{"id":25632,"date":"2016-09-09T20:45:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T03:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=25632"},"modified":"2016-10-04T06:16:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T13:16:42","slug":"xbox-runs-full-speed-ahead-with-septembers-games-with-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/xbox-runs-full-speed-ahead-with-septembers-games-with-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Runs Full Speed Ahead With September’s Games With Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes, updating the trappings of a videogame genre results in innovation for a new generation.\u00a0 Other times, it leads to\u00a0a nostalgic response, reminding players of what they’ve dug about the times when a specific genre has really gotten something right.\u00a0 Microsoft’s free offerings for the month of September taps into both sides of that spectrum, where the Xbox One and Xbox 360 have both been given something old and something new to appreciate, replicating well-worn strengths and venturing off the beaten path.<\/p>\n

Click Here to Grab\u00a0a 12-Month\u00a0Xbox Live Gold Subscription\u00a0at Amazon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"xbox\"<\/a>

SnowCastle Games<\/p><\/div>\n

Xbox One<\/h3>\n

Earthlock: Festival of Magic (September 1-30)<\/h4>\n

With the passing of years and shifts\u00a0in gameplay within the RPG\u00a0genre, standard turn-based adventures have fallen more and more into an antiquated niche. When a solid one arrives on the scene, it mostly conjures memories of the games of yore, appealing to nostalgia with its deliberately paced mechanics. SnowCastle Games’\u00a0Earthlock: Festival of Magic<\/em> does this rather directly as it taps into the lineage of classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy<\/em> with its quickly\u00a0recognizable text bubbles, inventory screen, and top-down, angled movement of the character through the game’s environment. Once the random encounters and combat kick into gear, this journey through a world that’s stopped spinning will likely feel about as comfortable as an old blanket. Earthlock: Festival of Magic<\/em> hit the Xbox One Marketplace on September 1st.<\/p>\n

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China (September 16 – October 15)<\/h4>\n

Despite the successes of the games’ immersion, exploration, and storytelling, the Assassin’s Creed<\/em> franchise has always held\u00a0a degree of “missed opportunity” with the locations it explores, mostly weaving through European architecture. While it doesn’t exactly fill the void, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China<\/em> marks one of several installments from Ubisoft and developer Climax Studios that tackles varied locations beyond their normal scope, switching to a side-scrolling perspective the vein of Prince of Persia<\/em>. A female assassin, Shao Jun, trained by the series’ renowned protagonist Ezio Auditore, exacts vengeance on a Templar group\u00a0in her native China, formed within a 2D\/3D-shifting adventure that captures hints\u00a0of the franchise’s spirit. Reviews were mixed for the shifts in stealth gameplay, but the travels through Asian locations and the expansion of the Assassin’s Creed<\/em> lore makes it worth a stab.<\/p>\n

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\"xbox\"<\/a>

EA\/ DICE<\/p><\/div>\n

Xbox 360<\/h3>\n

Forza Horizon (September 1-15)<\/h4>\n

The fifth entry\u00a0in the Forza racing franchise, Horizon<\/em>, merges several of its creative roads into a spinoff from the series’ status quo. Consisting of the veteran racing minds behind the likes of Project Gotham Racing<\/em>, Driver<\/em>, and Burnout<\/em>, developer Playground Games didn’t really strive to innovate, but weld together the successful components of past\u00a0releases into a streamlined, full-throttle package.\u00a0 Between its massive roster of cars and open-world environment, plentiful race types, and its street-cred mechanic that rewards pushing the limits, Horizon accomplished exactly what it set out to do, earning its own cred from both critics and gamers alike for its fusion of realism and boundless freedom on the open roads.<\/p>\n

Mirror’s Edge (September 16-30)<\/h4>\n

Rounding out this month’s freebies is the cult favorite Mirror’s Edge<\/em>, DICE’s innovative approach to the first-person genre. As I chatted about in our guide for Noteworthy Backwards Compatible Games for the Xbox One<\/a>,\u00a0 this depiction of resistance messenger Faith deliberately avoids the trappings of run-‘n-gun shooters, since maneuvering through the complex rooftops and office buildings of a dystopian city slows down the momentum whenever she shoots or attacks enemies. Therefore, properly landing jumps, running along beams, and timing slides underneath objects becomes the game’s draw, propelled by a stellar\u00a0soundtrack and gorgeous realistic visuals. Despite its relative linearity in the solutions to the game’s environmental puzzles, over time the flow and attitude of Mirror’s Edge<\/em> has discovered its footing with the right audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, updating the trappings of a videogame genre results in innovation for a new generation.\u00a0 Other times, it leads to\u00a0a nostalgic response, reminding players of what they’ve dug about the times when a specific genre has really gotten something right.\u00a0 Microsoft’s free offerings for the month of September taps into both sides of that spectrum, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":25633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,372,378],"class_list":["post-25632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bens-bytes","tag-games-with-gold","tag-video-games","tag-xbox-360","tag-xbox-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25632"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25641,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions\/25641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}