Gaming can be a notoriously expensive hobby if you indulge the impulse to play all the latest and greatest games. It doesn’t have to be, though! These days there is a wide range of new betas, demos, and free game trials available every week. If you are looking for something new to play but don’t want to commit, we have a list of the best demos, betas, and free games that you can try out this weekend.
Fallout 4 has been out for well over two years, but if you haven’t had a chance to try it out, you’ll be able to do so for free this weekend on Xbox One. The game will be free to play for Xbox Live Gold subscribers until Sunday, January 28. During the free weekend, all Fallout 4 content is discounted. The full game is 33 percent off ($20), and the Game of the Year Edition, which includes the game and all its DLC, is 40 percent off ($36). The season pass is also available for half-price ($25). Any progress you make will be saved should you choose to purchase the full game.
If you’d prefer to play the game on PC, don’t fret: You’ll be getting your own free weekend, beginning Thursday, February 1.
Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent helped to usher in a new wave of horror games with an emphasis on atmosphere rather than action, and if you haven’t played it yet, it’s absolutely free through the Humble store until Saturday, January 27 at 1 p.m. ET. The offer also includes the sequel Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, developed by The Chinese Room, and it’s playable on PC, Mac, and Linux. The games only require 2GB of RAM and an Intel Core i3 processor, so you should have no trouble running them, even with a dated PC.
A new month brings new games to Xbox Live’s subscription program. Three games are available this weekend for Xbox Live Games With Gold.
Xbox One owners can currently download The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III, which released alongside its Games With Gold debut this month. Ubisoft’s Zombi — a port of the Wii U game ZombiU — is also available until February 15.
Until the end of the month, Xbox 360 owners can grab the original Army of Two. The cooperative third-person shooter is, like all Xbox 360 games released through the program, backward compatible on Xbox One.
January’s free PlayStation Plus games are also here, including six games across three Sony platforms and a competitive PlayStation VR title.
PlayStation 4 owners are in for a treat this month, getting free access to Deux Ex: Mankind Divided. The immersive sim is a sequel to the sleeper hit Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and uses a “play as you want” model, which option available for stealth, action, or just talking your way out of a conflict.
The first season of Telltale’s Batman is also free for PlayStation 4 owners, meaning those who own an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will have access to two free Telltale games this month. It uses the same choice-based story structure of other Telltale games, with a decidedly different tone than that of the Arkham series.
PlayStation 3 owners have access to the role-playing game Sacred 3 throughout January, as well as The Book of Unwritten Tales 2. Vita owners get the PS4 cross-buy games Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness as well as the retro-inspired survival-horror game Uncanny Valley, which doesn’t ever actually go into the titular valley.
Lastly, PlayStation VR owners can pick up the competitive aerial shooter Starblood Arena. While the game was criticized at launch for being too shallow, its influx of players this month should make it easy to find a multiplayer match.
See more Free PlayStation Plus games
Update: Updated with Fallout 4 free weekend and The Amnesia Collection Humble offer.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.