{"id":31915,"date":"2018-04-05T15:48:42","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=31915"},"modified":"2018-04-05T15:48:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T22:48:42","slug":"xbox-springs-action-aprils-games-gold-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/xbox-springs-action-aprils-games-gold-adventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Springs Into Action With April’s Games With Gold Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While the official start date for spring is a few weeks into March, most people associate the turn of the season with the blooming plants, pastel colors, and Easter celebration of April. After a relatively frigid first few months from the Xbox camp, it looks like Microsoft have embraced the spirit of this season by getting their Games with Gold for the month to blossom. Containing a pair of noteworthy AAA titles and a novel, popular abstract gaming experience \u2013 and, oddly, yet another Pixar movie tie-in \u2013 their foursome of titles for April finally show some life in a shrug-worthy year thus far. Here\u2019s hoping that they continue to flourish in the coming months. Let\u2019s dig deeper 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

\"witness

Thekla Inc.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Xbox One<\/h3>\n

The Witness (April 1-30)<\/h4>\n

As games grow larger, more elaborate and sophisticated in their digital world-building, the puzzle adventure genre struggles to keep up. Either those games ease up on the technical aspects and conjure a deliberately nostalgic return to the era of Myst and Sierra\u2019s point-and-click adventures, or they go into the territory of walking simulators, which can easily struggle with pacing issues and staying engaged with the narrative. \u00a0The Witness<\/em> takes a major step toward combining these two concepts, bringing the exploration aspect of the best first-person puzzlers from the \u201890s with the sprawling landscape of a modern open-world playground.\u00a0 Vibrant multihued graphics create a sense of wonder as the player navigates a secluded island, while grid-based and environmental puzzles offer a deep and largely unguided challenge, provoking the curiosity and sleuthing of the player. The second game from designer Johnathan Blow, the guy responsible for Braid<\/em>, has been regarded as another indie masterwork.<\/p>\n

Assassin\u2019s Creed: Syndicate (April 16 – May 15)<\/h4>\n

Prior to the Egypt-themed Origins<\/em>, the Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> franchise proved to be a tricky and awkward challenge for Ubisoft. They struggled to revolutionize their endlessly popular open-world property while also fumbling with digital quirks, mostly with their first current-gen installment, Unity<\/em>, which has documented glitches in both form<\/a> and function<\/a>.\u00a0 Syndicate<\/em> had the unfortunate honor of following Unity and cleaning up the mess of its reputation, yet it does so admirably with an absorbing setting \u2013 steamy, leather-bound Victorian London \u2013 and the concept of dual protagonists, siblings Jacob and Evie Frye, who can be switched on the fly. \u00a0Even with the novel atmosphere and pairing of main characters, however, Syndicate<\/em> feels like Ubisoft played it safe after the tumultuous release of Unity<\/em>. While it exists on the better side of the spectrum of games in the franchise, its moving parts aren\u2019t significantly different to those in other Assassin\u2019s Creed entries, resulting in a sturdy yet worn-out stealth sandbox.<\/p>\n

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\"dead

Visceral<\/p><\/div>\n

Xbox 360<\/h3>\n

Cars 2 (April 1-15)<\/h4>\n

The inclusion Brave: The Video Game<\/em> in the previous month\u2019s Games With Gold offerings was a bit of a head-scratcher, mostly because that game\u2019s most distinguishing component was its functionality with the now-defunct Kinect camera system. Now, Microsoft has included another Pixar tie-in that might also cause some to scratch their heads a bit, but for other reasons.\u00a0 Notorious for arguably being Pixar\u2019s worst film and an indication that they were veering into mindless sequel territory, Cars 2<\/em> was adapted into a console videogame by Avalanche Software, transformed into something of a Mario Kart<\/em> clone. Characters from the film engage in combat-style lap racing under the guise of an espionage training simulator, where victories unlock vehicles and tracks and multiplayer functionality is always an option. Designed for kids, Cars 2<\/em> arguably finishes its race in better standings than the movie itself.<\/p>\n

Dead Space 2 (April 16-30)<\/h4>\n

Visceral Games\u2019 original Dead Space<\/em> conjures fond memories of writing about videogames during last-generation. After the developer \u2013 then known as EA Redwood Shores — telegraphed one of the more unsettling horror games released in a very long time, drawing comparisons to the scares of Hollywood productions, genuine enthusiasm built up around what non-sports projects could accomplish under EA\u2019s oversight. \u00a0Dead Space 2<\/em> furthered this enthusiasm, as the unrelenting atmosphere and fine-tuned third-person shooter controls of the original see improvement in the sequel. Isaac Clarke\u2019s unnerving navigation of alien-infested structures comes face-to-face with his waning sanity, while design tweaks beef up the sci-fi shooting aspects, thrusting him against warped new necromorph aliens and complex gravity scenarios. Dead Space 2<\/em>\u2019s elevation of the concept put Visceral Games on the map, which would unfortunately be the last indisputable success from the developers, who shuttered in October of 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the official start date for spring is a few weeks into March, most people associate the turn of the season with the blooming plants, pastel colors, and Easter celebration of April. After a relatively frigid first few months from the Xbox camp, it looks like Microsoft have embraced the spirit of this season by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":31916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,889,372,378],"class_list":["post-31915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bens-bytes","tag-games-with-gold","tag-video-games","tag-xbox","tag-xbox-360","tag-xbox-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31915","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=31915"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31928,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31915\/revisions\/31928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}