If you’re looking for a good time but don’t have a dime to spare, these free pc games will leave you smiling
There was a time when “free-to-play” was a dirty term in the games industry. There are still terrible, exploitative free-to-play games on the market—more every day, in fact. But occasionally—occasionally—we get something...miraculous. We get a free-to-play game that doesn’t try to con players out of money or make the design intentionally boring in order to make those purchasable unlocks more exciting.
Here, you’ll find a list of games so good the developers could’ve charged money (or, in some cases, did charge) before going free-to-play. These aren’t just good free-to play games, they’re good games, full stop.
1. FORTNITE
Last time we updated this list, we had to specifically refer to “Fortnite: Battle Royale” to distinguish it from its horde-mode predecessor. I hardly think that’s necessary now.
In the ensuing year, Fortnite’s (go. pcworld.com/fnit) become the largest game in the world, boasting 250 million registered accounts and a peak of 10.8 million concurrent players. It’s so big, it forced Sony to consider crossplay between the PlayStation and other platforms. It hosted a virtual concert attended by millions. It even earned enough to allow Epic to open its own Steam competitor, and dole out plenty of money for exclusive games on top. It’s a force of nature.
And it’s still going. Epic continues to update the game at a prodigious rate, changing the map, the guns, the skins, the emotes, the core mechanics, basically everything on a regular basis. At its core Fortnite is still a battle royale with a building component, but Epic’s live-service treatment is the real story here.
2. APEX LEGENDS
This story is from the June 2019 edition of PCWorld.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 2019 edition of PCWorld.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
5 Compelling Reasons to Buy a Windows Laptop Instead of a MacBook
MacBooks are powerful and chic. That's also true of many Window Notebooks - And they have other advantages that MacBook can't counter.
5 tips to make Gmail more secure
Bank statements, contracts, tickets, love letters…most things in this world can be sent via email, and protecting your email is extremely important.
TunnelBear VPN: It's just right for beginners
Come for the bear puns, stay for the security.
Contour SliderMouse Pro: This mouse saves your hands
Unusual ergonomic mouse is here to save your hands
Woohoo! You can get a Raspberry Pi again
Availability hasn't completely recovered, but it's looking much better already.
Microsoft begins pulling the plug on Cortana
Cortana probably won't live for much longer.
Norton's free Al-powered Genie tool helps you spot online scams
Not sure if the message, email, link or social media post you've received is a scam? The Al-powered Norton Genie is designed to help.
Google now alerts you if your contact info appears online
Better decades late than never.
Microsoft 365 makeover: Office docs are getting new default look
Significant changes are coming to your Office documents with Microsoft 365's new default theme.
Smart Answers: GenAl tool makes it easier to find the info you need on PCWorld
Smart Answers puts you in the driving seat for content discovery.