You love video games, but you’re not made of money. Lucky for you, game studios and subscription services offer a handful of free titles every month. Don’t miss out. Here’s what you can download in December.
Bugsnax (Image courtesy of Young Horses) Everyone loves free games. Steam has a hefty collection of them, but some places offer titles for only a limited amount of time. Epic Games gives away multiple games a week. Amazon’s Prime Gaming subscription service has new titles each month. But if you’re not paying attention, you’ll lose out on a PC game you could have kept forever. In an effort to help gamers know what’s out there to claim, we’ll be tracking the best free games available in a given month. While some titles are free outright, others are included as part of a subscription service. Here’s everything you can grab this month. Best Free Bethesda Games Bethesda doesn’t give away free games regularly, but the company has been known to offer them for special events and promotions. To claim your game from Bethesda, you’ll have to sign up for a Bethesda.net account and download the official Bethesda launcher. It’s not a particularly well-liked application, but if you want the free game, you’ll have to deal with it. Just open the launcher and make sure you’re signed in, then claim your game. Outside of the rare giveaway, Bethesda actually has two free games you can download at any time. The Elder Scrolls: Arena Arena, the first installment of the Elder Scrolls series, has been available for free since 2004; get it from the Bethesda website. In Arena, you are a servant of the emperor who becomes imprisoned when the court battlemage betrays the empire and takes the throne for himself. The game combines designed spaces with procedurally generated areas to create a vast, explorable game far bigger than what was usually possible back in the ’90s. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is the second game in the series and has been available to play for free since 2009. You are an agent of the emperor who is charged with putting a ghost to rest and ensuring a powerful golem doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Like Arena, Daggerfall features thousands of towns and dungeons to explore, as well as guilds to join, which offer their own questlines. Best Free Blizzard Battle.net Games Blizzard Entertainment has a small collection of popular franchises, including Diablo, Overwatch, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft, which can all be played through the Battle.net gaming platform. Since most of these games are free-to-play, they can be downloaded from Blizzard at any time. However, if you scroll down to Classic Games, there are several titles that were previously paid but are now available for free. Click the title you wish to download, and choose the appropriate operating system. The game will then automatically begin downloading. How complicated the setup is will be determined by the game you choose to play. Some require you to connect with Battle.net and set up an account with Blizzard, while others may simply download to your computer and play locally. Here are the classic Blizzard games you can now play for free:BlackthorneThe Lost VikingsRock N’ Roll RacingStarCraft Anthology (StarCraft + Brood War)Warcraft III: The Frozen ThroneWarcraft III: Reign of ChaosBest Free Epic Games Store Games Epic Games gives away free titles every week; no need for a subscription. Head over to the Epic Games Store website or open the launcher, scroll down to the Free Games section, and hit the blue Free Now banner on the title you want. Then, go through the process as if you were purchasing the game. You won’t be charged, and the game will appear in your games library on the Epic Games launcher. MudRunner (Until Dec.3) Go off-roading with this all-terrain simulator, where you are tasked with driving vehicles through the wilderness without any means of navigation. You must transport your delivery to its destination without depleting fuel or damaging the vehicle. MudRunner has single-player, challenge, and multiplayer modes, each with unique objectives. Cave Story+ (Dec.3-10) The indie classic Cave Story+ focuses on the amnesiac robot Quote, who must make his way through a cave to learn his backstory and escape. In this Metroidvania, you gain new abilities, solve puzzles, and talk with other characters in order to advance to unexplored areas. Sludge Life (Until May 28, 2021) This third-person 3D platformer with retro CRT graphics is really just a vandalism simulator in disguise. Sludge Life is short and sweet, allowing you to explore the game’s surreal world, meet a cast of crass characters, and tag areas with graffiti. Devolver Digital has made the game free to keep for the next year. Rocket League (Now Free) Rocket League combines high-speed racing with competitive sports gameplay as you play soccer with racecars. And starting on Sept.23, the game moved exclusively to the Epic Game Store and became free-to-play for anyone who wants it. We previously named it an Editors’ Choice, praising the fantastic concept and over-the-top fun while maintaining enough nuance to be a high competitive esports title. We consider it to be one of the best PC sports games available, and now you can get it for free. Best Free GOG Games GOG doesn’t have regular giveaways like some other websites do, but there is a small collection of free games, which mainly comprises classic computer games. Titles like Shadow Warrior Classic Complete and Postal: Classic and Uncut, which you would have to pay for on Steam, are free on GOG. Other classics, like Ultima 4 (1985) and Akalabeth: World of Doom (1979), are not available anywhere else. Akalabeth: World of Doom (1979)Ascendant (2014)Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)Bio Menace (1993)Cayne (2017)Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure (2020)Doomdark’s Revenge (2014)Eschalon: Book I (2006)Flight of the Amazon Queen (1995)Jill of the Jungle: The Complete Trilogy (1991)The Lords of Midnight (2013)Lure of the Temptress (1992)Postal: Classic and Uncut (2003)Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves (2013)Shadow Warrior Classic Complete (1997)Stargunner (1996)Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius (2014)Teenagent (1994)Treasure Adventure Game (2011)Tyrian 2000 (1999)Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar (1985)Ultima World of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991)Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (1990)War Wind (1996)Children of Morta (While Supplies Last) This giveaway is a little different because it requires you to make a purchase, but at least you can get a free game out of it. GOG and Visa are teaming up to give away 53,000 codes for the action RPG Children of Morta. Get the game by signing up at the giveaway page, then making a $25 payment using a Visa card. Save the card to your account for future purchases, and you will get your free copy of this roguelike tale of the Bergson family’s journey to free Mount Morta of the evil Corruption. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition GOG allows you to score a free copy of the first Witcher game if you download the GOG Galaxy desktop client, then download and install the free-to-play Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Now, if you subscribe to the GOG newsletter, you can get the game for free. Click Subscribe & Claim on the offer page, then add The Witcher: Enhanced Edition to your cart. The game should be reduced to $0.00, and all you have to do is check out. If the website doesn’t allow you to check out, reload the page a few times until the checkout button is clickable. Best Free Itch.io Games Tired of big blockbusters? Itch.io is a digital game store dedicated to indie titles you won’t find anywhere else. Check out the sales page for free titles. Other games will set you back a few bucks; pay up or fork over a little more if you’re feeling generous. You can then download the game or claim it to connect it with your Steam account. Brute (Until Dec.30) Typically $6.99 on Steam, Brute is free on Itch.
