Perhaps you were a fan of the Panzer General series, or the broader General series of wargames from SSI back in the day, or maybe you just like wargames or turn based games. If any of those possibilities apply to you, check out People’s Tactics, a free, Win32 turn based strategy game. By default it’s a WWII game, though it’s extensible and there are several modifications available for it including a Lord of the Rings conversion. Simple, serviceable graphics and rock solid gameplay, with a lot of scenarios available for it as well.

Obsessive compulsive Star Wars fans will find lots to love at the Starwars Combine, a free, wonderfully complex browser-based massively multiplayer online game set in the Star Wars universe. Make a character and start down your career path – smuggler, merchant, soldier, whatever. There are over 4000 planets in the galaxy and you can fly among them, explore their surfaces, found cities, engage in warfare, hunt pirates, join factions and fight for the empire or rebels, and more. It’s really pretty amazing what they’ve packed into this game, in many ways it puts Sony’s big budget Star Wars Galaxies massively multiplayer game to shame, and the hardware requirements are lower, it will work on your mac or Linux box, and it’s free. Check it out if browser games are your cup of tea. And if they are but you’re intimidated by how complex the Star Wars Combine is, check out Urban Dead, the superb online Zombie game, which is simple yet engaging and fun. I’m Bubba Jones, Fireman, currently barricaded in the Bristol Building in Chudelyton if you make a character – come look me up, err, unless you’re a zombie that is.

Remember the board game Risk? Check out this very competent java version. It’s got a decent interface and performance is relatively snappy despite it being written in Java, plus it features custom maps beyond the classic map of from the original boardgame. No network play, alas, but you folks never take me up on my challenges anyway so there’s not much loss there.

I have this love/hate relationship with Battlefield 2. On the one hand the game itself is superb fun with a great engine and beautiful graphics. On the other hand it shows so many signs of lazy programming practices (memory management? Fuck it, we got gigs to play with!) that at times I get really frustrated with it. One of the best examples of this is their in-game server and statistics browser. I swear my commodore 64 from the 1980’s could push piles of what is essentially text data around quicker than this piece of crap could. Unfortunately I don’t yet have a good solution to the server browser problem, but if you want to scope out your stats and don’t want to wait 30 or more seconds for the in-game browser to respond to your mouse clicks, check out bf2sr.com’s stat retriever. It’s a tiny little download which grabs the stats for any username in less time than it takes to double click it and will build an html page for you to post if you want to taunt your friends with your stats. Good stuff, and free. I’m Tempus67 if you’re wanting to scope out my exemplary work as squad medic.

…Or at least your boss will think so from the clattering of your keyboard. Ever smirk at the people playing whackamole in say, a Chucky Cheese or at the local summer carnival? Now you can experience the joy that is the mindless bashing of things in the comfort of your own office, without fear of folks smirking at you. Check out tontie, and spend 15 minutes bashing little alien critters for some mindless and challenging fun. The other games on the site are also simple, novel and fun.

Given my lack of leisure activities for the past three or so weeks, and because Nick emailed and asked, I’ll start things off with a game. How many of you are old enough to remember the original car racing game on the Intellivision (and for my circle of friends, how many remember huddling around the Leighton’s or Bruning’s tv to play it)? This was a top-down view arcade racing game with (for the time) realistic physics and a number of tracks. It was the best racing game of its time by far. 25 some odd years later, imagine playing a very similar game online against other folks, but with better graphics, very realistic physics and an avid fanbase. If the prospect interests you, check out miniracingonline. It’s free, under very active development, and is very fun. It’s got an arcade mode for those of you lacking pc-controller fu sufficient to keep your car on the track, and there are a ton of addon tracks available. The only downside is it lacks engaging solo play, but since you’re going to need practice on the tracks if you don’t want to be completely spanked online, you’d best spend some time in solo mode anyway.

The original Avalon Hill Dune boardgame is a well regarded and influential game still held up as a paragon of elegant game design to this day. It’s based on the novel, not the movie, and is long out of print in english, though you can buy a copy of the game in french for around $50. It turns out there’s a free network, hotseat, and pbem capable version of the game available for win32 from this site. If you’ve balked at paying upwards of $70 for your own copy or if you just want to play, this will fit the bill. If you’re interested in further details on the game itself check out the boardgamegeek.com link above, or this site, which has some history, a variety of downloads, and links to other Dune sites, including where to order the french version.

I’m fortunate enough to have scored a copy of the game in english years ago off of ebay for less than $20 due to a fluke – basically ebay’s systems went down for a day and I won the auction by default because no one could bid during the critical last few hours of the auction. I felt bad for the guy auctioning it off but elated that he abided by the terms of the auction. I’ve never had a chance to play it though. If anyone cares to challenge me in the computer version, throw down the gauntlet and we’ll see who deserves to control the spice.

And more expensive. I’m a big computer gamer, and like a runner who buys the best shoes, I’m constantly hunting after gear to improve my game. Most folks would laugh at how much I spend on mice alone each year. Several years ago I discovered the Func precision mousing surface and I’ve sworn by it ever since. Recently they updated the product and extremetech ran a review. To be honest I can’t tell what’s different about the new one as compared to the $20 one I have now, but if you’re serious about gaming this is definitely worth it, even at $50. Even if you’re not a gamer but prefer your mouse experience as little friction as possible, you’ll like this pad. It’s also easy to clean as compared to cloth-based pads, and if you couple it with some teflon tape on the feet of your mouse, you’ll have as close to zero friction as you’re likely to get.

I’ll observe that this come up on ebay for under $30 too – most of the vendors are of the ‘cheap product, expensive shipping’ variety but if you’re patient you can probably score one for lots less than the $50 retail they’re asking for it.