{"id":28201,"date":"2017-04-10T19:44:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T02:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=28201"},"modified":"2017-04-11T06:11:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T13:11:58","slug":"sequels-warriors-ryse-to-occasion-in-xboxs-free-april-offerings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/sequels-warriors-ryse-to-occasion-in-xboxs-free-april-offerings\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequels, Warriors Ryse to Occasion in Xbox’s Free April Offerings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are quite a few big-name offerings made available this month for Xbox\u2019s Games With Gold, but, frankly, they\u2019re mostly the kinds of titles that subscribers have likely already powered through \u2026 perhaps even in remastered versions on the current console. A pair of sequels to wildly popular franchises and a Legend of Zelda<\/em> clone flex some muscle for the subscription service, yet all three games can be played in enhanced versions released for the Xbox One, either in collections or as standalone releases.\u00a0 Luckily, there\u2019s one other game on the docket that many subscribers have been clamoring for, a launch title that\u2019s more about current-gen style over gaming substance.\u00a0 It\u2019s a solid month despite those nagging issues.<\/p>\n

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

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Crytek<\/p><\/div>\n

Xbox One<\/h3>\n

Ryse: Son of Rome (April 1-30)<\/h4>\n

Every generation of console has that one tentpole game that the company uses as a demo for what the new hardware can do. Usually, they boast state-of-the-art graphics alongside a fairly standard control scheme that allows the console to flex its technical muscle, ranging from enduring titles like the original Halo<\/em> to colorful kid-friendly action games like Kameo: Elements of Power<\/em>. This generation, that distinction fell onto Ryse: Son of Rome<\/em>, something new for the folks at Crytek who have been developing the visually stunning, graphically demanding Crysis shooter series for many years. Their gears shift to a third-person hack-\u2018n-slash experience set during an alternate version of Rome, where a military leader, Maurius, battles against an invasion of Celtic barbarians. An emphasis on the seamless movement between battles with enemies doesn\u2019t really disguise the game\u2019s shallow combat and emphasis on quick-time events, but Ryse<\/em> sure is pretty and brutal.<\/p>\n

The Walking Dead: Season Two (April 16-May 15)<\/h4>\n

The conclusion to Telltale\u2019s first \u201cseason\u201d of The Walking Dead<\/em> was, to put it mildly, a gut punch. It involves placing a child, protagonist Clementine, in a harrowing scenario and moral dilemma amid a zombie outbreak that would traumatize just about any adult, and the writing handled it with precision and emotional force. Telltale adapted the source material into something entirely different from the wildly popular AMC show, arguably exceeding it in quality with its choice-based system and story variations, and reached this conclusion in such a dazzling way that it\u2019d be difficult to achieve the same heights that it did. Sure, this second season didn\u2019t quite get to the same place with its continuation of Clementine\u2019s story roughly a year later, but Telltale once again brings together the role-playing system involving well-drawn characters and timed dialogue choices into a harrowing Walking Dead<\/em> experience.<\/p>\n

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\"darksiders

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

Xbox 360<\/h3>\n

Darksiders (April 1-15)<\/h4>\n

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if that\u2019s the case, then Darksiders<\/em> has nothing but flattering things to say about Link and his master sword. In a decimated atmosphere, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, strives to clear his name for being falsely accused of prematurely bringing about said apocalypse upon the world of man, which has been ravaged by the warring forces of Heaven and Hell. In his pursuits, War lugs his cadre of weapons to spread-apart points on a map that unlock once he\u2019s regained certain portions of his stripped powers, hacking and slashing his way through enemies and solving environment puzzles until he takes on a penultimate boss that taps into said powers. Underneath the brutal combat and the dilapidated atmosphere lies the tried-and-true formula that has worked wonders for the Legend of Zelda<\/em> series for decades, and it works splendidly as both an homage and its own epic journey.<\/p>\n

Assassin\u2019s Creed: Revelations (April 16-30)<\/h4>\n

The second installment in Ubisoft\u2019s Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> franchise of open-world stealth action games fits up there among the best sequels out there. That\u2019s largely because of the shift in protagonist — the one whose memories are controlled by Desmond in the present era\u2019s science-fiction contraption called the Animus — from the stilted grimness of Altair to the charismatic energy of Ezio Auditore. Brotherhood<\/em> continued to build on this improvement, bolstering the new lead\u2019s magnetism in a game centered on building a followership in Italy. \u00a0Revelations<\/em> brings an end to the new hero\u2019s saga, but it does so by incorporating the original protagonist\u2019s experiences and stratagems through a bit of wizardry. Through the series\u2019 standard sandbox exploration and combat ideas, this finale to the stories of Ezio and Altair tries to be a melting pot of ideas from all the previous games. While still engaging in many of the same ways, the lack of innovation starts to come out of shadows in Assassin\u2019s Creed: Revelations<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are quite a few big-name offerings made available this month for Xbox\u2019s Games With Gold, but, frankly, they\u2019re mostly the kinds of titles that subscribers have likely already powered through \u2026 perhaps even in remastered versions on the current console. A pair of sequels to wildly popular franchises and a Legend of Zelda clone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,372,378],"class_list":["post-28201","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\/28201","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=28201"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28206,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28201\/revisions\/28206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}