Microsoft Scales Back with Games with Gold May Offering

By on April 29, 2015

April gave us quite the bundle of free goodies from the Games with Gold freebie promotion, scaling considerably from the tidbit titles to the massive, AAA stuff. Reality settles back in for Games with Gold May 2015, though, with only three newly free games across both consoles and one holdover from this month, according to Xbox Wire. Here they are, for better or worse:

Xbox One

As always, both titles will be free for the duration of Games with Gold May.

Castlestorm: Definitive Edition

The tower defense genre bloomed ever so loudly in the app stores, but lately such titles have been scarce on consoles. That’s just about the best reason why Castlestorm matters, delivering the kind of immediately addictive, but ultimately shallow, gameplay so intuitive to the genre. It’s bombastic fun, and definitely worthy as a free download.

Poolnation FX

Here’s the holdover. It’s a very fancy pool simulator, trick shots and online play included. Check out last month’s article for more details. Or, you know, just go download it. This thing might just be free forever.

Xbox 360

Mafia II

(free from May 1- 15)

This is your low-rent GTA clone of the past generation, taking players to the Godfather crime era and letting them loose in a narrative-driven open-world. There’s nothing particularly special about this game, but it does what it does well enough to keep fans of the genre entertained in the run-time.

F1 2013

(free from May 16-31)

The simulation masters at Codemasters deliver an acceptable F1 experience with F1 2013, neither bending the very fabric of our simulation expectations nor faltering in the delivery of a satisfying challenge. As such, this one should hit the radar of car and race enthusiasts. At the very least, it’s a quality sim title that isn’t Forza or Gran Turismo.

F1 2013 Games with Gold May

About Trevor Ruben

Though I contribute to many online publications on a regular basis, including The Checkout, the crux of my writing lies in video games. When not writing, I'm often streaming a variety of games on Twitch.

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