Todd Howard recently said that he wanted people to experience Fallout 1 and 2 as is, rather than remakes. Well, that should make things easier: both games are currently available to keep for free as part of the Fallout Classic Collection on the Epic Games Store.
Fallout Tactics is also free, but I don't know if Todd is cruel enough to want people to experience it for what it is.
You can head over to the Fallout Classic Collection store page any time before 4:00 PM ET on September 5 to add the set to your account. Of course, that means you'll need an Epic account.
I'm a Fallout 3 and beyond fanatic, so going back to your own picks for the best RPGs, I'd say Fallout ranks 13th and Fallout 2 ranks 21st. Those are, frankly, respectable positions for two games that are ancient. (Fallout Tactics didn't make the cut.)
Or maybe I should look to Edwin, who revisited the original Fallout and found it to be the perfect antidote to the fire surrounding the Fallout TV series. He also found it to be “the hardest to get into”, even after all these years.
My family has been staying with me for the last week and we haven't had a single Fallout. On the other hand, I recently discovered that my dog has fleas, so if someone wants to nuke my entire apartment, that's fine by me.
There's a second game that's currently free on Epic, and that's Wild Card Football, which you can grab here . A 7-player arcade football game where 150 'Wild Cards' rework the rules with invisibility, stat boosts, flying saucers, and the like. Shades of Brutal Sports Football, I wonder? Or maybe it's just my craving for extreme violence.
For regular updates on free and upcoming games, check out our guide to all the free games on the Epic Games Store.