New World is running a free weekend to highlight its new edition and discount
Oh brave new world, that has such features in it.
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Nothing says Christmas quite like games with a disconcerting colonialist aesthetic. Amazon’sNew WorldMMO is getting a free weekend, with prospective players invited to get a “taste of the Eternal Isle” between now and the free period’s conclusion next week.
The free weekendkicked off yesterdayand runs until Monday, December 19. If you’re tempted, you can head over toNew World’s Steam pageright now and get stuck in. If you really fall in love, you can take advantage of the ongoing 50% discount on its standard and deluxe editions to lock it into your library for good. Because Amazon would really quite like you to buy its game, the discount is set to last much longer than the free weekend, ending on January 5 next year.
New World is also getting a fancy new Azoth Edition, which is basically an ultra-deluxe version of the game. It contains the various bonus skins and emotes that the deluxe edition includes and piles in another $40-worth of cosmetic doodads on top of that. It comes with new clothes, weapon skins, a bunch of dyes, and—most importantly—a celestial hare house pet, whose fur contains the “vast expanse of the universe”. I had a gerbil like that once.
It’s been a rocky road for New World since it came out in September last year. After getting off to a flying start and someabsolutely absurd concurrent player numbers, the game began to falter, and it entered this year ina grim state. But Amazon has kept working on it, and recently took steps torevamp the game’s beginningand make itsPvP wars more accessible. If this free weekend is anything to go by, the company must feel like its work has changed the game enough to merit a second chance.
I hope Amazon is right about that. New World had big ambitions when it released, but fell short of far too many of them. Fraser scored it 60% in hisNew World review, commenting that its “attempt to tick all the boxes has left it feeling scattershot and underbaked”. Well, it’s had an extra year in the oven, now, let’s hope it has something to show for it.
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One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
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