Christmas came early! Fallout 3: GOTY Edition is free TODAY ONLY, and you can keep the RPG classic forever

What you need to know

• The GOTY Edition of Fallout 3 that includes all five of the game’s DLC expansions is available for free right now on the Epic Games Store, and once you claim it, you’ll get to keep it forever.
• This offer is only available until December 24, 2023 at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET, so make sure you take advantage of it today before it goes off the table.
• Fallout 3 was Bethesda’s first Fallout game, and is also widely regarded as one of its best RPGs. Even today, 15 years later, it remains a fan-favorite.
• Codes for the Steam version of the game are also heavily discounted right now, and you can play it on Xbox through Xbox Game Pass.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and piles of presents were nestled under the tree. Yet all your heart yearned for was a copy of Fallout 3. With great sadness, you realized to get it would cost a fee. Yet, there was no reason to fret, my dear friend — the Epic Games Store offered it for free!

…or something. It’s actually December 23, so it’s not quite the night before Christmas yet, but you get the point: the ultimate Game of the Year edition of Fallout 3 that includes all five of its DLC expansions is being offered for free right now on the Epic Games Store, and once you claim it, you’ll get to keep the fan-favorite RPG forever. This offer is only available until December 24, 2023 at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET, though, so make sure you take advantage of it today before it comes off the table.

Released back in 2008, Fallout 3 was the first game in the franchise that developer Bethesda put together after acquiring the post-apocalyptic RPG series from Interplay Entertainment in 2007. It’s also notable for being the first Fallout game in a 3D space; previous titles had an isometric 2D perspective.

Set in 2277 — 36 years after the events of Fallout 2, and 200 after nuclear war devastated the world — Fallout 3 takes place in what used to be parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. that are now known as the “Capital Wasteland.” The player takes control of a young adult who’s spent their entire life in a specialized underground bunker known as Vault 101, though after their father mysteriously leaves the Vault and heads to the outside wasteland, they too venture out to look for him.

During your journey as “The Lone Wanderer,” you’ll come across countless different settlements and factions in the open world, and will be able to interact with them in a number of different ways. Quests also have plenty of varied outcomes depending on choices you make and actions you take, and attentive players will also be able to find tons of unique weapons, armors, and pieces of fascinating lore that flesh out the Capital Wasteland. Additionally, as you level, you’ll be able to rank up different skills that improve how effective you are at persuasion, healing, sneaking around undetected, and pretty much everything else you can do.

It may be over 15 years old now (goodness, time flies), but Fallout 3 still stands tall as one of Bethesda’s best RPG titles, and also one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of the genre. Honestly, dated graphics aside, I’d even say it’s a better game than Starfield — and right now, you can get it for free and keep it forever. Why not pick it up?

If you’re not a fan of the Epic Games Store and would prefer to own Fallout 3 on Steam, you can currently get a Steam code for the base game for just $2.13 on GreenManGaming thanks to its Winter Sale, with the GOTY Edition only a few dollars more at $5.61. You can also get a copy of the GOTY Edition on Xbox for a few dollars off on Amazon right now. Additionally, on both Xbox and PC, Fallout 3 is playable through Xbox Game Pass, though annoyingly, only the PC version includes the game’s DLC.