Gaming is an expensive hobby. A PS3 will set you back just about £300, an Xbox 360 is £260 or so and even the Wii isn’t cheap at £180. So you’ve just spent all that money on a new console, now you need a HDTV to play it on (CRT just doesn’t cut it these days, and I should know), so that’ll be another £400 or so at least. Ok then, we’ve bought a console and a nice new telly to play it on, now lets sit down and... ah. Now, some games to play would be nice. New games often cost somewhere in the region of £40, which is quite a lot when you think about it. I’ve recently finished studying, and all I’ve got to show for it at the moment is a massive student loan, so in the past few years I’ve had to select my gaming experiences very carefully, making sure that if I spend money on a game that I will definitely enjoy it.

But can we get our gaming kicks for free? The internet is practically drowning in online games that you can play for free, but are any of them actually as good as those you’d buy in the shops? We at Gaming Verdict have trawled the mire that is the internet to bring you the games that will save you money, but still provide massive amounts of entertainment.

This week, GV looks at how you can get your sports management and MMO kicks for free, and without having to worry about becoming totally hooked to boot...