Free to play is often the term that developers throw around when saying their games will be free, but Unreal Tournament is different. The upcoming multiplayer FPS from Epic Games, which was recently announced, will actually be free and take the community’s help in shaping its direction. Project Lead and Senior Programmer Steve Polge recently spoke to VG247 about the same and said that the project’s direction will involve the community rather than being internally decided.

“We like this model because it’s fundamentally generous. It allows us to succeed by doing the right thing for the community, and it keeps all of us, at Epic and in the community, on the same page with what we are trying to accomplish. The marketplace for Unreal Tournament will be an extension of the Unreal Engine marketplace, which you’ll be able to see taking shape with every update to Unreal Engine 4.

“For the mod community to succeed, we first need to create a successful game that appeals to and sustains a sizable and vibrant community of players. We’ll work with our mod developers to support their development needs with the core game platform and we’ll make sure it’s easy for players to discover the mod experiences available in the UT marketplace.”

Ploge also said that talks are going to offer remuneration for map creators. “We haven’t figured that out yet, but our goal is to provide a model that is attractive and fair for our content creators.”

We’ll eventually find out how Unreal Tournament pans out but we’re interested for sure. Stay tuned for more details.

EA now has over 1 million users in their online free to play PC version of Need for Speed called Need for Speed World.  From now until August 6th, which is tomorrow, you will be granted access to the Porsche 959, but only for day, so get a move on it.  Check out the game and download it here.  The one day Porsche prize may only be available to new registries of the game.

The Brink Blog has announced it will DLC is on the way this July for the game and will be entitled ‘Agents of Change’.  For the first two weeks it will even be free.. we love you Splash Damage! The DLC will give you two new maps, five new player abilities, two new outfits and two new weapon attachments, which can be seen in our detailed post of the DLC here. Brink will also get an update which will fix a bunch of things, including the improvements of the AI… thank goodness.

Huge news for regarding Valve and Team Fortress 2 as the game will be relaunching as a free to play title.  So whether your a fan and play all the time or have never played at all the game will now be free, which goes to show you just how generous as well as dedicated Valve is to the gamers.  If you have never played this game, you will now get the opportunity to play one of the most fun first person shooters ever, with game mods and just good old fashion fun, with a ton of humor on the side.  It was originally said to be free from an interview with Robin Walker but has now been confirmed by Valve’s Doug Lombardi.  Go on and play your Team Fortress 2 for free from now on.

Bethesda’s Blog has let us know that Brink will be letting loose its firs DLC pack entitled ‘Agents of Change’ and it just so happens to be free… free is good folks.  Here are the details including raising the level cap to 24, adding new maps, abilities, character customization options and weapon attachments.   Here is what you’ll get coming this June:

New Maps

• Founders’ Tower – The revolution finally reaches the island’s iconic spire and takes the battle for the Ark to dizzying heights.
• Labs – Venture into the depths of the Ark’s original research and development laboratories, a submerged high-tech facility so far untouched by the civil war.

New Player Abilities

• UAV – This stealthy and lethal device allows Operatives to automatically mark nearby enemies on their radar. For more explosive fun, they can even take direct control of the UAV and detonate it near unsuspecting foes.
• Napalm Grenade – Soldiers can use this new grenade to cover an area in a sea of deadly flames.
• Pyro Mine – Engineers can plant these mines and leave enemies in the epicenter of a massive napalm explosion.
• Field Regen Unit – Medics can deploy these units to increase the health regeneration of any nearby teammates.
• Tactical Scanner – This universal ability allows players to reveal the active buffs of their opponents, allowing them to pick off enemies more strategically.

New Weapon Attachments

• Bayonets – Gain the edge in melee combat and cause extra damage with these deadly blades.
• Weapon Shields – Take cover from enemy fire and prevent headshot bonus damage behind riot-style shields.

New Character Outfits

• The Sad Punk – Add a touch of Steampunk to your Resistance character.
• The Limey – Bring order to the Ark with this outfit inspired by traditional European police.

BeGone is an online multi-player first person shooter with a modern and realistic theme. Each team tries to eliminate the opposing team before time runs out. Advanced graphic shaders, dynamic character locomotion and optimized networking code create an intense gameplay experience that is quickly accessible from a browser with no signup required. BeGone uses Unity3d technology.

Check the first trailer below and gameplaay footage below:

Crtek’s game Warface in an FPS that is unfortunately only going to be available in China by Tencent right now.  However Crytek MD Avni Yerli has said that  “The development of our first free-to-play online project marks another major stepping stone for our studio”.  So the game is free to play but no ate has been set.  Hopefully we will see this mae its way to a Western release.

Via, VG247

That’s right, Alien Swarm, the top down shooter from Black Cat games is now completely free on Steam.

“Alien Swarm” is a top-down, class based shooter, pitting players in teams of up to 4 against swarms of alien creatures on various planets.

No strings attached. You even get a new Team Fortress hat?

You can catch the release trailer here.

The lovely hat you get for Team Fortress 2 after unlocking the 'Hat Trick' achievement in Alien Swarm.

Want to know the even better news? It has incredibly low system requirements, as a 128-bit DirectX 9.0 video card, a Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB ram and 2.5 GB of space will get you online with your mates in no time.

Valve didn’t provide a breakdown of how many downloads were of the PC version versus the Mac version. Portal is one of the newly released games with the ‘Steam Play’ feature- allowing you to play the game on Mac or PC using the same Steam account.

Portal became free last week, and that promotion will continue until May 24, after which it will again be sold as normal for RRP of £16.99.

In a statement likely to set forums and chatrooms ablaze, Valve also said that Portal is one fifth as likely to crash when running on a Mac than it is when running on Windows.

The second round of Steam Mac releases begins today as well.

The second round of Steam for the Mac launch titles are available now as well. This week’s collection features a dozen games headlined by the first cross-platform multiplayer games offered via Steam.

This first set of titles that allow for PC vs. Mac cross-platform gaming include the co-op zombie hit Killing Floor, Altitude, and Madballs in Babo: Invasion.

“We were thrilled when we learned that Steam was coming to the Mac platform and started working on a native Mac version of Killing Floor immediately,” said John Gibson, President of Tripwire Interactive, creators of Killing Floor. “Steam’s advanced multiplayer support on both the PC and Mac has enabled us to bring Killing Floor to a whole new audience on the Mac and introduce them to the existing PC player community.”

To celebrate the launch of these titles, Killing Floor will be offered at 33% off its regular price (for a limited time). An Altitude Free Weekend promotion is available now on Steam, and those who wish to purchase the game and play beyond the weekend may pick it up at 50% off its regular price. And Madballs in Babo: Invasion is also available at 50% off its regular price.

More single player games are also available today including Sam and Max: The Devils Playhouse Episode 2, Hearts of Iron 3, and more.

An additional collection of Mac titles will launch next week via Steam.