Two Point Hospital adds a Half-Life headcrabs disease and gets a free weekend on Steam

Two Point Hospital can't make real-life healthcare affordable, but at least its free Steam weekend is making zany medical escapades accessible from now through March 18. All Steam users get full access to the game and can even keep their progress once the weekend ends. Best of all, you can play around with a bunch of new tie-ins to other games, including... headcrabs!

The creepy, annoying, and yet beloved mascot of the Half-Life series joins Two-Point Hospital as a new disease. Be-crabbed victims lurch through the halls of your hospital until seated in a special headcrab removal device, where a big crane plucks the parasite from their craniums and tosses it in a bin. Man, that's all you need to do to cure a headcrab zombie? Now I feel bad about the 5,000 or so I've beaten to death with a crowbar in all my Half-Life and Half-Life 2 playthroughs.

The other crossover content comes in the form of various decor items inspired by other Sega-published PC games. There's some ancient Chinese-esque furniture from Total War: Three Kingdoms; spacey rugs, paintings, and arcade cabinets from the Endless series, and general footballer's decor from Football Manager 2019. If you ever worried that your hospital decor wasn't quite referential enough before, these items are the cure.

Though you can play as much of Two Point Hospital as you want during the free weekend, you'll need to buy the game to keep playing once the promotion expires on Monday. Sega has a prescription for that too: Two Point Hospital is on sale for 33 percent off on Steam through March 21, making the final price $23.44 / £16.74.

Find so much more to love in our list of the best PC games.