Gorgeous endless runner The Alto Collection is free on the Epic Games Store next week

I thought endless runners were supposed to be hectic, stressful, to reflect the inexorable march of time. The Alto Collection, by contrast, looks remarkably peaceful and laid-back: less Temple Run and more Temple Saunter. It's the latest game to be announced as going temporarily free on the Epic Games Store, and you can grab it between August 13 and August 20. After which you can still grab it, but you'll have to reach for your wallet first.

Technically it's two games—Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey—previously released separately for phones but bundled together for PC and consoles. You're sliding rather than running across these mathematically jumbled yet gorgeous environments, executing tricks and avoiding hazards as you search for your missing llamas. So it's a little bit Canabalt, a little bit Journey, a little bit Cool Boarders? I, perhaps, need some newer comparisons, but, still, that sounds like a great mash-up to me.

The Alto Collection will be free on the Epic Games Store from next Thursday, August 13. While you're there, you'll also be able to grab A Total War Saga: Troy free for 24 hours. To keep track of all the Epic Games Store freebies, keep an eye on our evolving list.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in Racing
Screenshot from Wreckfest 2
Wreckfest 2 has hit early access for your car-obliterating combat racing enjoyment
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders
Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is getting a new mountain next month and a whole bunch more throughout the year, including a game editor
A 1950s pickup truck smashes through a building while being cornered by a police car in Deliver At All Costs
Chaotic courier sim Deliver At All Costs will crash through your letterbox this May, and its latest trailer is even weirder than I expected
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, showing various racing competitors hurtling through the air
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds looks like a return to the over-the-top arcade fun of All-Star Racing Transformed, and we'll get to play it this month
A masked sniper pointing his rifle in Nightmare Kart
Superb Bloodborne-inspired racing game Nightmare Kart is getting free DLC featuring sniper rifles and supercharged penny farthings
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer brings heart, soul, and sweet handbrake turns back to the genre just when it needed them most
Latest in News
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
A shirtless man rides a big fish underwater
Ark devs distance themselves from AI-generated trailer: 'we did not know that they were doing it'
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
Screenshot from Wreckfest 2
Wreckfest 2 has hit early access for your car-obliterating combat racing enjoyment