The Games with Gold program introduced by Microsoft has been running for exactly 3 years now, and in that time, over 160 games have been chosen to be given for free to the Xbox Live Gold members, particular highlights recently being the hacker-thon sandbox WATCH_DOGS and the medieval RPG from Bioware, Dragon Age: Origins. So, for the 3rd anniversary, Microsoft have taken a mixed approach to the formula, adding mainstream hits and indie titles, one of which coming from Ubisoft.
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days- 1st – 15th July
The first Xbox 360 title coming to us from the 1st to the 16th of July is the polarizing, visceral and morbidly humorous Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, a third person shooter released in 2010 and developed by the now independent IO Interactive, creators of the seminal Hitman series. A change of pace as this sees the titular duo barreling through modern day China in a grindhouse style, like Hard Boiled meets Reservoir Dogs.
LEGO Pirates of The Caribbean: 16th- 31st July
For the other half of the month, we are able to grab LEGO Pirates of The Carribbean, another iteration of a LEGO license, brought to us from Traveler’s Tales with the game taking us through all of the four films released at the time, travelling from The Black Pearl to Davy Jones Locker.
Grow Up: 1st- 31st July
Meanwhile, on the Xbox One side of things, the first title given out for free will be the open world platformer Grow Up, the rapid sequel to 2015’s Grow Home developed by Ubisoft. the game follows B.U.D, a robot tasked to recover parts of his ship, M.O.M, after it inexplicably explodes on an uncharted planet.
Runbow: 16th-15th August
And finally, the racing platformer Runbow will be released for free on the 16th of July for Xbox One. Developed by Canadian indie devs 13AM Games, the game was released on Wii U back in 2015 before just now coming to Xbox One. The title will see you racing against other players for an esteemed trophy at the end of a course.
