Play the free beta of a new wild west battle royale this weekend
New weekend plans: Checking out Grit, which I believe is the first noteworthy battle royale game of 2021 and the first old west-themed game of the year as well. My old weekend plans were putting on a cowboy hat and sauntering around the house yelling "yeehaw!" a lot, so the timing here really worked out.
Grit takes a traditional approach to battle royale: 100 cowboys enter, one cowboy leaves. But it has some fresh ideas about loot (guns you pick up become poker hands that give you perks), you can fight on horseback, and there are trains. The developers are banking on the western genre being as much a part of the appeal as the battle royale format.
You can read a lot more about Grit in my interview with the developers, where we talk about the feel of the game, the map design, and how the heck cowboys have parachutes.
You can get a key for this weekend's beta on Steam. If they run out, expect more beta tests between now and Grit's planned release on Early Access somewhere down the dusty trail.