'Battlefield 2042' Is Free To Play This Weekend, Here's How To Jump In

Battlefield 2042 will be free to play this weekend for those of us on Xbox, so if you're willing to take the leap into one of the most divisive games of 2021, here's how to make the most of the trial period.

As soon as it was stated that Battlefield 2042 would not feature a single-player story because developer DICE wanted to streamline its efforts on the multiplayer side of the anticipated entry, alarm bells started softly ringing inside fans' heads. It was a departure from the norm, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as games of this genre should take some creative risks to ensure that the formula doesn't stagnate. Plus, there was all this talk of climatic hazards like tornadoes laying waste to the maps in the middle of matches and nerve-shredding 128-player games on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.

Here we are, two months on from its release, and it turns out that the Peppa Pig game got a higher score on Metacritic than Battlefield 2042. 2021 was a topsy-turvy year (much like the others, really) but that's an instance of the timeline turning down a worrying path for Battlefield. So why on Earth should you give it a go this weekend?

Firstly, the majority of the game's infamous glitches have been ironed out with a patch that rolled out at the start of December, initiating over 300 fixes across a range of issues. Secondly, our own review argues that the most entertaining part of any Battlefield title is the community and a lot of players are actually enjoying Battlefield 2042. If you've made it this far into the article, I feel like you need no more convincing to jump into the free to play weekend.

This is thanks to Xbox's Free Play Days, allowing players to dive into a game for a trial period with no limitations on hours or parts that they're able to play. So the entirety of Battlefield 2042 is on offer for curious cats to check out between January 6th and January 9th. If you are wanting to purchase the full game after the trial period ends, then it's currently on sale with an enviable discount on its cross-gen version for Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S. Not a bad idea if you're still saving up for a new-gen console and want your progress to continue on the souped-up successor once you've got your mitts on it.