Over on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, you can buy a digital copy of Lionhead Studios’ Fable 3 for free…for some reason. But in order to do so, there are some catches.

Firstly, you have to have a subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold. Second, you have to ignore the fact that the page says that the game costs $19.99. When you click purchase, you need to then click that you’re paying with Microsoft points. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you’ve got in your MS Points account balance—once you do that, the next thing you’ll see is something like the screen above, which then lists the game as free.

Confirm the purchase, and boom—you should be good to go. Now, I’m not near my Xbox 360 right now, so I can’t personally confirm that this will totally and definitively work, but the folks over at Joystiq and Eurogamer have confirmed it. So hopefully when I get back to Minneapolis in July, I’ll have a free game waiting to download. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to jump on this now before someone over at Microsoft realizes what’s going on. I assume that this is a mistake because, well, this isn’t really the kind of thing that happens on purpose.

Well? Anyone give it a try? Let us know if you can get that free game.

[Via Joystiq and Eurogamer]

The patch to correct traffic issues in EA and Maxis’s SimCity has gone live, says a post on EA’s forums. Here’s what Update 1.7 will get you:

• Traffic Improvements: Tuned traffic congestion and fixed some intersection traffic issues.
• Traffic improvements: Emergency Vehicles will drive in empty lanes to get around traffic at intersections.
• Traffic improvements: Emergency and Delivery vehicles get priority over regular traffic when leaving garage.
• All units and buildings can now be demolished using the bulldoze tool.
• Performance improvements for low spec systems.

Not only that, but a new server for Asia is on the way, set to be ready by next Tuesday. More servers equals more better.

That’s pretty cool, right? The game is, slowly but surely, receiving the improvements it needs to work correctly. Not only that, but the free games being offered to current SimCity owners are being distributed two days early. Earlier this week, Maxis said that the free “we’re sorry for botching SimCity’s launch” games would be available to download on March 22, but I just logged into Origin a little while ago and started downloading my free copy of Dead Space 3.

Remember, the offer’s good for anyone who registers a copy of SimCity by March 26, so if you want to get two games for the price of one, go ahead and buy your copy now. Hooray free-and-cheap games!

EA via Polygon

As EA and Maxis have been working out the server issues that have plagued SimCity since its launch a couple weeks ago, the companies promised a free Origin download as a reward for their patience. Today, they published a press release to explain what the deal is (along with a FAQ on their website), and what games are available as part of the promotion.

“Our SimCity Mayors are incredibly important to the team at Maxis,” says the press release. “We sincerely apologize for the difficulties at launch and hope to make it up to you with a free PC game download from Origin.”

Interestingly, anyone who registers a copy of SimCity by March 26 will have access to the free game—so, while this rewards frustrated fans who’ve had to endure the game’s problems, it also acts as a reward to spur more SimCity sales in the face of the PR nightmare the game’s launch has become. Very clever, EA…

The redemption portal to get the free games will go live on March 22, and you’ll have until March 30 to get your game. In the meantime, you can think about what you want by scoping out the list right here:

• Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
• Bejeweled 3
• Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
• Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
• Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
• Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
• Plants vs. Zombies
• SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

So, as you can see, Dead Space 3 is up there…which came out, like, last month. I didn’t get it, but I know I should…and, of course, despite the server problems, I’ve heard that SimCity’s actually pretty rad. So…yeah. I think this is going to happen for me. Not a bad deal at all.

What do you think? Does this deal make you feel a bit better about getting the SimCity shaft for a couple weeks?

While the server problems surrounding SimCity’s first week have now hit the mainstream media in outlets like The New York Times and Slate, many gamers are still supremely pissed off at not being able to get the full, functional experience that they thought they’d paid for. Maxis, the studio behind the game, and EA, its publisher, have been hit pretty hard with criticisms from customers and reviewers alike, but it seems as though there is some work being done to rectify the situation.

Case in point, today Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of Maxis, posted an update on EA’s page to explain what seems to have gone wrong:

“The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected.  More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it.  In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent.  It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically.  The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.

So we’re close to fixed, but not quite there.  I’m hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.”

In addition, EA and Maxis will be offering up a gift as a way of apologizing for the frustrations that have become pretty widely known by now:

“…to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio.  On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy.  But we feel bad about what happened.  We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.”

The details aren’t totally clear as of right now: will it be a voucher for any game in the EA portfolio? Will it be available for anyone who buys and activates the game between now and March 18? Or will it only be for gamers who were hit with server problems?

Regardless, it’s a decent enough olive branch from EA. What do you think? Assuming that the server issues are fixed after this weekend and you get your free download voucher, will that be enough for you to forgive the publisher for the botched launch? Or is this simply too little, too late?

Source: EA

A lot of people criticize Capcom for releasing countless revisions, remixes, and ultimate edition after ultimate edition of its games. The criticism is justified, too: with each Super Mega Ultra Street Fighter 2.6 that they release, they earn some more money from customers who want to make sure they’re using the latest and greatest version of the game. Over the years, this practice has evolved into something of a joke, and gamers are a lot less forgiving about it (that and making them pay for on-disc “DLC,” but that’s another story).

But this post proves that it’s not all about money for Capcom—it seems the company really does want to make sure gamers get the best versions of their games. The recently released, free, fan-made mash-up, Street Fighter X Mega Man, will soon have an update of its own, this one also free. Street Fighter X Mega Man Version 2 is on the way from the game’s creator, Zong Hui, and a small team of developers to help him get it done. The news comes by way of The Mega Man Network’s interview with Capcom’s Senior Community Manager Brett Elston:

“Given the tight dev window, we know there are a few rough edges left, even with a dozen people looking at this. To that end, we can say we’re working on a V2 that will release soon and hopefully address some of those known issues. It’s not adding content, but we’ve been reading responses and can ‘tighten up’ a few things before the end of the year.”

If you haven’t checked out the original version of the game, be sure to do so. It scored pretty well in our review, and, well, it’s totally free. Just don’t get too mad when the update comes out and you have to relearn the whole damn thing.

Mega Man Network via Polygon

Ask anyone who’s tried it: one of the year’s most exciting and engrossing games was Telltale’s The Walking Dead, a point-and-click style, episodic adventure title based on Robert Kirkman’s comic book of the same name. Today, it seems, the first of the five episodes is free on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, though it’s not clear for how long.

One thing that’s tricky about this: the first episode is listed as the “Full Game,” but the other four episodes are listed as “Add-Ons,” each of which costs 400 Microsoft Points. It’s only very slightly misleading, since it seems like the “full game” would be all five episodes. But it ain’t. Anyway.

The post on IGN that discovered the sudden and seemingly unpublicized giveaway theorizes that the episode will be free through the end of 2012, but it’s not clear one way or the other. Either way, if you haven’t yet had a chance to jump in on this, do yourself a favor and download it. It’s so super good.

IGN via Joystiq

The PlayStation Blog has some good Xmas news for all us PS Plus subscribers: a free game! Well, that’s not really anything too new, considering Sony likes to give away free games pretty consistently to the Plus membership. This time around, it’s Retro City Rampage, a relatively recent digital release that earned a respectable score when it came out in October.

In addition, Sony’s got a solid holiday sale happening right now too. Observe:

• Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty – $10.49 ($7.35 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Galaga Legions DX – $6.99 ($4.90 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Mortal Kombat – $20.99 ($14.70 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Duke Nukem Forever – $13.99 ($9.80 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Simpsons The Arcade Game – $6.99 ($4.90 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Vita – $12.49 ($8.74 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Mafia II – $13.99 ($9.80 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Killzone 3 Multiplayer – $10.49 ($7.35 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Unit 13 – $18.49 ($12.94 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Journey – $10.49 ($7.35 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Papo & Yo – $10.49 ($7.35 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Metal Gear Solid HD Collection PS3 – $24.49 ($17.14 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Metal Gear Solid :3 Snake Eater – HD Edition PS3 – $10.49 ($7.34 PS Plus Subscribers)
• Starhawk – $27.99 ($19.60 PS Plus Subscribers)

Pretty good stuff. If you’ve got some extra holiday cash you’ve got another place to spend it. For me, I’m gonna download that free game and give it a whirl a little later…

Via PS Blog

As if its headline grabbing Humble Bundle success weren’t enough, THQ has gone to the next level, flat-out giving away Steam codes to download a digital copy of Metro 2033. What’s the catch? Just like them on Facebook. That’s pretty easy.

The promotion’s a way to hype up the March 2013 release of Metro: Last Light, for sure. But still, given THQ’s financial problems over the last year, I’m not totally sure that straight-up giving away games is the best way to make money. Then again, over the last few weeks THQ’s been in the news, and not for losing money, waiting to file bankruptcy, or lawsuits. Instead, it’s “hey, free or cheap games!” So if nothing else, from a marketing standpoint, this is a good move.

So I’m going to download this game today. When will I play it? I have literally no idea. But it never hurts to have more free stuff just waiting around for a snowy day.

Thanks again for the tip, 6souls.

For me, one of the few games to make the purchase of an Xbox Kinect truly worth it was Happy Action Theater, the mini-game/tech-demo title developed by Double Fine and released early this year. Fortunately, it seems as though Double Fine will be making you slightly glad you own a Kinect pretty soon: HAT’s sequel, Kinect Party, is going to be released on Xbox LIVE next week. Not only that, but it’s going to be FREE! For a couple weeks!

The game will have a price tag once the calendar rolls over to 2013, so make sure you definitely take advantage of this deal when the game launches on December 18. I know I will.

Also, there’s dubstep. Watch the trailer.

Double Fine’s Kinect Party

The last few months have seen Sony going all out to reward their customers with free content. This could have something to do with the fact that buying their hardware is no bargain—even with the recently revised PS3 bundle for the holiday, which remains the most expensive current-gen console choice for the fall. That goes doubly true for the PlayStation Vita, which costs at least $270 in its least expensive console-plus-memory card configuration. As such, anytime I hear about a free game coming out for the system, I jump right on it.

Yesterday on the PlayStation Blog, they posted the news that on October 23, a Vita-exclusive microgame collection, called Frobisher Says!, will make its way to the PlayStation Store for the low-low-price of nothing. That’s awesome! Apparently it’s something like the Wario Ware series of games, prompting players to quickly participate in microgames. I’m all in favor of that, man. You could do a lot worse than imitating Nintendo, and between LittleBigPlanet Karting and PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale, Sony’s working that strategy hard.

Be sure to grab your copy on October 23, which just so happens to be next Tuesday. I know I will.

Via PlayStation Blog

DAMMIT SONY, STOP IT. Today on the PlayStation Blog, it’s been revealed that PlayStation Plus subscribers will have another two games to download and then never play: Outland and Bloodrayne Betrayal. I already have a hard drive choked with games I haven’t had the chance to try out, so I’m not sure when I’ll have time to get to these. But I’ll definitely download them.

Well, maybe not both of them. I already have Outland on the Xbox 360 (and I’ve actually played it!), but Bloodrayne is supposed to have some slick-ass graphics. Of course, the game didn’t get the best of scores…

I’ll also admit this: I finally got around to playing the first episode of the Walking Dead game (also free to PS Plus subscribers). Wowee. That thing is intense. I think I’ll have a hard time not buying the rest of the installments. Well done on that front, Sony.

Via PlayStation Blog

Yesterday on the PlayStation Blog, it was announced that August 7 will see yet another addition to PS Plus subscribers’ Instant Game Collections: the first two episodes to the hit Walking Dead from Telltale Games. Walking Dead has been getting pretty awesome reviews and performing really well sales-wise, and giving away the first two episodes is a great way to capture an even bigger audience down the road, especially now that the initial boom of sales has died down.

I’m pretty pleased with the deal, especially since just this weekend I was chatting with some friends of mine, and they raved about how great the series has been. Of course, part of the problem I have is the fact that my Instant Game Collection on the PS3 is swelling to epic size—and I’ve really only been able to play Pac-Man for five minutes. Curse you, abundance of free games. CURSE YOU.

The other day I went on a little tear about the fact that the PlayStation Vita costs too much and doesn’t have enough awesome games. Well, it turns out that Walmart feels similarly—according to a post on Destructoid, the big box retailer has got a deal going until tomorrow that gives one free game with the purchase of a Vita console. At between $30 and $40 a pop, getting a free game is actually pretty good—and some of the games they’ve got on offer are some of the better titles currently available.

The page for the deal is right here on Walmart’s website, and shoppers can pick one of eight games: MLB 12: The Show, ModNation Racers, WipeOut, Little Deviants, Reality Fighters, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Unit 13, and Hot Shots Golf. Sure, some of those are tried and true crapware, but some of the others are pretty great, especially for launch titles.

The deal, says Destructoid, ends tomorrow, so if you’ve been looking for a good time to grab a Vita for a decent price, now’s your chance. Sony has said there’s no price drop forthcoming, so you better get in on this while the gettin’s good.

Via Destructoid

While pretty much flying under the radar (har har) for most game fans, it seems as though Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn racked up an impressive number of downloads in its first day of release two weeks ago. According to a post on VG247, the unauthorized, totally fan-made game was downloaded a whopping 50,000 times in its first 24 hours, at one point crashing the game’s website.

Said game co-creator, the mysterious Tolwyn:

“Swarms of users rushed to download the game client at nineteen hundred hours. Our release was met with such extraordinary demand that our website was unavailable at first due to server flooding.”

If you’d like to give the game a shot FOR FREE, direct your webby browser right here. Enjoy.

Via VG247

Free game, you guys. Over on GoG, they’re GIVING AWAY Treasure Adventure Game. It’s free. And it’s available. Made by Robit Studios, the game is billed as a “modern take on 2D platforming classics.” How can you go wrong? You can’t. You can’t even TRY TO GO WRONG.

The giveaway, it seems, is to celebrate the fact that GoG has given away $12 million worth of free games throughout its existence. Not bad!

“From the day of our launch we’ve given away approximately 888 trillion 228 billion 596 million 940 thousand and 800 bytes of gaming on the GOG.com house, which, as you can easily calculate, is equal to more than 12 million dollars’ worth of games that we’ve handed out simply for love of our gamers.”

Here are some screenshots:

A post on Eurogamer informs me of something I didn’t know about: a free, fan-made Wing Commander sequel that’s being released this week. Called Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn, the game’s been 10 years in the making, and is neither endorsed nor being stopped by anyone at EA, series creator Chris Roberts, or the company that made the original games, Origin.

The game’s co-creator, Tolwyn, offered this explanation on the “officially unofficial” limbo in which the game was produced:

“We are not officially or unofficially sanctioned or endorsed by Chris Roberts, Origin, or EA. We are thankful to them for permitting us to make Saga—as manifested by them taking no action to shut us down but allowing us to develop it, just as they have done with other projects like Standoff and Privateer: Gemini Gold—but they have in no way, shape, or form sanctioned our project, nor have they done anything to make it official. They have not contacted us and we have not discussed it with them. Once again, we are thankful that they are permitting us to do this, but no endorsement of Saga by these entities should be implied from that fact.”

The game’s set to release on March 22, and will feature 55 brand-new missions and 11,000 lines of dialogue, as the above trailer boasts. I’m intrigued—the original Wing Commander titles were some of the first “serious” video games that got me kind of hooked. And they’re why I secretly hope for an alien invasion, so we can capture one of the ships and reverse engineer it, and start a space navy, so I can join and fly a starfighter. I’d also probably get killed in my first mission, because I’m kind of a spazz, but we don’t need to go into that right now.

Check out the game’s official website right here.

Via Eurogamer

A post over on the PlayStation Blog reveals that Toyota’s Scion brand of cars is sponsoring a free download of the full MotorStorm RC Driving game for the PlayStation Vita tomorrow. In addition, Vita gamers will be able to drive an RC version of the Scion iQ, which, the post says, is exclusive to that version of the game.

A post on Joystiq takes things a step further, claiming that downloading the Vita version will also unlock the PS3 version as well. But the PlayStation blog post makes no mention of this—so I guess we’ll see tomorrow afternoon (Pacific) when the offer goes live. It’s going to be free for only a limited time, so be sure to take advantage while it’s there. Even if the game stinks, I mean…it’s free. So let’s all of us check it out then, shall we?

Here’s a little production trailer from the PlayStation Blog to whet your RC racing appetite:

Via PlayStation Blog

I know I just posted stuff for Free Stuff Friday a few minutes ago—but here’s some more free stuff that goes beyond the confines of JUST FRIDAY.

A post on Eurogamer reveals that if you buy and register two Nintendo 3DS games from a certain list of titles, you’ll get a downloadable copy of the 3D Classics version of Kid Icarus when it launches on January 5.

In addition, everyone who does so will also be entered to win one of 3,000 limited edition 3DS systems with Mario, Peach, or Toad designs. The window in which you have to register is until January 31, and covers games registered from November 1 and onward.

At this point, you might be thinking, “well, I be they’re all shitty games.” You’d be wrong, though, dickdog. Here’s the list now:

• Resident Evil: Revelations
• Mario Kart 7        
• Super Pokémon Rumble
• Super Mario 3D Land
• Tetris
• Star Fox 64 3D      
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
• Dead or Alive Dimensions
• Steel Diver
• nintendogs + cats
• Pilotwings Resort
• Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition

I can safely say that there are two extremely solid titles in that list: Mario Kart 7 (which I’m in the midst of playing for my own forthcoming review) and Super Mario 3D Land, which, by all accounts, is absolutely awesome.

The only issue with this whole story, of course, is that the Eurogamer post doesn’t have much in the way of a source listed…and I can’t seem to find confirmation of it on Club Nintendo’s website. But if you own a 3DS, you should probably buy a couple of the above titles anyway. I mean, what else are you gonna do with the thing? Give it a shot—you may just get your Icarus-on in January.

Via Eurogamer

If you don’t have anything to do for the next hundred years, check out the Pirate Kart, which includes a shit-ton (that’s pirate speak) of free indie games. That’s 1.4 gigs of free games, all for you.

Of course, there are some downsides. Those of you on Mac or Linux can’t jump in all this free gaming… but at least you Linux folks still saved money on your operating system. There’s no hope for you Mac folks though.

Also the huge compilation is plundering Mike “ExciteMike” Meyer’s bandwidth, as by the website’s tally, serving up downloads of the pack has already cost him $2,750.52 in bandwidth. Because of this, you should kick the guy a few bucks if you decide to download the pack, or at least use the torrent rather than the direct download.

Curious about where the name came from? It’s totally a reference to those shitty old game compilations that promised you 100 games on one disc / cassette, though half of them were demos or slight permutations on the same game. That might be the case here as well, but hey, it’s FREE ok?

Every time I see some cool stuff for free, I try to make sure you know about it. And if it happens on Friday, so much the better.

Well, sadly, I didn’t see too much in the way of no-cost goodness, I do have a little bit from the folks at Steam.

First up is your free-ness: if you’re one of the three people alive reading this who hasn’t yet played Portal, you now officially have no excuse. As part of an initiative to promote the educational potential of video games, Steam is giving away copies of Portal for PC and Mac until September 20. Just direct your browser to learnwithportals.com.

“Today, innovative educators are finding ways to incorporate Portal and Portal 2 into their classrooms—helping teach physics and critical-thinking skills. It’s eye-opening to see how video games can be used in amazing and unexpected ways to help educate our next generation.”

As a former teacher myself, this has me totally juiced. I’ve got half a mind to send this link to my science teacher friend at the school I used to teach at. Half the kids there already play Portal because they think it’s fun—it’d be fantastic to see how they’d react if the students actually found a way to LEARN from this.

Of course, learning is not a requirement of downloading—that’s right, you can remain a stupid ignoramus if you wish. I won’t judge. You dummy.

But Steam hasn’t stopped there: until Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific, to celebrate the release of the Star Wars flicks on Blu-ray, they’re holding a 50 percent off sale on a ton of Star Wars titles, including Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic (basically the precursor to the Mass Effect franchise), Battlefront II, Republic Commando, and Empire at War: Gold Pack—each of which are five bucks, except for Empire at War, which is ten.

But. Wait. The Star Wars Collection, which contains all of the above games, plus nine more games in the Star Wars franchise, is also on-sale for half-off. That means the collection, which is typically a cool hundred bucks is only fifty. Not free, but not bad at all.

To celebrate, I’ll throw in a FREE JOKE:

Q: How did Darth Vader know what Luke got him for Christmas?

A: He felt his presents.

You’re welcome.