Play Games
6 months ago
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Try out a new map, new guns and something called a Pondhawk
Image credit: EA
DICE's once-ramshackle, apparently much-improved near-future shooter Battlefield 2042 is free to play this weekend, granting access to the game's Season 6 "Dark Creations" content offerings, amongst other things. BUT WAIT. There's an asterisk over the word "free" on the promo art! Everybody drop to cover! See, these are the tiny details you have to watch out for in Battlefield. That asterisk could be the equivalent of the glint on a sniper rifle, aimed squarely at your wallet, purse and/or khaki-coloured bumbag. Let's zoom in on the footnote...
Image credit: EA
Ah phew, I think it's just the usual flannel about this being a "limited time free trial" where the trial time is subject to change. You will also need an EA account to play on Steam, and heaven help us, they might try to flog you some microtransactions, but I trust you to navigate those obstacles and find your way to the nearest capture zone unharmed.
Anyway! The trial should be live now, and runs till Monday 16th October at 10am PST, 6pm UK or 7pm CET, giving you three whole days in which to dive repeatedly and obsessively into the same cratered courtyard and get your elbows shot off by jeering teenagers in tanks a couple of blocks away.
The trial includes access to a new underground map, Redacted, and some new gadgets in the shape of medical pouches, ammo pouches and the fetchingly named Pondhawk, a titchy scooter which looks like a robot water boatman. HANG ON A MINUTE, there's another couple of asterisks over "vehicle" in the image! Get behind the sandbags! Somebody flashbang the entrance! Oh wait, it's just that the Pondhawk can't be used on Redacted. As you were.
There are also some new guns, an L9CZ pistol and a couple or rifles, the G429, which looks like a single-shot marksman affair, and the VHX-D3, which has more of a rapid-fire vibe to it. I am sure I will be equally rubbish with all of them.
If Battlefield 2042 is in a better state these days, that could reflect the recent input of erstwhile racing game household Criterion, who have been retasked to work on the Battlefield franchise following underwhelming sales of the latest Need for Speed outing.
