#PAT Series – 11 FREE games to play with your friends at home – Gaming

Some people saw my previous post about the list of games to play at home and told me that some were a bit too expensive. Well, this is the list for you cheapos out there – A bunch of FREE games to play while everyone is stuck at home!

All exact links will be at the bottom of the post!

1. Pictionary

Skribbl.io is Pictionary in its best form – online (that means that you can skip the mandatory cleaning of your house while preparing food and drinks for your guests).

“No Daren, for the last time that’s NOT a dildo. Writing ‘dildo’ 5 times doesn’t automatically make the answer right”

You get to play with a group of friends in a lobby and take turns guessing while partaking in the usual qualms of whether artistic talent exists in today’s day and age.

Overall, expect hours of fun and entertainment even if you aren’t at the top of the scoreboard, and isn’t that what gaming isn’t about?

9/10 for wholesome fun. 2/10 if you’re an artist

2. Social Deduction Games

Isn’t it annoying to attempt to get rid of a friendship with someone without gaming consoles or PCs? How else could you possibly get rid of friends by “inviting” them to play Overcooked? Luckily for you, you have the whole genre of “Social Deduction” games where you and your friends can take turns to deduce who the hidden spies are or bluff your entire party, depending on your role.

Avalon/Spyfall/Secret Hitler are games where you are randomly given a role, usually either a good guy (Resistance member) or a bad guy (Spys). Each game has mild variations of the role – generally, the good guys are supposed to succeed missions/ensure votes are in their favor while the bad guys are supposed to sabotage their efforts without revealing their identities.

It’s a whole slew of fun as you induce never-researched before psychology just to affirm your friend that you’re not lying (which you definitely know you are).

These games are also now available online, so round out some friends and spoil friendships the old school way now!

3/5 for spies to win

3. Codenames

“Codenames” requires you to work the part of the brain which processes words and sentences – which may be difficult for some of us given that we rarely use it on a day to day basis

You start by forming 2 teams – and each team has a “team leader”. This team leader sees a group of words (in the example above, the red team leader sees the red words and the blue team leaders see the blue words.)

The team leader needs to prompt the team to guess the respective colored words by saying only one word with a number which indicates how many words are related to that one word without getting them to guess the red teams words. First to uncover all words win.

Example – the blue team leader can say “Music – 2” to get the members to guess both “Party” and “Guitar” while the red team leader can say “Job – 4” to accurately get them to guess that work is a feudalistic approach to society that is as slow as a buffalo given how capitalism should work, therefore making it ironic“.

I may not have many team members to play Codenames with, but here’s hoping you and your friends will love it.

9/10 for teamwork and fun. 1/10 if your teammates are dimwits

4. Psych!

Psych! is a pure and simple party game. Once everyone has the app, you can join a room to play.

Each round, you are given a question, where you need to put in a fake answer first. Thereafter, you need to guess the real answer and not that “Psych”-ed by your friends.

It promotes fun game sessions and actually allows you to keep your friends (how’s that for a bonus!) as you don’t need to constantly lie in front of someone’s faces.

“Don’t blame me. You’re the one who doesn’t know that the pig has the longest orgasm observed in mammals! Don’t ask me how I know that though”

After realizing you don’t know much about the world you live in, you can thereafter proceed to wallow in self-pity while relishing in the fact that your friends are more learned and well-read than you.

Overall fun for all friends and family.

10/10 for game, 1/10 for how you feel after you lose the game

5. Ragnarok M: Eternal Love

was looking at free MMORPGs to put on this list. And it wasn’t easy. You had OGs like Maplestory and Runescape, all updated frequently to cater to old and new players, and you had new market disrupters such as Tera Online and Albion Online, all great in their own rights.

My pick for this list has to go to Ragnarok M: Eternal Love (RMEL). The game always had a place in my heart, to a point when I went to early-test it in the Chinese version (when I could hardly read a word in Chinese)

I’m sure that Ragnarok had an impact on us one way or another – be it the fun-filled afternoons where there was not a care in the world, or the interventions that come afterward where families members wanted to know if you were actually serious about studying.

It was one of the more polished games for its time and held its ground against behemoths such as Maplestory, Lineage 2, and Runescape.

They got everything right in RMEL, with the same jobs you can choose and even incorporated some AFK elements that all the new MMOs have. However, there is still the essence of adventuring and questing that makes it hands-on enough to actually feel like you’re rewarded for your efforts.

Want to live out a questing life while detesting grinding? Grab some friends, choose your favorite job, and jump into the world of Midgard! Just avoid jumping onto the Assassin job bandwagon.

9/10 for nostalgic fun

6. Pokemon Showdown

Pokemon has always been seen as the “children’s choice”. The games are expensive, yes, and god knows how many iterations of the game there are out now (last I heard they actually ran out of colors).

However, Pokemon Showdown is a free iteration that asks the children to get out of the room, albeit in a very rude and hasty manner. It’s a platform for pure competitive Pokemon battling, allowing you to customize 6 perfect Pokemon, and you can go up against someone else’s 6 perfect Pokemon.

“Aha! That Charizard with Blast Burn, Flamethrower, Fire Blast and Fire Spin isn’t looking too good now ain’t it?”

When you take out the adventuring storyline and grindy aspect, going up against someone else involves a lot of mind games and knowledge of the Pokemon so as to know what to expect. Without those essentials, going into a Pokemon battle with a random stranger is synonyous to getting your butt served on a silver platter with a side of Garbodor (search that Pokemon up if you don’t know who it is you won’t regret it).

However, it really is a fun way to get a friend to play some competitive Pokemon with. You can finally know how Ash felt – the pure and utter defeat which you deserve if you have the audacity to put a Pikachu in your team.

10/10 especially when you meet someone who comes in with a 6 legendary team thinking he’s gonna win

7. Brawlhalla

Yes so Super Smash Bros is expensive, and the costly DLCs just to play Joker isn’t making its case better too.

Luckily, an amazing close contender is Brawlhalla, featuring similar mechanics – hit opponent off the arena, and hitting them makes them easier to hit out of the arena, etc etc

It’s a real hit.

“Scarlet what the hell is that?” “Scarlet for Odin’s sake put that buttplug back where it belongs”

Fighting mechanics are simple to learn but difficult to master, which rewards the gamer who actually dedicated time to master the moves versus someone who spams all the keys and hopes for the best (like every cousin you invite to your house).

They also feature some iconic characters such as Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series – making it fun for fans and new players alike.

After all, nothing builds a solid friendship like smashing your friend’s hopes and dreams off the arena before they had a chance to say “Brawlhalla is nothing but a Smash Bros copy!”

9/10 for true fun combat, 1/10 for having no Fire Emblem Characters

8. Dauntless

Yes so Monster Hunter is expensive, and the Iceborne isn’t making its case better too.

Dauntless is kind of like a Fortnite-ish Monster Hunter. More cartoonish graphics and a free-to-play model but essentially similar to the core gameplay. You’re a Slayer and you go out to hunt Behemoths. That’s really it – there’s no storyline, no engaging characters, etc. It’s a hack and slash where some time is needed to grind for weapons and also mastering how each different type of weapons work.

Dauntless may appear to be a more affordable cousin of MHW, but it’s really more than that. Firstly, there is crossplay enabled! This essentially allows you to play with anyone on any platform (MONSTER HUNTER WHY CAN’T YOU DO THIS?).

Secondly, fights are fun but also shorter in general (20-30 minutes a fight) which helps the whole jump-in-jump-out-gaming style (Seriously MHW nobody has the time to fight a 1-hour monster).

Getting into a game with your friends to hunt a few monsters has the same satisfaction as rushing into the supermarket now to grab a few essentials and run out. It’s fun, builds on teamwork, and you have absolutely zero regard for the ones next to you, which is kind of the point for today.

9/10 for the satisfaction of slaying that behemoth. MHW rates it 1/10

9. Cuisine Royale

Yes so PUBG is expensive, and …yeah PUBG never made its case better too.

Not going to lie I actually clicked on this game thinking it’s a Cooking Mama/Overcooked spin-off, but it turned out to be a Battle Royale game. There are plenty of free alternatives to PUBG such as Fortnite, which is probably the biggest Battle Royale out there right now, which makes you wonder what’s so special about Cuisine Royale (CR).

The whole premise of the game treat a Battle Royale in a comedic way. Much like its name, every equipment is related to food and culinary items. You have pots, pans, grocery bags and other kitchen-related appliances that serve as your character’s armour.

You can shield your butt with a waffle iron and your head with a metal colander, regenerate health by consuming the food plates you collect, and loot chests that come in the form of refrigerators. Looking at all these unfold with your friends really adds to the whole comical factor of this entire game.

There is a class system which gives your character skills, such as allowing them to enter beast mode, slow down time to aim assist (till this day I can’t use this properly) or spirit walk to safety. Progression is rewarding too, where investing time allows you to unlock further abilities, including a literal zombie attack.

It really is a refreshing take on PUBG, and I must say the game is quite polished given that it was started literally as an April Fool’s joke. Grab some friends, and have a laugh while masking the fact that just like most of us, you’re not that good with Battle Royales.

9/10 for laughs before getting killed. Rating endorsed too by PUBG.

10. Mobile Legends

The game that is impossible for it to not be on this list. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) took the world by storm, being an obvious clone of League of Legends on your mobile device. The gameplay is the same – A MOBA, with a tower. Kill enemy heroes, and destroy enemy towers to win.

Being on mobile, it’s obviously much faster-paced, with the heroes being frighteningly overpowered compared to its DOTA 2/LoL counterparts. MLBB prioritizes on fast gameplay and faster kills, making it the perfect choice for MOBA adrenaline junkies aiming for that perfect penta-kill (only to realize he picked Fanny, the biggest sin in any MLBB game)

Probably one of MLBB’s strength comes from its hero pool, with over 82 heroes to choose from. That’s no small number, and that makes it more difficult to actually unlock all of them (unlike DOTA 2 where all heroes are unlocked by default. However, you have a free hero rotation every week. Heroes can also be unlocked by grinding in-game currency or by using real cash)

It’s the game that you see a wide variety of people playing, ranging from kids to working adults – simply because of how portable and addictive it is. So party up with your friends, lock in a hero, and let everyone know which part of the mall that tank truly belongs.

8.5/10, which scores decreasing the more you climb up the ladder. Score at 2/10 at Epic

11. Call of Duty: Mobile

This game surprised me when it was first released. Not because it was a bad genre (COD games honestly are now largely always a hit) but because shooting games on your mobile devices are never intuitive to play. You literally needed to develop a new grip (read: hold your phone in a different way) just to do well in a mobile shooter.

“Oh I’m playing on my phone while going over to your mother’s place!”

It’s like Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) kind of knew that there is a hassle of shooting on your phone, and made it easier for you to shoot before you got killed. Yay!

They have an “auto-shoot” mode where all you need to do is aim on his head, and the weapon fires away. The Battle Royale mode is fun to play as well and does well considering its on Mobile.

They even catered for COD fans as this game tugs hard on the nostalgia chords – featuring familiar maps spanning the entire COD franchises in the usual game modes.

If anything, CODM is a stress-reliever which you can hop on for a quick game or 2 with your friends. Kick ass and take names, and at the end of it all, know who were the ones who slept with our mum.

9/10 for all fans alike. Get a mobile phone peripheral to make it 10/10

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So those are this week’s #PAT features where I talk about 11 free games you can play during this period. Got any recommendations? Let me know in the comment section below!

Where to find the games

Pictionary (3-16 players):

Social Deduction Games:

Avalon (5-10):

Coup (2-6 players):

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong (4-12 players):