Free Games at GameHouse! Play a Free Game Daily. Find your favorite Download Games and Online Games. Play the top games now at GameHouse! Please be advised we use cookies on our site in order to give you the best experience. More information.
Whatever else you may say about 2018, the year proved that plenty of developers still take the Mac seriously as a gaming platform. I’m fond of saying that we as Mac gamers enjoy quality at the expensive of quantity, and standout titles like Subnautica and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire—both of which released at the same time as their PC counterparts—serve as proof of that. Nor did I have to struggle for this list: There are plenty of new enjoyable games like The Banner Saga 3 and The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset that deliver hours of entertainment but fall a tad short of the greatness of the following entries. Whether you’re looking for blockbuster action or retro-styled platformers, this year’s crop of games has many wonders to choose from. Is easily the most graphically impressive of this year’s Mac releases, to the point that I now frequently use its built-in benchmarking tool to judge the performance of MacBooks and eGPUs. Fortunately, it’s a fantastic game as well.
This sequel whisks Lara Croft off to the snowy wastes of Siberia, where she hunts down the legendary city of Kitezh while finding time to rummage in plenty of tombs and solve a plethora of puzzles. And of course, Lara being Lara, the number of bullets that fly here almost certainly outnumber the words in our favorite tomb raider’s doctoral thesis.
It’s full of literal cliffhangers, and it’s more fun than a summer blockbuster. I never wanted to be an insurance adjuster until I played, and frankly, I have a feeling that it overstates the appeal. It’s 1807 and a ship has wandered in with a dead crew after years of being lost at sea, and it’s your job to figure out what happened. You do this, though, by whipping out a stopwatch that shows the exact second of someone’s death along with a few snippets of dialogue surrounding the moment.
And, to put it lightly, that’s just the beginning of the weirdness in this masterpiece of deductive sleuthing. As a special bonus for Mac users, you can change the retro interface to look as though it’s running on an early 1980s Macintosh. Training to climb a mountain can take years, so I’m not surprised that this marvelous platformer about climbing a snowy peak is about as hard as climbing Everest. You’re a little girl named Madeline— is the mountain—and you’ll subject the poor thing to a thousand deaths while guiding her through retro-styled dead cities and menacing ridges. Thank goodness the phenomenal soundtrack makes the pain more bearable.
But Celeste is never so rough that its challenges feel sadistic; on the contrary, it lifts you up. Madeleine’s journey to the summit is an allegory for her personal betterment as she rises above the surrounding adversity toward the stars, and by the end, her triumphs become your own. Excelsior, indeed. The first Pillars of Eternity clung a tad too tightly to the fantasy RPG traditions of isometric Infinity Engine games like Baldur’s Gate, but sees the series finding a voice of its own. It’s an improvement in almost every respect. This time around, there’s a god tromping around the countryside like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.
As for you, you spend a lot of time in a boat exploring a tropical archipelago where the local politics are as difficult to navigate as the seas. Multiclassing enriches the real-time with pause combat, and the story mercifully sidelines the glum of its 2015 forebear. It’s a fiery reminder that old-school roleplaying is anything but dead. Survival games tend to focus on living off the land, but not; in fact, there’s not a shovelful of dry dirt in sight.
You’re the sole survivor of a starship that crashed on a planet enveloped with an ocean without end, and all you’ve got at your disposal is a damaged escape pod. Never before has 'watered down' sounded so hardcore. But gosh, it’s lovely. The wholesale shift to the real world down under revitalizes the survival genre in ways unmatched by rival games with dinosaurs and pirates. And if you don’t want to rough it so much? Set Subnautica to exploration mode and bathe in the beauty. It’s a reminder that one of the most alien landscapes imaginable waits just beyond our beaches.
The name works on so many levels. For one, you’re literally playing as a mass a mass of cells that reanimates the bodies of dead prisoners in order to escape a prison. For another, the cells of that dungeon are stuffed with dead bodies, giving you plenty of options to choose from when you fail. And fail you will. Unlike its inspirations Metroid and Castlevania, though, Dead Cells kicks you back all the way to the beginning when you die, and then the levels randomly rearrange themselves with new enemies and rooms when you revive. It’s not as mean as it could be, though, as it lets you keep the upgrades you earn along the way.
There’s a boss fight near the start of that serves as a metaphor for the game as a whole. When you first see it, it’s an animated flower that’s adorable and inviting. It’s got rosy cheeks and a sly smile. But then it morphs into an avatar of death, its petals resembling crown of flames and its teeth looking larger than small houses.
Cuphead, which can be played solo or in co-op, wants you dead. It’s so hard that you may not even finish.
Even so, it’s worth enduring the pain this intense platformer dishes out as each Fleischer Studios-inspired boss fight is more creative and outlandish than the next. It’s punishment with panache, and somehow that makes it appealing. Is a welcome reminder that the Warhammer series can back away from its most beloved races and conflicts without losing its soul. In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable strategy games in years. The emphasis here isn’t so much on orks but on elves and anthropomorphic rats and lizards who rush at each other’s throats in their struggle to control of a gigantic purple tornado at the heart of the world. Sound outlandish? That’s Warhammer for you.
But it’s not just about personality—there’s also some great real-time strategy in play here with four distinct races that are all fun to play. And at least for the Total War series, the presentation of the story has never been better. If you think being marooned on a desert island is rough, imagine being a space explorer who’s marooned on a planet that’s still stuck in its Middle Ages.
That’s the concept behind, which sees you struggling to maintain a society while scrambling to repair your damaged ship so you can return home. Raiders may attack. A lightning strike could ruin years of hard work.
Some settlers go nuts and need to be cast out. Indeed, unlike many other resource management sims, the settlers have distinct personalities here and motivations, which adds a necessary dose of humanity to a genre that tends to wallow in abstractions. If you’re going to save the world from monsters by using gigantic mechs as in Pacific Rim, you’re going to want to make sure you don’t also trash our cities in the process. That’s the idea behind, a chess-like tactical RPG from the same team responsible for the beloved roguelike starship simulator FTL: Faster Than Light. It’s tough, but saving Earth from squids the size of Godzilla probably should be.
But the procedurally generated campaign is never boring. Once you figure out how to thwart a monster’s attacks by studying its telegraphed moves and responding with the best of the three mechs at your disposal, you happily head into the breach again and again.
Team Fortress 2: Windows, macOS, and Linux Valve’s commercial sequel to a beloved Quake mod has become synonymous with team-based first-person shooters. After a decade in active development, is still extremely popular, and the small smattering of initial modes has been expanded to an incredible variety of play styles. Nine classes ooze with Pixar-style personality (if Pixar made R-Rated video games), and the graphics are simple enough that the game can run quite well even on most laptops.
Team Fortress 2 started out as a paid game, but it’s now free and supported by purchases of in-game weapons, cosmetic items, and keys for randomized crates. All items can be earned randomly through playing, or by crafting from other items or trading with players. Sadly, the free-to-play update was not made available to console players, so only PC players get in for free.
Warframe: Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One is a different take on modern shooters, with a third-person perspective and a unique sci-fi art style for characters and environments. Players customize their avatars with different mods for agility, defense, and attack, and collect new weapons and modifications through multiplayer combat or co-op missions versus computer-controlled bots. Warframe is visually striking with an action-oriented movement system and a focus on flexible customizations over rigid classes. It remains popular with frequent content updates. Players can buy new guns, mods, and other customizations with in-game currency or credits purchased with real money. DLC packs on Steam bundle themed upgrades together.
Unreal Tournament: Windows, macOS, and Linux The name “” should make little bells go off in the head of anyone who remembers the early days of online shooters. The latest release in the long-running series keeps the fast-paced, big-gun FPS deathmatch action, but switches to a free-to-play format.
The current version of the game is still in pre-alpha, but it already has a healthy and growing population of players. The game brings new weapons and interesting powers to the arena-based format of the original, while focusing on classic modes like capture the flag and base assault. The game is in continual development with help from the community, and right now all modes and in-game items are free. After the full release a marketplace for mods and add-ons will help to support its continued upkeep.
Blacklight: Retribution: Windows and PlayStation 4 Fans of modern military shooters will find a lot to like in. The near-future setting is fodder for some fun weapon and armor designs, but the slower and more precise pace makes this game kin to the likes of Modern Warfare.
Most of the included modes are team-based player-versus-player affairs, but those looking for less confrontational action can shoot hordes of zombies in co-op or AI opponents for practice. A short power-up allows players to instantly hone in on objectives and see enemies through walls. Retribution is quite popular, with an install base at over a million, but its monetization system has been criticized. Free players have to pay real money for “Z Coins” to unlock special weapons, but a one-time $5 payment for a Prime account can make most items attainable with in-game currency.
Tribes Ascend: Windows Only The Tribes series is famous for its jetpacks and skis that make rocket-powered matches fast and frantic. Brings it all to gamers for free. The high speed, huge environments, and plentiful vehicles should be familiar territory for Halo fans, and character mods like stealth or jetpacks keep extended matches interesting. It’s not the most visually demanding game, but that means it should be playable on older systems, too. Weapons and cosmetic items can be purchased with real money or in-game currency. The $10 Ultimate Weapons pack adds a variety of weapons featured in previous DLC packs. Planetside 2: Windows and PlayStation 4 If you prefer your shooters with a little MMO on the side, this game can throw you into a server with thousands of other players at once.
The central conflict in is persistent: the kills and victories you win for your side will help it defeat the other two game-spanning factions. An RPG-style progression system rewards players who are in it for the long haul, specializing in specific combat roles. Gameplay upgrades and cosmetic items can be purchased directly with real money, or players can earn experience points and upgrades faster with a $15 per month subscription, very much like a conventional MMO. Warface: Windows and Xbox 360 is kind of like a blue-blooded aristocrat: it has a slightly ridiculous name, but you can’t argue with the pedigree. It’s developed by Crytek, the same people behind the Crysis and Far Cry series, making it one of the most visually impressive free-to-play games on the market. Far Cry players will feel right at home with the realistic conventional weapons and fluid movement system, including vertical climbs and slides through the small team-based deathmatch arenas.
Four classes duke it out in player-versus-player or player-versus-environment modes. Players and weapons have cosmetic skins. Weapons can be upgraded via attachments, which can be rented or purchased with in-game credits and premium currency bought with real money. There are also experience boosters and permanent paid DLC upgrades available on steam. Gigantic: Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One This colorful free-to-play shooter places the action in third person, to better enable its MOBA-style elements.
That means that two separate teams in duke it out for control of a medium-sized maps, upgrading specific points to spawn creatures or give stat bonuses to the team. Each team has a computer-controlled giant monster that functions as both its home base to be defended and its ultimate attack weapon. If you want to play a shooter with unique character designs, distinct combat roles, and a focus on strategy over pure combat, this is it.
Gigantic uses a MOBA-style payment system: its various heroes are on a rotating trial, and you have to pay with either in-game experience or real money to unlock each one permanently. Cosmetic skins can also be purchased in the same way. Paladins: Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One is known in the gaming community as “the free-to-play Overwatch.” That might be a bit unfair, but it’s hard to deny that the colorful heroes and team-based shooter gameplay have a lot in common with Blizzard’s smash hit. The characters have distinct powers but separate into broad roles.
But in addition to king of the hill, payload, and control point maps, Paladins includes deathmatches, and co-op player-versus-environment modes. The cartoony characters are charming, even when they’re blowing your face off, and a card system adds an element of unpredictability to the multiplayer brawls. Characters must be unlocked in-game with currency, but a $20 “Founder’s Pack” purchase will unlock all current and future “Champions” and a few other goodies. Additional characters, cosmetics, and cards can be purchased with premium currency. The game is in beta at the moment. Toxikk: Windows Only The developers of say that it’s designed to hearken back to a simpler time, with small arenas, fast action, big guns, and all the corners cut off. The game looks and moves really well, with maps designed for fast, vertical combat.
Unfortunately it’s experiencing something of a player drought at the moment: the public servers available to free players are often empty. The game’s complete complement of guns, maps, and vehicles are all included in the free version, but a $15 upgrade unlocks the server browser, bot play, player bounties, character customization, mod support, and a map editor. After the upgrade there are no more in-game micropayments.
Honorable Mention: Hawken: Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One isn’t a conventional shooter, since all of the player combat takes place within giant futuristic mechs. But the action is much faster than simulator-style games like Mechwarrior, making it much more of a shooter experience. The small maps (you know, for giant robots) and customizable vehicles and weapons keeps the combat fresh, and the gritty, high-powered graphics should satisfy gamers looking for a visual treat. The mechs, weapons, cosmetics, and mods can all be purchased with in-game currency, which can be boosted with infusions of real money. Some premium cosmetics can only be bought with real money, but all competitive elements are available to all free players.