flexible and transparent graphene-based sensing platform, the key advantage is that a power-hungry LCD screen isn’t needed. And that means it can be super-thin.
Graphene pixels for wearables
Credit: TU Delft/Graphenea
Who needs silicon? Researchers from TU Delft and Spain's Graphenea have found a new way to create mechanical pixels using tiny balloon-like structures. Each pixel is a two-atom thick graphene membrane 13 micrometers wide, and although they don't emit light, they are visible in sunlight so could suit e-books and smartwatches.
Oh, and they're full color; thanks to interference between light waves reflected from the bottom of the cavity and the membrane on top, which can be controlled using pressure. The researchers are now working to control the color of the membranes electrically.
Graphene for scanning your Shiraz
Credit: ICN2
It’s very easy to get drunk on the possibilities of graphene, and it doesn’t get easier than with the ICN2’s graphene quantum dots printed on paper that can detect certain contaminants.
It means the ICN2’s patented sensor, when placed in a phone, exploits the optical properties of graphene quantum dots to detect the presence of pesticides in wine, water, or anything else.
“Light comes from the graphene quantum dots, interacts with the compounds, and you see changes in the light’s color,” says Professor Dr. Arben Merkoçi, director of the Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors Group at the ICN2. “All it uses is paper, a smartphone, and graphene.” It could have uses in hospitals, or anywhere you don’t believe the booze.
Graphene scanners for smartphones
Credit: Jamie Carter
Graphene can also be used to make super-thin, super-sensitive image sensors that can detect invisible infra-red light. Cue spectral applications to differentiate between different organic materials, with a quick photo revealing exactly how ripe fruit is, or whether baby milk is toxin-free; all from a smartphone.
“Our prototype is built on graphene and CMOS integration that can sense both visible and infra-red light,” says Goossens at the ICFO. “In the near future we can produce them in very high quantity at very low cost for smartphones.”
Graphene sensors for 3D cameras
Credit: Stephen Alvery, Michigan Engineering
If you've read up on graphene, you may have heard optimistic reports of a graphene camera that's 1000x more sensitive to light than the ones we have today, conjuring visions of pixel-perfect night shots. While you won't want to get your hopes up for that just yet, a more recent project from the University of Michigan deserves a closer look.
It's a DSLR-size camera that uses multiple translucent graphene sensors to create a 3D map of a scene, so that you can pick your focus point after taking a shot. This is a graphene alternative to the 'light field' Lytro Illum, but where the graphene camera uses multiple sensor layers, the Illum needs an array of hundreds of thousands of micro lenses to create its images.
"Graphene detectors can offer very high sensitivity, so you don't really sacrifice the clarity by making them transparent," says associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science Zhaohui Zhong. The tech could be slimmed down to fit into a phone.
Night vision for self-driving cars
Credit: ICFO
The ability to see in the infrared – effectively night vision – means that same graphene CMOS camera can be used as part of a self-driving car’s automatic brake system, specifically in bad weather.
“Now they use visible cameras, but in dense fog they’re useless,” says Goossens of this collision avoidance tech. Autonomous cars will also probably use LIDAR sensors to constantly scan the area around them, but it’s a relatively slow technology.
At Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, the ICFO had a Scalextric-style track with two VW camper vans buzzing around, with the following vehicle stopping in its tracks as soon as the front vehicle braked in a ‘fog box’.
More useful windows
Credit: Jamie Carter
Graphene's transparent appearance and super low-power means it can be used in some unexpected places. Since it's got super-low power consumption and it's highly sensitive, the tech could be used in inert materials such as windows.
"The light sensors can be embedded in anything, so you could think about putting it in windows or other places where there's no power, such as packaging," says Goossens.
"In a window in a building it could detect whether it's night or day for your curtains to open or close automatically." It's also the first step along the way to windows managing to harvest energy during the day and illuminating during the night – while still being transparent.
However, a more short-term killer app is probably as a hands-free system in a car. "You would need four sensors to detect a directionality, so in a car window it could detect motion sensing – you could change the track on a CD just by waving your hand," says Goossens.
The advantage over existing tech is that graphene can be completely transparent – the entire window could be full of sensors.
3D-printed graphene drones
Credit: Jamie Carter
Drones run out of battery quickly, and their propellers break when they’re landed badly. Cue a drone with 3D-printed graphene composites in its propellers that’s both super-strong and super-light, so more battery-efficient.
“Printing with graphene is very easy, but when you start combining it with other polymers and materials, that’s when it gets complicated,” says Charlotte Powell at the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute.
Nevertheless, the goal of this project with the University of Central Lancashire is to make all parts of the drone with graphene, including more graphene composites in the body and even a graphene-based battery pack and graphene spectral sensors.
Graphene motorcycle helmet
Credit: Jamie Carter
They’re hard, they’re hot, and they’re heavy, but helmets have already had the graphene treatment.
Developed by Italy’s Momodesign and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), this first-ever graphene-infused carbon fiber helmet capitalizes on the material’s thin, strong and conductive, flexible and light characteristics to create a helmet that absorbs and dissipates impact better than your average helmet. It also disperses heat more efficiently, so it’s cooler.
Flexible graphene Wi-Fi receivers
Credit: Jamie Carter
Hardware is dead; the future of phones is flex-ware – and that means graphene making everything curved, bendable and flexible. Oh, and the data super-fast, too.
The first Wi-Fi receiver based on graphene, from AMO together with RWTH Aachen University, has 24 Wi-Fi receivers on pieces of plastic and glass, but its makers claim it can work on fabric, paper, glass or plastic, and deal in Bluetooth, 4G and even 5G.
Prototypes are working at 2.45Ghz and 5.8Ghz and the creators have circuits that work at up to 90Ghz, which covers the 5G standard.
This is printed electronics, which graphene is very much at the forefront of; expect to see RFID tags printed on paper using graphene ink that act as a ticket for concerts and at airports, and even as a method of payment at events and on transport networks.
Making water safe
Credit: Directa Plus
Water, soil and air purification is also possible with graphene. One of these products – Grafysorber from Directa Plus – is super-absorbent, and ideal for oil spills. “One gram of Grafysorber is able to absorb up to 90 grams of oil,” says Laura Rizzi, R&D manager at Directa Plus.
The mobile Grafysorber Decontamination Unit contains a plasma machine to produce the wonder material on-site, which is even able to return contaminated water to safe levels for drinking.
“Normally you have to use a biological or chemical process to treat contaminated water, but Grafysorber is completely chemical-free,” says Rizzi.
It’s also been suggested that the same properties could be used as water membranes that could sieve pure water straight from a contaminated, muddy puddle.
Graphene gloves
Credit: Jamie Carter
It’s not often said, but virtual reality is not very convincing. It needs movement sensors to become so, and what better than a pair of super-responsive gloves that are sensitive to tiny changes in motion and temperature?
“Graphene flakes printed in very thin layers are very sensitive to strain,” says Dr Darryl Cotton, Senior Researcher, Nanotechnology, Nokia Research Center in Cambridge.
“We’ve also put reduced graphene oxide into a temperature sensor.” The end result is a glove that, for now, sets-off surface-mounted LEDs, but they’re so thin and flexible that they could be used to make virtual reality environments responsive to tiny movements in fingers.
Graphene miniature speakers
Credit: KAIST College of Engineering
Regular audio speakers are very physical things. They use drivers that move back and forwards very quickly, exciting the air to create sound waves. Back in 2013, the University of California at Berkeley made an earphone with a graphene driver, but the material has also been used to create a completely different kind of speaker.
A recent article in the ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal outlines a thermo-acoustic speaker made using graphene. It's lab-bound right now, but it could be a fit for mobile devices, as it doesn't require the kind of speaker cavity normal dynamic driver speakers need.
The way in which it works may sound odd though. A suspension of graphene flakes is freeze-dried to produce an aerogel – an ultra-porous graphene-based structure, a bit like a rigid sponge. This gel is then rapidly heated and cooled to cause air movement similar to that of a normal speaker cone.
We're yet to see how much battery drain a thermo-acoustic speaker would cause, and how much discernible heat it might produce – but if it makes a tablet sound more like a mini surround sound system, we're in.
Graphene bikes
Credit: Dassi
In July 2016, Dassi unveiled the first graphene bike frame. As graphene's strength relative to its weight is so high, graphene should make ultra-rigid, extremely light bike frames a cinch to design.
The Dassi frame is still predominantly a carbon fiber frame, with some layers of graphene reinforcement at its core, but graphene itself makes up only around one percent of the frame.
At this stage it's a proof of concept, particularly as the frame is around the same weight as a top-end all-carbon one, at 750g. However, Dassi claims the weight will eventually be reduced to "500g unpainted".
Graphene can also be woven into carbon fiber; Rice University successfully reinforced carbon fiber with graphene flakes in 2013, and a company called Zyvex already makes a carbon fiber graphene composite called Arovex.
Vittoria Industries is using graphene in its top of the range Corsa tyres, as well as in its carbon wheels. "We are using graphene-nanoplatelets in the resin, which we impregnate into the carbon fiber," says Giulio Cesareo, CEO of Directa Plus, which supplies the graphene.
The end products are lighter, stronger, and more flexible, with extra thermal conductivity in tyres meaning better stiffness and grip.
There is no doubt in our minds that it’s time for the Surface Pro 5. Because Surface sales have dropped 26% year-on-year, it’s concerning that we didn’t see the next iteration of Microsoft's tablet-that-can-replace-your-laptop at the company’s #MicrosoftEDU event, where it revealed the Surface Laptop.
Though we can look forward to Microsoft’s introduction of new hardware on May 23, don’t expect the Surface Pro 5 to be part of that showing. In an interview with CNET, Surface VP Panos Panay said, “There’s no such thing as a Pro 5,” reinforcing speculation by Paul Thurrott who suggested in April that Microsoft is preparing a mere spec upgrade for the current Surface Pro 4.
Surface Pro 4.5 or not, it’s time for an upgrade. The Surface Pro 4 has been out since October 2015, and while the Surface Laptop seems like a promising addition to the family, it’s not exactly the sequel to Microsoft’s convertible tablet we’ve all been longing for. Based on the news we’ve seen recently, it looks like we’ll have to be a little more patient.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The would-be fifth Surface Pro tablet
When is it out? 2018 if we're lucky
What will it cost? Likely as much as – if not more than – the current model
Surface Pro 5 release date
Reports dating back to March 2016 led us to believe that the Surface Pro 5 would come out alongside the Windows 10 Creators Update, and that would have made complete sense if it had actually come to fruition. Instead, the Creators Update launched featuring a handful of new designer- and gamer-focused software features, but with no first-party hardware in sight.
Our next bet was that the Surface Pro 5 would be shown off at the #MicrosoftEDU event in New York City. However, that was more of a shot in the dark prediction; there were no rumors leading into that event that suggested we would see anything more than a stripped-down version of Windows 10 and a more conventional Surface Laptop.
There’s still a chance, however, that we’ll see the Surface Pro 5 make its rounds this Autumn when a second major Windows 10 update is expected to land. Then again, with rumors and reports galore claiming an upgraded Surface Pro 4 is going to be announced later this month, it’s a stretch to assume the Surface Pro 5 would come out the same year.
We doubt the Surface Pro 5 will look terribly different from the previous
Surface Pro 5 price
Historically, Surface pricing has sparsely fluctuated year after year. For that reason, we expect to see the Surface Pro 5 start at $899 (£749, AU$1,349) and escalate from there depending on specially configured hardware and bundled accessories.
That said, while it wouldn’t be ideal for Microsoft’s loyal following if the company deviated too far from the norm, ambitious upgrades may necessitate that it does. For the price of the next Surface Pro to differ from its predecessors, it would have to offer some serious advantages over its last-gen sibling – not just a run-of-the-mill spec boost.
Regardless, the ball is in Microsoft's court here, and if pricier new additives are implemented into the baseline model, it's not unprecedented for PC makers to issue a price hike (see: the latest MacBook Pro).
Surface Pro 5 specs
In terms of specs, what little we know is based on tweets from Microsoft informant Paul Thurrott whose sources have told him that the Surface Pro 5 will indeed use an Intel 7th-generation Kaby Lake processor. This is unsurprising given the year of release, though he also made a point to liken the upcoming convertible tablet to a “Surface Pro 4.5” of sorts, leading us to believe his source isn’t talking of a true Surface Pro 5 at all.
Another interesting tidbit from Thurrott suggests that the Surface Connect proprietary charger is here to stay, meaning the Surface Pro 5 may not use USB-C to restore the battery as most 2-in-1 devices now tend to do. At the moment, it’s not clear whether Surface Pro 5 will add USB-C ports for data transfers and peripherals much less what specific Kaby Lake processors it will take advantage of.
Image Credit: Patently Mobile
Surface Pro 5 stylus and Dial
One piece of the puzzle regarding every new Surface is how Microsoft will upgrade its Surface Pen stylus accessory that comes bundled with each tablet. Back in January 2016, it was uncovered that Microsoft had filed for a rechargeable stylus.
Another interesting patent filed by Microsoft describes a renewed Surface Pen loop, designed to latch the Surface Pen onto your Surface devices via a USB connection. Not only would it hold the Surface Pen into position when needed, but it would simultaneously charge the accessory for prolonged continuous use.
Of course, Microsoft also has the Surface Dial in its clasp. The designer-focused puck-like accessory was briefly mentioned in a slideshow presentation in December, with ZDNet having picked up the slides themselves for use in a news story. The company claims that peripherals such as the Dial, wearables, headsets and more are factors essential to what is perceived as the “modern PC.”
Also mentioned was the incorporation of “hero features” such as Cortana and Windows Hello, meaning a fingerprint scanner may not be too far off either. After all, the Dell XPS 13 did it with a $25 add-on configuration. Perhaps we could even see the day when a fingerprint reader is implemented in the Surface Pen itself.
Microsoft’s Panos Panay revealing the Surface Pro 3 in May 2014
What we want to see
Look, as much as we've been impressed by the Surface Pro 4 – firmware issues aside – there will always be room for improvement. (That would be the case even if it had earned our Editor's Choice award.) From the screen size and resolution to the hardware found inside, we have a few ideas for how Microsoft could craft an even better Windows 10 tablet.
Longer battery life
This is a bit of low-hanging fruit, but countless customers have lamented the Surface Pro 4's battery life, regardless of issues with its "Sleep" mode. We rated the device for five hours and 15 minutes of local video playback.
That's well below Microsoft's promise of nine hours of video playback, but we all know that few, if any, laptops actually meet their promised battery life approximations. Our video playback figure is in line with the average laptop, though it's a far cry from what its nemesis, the MacBook, can achieve.
Ideally, and realistically, we'd like to see at least seven hours of battery life reliably from the next Surface Pro tablet. That would put it closer in line with the MacBooks as well as competing tablets, like the iPad Pro. Surely, you’ll need as many milliampere hours in the Surface Pro 5’s lithium-ion battery as you can get.
However, if that’s too much to ask, USB fast-charging would serve as a welcome alternative.
Can the screen get much sharper? Why yes, it can
An even sharper (and/or bigger) screen
With the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft managed to outrank countless rivals in both the laptop and tablet spaces when it comes to screen resolution. With a razor-sharp 267 ppi (pixels per inch) already at 2,736 x 1,824 pixels within a 12.3-inch screen, it's not as if the Surface Pro 5 needs to be much sharper.
However, if the next Surface Pro were equipped with, say, a 4K (3,840 pixels wide at the very least) screen, that would rip its productivity and entertainment capabilities wide open. Film and photo editors could work at the native resolution that's increasingly becoming the norm, while average Joe's (teehee) could finally watch Netflix in 4K on a tablet.
That said, the realm of super sharp resolutions might be reserved for the Surface Book range at this point. So, why not up its size a bit?
The Surface Pro 4 is big enough for almost all tasks, but it's still not the established default size for most laptops: 13.3 inches. Then again, doing so may cannibalize Microsoft's market by negating the need for its Surface Book.
On the other hand, maybe the iPad Pro is onto something with its 12.9-inch display. After all, we’re not asking for a gargantuan, monster-sized tablet – just a slight size boost. Assuming the resolution doesn't bump up too much alongside a size increase, the extra space could allow for a battery life boost.
Now, imagine if the next Surface rocked USB-C
It might finally be time for USB-C
With the latest MacBook Pro and HP Spectre among the most famous devices to adopt the latest in USB interfaces, USB Type-C (or simply USB-C) is an overdue feature for the Surface Pro.
A reversible, versatile port (or two?) may be just what the Surface Pro 5 needs to mitigate the product line's lacking input/output problem. A single USB 3.0 port and a proprietary charging port aren't going to cut it for much longer, and with the help of a specialized set of adapters, USB-C is infinitely more utilitarian.
At the same time, Microsoft may want to include a standard USB 3.0 port, too, in order to natively meet the system requirements for its own Windows 10 VR headsets. If the company wants to lead the pack in the business of affordable virtual reality solutions, it's a no-brainer to make the Surface Pro 5 compatible.
Word around the tech world says we're only a few months out from a release – maybe not of the Surface Pro 5 proper, but at the very least of a revamped Surface Pro 4. That gives us plenty of time for the rumor mill to fire up. Stay tuned in the coming months for the latest on everything Surface Pro 5.
It wasn’t long ago that the PC mouse was no more than a two-button rodent used for neglecting the advice of Clippy in Microsoft Office. Nowadays, especially with optical and laser mice having overtaken the market, prerequisites for the best mouse have grown much more demanding. Gaming mice like the Corsair Glaive RGB are expected to implement hyper-sensitive sensors while non-gaming mouse makers have made refinements in other areas.
Overwhelmed with touchscreens, the PC space has largely transformed beyond its use of traditional mouse and keyboard input, but that hasn’t stopped the mouse from seeing its own fair share of innovation. Some of the top mice are ergonomic, reducing your chances of developing repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) while others have adopted wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and 2.4GHz over USB.
With so much to choose from, the best mouse comes down to personal predilection more than anything. Do you need a mouse whose ergonomics suit your ambidexterity? Maybe the touch-based gesture controls of the Apple Magic Mouse 2 tickle your fancy. Whatever the case may be, you can count on your needs being met by what we’ve concluded are the 10 top mice you can buy, including the absolute best mouse immediately below.
The MX Anywhere 2 is smaller than Logitech’s flagship MX Master mouse, making it a more travel-friendly option. However, we find that it’s a more comfortable fit for smaller hand and have been using it as our main rodent rodent in the office.
It connects using Bluetooth or 2.4Ghz wireless (using Logitech’s dongle), can connecrt with up to three devices and sports excellent low-latency tracking which is helped by Logitech’s Darkfield tech that makes the mouse usable on shiny surfaces. Like the MX Master, the scroll wheel can spin freely once you’ve depressed it, allowing you to scroll down long pages without suffering finger ache.
Logitech says that the Anywhere 2’s non-rechargable battery will last up to 60 days on a single charge, which isn’t something we can verify but we haven’t seen it give up the ghost in half of that time. It’s practical, portable and pretty much one of the best mice out there.
Logitech’s flagship is a mighty mouse indeed. Hand-sculpted for comfort, the MX Master connects via Bluetooth or USB dongle and it can pair to up to three devices. The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 40 days and goes from flat to a day of power in four minutes, and you can use it while it’s charging. The scroll wheel’s a two-state job with click-to-click and unrestricted speedy scrolling, there’s a thumbwheel for side-to-side scrolling and you can reprogram the buttons to suit your way of working.
Let’s get the weird one out of the way first: Anker’s mouse sits vertically, so you hold it as if you’re shaking hands with someone. It feels strange until suddenly it doesn’t: it’s comfortable and doesn’t make you twist your arm as normal mice do. The price means a few corners have been cut – where other mice are a collection of curves the Anker has a couple of sharp bits to jab the unwary – but it’s a good and inexpensive choice for anyone who has or fears RSI.
It has its critics – including your correspondent, who thinks it’s the most spectacularly uncomfortable mouse ever made – but the Magic Mouse has plenty of fans and the second version is a big improvement over the first generation. It boasts a trackpad-like multi-touch surface and moves more smoothly around your desk than the first version, and it doesn’t require normal batteries thanks to a built-in rechargeable battery. Unfortunately the position of the Lightning port means you can’t use it while it’s charging.
Like the MX Master, the Triathlon M270 can pair with up to three devices using Bluetooth, making switching between them in a snap. However, the Triathlon is more affordable and much more comfortable to hold if you prefer a smaller rodent. It also gets the Master's free-spinning scroll wheel, letting you zip through documents or webpages. Logitech promises up to 24 months of use before the Triathlon gives up the ghost on one AA battery. The only drawback? Due to Bluetooth, the Triathlon isn't quite as responsive as the wired Logitech Proteus G502 – our daily driver.
Sometimes a peripheral comes along that has the potential to change all others in its category. Logitech’s M330 Silent Plus, a prime example of this, features left and right buttons that barely sqeak – ahem – click, when pressed. Using it for the first time is like booting up a fanless laptop for the first time – quiet, inconspicuous and curiously satisfying. Simply put, using the M330 feels great. With only three buttons, however, it isn’t the most feature-packed mouse on the market, but its silent and compact nature, comfortable design and leggy battery life make it a great choice – and not just for frequent travellers or people with easily irritated co-workers.
If you’re going to drop £150 on a mouse it might as well be a fun one, and the R.A.T. ProX is definitely that: it’s the Transformer of mice, with swappable sensors, swappable scroll wheels, swappable palm rests and what Mad Catz calls “analog strafe”, which enables the scroll wheel to act as an analog stick. It looks amazing, costs a fortune and if it were a game it’d be Broforce: ridiculously over-the-top, completely crazy and an absolute hoot.
We’ve a soft spot for the good old Microsoft Mouse, and the 3600 uses Bluetooth to deliver wireless connections without dongles. It runs for up to a year on a single battery and is that rare thing, a mouse that’s designed for both left and right handed use. It doesn’t have 32 billion buttons, a sensor capable of tracking atoms or the ability to turn into a car and save the universe, but if you want a good, comfortable, reliable mouse to take wherever you go the 3600 is a winner.
You just know that a mouse called the Razer DeathAdder Chroma isn’t going to come in pink with My Little Pony stickers. Offering high-end performance for a pretty reasonable price, the Chroma’s USP is its 16.8 million-colour lighting effects coupled with a 10,000 dpi optical sensor. It’s blazingly fast, exceptionally accurate, offers on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment and looks fantastic, which is probably why it’s so popular among e-sports athletes. It also has a seven-foot braided cable, which is handy if your PC is quite far away.
Better known for its mechanical keyboard switches, Cherry has made a no-frills mouse in the MC 4000 Precision, which is a step up or two from the basic mouse that may have come with your computer. Featuring an ambidextrous symmetrical design, the MC 4000 lights up red or blue to indicate whether it’s in 2,000 DPI mode (the former) or 1,000 (the latter), with the higher value modes being useful when using 4K and other high-resolution displays. It’s a smooth mouse to use thanks to a sliding surface that covers the entire bottom of the mouse and provides a solid base for using it on a variety of surfaces.
Pick one of the best laptops to go with your new mouse
No matter what your stance is on Microsoft’s recently unveiled Surface Laptop and its cost of entry, the message is clear: students want a notebook that’s powerful, long-lasting, affordable, and stylish. That may not seem like a high bar for laptop makers to meet, but in many cases, compromises are made in some of those areas.
The best laptop fuses 7th-generation Intel Core processors with a battery life set to last all day and looks that you’ll gawk over without putting you over budget. That’s a string of tough requirements to meet, but why settle for anything less than a laptop that balances specs with value all while remaining reliable over at least the next four years?
Not everyone can afford the most expensive laptop with the persistently looming threat of student loans, books and housing in the back of their minds. For that reason, we’ve put together a list of the top laptops for college students even when money is tight. Below you’ll find our choices of all the best laptops for college students across various price ranges and categories.
Packing a high-resolution screen and serious processing power, there's more to the Dell XPS 13 than being a surprisingly small Ultrabook. Now featuring new processors and better integrated graphics, clearly the main advantage of buying the newest Dell XPS 13 is that it comes in Rose Gold.
There's a 13-inch display crammed into an 11-inch body, a worthy rival to a certain other aluminum laptop line, and what’s more, the Dell XPS 13 is perfect for any basic course work scenario. After all, Apple doesn't make the only premium, general use laptop worth batting an eye at, and the Dell XPS 13 is the proof.
When it comes to the upper echelon of Chromebooks, they normally don’t last. While we can admit that Google’s Chromebook Pixel and the HP Chromebook 13 were enticing, the high price tags that accompanied them weren’t exactly justified. That’s why Asus has taken it upon itself to craft a full-fledged premium 2-in-1 Chromebook that retails for around the same price as a cheap Windows laptop.
The Asus Chromebook Flip’s pair of USB Type-C ports, dazzling screen and stunning MacBook-esque looks render it an essential inclusion on our best laptops for students list, especially when you consider its pristine value. What’s more, with a battery life recorded at 10 hours and 46 minutes, the Asus Chromebook Flip ought to last you an entire work day. The only real setback are the speakers, which – in classic laptop fashion – sound dismal.
Call it a MacBook Air knockoff if you want, but the Asus ZenBook UX305 is one of the best Ultrabooks you can buy at the moment considering the low price-point. With a full HD screen, a whole 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage, the Asus ZenBook UX305 is a steal.
Like the Dell XPS 13 listed below, this is further proof that you can find a truly primo, general use laptop for less than a thousand bucks. The ZenBook UX305 is an honest-to-goodness laptop, presented in an attractive package, that takes home the gold when it comes to exhibiting the basics.
A higher resolution screen, a thinner design and a move to Intel’s more powerful Skylake processors all help to make this portable tablet a capable substitute for your other computing hardware.
What you get is one of the few tablets we can say for certain can replace your laptop. Luckily, with Windows 10, it serves as a great companion device, too. Sadly, the Type Cover keyboard is still an optional necessity for this laptop replacement.
For less than a grand, you could get a MacBook Air, complete with a sub-1080p screen and a Broadwell processor or you could buy a Samsung Notebook 7 Spin. A 2-in-1 laptop with an HDR-enabled, Full HD touchscreen, the Spin boasts both a discrete Nvidia graphics chip and one of the latest Intel CPUs.
Considering the sheer horsepower you can exert from this thing and – we can't stress this enough – an HDR screen, the Samsung Notebook 7 Spin is perfect for the classroom or the dorm. Sure, it uses an old-school hard drive and a standard-def webcam, but at the same time, but few concessions are made to keep the price down and its value up.
While a gaming laptop might sound like the best fit for a student hoping to grind away at the next Mass Effect as much as their homework, they’re usually wicked expensive and the battery life is often on the short end. Luckily, there isn’t much Dell hasn’t thought of and, ditching the Alienware moniker altogether, the Inspiron 15 Gaming is a prime example of budget PC gaming done right.
For the price, you wouldn’t even be able to afford a MacBook Air, and this is a laptop that can handle practically every game you throw at it, albeit not at the highest settings. And, if you were worried about the battery life, we’ll have you know that in our PCMark 8 battery life benchmark, the Inspiron 15 Gaming lasted a whole 5 hours and 51 minutes, longer than some Ultrabooks that cost even more.
It’s not much in terms of specs, but the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360 doesn’t need to be. For the price, it’s one of the better 2-in-1 laptops money can afford. It’s thin and light, packing in an all-day battery life and yet Asus was still courageous enough to keep all your favorite ports intact in addition to its signature 360-degree convertible mode.
Traditional PC users and newcomers alike will be delighted to find a pair of USB 3.0 ports accompanied by a microSD card reader and USB-C. The downside is a notable lack of full-size HDMI, opting instead for the antiquated micro HDMI. However, this laptop more than makes up for its faults with a spacious trackpad and keyboard as well as a processor more than capable of completing everyday tasks – just don’t go nuts with the browser tabs.
The HP Chromebook 14 is no performance powerhouse, sure, but thanks to the zippiness of Chrome OS combined with a funky blue case, this is one fun notebook to use.
Because of its low cost and ease of use, the HP Chromebook 14 is ideal for high school or liberal arts college students while simultaneously providing access to nearly every major service an undergrad would need to survive. It's nothing fancy in terms of specs, but it is at the very least a sight for sore eyes.
For students impressed by the sleek-and-alluring 12-inch MacBook, but unsatisfied by the lack of power and ports, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is an obvious solution. Featuring a lengthy battery life (7 hours and 24 minutes in our anecdotal battery test) and a powerful, full-fledged Intel Core i5 processor, the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro is replete with everything you need to get through the coming semesters.
Weighing in at only 3.02 pounds (1.37kg), the 13-inch MacBook Pro is lighter than ever before, thanks in part to its slimmed-down keyboard and covert cooling system. Not only that, but the MacBook Pro manages an even larger trackpad despite the laptop itself being thinner. And, like all macOS-outfitted devices, it even ships with Pages, iMovie and Garageband pre-installed at no extra cost.
Though it's yet to adopt Apple's Retina display standard, the benefit to this compromise is a 12-hour battery life coupled paired with a dual-core, Broadwell processor and now 8GB of RAM at the entry level.
Plus, if you don't like the feel of the 12-inch MacBook's low-travel butterfly keys, the MacBook Air uses a more traditional chiclet-style keyboard. And hey, a MacBook Air is the most affordable (and pretty much the only) way to get that backlit Apple logo on the back of your laptop.
There are few things in life more satisfying than fully enjoying a game you didn’t have to pay for. While you may be convinced that you have to pay for all of the best PC games, that’s not entirely the case. Many of the best free games are just as good, made better by the fact that they can be had for a nominal rate.
A lot of the best games, and even the most popular, are free to play and enjoy. Take Dota 2, for instance, a free-to-play game that nets some skilled players millions of dollars in the US. Like Dota 2, an exceptional chunk of the best free games can be had from the Steam Store, which is soon due for a major overhaul of sorts.
Admittedly, a lot of these games considered “free-to-play” also require that you “pay-to-win.” Others are straight garbage for different reasons, but not the ones you’ll find on this top free games list! From fighting games to MOBAs to racers, we’ve covered all bases too. Now let’s take a look at what you’ll be playing next.
Gabe Carey has also contributed to this article
Fable Legends may be dead, along with the studio that was supposed to be bringing it to life, but the Fable name lives on. It does so through this upcoming collectible card game on Steam, Fable Fortune, which is being spearheaded by former Lionhead Studios developers Craig Omen, Mike West and Marcus Lynn.
Set to arrive in the first half of 2017, Fable Fortune may not be the sequel you were looking for, but it has the potential to be competitive with other digital CCG titles such as Hearthstone. Like Hearthstone, it even has the eight heroes that determine the theme of your deck, but don’t think of it as a knock-off.
Fable Fortune differentiates itself by introducing 3D art, a co-op mode that teams you up with other players to take on various “boss” AI characters, a leveling system for frequently used cards and buffs given to Player 2. Of course, there are plenty of references to previous entries in the Fable franchise as well, making Fable Fortune a must-play for fans of the series.
Expected: 2017
1. Planetside 2
Two years before Destiny, back in 2012, we had Planetside 2. It's an epic, all-out first-person battle so impressive, you'll give yourself a quick pinch every time you remember it's completely free. There are in-game purchases of course, but you can still dive into gaming's biggest ever battlefield and be useful with just default gear.
There's simply nothing like taking part in a massed assault on an enemy base and coming out on top, or living in a world where an enemy convoy could appear on the horizon at any second. If you need any proof that 'free' doesn't mean uninspired, Planetside 2 will provide it.
The Dota universe may have derived from a Wacraft 3 mod, but Dota 2 is very much its own entity, not to mention one of the most popular free-to-play games.
This top-down arena battler is incredibly active, attracting multi-million dollar prize funds for serious tournament players. It's not just for obsessives, though.
A brief tutorial now points out the ropes, with the Steam Community stepping in to provide guides to the original MOBA. Don't expect a warm welcome or easy learning curve from its sophisticated gameplay mechanics, but bring a few friends and Dota 2 will have you hooked on one of the biggest crazes in PC history.
There's only one thing you can count on in life apart from death and taxes: jetpacks rule. And Tribes: Ascend is the world's premiere online jetpack shooter. Don your jetpack and launch into battle across huge maps, with weapons that take real skill just to land a hit – never mind a kill.
Tribes: Ascend is fast, furious, and absolutely brilliant, and there's no reason to spend any money in the in-game shop if you simply want to hold your own in battle. Though there's plenty of stuff to buy if you do fancy splashing some cash…
You can pay to unlock more classes, weapons and perks, but if you're going to keep it casual you can still have loads of fun with Tribes: Ascend.
In the style of Diablo III, Path of Exile is a free dungeon crawler that's a bit different from most free-to-play games out there. It's not just about whacking real life people until they scream at you in shrill pubescent tones through their Skype headsets.
It's more of a slow-burner than a multiplayer blaster, but give it time and you may well fall in love with this free-to-play loot-gathering hit. There are hidden depths that you only uncover after playing for hours (and hours), and a huge skill tree to slowly pick away at. There are no game-ruining things like real money auction houses here, either.
Instead, even basic loot can be useful because there's always an opportunity to enhance even the simplest weapon with magic. If you got tired of the grind of Diablo III, it's a good one to check out.
Pick your champion and head into battle in this amazing free-to-play game from the creators of Dota. League of Legends' automated matchmaking, range of characters and excellent maps have made it a multiplayer star over the last year, and one well worth a play.
It's a very aggressive game to play, but one that rewards good teamwork and careful tactics. Don't expect to master it overnight, but it won't be long before you're having fun.
Like Dota 2, League of Legends attracts many high-end players, and the top tournaments offer prize pools of over $1,000,000. The weird world of e-sports, eh?
Ever played Magic the Gathering, the card game? Hearthstone is Blizzard's attempt at making an online free-to-play alternative to it.
And in typical Blizzard fashion, it's excellent. It's immediately inviting, lacking the terrifying learning curve you might expect from an online fantasy card game. Hearthstone plays quickly, boasts a very casual visual approach, and benefits from a basic rule set, all of which adds up to a very accessible card battler that will give you hours of enjoyment.
Taking over from the original Star Wars MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies in 2011, Star Wars: The Old Republic was not free at release at first. But it has since, like so many games of this kind, adopted the free-to-play model. If you want to get Sith kicks, this is the best way to get them for free.
However, subscriptions are still available, giving you more in-game potential. All the story missions are available without a sub – they just might take you that bit longer.
It's worth the download simply to experience the Star Wars universe from different perspectives, like the hyper-professional Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter. If you want to go with the dull option and just have a generic Jedi Knight, though, that's fine too.
When Xbox head Phil Spencer said he was going to bring the console's best franchises to the PC, he wasn't joking around. Among these notable series is Forza Motorsport.
Shunned by petrol-heads and embraced by gamers, Forza Motorsport may seem like an arcadey offshoot of its biggest rival on PlayStation, but it consistently looks and feels superb nonetheless.
Apex in particular brings a complete Forza Motorsport game to PC players for the first time. Though it’s free-to-play, there is additional content that can be downloaded for a modest price. While it’s not quite the full-fledged experience you can expect on Xbox One, with support for 4K screens and racing wheels, Forza Motorsport 6 Apex is the free-to-play twist we’ve been craving from Microsoft’s long-standing racing series.
Rare's classic fighting series Killer Instinct may not be the household name it once was, but the ability to play one character for free is enticing nonetheless.
What's more, characters can be purchased a la carte as downloadable content, which means you don't have to shell out a wad of cash unnecessarily for characters you'll never play. And, for the Xbox fans out there, this game is essentially Microsoft's equivalent of Super Smash Bros. and PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale since you can pick up numerous Xbox mascots. These include Arbiter (Halo), Rash (Battletoads) and General RAAM (Gears of War) in addition to a growing catalog of Killer Instinct-specific characters.
While Killer Instinct isn't as popular with the Fighting Game Community, there is a certain novelty of being able to control these classic Xbox-derived characters, and on PC at that.
World of Tanks is a different kind of MMO – the clue being in the title. Team-based, massively multiplayer action with a huge range of war machines to drive into battle awaits, with new players able to join the action immediately.
An upgrade system adds a sense of personalization, while being surrounded by a whole army constantly reminds you that loners don't do well on the battlefield. Get sucked in, though, and you may find you end up spending a chunk of your wages on great big chunks of virtual metal.
While some premium tanks cost just a few dollars, others are more expensive. You can see where maker Wargaming is going to earn some cash from World of Tanks enthusiasts.
Think World of Tanks is a bit too arcade-like for your tastes? You need to try out the free game War Thunder. Despite being lesser-known, it's a great alternative to that tank battler. And for an extra sweetener, it throws airplanes into the mix too. As you might expect, they're a great deal of fun.
With a fast enough PC, War Thunder offers visual quality you don't see too often in free-to-play games. You will need to pay some cash to get hold of the more interesting planes and tanks early on, but getting Battlefield-like play for free sounds like a good deal to us.
There are arcade and historical battles on offer – the former is great for a more casual blast while historical battles are more for players with a few hours on their flight card.
Though its future was briefly uncertain after the sale of Sony's online entertainment division in February 2015, Everquest has returned better than ever with new expansion packs and continued support by Daybreak Game Company.
The first of its kind to commercially succeed with a 3D game engine, Everquest was released in 1999 as an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) and has since been documented as one of the most important games in the medium's history.
Featuring consistently released expansion packs (quite massive in scale, at least early on) with vast new areas, races and classes, Everquest brings to the table just about everything you would expect from an MMO – plus it's notably better at handling co-op than its alternatives.
While it's no World of Warcraft in terms of whether your friends are still playing it, the free game Rift had its moment – and it's still having it depending on who you ask. It added innovation in a genre that was experiencing little, letting you change your class whenever you feel like it.
The whole game is focused on separating giant boss battles and events that occupy entire zones. It's ambitious, exciting and huge with a dozen inter-dimensional rifts that keep things fresh and unique from other games in the genre.
Runescape is one of the biggest free-to-play MMOs out there, and now would be a good time to take a look. In 2013 it entered its third reboot – this is actually 'Runescape 3', although just jumping in now you might not appreciate it has been around in one form or another for more than 10 years.
It's certainly not the shiniest MMO in the world despite the revamp, but hanging onto this many players shows it's doing something right. The big change introduced in Runescape 3 that made it appear a lot more modern was the ability to see much further – in Runescape 2 the horizon quickly gave way to fog. Not so now.
You can download the game for free or run it in your browser using Java, making it much more convenient than most other online role-players of this epic scale.
If the bleak appearance typically associated with MMORPGs is a turn-off for you, you'll be delighted to see that Maplestory takes the traditional art style of the genre and turns it on its head. Described by its developer as the original 2D side-scrolling MMO, Nexon's Maplestory takes the age-old Dungeon & Dragons-inspired genre and makes it kawaii.
The customization and lighter tone of Maplestory makes it feel more like a Harvest Moon MMO than something like Rift or World of Warcraft. It's also more focused on improving cosmetics than many other MMOs, giving players distinct control over their character's look and style.
There are even in-game weddings and dinosaurs that play guitar. Honestly the only thing we're missing here is a soundtrack composed by Oasis.
If you're into third-person co-operative shooters, Warfarme is one of the best free games out there. After joining one of three factions: Tenno, Grineer or Corpos, your soldier is decked out in a Crysis-styled exosuit and equipped with guns or melee weapons.
Better looking than your average free-to-play shooter, much fun can be had in Warframe's player-vs-enemy raids — so much so that some gamers see it as, "The Destiny that never was". High praise indeed.
Gods from around the world get together to battle it out in a free Dota/MOBA inspired clash of divine vengeance in this effort. Despite Smite's obvious inspirations, it comes from the same developer that made FPS smash Tribes Ascend – a completely different beast.
The camera is behind the characters this time, making for a more direct connection to the action than simply guiding your lord around with a mouse, but the premise will be either familiar if you've played its inspirations, or a way to get the feel for the style if you haven't. Gods include Zeus, Thor, Kali, Artemis and… Cupid? Well, at least he has his own bow…
Many MMOs are being launched or relaunched as free-to-play at the moment, but Lord of the Rings Online is one of the titles that most warrants a second look. Not only is it an excellent game in its own right, it's one of the more mature MMOs out there.
You will likely have to pay eventually, if only to unlock adventure packs, but there's no subscription fee and nothing to buy up-front. If you missed it at launch, it's time to give it a try.
Without seeing more than a few screenshots, you might think Wildstar is a new IP from Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games. It's colorful and cartoony enough to sit alongside the same catalog as Spyro, but this is no casual free-to-play MMO, which may be the reason it didn't do as well as expected sales-wise.
If you like Blizzard games, such as World of Warcraft, Wildstar will undoubtedly quench your thirst since many of its developers at Carbine Studios came from the beloved Activision Blizzard subsidiary.
Despite not landing as "the next evolution of the modern MMORPG," according to its IGN review, Wildstar holds its own as a traditional MMO that, before going free-to-play, had a unique subscription method based on actual player progress along with some colorfully stylized graphics.
In 2003, Icelandic developer CCP Games unleashed unto the world Eve Online, an immersive and in-depth “sci-fi experience” that would eventually garner the attention of well over 500,000 players. Eve Online is unlike any game in its category, thanks to the vast range of activities to take part in as well as its (appropriately) out of this world in-game economy.
Unfortunately, the Eve Online player base has been on the decline since 2013. It should come as no shock that as time goes on, fewer and fewer gamers are interested in paying a subscription fee for a glorified space sim with a steep learning curve. As of the Ascension update, which released in November 2016, Eve Online has gone free-to-play – at least to an extent.
The new ‘alpha clones’ system featured in Eve Online is similar to the “unlimited free trial” featured in World of Warcraft. You can still engage with other players in mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploring and combat, but certain skills will be off-limits. As long as you don’t mind finite access to some of the game’s most lumbering ships, Eve Online won’t cost a cent.
Blacklight: Retribution may not be as free as it was before it arrived on PS4, but it's still a damn fun and affordable way to play an FPS. Almost like a free-to-play Titanfall, Blacklight: Retribution has no single-player mode to offer and takes place in a futuristic Cyberpunk setting complete with fan-favorite modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Domination, King of the Hill and Kill Confirmed.
Featuring customizable weapons and mechs, of course, Blacklight: Retribution is a fun, free and safe way to let off steam after that 9 to 5. Plus, with over 1 million registered players and counting, there's bound to me no shortage of teammates (and rivals) to join up with.
As it's been in beta since 2012 with little to no marketing push, you may have forgotten about Hawken or were unfamiliar with it in the first place. Most notably, Hawken is a game about mechs. But, not just any mechs – fast mechs. These are your average slow, lumbering tanks of MechWarrior Online. These are more comparable to the Exoskeletons of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Of course, being a free-to-play game, you can expect to pay for upgrades to your starter mech. However, you can still get a taste for Hawken without spending a dime. Plus, attach an Oculus Rift and you can see for yourself what VR games have in store for you. Admit it, you've wanted to know what it's feels like to power a mech for yourself since Pacific Rim came out.
Although it quickly fell off the face of the Earth, Evolve was removed from Steam and re-released back into beta a year and a half after its initial release. It was then that the follow-up from Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock was slashed by 100 percent with a new name: Evolve Stage 2.
Despite going free-to-play, the game's core structure remains intact. It's a game of humans vs. zombies, err, monsters, a new twist on a beloved pastime. A team of four players, called hunters, is pitted up against a single monster, with each hunter assigned their own class. Of course, with four players taking on one, there is a unique catch: hence the game's title, monsters start out at a basic level but evolve over time by killing and consuming wildlife in nearby areas.
Evolve cost $40 before, so rest assured you'll get access to a game that looks triple-A, even if much of the content is locked behind a paywall. Nevertheless you can give it a shot for yourself for the nominal cost of $0 on Steam.
Played Skyrim or Oblivion? You should at least give the classic The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfal a nod. This 1990s RPG is a precursor to those incredibly popular RPGs, and is a bit of a classic in its own right.
Its game world is many times the size of any of its successors, and indeed it's the size of a continent, one absolutely packed with atmosphere. You might not all be able to stomach the old-fashioned visuals, but it's worth investigating if you want to see where Skyrim came from.
It's available direct from Bethesda. The publisher started offering it for free to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the game. As if we didn't feel old enough already.
Marvel Heroes is quite obviously Gazillion Entertainment's response to DC Universe Online. It's a 2-in-1 experience, blending elements of both MMOs and RPGs and featuring characters from a wide range of Marvel franchises. According to its Steam description, you can play as characters from the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-men "and more" with villains such as Dr. Doom, Loki and Magneto present at the helm.
If, after seeing the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you want to revisit these characters interactively, the Marvel Heroes MMO-ARPG is the way to go, packing PvP, weapon and armour crafting and just about everything else you would expect from the genre at this point. It even features Blizzard talent, like from David Brevik, creator of the original Diablo and its sequel.
Interested in knowing what Wolfenstein was before The New Order? Wolfenstein 3D is now free, and will take you back to the year 1992 when celebrity game developers John Carmack and John Romero teamed up to make a shareware game like nothing before it.
Wolfenstein 3D took concepts from Muse Software's Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein to create a three-dimensional first-person shooter that would later inspire the development of Doom.
Keep in mind while playing, though, that while Wolfenstein 3D was impressive for its time, it's probably not what you would expect from a first-person shooter of today's standards. Nonetheless, it's an easy and free way to experience game history in an old-school World War II game rich with narrative about, well, shooting Nazis in the face. Don't expect to be blown away by the story in the same way as the Wolfenstein franchise's more recent entries.
It may be an old vet in gaming terms, but nothing offers so much crazy fun as Team Fortress 2. Unlike most shooters of its age, players are still there to have a good time rather than hurl abuse at newcomers, and there's no shortage of cool toys to have fun with. Endlessly silly and amazingly fresh, it's still one of the shooter genre's kings, free-to-play or not.
As you might guess, there are some micro-transactions involved. You can buy additional items, often used to customise your character. You can create your own. It's fun, and gets you even more involved in TF2. Those cheeky devils at Valve know what they're doing.
Like OlliOlli meets Journey with the art style of Monument Valley, Alto's Adventure is still an underground treat well after its February 2015 release date on iOS and Android. The Windows 10 version, however, is stacked with Xbox achievements allowing you to boost your Gamerscore without the need to exert a great deal of energy.
On the surface, Alto's Adventure is a 2D endless snowboarder with an elegant art style and a charming musical score. If it weren't for the video ads interrupting nearly every time you make a mistake, it would be an unceasingly relaxing adventure too. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't look like you can opt out of the pestering Gameloft trailers playing intermittently between falls, even if you don't mind shelling out a few bucks.
Nevertheless, between the luscious environments and the impressive day/night sequences, Alto's Adventure is an undeniably lethargic experience. Even if you find that you're constantly stumbling at the hand of your board, the frustration is more of a slight nuisance than a deal-breaker considering everything else Alto's Adventure has to offer.
Magic: The Gathering is fun, right? But what if you could play it from the comfort of your PC? Fortunately, that's possible thanks to Magic Duels. Whether you're a first-time player or a 20-year vet, Duels lets you do everything the card game does and more. While over 300 new cards are advertised as being attainable throughout the game, there's also a unique story mode where you can experience Magic like never before.
If narrative in your card games isn't your cup of tea, there's also a Battle Mode in which you can challenge your friends, a four-player Two-Headed Giant battle and even an offline solo mode you can use for practice against AI.
Though it's yet another free-to-play MMO on this list, DC Universe Online takes characters like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and more into a massive (and shared) public world.
Choose whether you want to be a member of the Hero or Villain faction then customize your character and you'll be sent out into the world of DC Universe Online at the hands of Daybreak Game Company.
After some training, the game assigns you a position as either a member of the Justice League or The Society depending on your choice of hero or villain. Unlike other MMOs on this list and outside it, DC Universe Online is designed to be much more interactive while still retaining traditional MMORPG elements such as leveling, raiding, inventories and post-game progression. Favorably, it's not difficult to play without using real-world currency too.
It’s not hard to see why Paladins catches a lot of flack for its resemblance to Overwatch. At the same time, the team-based shooter bears many distinctions from that of Blizzard’s. Abilities are upgraded based on a collectible card system, which can completely change the way each character plays.
What’s more, unlike Overwatch, Paladins is completely free-to-play. While cosmetic items are available to buy using real-world currency, everything else can be unlocked simply by playing the game. For instance, you’ll start Paladins with a single deck of basic cards, and from there, more dramatically impactful decks can be unlocked.
Regardless of how you choose to play Paladins, you’ll get XP as you play. As long as you’re completing the daily quests and achievements featured in the game, you’ll be rewarded with Radiant Chests and Gold. These can be used to purchase more cards, costumes and weapon skins to make your characters more unique and skillful on the battlefield.
Described as a "Free-to-Play AAA MMO Shooter" by its developer Red 5 Studios, Firefall draws heavy influence from shooters and open-world MMOs alike. The game downloads complete with five different character classes and both PvP (player versus player) and PvE (player versus environment) modes.
Firefall has every class, including Assault, Biotech, Dreadnaught, Engineer and Recon, you could ever need in addition to all the upgrades you could expect from an MMO. Unfortunately, because it uses Amazon Web Services, the servers are often flaky, resulting in an inconsistent online experience. Get past that, however, and you're in for a treat as Firefall balances the best of both worlds, shooters and MMOs.
You can now get Spelunky on all sorts of platforms – it's pretty high-profile for an indie title. But it began its life PC-exclusive, and its original 'non HD' Classic version you can still get for free today.
The catch is that every time you play, the entire game is randomized. In one game you'll stumble through screen after screen of spiked horrors and swarming monsters; in the next, the software will bend over backwards to give you gold and help you on your way.
You learn how each randomized world ticks and which equipment will give you a fighting chance. And then you'll die some more. And scream. And restart. Again.
As a free MMO, Neverwinter sets a high standard for itself as it's based on perhaps the most iconic role-playing game of all-time, Dungeons & Dragons. Like everything else in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, the game takes place in Forgotten Realms, specifically, as the name suggests, in Neverwinter.
Featuring eight character classes with groups of up to five players supported, Neverwinter is based on the fourth-generation rules of Dungeons & Dragons. However, the rules are slightly modified, letting players heal their allies in addition to allowing for the use of special abilities in combat after racking up enough action points.
For years now, developers have tried and failed to adapt multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games for the TV. Now, however, if you're one of many with a computer tucked under your living room entertainment setup, Paragon may be the MOBA you've been searching for.
Also available on the PlayStation 4, Paragon takes what League of Legends and Dota players have enjoyed for years and optimizes it for consoles and entertainment rigs by rotating the camera behind your character. By inciting the illusion of a traditional third-person competitive shooter, Paragon aims to broaden the appeal of not only MOBAs, but eSports as a whole.
The asymmetrical maps, team-based base destruction and "hero" system are all intact. Paragon is a MOBA for newcomers, and best of all, it's free-to-play.
36. Puzzle Pirates
Most MMOs let you say what you want in your own native tongue. Not Puzzle Pirates. This adorably decorated MMO, like its title suggests, is about solving puzzles as a pirate. And, rather than asking your first mate, "What's up?", you're encouraged to use phrases like "Yarr, matey!" Otherwise, you might end up walking the plank.
In the game, you can join a crew, improve your rank and more all while speaking pirate lingo and developing new relationships. Fundamentally, you're on the search for currency from enemy ships known as "pieces of eight." However, less expected is that in order to achieve that, you'll need to solve puzzles in order to sail and protect your crew's ship.
To be over thirteen years old, Puzzle Pirates still holds up. Now you can get the multiplayer portion of Puzzle Pirates for free on Steam; a single-player mode no longer exists because of the discontinuation of the CD-ROM version of the game. Nevertheless, at least there's no reason to pirate it.
37. Unturned
Like Minecraft meets DayZ, Unturned takes apocalyptic survival elements from both games and merges them into one derivatively blocky sandbox game. That’s by no means a criticism either. Like the titles it draws influence from, Unturned is at its best when experienced with friends online. Donning both PvP and PvE modes, Unturned is the real deal.
Developed by a 16-year-old kid and with over 24 million downloads under its belt, Unturned is immensely successful, and it’s not difficult to see why. The game is practically being crowdsourced through early access. Because most of its features come from Unturned’s devoted community, it has everything from fortification to vehicle access in place.
In PvP, players can rack up gear by swiping it from under their opponents’ noses. Meanwhile, in PvE, it’s all about surviving the apocalypse in collaboration with teammates. In the context of Unturned, survival means thwarting off enemies while simultaneously cultivating resources, fishing, harvesting crops and even hunting wild animals for food.
Inspiring the creation of Minecraft was no small feat for 2D sandbox game Dwarf Fortress. Dubbed a construction and management simulator, Dwarf Fortress takes simple text-based graphics into a more modern, 2006 piece of software. The game is often classified as a cult classic because of its open-ended nature and serving as one of the most iconic examples of a procedurally generated roguelike.
This means Dwarf Fortress both randomizes its environments and makes the game's permadeath system a much more difficult problem to avoid. This led to the unofficial slogan for the game "Losing is fun," which was either ironic or an accurate description of what happens in the game. Tough to say either way.
One thing's for sure, though. If you want to experience an important part of games history, Dwarf Fortress is a solid start, as it was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City back in 2013. Can't say that for a lot of free-to-play games.
To explain Digital: A Love Story would be giving away too much, so let's just say that it's a great nostalgia trip with a bit of future-gazing thrown in for free. Played out entirely on 1988-style bulletin boards, it starts when you respond to an email from a lonely sounding girl called Emilia.
The relationship in this, not especially long, game (an hour or so at most) is a testament to the writing that quickly enthralls despite being not much more than a string of jotting down phone numbers. It plays out as a hacker's romance, having you jump between BBS systems to uncover a conspiracy.
You never get to see what you've said, only the responses, which adds an unusual but effective disconnect to the conversations. The authentic sounding music and sound effects help: the sweet siren song of a modem connecting still sends a chill down the spine.
If you're more interested in the property management systems of Fallout 4 rather than the overwhelming majority of the role-playing game's content, Fallout Shelter is a great place to start. Up until recently, the simulation game was limited to mobile platforms Android and iOS. However, with the introduction of Quests in version 1.6 of Fallout Shelter, Bethesda Softworks also felt the need to port the game to PC by way of the Bethesda.net client.
All in all, Fallout Shelter doesn't feel much different on PC, and that's undoubtedly a good thing. Mouse controls work well in place of a touchscreen, graphics are optimized even for low-end hardware and with windowed mode enabled by default, it's easy to find yourself caring after your vault residents during your downtime at work. With an indisputably manageable price point (free), Fallout Shelter could very well become the next Solitaire in your office or at school.
Sure, if you like what you play in the first episode, you'll have to pay money for the remaining four, but Life Is Strange is undeniably a game worth experiencing. Full disclosure, it's not exactly a game in the traditional sense, but rather it's more of an interactive movie. The game's outcomes are the result of the choices you make as Max Caulfield, a high school photography student who discovers she has the ability to alter time.
Along the way, you'll become deeply entrenched in Max's social life, specifically in her relationship with her childhood best friend (and blue-haired punk) Chloe Price as well as movie nerd Warren Graham and criminal prep Nathan Prescott. There's nothing like a solid cast of characters to get you hooked on a point-and-click adventure game, but any more said about Life Is Strange would border spoiler territory. In other words, play the first episode and get a taste for it yourself, absolutely free of charge.
Old Game Boy games port extremely well to browsers and the building blocks game of yesteryear is no exception. Tetris works on the same premise as its much older sibling albeit with a splash of colour and you'll surprise yourself by how easy it still is.
That's until the blocks start stacking up and before you know it, it's game over. There's no elaborate back story to Tetris except that it's about making sure you eliminate the bricks before they stack up. Surely there's metaphor in there somewhere?
Where Nintendo GameBoy games do well online, the same can be said for the ones that used to be magically built into tables like Asteroids. Nothing has changed from the old version of Asteroids to this one, with the aim still to break up the pieces of rock using your spacecraft and to avoid being destroyed by UFOs.
The arrow keys make it even easier to play than with a sticky joystick and buttons that have been scarred by years of spilled beers.
It’s not every day that we see a full-length survival horror campaign completely free of charge with no strings attached. However, that’s exactly what Team Psykskallar set out to do with Cry of Fear. Complete with a single-player story mode that exceeds 8 hours, Cry of Fear was initially contrived as a Half-Life mod clearly inspired by the classic Resident Evil, alternating endings and all.
Combine that with co-op support for up to four players, 24 unique weapon choices and an unlockable additional campaign after you beat the first one and “free” starts to sound like a bargain. Although the story itself isn’t all that, Cry of Fear sets a precedent for how a horror mod should branch out into its own game after a 4-year development cycle. It’s nostalgic, atmospheric and, best of all, downright frightening.
Real-time Strategy (RTS) games don't come much grander than those in the Total War series, and the latest entrant, Battles KINGDOM, is free-to-play. Currently in open beta on the PC, it's also available to play on iOS and Android, so you can pick up where you left off when you're away from your battlestation. Set at the turn of the 10th Century, Total War Battles: Kingdom combines army management with kingdom building to deliver a bite-sized RTS game you can pick up and play anywhere, anytime.