Quake 2 is currently free on the Bethesda launcher, Quake 3 follows next week

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Following on from a recent giveaway of the original Quake, Quake 2 has been put up for free via the Bethesda launcher. You have 72 hours, from 12 pm ET/4 pm GMT today, to claim it, and you have a load of money raised for charity to thank for it.

As Andy previously mentioned, Bethesda announced that it would give Quake 2 away for free if $10,000 was raised during its QuakeCon charity drive. Well, over $30,000 was raised in the end ($30,686.48 to be exact), so Quake 2 is up for grabs for the next three days. And that's not all: Quake 3 will also go free next week, also for 72 hours, starting August 17 at 12 pm ET/4 pm GMT.

To claim the games you'll need to be logged into the Bethesda launcher during the three-day periods, at which point Quake 2 (and, later, Quake 3) will be automatically added to your library.

If this has got you feeling all nostalgic for Quake 2, this would also be a good time to read our report on The Making of Quake 2, in which Rory Milne discusses how the shooter came together with its level designer Tim Willits.

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.