The Division will be free to play this weekend

Third-person shooter and multiplayer loot ladder The Division will be free to play in its entirety this weekend. Running from September 14-17, the base game, including the campaign and Dark Zone, will open up to anyone curious enough to give Massive's post-disaster romp in New York a late tour. 

Access kicks off September 14th at 7 pm CEST and closes out September 17th at 10 pm CEST, but you'll be able to pre-load in the Uplay client starting today at 6 pm CEST. 

When it launched, there wasn't much to sustain The Division after the campaign ran out, and the loot grind was a bit too time consuming. But with the 1.6 update, gear dropped more often and the endgame expanded in interesting ways, though the expansions weren't much help. 

I'd still recommend it if you want something to play with friends or a soothing game to zone out to. The campaign is standard cover shooting fare, but good fun with the right team, and the Dark Zone came make for some tense friend-or-foe multiplayer shootouts. And for the min-max'ers, working towards powerful builds with overpowered gear and ability synergies can be as satisfying as speccing a Diablo character. It'll at least hold you over until Destiny 2 comes out. 

To give it a shot, see Ubi's blog post for detailed information. 

James Davenport

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.