Epic Games have begun what appears to be a series of short duration free game offers in the run up to Christmas on their PC storefront. These offers replace the usual weekly promotion, but will require that you act with a little more haste than usual.

First up is Shenmue III. After a long franchise hiatus the game was controversially announced in 2015, with series creator Yu Suzuki taking to Sony's E3 stage to reveal that it would be a crowdfunded title partially backed by Sony. At the time it would become the fastest videogame kickstarter to reach $1m and later $2m in funds, but fell short of its optimistic $10m stretch goal that would, in Suzuki's words, allow it to be a 'true open-world game'.



Shenmue III was released in November 2019, two years later than scheduled, on Playstation 4 and exclusive to the Epic Game Store on PC. It received somewhat mixed reviews, chiefly due to it being a faithful sequel to its franchise origins rather than one which had taken advantage of progress made in game design in the over 15 years between II and III's release.

Fundamentally, Shenmue III is an action-adventure game rooted in the past that's sure to hit the nostalgia glands of those who played the originals. It's system requirements are far from onerous and the game is well worth some of your time at the grand price of £Free.

The promotion ends at 4pm GMT tomorrow (December 17th), after which a new mystery game will be available.