Alien Arena 2006

Described By Some as "like Quake 3 but not very good", Alien Arena is an online FPS which pits you, an alien, against your enemies, also aliens, in, wait for it, an arena. An alien arena. Whether the arena was built for aliens or the arena itself is alien (both seem to be true), we'll never know exactly from where the name originated - what we do know however is that as far as free online FPS games go, this one isn't half-bad.

Of course, on the flipside this means that it isn't half-good either, and besides, describing something as 'not being half-bad' is such a terrible and inaccurate measure of quality that you probably still have no idea what the hell Alien Arena is about.

First, this game suffers from what we've now dubbed 'multiplayer-freeware-game-itis', meaning there's a dearth of people actually playing the thing at any given time. The only way of getting a decent game is by finding like-minded people and organising one - but that can't be held against Alien Arena, that's merely the fault of people preferring to pay full price for a decent online FPS game, rather than paying nothing for a disappointingly average sci-fi one. Bots bounce about and are damn near impossible to kill, weapons are wildly unbalanced and the maps, while pretty, are uninspiring and strategically barren. OK, so the fact that it's free can't completely absolve it of sin, but in terms of getting what you pay for - Alien Arena's an absolute bargain.