The Westwood-developed action-RPG Nox is a pretty old game, released all the way back in 2000, but it was a pretty good one by most accounts. And if it didn't set the world on fire, that may be in part because Westwood's star was already well in decline by then, and also because of the release of Diablo 2 a few months later, which very much did set the world on fire. So you may have missed it. But now it's free on Origin, which makes this a fine time to get caught up.

The Nox freebie comes by way of Origin's On the House program, which makes various games available free, for keepsies. You only have a limited time to grab them, however, and if you miss out, you're hosed. The tricky bit, such as it is, is that EA doesn't say when the offers will expire; I'm not sure what the point of that particular strategy is but the net result is that it's best not to dawdle.

As for Nox itself, here's the skinny: “Your name is Jack Mower, a 20th century dude who just happened to be sucked into the world of Nox via his TV set. The world is in danger and you have to save it! But before you embark on your epic journey you must choose your path: warrior, wizard, or conjurer.” All three classes bring impressive powers to the table, but the description also notes that “magic is for sissies.” Hey, it was the end of the 90s. Minsc was big.

You'll need a bare minimum of Windows XP, a 1.8 GHz CPU of some sort, 512 MB (that's “megabytes”) of RAM, and a DirectX 7-compatible 3D graphics card to play. Get it from Origin.

