All it takes is a few short months for subscription services to enact rumored, some might say “feared” choices that will pave the way for larger overhauls in the programs. The key one on the Xbox side of the coin being, of course: when will Games With Gold be phased out? For quite a while, Microsoft maintained that their original Gold subscription program would remain a component of their strategy for the foreseeable future, but that foreseeable future may be coming into sight with the elimination of legacy Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games in October as part of the subscription benefits. In contrast to the newer Game Pass titles, which remain eye-catching even if they aren’t high-profile, the energy has been dramatically slumping with what’s being offered through Game Pass – both Xbox One and legacy games – and seems to be slowing down as a way of approaching this discontinuation.

Let’s take a closer look at this month’s Gold titles and some recent Game Pass additions, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Game Pass Ultimate Subscription to get the benefits of the Game Pass titles, the regular Gold sales, and of course online gaming.

XBOX Game Pass Ultimate — New and Upcoming

Inside

Many elements went into the success of LIMBO, the grayscale platformer from developers PLAYDEAD, chief among them being the stark shadowy aesthetic that gave it the visual tempo of a classic horror film. The studio had something to prove with their second project, though: that their talents extend beyond the slick gimmick that certainly accentuated the violence of a young, silhouetted protagonist repeatedly meeting their demise in gloomy shadows. INSIDE proves that there’s plenty more to them than that.

The second game from PLAYDEAD scraps the stark silhouettes and brings depth and dimension to their familiar side-scrolling gameplay mechanics, in which another young boy navigates a terrifying dystopian environment. While there might not be much color in INSIDE and the platform mechanics will feel similar, the sights and sounds come across very differently in this textural stream of nightmarish tableaus. Both critics and players have been absorbed by the insistently grim and grotesque experience, engaged by its tense levels and exploring interpretations of what its dual endings actually mean.  

Watch Dogs 2

Ubisoft’s first run at the Watch Dogs concept ended up being marred by potential that couldn’t quite be satisfied, delivering a surveillance tech stealth game that lacked the expected innovation and freedom boasted by its creators. Once the player cuts through those aspects, however, the overall experience delivers familiar stealth action game design with fresh tools at its disposal, eventually earning a reputation after a few years for being somewhat underrated. With expectations more in check and a list of things to improve, Ubisoft Montreal took a second crack at the concept with Watch Dogs 2.

Armed with a superior protagonist and a more engaging narrative that borrows a little from the likes of Minority Report, this sequel centers on a hacker wrongly accused of committing crimes by the predictive aspects of San Francisco’s electronic infrastructure. From there, Watch Dogs 2 takes the general outline of the first game and juices up the mission structure, the flexibility of the user interface, and the general openness of the game design. Both critics and players acknowledge the focus on those improvements while also dinging it for not refining its suspension of disbelief or not letting go of certain things that just didn’t work, landing on a generally more positive impression than the one left by the original.

Torment: Tides of Numenera

There was a glorious period in the mid-2010s where isometric RPGs made a serious run at a comeback in the absence of many other fantasy-RPing options, largely on the energy of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns that proved the interest is still very much there. Alongside Pillars of Eternity that provides a “spiritual successor” to the likes of Baldur’s Gate, Torment: Tides of Numenera focuses on doing the same as a love letter to Planescape: Torment, concerning itself with dense, layered storytelling that molds to player choices throughout the adventure.

Taking place far into a future where civilizations have risen and fallen, Torment refocuses on the world in a less-advanced state full of scattered settlements and lingering mysteries from before the setting’s “Ninth Age”.  The protagonist has been constructed as the “vessel” for an ancient man who has discovered how to transfer consciousness from body to body, and it’s up to the protagonist to stop the chain and to defeat a force called “The Sorrow” before it consumes them both.  As expected, the narrative and choice-and-consequence versatility in Torment: Tides of Numenera have been widely celebrated and deemed worth playing for any RPG fan interested in those aspects; however, many critics and players view the clunky mundaneness of its combat and encounters as a big obstacle.

Xbox Games With Gold

For those still riding on the Gold train, we’ve got a foursome of middling, yet decent titles that can certainly be described as eclectic. Over on the Xbox One, we’ve got Calico (August 1-31), a management sim in which the player runs their own … cat café, or more accurately reconstructs one within a town and repopulates it with new furry residents. Some who might be drawn into the pastel, magical aesthetic and cat collection and management might want to give it a go, but critics and players have struggled with glitches and bugs since launch. The other title is ScourgeBringer (August 16 – September-15), a colorful and retro-infused roguelike platformer that delivers the kind of fast-paced challenge and rinse-and-repeat learning gameplay that devotees of the genres adore.

In one of the last months of legacy titles to be offered, at least Microsoft’s going out with a banger or two. This month, they’re offering folks the chance to have Saints Row 2 (August 1-15) — yes, the game that’s routinely priced lower than $5 through digital sales — ready to go on their hard-drives for free. As the middle title between the franchise’s slightly more serious first game and the balls-out humor of Saints Row: The Third (my personal favorite), the second one strikes a pretty satisfying balance between those two spectrums as it imitates the open-world gangster gameplay of Grand Theft Auto with a satirical edge. Finally, there’s Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine (August 16-31), a top-down heist management and strategy game noteworthy for being developed by the sole designer behind Pocketwatch Games.

Xbox Game Pass, Gold Freebies for August Keep Excitement on Inside

Well, we’ve entered into the year 2022, and Microsoft continues to maintain both their Game Pass Ultimate and Games With Gold programs, available separately or the more common priced-reduced bundled service. One remains an outstanding value, and the games introduced into the Game Pass library this month only strengthen those impressions, making available both heavy-hitters and indie darlings alike. The other … ? Well, the benefits of Games With Gold continue to center on access to sales and being able to play online with friends, though that’s rumored to be on the chopping block in the near future to make online gaming free for both paid and free-to-play titles. The free titles are a footnote upon a footnote, and continue to become more discouraging with each passing month.

The baseline subscription fee for both Game Pass + Gold is still worthwhile, however, and should be considered the ideal way to be a member of Team Xbox, whereas Microsoft’s making it harder and harder to justify being purely a Games With Gold subscriber. Let’s take a closer look at what’s on offer from both sides, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate Card at Amazon so save a few space bucks.  

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming Titles

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

This year will mark a decade since the original Mass Effect trilogy concluded in spectacular, albeit polarizing fashion. Despite the nature of its ending, the series has maintained a loyal, passionate fanbase who — whether through the good old passage of time, the assistance of end-game mods, or understanding that it wasn’t so bad after all — has come to accept what’s there and clamored for a remastering of the emotive space opera RPG. Years passed without a peep, and then rumors emerged about a new “legendary edition” that would be bringing the games to the new generation of console gaming. Would it just be a simple pass-through remaster to get the visuals up to proper HD strength, or would they be overhauling the gameplay and tinkering with a few things, such as the disparity between the first clunky, RP-centric Mass Effect and the more fluidly engineered third-person shooting of ME2 and ME3. And up until release, this kind of remained a mystery.

The answer, as seen in the Legendary Edition remastered bundle of all three Mass Effect games with every ounce of story DLC included, is something in between. ME2 and ME3 have seen subtle, but noticeable improvements in graphical prowess, environment layouts, character cohesiveness, the morality system’s levels and other aspects, but by and large remain “the same”. Mass Effect 1, however, has been dramatically altered in terms of both impressive visuals and gameplay, yet in such a way that doesn’t stray from the original game’s intentions; weapon access, using cover, squad control and general AI, gunplay accuracy, and enemy vulnerability have all been overhauled. Those looking for a remake with additional content will be disappointed; those looking for a vastly superior upgrade in how they enjoy the Mass Effect universe should absolutely suit up to turn some virtual asses into actual dust.

Gears (of War) 5

While Mass Effect often showed up on short lists for one of those “must play” games for the Xbox 360, it was almost always guaranteed that the original Gears of War would be near the top of ‘em all. Other games did it well enough before, but the sci-fi shooter mastered the art of designing levels and gameplay intensity around cover-based action. Cap that off with an undeniably cheesy ‘80s-movie amount of bravado from the heroes and their thirst for bloody violence, and you’ve got the recipe for a franchise that runs strong for an entire trilogy … and then carries over into less iconic, yet still enjoyable spinoffs and additional games.  Thing is, with both the games outside the original trilogy, it became obvious that both the narrative and the third-person shooter gameplay were starting to show some rust. The excitement’s still there, along with the fanbase, but the series just needed something fresh.

Gears of War 5 makes it clear that they’re getting things up to new standards by dropping the “of War” from the title that so often gets left off anyway in casual conversation, delivering just Gears 5. On top of developing the younger, newer characters from the previous games, game-makers The Coalition also get their hands dirty with semi open-world gameplay concepts and very light RPG aspects for variety and breadth. When adding these things, The Coalition makes sure to preserve – and, in a way, recapture – the bravado of the earlier titles from Epic Games, showcasing a devotion not just to getting back to the series’ roots, but also to spruce them up and make them feel relevant in the new generation.  Both critics and players agree that the craftsmanship was largely a success, praising the campaign and the open-world implementation, even though some feel it retreads old storytelling elements.

Outer Wilds

What started out as a college thesis project made by someone who wasn’t really interested in crafting full video games at the time, soon developed into a fleshed-out, commercial sci-fi exploration experience that shows up on numerous “best of year” lists and even a few “best of all time” lists as well. Outer Wilds – not to be confused with Obsidian’s Outer Worlds, which shares a few similar gameplay and atmospheric elements – takes the player on an adventure through a solar system caught in a time loop.  Every 22 minutes, a star goes supernova and effectively resets the clock, sending our stalwart alien astronaut character back to square one in his search for an answer.  With some help from alien technology, he’s able to remember anything he’s learned in the previous loops, so his objective becomes to explore the galaxy and gather as much info as possible to discover a solution to the supernova.

Outer Wilds relies entirely on the immersion of its exploration, a combination of the general atmospheric intentions and objective-based adventuring of the likes of No Man’s Sky, Mass Effect, and Outer Worlds. The activity isn’t about engaging enemies, though, instead about discovering answers, solving puzzles, and unearthing knowledge at the various points of the solar system to fix the problem. This pieces together into more of an interactive experience than a traditional game, though survival is a concern and death can reset the clock if not monitored carefully.  Both critics and players have heaps of wonderful things to say about Outer Wilds, from the direction and destination of the narrative to the  execution of exploration and atmosphere.

Xbox Games With Gold

The strategy behind the games selected for Xbox’s Games With Gold doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at this stage, unless one applies a simple, pessimistic line of thought to it: they’ve stopped being concerned with keeping their subscriber base satisfied or interested. For the Xbox One, they’ve selected a retro twinstick shooter indie called NeuroVoider (January 1-30) that blends pixel graphics with robotics, as well as a 8-bit sidescrolling building/resource sim called Aground (January 16 – February 15) that shows some clear similarities to Minecraft. Both seem well-crafted and potentially engaging, yet neither have pulled enough attention from critics or players to have much of a reputation, certainly not on the level of the bounty of high-profile titles that Microsoft could theoretically include with the program. This signals de-prioritization.  

The legacy titles are about of the same caliber, though a bit more significant than the Xbox One offerings as of late.  Radiant Silvergun (January 1-15) is a polished “restored” version of a popular late-‘90s arcade shoot-‘em-up featuring futuristic fighter pilots versus alien forces, and is viewed as the precursor to the classic Ikaruga. Space Invaders: Infinite Gene (January 16 – January 31) takes the classic arcade title and spit-shines it for the semi-modern era, capturing a similar tone and excitement to the updated iteration of Tetris or Geometry Wars. These will at least ignite a spark of nostalgia.

Xbox Game Pass, Gold Freebies: Lotsa Sci-Fi For the New Year

November has finally arrived, and with it comes some jockeying between the Xbox camp and other consoles for who’ll come out on top during the holiday shopping rush. Thing is, due to the rampant unavailability of consoles across the board because of supply-chain issues, it’s looking like a complicated month – more so than normal — where folks will be beyond lucky to buy a console of any kind throughout the holidays. There’s a lot of distractions going on right now, but at least Microsoft is stepping up with quality releases through their Game Pass program to help out.

While their Games With Gold titles remain lackluster, they’ve provided some real attention-grabbing titles to their other subscription program this month, from a huge new release and an game-of-the-year contended to a highly popular remastered classic … even though that one’s getting dragged through the mud right now.  Let’s take a closer look at the games, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon for access to these downloads and exclusive deals on their marketplace.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games’ Forza series has become appointment-worthy over the past decade of its development, providing some of the clearest examples of how the Xbox console’s graphics and tech are progressively pushed beyond their limits. Starting with the original 360 title and moving to Forza 4 on the One, there’s a clear and observable succession of improvement across the life cycle Microsoft’s last-gen system. From game modes and familiar included cars to the general impressiveness of the graphics, the advancements aren’t of the same caliber as sports games that seem to reproduce largely the same experience year after year. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the company’s first installment designed with the Xbox Series X in mind would be hotly anticipated, and it arrives in style.

Forza 5 takes the action to Mexico, producing an open-world driving landscape that’s been crafted with research and reference from across the range of areas there, a purposeful design choice to amp up the variety in gameplay. That is, if the 500+ cars available in this installment can’t do that on their own, on top of the new dynamic weather system, the car and player-character customization, and the scattering of play modes across the otherwise sandbox environment. Both critics and players alike have had nothing but positive things to say about Forza Horizon 5 up to this point, celebrating both its aesthetic polish and its combo of gameplay variety and arcade excitement.

Grand Theft: Auto San Andreas — Definitive Edition

Enough has been said about the quality of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over the years that it almost feels unnecessary to mention how thoroughly it impacted the PS2-era of gaming consoles, whose popularity could be attributed to reason we’ve got the juggernaut of GTAIV and GTAV today. Unfortunately, there’s another hot topic going around about Rockstar’s game, notably about the quality of the most recent remastering of San Andreas and its predecessors GTAIII and Vice City, being billed as the “definitive edition” of the trilogy. Most would assume that a company like Rockstar – again, the studio behind both these games and the stellar-reviewed Red Dead Redemption series — would effortlessly produce satisfying, crowd-pleasing remasters of these games, but that’s not quite the case.

Developed by Grove Street Games, formerly known as War Drum Studios and as the folks responsible for other Rockstar ports, these Definitive Editions of the GTA games have been labeled less than stellar for a number of reasons. From sound quality dips and text misspellings to rampant graphical issues related to both character models and the landscape, the grievances have been voiced quite clearly by early players. It’s for this reason that the addition of San Andreas to the Game Pass library should be celebrated, as players are able to try out this remastered iteration for themselves before jumping into a full trilogy purchase; for some, the issues could be overpowered by the improvements and nostalgia factor.

It Takes Two

The title above is a literal expression of what’s required to play Hazelight’s most recent creation: It Takes Two needs a willing pair of gamers to get through it. This can be a hurdle for some players who like to plow through action-platform style games on their own speed, but when it’s from the mind of content director Josef Fares, there’s a sense of confidence in the requirement having enough purpose to justify it. Fares first made a name for himself in the game arena at Starbreeze Studios by developing the under-the-radar hit Brothers, which utilizes siblings with individual strengths to create innovative gameplay situations that are hinged on expressive storytelling. These are aspects he carries over to his own Hazelight Studios in development of the similarly dramatic co-op adventure A Way Out.

It Takes Two transforms those emotional concepts into actual gameplay designs, in which the young daughter of a soon-to-be divorced couple takes doll versions of her parents off to play, then tries to repair their relationship through thrilling adventures in fantasy landscapes. As these Coraline-esque doll versions of the parents – each controlled by a different player – complete tasks in the level design that echo a wide variety of gameplay styles, it brings aspects of their family relationship more into focus as the two characters gain control of new abilities and coordinate them with one another.  Both critics and players have adamantly sang praises for just about everything involved with It Takes Two, from the novel variety of fluctuating genre styles to the visuals and the cooperative synergies.

Xbox Games With Gold

While Game Pass continues to thrive by offering day-and-date megahits and game-of-the-year contenders, Microsoft’s legacy program Xbox Games With Gold maintains its slope in the opposite direction, showcasing little firepower in their monthly included freebies. Let’s start on the Xbox One with a moving simulator … yes, a moving simulator, as in a puzzle game designed around moving out of a house. In the same vein as Overcooked, Moving Out (November 1-31) takes a mundane activity with potential complications and transforms it into a fast-paced, outlandish cooperative experience that’s assuredly more fun than doing the real thing. Also on the current Xbox system is Kingdom: Two Crowns (November 16-December 15), a beautiful 8-bit inspired, side-scrolling fantasy game that combines settlement management with exploration and survival. Critics and players praise the aesthetic, but feel the slower pace and simplicity hold it back.

Over on the legacy Xbox systems, we’ve got a pair of recognizable faces within middle-of-the-road action games that clearly have younger audiences in mind with their inclusion. First, there’s Rocket Knight (November 1-15), an action-platform game featuring a classic Sega Genesis character revived for the current era. While the original Rocket Knight continues to be regarded as one of the better platform titles on the Genesis, this new iteration proves that modern examples of the genre need a little something extra and need more longevity than what it provides. There’s also LEGO Batman 2 (November 16-30), and let’s be real, the LEGO titles are effortlessly entertaining across the board regardless of peaks and valleys in quality, so the inclusion of the Dark Knight in his blocky form will always be welcome.

November’s Xbox Freebies: Game Pass Moving Up, Gold Moving Out

The decision-makers at Microsoft responsible for picking what titles should be available on Game Pass this August were on top of their game this time around.  It’s no secret that the month’s full of distractions, both in terms of real world back-to-school prep and football season revving up and in terms of Madden being the big video game of the season. Instead of resting on their laurels, the Game Pass folks have made available some rather desirable action titles aimed to fill another, different void with whimsical escapism and step-by-step upgrade management.

Are these heavy-hitting AAA titles? Debatable, but not really, and that’s perfectly fine considering the substance of what’s being offered.  From a hotly-anticipated console port of a PC darling to a pair of long-awaited sequels with substantial cult fanbasres, there’s plenty to unpack and enjoy throughout the month. Let’s take a closer look, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 3-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription at Amazon to enjoy all the titles here.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Hades

As mentioned in our new video game release coverage for August (click here to read!), Hades has up until now enjoyed a healthy degree of exclusivity for the PC crowd, only moving over to the Switch after leaving early access. The roguelike dungeon crawler has become one of many envies of the big console owners, with them unable to take on what’s been proclaimed as one of the best of the genre, though naturally the difficulty of the title will vary depending on the level of player you’re asking.  Some find it quite difficult and others with genre experience find it more manageable, but both camps agree upon the quality of the storytelling, atmosphere, and addictive repetition gameplay.

Now, the rest of the console crowd will be able to gain control of the Prince of the Underworld as he battles his way through the realm in an escape to Mount Olympus, who utilizes gifts from other godly observers to get through the randomized sequence of rooms and obstacles. Due to the upgrade systems, the revolving nature of the rooms, interactions with characters both in the Underworld and beyond, and the purge-and-try-again nature of the upgrades, Hades delivers a consistent rush of fresh experiences for each beautifully rendered isometric hack-‘n-slash run.

Dodgeball Academia

Dodgeball video games aren’t very common, yet despite the existence of the National Dodgeball League and the memories of countless people who played the game in their youth, there hasn’t been much of a push for it. That’s likely because the mechanics can end up being similar to other sports titles – passing, tossing, or volleying a ball to connect with a target – or even old-school arcade ball-shooting games. Therefore, the dodgeball premise needs an extra hook to make it appealing, like robots on wheels that explode upon ball impact or outlandish obstacles cruising through a circular arena instead of a rectangle.  

Dodgeball Academia goes deeper with its ambitions. While it stays true to the rectangular arena of the sport, the game that exists around it makes the experience something that’s both unique and familiar, incorporating social and role-playing aspects of Pokemon and Rockstar’s Bully alongside the elevated version of dodgeball being played. In the arena, generous powerups and delightfully flashy animations add zest to what’s otherwise a sidescrolling dodgeball experience that’s trying to be as normal as possible under those circumstances. Both critics and players young and old alike have raved about Dodgeball Academia, hinged on a charming RPG storytelling design and sharp arcade gameplay.

Psychonauts 2

As Tim Schafer’s reputation for quirky writing and vibrant, open-audience designs has strengthened through his efforts with the likes of Costume Quest and Broken Age, the demand for a return to Psychonauts has also continued to mount among its fanbase. It’s not on the same mythical level as, say, Half-Life 3 or a FFVII remaster, but this sequel has established a similarly meme-worthy demand among its niche audience that sparked every time the folks at Double Fine would succeed with another project. At long last, folks get to regain control of Raz as the psychokinetic action-puzzle gameplay again delves into themes of anxiety and mental health, embarking on a mission to get the Psychonauts back on track.

Even though it only lasted about two months, the exclusivity window for the original Psychonauts often ties people’s thoughts to it being an “Xbox title”. Because of this, something feels inherently right about the sequel emerging as a day-one offering through Xbox’s Game Pass program, though naturally Xbox Game Studios has plenty of control over that as the game’s publisher. Other consoles won’t be getting the optimized version of Double Fine’s long-awaited return to the Psychonauts universe, though, as that’ll be an exclusive Xbox Series X offering. Psychonauts 2 will be released and available for download through Game Pass on August 25.

Xbox Games With Gold

Xbox One

Surprisingly, Games With Gold shows a bit of a pulse for the month of August, including a significant recent sequel to a popular action franchise.  On the Xbox One side of the coin, Darksiders III (August 1-31) returns to the mythical open-world ambitions of the first two games after a lengthy hiatus, with publisher THQ Nordic passing the baton to the developers responsible for the successful “Deathinitive” remastering of the second installment, Gunfire Games. While Darksiders received heaps of praise for being a one of the best non-Zelda Zelda action games ever created and Darksiders II expanded the concept into a fantastic open-world design, Darksiders III and the introduction of protagonist Fury didn’t strike the same chord, enduring technical glitches and clumsily borrowing from the Souls brand of tough dungeon crawling. The second half of the month gets Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (August 16-September 15), a side-scrolling puzzle platformer featuring an animal duo that’ll stir up some nostalgia for a few classic Nintendo titles.

Over on the legacy console offerings, there’s Lost Planet 3 (August 1-15), the divisive conclusion to EA’s third-person shooter franchise. Critics and players were warm enough to the improvements in shooting and atmosphere that resulted in decent enough action, but were left in the cold by other clunky, repetitive aspects of the gameplay and questionable storytelling choices. Rounding out the month is Garou: Mark of the Wolves (August 16-31), also known as Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves and the last installment in the 2D fighting franchise. Originally released to arcades in 1999, this marks one of many ports across consoles over the past 2 decades, and mostly remains a title for the die-hard fans of the genre and Fatal Fury itself.

August’s Xbox Game Pass and Gold Titles Go Through Hades to Deliver Action

Between last month and this one, there’s a lot of pretty great new video games to play across all platforms, and it’s possible that Microsoft hopes that’ll be enough to make one shrug off their inclusions for June’s Xbox Games With Gold. It’s tough to know what they’re really thinking with their choices nowadays, though, as this month’s roster makes it seem like they’re evading obvious ones and instead picking less desirable or dated substitutions.

At this point, they have to know baseline subscribers are less than satisfied with what they’ve been offering recently; whether something will be done about it remains to be seen. Until then, Live subscribers will have to settle for a borderline mediocre month of dungeon crawlers, 2D platformers, and outdated fighting games.  Let’s take a closer look, but before you do, consider Grabbing a 3-Month Subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from Amazon for access to a plethora of titles alongside these freebies.

Xbox One

The King’s Bird (June 1-30)

After the likes of LIMBO and Outland left their mark on the console arcade scene, the “silhouette platformer” has slowly formed into its own subgenre. The sharp contrast of black shadows against vibrant backgrounds makes for visually involving experiences, ones that also take some pressure off the creators in rendering character models so they can dedicate their energy to creative level design. The King’s Bird follows in those same artistic footsteps, yet takes them a step further, both in the artistic nature of it all and the challenging aspects of the level design.

As the game’s visuals become inherent to its avant-garde storytelling, the briskness of the gameplay takes the challenge to another level, resembling the timing and coordination of the likes of Super Meat Boy in how the character scales and bounces between walls of the vibrant atmosphere. Critics and players both have been mixed on The King’s Bird, embracing the visuals and momentum but dinging the difficulty and conceptual narrative.

Shadows: Awakening (June 16-July 15)

Roughly half a decade back, there was a welcome spike in new isometric role-playing experiences, marked by “spiritual” returns to the Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment realms with Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera. While the games differ in their combat styles, neither are twitch hack-‘n-slash experiences, and their sustained popularity and the energy of Kickstarter campaigns ensured that others in this lower-key vein would come out of the woodwork. 

Released at the end of 2014, Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms responded to the mounting demand for old-school RPGs and quietly slipped onto the scene little earlier than those. It leans more into the real-time tactical combat design as the player gains control of a demon who consumes the souls of the human realm, leading into heavy choice-based gameplay and variety of combat based on the types of souls consumed. Awakening compiled both the story of Heretic Kingdoms and a new extension of the narrative into one experience, one that’s praised for its versatility, visuals, and gameplay systems while also critiqued for repetitive puzzles and combat.

Xbox 360

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (June 1-15)

The rising popularity of Marvel vs. Capcom and Super Smash Bros. Melee proved that mashing together popular characters from a bunch of franchises, whether they were similar or not, was a desirable idea. Already in a downward slope, the SNK/NeoGeo fighting game arena decided to hop on this bandwagon by releasing NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, which brings together popular characters across the company’s key franchises – mostly fighting games of varying types – into a familiar tag-team fighting setup.

There’s no denying the draw to being able to pit popular characters from across the sometimes overlooked SNK roster against each other – Terry from Fatal Fury, Ryo from Art of Fighting, Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown – and Coliseum delivers on that promise. Unfortunately, both critics and players agree that there isn’t enough in the execution to keep the game from seeing like it’s just playing catchup to its competitors, though the obvious pleasures in seeing familiar characters squaring off against one another will have its own distinct reward for SNK/NeoGeo enthusiasts.

Injustice: Gods Among Us (June 16-30)

Not entirely unlike NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, the attraction to Injustice: Gods Among Us will obviously be the opportunity to pit popular characters from across a universe against one another. Only with this one, the folks at Netherrealm Studios – essentially Midway – bring together the bigger-than-life personalities of the DC comic books into their arena, allowing hand-to-hand fights between Superman and Batman, Flash and Green Arrow, even Bane and Doomsday to happen in near Mortal Kombat style.

Seeing certain superheroes and villains battling against each other without one immediately losing to another might be a tough pill to swallow — *nudge, wink* — but Injustice: Gods Among Us finds a way for it to make sense and, in the process, ends up telling an above-average story for a fighting game. Both players and critics agree that regardless of the zaniness of the story’s setup, the fighting itself delivers on all levels and reflects the effort put into it from Ed Boon and the MK team. It’s a shame that this isn’t the Ultimate Edition, though.

Xbox Games With Gold Freebies for June Far From Super

For a number of months now, the games being offered as free downloads through Microsoft’s Xbox Games With Gold program have been notably lacking in strength and any sort of excitement factor. It’s been stated and restated before: there are no plans to phase out the standard Xbox Live program. However, the disparity between the quality of games offered under Xbox’s longstanding subscription program and their other program – Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate – has grown wider and mote prominent.

It’s at the point now where the rallying outcry from subscribers (mostly through social media) against the monthly offerings has been covered by online publications, with this month reaching a particularly loud point over the lackluster slate, which contains no next-gen title, a few poorly-reviewed ones, and nothing high profile. As Game Pass remains a highly-recommended program with a fantastic revolving door of playable games – Click Here to grab a Three-Month Subscription of Game Pass Ultimate from Amazon – it becomes harder and harder to recommend being solely a Xbox Live subscriber, and certainly not just for the free games and deals.

Xbox One

Vikings: Wolves of Midgard (April 1-30)

While Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla has received heat for a slightly rough launch and questionable design decisions – seriously, no one-handed viking swords? – the game has still come out on top as one of the most reliably enjoyable things to play on the next generation of consoles. While players were awaiting the arrival of a “viking simulator”, Games Farm quietly released Vikings: Wolves of Midgard several years back, a beat-‘em-up action game that aims to tap into similar aesthetics and attitude.

From the isometric gameplay to the skill trees and control objectives, this one can essentially be summed up as “Diablo, but with Vikings” as players can explore open landscapes and grind their way through battles and player levels. Being frank, it’s really not that tough to satisfy fans of the dungeon crawler subgenre so long as it offers a taste of what they love from the experience, and this one manages to do that.  However, players and critics alike have been less than thrilled with how Vikings: Wolves of Midgard doesn’t do enough to break apart from the pack.

Truck Racing Championship (April 16 – May 15)

Believe it or not, the sport of semi-truck racing has existed since the mid-‘80s, and it’s about as nuts as it sounds with how the action puts heavy pressure on the trucks not to tip or burn out their brakes. Controlling a vehicle like that in a high-speed racing environment comes with its own challenges, something that also translates to the video game arena, such as piloting the bulkier, slower, yet forceful Darkside in the Twisted Metal vehicle combat franchise.  It’s a different control experience, but fun.

While there are other devoted semi-truck games out there, few others take the concept as seriously as the simulator Truck Racing Championship; after all, there’s no competing with American Truck Simulator. ETRC racing has its own set of regulations and distinctive attributes, and the folks at N-Racing aim to bring the uniqueness to the video game realm with a standard realistic simulator design. Generally, the consensus is that the game brings the unique heft of the racing experience to consoles, but it takes a little long to get through the (necessary) tutorial and it lacks both visual and AI polish once it’s actually embroiled in the action.

Xbox 360

Dark Void (April 1-15)

Somewhere between the whimsy of The Rocketeer and the contemporary appeal of Iron Man lies the desire for some people to strap on jet engines, fly through the air and save the day. There are a lot of aspects to this concept that would be difficult for any developer, such as getting velocity and a sense of gravity right in the control, something that might be extra difficult for a studio on its first venture into the gaming realm.  That did not dissuade Airtight Games from making Dark Void, though.

Taking place before World War II for a little of that retro Rocketeer feel, the plot centers on tossing a cargo pilot onto another world – by way of the Bermuda Triangle — and into the fray of battle between humans and aliens for the ability to return home. Critics and players seem to think they’ve applied functional controls to Dark Void in guiding the character through the high-flying, guns-blazing setup, but it doesn’t deliver enough in the gameplay to offset a lackluster story, lack of depth, or short play time. At least Airtight Games stuck with it and eventually got around to Quantum Conundrum and the underrated Murdered: Soul Suspect.

Hard Corps: Uprising (April 16-30)

There’s always a niche market for retro-style video games, but we’re in the middle of a period right now where developers are creating devotedly nostalgic titles that truly celebrate what they’re “copying” instead of trying to conceal it.  This goes doubly for those developers and/or franchises who decide to revive or spin off from a longstanding series with those vintage gaming roots. How much updating should be done and how much old-school attitude should be preserved is a quandary that has stumped many popular franchises from previous gaming system eras.

Hard Corps: Uprising stealthy conceals its roots, as it’s actually a spinoff from the Contra series, specifically from a Sega Genesis title – Contra: Hard Corps – from over a decade and a half before its release.  While it doesn’t sport the yellow-and-red C, it still captures the familiar side-scrolling intensity through its updated levels, gameplay, and character selection. And both critics and players are quick to emphasize the fact that it is, indeed, hard, so it also has that carried on through its lineage.

Xbox Games With Gold for April Are Way Off Track

Several months back, Microsoft assured current Games With Gold subscribers that the baseline Xbox Live subscription service wasn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future, despite some changes in marketing and a notable downward slope in the profile of the included monthly free games. Since then, the quality of the titles has undergone big shifts: one month might not feature any desirable or AAA games, another might have older or remastered favorites yet nothing big, and then the next month may have a Series X/S gen title added with a few other suitable offerings.  

The pattern leaves one with hope that they’re going to figure out a sustainable middle ground between offering considerable titles without “giving away” any of the big moneymakers … but March isn’t going to help that with its forgettable, iffy-reviewed slate of freebies. Let’s take a closer look, but before you do, be sure to jump over and Grab a 3-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Sub from Amazon to get these titles and the others available through Game Pass.

Xbox One

Warface: Breakout — March 1-31

As soon as someone hears the name Crytek, most gamers usually conjure memories of the graphically stunning yet technologically complicated sci-fi shooter Crysis, as well as the sequels.  Crytek’s network of studios engaged in other projects, though, and one of them was the tactical shooter Warface from Crytek Kiev — who later formed into Blackwood Games — and published by My.Games. Breakout is a spinoff game from the original, and has been developed by Allods Team under the My.Games label. It’s a bit of a confusing development history for the series, but that also reflects the meandering popularity of the franchise.

A tactical player-versus-player shooter that has essentially mimicked other series since its conception, Warface: Breakout arrived in 2020’s climate of online battle royale games like PUBG and Fortnite, not to mention the ebb and flow interest in Call of Duty and Counter-Strike. It’s tough to claim a stake in that arena, and Warface: Breakout doesn’t seem to do enough for either players or critics to think it stands out from the rest of the troop, with most comments led by mentions of other popular franchises and/or a lack of other options.

VALA: Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse — March 16 – April 15

You’ve likely killed hordes of many different types of baddies in your gaming life, from zombies to aliens to insects, but the folks behind VALA are banking on the fact that you’ve never thought about having to do this to … llamas. That’s right, the furry, adorable creatures of pop-culture and baby-room lore have turned into the frenzied tools of the Llamanati, and it’s up to the player to pilot mechs from a distance away to mow all the incensed creatures down in the wake of the “apocalypse”.

Intentionally ridiculous, VALA (Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse) operates on twin-stick shooter controls to manage the overwhelming isometric fast-paced action, in which the mechs patrol neon-bathed city streets and take out as many llamas as needed. As one might expect, there’s a longevity issue with the humor, with critics quick to point out that the game’s variety dries up pretty quick after players are used to the joke. They also praise the pacing and intensity of the shooting, though, which gives VALA a raw excuse for players to suit up and engage the Llamanati for at least a few waves here and there.

Xbox 360

Metal Slug 3 (March 1-15)

Let’s jump back a few decades, though, to the point where these endless shooting experiences originate. In the mid-‘90s, run-and-gun side-scrolling military games continued a rise in popularity largely created by Contra. Metal Slug may imitate the formula, but its specific brand of personality and the vigorousness of the action earned a place for itself, both at the arcades and at home as one of the heavy hitters on Neo-Geo consoles. It’s a franchise with over a half-dozen primary entries and a bunch of spinoffs, and has been ported onto numerous consoles over the years.

Metal Slug 3 marks an overhaul point for the franchise, arguably the pinnacle of what it’s capable of, taking its core gameplay style and juicing it up with new options.  It also marks the point when it started becoming available on a broader selection of consoles, notably its eventual debut on the first Xbox. The 360 port dedicates itself to being true to the original retro experience, both in controls and in graphical presentation, but the addition of online co-op on the console gives it an extra kick.

Port Royale 3 (March 16-31)

Pirate simulator games have existed in some form or fashion since the late-‘80s, but they always struggled to harness a lot of mainstream popularity until recently.  The combination of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and the TV show Black Sails holds most of the responsibility for changing that, which eventually funneled into the development of the more whimsical, yet still very much simulation-based Sea of Thieves, a flawed but popular title on the Xbox.

Just before all this happened, in 2012, Port Royale 3 embarked onto PCs and consoles from Kalypso Media.  It’s the third installment in the “merchant simulator” line of games, in which players can choose how to conduct their business – either as a legit businessperson, an allied buccaneer, or an outright pirate – and travel across the seas doing so. While there’s plenty of freedom in how to handle the resources at the player’s disposal, critics and players agree that it moves at a leisurely pace and has a lot going on with its simulation aspects, which can weigh down one’s investment in the experience. Port Royale 4, released last year, seems to have received slightly stronger marks.

March’s Xbox Games With Gold Unleash Lots of Shooting, Little Firepower

While things are looking good for the titles available through the Xbox Game Pass subscription platform right about now, times are getting tough for the old guard with standard Live memberships. As the high-value, game-focused service gets inclusions like Doom Eternal and Control, the standard “online-plus” level sees one of its most forgettable months in recent memory, sporting questionable choices even in which platform and what form an included title should show up in.

Microsoft absolutely wants folks to jump in on this next per-month option, and it has become increasingly more difficult to get enthusiastic about the video games being included as freebies at the lowest tier subscription plan. It’s unknown what this indicates, but I probably would invest in a Game Pass subscription card at Amazon (buy here) – which also includes the Games with Gold benefits covered below – instead of sticking with the same-old, same old. Let’s take a closer look.

Xbox One

The Raven: Remastered — December 1 – December 31

Fans of whodunit mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie should find some enjoyment in The Raven, once subtitled Legacy of a Master Thief before dropping it in the move to current-gen consoles. The story centers on a Swiss police constable named Zellner, whose clumsy speech, squatty disposition, and distinct mustache pair with his love for detective novels to shape him into someone highly reminiscent of Mr. Poirot from Christie’s books.  

Zellner gets embroiled with the case of the Eyes of the Sphinx, a set of rubies in which one becomes stolen by the masked figure on the box artwork, leading into an intriguing sleuthing case on a journey to Cairo, Egypt, the rubies’ intended destination. A casual point-and-click game with moderate usage of stealth mechanics, The Raven earned modest positive reviews for its characterization and setting, ultimately hampered by the mystery’s foreseeable trajectory.

Bleed 2 — December 16 – January 15

One of the downfalls of retro platform games — in the vein of Metroid, Mega Man, and Contra — becoming popular again is that certain “lesser” ones now run the risk of staying completely off the radar. The original Bleed is one of such titles, released in 2017 to very little fanfare and so-so reviews, praising the quickness and vintage vibes while also dinging it for the shortness and repetitive design. Bleed 2 aims to deliver more of the same, for better and for worse.

The lead character, Wryn, now a celebrated star for her blitzed heroics in the first game, must tackle yet another 7 levels of fast-paced gunfire and enemies as she aims to take down invading aliens (of course!).  The second game pulls the trigger on delivering more of the first, tightening the shooting aspects and emphasizing the slow-motion moments, and despite once again slipping under the radar Bleed 2 has earned stronger critical and player praise for its refinements.

Xbox 360

Saints Row IV: Gat Out of Hell — December 1-15

Look, I love me some Saints Row, particularly the third and fourth games. Some might not see eye-to-eye on this, but the shift in Saints Row: The Third from the series being an elevated GTA clone to being an outlandish, balls-out spoof is the best thing that could’ve happened to it. There’s the same sense of freedom to blitz through Steelport City any way you see fit, but the way those games encourage the player to try out its most outlandish tricks – from wielding big, floppy melee weapons and riding hoverbikes to strapping on hero costumes and unleashing superpowers – makes for unyieldingly fun and outrageous sandbox experiences.

Including one of these titles in the Games With Gold is great, as it has been when Microsoft has done so previously; however, the fact that it’s only Gat Out of Hell, Saints Row 4’s middling add-on, and only on the Xbox 360 is a big bummer. Just include the whole shebang for both consoles.

Stacking — December 16-31

The folks at Double Fine are known for making games with heaps of unique personality, starting with the infectiously unique action game Psychonauts and leading into the heavy-metal ballad Brutal Legend and the family-friendly gateway RPG Costume Quest. They really push the envelope with Stacking, though, and it’s still potentially their most ambitious, if flawed, creation.

The game focuses on partly “living” nesting dolls, and the premise hinges on a family forced into industrial labor, with the youngest child, Charlie, working to free them. With many obstacles ahead of him, Charlie must jump into the cores of other dolls that possess unique abilities that will help him solve puzzles, oftentimes stacking multiple dolls for various purposes in different parts of a puzzle. Between the smartly emotional narrative, the layered puzzle-solving, and the novel partially-alive presence of the dolls themselves, Stacking is just as idiosyncratic and, according to most critics and players, roughly as satisfying as Double Fine’s other works.

December’s Xbox Gold Titles Suggest the Fire’s Slowly Dying in Live Over Holidays

Microsoft has been stuck in a slump of passable monthly freebies for its Xbox Games With Gold subscribers for quite a while now, almost as if they’ve run out of available options.  These past months would have been a great time to get aggressive with the quality of their titles; instead, they’ve stayed very low-key by offering games that draw little attention to their service. Here’s what we’ve got this month: a platform game whose sequel was a Games with Gold title several months ago; a coffee shop simulator; a legacy Xbox title that’s getting an HD remake next month; and a side-scrolling airplane shooter. Instead of dazzling subscribers by digging into their high-profile back of tricks with tons of other substantive titles, they’re going light and passive once again, marking yet another shrug-worthy month. Let’s take a closer look, though.

Click Here to Grab a 12-Month Xbox Live Gold Subscription at Amazon

Xbox One

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (June 1-30)

The Shantae series of platformers has a richer, longer history that one might expect, dating back to 2002 with its eponymous debut on the Game Boy Color. Since then, the property has bounced around between platforms – mostly on Nintendo devices – but has ultimately found a comfortable home on most consoles, beginning with a port of The Pirate’s Curse. Controlling the half-genie, hair-whipping Shantae, players navigate through colorful and moderately challenging platform levels as Shantae pursues the origin of Dark Magic that’s plaguing Scuttle Town and beyond. With a gameplay style not unlike a combo of Castlevania and Mega Man, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse sends its hero across multiple islands and through dense, lovingly crafted levels rendered with beautiful retro graphics.  The limited difficulty and borrowed concept might not fully satisfy the most hardcore or experienced platform players, but Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse conjures plenty of magic for the rest.

Coffee Talk (June 16 – July 15)

Visual novels, or other types of dialogue-based adventures, push the boundaries of the videogame platform by drawing players into unique storylines that justify this absence of traditional gameplay. Coffee Talk takes that concept perhaps a bit too far: those who play it become a barista at a coffee shop, which prompts them to converse with customers, make latte art, and check in on social media.  Luckily, there’s a deeper hook to the game, in that the characters who come into the coffee shop are of the mythical variety … so you’re conversing with elves and werewolves about their personal problems instead of humans. Both critics and players seem to agree that the Coffee Talk experience has a narrow audience focus, on those who are both interested specifically in visual novels and are comfortable with a slower, leisurely pace even for the subgenre.

Xbox & Xbox 360

Destroy All Humans! (June 1-15)

Couldn’t possibly imagine why Microsoft has made the original Xbox version of Destroy All Humans! available as a free download this month.  It can’t possibly have anything to do with generating buzz for the remake that’s coming out next month, can it? Those are pretty big shoes to fill, though, as the love and attention that Pandemic Studio poured into the Destroy All Humans franchise – among others – has transformed the defunct studio into the stuff of legends.  The original Destroy All Humans! got the concept down as soon as it arrived, dropping Crypto-137 onto a peculiar version of Earth to rescue his compadre, Crypto-136, who has been wounded and captured by the government. The humor behind these stereotypical aliens interacting with our world, and our world covering up whatever destruction he unleashes in his rescue attempt, is delightful … and the action remains some of the most zany and engaging to come out of the PS2 era.

Sine Mora (June 16-30)

The pickings are slim when it comes to arcade-style airplane games, which can be surprising considering the longstanding popularity of titles like R-Type and Ikaruga that lend themselves well to that concept. Sine Mora taps into that idea with a slight fantasy twist, crafting an alternate steampunk-ish world of unpredictable states of the Earth’s crust, talking animals, planes that can operate just as well underwater … and the nuclear bombardments on the verge of happening. A side-scrolling, 2.5D shoot-‘em-up, Sine Mora feels exceptionally retro in its graphical presentation and control scheme, but the artistic polish and overarching attitude of the created world give it a unique edge.  While some genre fans may take umbrage with the fact that the perspective is horizontal instead of vertical, both critics and players seem to agree that the thrill and the rewarding difficulty’s there for Sine Mora to take flight.

Xbox Games With Gold for June: A Weak Retro Brew

While the past few months in the broader world itself have certainly been eventful, the lineups of free video games from the subscription services have been far less so. Perhaps it’s because of the rampant digital sales that the services have been offering, hoping that folks being home far more often will drive sales instead of justifying free downloads.  Regardless of the reasons, especially on Microsoft’s service, the freebie download options have been even a step below subpar; the stray option of being able to download Fable Anniversary for the Xbox 360 isn’t enough to offset those impressions.  Unfortunately, May doesn’t do much to help get things back on track, offering lackluster racers, middle-of-the-road sequels, and a decades-old sports title described by the word “sensible”.    Players need something more in their lives to soften the blow of their subscription prices during these times, but let’s jump into what’s here anyway.

Click Here to Grab a 12-Month Xbox Live Gold Subscription at Amazon

Xbox One

V Rally 4 (May 1 – 31)

The options available to gamers who want to hop in the driver seat of some fast-paced racing are even more plentiful nowadays than they used to be, and there hasn’t been a shortage for a very long time now. Instead, the games have comfortable separated into niches – arcade, simulator, street, circuit, offroad, etc. – and have further refined against the competition within those.  DIRT occupies the throne for the rally racing brand of games, while the V-Rally brand came out of a 15-year hiatus to provide some competition. Comparisons are naturally formed, and both critics and players have warmed to its robust visual presentation and general control responsiveness.  What seems to be unavoidable problems with this latest iteration of V Rally, however, lie in an inability to commit to an overall game style (arcade or simulation) and obtrusive AI for the rival drivers.

Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor – Martyr (May 16 – June 15)

Recognizable science-fiction branding mixes with a reliable gaming concept – and its eager, built-in audience – with this dungeon crawler based in the Warhammer universe. For a long time, Diablo-like games were in short supply; players turned to the likes of Torchlight, Sacred 2 and Dungeon Siege III to get their fill of the hack-‘n-slash loot subgenre until Diablo 3 finally decided to show up. Now, however, the options are far more plentiful, which makes a fairly straightforward clone like this not as easy of a sell. Sure, devotees of the concept will be excited to hear about the game’s selection of classes, loot possibilities, rich dungeon atmosphere and multiplayer capabilities, and those interested in the Warhammer universe will have plenty to sponge up through the campaign.  That said, both critics and players have noted that there isn’t much to it beyond unoriginal dungeon-crawler game design and the Warhammer brand.

Xbox 360

Sensible World of Soccer (May 1-15)

I never had the chance to play Sensible World of Soccer when it was first released (Amiga!) in the early-‘90s, but I did have a great time playing other early console-based soccer games. Fairly straightforward movement and shooting controls still led to exhilarating, strategic gaming experiences, and while the isometric viewpoint might be different from Sensible Soccer’s top-down approach, the thought process behind the handling of players and their actions shares more than a few similarities.  Thing is, there are certain aspects of Sensible World of Soccer that hardcore soccer game fans continue to praise, notably the “realism” of how the players and ball move across the field, how power kicks can be better tailored to situations, and of course the extensiveness of the roster/player customization. This has led Sensible World of Soccer to hold its own even against the modern marvels of graphic capabilities, an experience that last-gen consoles passed to the modern era in 2007 with a port.

Overlord II (May 16-31)

The original Overlord struck a chord early in the 360’s lifecycle, dazzling with its fiendish and chaotic tones as the player navigates how the main character “uses” his goblin-esque underlings. Through trials of combat and ritualistic sacrifice, these minions become a resource to generate and exploit, and the game’s tone works around varying degrees of evilness within its role-playing. It’s a novel concept, but one that has a certain amount of lasting power that may or may not work with a sequel. Overlord II proves that there’s just enough juice to squeeze out of the concept for a follow-up, but only just enough. Critics and players both felt that there was a been-there, done-that aspect to the overarching design of Overlord II, for better and for worse, and that was before the middling aspects of the world size and camera functions started to overpower its devilish charms.

May’s Xbox Games With Gold On Cruise Control with Burnt-Out Sequels, Sports