The Epic Games Store is giving away Calico and Lonestar for free this week

The Epic Games Store is giving away two very different video games again this week. One is a cute little community sim involving cats, and the other is a space-themed roguelike deckbuilder.

• Calico
  • Release Date: December 15, 2020
  • Game Type: life sim, cozy, casual
  • POV: 3rd person
  • Party: Single Player
  • DLC: None.

Your core goal in Calico is to rebuild a little town’s cat cafe, which is so sweet it may give you cavities. However, the release date is part of why I very much enjoyed this the first time around — the lead up to holiday season 2020 just made me want a cute little place to chill with some cats, and not have to worry about distance or hand washing. Just a little social cat thing. It ends up being both a cute little cozy game and a weird little time marker that way. You can’t give in to existential dread — you have cats to pet!

• Lonestar
  • Release Date: January 18, 2026
  • Game Type: deckbuilder, roguelite
  • POV: 3rd person, menus
  • Party: Single Player
  • DLC: None.

In Lonestar you play as a bounty hunter, travelling the stars and gaining cards which you use (because reasons?) to trick out your slick bounty hunter spaceship. Or your beefy damage-resistant spaceship! There are a lot of ways to take out your foes, by collecting cards to do the thing. It’s kind of an odd premise, but then, what game’s premise isn’t a little strange if you think about it.