The 15 Lamest Free Games On Consoles And The 15 Best

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The 15 Lamest Free Games On Consoles And The 15 Best

Some of the free games out there on consoles are legitimately great — others, not so much. via: youtube.com (RXQ79) When a game is released as free to play it carried a certain amount of air to it. That is to say, it was often viewed distastefully. How could a free game be any good? For the most part, this boom came around with the birth of high-quality smartphones via the iPhone in 2007. Since then we’ve had an overabundance of free apps, which then bled into PC games, which then transferred into consoles, and now here we are. So in that time frame, have free to play games evolved into something substantial even on the console side? You bet they have! I’m actually kind of jealous of kids nowadays. It used to be that if I wanted a new game I had to beg my parents, or wait for a birthday, or a holiday to get something. Either that, or renting games, which I did a lot of too even though it was also expensive. Young gamers have it so easy now. There are plenty of free to play games no matter what console you own. Not to mention the mobile market again. Plus with services like PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass, well, we are all swimming in games. If my theoretical kid came up to me and told me they were bored my head would explode. There’s a lot to play, but it’s hard to know what’s good and what’s not. Even though something is free it costs precious time. That’s why I devised this handy list. Hope it helps! THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY

Lame Pokémon Quest

GameTyrant Right off the bat, I hated Pokémon Quest. Sure it’s bright and cheery, but that cube art is low rent and clearly a scam to lure in Minecraft fans. Then you got the gameplay, which there is basically none of. Every level you start, the Pokémon just auto run through it. You can tap to pull off specials, but since the game moves freely anyway I just clicked auto battle to do the specials for me. There’s no player incentive. It’s an insult to the fans and brand.

Best Fortnite Battle Royale

NDTV Gadgets Admittedly I’m not a fan of Fortnite, or its free to play Battle Royale mode, but there’s no escaping its popularity right now. Even if it’s not for me I can see why people love it so much. Who would have thought that this game, which was in development heck for years, rumored to be canceled several times, would go on to be a global phenomenon to the point where it’s literally everywhere? Fortnite continues to be the biggest surprise of 2018.

Lame Fallout Shelter

Screenshot According to the lead on the Fallout series, Todd Howard, over 120 million people have played Fallout Shelter. Cool, but it’s free. That doesn’t mean they played more than once. In this day and age with everyone having a phone of course we’re going to try free stuff. Why would I want a terrible phone sim on my console? I can’t tell you how many big name offshoots I’ve downloaded, played once, and then never touched again. Now you can play on your consoles. Why? I say nay to you Bethesda.

Best Hawken

Screenshot Ever since this launched on PCs back in 2012, I’ve been itching to play it. At long last, it came to consoles in 2016 and the wait was worth it. Climbing inside a mech and customizing it to your play style is as addicting as it was the first time I created my own load out in Modern Warfare 2. Admittedly it had a rocky start with frame rates and the general online infer structure, but it’s better now. It’s as close as we’ll get to pilot mechs in real life. Well, for free that is.

Lame A King s Tale Final Fantasy XV

Screenshot Somehow, even before it was released, Final Fantasy XV had a bazillion spinoffs planned. One of those is this prequel starring Noctis’ dad. On paper it sounds cool: a retro beat ‘em in the Final Fantasy universe. Awesome! Trouble is the combat is slow, bogged down by an unwanted parry and counter system. Plus it’s single player only. Has Square Enix even played a brawler before? You need co-op! That’s the soul of what breaks, or breaks games in this genre.

Best Final Fantasy XIV

Square Enix If you want a good free Final Fantasy than look no further than XIV. You can download it for free and play until level 35 with most of the core features available. After that, you have to pay the $15 a month subscription. The best MMO on this list! I think at that point you’ll know if you want to keep playing, or not. If I didn’t have a job in the games press wherein I’m encouraged to play a lot of different games, I think I’d still be playing this. That is to say, it’s very good and highly addictive.

Lame Brawlhalla

Screenshot Brawlhalla is another in a long line of terrible Super Smash Bros. clones. Here’s why it fails. The game has no recognizable characters. Did you think people played Smash because the gameplay was fun? It’s fine, but it’s not the most robust fighter. Nintendo is successful because it has a huge catalog of characters. Even PlayStation’s go, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, was alright. Not as iconic a roster, but still fun. Brawlhalla is a nobody and also just basic as heck.

Best Toukiden 2 Free Alliances Version

Screenshot Were you surprised by Monster Hunter World and have been craving another game in that same style since it launched back in January? Also, do you like Dynasty Warriors? Yes? Well, then I have a match for you. Toukiden 2 Free Alliances Version is a mouthful, but it’s basically a feudal Japan Monster Hunter clone with ninjas, samurai, and demons. This free version launched later containing most of the main game. If you like it you can unlock everything for a somewhat minimal fee. It’s a good deal and fun time especially with friends.

Lame Army Proving Ground

Screenshot Doesn’t that sound fun kids? Don’t you want to join the United States Army and thwart real villains with subpar gameplay that’s worse than a PS1 game? Well then head on over to your PS4 and download Army: Proving Ground today. If you want a less fun Call of Duty, play this. There are so many people playing. There’s no deserted lobbies, or lag during gameplay at all. It’s so exciting! Aaaaand...scene. Obviously, I was being sarcastic there, because it’s a bad experience.

Best World Of Tanks

World of Tanks If you want a war game that takes place in our modern era for free and is actually good then I suggest World of Tanks. The name says it all. It’s a tank based multiplayer shooter and it controls just about as good as you’d think a tank should. That is to say, it’s clunky. That may be a detriment to movement found in a certain 90s survival-horror game, but it fits here. It’s a sim more than anything else featuring tanks from across the globe and throughout the ages. It’s a collector’s dream come true.

Lame Defiance 2050

On MSFT Defiance was created with a lofty goal in mind. The SyFy show and game launched in April 2013. Players could get exclusive quests if they followed the show, which would affect the game and potentially vice versa. Eventually, the show was canceled, because, well, it was another terrible SyFy show, but the game has lived on. It just got ported to modern consoles under the guise of Defiance 2050 and it’s just as bad if not worse looking than the last-gen version. Did they actually do any port work?

Best Star Trek Online

Screenshot If you want a good sci-fi MMO on your PS4, or Xbox One than I suggest jumping into Star Trek Online. Now I’m not going to lie. It started in 2010 and it continues to basically look like it was made in 2010. Rocket to your nearest online stores, man. It’s rough around the edges, but like World of Tanks, it’s a dream come true for fans. The attention to detail in following the lore of the numerous shows is incredible. Plus it has both ship and on the ground combat to satiate both fan bases.

Lame Dust 514

Polygon For those unaware, Dust 514 is a tie-in to the ungodly popular EVE Online. We’re talking on a global scale. When ships send troops to war, that’s what Dust 514 is supposed to symbolize. It was meant to be a better jumping on point to the series, but it’s almost as complicated as EVE Online. A shooter should be as easy to play as 1-2-3, but it sadly isn’t. Both of these titles aren’t games. They are full time jobs.

Best Warframe

Screenshot I recently wrote about Warframe in . When it launched it was pretty bare bones and reviews reflected that. Now some, including myself, think it does the Destiny concept better. I know it’s hard to believe that a free game is better than an AAA title from Activision, but come on. It’s free so why not give it a shot? Then you can be the judge. Was I right, or am I full of it?

Lame Lost Reavers

Snorth93 YouTube The Wii U tried so many times to reinvigorate itself, but failed almost every time. It’s a shame because I liked it, but I’m at least glad to see that most of its best titles are being ported to the Switch. It should have stayed lost. Anyway one of the ways it tried to reach out was a free to play game from Bandai Namco called Lost Reavers. It’s a pretty basic dungeon crawler with four-player co-op. It came out and was quickly forgotten due to a poor reception.

Best Happy Dungeons

Push Square I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the previous Happy game aka Happy Wars, which was a lengthy MOBA type. The sequel spinoff is a lot easier to digest. It’s a dungeon crawler with each mission being super short, almost akin to a mobile game. It has co-op, classes, character customization, and it’s cute. It’s fun for all ages. It’s the one game on here the I don’t mind feels like it was created to played in short bursts akin to a phone title. In fact, it’d be great on Switch.

Lame Galak-Z Variant S

Screenshot The original Galak-Z tried to pay homage to 80s anime like Robotron while creating an epic new twist on the space shooter genre. It was a nice sentiment, but one I couldn’t get behind. If the main game wasn’t fun for me then why should I care about a free spinoff? The thing that really throws me off is the size of everything on screen. It’s even worse on the Switch’s screen. This came out of nowhere and it’ll go nowhere.

Best Neverwinter

Screenshot For those unaware Neverwinter is actually set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. Even if you’ve never played a session before, Neverwinter may seem familiar via BioWare’s action RPG, Neverwinter Nights. Like that, this is also an action RPG that harkens back to the sorely missed Champions of Norrath series on PS2, but in MMO form. Yeah, it’s kind of old looking now, but it’s brimming with content. It’s not as robust as say Final Fantasy XIV, but if you’re looking for yet another MMO, give it a shot.

Lame Dawn of the Breakers

Screenshot Dawn of the Breakers: You can’t get more obtuse than that. Oh, wait, yes you can. In Japan, it’s called Breakers: Dawn of Heroes. Silly names aside this is an old school brawler, that would be fun if it moved faster and the characters were better utilized. It suffers from a lot of the same issues I have with A King’s Tale. Simply put, they’re ugly, squat, and reek of generic phone games. Don’t waste your precious Switch space with it.

Best Knights Of Valour

PlayStation If you want a good free to play beat ‘em up then you should check out Knights of Valour. It’s basically a 2D version of Dynasty Warriors as it features the same subject matter of the warring states. It’s actually based off of an old arcade game of the same name that debuted way back in 1999. This is essentially a modern reboot in free form. If you’ve got that brawler itch, scratch it with this. Show those Yellow Turbans what for.