Skip to main content

Play this vampire survival hit for free this weekend on PC

Two vampires holding out swords and approaching each other in a throne room.
Stunlock Studios

I’ve been on the fence about V Rising, which came out of early access this past May. On the one hand, it’s an RPG where you play as a vampire — hunting for victims and building your influence in a dark, gothic world. On the other hand, that comes along with survival game mechanics, which can be difficult to balance between intricate and fun. Off the bat (pun intended), you have to manage your days to avoid sunlight and drink blood regularly, which feels similar to more challenging survival games that require you to eat and drink.

If you’re like me, you might be interested in this limited promotion from the developers at Stunlock Studios. From today, September 12, until 1 p.m. ET on September 16, you can check out V Rising on PC for free as long as you have a Steam account. If you become drawn in during the event, you can get the game for $25 (30% off), along with all cosmetic DLC for 20% off, until September 24. The full V Rising game and DLC bundle is 31% off at $72. This matches the biggest discount on the game since launch to date.

Recommended Videos

V Rising also released a Legacy of Castlevania special edition at launch in June, with various Castlevania-themed cosmetics for both PC and PlayStation 5 players. The Steam version of this DLC is also on sale for $16.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Unfortunately, there is no such deal for PS5 players. Sorry, PlayStation owners. Maybe next time.

V Rising launched in early access before taking off on Steam. Seems that a lot of people took to its genre mix, open world, and resource management since Stunlock was able to boast 500,000 players within the first five days, and a million in the first week. So far, a lot of people have been enjoying this free weekend. At the time of this writing, SteamDB has it tracking at around 10,900 concurrent players.

Carli Velocci
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 won’t be as taxing on your PC
A rainbow colored hot air balloon in the sky.

One of the biggest obstacles to playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is how taxing it is to run on your platform of choice, both in terms of performance and storage. For the next game in the series, Xbox and developer Asobo Studio are making it just a little easier to run.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be around 30GB smaller at installation than its predecessor: 127GB versus 157GB. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was one of the largest games around, and even prompted some people to purchase more powerful hardware for their PCs. And that installation number doesn't even include all the extra content you could buy. While 2024 will still be quite big, trimming it down will make it easier to install on your drive, which probably wasn't that big to start with if you have an original Xbox Series X/S.

Read more
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (September 13-15)
Key art for Age of Mythology: Retold.

If you're a fan of strategy or simulation video games, this will be a great Xbox Game Pass month for you. Its biggest day-one releases -- Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, and Frostpunk 2 -- are all strategy games, while games like Expeditions: A MudRunner Game and Riders Republic are keeping things interesting on the simulation front. If you're looking for something to play this weekend, I'm highlighting a trio of games that provide entertaining sandboxes to play around in.
Age of Mythology: Retold

Following remakes of the three Age of Empires games and the launch of Age of Empires IV, World's Edge gave the series' fantasy spinoff some love. Age of Mythology: Retold is a real-time strategy game similar to the Age of Empires titles in many ways, as players are building up towns and fighting rival civilizations. The biggest twist Age of Mythology provides is the Major and Minor Gods players choose before playing, which give them additional abilities. This remake also gives the experience a graphical overhaul, lets players reuse god powers, and has well-implemented controller support. Whether you're a fan of the original or never played it before, this is worth checking out. Age of Mythology: Retold is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S via Game Pass Ultimate.
Core Keeper

Read more
Play these 3 games before they leave Xbox Game Pass this weekend (August 23-25)
A robot's face pulls apart as it screams in Atomic Heart.

While Xbox Game Pass is still getting plenty of new games, some titles do leave the service every 15 days. At the end of August, we're losing some particularly good ones. If you're a fan of sports games, fighting games, or narrative-driven first-person shooters, then you'll want to play at least one of these games this weekend.

Don't fret that these games are leaving Xbox Game Pass, though. Xbox will be releasing Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Towerborne, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox Game Pass this fall.
Atomic Heart

Read more