{"id":43818,"date":"2022-08-15T14:13:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T21:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=43818"},"modified":"2022-08-15T14:41:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T21:41:03","slug":"xbox-game-pass-gold-freebies-for-august-keep-excitement-on-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/xbox-game-pass-gold-freebies-for-august-keep-excitement-on-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox Game Pass, Gold Freebies for August Keep Excitement on Inside"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All it takes is a few short months for subscription services to enact rumored, some might say \u201cfeared\u201d choices that will pave the way for larger overhauls in the programs. The key one on the Xbox side of the coin being, of course: when will Games With Gold be phased out? For quite a while, Microsoft maintained that their original Gold subscription program would remain a component of their strategy for the foreseeable future, but that foreseeable future may be coming into sight with the elimination of legacy Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games in October as part of the subscription benefits. In contrast to the newer Game Pass titles, which remain eye-catching even if they aren\u2019t high-profile, the energy has been dramatically slumping with what\u2019s being offered through Game Pass \u2013 both Xbox One and legacy games \u2013 and seems to be slowing down as a way of approaching this discontinuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at this month\u2019s Gold titles and some recent Game Pass additions, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Game Pass Ultimate Subscription to get the benefits of the Game Pass titles, the regular Gold sales, and of course online gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PLAYDEAD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

XBOX Game Pass Ultimate — New and Upcoming<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Inside<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Many elements went into the success of LIMBO<\/em>, the grayscale platformer from developers PLAYDEAD, chief among them being the stark shadowy aesthetic that gave it the visual tempo of a classic horror film. The studio had something to prove with their second project, though: that their talents extend beyond the slick gimmick that certainly accentuated the violence of a young, silhouetted protagonist repeatedly meeting their demise in gloomy shadows. INSIDE<\/em> proves that there\u2019s plenty more to them than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second game from PLAYDEAD scraps the stark silhouettes and brings depth and dimension to their familiar side-scrolling gameplay mechanics, in which another young boy navigates a terrifying dystopian environment. While there might not be much color in INSIDE<\/em> and the platform mechanics will feel similar, the sights and sounds come across very differently in this textural stream of nightmarish tableaus. Both critics and players have been absorbed by the insistently grim and grotesque experience, engaged by its tense levels and exploring interpretations of what its dual endings actually mean. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch Dogs 2<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ubisoft\u2019s first run at the Watch Dogs <\/em>concept ended up being marred by potential that couldn\u2019t quite be satisfied, delivering a surveillance tech stealth game that lacked the expected innovation and freedom boasted by its creators. Once the player cuts through those aspects, however, the overall experience delivers familiar stealth action game design with fresh tools at its disposal, eventually earning a reputation after a few years for being somewhat underrated. With expectations more in check and a list of things to improve, Ubisoft Montreal took a second crack at the concept with Watch Dogs 2<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armed with a superior protagonist and a more engaging narrative that borrows a little from the likes of Minority Report<\/em>, this sequel centers on a hacker wrongly accused of committing crimes by the predictive aspects of San Francisco\u2019s electronic infrastructure. From there, Watch Dogs 2<\/em> takes the general outline of the first game and juices up the mission structure, the flexibility of the user interface, and the general openness of the game design. Both critics and players acknowledge the focus on those improvements while also dinging it for not refining its suspension of disbelief or not letting go of certain things that just didn\u2019t work, landing on a generally more positive impression than the one left by the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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InXile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Torment: Tides of Numenera<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There was a glorious period in the mid-2010s where isometric RPGs made a serious run at a comeback in the absence of many other fantasy-RPing options, largely on the energy of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns that proved the interest is still very much there. Alongside Pillars of Eternit<\/em>y that provides a \u201cspiritual successor\u201d to the likes of Baldur\u2019s Gate, Torment: Tides of Numenera<\/em> focuses on doing the same as a love letter to Planescape: Torment<\/em>, concerning itself with dense, layered storytelling that molds to player choices throughout the adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking place far into a future where civilizations have risen and fallen, Torment refocuses on the world in a less-advanced state full of scattered settlements and lingering mysteries from before the setting\u2019s \u201cNinth Age\u201d. \u00a0The protagonist has been constructed as the \u201cvessel\u201d for an ancient man who has discovered how to transfer consciousness from body to body, and it\u2019s up to the protagonist to stop the chain and to defeat a force called \u201cThe Sorrow\u201d before it consumes them both. \u00a0As expected, the narrative and choice-and-consequence versatility in Torment: Tides of Numenera<\/em> have been widely celebrated and deemed worth playing for any RPG fan interested in those aspects; however, many critics and players view the clunky mundaneness of its combat and encounters as a big obstacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dear Villagers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Xbox Games With Gold<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For those still riding on the Gold train, we\u2019ve got a foursome of middling, yet decent titles that can certainly be described as eclectic. Over on the Xbox One, we\u2019ve got Calico (August 1-31)<\/em><\/strong>, a management sim in which the player runs their own \u2026 cat caf\u00e9, or more accurately reconstructs one within a town and repopulates it with new furry residents. Some who might be drawn into the pastel, magical aesthetic and cat collection and management might want to give it a go, but critics and players have struggled with glitches and bugs since launch. The other title is ScourgeBringer (August 16 – September-15)<\/em><\/strong>, a colorful and retro-infused roguelike platformer that delivers the kind of fast-paced challenge and rinse-and-repeat learning gameplay that devotees of the genres adore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the last months of legacy titles to be offered, at least Microsoft\u2019s going out with a banger or two. This month, they\u2019re offering folks the chance to have Saints Row 2 (August 1-15)<\/em><\/strong> — yes, the game that’s routinely priced lower than $5 through digital sales — ready to go on their hard-drives for free. As the middle title between the franchise\u2019s slightly more serious first game and the balls-out humor of Saints Row: The Third<\/em> (my personal favorite), the second one strikes a pretty satisfying balance between those two spectrums as it imitates the open-world gangster gameplay of Grand Theft Auto<\/em> with a satirical edge. Finally, there\u2019s Monaco: What\u2019s Yours is Mine (August 16-31)<\/em><\/strong>, a top-down heist management and strategy game noteworthy for being developed by the sole designer behind Pocketwatch Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All it takes is a few short months for subscription services to enact rumored, some might say \u201cfeared\u201d choices that will pave the way for larger overhauls in the programs. The key one on the Xbox side of the coin being, of course: when will Games With Gold be phased out? For quite a while, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":43819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1261,25,372,2027,378,2265],"class_list":["post-43818","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-game-pass","tag-xbox-one","tag-xbox-series-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818","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=43818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43823,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43818\/revisions\/43823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}