Yeah I got Prey thru that Steam deal. I read a review online that made it an easy sell.

The graphics engine is a couple years prior to Bioshock but the total effect is very similar.

Several "awe" or "wow" moments. Also vehicular travel via personal shuttle craft with gravity gun.

Many Boss levels and fights that lead to progressively massive weapons.

The severed hand is neat too. During an early fight when you only have a sword you cut off some guys hand. If you choose to you can pick up the severed hand. Later in the game you find many hand scanners to open doors and of course you need the severed hand. You are reminded as the game goes on about how the hand is starting to smell pretty bad.

Anyway what is hamachi?

I've only ever played TF2 online and that is thru Steam.

I never run my gaming computer on the internet outside of using Steam.

Okay, an attempt to explain a software which I do not fully understand the technicalities of.

Hamachi is a Virtual LAN to me. Creates a LAN network through internet connections. So basically what you do is, download the super small freeware and install it, create a "Hamachi network" and ask people to connect into it. After that, host a game in LAN and it'll show up in their LAN games list.

Hamachi is a centrally-managed zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) freeware application capable of establishing direct links between computers that are behind NAT firewalls without requiring reconfiguration (in most cases); in other words, it establishes a connection over the Internet that very closely emulates the connection that would exist if the computers were connected over a local area network. Currently available as a production version for Microsoft Windows, and as beta - for Mac OS X and Linux. On August 8, 2006, it was announced that Hamachi was being purchased by LogMeIn.[1]

Wikipedia

Speaking of Steam deals they are offering a Free "Limited" version of Track Mania.

Basic arrow key car racer but some fun maps and single or multi-player.

The Free version has 15 maps and default cars.

They market the upgrade on more maps and more cars etc.

Track mania eh? Have you not played it yet then? It came out in January 2006.

It's brilliant... but obviously i'm not the best player...

It has an online ingame ladder, where players can customise their cars and avatars and race in their nation's colours on the world's servers. They held the Grand Final in Paris, in front of 10,000 people, where the best players from each country battled it out for a prize of 400,000 dollars.

Holy momma you serious? I didn't know Trackmania was that big a deal!

Yeah! Try playing it online, you may find you're a natural kick ass! Only problem is that you have to download it, and it might be expensive. $400.000 might tell you something about the cost of winning

How about some open source games that cost nothing?

If your an "Elite" fan try these:

Oolite: http://www.oolite.org/download

Pioneer (influenced by Elite 2 and in early development, authors are asking for help!): Pioneer | Weep and gnash your teeth in the exterior darkness

Frontier First Encounters Elite 3 (FFE3D): Downloads

Or maybe you would like a Babylon 5 type game? Try this: Downloads - Babylon 5: IFH v1.1 (Full Package)

Did you try search in Google?