Free games to grab over the holidays
It's a time for gift giving, which must also mean it's a time for gift receiving. That's not the part we're supposed to cherish, but I won't tell on you if you do a little cherishing. Getting free stuff is nice, and there's always more free stuff to claim from PC gaming's various stores this time of year.
Below, I've collected some of our top free game recommendations right now—plus a few odds and ends I personally recommend—but also check out our bigger lists of the best free games on Steam and the best free PC games in general.
Epic's free games
Even if it's just their way of luring non-Fortnite players into the Epic ecosystem, it's hard to complain about being handed a free game on the Epic Games Store every month. And during the holidays, Epic gives away a new free game every day.
So far it's given away Vampire Survivors and Astrea: Six Sided Oracles, and there'll be new games every day through January 1. Check our Epic Games Store free games tracker to see what can be claimed and what's already been given away.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred (free trial ends January 3)
You can try out Diablo 4's new Spiritborn class for free on Battle.net through January 3. We liked Diablo 4 well enough when it launched, and it's only gotten better as Blizzard's plugged away at updates and balance changes. Tyler Colp was a big fan of the Vessel of Hatred expansion, which he reviewed in October. If your ARPG time isn't being dominated by Path of Exile 2, it's worth giving Diablo 4 a shot.
Straftat
PC Gamer's productivity briefly skidded to a halt in October when we discovered this new, free 1v1 shooter and everyone started challenging each other to deathmatches. It's so good we said that it feels unfair that it's free. You can pick up Straftat on Steam.
100 Christmas Cats
One of dozens of free hidden object games in the "100 Cats" series on Steam, this is a game where you look for cats. When you find a cat, you click on it, and it meows violently, pops out of existence, and you get a Steam achievement. It is incredibly enjoyable. If the holidays stress you out, click on some cats. You'll feel better. Get it and the others on Steam.
GOG's winter surprises
GOG's got some presents for us. Through December 31, you'll find new gifts to unwrap in its Winter Sale Calendar (scroll down to find it). They mostly aren't games—I have just downloaded some nice seasonal wallpapers—but at the time of writing, you can get Chicken Assassin: Reloaded for $0, though the giveaway ends soon. To just see if a game giveaway is available, head to www.gog.com/en/#giveaway.
You can also check out GOG's more permanent free games collection—there are some great classics on it. (Some are on Steam, too, if you prefer.)
Virtual Interactive Fireplace
Alright, this isn't really a game, but if you've got your PC hooked up to a TV (or can stream to it with Remote Play), Virtual Interactive Fireplace is a nice alternative to whatever looping yule log videos Netflix or your local public TV station's got on offer this year. I love that you have to start the fire by striking a match and tossing crumpled up paper onto the logs—I could just about smell the sulfur.
Supervive
It's been pretty popular since it released in early access on Steam last month, but this free-to-play "MOBA battle royale meets hero shooter" might've slipped under your radar while Marvel Rivals hogged the F2P attention. We were impressed with the genre mashup when we previewed it earlier this year; if you're looking for a new team game to get the Discord crew to try, it's a good candidate.
Betrayer
This odd 2014 horror shooter was delisted on Steam and is no longer available there for some reason, but it reappeared on GOG for free. Grab it! It's not the most festive game, I admit, and I didn't give it a particularly high score when I reviewed it a decade ago, but I remember feeling conflicted about it. Clearly, it stuck with me.
SkiFree
Gather the kids around and show them what a real PC gaming classic looks like. If you're unfamiliar, we wrote all about SkiFree a few years ago, and you can download it from creator Chris Pirih's website.
Warframe 1999
Warframe's been around for ages, of course, but its latest update is "bonkers," as Fraser put it. As a little taste of what to expect from the free-to-play shooter's new story, it features an alt-history '90s boy band called "On-lyne." Fraser's got more details here, and Warframe is available on Steam as always.