Top 10 Free-2-Play Games on MS Live

Before we delve into this Top 10 List we need to qualify the games that are eligible for consideration here.

While Microsoft's Game with Gold program - which gives a couple of games to the members of the Xbox LIVE Gold subscription each month are technically free games, they are NOT free-to-play games.

Free-to-play games are defined specifically as games that can be downloaded and played without having to pay a fee to obtain the core game.

Most of the games in this class make their money via micro-transactions or by carving their actual content into small parts that the player then has to purchase to play.

Some of the games that made the list barely meet this qualification - for example Pinball FX2 allows you to download the core game plus the fantasy themed Sorcerer's Lair table but any other tables have to be purchased - unless you already own them on X360 and are playing the game on X1, in which case you get the tables you already paid for free in the new version.

The point is that while some or even most of the content for a game in this category has to be paid for, they each include some level of free content that you do not have to buy.

In the world of Free-to-Play while there have been many games through the years, certain games stand out as exceptional examples - and those are the ones that made our Top 10 List!

10. 1 vs 100 X360 (No Longer Available)

While it is no longer available when Microsoft launched 1 vs 100 they clearly had a tiger by the tail - which gives us pause to wonder WHY it is no longer available.

The basic premise of this trivia game was simple - and therein lies the secret to its success! It was based on a TV game show of the same name, with the same premise... Pitting a contestant against 100 other contestants to answer trivia questions.

Most of the time the game was dormant and could not be played, but at specific times of the week the game would go live for scheduled game play - at which point any gamer who so desired could log in and compete for prizes.

That competition took the form of answering trivia questions.

Hosted by Chris Cashman in North America and James McCourt in the UK and Ireland, the game instantly established both its character and popularity - pitting a single contestant as "The One" against a group of 100 that make up "The Mob" with the rest of the players making up "The Crowd".

The prizes on offer were worth winning as The One had an opportunity to win up to 10,000 Microsoft Points, which was credited to their Xbox Live account, while the remaining members of The Mob divide up the winnings and each won an Xbox Live Arcade game if they are able to eliminate The One.

One of the elements that made it cool - and fun - was that the game used your Avatar from your Gamertag to represent you!

We don't know why this game only lasted a single season - it probably had to do with the licensing deal with the company that owned the rights to the TV series - but either way it did only last one season, and for most players that was simply not enough.

And that is why it makes our list at Number 10 - even though technically it is no longer available to play.