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Xbox One launch title 'Ryse' is free to play next month
April is fast approaching, which means another handful of games will be free to play on Xbox One through the Games with Gold program. During the course of next month, four titles -- two for Xbox One and two for Xbox 360 -- will be free to download. The most notable of the group, Ryse: Son of Rome, will be available for players to download during the entire month of April. If you'll recall, Ryse was an Xbox One launch title back in 2013.
Playdate: Slashing through 'The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing'
Creatures that go bump in the night, beware: Van Helsing lives. But just how "incredible" are the monster hunter's adventures, especially if he isn't played by Hugh Jackman? Find out with Sean Buckley and myself as we trudge through The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, which is part of Xbox One's free Games With Gold promo for December. As always, you can catch us starting at 6 PM Eastern / 3 PM Pacific as we stream for two hours on Twitch. Either tune in on this very post, the Engadget Gaming homepage, or, if you want to chat along with us, Twitch.tv/Joystiq. How weird will horror in December be? There's only one way to find out.
Playdate: Running wild in 'The Deer God' and 'Castle Crashers'
Fun fact: If you do a Bing voice-search on Xbox One for The Deer God, instead of coming back with the option to download the indie sidescroller you'll see results for the 1996 Greg Kinnear flick Dear God, an Avenged Sevenfold album with a song named "Dear God" on it and absolutely zero games named The Deer God. Actually finding the absolutely gorgeous venison-focused title takes a lot more work, which is strange considering that it's one of this month's free downloads as part of Xbox's Games with Gold promotion. No matter! We did the digging for you and are going to play the game live on Twitch (along with Castle Crashers Remastered) starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT.
New Xbox dashboard and backwards compatibility come in November
At E3, Microsoft unveiled a revamped dashboard for the Xbox One that put an emphasis on speed and community. It's now here at Gamescom when the company has revealed when exactly this revamped user interface will be filtering down onto your console: this November. The biggest additional feature is backwards compatibility, which means that around 100 Xbox 360 titles will be available to play on the hardware. Of course, if you've already paid for these games for the older console, you won't be charged again for the privilege.
Xbox 360's 'Games with Gold' becomes permanent, still no word on Xbox One version
Microsoft's Xbox 360 monthly free game promo, "Games with Gold," is being extended indefinitely. The program is essentially Microsoft's response on Xbox 360 to Sony's PlayStation Plus initiative on PlayStation 3 and Vita: members who pay the monthly or annual fee to the programs receive a variety of free games each month. Sony announced an extension of its program to its next game console, the PlayStation 4, back at E3 2013 -- anyone who already pays for PS Plus on PS3 or Vita is automatically a member on PS4. Microsoft, however, won't say if "Games with Gold" will extend to its upcoming game console, the Xbox One."We're excited to announce we are extending Games with Gold for Xbox 360. We will share more details on the program soon. Stay tuned for our plans on Xbox One," a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget. There are, of course, many other benefits to paying for an Xbox Live Gold account on the Xbox One, the least of which is the ability to play online multiplayer games. Games with Gold kicked off in July 2013 with the aged Xbox Live Arcade title Defense Grid, and has since offered a smattering of other titles, from Crackdown to Dead Rising 2. This month's free games are Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and Halo 3.
