Xbox Live Gold members can play Forza Motorsport 5 for free during upcoming weekend

Microsoft has just announced that every Xbox One gamer who is also subscribed to the company’s Xbox Live Gold program will soon be able to enjoy the entire Forza Motorsport 5 experience, as the game will be available free-of-charge for the entire upcoming weekend. Said title will be eligible for downloading beginning at 12:01 a.m. PDT, Sept. 4th, and will end at 11:59 p.m. PDT, Sept. 7th.

Special in-game challenges await everyone who decides to join-in this weekend, in addition to a special multi-class endurance in-game race event – Grand Tour of Prague. Driving at least 130 miles and completing this event will grant players a new title and badge for their Forza Motorsport 5 profile. Furthermore, your achievements and Gamerscore will both be preserved past this extended trail, provided you purchase the full version.

“Forza Motorsport 5 is a cinematic automotive journey starring the world’s greatest cars and tracks, created for gamers and racing fans alike, only available on Xbox One,” reads the game’s official description. “The game features an entirely new graphics engine, 16-car multiplayer races, Drivatar opponents, cloud-powered gameplay, and hundreds of cars perfectly recreated in stunning 1080p and 60fps.”

Forza Motorsport 5 has received generally positive reviews, with aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic giving a score of 79.49% and 80 out of 100, respectively. The game has been praised for its challenging yet fair gameplay, impressive artificial intelligence, and for the fact that even offline races feel like multiplayer competitions. On the flip side, some have criticized it for a relative lack of content when compared to its predecessor – Forza Motorsport 4 – noting an absence of about 300 cars, 20 locations, and “countless tracks”. On February 18th, Microsoft had announced that Forza Motorsport 5 is the fastest-selling racing game on the Xbox One, with the estimated actual sales circling around 1.3 million. On June 16th, 2014, Forza creative director Dan Greenawalt had announced that half of all Xbox One owners have played the full version of Forza Motorsport 5.

To sweeten the deal, every Xbox Live Gold member from the United States can qualify for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the three-day Forza Motorsport Grand Prix Road Racing Class at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Arizona.