Grab Ubisoft’s classic platformer ‘Rayman Origins’ for free on PC right now

By Gabe Gurwin August 18, 2016

Free games are always nice, and Ubisoft has given fans a chance to pick up several this year. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the publisher has been offering a different acclaimed PC game to Ubisoft Club members each month. We’ve already gotten a chance to bend time in Prince of Persia and shoot out light bulbs in

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Splinter Cell, and with this month’s Rayman Origins, we’ll be able to do … whatever a limbless humanoid cartoon character does.

From now until the end of August — and, more than likely, through the beginning of September — PC players with a Ubisoft Club account can download Rayman Origins absolutely free. The platformer, which is also available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, 3DS, and even Wii, propelled the classic franchise back into the spotlight. Its bright and beautiful environments, balanced difficulty, and absurd humor make it an excellent choice to get you out of a funk, and cooperative play, complete with friendly fire, can help you quickly end unwanted friendships.

If you’re itching to play even more Rayman, be sure to check out 2013’s excellent sequel, Rayman Legends. Its gameplay mostly follows the format of Origins, but also includes several speedrun-friendly music levels that see every step Rayman takes perfectly lining up with a drum beat or guitar chord. Unfortunately, some puzzle sections inserted to capitalize on the game’s initial Wii U exclusivity (it was delayed several months to launch as a multiplatform title) make it slightly less consistent than its predecessor.

Ubisoft still has four more free PC games to give away before the end of the year, and we’re betting there are still a few heavy hitters in store. Classic Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games sound like obvious choices, as does the strategy game Endwar.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Rayman returns in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC later this month

Rayman, Rabbid Mario, and Rabbid Peach in Mario + Rabbid Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show

Ubisoft is finally bringing Rayman back as part of a new piece of DLC for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope later this month. Called Rayman in the Phantom Show, this DLC releases on August 30.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - DLC 3 Reveal Trailer
For a long time, Rayman was Ubisoft's premier mascot and starred in a series of platformers that people who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s remember fondly. Unfortunately, Ubisoft's focus has primarily been on more mature series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch_Dogs as well as the Rabbids (which spun off from a Rayman game) over the last decade, so Rayman took a back seat to those series following the launch of Rayman Legends. That's why Rayman in the Phantom Show is a big deal for fans of this dormant franchise; it's the most prominent role Rayman has had in a console game in almost a decade.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a turn-based strategy game that launched on Nintendo Switch to critical acclaim last year. This latest (and final) piece of post-launch DLC for the game follows Rayman, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Mario as they take on the Phantom -- a boss from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle -- in an otherworldly TV studio called the Space Opera Network. David Gasman, who voiced the titular character in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, reprises his role here.

It's not a full-on platformer, but the reveal trailer for the DLC does show how players can use Rayman's detachable limbs and helicopter ability to explore the Space Opera network. At least it's something that looks pretty entertaining for fans of classic Rayman, who Ubisoft hasn't appealed to in quite a long time. Hopefully, it's as good as Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle's excellent Donkey Kong DLC.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is available now exclusively for Nintendo Switch. Rayman in the Phantom Show comes out on August 30, and it can be purchased individually or as part of Spark of Hope's season pass.

Computing

Ubisoft has every right to delete your games — even if it shouldn’t

The GOG Galaxy Mac app showing a library of games.

Everyone's mad at Ubisoft -- and for good reason.

For a moment, it certainly seemed like Ubisoft was not only shutting down inactive accounts, but also deleting games purchased on Steam. Now, not all of that ended up being true, but the controversy has been a not-so-gentle reminder that you don't actually own your games -- and technically, Ubisoft has every right to delete them if it so pleases.
You don't own your games
If you haven't caught wind of the fiasco, an anti-DRM (Digital Rights Management) Twitter user spotted an email circulating from Ubisoft that threatened to delete accounts on the Ubisoft PC app if they remained inactive. If you choose not to follow the link and keep your account safe, Ubisoft will remove your account. Oh, and it seemed like your games along with it.

Gaming

You can get Death Stranding for free right now on PC. Here’s how

Sam Porter Bridges and Fragile holding their foreheads together.

Death Stranding is currently free on PC via the Epic Games Store. Players have until May 25 to claim their copy before another mystery game is available for free.

Epic Games Store has a long history of giving out games for free. Just last month, it gave away copies of Dying Light: Enhanced Edition over Easter weekend. Death Stranding, which usually retails for $30 on Epic Games Store, is a particularly big freebie, so you'll want to make sure you claim a copy while you can.