Where to download good games?

I am interested in finding some good computer games

  1. Most important downloadable games – I like Spider Solitaire and Minesweeper. I am an expert in Spider Solitaire at the hardest level. Yesterday I downloaded tons of viruses. Where can I download games without viruses? Even if they aren’t free.

  2. MMORPG – such as Runescape but new.

  3. Strategy games such as Age of War.

Steam or Good old Games is a typical starting point.

All of your major digital games retailers should have various versions of Solitaire for sale. I would start working the search function at Steam, Amazon and GamersGate. Those probably have the best selection of casual games. For example, Amazon has this Solitaire game that says it includes 50 types of Solitaire (including spider). [Edit: I forgot GOG… great suggestion, Grey]

Note that both Spider Solitaire and Minesweeper should be on your computer as part of Windows (assuming you’re using Windows).

There ARE free games out there that are legitimate but trying to get games from random downloads or torrents is inviting a bunch of malware problems. You’re better off getting them from a legitimate source.

All of those sites also have a lot of strategy games available to browse through. GamersGate especially because they cater to a European base who seems to enjoy those sorts of games a lot and they have a bond to Paradox who is a major publisher of strategy titles. Paradox actually used to own GamersGate but that’s not important for you right now.

MMORPGs are all over the place. Are you looking for free to play models with cash stores (Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings: Online, Tera), “Buy to play” where you purchase the game (Secret World, Guild Wars 2), subscription models (World of Warcraft) or what?

Note that there’s a lot of Free to Play games on Steam.

Some of these have cash stores or are limited unless you buy something but there’s some good stuff in there and even the limited ones can be worth trying. Some can even be played very well without ever ponying up a dollar.