Unreal Gold is free on Steam and GOG

Epic's famed FPS Unreal was released 20 years ago today, and to celebrate the big birthday Steam and GOG are giving it away for the next 48 hours.

The freebie is Unreal Gold, to be specific, which bundles the original game with the Return to Na Pali mission pack. That's 47 "eye-popping" missions in all, plus 20 multiplayer levels, 13 "guaranteed giblet" weapons, and all the graphical enhancement for the latest 3D technology, including Direct3D and Glide.

I kid, but Unreal was seriously cutting-edge stuff in 1998. The actual gameplay was perhaps a little less-than-inspired, but it looked so damn good that nobody cared. More significantly it launched an engine that remains relevant to this day, and some tournaments that are still around too.

The Unreal Gold freebie will be up until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on May 24. The rest of the Unreal games on GOG—Unreal 2: The Awakening SE, UT GOTY, and UT 2004 Editor's Choice Edition—are on sale for 80 percent off until May 29.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.