Many of us are stuck at home right now as the COVID-19 outbreak continues on. It can be a tad on the maddening side at times, but it’s for the better I suppose. Thankfully, there’s lots of games out there, even for free. Epic is still giving out free games like candy on their Epic Games Stores, and this week we’ve got two new titles to sink our teeth into.

Gone Home is a “walking simulator” where you must navigate through an abandoned house to find clues about what happened to your sister. Hob is a colorful action adventure game where you must solve puzzles in a brutal world and find your place in the natural order of things.

Gone Home and Hob are both now free on the Epic Games Store and will be until April 9th. Beside them is also Totally Reliable Delivery Service and Drawful 2, both of which are currently free.

The Fullbright Company’s breakout narrative adventure title Gone Home is free to claim on the Humble Bundle Store. PC players can simply head to the website and download it for free without DRM or a separate launcher. You have until May 3rd to do so, and must also have an account on the Humble Store (since the offer is part of the Humble Monthly Trove).

Gone Home is a first person title that first released in 2013. It follows a young woman who returns to her home in Oregon to find her family missing. As she explores the house and investigates the various items strewn about, she begins to piece together what happened.

The title first came to PC, before being ported to Xbox One and PS4 in 2016. It also released in 2018 for Nintendo Switch and iOS. Gone Home was acclaimed for its unconventional narrative and gameplay mechanics, especially since it saw players simply exploring the available space without having too much interaction. Fullbright would subsequently released another adventure title, Tacoma for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

If investing in Origin Access Premier for early access to full-games like BioWare’s Anthem or DICE’s Battlefield 5 doesn’t seem appealing, then don’t worry- there might still be more incentive. Electronic Arts has added several new games to the Origin Access Vault, which is fully accessible to Basic subscribers (at $5 per month, or $30 per year). The biggest is perhaps Madden NFL 19 – it released in August 2018 and made several improvements, while adding a new Longshot story (it has its shortcomings though, so keep that in mind).

Gone Home is the next best option, offering a compelling first person narrative that’s equal parts creepy and insightful. The Fullbright Company’s newest title Tacoma is unfortunately not available in the Vault, but that might change down the line. If you’re a Star Wars fan though, there’s plenty to keep you covered.

LucasArts’ Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 and 2 have been added to the Vault. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a compilation of the first three games, along with LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars and Star Wars TIE Fighter Special Edition are also available. Overall, in addition to the dozens of other titles in the Vault, these are some pretty good offerings overall.

We had reported earlier that Annapurna Interactive would be releasing the highly praised indie title Gone Home for the Nintendo Switch on August 23. Well, the day is here, but the game isn’t- the publisher has made an announcement on Twitter that the game’s release will be delayed by quite a few days.

Gone Home has been out on other platforms for quite a while now, so it was great news that the game would be coming  to the Switch as well. However, just as the release date arrived, the publisher stated on Twitter that the game’s release date has been delayed to September 6. Additionally, they also stated that they might have more news to share at that point, and as of now we have no way of knowing what exactly they’re referring  to- but it sounds interesting.

For those of you who don’t know, Gone Home is a game in which you play as a girl named Katie, and find that your home is empty upon returning, and it’s up to you to slowly piece together the story of what exactly happened and where everybody’s disappeared off to.

You can check out the tweet from the publisher below. Gone Home will release for the Nintendo Switch on September 6.

FYI: @GoneHomeGame for Nintendo Switch will now launch on September 6th in North America and Europe. We might have some additional news to share then, so stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/RN8LirDuSl

— Annapurna Interactive (@A_i) August 22, 2018

Gone Home had initially released for the PC back in 2013, and it was loved widely for its environmental storytelling and exploration. The game later released for the PS4 and Xbox One three years later in 2016. Now, Nintendo Switch owners will finally be able to enjoy the game on the platform, as it will be releasing for the Switch in a week’s time.

Annapurna Interactive will be publishing the game for the Switch, and they have released a brand new announcement trailer, which showcases the many awards and critical appreciation the game has received since its launch. In the game, you return home as a young woman only to find out that the house is empty. It’s up to you to slowly explore your surroundings and piece together the story of what had really transpired while your character was away from the place.

You can check out the announcement trailer below. Gone Home will be available for the Nintendo Switch on August 23.

If you ever wondered what happened to The Fullbright Company, which developed the first person adventure title Gone Home, then you’ll be happy to know that the team has returned for Tacoma. Though finer details are yet to be revealed, Tacoma appears to take place on a space station and involves the same mysterious tone and atmosphere as the studio’s eponymous first release.

Though somewhat controversial in many ways, Gone Home did garner a fair amount of critical and commercial acclaim when it released in 2013. Oddly enough, it’s still scheduled to release on the Wii U this year but it seems that Fullbright is instead focusing on its new project Tacoma.

What are your thoughts on Tacoma? Will you be partaking in the new experience or are you still reeling from the effects of Gone Home? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information and updates from The Game Awards 2014.

In a recent interview, Steve Gaynor of The Fullbright Company, the developers behind Gone Home, spoke to the fact that the better terms that PS4 offers independent developers makes Sony a more attractive option than Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program. Specifically he noted that ID@XBox prohibits developers from releasing on any platform other than Xbox One before the initial release. Gaynor commented:

“If you’re talking to Sony and Microsoft, and Microsoft is like, ‘well you can’t be on Xbox if you’re on PlayStation first’, but it’s easier to be on PS4 because they have better terms, then you’ll be like, ‘okay lets just be on PlayStation’. 

“There are tons of different options and if you can wrangle it where the thing that makes sense for you is to launch simultaneously on PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PS Vita – that sounds kind of crazy to me, but some people do it.” 
“The great thing is that in this day and age, there’s no one path that you have to take,” Gaynor continued, “which I think is a good thing for everybody.”    

Source: NowGamer

Fullbright Company co-founder Steve Gaynor is ecstatic regarding the same and revealed on the developer’s official site that, “We’re now almost a month out since launching on August 15th, and we hope people will find it encouraging to know that, along with the positive critical response we are continually grateful for and humbled by, we are also doing alright as far as sales numbers go!”

Gone Home has garnered a ton of critical acclaim as well across various publications and websites, and is well worth a play. What are your thoughts on Gone Home? Let us know in the comments below.