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Games with Gold freebie #IDARB (rick)rolls out early
PSA: An eight-player Xbox One sports-platformer that can summon a pixelated Rick Astley is available right now, and it's free to download for Xbox Live Gold members. I know it's hard to believe, dear reader, but it's not like I'd tell a lie and hurt you. #IDARB interweaves Twitch chat and Twitter hashtag integration with retro side-scrolling multiplayer and a big dose of humor, and it really seems quite nuts. As Joystiq's Danny Cowan describes in his preview, the gameplay is reminiscent of old-school multiplayer classics like NBA Jam, but there are a multitude of crazy twists and turns on tops. Things like arenas filling up with water, everyone turning into clowns and Twitch spectators being able to rickroll you. Despite releasing ahead of its original February window, #IDARB is next month's Games with Gold freebie for Xbox One. It'll stay free for Gold members throughout the month, after which it'll return to its regular price of $15/£12.
Xbox Games with Gold in Feb: IDARB, Brothers, Sniper Elite V2
Heartstrings-tugger Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is one of three Games with Gold freebies for Xbox Live Gold subscribers next month. On Xbox 360 you can grab the Joystiq Top 10 of 2013 puzzle-platformer for zero centage between February 1-14. Then, after taking a deep breath, you can grab Sniper Elite V2 between February 15-28. As revealed last month, #IDARB's pixelated sportsball madness is also free through February for Gold members. The Xbox One eight-player side-scroller has a regular launch price of $15.
Avoid a wild hunt for Witcher 2, grab it via Games with Gold now
Just a quick reminder: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition is available now as a freebie for Xbox Live Gold subscribers, thanks to the Games with Gold program. As long as you're a Gold member you can download the dark fantasy RPG at no extra cost, and it's yours to keep even if your Gold subscription runs out. Don't forget, you have until January 31 to grab The Witcher 2 while it's hot and, more importantly, free. The Enhanced Edition of Witcher 2 features the slew of content added to the original PC game, and it's a complete enough way to get bewitchin' ahead of one of 2015's major new releases, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Geralt of Rivia's third game hits Xbox One, PS4 and PC on May 19. For more on The Witcher 2 of Xbox 360, check out Ludwig of Joystiq's deja review. [Image: Sony]
Joystiq Weekly: Awesome Games Done Quick, Kalimba review, DIY Mario and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. It was a pretty quiet week thanks to the end-of-the-year holiday lull, but things should pick up soon! Like, today even – Awesome Games Done Quick has just kicked off a week-long marathon of high-skill and speedrun-oriented livestreams, with all donations benefiting the Prevent Cancer Foundation. If supporting a worthwhile cause isn't enough of an excuse to watch talented players blaze through games, what is? ... Yes, okay, other than free puppies. While you're waiting on something of interest that's buried in the event's schedule, catch up on what you might have missed while you were doing relaxing, vacation-y things. PlayStation Network users got good news regarding last week's service outage, Contributing Editor Danny Cowan's relationship survived his Kalimba review, and we explored the history of do-it-yourself Mario and the technical shift in Mortal Kombat X's gore.
PSA: D4, MX vs. ATV now on Games with Gold
As the calendar flipped to January yesterday, Xbox Live Gold members are now able to download this month's free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. As revealed in December, Xbox One owners with a premium Live subscription can now pick up Access Games' quirky adventure D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die free of charge. Subscribers get two games on Xbox 360 this month: Offroad racer MX vs ATV Alive and CD Projekt's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. D4 will be available throughout the month while the two previous-generation games are on a split schedule. MX vs ATV Alive is free until January 15, then The Witcher 2 will be available to download at no cost on January 16 through the end of the month. Lastly, according to the Microsoft Store, last month's Xbox One game Worms Battlegrounds is still available to download for free. [Image: Microsoft]
Games with Gold January: D4, The Witcher 2, MX vs. ATV Alive
Games with Gold in January offers the deliciously off-kilter D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die free all month for Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox One, a savings of $15. Xbox 360 Gold members get two rounds of free games: MX vs. ATV Alive from January 1 - 15, and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings from January 16 - 31. Swery's D4 is a particularly lovely offering for Xbox One owners – in our review, we note the surprising smoothness of the Kinect voice and motion controls, and highlight the wacky yet gruesome narrative: "As a Kinect game, D4 gives me hope for the innovation and technical acuity still to come in motion-controlled gaming. [...] It's all very fun, even when addressing the gory details of a murder, but that's not where it stops. The story, while generic on the surface, is engaging and wild enough to support an episodic format. I want to know what happens next. I want to interrogate more people. I want to find out who killed my wife, and I want to try to bring her back." Happy new year, indeed. [Image: Microsoft]
PSA: SSX free for Gold members on Xbox 360
It's tricky to rock a pun, to rock a pun with SSX. It's tricky. It's tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky. So we didn't. EA Canada's 2012 reboot of the trick-crazy snowboarding series is free right now via Games with Gold. That means Xbox 360 owners with Gold memberships can download the game at no extra cost, and that's for keeps - it doesn't matter if your Gold subscription runs out. SSX will stay free on Games with Gold until the end of the month.
#IDARB enters Xbox One in Feb., free in Games with Gold
You know what was missing in the new Star Wars trailer? Bacon. The fine folks at Other Ocean Interactive have remedied this oversight in the new trailer for #IDARB, an eight-player competitive game coming to Xbox One for free via the Games with Gold program in February 2015. See #IDARB's Star Wars parody trailer below. #IDARB is a 2D, side-scrolling, basketball-inspired, pixelated eSports romp exclusive to Xbox One through the ID@Xbox program. It's also a an experiment in crowd-sourcing, meaning Other Ocean regularly seeks player input for additions, tweaks and features to throw into the game. We gave it a go at E3 this year, and found it to be thoroughly fresh and enjoyable. "#IDARB has a simple design at its core, but the number of hilarious additions bolted onto the experience made it one of the most memorable games I played at E3 last week," Joystiq Contributor Danny Cowan wrote.
Joystiq Weekly: Free stuff for AC: Unity, Telltale's Borderlands review, a Zelda story and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Oh wow, look at that scenic view from every retail store in the United States! Hopefully everyone survived Black Friday, an annual, nationwide recreation of that Lion King stampede scene where customers are unwavering bringers of death and retail employees are terrified reincarnations of Simba. We understand the thought process though – cheap video games and consoles are awesome! While you're mending your wounds, whether they were sustained physically or through your wallet, you can catch up on the past week's worth of prominent news with the Joystiq Weekly. News of free vouchers for Vita owners, free games for Assassin's Creed: Unity season pass owners, reviews of Assassin's Creed Rogue and Tales from the Borderlands, a spoken tale of a staff member's first journey to obtain The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and more is all waiting for you after the break!
Games with Gold December: Worms, The Raven, SSX
Like its PlayStation Plus counterpart, Xbox Live's Games With Gold service will feature a new roster of free games available to subscribers during December. Xbox One owners will be able to download anthropomorphic annelid strategy game Worms: Battlegrounds throughout the month. Xbox 360 owners can download point and click adventure The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief from December 1 through December 15. On December 16, The Raven is replaced by EA Sports' physics-defying snowboarding franchise reboot SSX. As usual, these free games are only available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Three month subscriptions to the service are available at $25 while 12-month subscriptions can be purchased for $60. [Image: EA]
November's Games with Gold: Volgarr the Viking, Viva Pinata
Microsoft has announced next month's Games with Gold lineup, revealing that the Rastan-like barbaric side-scroller Volgarr the Viking will debut for the Xbox One as a free download for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Members will also receive a free copy of Rare's Xbox 360 Viva Pinata sequel Trouble in Paradise starting on November 1, and Volition's havoc-raising third-person shooter Red Faction: Guerrilla will join the program on November 16. [Image: Crazy Viking Studios]
Chariot, Darksiders 2 join Games With Gold in October
Microsoft announced its Games With Gold lineup for October, revealing that Xbox Live Gold members will receive free access to Frima Games' co-op platformer Chariot upon its launch next week. Chariot will be available as a free download for Xbox One subscribers from October 1st through the 31st. Xbox 360 owners will get EA's 2010 FPS Battlefield: Bad Company 2 free of charge on October 1, along with a free copy of Vigil's hack-and-slash action-RPG Darksiders 2 starting on October 16. This month's featured games Crimson Dragon, Super Time Force, and Halo: Reach are still up for grabs through September 30, so act fast if you haven't yet claimed your free downloads. [Image: Frima Games]
Halo: Reach free, Valiant Hearts discounted for Xbox Gold members
Welcome to the back half of September, which means Xbox Live Gold members can now grab Halo: Reach gratis from the service. Regularly priced at $25, the Halo prequel covers the events of the planet Reach's evacuation before it was overwhelmed by The Covenant. It's not an uplifting tale. Following that heavy theme, the emotional Valiant Hearts is also discounted for the week on Xbox One and Xbox 360 for gold members.
Games with Gold in September: Super Time Force, Halo: Reach
Xbox Live's Games with Gold rolls into a new month with Super Time Force and Crimson Dragon free on Xbox One starting on September 1. Super Time Force takes the place of August's Strike Suit Zero, and Crimson Dragon carries over into another month of high-flying, scaly action. Xbox 360 Gold members get Monaco: What's Yours is Mine for free from September 1 - 15, and Halo: Reach for free from September 16 - 30. Happy shooting, flying, sneaking and reaching this September! [Image: Capy]
PSA: Free Dishonored via Games With Gold now available
As promised, Arkane Studios' Dishonored is now available to download for free thanks to Microsoft's Games With Gold. If you've got an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you've got until August 31 to download one of our favorite games of 2012. Alternatively, feel free to sing along to celebrate the occasion. Outsider, hear this plea / help Corvo to save dear Emily / and discover the conspiracy / that led to the Empress' death. / Please bring honor to Dun- / Please bring honor to Dun- / Please bring honor to Dunwall! What, you don't immediately think of Disney's Mulan every time the subject of honor comes up? [Image: Bethesda]
Joystiq Weekly: EA Access, Divinity: Original Sin review, The Last Of Us revisited and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. EA announced EA Access this week, a monthly or yearly service that gives subscribers a digital library of games from the publisher's catalog. PlayStation Plus and Games With Gold are comfortable ideas at this point, but for such a substantial publisher to start their own service on a console without making any hardware themselves? That's pretty interesting. Hopefully we won't see a flood or other publishers launching competitors for PlayStation and Xbox's services, though. Paying one monthly fee for Netflix and maybe two monthly fees for video games is manageable, but if the console space starts feeling crowded with subscription services, we can imagine the sense of value will be continually reduced with each additional arrival. Then again, we could probably stomach one more if Nintendo cooked up something for the Virtual Console... There's way more to this week than pondering our breaking point for monthly subscription fees though. Capcom, Sony and Nintendo had earnings reports, Homefront: The Revolution got adopted by Deep Silver's parent company, and PlayStation Now entered its open beta. It's all waiting for you after the break!
PSA: August's Games With Gold now live
A new month brings with it new things. Most of them, like bills, aren't fun. But you know what is fun? Video games. And if you happen to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, there are four games you can snag this month for free, three of which have just gone live and are available right now. From today until August 15, you can dress your Xbox Avatar in some off-road gear and rev engines in Motorcross Madness for Xbox 360. Xbox One owners meanwhile can fly the unfriendly skies in either Crimson Dragon or Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut. In the former, players control a dragon. In the latter, you'll get behind the flight stick of a transforming spaceship fighter. The only deal not currently active is the Games With Gold offer of Dishonored. But that's okay; being the stealthy assassin he is, we imagine Corvo is just taking his sweet time to line up the perfect kill. Dishonored will sneak out of Games With Gold's shadow on August 16 and remain free until August 31. [Image: Microsoft]
Xbox Games with Gold: Dishonored, Strike Suit Zero
The free games for Xbox 360 and Xbox One in August via the Games with Gold program involve a lot of flying, biking and sneaking. From August 1 - 15 on Xbox 360, Gold members can grab Motocross Madness for free, and then from August 16 - 31, pick up Dishonored for free. Available for the entire month of August on Xbox One, Gold members can get Crimson Dragon and Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut. Free games are good, but free Dishonored really is a great deal this time around. It may even be great enough that Xbox One owners will turn that old Xbox 360 back on. [Image: Bethesda Softworks]
PSA: Battleblock Theater now available on Games with Gold
Made by the creators of Castle Crashers, Battleblock Theater was a game that caught our attention last year. The multiplayer puzzle-platformer/brawler combined great things like evil cats, a snarky and sinister narrator, and the opportunity to kill friends over and over. If you didn't experience it last year and you're an Xbox Live Gold member, you can rectify that by acquiring Battleblock Theater at no extra cost. The game's just replaced Gotham City Impostors on Xbox's Games with Gold program, and so it'll stay free to Gold members until the end of the month. To grab it, head on over to the Xbox Games Store.
Golden freebies: Gotham City Impostors today, Guacamelee tomorrow
If you like the idea of wearing ridiculously extravagant costumes whilst beating up people, but don't have the money, lack of moral code or WWE career to support it, we're here for you with a friendly reminder: As part of Microsoft's Games with Gold service, Gotham City Impostors is free right now for Xbox Live Gold users. So go get already. The Xbox 360 multiplayer shooter is joined tomorrow by wrestle-former Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition on Xbox One, and between those two you'll get enough masks, spandex and wacky violence to sustain you right through to winter.
