Unfortunately, I missed 2 of the free ones during Christmas.  I'm not used to only having one day to get them. But otherwise, I have every single other free game from Epic since they started. 

Also slightly disappointed in the fact that a few of them during Christmas were games we'd already gotten free before. But I can't realistically complain about that.  Epic has been more than generous this year in the face of all the backlash they've been receiving.

Conina is quite the generous fellow!

I must be an odd one because I only grab the free games I'm interested in. As such, I've only picked half of the Epic free games so far, and I'm not talking only about the X-mas ones.

The second I see a free game (any free game, on any storefront I have an account with), I redeem it. 75% of it I probably never play. But you never know.

The Friday news!

SALES & DEALS

Fortnite was the highest-earning game of the year again
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-was-the-highest-earning-game-of-the-year-again/
The unrelenting success of Fortnite continued for another year, with Epic's all-consuming (including Star Wars) battle royale earning a ridiculous $1.8 billion in 2019, according to SuperData's Year in Review report. It's not a record-setting number like its first year, but no other game generated as much cash in 2019.
Free-to-play games continue to be the top earners, with four out of every five dollars spent on digital games going towards them. A lot of that is on mobile, which netted $64.4 billion over the year, followed by PC at $29.6 billion. Combined, consoles generated $15.4 billion. On consoles and PC, free-to-play revenue actually dipped, though it rose by several billion on mobile.

At the Humble Store has a new Farming Sale with up to 80% discounts for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/farming-sale/

Fanatical has a new sale starring Focus Home Interactive, with up to 80% discounts for the next 7 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/focus-home-interactive

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Sign in to Twitch Prime this month and get 10 free games
https://www.pcgamer.com/sign-in-to-twitch-prime-this-month-and-get-10-free-games/
Trying to catch up with all the games you missed in 2019? Well, Twitch Prime has just made your list just a little bit longer. If you sign in to your Twitch Prime account during January you'll get access to a bundle of ten games for free. Claiming these games means that they are yours to keep forever even if you decide to unsubscribe from Prime in the future.

MODS/EMULATORS

After nearly a decade, Stalker: Call of Pripyat's Gunslinger mod is in open beta
https://www.pcgamer.com/after-nearly-a-decade-stalker-call-of-pripyats-gunslinger-mod-is-in-open-beta/
The Stalker series is such an interesting one: GSC Game World's open world first-person shooters are intensely beloved and incredibly influential, yet at the same time they cry out for major modifications and overhauls to fix their notable shortcomings. There have been many big mods for the Stalker games over the years, like Remake, Dead Air, and Call of Chernobyl for Stalker: Call of Pripyat, Remaster and Lost Alpha for Shadow of Chernobyl, and plenty more.
And now there's a new one, in a manner of speaking. Gunslinger, an overhaul mod for Stalker: Call of Pripyat, has been in the works for almost 10 years, but it's never had any sort of playable version released. Until now, that is. Gunslinger is finally in open beta.
Gunslinger is an overhaul of many of Stalker's weapons and animations, adding more realism to just about everything you do in the game.
>> You can get this mod from ModDB.

GAMING NEWS

Official PC requirements revealed for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, requires 40GB of free hard-disk space
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/official-pc-requirements-revealed-for-dragon-ball-z-kakarot-will-require-40gb-of-free-hdd/
Bandai Namco has revealed the official PC system requirements for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot via its Steam store page. According to the specifications, PC gamers will at least need an Intel Core i5-2400 or an AMD Phenom II X6 1100T with 4GB of RAM.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be powered by Unreal Engine 4
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-will-be-powered-by-unreal-engine-4/
GSC GameWorld has announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be using Unreal Engine 4. This information was first revealed by Epic Games, and GSC GameWorld has now officially announced it.

GRID 2019 is free to play this weekend on Steam
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/grid-2019-is-free-to-play-this-weekend-on-steam/
Codemasters has announced that the latest part in the GRID series is free to play this weekend on Steam. PC gamers can visit the game’s Steam store page, download, and start playing it. As said, this is a “free to play” offer, meaning that you’ll be able to only play the game during this period.
>> I think that they may be doing it to let people try the game and not make their decision about purchase it or not based on the user reviews, that aren't great.

The House In The Hollow is a new indie first-person exploration game, coming out in Q4 2020
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-house-in-the-hollow-is-a-new-indie-first-person-exploration-game-coming-out-in-q4-2020/
PSINE Studios has informed us about a new first-person exploration game that will be using Unreal Engine 4, The House In The Hollow. The game will allow players to explore an atmospheric location including an imposing Art Nouveau manor house and its surrounding forest in the mysterious void called the Hollow.

Rumour: FromSoftware claims that ELDEN RING will release in June 2020 [UPDATE: NOT]
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/fromsoftware-claims-that-elden-ring-will-release-in-june-2020/
While we haven’t heard much about ELDEN RING in 2019, FromSoftware claims that the game will come out in June 2020. ELDEN RING will release on current-gen platforms, therefore a June 2020 release does make sense.
UPDATE: It appears that this is indeed a Google translation error.

Part two of the news:

Microsoft Flight Simulator will have seasonal weather
https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-will-have-seasonal-weather/
Microsoft Flight Simulator is shaping up to be a mindbogglingly ambitious flight sim, using massive amounts of data to create a strikingly realistic facsimile of the globe right down to individual trees and houses. And now it looks like that will include seasonal weather, too, which has been teased for the first time in a new video, above.

Road sign side scroller The Pedestrian is out later this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/roadsign-side-scroller-the-pedestrian-is-out-later-this-month/
After several years in development and a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2017, puzzle sidescroller The Pedestrian from developer Skookum Arts is set to release this month on January 29.

We're finally learning more about Valve's long-secret Portal prequel
https://www.pcgamer.com/were-finally-learning-more-about-valves-long-secret-portal-prequel/
Shortly after the release of the famed Orange Box, Valve embarked upon a series of "Directed Design Experiments" that Gabe Newell hoped would spark a new wave of creativity at the studio. One of them, as explained by the Half-Life Wiki, was called F-Stop, and it was enough of an internal hit that it was tapped for full development as a prequel to Portal. For reasons unknown, that prequel never came to be, and the whole thing sunk into obscurity—another Valve mystery, to be occasionally whispered about in Reddit threads.

Respawn boss Vince Zampella is taking over DICE LA to head up work on a new game
https://www.pcgamer.com/respawn-boss-vince-zampella-is-taking-over-dice-la-to-head-up-work-on-a-new-game/
Electronic Arts founded DICE LA in 2013 atop the rubble of Danger Close Games, which was closed in January of that year following the release of the very bad Medal of Honor: Warfighter. As IGN reported at the time, it was intended to be "an expansion" of the Stockholm-based DICE, "just in a different geographical location," and thus far it's functioned almost exclusively in that capacity, contributing to a trio of Battlefield games (1, 5, and Hardline) and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
That's going to change in 2020, however. A Los Angeles Times report says that Respawn Entertainment co-founder and CEO Vince Zampella is going to assume leadership of the studio, which is expected to begin working on a new, original game, likely under a new name.

Dig Dug meets Bomberman in free roguelike Holy Smokes
https://www.pcgamer.com/dig-dug-meets-bomberman-in-free-roguelike-holy-smokes/
The latest roguelike to see you exploring exclusively downwards (well, and a little bit sideways), Holy Smokes is essentially Dig Dug but with bombs instead of a shovel, and with explosions instead of not explosions. Now that I think about it, it's a little bit Spelunky as well, given that you use these bombs to clear rocks from your path, and that you're collecting lovely, shiny treasure as you do so.

Australia's climate crisis inspired this indie game about a doomed island
https://www.pcgamer.com/australias-climate-crisis-inspired-this-indie-game-about-a-doomed-island/
Australia is currently suffering after its hottest year on record, which has sparked widespread bushfires that have claimed several lives, torn through hundreds of homes and blotted out the sky with smoke. For Melbourne-based developer Max Myers, the fires have become embedded in his mind. They're also one of the threats facing the doomed island in his climate disaster game, [soon, only the ocean] .

And these are the deals at GOG and Steam for the weekend:

+GOG

• The The Witcher games are on sale, up to 86% off, for the next 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20191230_witcher_completion
• The Weekend Sale, Challenging Games, brings up to 90% discounts for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200103_weekend_sale
• And Disco Elysium is 20% off for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/game/disco_elysium

+Steam

• STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order is 17% off for the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172380/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Fallen_Order/
• Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is 20% off for the next 3 days: https://store.steampowered.com/app/973580/Sniper_Ghost_Warrior_Contracts/
• Just like at GOG, Disco Elysium is also 20% off for the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium/
• And Assetto Corsa Competizione is 35% off until Monday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/805550/Assetto_Corsa_Competizione/

And that ends the news this week. Next Monday is festive over here (the Three Wise Men) and I won't be able to make the news. Therefore, see you next Tuesday and, until then, have a happy and gaming weekend!

The games for Humble Choice January 2020 have been revealed. Several of them are on my wishlist, so I'm happy.

It's a late Christmas gift to you.

Does anyone want Street Fighter V? I already have it.

What I got:

Steam:

RWBY Volume 1-4
Doom
Endless Legend
Gaokao.Love.100 Days
Superdimension Neptunia vs Sega Hard Girls

GOG:

Tharsis
Ultima 8
Ultima 9
Supreme Ruler: 2020 Gold edition
Braveland Wizard
XCom: Terror from the Deep
Spec Ops: The Line
Tower of Time (free gift from GOG)

Not too much this year, but next year will probably be more plentiful again. Was a bit short on money, except for my Tiny Tim.