I was browsing Google for random reviews because I am always in a mood to read about new games and technology. I came across an article on PCGamer.com that mentioned a website, SkillGround.com, that had free games that you could play against other users. I’m always up for free games since there’s currently nothing out there that I want to spend my money on (Waiting for Crysis, UT2K4, and HL2:Ep2). I went over to SkillGround (SG) and signed up for an account and downloaded the games and maps for their two FPS, Warpath and Close Quarters Conflict. They are similar to Quake3 with better graphics and Military/Tactical on UT engine respectively. They also have a racing game and a kung fu fighting game, but I’ve had my fill of those genres for at least a few months so I didn’t bother downloading them. Each game seems to have about a 500MB download if you download all the maps along with the main executable. If you want to shave off a little time you can choose to download one map and play for awhile and just download the rest of the maps later in the easy to use Game Configurator. Anyways, SG allows you to play all their games by yourself with a bot or versus other users for free via a nice little 1v1 Challenge panel. From what I hear you can use Xfire as well, but I’ve never used it. If you have $20 to spare via paypal or other various means you can deposit money into a cash account and bet money in 1v1 rounds or full on deathmatches, but you aren’t obligated to. The higher number of people in DM, the higher number of prizes distributed. Of course, like any system nowadays, SG takes a small commision from each prize won. I deposited $20 and got a free $10 credit. I haven’t bet any money yet as I am trying to learn the maps and put all the weapons to my favorite hotkeys. Bets can be made as little as $.50 or as much as $20.00. Of course, if you win a lot of money as I hope to do *twitch* you can withdraw the money in a system that reminds me of paypal’s system.
For anyone that is still reading this, the games were much better than I had anticipated. Close Quarters Conflict is an average game, but it has six different classes you can play as and each has their own set of equipment. Now that I think about it, it kind of reminded me of 007: Goldeneye for N64, especially when I set up proximity mines and observed my foe walking right into his own fiery death. I have to admit I laughed out loud, but was quieted 30 seconds later with a handgun round to the face. Warpath blew me away for a free game. The weapons “feel” and sound powerful, which is rarely seen in many of today’s shooters. The levels have great balance and the dash button can be used in some very ingenious ways as you can create combos and use the map to your advantage. The best way to learn these is to run around the practice map with a bot who will probably surprise you at first with their seemingly sharp A.I. I can run the games with my Intel onboard graphics at 1280x1024 with everything set to low and have no problem with framerates in 1v1 matches. I can’t wait to get a new graphics card to see what the games look like with their details maxed out. The best part besides being able to play for free is the ranking system. When you log in it tells you how you rank on the server (Money Server or Free Server) and what your win rate is. The only real flaws I can find is that it is hard to find a wide variety of people to play against at certain times of the day and some users have the worst pings I have ever seen. I’m sure once things take off and more users join these issues will be fixed in future updates
In the end I am so unbelievably jealous. Being in my final semester of college I would love to work at a company like that (I’ve applied to over 20 so far). Right now they seem pretty small as I am guessing they have about 1000 users and probably less than 5% are “cash” customers, but I think they are really on to something. Hopefully more people will join so I can dash around them while flailing my Vibro Blade melee weapon like a crazed futuristic butcher. If you happen to join look me up in either Warpath or CQC Lobbies and we can duel it out.
-DoomZ
01-02-07, 09:05 AM
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