gvyop: What do you think about
china trojan in free games and giveaways. Not onlu chinese's ones although.
Could you catch it if your AV do not list it as it does not list rdp and as games install are usely openibg firewall rules ?
Read the Summary at the bottom if you don't want to read the really long bit! 1 - Steam, GOG, Origin, UPlay etc probably wont have viruses. Origin and Uplay are owned by and only have games that are made by Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. Steam is big enough to filter through its games as they are uploaded and make sure there are no viruses, and GOG mainly specialises in well known games, and they don't get well known by giving you viruses. So any games that are free from there (Steams promotions like the recent Payday 2, GOG's front-page promotions like Fantasy General, Origin's On The House Deals, and UPlay's Christmas giveaway are all safe.
2 - IndieGala, Humble Bundle giveaways, MarvelousGA etc giveaways deal in manly steam keys, so treat that as above. As long as you don't download anything from those sites to unlock the Steam key, you'll be fine.
3 - Game Giveaway of the Day... probably no viruses. I haven't used it, so don't take my word. Although it's probably fine, I heard it is bundled with ad-ware, which may contain viruses, but are most likely just Potentially Unwanted Programs. As long as you un-tick the other 'goodies' that it comes with, it should be fine!
4 - Softonic, CNET, Download . com etc. DO NOT GO THERE, they offer free programs, but are almost always bundled with PuP's, and even commonly viruses. A mate of mine broke his computer by downloading Minecraft for free from Softonic. They had to get a new one. True story.
Summary:
If the games is a promotion from a well known game platform, game developer website, it is almost 100% risk free. If it is a giveaway from a bundle site that offers steam keys, it is almost 100% risk free as long as you don't have to download anything else to get the key. GGOTD is safe, but untick the unwanted stuff. Similar sited to GGOTD may also be safe to, as long as you untick the other stuff, and Google about it first. Pirate sites are not safe. If your AV has picked up a trace a virus, Google it - it's better safe than sorry!