Ryse : Son of Rome, the graphical powerhouse developed by Crytek as a showcase launch title for the Xbox One is free on PC for one month from July 6th on UK based trial site Gamesessions.com
Ryse was praised for its visual fidelity, story and cinematic feel, but criticised for QTE heavy gameplay and short run time.
Players who register on the site (it’s free), download the game and play for 5 minutes will have unlimited access to the full game, albeit with a few small ads. An ad-free steam key is offered at a reduced price.
The offer is part of the now ongoing Gamesession Giveaway promotion which in recent months has seen Codemasters’ racer Dirt 3 and indie strategy game Villagers available for absolutely nothing.
Gamesessions is a relatively new concept, Dirt 3 was given away as part of a 3rd anniversary celebration. Registered users can trial games for free and have a time limit anywhere between 20 minutes and 3 hours, the time limit is different for each game and reflects the length and complexity of the game. Players will have to watch a short preroll ad and some infrequent game overlays
At the end of the trial, users can either pay to rent the game for longer, or buy a Steam key. Progress and saves will be transferred to their Steam account. No card or bank details are taken, so users cannot accidentally spend money by overrunning the trial or forgetting to cancel. The service is an alternative to Steam’s 2-hour trial-and-refund policy, with the financial risk for the trial being taken by Gamesessions instead of the user.
The service currently has just over 100 games to trial, from older classics such as Darksiders 2 and 2011’s Space Marine, to indie games like This is The Police and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and even a few newer titles – Kill the Bad Guy and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun both released in the last 12 months.
Some big names in the UK industry are involved in Gamesessions, including Director Ian Livingstone OBE – founder of Games Workshop, Eidos Interactive and ‘the father of Lara Croft’.
