You can play new, realistic FPS Wardogs for free this weekend

Wardogs is having a closed test this weekend, giving players another chance to jump into the tactical FPS game for free before launch. The game has amassed over one million wishlists on Steam and will be released on September 10, so this may very well be your last chance to play for free, if you're quick.

The Wardogs closed beta test will run from Friday, August 21 at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 6pm BST to Sunday, August 23 at 8pm PDT / 11pm EDT / Monday, August 24 at 3am BST.

I had the opportunity to jump into Wardogs during the last playtest and was surprised by how well put together it was, as you can read in my impressions piece here. It's a large-scale military sim in the vein of Arma, with the class system of Battlefield and the gunplay of something like Escape from Tarkov. It uses a money based system to gauge how well someone is doing, something I said was "proper carrot-on-a-stick stuff but in the best way."

While trying to find the middle ground in these three goliaths of the genre may have left Wardogs lost, it has a distinct feel that I've been craving for a long time. Slow-paced and very deliberate, players can find a place in the chaos, doing whatever they think might be helpful at the time. 

Foot soldiers push the agenda, fighting to gain control of key points, pilots ferry players from the main HQ into the danger zone, and recon players - like me - skulk the edges of the map, looking for easy prey, providing valuable information to the rest of the team. 

The thing that sets Wardogs apart is its obsession with profit and loss. Every time you spawn, you must purchase your loadout, with every gun and round of ammunition costing something. Each act of teamwork you perform earns you money - reviving teammates, ferrying passengers, killing the opposition - with the ultimate aim of not only winning the match, but ending with a positive bank balance.

It's a fascinating exercise in greed as teamwork, and from what I saw, it works. Playing the objective is a lot more appealing if there's a huge dollar sign waiting for you. To apply for the playtest, head over to the Wardogs Steam page and click Request Access. See you out there!