Stalker 2 and Little Nightmares 3 Are Free to Try on Xbox This Weekend, No Game Pass

Have a weekend free and an Xbox? You can try four big games without paying a rupee or a cent. GamingBible reports that this week’s Xbox Free Play Days line-up opens Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl, Little Nightmares III, High on Life 2, and Rogue Waters to every Xbox player as timed trials. ARC Raiders sits on top as a full free-to-play weekend. You don’t need a Game Pass subscription for any of these five. You only need to download them before the window closes.

Free Play Days: no Game Pass needed for these five games

Here is what every Xbox player gets this weekend:

• ARC Raiders: the full extraction shooter, with no limit on how far you can progress. It lines up with the Frozen Trail update. (We covered the ARC Raiders free weekend and Frozen Trail timing earlier this week.)
• Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl: GSC Game World’s open-zone shooter, now on its 2.0 version after a rough launch. It works as a standalone story, so you can jump in as a newcomer.
• Little Nightmares III: the Supermassive-developed horror puzzle-platformer. The trial covers the base game, not the newer DLC.
• High on Life 2: the talking-gun comedy FPS sequel.
• Rogue Waters: a turn-based pirate roguelite with procedurally generated encounters.

Game Pass members on any tier can also try Screamer and Family Man.

The trials are timed, so plan your weekend

For the four trial games, the listings don’t say how many hours you get. Pick the game you really want to judge and play it first. Xbox Wire says access ends Sunday, October 11. Embark’s own ARC Raiders listing says Monday, October 12. Go with the earlier date.

How to grab them: open the Xbox Store on your console, go to the Free Play Days collection, and install from there. Big downloads like Stalker 2 can eat most of a slow-connection evening, so start them now.

What this means for you tonight

If you’ve put off buying Stalker 2 or Little Nightmares III because of mixed launch reviews, this weekend is a free way to decide. If none of these appeal, ARC Raiders alone is worth a full weekend at no cost.