They say “you get what you pay for”, but we’ve found that in many cases, “the best things in life are free”.  In contrast with next year’s blockbuster title, these open source games are totally free, banged out over many years by developers who do it strictly for the love. And thanks to the endless collaboration that open source invites, they’re always getting better with patches, updates and new content. Of course, not every free game achieves greatness– so here’s our guide to 10 of the best:

Freeciv

You’ll see a lot of “poor man’s Game X” in the open source community, but this one is perhaps the most polished. It’s a fully working Civilization II clone, but with a few different rulesets for the most dedicated simheads. The original overhead graphics were replaced over time to the more palatable isometric view, lending even more to Sid Meier’s classic. [website: freeciv]

The Battle for Wesnoth

I’m not a big strategy gamer, so when people praise the depth of one of these games, it’s usually a warning that I’ll be confused. The Battle of Wesnoth is more my cup of tea — straightforward with a nice and easy learning curve. This is one of the open source community’s most popular games, so at least I’m not alone. [website: battleforwesnoth]

Tremulous

Combine real time strategy with a first-person shooter, and now you’ve got something truly different. Players can control either the aliens or the humans, and both races are able to build their own network of structures. Skittering along the ground as a spider-like creature is counter-intuitive at first — they’re usually the bad guys, after all — but it’s still pretty cool. [website: tremulous]

Scorched 3D

As the name suggests, this is a 3d iteration of the classic Scorched Earth, in which you use simple physics calculations to launch projectiles at enemy tanks. This version is loaded with crazy weapons and defensive measures, and the satisfaction of landing a mortar directly on your foe is just as satisfying as the original. [website: scorched 3D]

Armagetron Advanced

This game is exactly like the speed bikes segment of Tron, in which players try to cut each other off with the laser trails of their vehicles. But here’s the kicker: There’s no shortage of people lined up to play online at this very instant. Compare that to Xbox Live, where any game that isn’t Halo, Gears of War or Call of Duty fades from the spotlight in a matter of months, and you know this is something special. [website: armagetron advanced]

AssaultCube

Forget the formalities, like a title screen, story or tutorial. If you remember how to play any of the twitch-happy first person shooters of yesteryear, you’ll feel right at home with AssaultCube. This is actually a mod of another open source game, Cube, but it dispenses with fancy weapons and instead lets you choose between rifle, submachine gun, shotgun and sniper rifle. The gratification is instantaneous. [website: assaultcube]

Nexuiz

I know, it’s another first-person shooter, but it’s the most polished example of completely free, white-knuckle action we’ve seen. This is a true-blue homage to the “Big Two” shooters of the late 90s, Unreal Tournament and Quake III: Arena. Most of the weapons explode at some point in their trajectory, and all of them have a secondary fire function that’s sorely missing in most shooters these days. It’s best to warm up in the single player deathmatch campaign before heading into the untamed Internet. [website: nexuis]

FlightGear

With the future of Flight Simulator in peril, why not try a flying game that will likely never die thanks to the open source community? FlightGear’s downloadable content page includes well over 100 aircraft and a scenery pack with more than 20,000 airports. And unlike today’s commercial releases, you’ll never get nickled and dimed for any of it. [website: flightgear]

Nethack

More than 20 years after its original release, Nethack is still kicking. That people are still willing to play a game that features ASCII characters as avatars is a testament to its timeless appeal. This game has all the hallmarks of the super-nerdy “Roguelike” genre, such as dungeon crawling and randomized play, and it never gets old. [website: nethack]

Eh?

We left this space intentionally blank for you, our readers. Whenever we compile a list like this, there’s always a smart reader or two who might have done things differently– so here’s your chance to speak out. What’s it going to be? Secret Maryo Chronicles? UFO: Alien Invasion? BZTank? Something that we haven’t even heard of? Whichever game gets the most traction will be posted here in a week, so stay tuned, and don’t hold back in the meantime…  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks for reading, GearCravers, Diggers, Stumblers and otherwise.  What is your favorite open source game?  Are you new to the genre?  What would you pick for the tenth spot on this list?  Leave your thougths in the comments, we’ll select the best pick and add it to our list next Wednesday.  In the mean time, we’d be thrilled if you’d share this with your friend and voted it up on your favorite social media website!