arabdubai

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 and the 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 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 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 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 , 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 [[link]] discovered this new, free 1v1 shooter and everyone started challenging each other to deathmatches. It's so good we said that . You can pick up 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 .

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

GOG's winter surprises

GOG's got some presents for us. Through December 31, you'll find new gifts to unwrap in its (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 .

You can also check out GOG's more permanent —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 ), 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 last month, but this free-to-play "MOBA battle royale meets hero shooter" might've slipped under your radar while 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 , but I remember feeling conflicted about it. Clearly, it stuck with me.

SkiFree

Gather the kids around and show them what a real PC [[link]] gaming classic looks like. If you're unfamiliar, we a few years ago, and you can download it .

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 [[link]] band called "On-lyne." Fraser's , and Warframe is as always.