The Play First Trial for Battlefield 1 is out now on Origin and Xbox One. This 10 hour trial is available to all Origin Access and EA Access subscribers. So by paying for a single month of the service (5 bucks) you can play a good chunk of BF1 before the game is officially released. Here's a snippet from EA on what's included in the trial.

Five maps and four modes will be available, including St. Quentin Scar, Amiens, Sinai Desert, Fao Fortress and Suez in the Conquest, Rush, Operations, and Domination modes. There’s also a taste of the singleplayer campaign, with the missions Storm of Steel and Through Mud and Blood. Your progress carries over, too, if you decide to buy the full game after your Play First Trial ends.

I got my fill of Star Wars: Battlefront through the EA Access 10 hour trial last year and am looking forward to probably doing the same with Battlefield this year. I've still got an ongoing yearly subscription to EA Access on the Xbox, but decided to invest 5 bucks to play it on the PC. Between the releases of Gears 4, Civ VI and Titanfall 2 I don't think that I'd have more than 10 hours to invest in Battlefield even if I did buy the full release. Then again EA/Origin Access entitles users to a 10% discount of the Battlefield 1, so there is a slight possibility that I'd pick the game up at the end of the trial if I find myself having a really good time with it.

It seems like a really shitty new business practice that might make them a lot of money. It's basically a rental fee except a week you get 10 hours which doesn't seem all that good. In this case I think people would know what they're getting, which is essentially just another Battlefield game except a lot more scaled back just like Battlefront.

@humanity: Then again, you can spread the 10 hours along a whole month or longer if you want to. I probably play most of my games for less than 10 hours, so a deal like this is excellent for me.

And with the 5 dollar subscription you get 6-13 dollars off your BF1 purchase, so you're not really losing any money even if you were intending to buy the full game.

Of course EA hopes that people will keep subscribing and ultimately pay a lot more than 5 bucks. EA Access has been pretty good value on the Xbox for 25 bucks a year, but the catalogue on the PC is currently a lot smaller and I'm not sure that you can get a yearly subscription on that side.

@isomeri said:

Also one thing to bear in mind is that there's no way to rent PC games. Heck, in Finland there's no real way to rent console games either. The comparison isn't very apt for like half the world where game rentals aren't a thing.

Well then I stand corrected.

I've actually found a lot of personal value in EA Access because of the Vault - I don't want to buy Madden or FIFA but if they're in there as part of my $5/month then hell yeah I'll take Chelsea to the cup.

I did the same as Isomeri with Battlefront as well, and that's actually going into the EA Access Vault as well as the Origin PC Access stuff here sometime soon (ish)? alongside Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Overall it's actually worked for me but I can see where the objections may lie.

This is especially great because I have a buddy I sparsely play Battlefield games with on Xbox One but it's always fun - I didn't want to buy a second copy (buying on PS4 for the main crew) just to play with one buddy like four times a year, but this allows me to get more than my fill in with him, as and even try it out this early.

Wanted to update with a bit of a 2-hour experience - the game is pretty tight in most aspects, but I still notice the old DICE netcode issues from time to time; getting killed by someone behind/hidden by a wall or hill, shooting someone a bunch to just get murdered and throw my hands up asking "why".

The maps and action are pretty intense, I'm most excited to get into a good cohesive squad that works together, as now it's mostly the traditional Battlfield get into a squad and scatter play.

I was sadly not able to matchmake into operations at all - not sure if that's by design but I really wanted to see this mode. Either way, I'm getting the game, but wanted to see this epic scale new-rush style mode.

The war bond progression is kind of cool, and I like where a lot of the things currently lie overall - I really like the "x minutes until level", a small touch but it's going to go a ways to have me think "oh well one more round won't hurt and I'll level"

Obviously if you already are coming in hating on the game it isn't a good deal. Come on dude.

I may try this out just because I can't afford to buy the game for a while.

@artisanbreads: was that in response to my observations? If so, I was just stating my experience with the game on day one of relatively limited availability.

@joe_mccallister: no man it wasn't sorry haha. I appreciate the impressions.

@artisanbreads: lol no worries - sorry if I came off defensive

@joe_mccallister: There are only two servers up right now. East and West for US. That's why quickmatches aren't working properly.

@beardandcompany: thanks for clarity - I noticed the Server Browser was full of 0/64's too - hopefully they start ramping a few things up here over the weekend

@joe_mccallister: Yeah, I'm sure they will. The special edition "play early" doesn't start until I think the 18th, it should start growing more around then.

After getting some more time in on PC and Xbox One I'm shocked that I actually had way more fun in the PC version. It was a mix of doing well in the airship, actually getting into multiple operations game modes, and the chat was surprisingly civil and constructive - asking for help, talking about what was good with the game, even had enemies complimenting me on a good bombing run. I think I came to expect vitriol and utter slime in all gaming communities - and I'm sure when the game releases it won't be as civil with an influx of players, but it really threw me for a loop.

In the beta I thought vehicles were super OP but the other day playing stumbled on the engineer AT Rocket Gun, which was fun to plop down - and the return of mortars are pretty cool too. Overall I'm more excited about the game after a few rounds this weekend.

If people haven't used this weapon: do. It's so badass. Also awesome for enemies hiding in buildings. I was even picking guys off of horses with it in the Beta.

@artisanbreads: didn't even think of that - that's an incredible tactic for those terrifying ponies. I really can't stress how much I enjoyed this trial so far - the campaign really wowed me so far too. I liked the stealth elements had a bit more weight - and as I tend to do with other games it made me get really excited for what's after BF1 (even though it's not out). After playing Fallout 4 I thought "wow Elder Scrolls VI will be amazing" and now I'm thinking that more than ever I want -NO NEED- DICE to hit WWII again. I think they're showing some maturity in storytelling and the way the engines and power can portray war now really have me excited. THERE'S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME FOLKS.

@joe_mccallister: Thanks for the impressions man. I am broke right now so have to wait a bit to buy but I'm so excited. Having singleplayer be quality is a surprise and great to hear.

I would love more historical shooters. I think there's plenty to go back from and hopefully we aren't the only fans that don't need jetpacks and grappling hooks in our shooters. In a lot of ways to me this game is really very WWII given how the weapon balance is with so many SMGs and everything (my favorite thing about WWII games is the balance of weapon types, all distinct and interesting) but a proper WWII game would be welcome as well.

@beardandcompany: absolutely splendid! No bucks from me, then. Could have set up at least one EU server.

@trinketnpinker: the servers may be up but it depends on how many people are playing I think though. I hope someone else can chime on for UK servers.

@beardandcompany: @trinketnpinker: On the PC there absolutely are EU servers up and running, but only a few and those ones are usually full. Using the quickplay option is pretty pointless, but if you go through the server browser it'll only take 1-2 minutes to find a game.

@isomeri: Now they're up. When the trial first started, I didn't even see any EU servers until the day after or so.

I have about 3 hours left on my trial. I wasn't planning to buy the game, but I absolutely will come Tuesday when I have a bit more spare cash.