{"id":27207,"date":"2017-02-08T07:24:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T15:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=27207"},"modified":"2017-02-08T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T15:26:08","slug":"pirates-heroes-in-galaxies-far-away-among-xboxs-february-gold-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/pirates-heroes-in-galaxies-far-away-among-xboxs-february-gold-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Pirates, Heroes in Galaxies Far Away Among Xbox’s February Gold Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Honestly, this is a month where the games of last-gen are allowed to shine. Whether that\u2019s a testament to the quality of the legacy games or the shrug-worthy nature of the current-gen choices\u00a0shall remain up to the individual. Microsoft\u2019s Xbox One offerings for the month of February are limited in their appeal, focused on colorful space-themed multiplayer adventuring and realistic racing simulation. Their Xbox 360 free downloads, however, contain a broader appeal, tapping into humor and nostalgia with a pirate-themed sequel to a previous Games with Gold title and a bold, action-oriented\u00a0trip into the universe created by George Lucas. Let\u2019s dig into the games.<\/p>\n

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

\"lovers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Xbox One<\/h3>\n

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (February 1-28)<\/h4>\n

Remember the \u00a0feeling of watching Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, while fleeing the Empire\u2019s forces, run to their respective guns in the Millennium Falcon and coordinate their laser-shootin\u2019 defense attack against the inbound ships? Well, if you transform the ship into a giant circle with tons of weapons and send it spinning\u00a0through an onslaught of colorful, chaotic galactic levels full of living enemies, that\u2019s pretty much the experience fueling Asteroid Base\u2019s Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime<\/em>.\u00a0 Against hordes of organic and inorganic enemies within its neon-colored visual design, players explore the winding mazes of different levels in search of vulnerable critters to rescue, passing through hostile territory as they unleash attacks upon aggressors.\u00a0 The controls and ship upgrade systems allow for single-player enjoyment, but the core of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime comes in having at least one co-op buddy there to jump between the ship\u2019s stations.<\/p>\n

Project Cars (February 16 – March 15)<\/h4>\n

Racing games typically steer in either one of two directions: they can push the pedal to the medal with brisk,\u00a0breakneck competition, or they control the facets of the racing and make the experience more practical and befitting of a simulation.\u00a0 Naturally, developers would like to nail\u00a0both, but one often seems to be prioritized above the other in the creative process, depending on the game\u2019s intentions. Project Cars<\/em> aims for the latter, focusing its efforts toward providing a broad range\u00a0of cars and locations to navigate through the game\u2019s realistic controls and responsive physics. Despite the many customization options available, where one can fine-tune the degree of realism and race parameters, some have critiqued the game\u2019s notable lack of car brands and its middling controls as factors that sap Project Cars<\/em> of some entertainment value.<\/p>\n

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\"starwars\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Xbox 360<\/h3>\n

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck\u2019s Revenge (February 1-15)<\/h4>\n

Can I just copy and paste some comments here about the first installment in the Secret of Monkey Island<\/em> remastered series, which has been covered in both November\u2019s Games with Gold<\/a> rundown and Ben\u2019s Bargains Noteworthy 360 Backwards Compatibility<\/a> guide? Because just about everything said about the first journey of Guybrush Threepwood applies equally as much to Monkey Island 2: LeChuck\u2019s Revenge<\/em>. Graphic improvements merge with dedicated admiration for the original tone and intentions of this point-and-click adventure, which occurs some time after Guy\u2019s triumph\u00a0in the first installment with a literal cliffhanger that begins his new pursuits for the treasure of \u201cBig Whoop\u201d. Humor, puzzle-solving, and thrilling heroics continue to elevate the antiquated play mechanics all these years later, and this remaster from LucasArts ups the ante with reverent artistic\u00a0updating along with a few new surprises.<\/p>\n

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (February 16-28)<\/h4>\n

During the period between the release of the final\u00a0entry in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith<\/em>, and the first entry in a new saga, The Force Awakens<\/em>, fans of the beloved franchise had to scramble between books, TV series, and videogames to get their fix for that galaxy far, far away. \u00a0The lackluster reception to the prequel trilogy opened the door for other piece of fiction to right a few of its wrongs, something that LucasArts\u2019 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed<\/em> quite admirably attempts to do. With assistance from George Lucas and his continuity staff, this story of Vader\u2019s conflicted apprentice, Starkiller, once folded into the narrative canon of the Star Wars universe. The novelty of that unfortunately gets weighed down by gaming concerns, notably the linear level design and the power-driven combat\u2019s link to difficulty. This results in an electrifying but unbalanced stab at the universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honestly, this is a month where the games of last-gen are allowed to shine. Whether that\u2019s a testament to the quality of the legacy games or the shrug-worthy nature of the current-gen choices\u00a0shall remain up to the individual. Microsoft\u2019s Xbox One offerings for the month of February are limited in their appeal, focused on colorful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":27208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,372,378],"class_list":["post-27207","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\/27207","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=27207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27214,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27207\/revisions\/27214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}