Hello readers, welcome to the grand finale of ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Over the last ten months we've covered 18 different free-to-play games from a variety of genres with one mission in mind: to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

While each episode of the Free Agent probed and explored this question in depth, our conclusions were always specific to the game being covered by that episode. But after all this time, surely we've learned a thing or two, and just maybe we're prepared to answer the question once and for all.

Drum roll please... Can gaming REALLY be free? The answer is...

Hello and welcome back to ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

Last time on the Free Agent we covered Duel of Champions, a TCG set in the famous Might and Magic universe. Despite having to live in the shadow cast by the recent Hearthstone Open Beta announcement, Duel of Champions is more than capable of standing on its own so, if you missed it, be sure to check out Episode 19.

But moving on to today's episode: for the first time ever, we're covering a game within a game. Curious to see how that works? Well then by all means, read on.

Hello and Happy New Year everyone. Welcome back to ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission in 2014 is the very same as it was in 2013; to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

We finished off the year by joining with the rest of the ZAM team to award the Free Agent Game of the Year. Check out Episode 18 if you missed it. Another big congratulations to our winner, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot.

To kick off 2014 I decided to cover a Trading Card Game (TCG) that I picked up over the holidays. I was looking for something casual to play in between family get-togethers and the like, and Ubisoft's online TCG Might and Magic: Duel of Champions fit the bill rather nicely.

Hello readers and thanks for joining me. I know it turns your world inside out and causes you to question everything you knew to be true, but we are indeed breaking our bi-weekly tradition to bring you a special episode of the Free Agent. That's right, it's that magical time of the year, when we sort through all the games we've played and admired throughout the year and summarily crown the Game of the Year.

If you missed ZAM's first six categories be sure to check out yesterday's 2013 Game Awards, as well as the final six categories going live tomorrow. But enough about that, you're here for the Free Agent and I'm pleased to say that I've been given the honor of handing out a special award today, The Free Agent's Game of the Year Award.

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

If you missed the last episode, be sure to check it out for our long overdue coverage of Path of Exile.

This week the Free Agent gets airborne with the latest title from Wargaming.net, the recently released World of Warplanes. Does it crash and burn or soar to new free-to-play heights, or maybe just fly along somewhere in the middle? Read on to find out.

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

Welcome to the real Path of Exile episode. Unlike previous episodes that made high and lofty promises to provide hard hitting investigative action-RPG coverage and instead brought you the noob crushing awesomeness of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, this episode is legit and on the level, and features exclusively 100% Path of Exile content. I promise. Seriously...

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

We have a special surprise for you this episode. Remember two weeks ago when I said our next episode would be covering Path of Exile? (If not go check out the full episode covering MechWarrior Online). Well it turns out I actually meant our next, next episode.

Instead we're going to throw caution to the wind, break all of our own rules (except for the spend no money one of course) and laugh uncontrollably as we watch poor unsuspecting noobs perish in our castle.

What am I on about you ask? Simple my friends. I'm talking about The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot!

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

Last time on the Free Agent we hunted dragons, tamed dragons, trained dragons, rode dragons and fought dragons. It's almost as if we covered an MMO about dragons or something. Oh wait, we did... To see how free Dragon's Prophet ended up being, be sure to check out Episode 13.

For this week's episode, however, it's back to mechs. But not just any mechs. This time we're hitting up a franchise with a long history in the gaming world. Dating back to 1984 the BattleTech franchise has been around for a while and managed to spawn four video games under the MechWarrior banner (plus an impressive list of related titles).

With a pedigree like that it's no surprise that there is a fair amount of interest in the latest installment in the series MechWarrior Online (MWO) from Vancouver based developer Piranha Games and publisher IGP.

I'll be honest, after playing Hawken in Episode 12, when I picked up MechWarrior Online I was expecting more of the same. What I got was a decidedly different experience.

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

Last time on the Free Agent the Oculus Rift inspired us to brave shrapnel and rocket launchers in the FPS mech title Hawken. If you happened to miss out on the action don't worry, you can always go back and give Episode 12 a read.

But for this week's episode we're back to MMOs again. And unlike my last foray into free-to-play MMOs, this one seems to diverge somewhat from the traditional MMO template. After a minor launch delay Dragon's Prophet stormed onto the scene on September 23rd under the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) banner. Even with so much on the go it seems SOE is more than happy to bring Dragon's Prophet to North America from Taiwan based developer Runewaker Entertainment.

With a name like Dragon's Prophet it's no surprise that dragons feature quite prominently in this title. Of course dragons are kind of a staple to the Fantasy MMO genre, so that isn't exactly much of a hook. However, for the dragon obsessed among us (you know who you are), Dragon's Prophet offers up something new that should put a grin on your face; a giant, scaly, many-toothed grin. Let's take to the skies and learn more.

Hello to all our new readers, and welcome back to those who have been following ZAM's bi-weekly column, The Free Agent. Our mission, as always, is to answer the question "Can gaming REALLY be free?"

Last time on the Free Agent we brought you coverage of The Banner Saga: Factions. Despite an unfortunate breach in security and a mild concussion induced from a hefty sack of quarters striking the back of my head, it was great experience. So if you missed it be sure to check it out.

A few weeks back I had the distinct pleasure of trying out the Oculus Rift VR headset at PAX Prime. It will stand out as one of the most distinctly mind-blowing and horizon expanding moments in my over 25 years of gaming. Not only that, but the demo I played through also encouraged me to finally try a free-to-play game that has been on my list for quite some time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Hawken.