Question Off-line games

My new laptop came installed only with games that require an internet connection to play . So I am looking for free to download games that I can play off line.

I'm not certain what genre you're looking for, but a few games for consideration are Simutrans , OpenTTD and FreeCiv . The later two both have AI players that you can compete against, while I don't recall the first one having much of an AI. If you prefer to use Steam or GoG for managing your game library, all three are on at least one of those platforms.

On the commercial front, I've been sinking a fair amount of time into Factorio . It's not a game that goes on sale, but the demo gives a good taste of what the game's about. This game is generally designed for single player, but multi-player capabilities exist.

Humble Bundle and GoG also both have newsletters that you can subscribe to. Occasionally, they'll give away a game to their subscribers (Humble Bundle just ended a giveaway of Surviving Mars).

If you like puzzles, look at Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection . It's 100% free, does not require an Internet connection and has been ported to pretty much every platform out there.

Besides cprime's suggestions, have a look at the listings at PortableApps.com . I think all of them are free to play, and few if any require an Internet connection for single-player game. These are USB-drive-ready versions of well-known games, meaning that they don't mess with your Windows settings. If you like them, you can go to the game's original site and install the regular version, which loads a bit faster.

Thanks guys, I'll have to look closer when I have more time.

Mindustry is free if you get it from itch.io (or $6 if you prefer Steam). It's sort of like a faster-paced Factorio with more emphasis on tower-defense and combat, and it uses individual maps instead of an open-world sandbox. I like Factorio more overall, but Mindustry is a pretty fun change of pace.

The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. Good fun.

Armagetron is a snake-like game based on the lightcycles from Tron. It's multiplayer, but you can also play offline against AI.

Unturned is a zombie survival game like DayZ, with both online and offline modes. Lots of crafting, and you can mount stuff on the vehicles you find (or build a custom vehicle from scratch) which can be pretty neat.

Dwarf Fortress is a game about directing your dwarves to build and maintain a fortress. It's excellent, but it does have a somewhat intimidating learning cliff. The game itself does not require an internet connection, but you might initially find it difficult to play without having the wiki at your fingertips.

tvtropes.org/Main/FreewareGames

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What genres you want? How beefy is your laptop? You did say it's new... Steam has Free Games, some that even aren't H, nor Puzzles nor Idlers, like "Crusader Kings II", and "Epic Battle Fantasy 3".

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Presuming you're on Windows, of course. Macs are a different.

Most game stores have a few free games. Epic Games has a thing going on where they give away a couple games every week. But most games from online stores (Steam, Epic, Battle.net, Origin, Microsoft Xbox...) are not really "offline" because they usually have DRM that requires the game to "phone home" before running.

The major exception is GOG. They have a few games that are 100% free, and once in a while they will give away a game. And GOG does not use DRM, so you may download it by yourself (if you would rather not install the GOG Galaxy software) and run them offline with no restrictions.

There are also a number of abandonware sites, including (I think) a section at Archive.org. These are old, no longer supported games, but some of them are true classics. Making them run in modern platforms may take a bit of research. Also, the legality of downloading them is a bit fuzzy.