You’re probably aware that something called ‘Christmas’ is next month. Christmas is a wonderful thing where you have to spend all your money on other people, because you’re a nice, generous soul. Unfortunately, that means you probably won’t have much money to spend on feeding your gaming hobby. Sure, the Steam Christmas sales are probably coming up, but wouldn’t you like to get some quality games for nothing, for a change?

I hope you do, because I’m now going to point some out.

Nitronic Rush is a racer with a bit of a difference. It’s billed by the developers, DigiPen students, as a ‘survival racer’. Effectively, it’s a time-trial/score attack game. The tracks are designed for speed and getting air time in which you can perform tricks. In your car. You can also fly. In your car. Immensely fun and very, very pretty, it’s definitely worth a download. You can grab it here, but try and use the torrent link if you can help it.

Would you rather have zombies? Survival Crisis Z has been free for years. SCZ is a wide open sandbox game set during a zombie apocalypse. On top of the zombies, there is also open warfare between the police and rebel forces in the city, and you can join whichever faction you choose. It’s also a little weird. What starts off as a bog standard zombie apocalypse eventually breaks down into surreal horror. It’s split up into acts and is fairly long for a free game. You can also wire someone up to a car battery and torture them. Grab it here. If you’re on Vista or 7, you’ll need the fix here.

Of course, most of the best roguelikes are also free. I love roguelikes to bits. Can’t get enough of them. One that’s been taking up a lot of my time recently is ToME. ToME is an exceptionally sprawling story-driven roguelike with both an overworld and expansive dungeons. There are also unlockable races, classes and modes. It’s also graphical. If you’ve been put off by the complexity of roguelikes in the past (*cough*Nethack *cough*), ToME is largely mouse-driven, meaning you don’t need to learn dozens of keys and key combinations. You can find it here. Make sure to always get the latest beta.

Or do you want to be festive? Merry Gear Solid 2 (and the first one). A fan-tribute to a series no-one has heard of. The game sees Cold Snake (DO YOU SEE) infiltrating a shopping mall inhabited by naughty children and extremists. The plot is convoluted and very, very silly, but the game itself plays how you’d expect a modern 2D Metal Gear to play. Go here for festive fun, as well as a link to the first game (also good).

… Oh no, it’s Christmas next month.