Over the course of the last four weeks the Xbox Games With Gold scheme has gifted Xbox players the likes of Injustice: Gods Among Us, The King's Bird and more, all for free to those with valid Xbox Live Gold memberships. But as June begins to draw to a close, and July thinks about raising a head, those freebies are getting set to switch up. And the ones that are going to be stripped of their price tags through the Games With Gold scheme for July will be replacing them. It's not a bad list of titles either.
I think that the battle royale genre is here to stay. Sure, upcoming titles like Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042 have said that they won’t be including any battle royale modes, but the currently popular battle royales like Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite show no sign of slowing down. That popularity means we’ll definitely keep seeing battle royale games pop up, and I surely hope they continue to be as inventive as Super Animal Royale.
Eagle Island Twist nails most of its manoeuvres: it has a simple and unique mechanic, but does so much with it. Then it offers a huge playground with two games, dozens of levels, and lots of weirdo riffs on its own formula. In content terms, it’s the Orange Box of platforming (Bird Box?), and - aside from some gameplay quibbles - isn’t too far off the quality either.
Wingspan is an elegant, exceptional board game and it’s been delivered with real care to the Xbox. Console is a good look for it, as it automates things that are more unwieldy on a table-top, making it - dare we say it - the superior way to play. When Wingpsan was so rewarding to play in the first place, that’s an extraordinary achievement.
If you wandered into a board game store in 2019, the likelihood is that Wingspan would have been recommended to you. It was everywhere, and it inevitably became the awards darling of that year, winning at the Golden Geek Awards, Deutscher Spiele and more. Stonemaier Games enrolled Monster Couch to bring it to PC and console audiences. It’s been on other systems for a few months now, but we have it in our Xbox mitts today. Hoorah!
We already know that EA are on a mission to be known as those behind the very best sports game on the market. With FIFA sewn up, Madden nailing each and every throw, and their acquisition of Codemasters ensuring that they are amongst the fastest racers on the grid, next up is the chance to pick up the birdies with EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. Yet when it arrives in the spring of 2022, EA SPORTS PGA TOUR won't just be focused on the professional scene and today EA are detailing the goodness of the amateur events.
It’s not everyday that you can switch on your Xbox and play through an ‘attack helicopters-based modern combat simulator’, but courtesy of Klabater and their new game Heliborne, you can today!
We are nearly at the mid-point of 2021 - believe it or not. As we look ahead to what will hopefully be six months of freedom from the old COVID restrictions, and some blistering temperatures at least here in the UK, two new titles are coming free of charge to those with Xbox Live Gold.
Originally released as a PS4 exclusive, and having picked up some decent awards in that time, the shape-shifting origami platformer that is known as A Tale of Paper is readying itself to burst onto further platforms, with launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC soon to take place.
