Freeware Friday: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

BT writes: This week brought us the announcement of Wolfenstein’s return and as a single-player only game to boot. Of course, I’m glad to see a developer put more emphasis on the single-player side of their product than just tacking on a multiplayer mode, especially after the lackluster package that was 2009’s Wolfenstein, but it reminded me of the early 2000′s when Wolfenstein was the game that all of my friends were playing in the computer lab when the librarian wasn’t watching (for some reason, all of the teachers though that if there wasn’t a shortcut on the desktop a program didn’t exist). Not Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but its multiplayer/pseudo-expansion: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Fast forward to today when I remembered something very special about Enemy Territory: it’s completely free.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, developed by Splash Damage, was originally supposed to be a commercially released expansion for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which had come out less than two years prior. However, the game’s single-player aspect had problems, so the multiplayer was released instead as a standalone freeware game and became one of the most popular multiplayer shooters of its time, with a community that still supports it and plenty of servers keeping the game going. On August 12th, 2010, on the first day of Quakecon, the source code was released, giving modders free reign. The game is available on Splash Damage’s website for Mac, Linux, and PC.