Three free games from EPIC Games Store!


 

It’s free games time again! 

Honestly, it’s free games time all the time if you do a little searching – and take advantage of services you might already be paying for like Amazon Prime that include gaming assets and full games. (Seriously, check out gaming.amazon.com if you have a Prime account and get your free games.)

This week, though, we’re looking at the Epic Games Store again. Instead of the typical one or two free games, beginning Thursday, Epic will feature three free games to claim and download. There are no catches. No hidden costs. Just create an Epic Games account – you can even log in with your already existing PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, or social media accounts – and download the games. They are yours to keep forever.

The first is the complete collection of the Deponia series. The adventure comedy, with plenty of puzzle elements, is rated M for Mature gamers age 17 and up. So, despite the cartoon like visuals, this isn’t a freebie you want to let the kids run off and play. 

In this dystopian future fantasy the protagonist, Rufus, is trying desperately to escape the garbage dump planet of Deponia. When he accidentally knocks the beautiful Goal, from the floating city of Elysium, off her cruiser to the trash-planet below, he develops a new plan. Get her back to her home, and away from Deponia in the process. Over the course of three games – Deponia, Chaos on Deponia, and Goodbye, Deponia – Rufus and Goal work to escape danger and find their way back to the floating city. 

A cult classic almost out of the gate, Deponia the Complete Journey is worth your time if you have a well-developed and sophisticated, yet still sophomoric, sense of humor. It isn’t going to be for everyone, especially young gamers, but it’s a lot of fun. 

If you’re looking for an adult, fantasy adventure/puzzler without the irreverent humor, the second offering this week is Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth. Based on the novel of the same name, the game lets you experience the story of one small, 12th century English town’s attempt to construct a cathedral to grow the wealth, and ensure the safety, of her people. Fans of the book series will get to play as the characters they know from the story, but can also change the narrative from the book based on their decisions. You don’t have to know the book to enjoy the game, however. It’s completely self contained and accessible to those with no background knowledge of the game. Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth is also rated M for Mature, for sexual themes, blood, and violence. 

Epic’s final offering for the coming week is The First Tree. The exploratory game features light puzzle solving and platforming elements as you jump between two parallel stories – a fox searching for her missing family and a son attempting to reconnect with his estranged father in rural Alaska. Along the way you’ll uncover “artifacts from the son’s life as they journey towards The First Tree,” a source of life and – just maybe – an understanding of the role death must play in it. 

The game is aimed at fans of exploratory games like Journey and Firewatch. It’s also either unrated or rated E for everyone, depending on the source, and with no enemies it may be appropriate for younger gamers with proper supervision. I’ve not completed the game yet, but there are reportedly some references to alcohol and tobacco use, references to violence (though, as noted, no combat in the game), and some mild language. Be advised that while the content may be mild compared to the violence of some other video games, the subject matter is deep and might lead to questions young children aren’t prepared to confront yet. As always, look into the game content yourself before you let your children loose with it. 

Another positive of all three games this week are the light system requirements. All three will run on systems as old as Windows 7, with very light CPU and memory requirements. Low requirements doesn’t mean bad games, though. If you’re looking for something new and engaging, all three have fantastic reviews. While Deponia is the only series I’ve spent any significant amount of time playing personally, I’m anxious for the opportunity to dive into the other two once the unlock on Thursday. 

And, if you jump on today, it isn’t too late to grab Season 2 of 3 out of 10, the single player comedy adventure game series set in a modern game studio. Don’t worry about not having played Season 1 either. That’s also still available for free by clicking the “View More” button on the “Free Games” section and scrolling through the offerings. 

Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com

 (Originally published online at Carter County Times https://cartercountytimes.com/features/late-to-the-games-free-game-day/)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Haunted Lake House in Carter County, KY

Image
  Is Bit o’ Time Vintage Lake Retreat Haunted? Paranormal group says yes, but others caution vigilance and respect By Jeremy D. Wells Carter County Times Photo by Jeremy D. Wells, Carter County Times Is the Bit O’ Time Vintage Lake Retreat, near the Clifty Creek area of Grayson Lake, a haunted house? The owner of the property, who lived there for years before renting the space out as a vacation and retreat rental, says she never had any definitive experiences during her time living there. But several guests have reported hearing strange sounds – and even seeing apparitions – while staying at the property. One of those apparitions is a lady in white, sometimes accompanied by a smell of mold, who has appeared not only at the Retreat, but at a neighboring property. I’d heard some of this already before coming to the property to meet with the folks from Blue Collar Paranormal. The ghost hunting group had set up a booth at Memory Days where they met the owner of the property. From there the
Read more

Going Beyond the Trail with Aleksandar Petakov

Image
  The Small Town Monsters (STM) films are among my favorite cryptid and folklore documentaries. Over the years director/producer Seth Breedlove and crew have looked at everything from the Bell Witch to UFOs, and Mothman to Bigfoot. But it’s that last one that got STM started. Breelove’s first three films, Minerva Monster , Beast of Whitehall , and Boggy Creek Monster , all focused on this particular cryptid.  While STM has branched out since then, they’ve come back to Bigfoot type creatures again, with MOMO: The Missouri Monster and their On the Trail Of…Bigfoot mini series.  It’s one they’ll be coming back to again with two new feature films in the On the Trail Of… series, On the Trail Of Bigfoot The Journey , and On the Trail Of Bigfoot The Discovery as the year progresses.  While we have to wait to see what those new films will bring us, those jonesing for some STM Bigfoot content prior to the full public release of The Journey this June (Kickstarter backers alread
Read more

Getting Personal with Bigfoot

Image
From the opening moments of On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey , you get the feeling it’s going to be a little different than the other Small Town Monsters productions.  Over the last several years, Small Town Monsters (STM) have released a number of films, on a variety of subjects from Bigfoot to Mothman to Dogmen and the weirdest of the weird in classic UFO sightings. But it all started with a trilogy of Bigfoot documentaries. Director/Producer Seth Breedlove and his crew have stayed busy since then, pumping out several films a year with the production value and content steadily improving.  But Whitehall, New York, and its Bigfoot sightings, the subject of Breedlove’s second film, the 2016 release Beast of Whitehall , has never really let go of the filmmaker. In his newest release, On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey , Breedlove returns to those upstate New York woodlands to explore the history and depth of reports from this region. Along the way he examines his o
Read more