This War of Mine is free to play for the weekend

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It's on sale, too, if you want to keep it.

With the icy survival game Frostpunk now just a few weeks away from release, developer 11 Bit Studios is letting anyone play its previous life-is-hell simulator This War of Mine for free on Steam until April 8. 

This War of Mine is also a survival game, but with more of a real-world bent, played as a civilian struggling to survive in a besieged city shattered by war. Constant danger and a shortage of food, water, and medicine force life-and-death choices at every turn, and there's no Paragon path to victory. "During war, there are no good or bad decisions; there is only survival," the Steam listing states. "The sooner you realize that, the better."

Despite the grim subject matter, This War of Mine has become a hit, recently surpassing 2.5 million copies sold on Steam. "This accomplishment has reaffirmed ours philosophy on creating mature, thought-provoking games," 11 Bit said. "Additionally, we continue to support gaming's community mission of raising funds for the War Child children’s charity by the sale of DLC content dedicated to that sole purpose." 

If you want to keep playing after this weekend, This War of Mine is also on sale for 70 percent off until April 9 (one day after after the end of the free weekend), dropping it to $6/£4.50/€6, while the War Child-supporting DLC The Little Ones is on for half price. 

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.