{"id":34171,"date":"2019-01-13T21:20:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T05:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=34171"},"modified":"2019-01-13T21:20:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T05:20:20","slug":"xbox-sneaks-into-2019-with-passable-games-with-gold-for-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/xbox-sneaks-into-2019-with-passable-games-with-gold-for-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Sneaks Into 2019 With Passable Games With Gold For January"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new year is upon us, and with that comes the fairly quiet month of January in terms of newly released games for the Xbox One and other consoles. While a few big hits will be materializing at the very end of the month \u2013 including the debut of the Kingdom Hearts<\/em> franchise on Microsoft\u2019s consoles \u2013 the first couple of weeks leading up to it are generally uneventful, allowing folks to play through all the gifts they may\u2019ve received over the holidays. This also carries over into the free games offered through the subscription services, evidenced by the lower-tier, yet still marginally intriguing titles offered through Xbox\u2019s Games with Gold program. From side-scrolling and isometric arcade games to a sequel from several cycles back in a franchise, January\u2019s freebies seem interested in merely jumping across to the next month without getting subscribers excited about it.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/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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\"celeste

Matt Makes Games<\/p><\/div>\n

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Xbox One<\/h3>\n

Celeste (January 1-31)<\/h4>\n

Matt Thorson\u2019s legacy of making games stretches back over a decade and a half, evolving from small flash games to fantasy-inspired action indies such as the archery-based battle royale title TowerFall<\/em>. Celeste<\/em> merges his talents with those of artist Noel Berry, where they realize the journey of a young girl scaling a mountain through retro platforming 2D level design. \u00a0This game falls into the category of \u201ctrial-and-error\u201d challenges, in which the player must learn by failing \u2013 and failing, and failing \u2013 in order to find the right strategy to traverse Thorson and Berry\u2019s beautifully crafted and atmospheric levels. Even among those who enjoy what Celeste<\/em> has to offer, the difficulty and the ratio of reward to challenge seem to be the talking points that confirm this indie exists for a very specific niche of gamers (if the retro bit graphics didn\u2019t already do so).<\/p>\n

WRC6: World Rally Championship (January 16-February 15)<\/h4>\n

Several different studios have taken on the World Rally Championship gaming experience since the gaming franchise\u2019s introduction in 2001, with French studio Kylotonn being responsible for the last couple of installments. Released in 2016 and based on that year\u2019s racing lineup, WTC6<\/em> cranks up the engine again for the studio\u2019s second attempt at the world of rally racing, aiming to be accessible and appealing for the circuit\u2019s fans by offering licensed cars (notably the introduction of Toyota vehicles). Unfortunately, during a period of hiatus for the franchise in the mid-\u201800s, the Dirt<\/em> and Dirt Rally<\/em> series of racing games moved in and claimed the rally-racing crown, which has forced all WRC<\/em> games released afterwards to compete with this critically more well-received competitor. Such is the case with WRC6<\/em>, where racing fans and critics alike consider it a distant second in the pack.<\/p>\n

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\"lara

Crystal Dynamics<\/p><\/div>\n

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Xbox 360<\/h3>\n

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (January 1-15)<\/h4>\n

Regardless of its popularity, the ability for a big brand-name franchise to move into another, smaller style of gameplay can be difficult; the Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> platformer titles and Telltale\u2019s Minecraft: Story Mode<\/em> are a testament to that fact. Occasionally, one of such spinoffs succeeds in capturing the franchise\u2019s familiar attitude while also venturing into new gameplay territory, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light<\/em> stands as one of the better examples.\u00a0 Channeling the 3D exploration and puzzle solving it popularized in the mid-\u201890s into an isometric environment with faster-paced controls and character leveling via skill points, this take on the Tomb Raider brings together both old and new into a recognizable but fresh execution of its concept. Something decidedly new \u2013 and frequently celebrated by players \u2013 is the introduction of cooperative mode to progress and solve puzzles, which can now be done either through couch co-op or online.<\/p>\n

Far Cry 2 (January 16-31)<\/h4>\n

Once a franchise has progressed through many sequels, the faults of prior iterations of the same concept \u2013 especially in earlier generation consoles \u2013 can further stick out. Oftentimes, Far Cry 2<\/em> shows up at the end of lists ranking all the series’ installments released over the years, and it\u2019s not because of the sprawling, immersive open-world jungle landscape or the range of playable characters and weapon versatility.\u00a0 Rather, it\u2019s because this sequel doesn\u2019t take the opportunity to substantially improve upon the previous inaugural Far Cry<\/em>, while also saddled with an uninspired story. \u00a0More than that, a chief criticism comes in mission repetition, notably travels between locations and how tedious it becomes.\u00a0 There\u2019s a threshold for realism, and both critics and fans seem to agree that Far Cry 2<\/em> pushes it \u2026 and judging by the reception to future installments, tapping the breaks on realism can be a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new year is upon us, and with that comes the fairly quiet month of January in terms of newly released games for the Xbox One and other consoles. While a few big hits will be materializing at the very end of the month \u2013 including the debut of the Kingdom Hearts franchise on Microsoft\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":34172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,372,378],"class_list":["post-34171","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\/34171","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=34171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34175,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34171\/revisions\/34175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}