First, I'd like to start off with League of Legends. Those who have played it are probably addicted to it, although most of you probably have just seen one of the ads that are all over the place that say "PLAY FOR FREE", and you probably think it's just some bogus game that's not worth your time.

IT IS. It's the only RPG that has actually managed to fine tune PVP to a science, and managed to keep it balanced between over 100 friggin' characters that you choose from.
Try it. It's free, so you have no excuses. Difficulty curve is perfect, which is a huge plus, considering it is a strictly PvP based RPG.
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Many of you have probably heard of Cave Story (an RPG-esc megaman with cartoony graphics and somewhat depressing plot), but I'm sure almost none of you have ever heard of Iji (Not to be confused with the gaming company that has made Gunz and other third person shooters).

Iji is like System Shock 2 or Deus Ex in a platform shooter. 'Nuff said. Storyline is pretty standard, and you may be turned off by the graphics, but considering the game was made for free by a single person, you gotta cut him some slack (I guess Cave Story was too, but they're both good games). Great game, lots of secrets, fun stuff.
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Battleships Forever is an RTS, also freeware, and it's probably nothing like you've played in a while. You control giant spaceships in 2d space warfare. Each ship has it's own weaknesses (Usually something like SHOOT THEM IN THE A**), and you gotta position your ships accordingly. Tanks in front, missile shooting escorts on the sides, and the big lazery thingy in the back. Storyline is bland, but probably one of the better RTS's I've played. Comes with a ship editor that a lot of people use to create some form of artwork, usually armed to the teeth with lazers and gravity beams. There's no limit on how big or odd your ship can be, and you can program almost everything about it. Might take some time to learn how to do everything, though. Only problem to the game is that it's way too short. Can beat it in about an hour and a half, which is especially bad because the game actually gets pretty good by that point, when you have every single huge battleship at your disposal, and you can actually pick your entire armada by that point.
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Last one on the list: Terraria. Many of you probably know Terraria and are giving it a thumbs up, but MOST of you probably are too infatuated with its retarded three-dimensional half-brother Minecraft.
Terraria is a 2d platformer, with RPG concepts, focuses on killing anything that moves that's not trying to take your money, and maybe build a house here and there. Minecraft focuses on building the biggest thing possible, and maybe try and scare off a monster or two.

If you prefer building things, stick to Minecraft. If you actually want to KILL something, like bosses, over 100 enemy types, using magic, guns, arrows, bombs and swords, then go for Terraria.
Terraria is a much better game, but Minecraft is a much better Sandbox. I prefer killing things over building things myself.

It's a decent list, all of them but Terraria is free, and even then, it's worth the money. I've spent more time on these games than a lot of modern games, like Gears of War 3 and Lost Odyssey (but then again, I couldn't STAND Lost Odyssey, longest fights EVER.).
Only mainstream game that I've actually liked more than these four would have to be Skyrim. And it's f***ing Skyrim. I suppose D3 would be another, if my computer could run it (DAMN YOU UNSUPPORTED GRAPHICS CARD!) But I digress.

Go, download one or two of these, blow stuff up, come back, and spread the word that not all free games are worthless. Have fun.

That's what I said. Little bit later on, though with:

Z_the_slayer:
Terraria is a much better game, but Minecraft is a much better Sandbox. I prefer killing things over building things myself.

I actually enjoy Minecraft a lot, but it's pretty empty as far as games go. It's hard to build anything practical that doesn't feel like cheating (Example, a monster drop generator that basically shoves monsters down a cliff for you to loot their dead bodies). You're pretty much limited to building Ol' McDonald's farm, and then spending the rest of the game trying to build sculptures or digging for 5 hours straight. I prefer a little more "practical" approach, but that's not something Minecraft has in mind. I suppose I was a bit harsh, though.

Z_the_slayer:
I actually enjoy Minecraft a lot, but it's pretty empty as far as games go. It's hard to build anything practical that doesn't feel like cheating (Example, a monster drop generator that basically shoves monsters down a cliff for you to loot their dead bodies). You're pretty much limited to building Ol' McDonald's farm, and then spending the rest of the game trying to build sculptures or digging for 5 hours straight. I prefer a little more "practical" approach, but that's not something Minecraft has in mind. I suppose I was a bit harsh, though.

Just a tad. Next you'll be telling us Legos are pretty empty as far as toys go because not enough army men.

Eh, blame my lack of creative juices. I'd much rather assign army men to tactically acceptable positions on which they should destroy one another with perfect efficiency.

Hmm..that would be a fun game.

All jokes aside, Minecraft makes you work hard to build big things, and it ends there. The things you build usually do not add any kind of assistance in future endeavors, other than looking at them and think "D***, that looks good".

Terraria makes you work hard to upgrade yourself, but not through some arbitrary experience system, but actually gathering resources and earning money. Which lets you gather better resources and get more money.
Minecraft kind of does this, but you probably spend more time trying to replace your broken gear than trying to upgrade it. And as a result, you are kind of...stuck at the same progress. I suppose the new enchanting system tried to fix that, but it doesn't mean squat if you fall into lava from trying to get replacement diamond for when your stuff DOES break.

I enjoy the feeling that working hard will improve my rate of progress. Do stuff, get better at doing stuff, so you can do harder stuff. Minecraft has a very short cap on this, as do Zelda games. In both Zelda and Minecraft, I can definitely go and find monsters to kill, but it won't really help anything.

I didn't state League was an RTS. It...kinda is? I dunno, it's weird. But it's definitely not an RTS.

Orcs is a lot of fun, just a really steep difficulty curve. I will look up skydrift, though. I am a big fan of "shoot your friends in the a**" racing games, like Mario Kart.

You're entitled to your opinion. I love the game, and is probably my favorite right now. You're going to run into A-holes in every multiplayer game you play. Griefers in Minecraft, pre-pubescent boys who shout profanities in Halo, and people who spam "Noob" or "Feeder" in League of Legends. LoL is just one of the few games that requires you to DEAL with these A-holes, because you're on a team. In most other multiplayer games, you just ignore the other people and kill the enemy team. Can't really do that in LoL. If anything, people in LoL are BETTER, because their success relies on you not sucking, and that's usually enough incentive for them to want you to do well.

Found a d-bag in Dead Island that would chuck homemade grenades at new players, since explosives dealt friendly fire to EVERYONE. There will be jerks in every game you play.

Z_the_slayer:
I didn't state League was an RTS. It...kinda is? I dunno, it's weird. But it's definitely not an RTS.

LoL is more closely related to RTS than to RPG.

It is, after all, a MOBA - a sub-genre which eveolved from a Warcraft III mod.

But you only control one unit. I'd consider it closer to an organized Diablo than Warcraft.

Shadow of the Colossus
ICO
Shin Megami Tensei

journey nuff said

There are a lot of games that I should try, but have not gotten around to. Infact, there are too many to list, so I'm not going to bother.

>Reads thread title
>Reads rec'd games.

AHA! HAHA! HAAA!!!!

You forget, most of the people here were once or still are Extra Creditz sheeple. These games are mentioned like three times an episode.

Play Moonbreakers on Steam and help resurrect the Space Combat genre! Look for it under free-to-play.

DigitalAtlas:
>Reads thread title
>Reads rec'd games.

AHA! HAHA! HAAA!!!!

You forget, most of the people here were once or still are Extra Creditz sheeple. These games are mentioned like three times an episode.

Maybe. I'm still quite new here. (Just look to the left.) But I'll take your word for it at the risk of accepting the fact that I look like a total jacka**. Which is fine by me.

Fr]anc[is:
LOL is a DOTA clone, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. There are more than enough ways to get shouted at and kicked from games.

Well if you're looking for something that's Dota-inspired but with original ideas in its head, Super MNC is free to play. It doesn't pull the bullshit of "Intentionally release new OP character then nerf it to shit when sales die down", gets updated weekly and has a small but dedicated community. That and you can get mustaches for every character, so it's GOTY material. But as a fair warning: The matchmaker is still a WIP and once you get past Agent Level 20, you'll likely be matched against upper-tier players who show no mercy.

I like how 3 people have made recommendations, one person has called everyone sheeple, and the rest are ragging on the OP's taste in games.

Welcome to The Escapist mate.

Mr Pantomime:
I like how 3 people have made recommendations, one person has called everyone sheeple, and the rest are ragging on the OP's taste in games.

Welcome to The Escapist mate.

I made the list! Also, I said former sheeple, mainly.

BloatedGuppy:

Z_the_slayer:
I actually enjoy Minecraft a lot, but it's pretty empty as far as games go. It's hard to build anything practical that doesn't feel like cheating (Example, a monster drop generator that basically shoves monsters down a cliff for you to loot their dead bodies). You're pretty much limited to building Ol' McDonald's farm, and then spending the rest of the game trying to build sculptures or digging for 5 hours straight. I prefer a little more "practical" approach, but that's not something Minecraft has in mind. I suppose I was a bit harsh, though.

Just a tad. Next you'll be telling us Legos are pretty empty as far as toys go because not enough army men.

i'm pretty sure i'd be banned for raging hard on any troll who bagged on legos

as such, it would probably go like this:

OT: I really really really wanna try freespace 2, especially with the HD mod updates..but i just, idk, i can't seem to find that motivation to buy it and sit down and learn all the mechanics...maybe when i'm bored and have a full day to tackle it in the future

Mr Pantomime:
I like how 3 people have made recommendations, one person has called everyone sheeple, and the rest are ragging on the OP's taste in games.

Welcome to The Escapist mate.

I was going to comment on this exact same thing. You beat me to it.

As for me, I just finished Lone Survivor, a side-scrolling survival horroresque game made mostly (if not entirely) by one guy. Well worth a look if you like the genre. Not sure if it was mentioned on Extra Credits, DigitalAtlas, but even if it was why not mention it again? :)

If you like Adventure Games (like Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle) there was a really fun one called Gemini Rue released a while ago. More serious in tone, though. Kind of a sci-fi noir style story (think Blade Runner with more amnesia and less robots).

Stacking. I have no idea how popular or well known this one is, but I virtually never hear it mentioned online. It's another puzzle game, but the characters are all Russian nesting dolls. Made by Tim Schafer's company, though if you know his name you've likely already heard of the game.

I was of the notion that these were gonna be obscure games. Sorry but I've already tried LoL and I'm not quite addicted. I own both Terraria and Minecraft and play either depending on what I wish to do. EDIT: Okay instead of skimming... I skimmed more accurately. Iiji... hrmm... I'll try it out I guess

Mick Golden Blood:

BTW, You can be killed anywhere. And it's full-loot drop. ;)

Hmm..The full loot drop would be irritating. It's bad enough when you run a risk of accidentally overwriting the wrong game on a JRPG. But basically starting a new game every time you die would be murder. I'm ok with knowing I'm a pansy. I'll be a pansy who hasn't wasted the last 10 hours of gameplay just to step on a landmine. Which sounds pretty good to me.

I will check out Lone Survivor, though. I'm kind of interested to see how a horror platformer would come out, although I can only imagine Limbo.

And Iji is definitely one of my favorites. Try going through the pacifism route on your second time through. Changes almost every aspect of the story, and you will get the best weapon in the game (No trolling).

Although i do NOT suggest it on your first playthrough, or without a walkthrough.

[EDIT]Just ignore the problem of overwriting saves. I get the feeling that I'm the only one that runs into that problem.

Somewhat off topic, but some of you might not know this:
Start a youtube video, pause it, hold the left key and press up. You are now playing Snake on a youtube video. Enjoy.

I just started playing LoL this year. I play blind picks and vs AI because I don't have enough friends to start playing ranked competitively (and some of the meta confuzzles me). I have never been kicked. EVER. The only games I've seen people get reported is when they're afk the entire match, and then its a group consensus. Occasionally I will play a bad match and some jackwagon calls me a noob on a VS BEGINNER A.I. MATCH. Every video game is filled with trolls, but if you single-handedly screw up your team (news flash, team oriented game, you should be playing it as such) you will get a lot of crap because its so reliant on each team member. I don't know what people are expecting honestly. Either you play unranked casually and don't listen to morons calling you noob (not that hard to tune out) or you play competitive/ranked with an actual team and learn how to play the game.

You know how in TF2 you pick a sniper when your team has 5 snipers and people get mad at you? Its like that, only you've just fucked up the entire match unless your skills make up for it (they usually don't). Yes, Dota games are notorious for a harsh community, but the games are really solid and polished (LoL and Dota 2 to be exact) and there is a lot more constructive criticism and teamwork than people care to acknowledge. Play with people on voice chat/people you know and the teamworked wins make the game worth every second of your time.

Yea I know I just made myself sound like a raging Moba troll (I have like 3 characters on LoL I don't do it all the time) but that's my 2 cents. I don't like people dismissing entire genres just because they only look on the bad sides of things. Hopefully someone understands.

Nah, I'm with yah, but that's pretty obvious. You can't actually get kicked in LoL, and yeah, if you fuck up, expect to be yelled at. One person fucking up is 20% of your team. If 20% of the army is off getting blazed in the middle of a hostile invasion, I'd be pissed too.

OMG. WHY DID I NOT THINK OF THIS BEFORE?!

Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon. It's an RPG alien shooter that plays a lot like Saints Row. It has 4 classes, and supports up to 3 (don't ask) players. Great game, randomly just picked it up at Gamestop. Thought the case looked like crap, but it actually turned out to be a pretty awesome game.

Fr]anc[is:
LOL is a DOTA clone, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. There are more than enough ways to get shouted at and kicked from games.

I thought I was the only sane man left, glad to be proven wrong.

DOTA style games do nothing but foster baseless aggression and unwarranted rage from their respective communities. The only fun part of those games is to join a PvP lineup, wait until 5 seconds before the match starts and then say "So how do I play this game?". You know if you won if everyone on your team has quit before the game is done loading.

Syzygy23:

Fr]anc[is:
LOL is a DOTA clone, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. There are more than enough ways to get shouted at and kicked from games.

I thought I was the only sane man left, glad to be proven wrong.

DOTA style games do nothing but foster baseless aggression and unwarranted rage from their respective communities. The only fun part of those games is to join a PvP lineup, wait until 5 seconds before the match starts and then say "So how do I play this game?". You know if you won if everyone on your team has quit before the game is done loading.

Vocal minorities do not make up the whole group? I doubt you seriously believe that the majority of moba players are raging 13 year old trolls. The pro tournament players are trolls too right? Like I said before, its a team oriented game, and if you play like a solo jackass, why would you expect to get anything but criticism? Try the game with friends who know what they're doing and its an entirely different scenario than the rage machine people make it out to be.

Playing a game how its not supposed to be played --> getting confused why people are mad?

Forgive me if I don't follow your blind dismissal over a few misconceptions and generalizations that you have.

Syzygy23:

Fr]anc[is:
LOL is a DOTA clone, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. There are more than enough ways to get shouted at and kicked from games.

DOTA style games do nothing but foster baseless aggression and unwarranted rage from their respective communities. The only fun part of those games is to join a PvP lineup, wait until 5 seconds before the match starts and then say "So how do I play this game?". You know if you won if everyone on your team has quit before the game is done loading.

Then don't play it? I'm not into first person shooters, RTS' and Point-Click adventure games. But there's nothing wrong with them. Someone enjoys them.

There's very few games that I have played that I was actually having fun in PvP. It's either, "He saw me first", "He clicked on me first", yada yada. Some people don't like PvP, in which case, I just tell them to go play Peggle or something.

If you want a game that has some action, some strategy, and some team work, then play LoL. If not, I can only offer the most obvious answer, in case it hasn't become clear: GO PLAY SOMETHING ELSE.

Eh, whatever. I'm just going to assume that these people are just trolling for attention by this point.

[EDIT]
Also, FOnline sounds quite nice, actually. I like the concept of guards that MIGHT fail to protect you. Keeps things interesting, at least.

I tried HoN, and the whole MOBA thing doesn't work for me.
Especially since I played only one game and the people there were so nice and friendly and I was really having a great fun time.... /sarcasm

Also, Unepic- Legend of zelda meets oldschool dungeons, meets castlevania meets comedy. It's pretty awesome too.