How to Create a Massive PC Game Library for Free

Even if your budget is limited, you can still secure plenty of games for years to come—as long as you're patient and not too picky.

Content Witer : Zaid Qureshi Official

THE COvid-19 pandemic's lockdown and lingering effects, combined with this year's unexpected drop in the price of powerful PC graphics cards, resulted in an unexpected renaissance in computer gaming.

The most common argument against PC gaming is that it is cheaper and easier to deal with a video game console than it is to set up a powerful gaming rig. However, many console gamers who pay full price for new games may be unaware of a simple PC gaming fact: You can get a lot of the best PC games of recent years for free, with no strings attached, and reduce your system cost.

While the Xbox and PlayStation stores offer free games to subscribers each month, you must pay a fee to access and keep them. On the PC, you can get and keep free games from places like Epic Game Store, GOG.com, Steam, and even Amazon if you have a Prime subscription.

Building up your PC game library takes time and effort. Epic, for example, provides two or three free games per week, but only for a limited time. The games are no longer free after that time period, but if you get them while they're still free, they're yours to keep forever. (Or whatever "forever" means in the age of digital licencing.) You just need to remember to return during that window to get the games you want, create a free account, and have their game launcher app installed.

It stands to reason that games given away for free should be the industry's dregs. However, this has not been the case with some of these services' games. I have 160 titles in my Epic Games library alone, the majority of which are freebies. Control, Alien: Isolation, Bioshock Infinite: The Complete Edition, Borderlands 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20th Anniversary, NBA 2K21, Inside, Star Wars: Squadrons, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, SUPERHOT, Just Cause 4, and XCOM 2 are among them.

That's enough high-quality gaming to keep me occupied for years to come, and I'm well aware that I'll never have time to play them all.

GOG.com's giveaways are typically posted on their homepage for a limited time and are added to your library. To obtain them, you do not need to download and instal an app launcher. Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition, Flashback, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and the classic Harlan Ellison game I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream are among the free games available from GOG.

Similarly, Amazon Prime Gaming has allowed Prime members to download and keep games like Football Manager 2022, Starcraft: Remastered, Maniac Mansion, Far Cry 4, and Madden NFL 22 this year. Some of those giveaways generate a code that must be redeemed on game services such as the EA app or the Ubisoft Store, where those titles may also be available for free for a limited time. Amazon also offers Prime subscribers some games that can be played free on its Luna streaming service, such as Dusk and Joggernauts, as well as codes to unlock skins and other content for Apex Legends, Deathloop, Roblox, and other popular games.

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Speaking of popular free-to-play games, there is a plethora of options, including Apex, Overwatch 2, Destiny 2, and the ever-popular Fortnite. Some MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, are still mostly free to play when you first start. You can play for free until Level 20 before hitting the paywall.

If you want to play a lot of new games but don't want to pay for them all, Microsoft's PC Game Pass starts at around $10 per month and allows you to cancel at any time. However, unlike Epic and Amazon's giveaways, you do not get to keep the games once your subscription expires. Halo Infinite Minecraft, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Back to the Future are some PC Game Pass titles.

If you want to break away from free and spend some money, The Humble Bundle storefront has a lot of great gaming bundles with money going to charity and prices set at pay-what-you-want. You can sometimes get a large collection of games, such as the Jackbox collection, for much less than the cost of the games individually.

Since 2003, Cheap Ass Gamer has led the charge in bargain gaming news and is a great resource for finding great deals on top titles. Keep an eye out for good deals in their discussion forum and on their homepage.

If you have patience, you can get some fantastic deals on PC games by waiting for Steam's multiple sales per year (its Winter Sale 2022 runs from December 22 to January 5, 2023) and Epic's Mega Sale, which is scheduled for May 2023. If you're willing to wait a while after a game's release, retailers such as Best Buy and GameStop may offer good deals on it. And, of course, those retailers accept trade-ins, so if you've hung up your game console for good, you can still get something.