For varying reasons, this weekend is set to be a pretty good one for fans of first-person shooters. Though we'd argue one isn't entirely like the other, that's only recently become true again. Call of Duty: WWII enters open beta while Lawbreakers is hosting a free weekend.
The Call of Duty: WWII open beta has been planned for some time now, giving players who haven't had a chance to try the series' hotly anticipated return to 20th-century warfare a shot at the various video game events hosted throughout the Summer.
Lawbreakers, on the other hand, has pulled the free weekend stunt just shy of 2 months after launch. Swapping out a planned F2P model in favour of a 'buy once, play forever' option during development, the idea didn't really seem to win over as many players as Boss Key Productions founder and ex-Epic Games director Cliff Bleszinski had hoped for. Critical reception has been pretty great, but a thriving playerbase didn't follow.
LawBreakers Guide: What you need to know
Barely reaching 3k concurrent players at launch on Steam, the fast-paced multiplayer shooter seemed dead on arrival. Opening up for free game time is likely its only chance at survival before a massive price-drop would be expected.
But with game downloads being fairly big in size these days, without the average internet speed jumping quite so rapidly, many will be forced to pick and choose this weekend. You'll be able to download the Lawbreakers client on Steam in due time. Call of Duty: WW2, however, is already available to pre-load on the platform.
