I’m a young man, I don’t shy aware from this fact. While others on the Stuff team might bemoan all the back and neck aches due to their age, I want it on record that I simply don’t do that. I mean, I complain about my frail spine but that’s because I sit funny, not because I’m old. The two might be related in a future though. This is all to say that I’m at an age where I missed the hype around the Quake franchise. All I know is that they’re old-school shooters that were played at events called…LANs? I don’t know what those are but if you’re like me and missed out on Quake, you’re in luck.

To celebrate the annual QuakeCon event (held online this year), Bethesda is giving away copies of Quake II this week and Quake III next week. You’d expect the process to acquire these free gems to be annoying and tedious and, quite frankly, it is. While the process for experiencing these shooters for the first time or reliving the glory days is simple you’ll have to download one of the most annoying launchers released so far.

To claim your copies, just download the Bethesda Launcher and log in if you already have an account or set up a new account to acquire Quake II. Simple, but who actually wants the Bethesda Launcher clogging up their hard drive? You can’t even get rid of it when you’re done with Quake II because Quake III is going free on the launcher next week! Bethesda is basically keeping us all hostage for two weeks here.

On the plus side, this promotion has also been encouraging users to take the money they would have spent on Quake and rather donated to NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Trevor Project, two very worthy charities. Last week, while Quake I was free, Bethesda raised over $30,000.

You’ll want to act quick though. Quake II is only free for the next two days, meaning you’ll have to grab it by Saturday morning if you want to make good on this exceptional deal.

(Source: Engadget)