Epic's weekly free games are now part of the daily routine, but this week's gift deserves a little extra attention: the Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (opens in new tab). This is Bethesda's first foray into the famous post-nuclear war world of first-person games.

Fallout 3 is 14 years old now, and it shows. We said in our 2015 retrospective article (opens in new tab) that "technically, it hasn't aged very well," but that was seven years ago. The world, we wrote, "is marred by filthy low-resolution textures, and the character models are hideous," adding that even the new one from 2008 "didn't look that great.

Still, a lot has been improved, enough to make it our favorite "Fallout" game since "Interplay." For my money (and aside from the pointlessness of the "Find Your Dad" main quest), it captures the feeling of wandering through a desolate wasteland far better than any subsequent game; a look back at "Fallout 3" in 2015 captures why very well:

" The Capital Wasteland remains a wonderfully evocative place. The gray overcast skies and shattered landscape create a curiously beautiful post-apocalypse. There's a lot of empty space - it's a wasteland, after all - but Bethesda has sprinkled in enough interesting things that it doesn't feel barren."

Incidentally, the Game of the Year Edition includes all five add-on packs released for Fallout 3: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and Mothership Zeta". This is all you need to enjoy Fallout in one package.

Of course, you may feel differently about how "Fallout" games are ranked, and that's fine. The giveaway coincides with the 25th anniversary of the original Fallout, and Bethesda is offering Fallout (open in new tab), Fallout 2 (open in new tab), and Fallout Tactics (open in new tab) on the Epic Store for $2.50 each. The company is celebrating Fallout's 25th anniversary in a variety of ways, including selling them for $2.50 each.

Fallout 3 is not the only game being given away this week, although it might seem that way given that I raved about Fallout 3. You can also get the Evoland Legendary Edition (opens in a new tab), a "journey through the history of action/adventure games". The Legendary Edition is actually a bundle that includes Evoland: the Legendary Edition includes Evoland: A Short Story of Adventure Video Games Evolution and Evoland II: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder. Both are very well done.

"Fallout 3" and "Evoland Legendary Edition" are available for free download at the Epic Games Store until 8 a.m. EDT / 11 a.m. EST on October 27, 2018, going back to December 2018, when Epic distributed For a list of all games, see the regularly updated list of free games on the Epic Games Store (opens in a new tab).