The Fallout Classic Collection is now free to Fallout 76 players

Bethesda's latest Fallout 76 blog post is a fairly routine recap of incoming patches, but it also follows up on the studio's promise of giving the old Fallout games to early Fallout 76 players. As of today, if you played Fallout 76 on any platform in 2018, you can claim Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel for free on PC. 

Early adopters of Fallout 76 will find the Classic Collection automatically added to their accounts on Bethesda.net. Naturally, you'll need to download the Bethesda launcher to access it, but other than that, all you need to do is install the games. You can find all three listed individually under the 'Games' tab. 

If you're going to give the classic Fallouts a try, just know that they play very differently from the post-Fallout 3 entries. They're still good in their own way, don't get me wrong, but they're much more menu-driven and lean heavily on tabletop conventions. And being a strategic, squad-based game, Fallout Tactics is even less similar to the likes of Fallout 4 and New Vegas.

Current Fallout 76 players will be pleased to hear that an incoming patch will address "issues with several challenges and quests, various fixes to a number of perks and weapons, and various exploits we've seen." Future patches will look at the crafting plans available at vendors, legendary mods, and additional perk issues. 

A larger upcoming Fallout 76 update will add several new quests, weekly in-game events, more Vaults, a new PvP mode, and player vending, though there's no word on when these features will arrive.  

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

Latest in Fallout
Fallout overseer
Original Fallout creator says he "pushed" for a happy ending with "cake and balloons" instead of the RPG's downbeat finale
Fallout
Disco Elysium lead says original Fallout is an RPG "that's almost Biblical in its annihilation," making "other post-apocalyptic worldbuilding seem like an amusement park"
Fallout 4 mod Fallout London screenshot showing a ruinous post-apocalyptic Camden
As if Fallout: London wasn't already big enough, its devs now say the mod's "first DLC is getting closer" with "more surprises" to come
mister burke sat in a beige suit, black tie, white shirt, and black hat and shades
Bethesda fans raise $140k for prolific VA's medical bills as Bethesda describes him as "an incredibly talented and instrument part of our games"
Fallout: New Vegas mod Fallout: Nuevo Mexico
After 4 years, Fallout: New Vegas' massive New Mexico mod is canceled: "Continuing forward simply isn't sustainable"
MTG
30 years later, Fallout creator Tim Cain is searching for a legendary D&D player who cheesed an entire competitive dungeon with a lightning-fast Monk build
Latest in News
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds art director and 20-year series vet says the new game intentionally leans into a question fans have debated forever: "What is a hunter?"
Absolum
The other devs behind the best retro beat-em-up in recent memory are making a co-op roguelike brawler that "channels the spirit" of Capcom's classic D&D games
Battlefield Bad Company 2
"I am freaked out by how much might actually have been accurate": Battlefield Bad Company 3 writer unearths forgotten script
Skyrim
Skyrim is still an all-time great for asset reuse: this hunk of human flesh could be some poor guard's glute, or probably just a piece of repurposed beef
best zombie games
"Don't bet on there being more of Last of Us": Asked about The Last of Us 3, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann says "this could be it"
Liam Neeson in The Phantom Menace
"Wise mentor" or "awful Jedi"? Star Wars fans are debating if Qui-Gon Jinn is to blame for Anakin's turn to the dark side