Amazon Prime Gaming’s Latest Batch Of Freebies Can Be Grabbed Now

It’s time for your monthly reminder that your Amazon Prime subscription also comes with a bunch of free games. And in many cases, while that “free” perhaps deserves scarequotes for falling under a subscription fee for a monstrously evil corporation, they’re actually yours to keep forever, with no DRM, and no requirement to keep up your sub. That’s true for eight of this month’s offerings, including Civilization III and Thief: Definitive Edition.

The reason for this proper, actual ownership is Prime partners with GOG for a lot of the games it includes in the subscription, meaning that you’re getting a code that allows you to download a DRM-free version of the game that boots from an .exe, rather than requiring any launchers or proprietary software. So while you may observe that Civ 3 is a 24-year-old game, and as such perhaps not quite matching the sorts of games added to services like PS Plus or Game Pass, in this case you’re getting Civ 3 to keep. You could also point out that the game is currently available on GOG for $0.75, which is approximately 185 times cheaper than an annual Prime subscription, and there I couldn’t argue back. Thief: Definitive Edition, however, is $25, so that’s definitely a sweeter deal. And, you know, as much as that game definitely shouldn’t have been called “Thief,” and as embarrassing as its The Crow cosplay may have been, it’s actually a pretty decent game in its own right.

Amazon Prime likes to make it as confusing as possible to acquire your freebies, releasing the games in four separate batches across the month, guaranteeing you to forget at least some of them. It also removes other games from the selection at the same times, really keeping you on your toes. But the two headline games for August are both there to grab right now, along with big names added in July like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Marvel’s Midnight Suns and Saints Row IV: Re-Elected. Also coming later this month are FATE: The Traitor Soul–an expandalone entry in Travis Baldtree’s legendary Diablo-like series–and last year’s deckbuilding roguelite Necroking. Here’s the full list of games for August:

Available Now

• Sid Meier’s Civilization III Complete (GOG)
• Thief: Definitive Edition (GOG)
• The Academy: The First Riddle (Amazon Games App)

August 14

• FATE: The Traitor Soul (GOG)
• Filthy Animals – Heist Simulator (Epic Games Store)
• Tin Hearts (GOG)
• Necroking (GOG)

August 21

• Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective (Amazing Games App)
• Silver Box Classics (GOG)

August 28

• Heroes of Loot 2 (GOG)
• Fantasy Empires (GOG)
• City Legends: The Ghost of Misty Hill Collector’s Edition (Legacy Games)

You also get a bunch of games via the Amazon cloud gaming doodad, Luna, which rotate in and out. It currently contains Saints Row: The Third, SkateBIRD, Overcooked! 2, and Dungeons of Hinterberg, among others.