Originally published at: Where to get free games - Boing Boing
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A disappointing list, as everything but the Epic games requires a subscription.
After seeing the post in the video game thread about Fallout on Epic, I was considering making a free games thread. Is it possible to make this one not expire in 5 days?
ETA:
This just showed up in my Steam Discovery queue, and I snagged it based on the strength of the one sentence description and the first slide showing someone headbutting a moose.
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I am so hesitant to buy any games anymore, because I have such a ginormous heap of them already – and every time I’m tempted to add to the pile, I need to ask myself, “What if this ends up as a free giveaway on Epic after I purchase it and before I get around to playing it?” And then I don’t buy it.
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Who gets that many games?
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It’s been a while since I created a new thread, but last time I did it only expired a month after the last comment.
I made a game key exchange thread once, but I think I over-obfuscated the keys in an attempt to stop bots from stealing them before anyone could get them.
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Maybe a thread with “DM me for key”, delete / strikethrough when it’s gone? That way no bots. Does put a bit more work on the poster though.
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That makes sense.
Some time limited free game offers on Steam
Drawful 2 - Expires on 28 August at 17:00 UTC
Distant Space - Expires on 24 August at 17:00 UTC
Welcome to Steam
Weapon of Choice DX - Expires on 22 September at 19:00 UTC
https://steamdb.info/ is your friend
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Free games, some of them on console. some ROMs available or emulation in browser. Some just retro games that are inspired by the original consoles.
Game Boy. Top free games tagged Game Boy - itch.io
NES. Top free games tagged NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) - itch.io and Top free games tagged NES ROM - itch.io
… you get the idea.
There are some non-free ones, some of them quite inexpensive. DRM Free is the norm on that site. Lots of weird indie stuff. Lots of table top RPG zines and books too. (I like Troika a lot, Ultraviolet Grasslands is cool too)
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Epic is such a huge source of free, often AAA, PC games right now, and I’m really not sure how much longer they’ll keep it up - I didn’t expect it to last this long. But they’re trying to set up a viable game distribution platform, and in competing with Steam, the 1000 pound gorilla of the space, some extreme strategies are required, such as regularly giving away free games until people have enough of a catalog that they’re attached to the platform enough to be willing to start spending money on it.
Besides Epic, there are regular, but more unpredictable game giveaways on Steam, GOG, Itch.io and, in the past, Origin and Uplay, none of which require subscriptions. But you have to check them regularly (or, better, have a game site that’s on top of giveaways).
Yeah, I’m at that point, too. (There are particular games that I’ve had on my wishlist for a while, they get down to a couple bucks, and I don’t pick them up, because they’re exactly the type of game I expect to show up as an Epic free game.) Even before Epic started its game giveaways, I was still collecting free games faster than I was playing them, and with my backlog I was buying games, then seeing them being given away, before I had a chance to play them.
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Yes. The default is ‘automatically closed three months after the last post’, but you can tweak that in the settings (click wrench icon):
I’m not sure whether you can reopen a thread you’ve created yourself, but one of the leaders can if the need arises.
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I drive by
https://isthereanydeal.com/giveaways/
every couple of days to see if anything new and interesting is listed
+1 for SteamDB.
You can search for special offers that are free directly on Steam, which gets these same 3 games.
Or you can search for free games on Steam which gives about 12k results. Ordered by reviews and filtered by genre, that should yield some results for everyone.
Of course, that is only a tiny fraction of the 993,949 free games currently available at itch.io, and I guess most of what is available for free on Steam is also on itch.io.
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Yeah, kind of annoying that a pinball game I have from Epic needs to hit a server to get going. Serious Games is a thread on arXiv tho! On the other hand I despair of ever knowing knowing what ‘active recall’ is or grabbing an MD from breaking in a nicer joycon. If only I had plumbed Google Cardboard adequately! Or you know, the (Meta) Quest 3 homebrew community.
Turns out you can use DekuDeals for finding free games for the Switch - 110 results is nit too many though.
Caveat: some might require purchase of a DLC for the full experience.
Free games
Lists a bunch of paid subscriptions
Top quality journalism, good god.
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Tropico 4 is free at GoG for the next couple of days.
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