Shenmue III Is Free On Epic

Monday, Halo Infinite‘s PC release was a bit crap, and Sniper Elite 5 was announced. Tuesday, Game Pass will have Weird West, Redout 2 is Wipeout and not the crap gameshow hosted by an ex-Top Gear presenter, and Xbox admits to screw-ups in a new documentary. Wednesday, if you want to play Aliens: Fireteam Elite, it is now on Gamepass. Also, Noble Fates isn’t about Donna traveling through the multiverse to kill Tecteun, and System Shock‘s remake is coming next year. Thursday, The Sims 5 is looking good, Nintendo did an indie direct, and anime characters are fighting to the death.

So, Epic is doing a thing on the Epic Games Store. I don’t know what, because I am writing parts of this to fill space and tell you about some other good things surrounding the company so as I don’t have to write as much about Magic: The Gathering‘s Epic Pack or whatever it is I’m supposed to talk about today. If they’ve done what I think they’re doing, they’ll have something free for 24 hours (2 hours left by the time this article goes out). This means, for the next two weeks I’ll have to tweet about the next thing that’s available over on our Twitter account every 24-ish hours. Go give it a follow, I’ve heard the guy that writes most of the tweets is magical, looks like Jesus, and is very popular on your dad’s favorite dating app.

So, what is Epic doing? Well, The Matrix: Awakens for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S is breathtaking. Not because it is The Matrix, nor because it looks otherworldly. Not because of anything special that you are thinking of, but simply because it is a tech demo that does a whole collection of things while still being, on the fundamental level, the typical open-world US city sandbox.

It not only shows the possibility for games in the years to come but also the viability of this tech to be used in films and TV like Disney is doing with Unity. Sure, there could be a bit more done to optimize it to run at 60 fps, the parallaxing window textures could be cleaned up, and small things. The biggest issue is with characters but otherwise, mixed with Legion‘s AI biographies they would be burgeoning on scary. Used well, this versatility could improve many things for game developers or even film directors/students looking to enhance their film semi-cheaply.

Anyway, the free game that was/is available for today until 8 AM Pacific Time/4 PM GMT is Shenmue III, that one that was Kickstarted and caused controversy by getting a publisher after that. If I am honest, I don’t like Shenmue as a series because it is a bland-as-dirt bloke waiting for a bus in real-time. I’ve just spoken about one of the best Matrix games, right up there with Enter The Matrix, and I’ve got to hype up that one forklift mission from GTA: San Andreas but without the gunfight? No, you know if you like Shenmue III or you don’t, and if you’ve not tried it, give this one a go.

I am going to write another twelve thousand words for next week and the one after. If you need me to tell you to pick up free games, I’ll be on the site’s Twitter account (linked below). Otherwise, I’ll be dissecting the GTA Trilogy – The Definitive Edition for another hundred and seventy words.