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Exploring Steam's 10 Free Games this Weekend

Posted on October 16, 2014

This weekend, Steam is going to be throwing their biggest Free Weekend event to date. It begins today at 10 AM PST and offers free access to 10 of the more popular titles on Steam. This not only gives a great opportunity to try out some games risk-free, but also a chance to pick up other enjoyable titles on major sales.

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The featured games are:

Awesomenauts: This game is a 3v3, side-scrolling platformer-MOBA. The graphics are fun and have a cartoon feel to them. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but makes for an easy game with a few friends.

Blade Symphony: Fighting games have always had to balance fun with the learning curve. The customization of this game makes me think of Bushido Blade, just with a few major differences. There is an actual health bar, so one-hit kills are less likely, and there is the ability to have team battles up to 2v2.

Company of Heroes 2: World War 2 action on the Eastern Front, well... technically the Western front, if you're playing as Russia. Company of Heroes is a staple RTS with a focus on tactical unit deployment and less concern for micro-management. Train your squads, kiss your baboushka goodbye, and dream of the girls singing Katyusha* while you give the Nazis what they deserve for invading your home.

Don't Starve: What do you get when you combine a procedurally-generated 3D world full of things wanting to kill you, a decision to not hold the player's hand, and the ability to craft and explore at will? If the main character is any indication, it's a lot of sleepless nights. This very stylistic game should help fill the niche for those who've grown sick of games that assume all players are too stupid to figure out what to do.

GRID 2: The forerunner to one of the best-optimized games we've ever benched, GRID: Autosport, GRID 2 manages to still hold its own in the racing/car-sim market. If the thrum of a simulated engine pouring through your speakers warms the heart, then make sure to test this out.

Injustice: Gods Among Us: The DC universe comes to life in this super-detailed fighting game. Grab a favored hero or villain and teach those who stand in your path why they should fear you.

Killing Floor: If you're tired of Co-op games forcing you to choose between which of your friends to play with, at least assuming you have more than 3 friends (show off!), this survival-horror game allows up to 6 people to join in and slay some zombies. The ability to create new mods and levels enhances the waves of doom headed your way. Killing Floor was a long-standing GN favorite and is highly-recommended by our staff.

Payday 2: In the mood to be bad? Grab Payday 2 and some friends and get away with as much money as you can in this FPS heist game. Just remember, the goal is for the big bucks, so plan accordingly.

Trine 2: This side-scrolling platformer is the successor to our GOTY title in 2009 and has had several feature pieces on GN, including a graphics overview of some of the prettiest environs. Trine 2 is filled with amazing graphics and physics-based puzzles with light-and-easy co-op mechanics. As long as you don't get too distracted by the game's aesthetics, this should be able to keep up to 3 people busy for quite some time... even longer if you do get distracted by pretty images and speed-running.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown: The aliens have landed – again – and are making an annoyance of themselves. It's the duty of all good (and bad) XCOM agents to head into the fray and probe the aliens back. The modernization of a classic favorite features new tactical elements, massively improved graphics, and a greater depth of play style than the original. Just remember, you are humanity's last hope... so don't let us all down.

The only thing needed to take advantage of this deal is an account with Steam – just download the games and you've got the weekend for free. Steam is distributing the entire game, too, not just a few demo levels.

Let us know what your favorite games were and which ones you bought in the comments below.

* History lesson for the day, Katyusha was an actual song sung for the men headed to the front lines against Germany in 1941; the 10-hour anime loop version is mainly to see if anyone would watch ALL of it. Perhaps a new benchmarking tool for our on-board audio chipsets.

- Scott "Abibiliboop" Griffin.