Online Game All-Stars

Take a break with the Web's most addictive puzzles, sports simulations, and other diversions--no CD required.

Edited By Grace Aquino

ISketch

Free Remember Pictionary, the popular board and TV game in which one player sketches clues to a mystery word or phrase that other players try to identify? It's alive and well on the Net at ISketch as a fun, free, easy, and--for now--no-registration game. Point your Shockwave-equipped browser to the site and choose a playroom (or create a private one) with a language (Danish, French, German, and so on) or a clue category (food, movies, computer games) you like. The game assigns one player the drawing duty as others type in their guesses for the mystery word or phrase. The sketcher's drawing tools include a pen, an airbrush, and an eraser. Once you get going, it's easy to get hooked. Caution: Sketching with a mouse isn't everybody's cup of tea--this game may convince you to buy a pen tablet and stylus.

--Yardena Arar

Knockout Kings Web Boxing

Free Boxing is a great way to let off some steam. And what better way to step into the ring than with eight of the most famous boxers of all time? Knockout Kings Web Boxing from EA.com brings fantasy bouts like Holyfield versus Ali straight to your browser. It offers an impressive level of depth and decent-looking 3D graphics. After a quick download, you play solo against your chosen opponent, competing against other players for high scores. Both the keyboard and the game pad controls are easy to learn but challenging to master. To access the free game, log on to EA.com and get ready to punch, block, and dodge your competition.

--Eric Dahl

80's Classics

Free Hyper-realistic 3D graphics and theater-quality sound--who needs 'em? Give me the ridiculously simple, endlessly addictive arcade blockbusters lovingly re-created at Shockwave.com's 80's Classics. My personal favorite: Root Beer Tapper, in which you play a soda jerk who must slide beverages down the bar to a crowd of cranky cowboys, sports fans, and even aliens. Centipede, Defender (I and II), Robotron, Spy Hunter, and five other vintage time-wasters are also available. Browser-based play is free; truly obsessed retro gamers can pay 80 quarters (er, $20) for downloadable versions of all 11.

--Harry McCracken

Need for Speed Web Racing

Free Racing fans need look no further for fast, rubber-peeling action. Just brake for Need for Speed Web Racing from EA.com. Racers hop into their choice of cars, such as a Chevrolet Corvette, for a variety of single-player contests over distinct-looking landscapes and racetracks. One roadblock: You have to download every track and every car, some of which are 4MB in size. The download can take some time, especially on a dial-up connection. But once you're past that bottleneck, you can expect to cruise at the limit the rest of the way.

--Danny W. Lam

Strike a Match

Free Part wordplay, part trivia quiz, part game show, Boxerjam's Strike a Match is a free, pleasing, and surprisingly habit-forming multiplayer game. The "match" in the game's title refers to word connections: In each round, you are presented with an array of words that fall under various, unidentified topics (anatomy or car parts, for example). Then you're given several seconds to identify the words that belong together. The more time you take, the lower your score becomes. With amusing graphics and a level of difficulty that won't insult a moderately intelligent player, Strike a Match is a real winner. I only hope that Boxerjam gets enough advertising to stay in business.

--Y.A.

Yahoo Card Games

Free Take a break from your computer chores and head for the virtual tables of Yahoo Card Games. Whether you use an existing Yahoo ID or sign up for a new one, you'll be playing cards within seconds. Players at all skill levels can sit in at dozens of card games, including Blackjack, Euchre, Bridge, Pinochle, Go Fish, and my favorite, Hearts. It took awhile to find a game at my pace and skill level, but once I found it, the play resembled a real game. It even had a little table talk thrown in. All the games include instructions on how to play. Shy types can compete against the machine, or choose to watch others battle it out. Yahoo Card Games are simple, fun, and free. All you need now is a little bit of luck.

--Dennis O'Reilly

Bejeweled

Free Diamonds are a girl's best friend. My sparkler is Bejeweled, also known as Diamond Mine, a highly addictive and amazingly simple puzzle game from PopCap, in which you tap adjacent pairs of colorful gems, swap them, and match horizontal and vertical lines of three or more. The more jewels you match, the more bonus points you score. You can play straight from your browser or download an enhanced version--complete with glistening gemstones and flashy sound effects--onto your machine. The downloadable version includes a timed level for players seeking more of a challenge.

--Felicia Williams

Dark Orbit

If Alfred Hitchcock had set his classic film The Birds in a futuristic deep-space mining outpost, he'd probably have produced WildTangent's Dark Orbit, a fast-paced 3D shooter game in which you command a mining ship that's been retrofitted with weapons. Your mission: Desperately fight to escape a planet crawling with encroaching hordes of angry alien insects. Blessedly absent from most of the game is the truly awful soundtrack, which rears its ugly head only at the end of each level. The game requires WildTangent's game driver, which is a free download. You do have to shell out $20 to play the full game. But given Dark Orbit's eye-popping 3D graphics and exciting game play, the one-time fee is reasonable.

--Andrew Brandt

Gears

Free Set the gears in motion with Onward Designs' Gears, a fun and relatively challenging puzzle game enhanced with appropriately mechanical background music. The goal is to drag and drop a set of large and small green gears onto the playing board and link them with blue cogs to make yellow gears spin in the direction of their arrows. As the game progresses, the number of cogs increases, making the puzzles more difficult to put together. What's more, each puzzle is timed--the longer you take, the lower your score. The game will get your brain in gear while it entertains. Gears is free and requires Macromedia's Shockwave plug-in.

--F.W.

Settlers of Catan

Free Bartering, not military might, is the key to conquest in Settlers of Catan. Here's what's at stake: You try to outmaneuver your opponents by building settlements, roads, and cities from natural resources. Begun as a research project in artificial intelligence, this free and ad-free Web site draws enough dedicated players to sustain a ladder league. Multiplayer gaming is the norm, though you can go solo against robots that become more challenging as you progress. Game play is smooth, and contests last from 30 to 60 minutes. Because the site is still under development, you'll occasionally lose your connection. But Settlers of Catan fans will appreciate the chance to play pick-up games at their leisure.

--Jeffrey Kuta

Gaming Advice: 5 Tips For Smooth Game Play

1. Download the necessary players and plug-ins. To run Dark Orbit, 80's Classics, and Settlers of Catan, for example, you need WildTangent, Shockwave, and Java players, respectively. Your browser alerts you if you need to acquire such programs and then takes you to the appropriate download page.
2. Make sure that you have the minimum system requirements. It's best to use a machine equipped with at least a 233-MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, integrated 3D graphics, a modem, a sound card, and speakers.
3. Consider buying a graphics board. For optimum 3D-gaming performance, invest in a good graphics board. See a list of this month's Top 10.
4. Make sure the programs on your PC are compatible. In particular, look at the game, the browser, and the operating system. To check specifics about potential problems and driver updates, read the gaming site's FAQ page or visit Blue's News or GameSpy.
5. Opt for a separate input device. Try using a game pad, a steering wheel, or a pen tablet if your keyboard or mouse doesn't provide enough control. Check out Logitech's WingMan Strike Force 3D, Microsoft's SideWinder Force Feedback Pro, and other joystick options from Belkin and Thrustmaster; or consider a tablet from Wacom.

--Grace Aquino