Sept 2014 free GwG games. One new game for Xbone.

http://majornelson.com/2014/08/28/xbox-live-games-gold-september-2014/

Xbox Live Games with Gold for September 2014

Coming up in September, Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to three new free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. [One new game for Xbone and two new games for 360.]

Super Time Force is the new game for September. It's coming to Games with Gold on Xbox One as a free download. August's Crimson Dragon will be a placeholder again in September and continue to be available for Xbox One for a second month.

Disappointed with the ONE NEW XBONE game for the month...again.

On the plus side, Super Time Force is an 81/100 at Metacritic. Pretty good. Too bad it's the only new game on Xbone's GwG. Crimson Dragon we know isn't good as we learned last month, Crimson was free for August, but as a refresher Crimson Dragon was a very low 56/100.

The poor scoring 56/100 CRIMSON DRAGON was already free for August, now we get it AGAIN for September.

I thought Xbox execs were done with RECYCLING GwG games after the whole 'Max Brotherhood Curse/Recycling' debacle fan-backlash.

It's like they don't take GwG seriously. The competition where GwG took inspiration from (PS+) has not attempted this "recycling" tactic yet. Yes, these machines are new so it's tough getting games, but that was why I thought Xbox execs took the time off between November 2013-May 2014 off.

Now that GwG is finally out (it arrived late in June for Xbone), they need to stop releasing one new game a month and take GwG seriously as the competition has been doing.

I just wish they would stop basically giving one new game month for select months.

All that said, I will be checking out Super Time Force on my launch Xbone as I had my eye on the title since it's release in May. It scored a decent 81/100 and free is nice.

@SolidTy: the free games for the One and PS4 were both disappointing. I'm excited for Super Time Force though.

I agree they were both disappointing, but my point wasn't about that. Two things can be disappointing, but one thing can be more disappointing than another. PS+ is offering two new games this month vs. one new game this month for my Xbone. No recycling has been done on PS4 PS+ games from month to month.

I'll give an example:

I watch two TV shows. I find one to be okay and I find the other to be mildly disappointing. Both TV shows are disappointing compared to my favorite TV shows though. However, when pitted directly to each other, one is worse than the other.

None of that changes my point though.

It was about offering a single GwG new game again for the month of September...again. They recycled another game as a placeholder, the game recycled is a terrible game to boot, but not that it matters it's free this month already. By sheer numbers, we Xbone gamers are getting one new game this month and one recycled game from this month carried over again. That's a huge bummer.

I just simply want them to be consistent. To put it another way:

To date the PS4 gamers with PS+ have gotten 16 free PS+ games.

To date the Xbone gamers with XBL have gotten 6 free GwG games.

16>6.

No matter how you spin it, the cheaper $50 PS+ gamers have gotten 10 more games than the more expensive $60 XBL Xbone gamers. That's something I understood would be a minor issue since PS4 gave free games away since launch and Xbone took time off from November 2013-May 2014. HOWEVER, with that time off came an expectation to step it up. In fact, Phil Spencer (HEAD OF XBOX) said they were going to improve GwG. Then in doing so, this is the second time since the brand new GwG Xbone initiative started where they have given one new game for a month and recycled a previous freebie. The competition isn't doing that and their free game numbers to their audience is only increasing.

I didn't bring up the QUALITY argument using Metacritic, but that's also been a sore point for XBL's GwG as well. Even surprising this month if you pit the best of the bunch 81/100 Super Time Force vs. 82/100 Sportsfriends game. I personally would rather play Super Time Force which my cup of tea. I would even say that although Sportfriends has a higher score, I would say these games are about even depending on taste of the gamer. A tie for both sound fair? However, the comparison then moves on. Then we should also compare the fact that the other PS4 machine gets another NEW free title with Velocity 2x and Xbone does not get another NEW free title (we get a recycled 56/100 Crimson Dragon from the previous month). The other free PS+ game (Velocity 2X) in comparison is so new there is no metascores for it yet. It could be good or bad, but it's nice that it's so new we don't know what to expect. The other game we get on Xbone we already got and it wasn't good (56/100). That's where the disappointment comes in.

It's not the end of the world, but it's worth noting because if we don't speak up I fear they are going to do this again in the future for a third month. This is the second time Xbox has done this one new free game/recycling business and I'm seeing a pattern. That's my main concern and my main point.

As far as what I already said above, I can't say that I'm excited for Super Time Force (I'm excited for 2015's Batman Arkham Knight for instance), but I have had my eye on Super Time Force since it's release earlier this year. 81/100 metacritic score isn't too shabby and it will be the only new free title on Xbone this month, so thankfully that's something.

TL;DR:

I hope they stop recycling older GwG games in the future for Xbone.

Usual MS bullshit. Anyone who thinks MS is going to continually give away games that are even half decent are kidding themselves. They will scrape the bottom of the barrel, and once that's done they will scrape it again lol.

They will give away some games that are good for x1 in order to remain competitive. Sony was smart to start giving away games earlier this year. This exerts some pressure on MS in several ways. But mainly, they had to counter PSN.

I hope this is the last month they give only one new free Xbone GwG game.

Super Time Force is pretty good, I have been playing it lately. Only disappointing thing is that I paid $15 for it the other day and now it'll be free.

Rewinding time and making multiples of yourself is fun, and you need to take advantage of the feature to find these different hidden gems. 6 stages is nice, and you will likely play through them each a second time, but it would be nice if the game were longer.

Shieldy is awesome.

Sweet. Thanks for the mini-review of STF. I'm looking forward to playing it since it released earlier this year, but now I look even more forward to it.

As far as paying $15 and now a few days later the game is going up for GwG free, I learned last gen a new habit. I wait for sales on $15+ games at full price. What happens is either I get a deal on the DD game I want (50%-$75% off) in a few months in the Xbox/PSN/Steam/Origin/GOG store or I got the game I wanted for free due to (GwG/PS+). I had the same experience as you did but with other games last gen. After buying a DD game only to see that very same game pop up free or heavily discounted so soon after a purchase, I came up with this thing. So this new process works for me for this gen as I mastered it a years back in the middle of last gen. The downside is not playing the DD game when it releases as I have to wait a few months.That's okay, I waited years for the game so a few more months is not a problem, I tell myself. This process lets me buy twice as many DD games a year.

I've been waiting for a few months on a deal for Super Time Force I could live with, so this is good news for me.

In conclusion, I appreciate the comment on your personal take on the quality of the game (Metacritic has it at 81/100 so I knew it was pretty good). It's nice to hear a fellow gamers take on the game.

@SolidTy: Np Solid, and I hope you enjoy STF as much as I have been.

I've been going back through some levels, trying to get some of the yellow shards I missed. I still don't know exactly how much total content is in there, but I think this game could benefit from some sort of 'challenges' mode, or some other sort of modes. I imagine trying to get through the game with limited lives would be a fun challenge, too. I kept thinking about how this game would be if all of your progress was lost whenever you died like on an old NES game!

Yeah, I've really been striking out with GwG so far. I guess the main thing I didn't consider was that there are still so few offerings on XBO, that all of these fun games I am interested in were the best candidates for GwG treatment.

I still don't really regret it though. I think STF was worth paying for, as was Halo Spartan Assault. I really can't say the same for Crimson Dragon, but, live and learn eh? At least I will still have all of these games when my gold subscription ends,which is good since I won't be able to play PVZ then.

I'm looking forward to this weekend with Super Time Force. :)

Hopefully next month its two new games instead of one. If they continue the pattern (unless I'm mistaken) next month should be two new ones, but I can see them giving one new one and keeping STF.

Yeah that kind of sucks when new games are released and then a sale of said game (or free in this case) deal happens. Makes being a day one buyer harder to take (the same thing happened with a game called Botanicula on PC where the game went into a Humble Bundle on the same day of release so you essentially got the game plus loads of extras for less than it cost to buy the game from the developers/other stores such as Steam).

I feel with early buying you have to take that risk into consideration, it sucks, but then its a case of "Am I happy paying this price for this game now?" If the answer is yes then its not the end of the world, but if you don't like the idea of a price cut or paying full price then look around for deals or wait for a sale would be the general advise I would give (but I can not talk, I tend to get impulsive with games but I tend to be happy with what I get).

I've really liked Super Time Force. Quite a bit of fun. I would like to see them do Dead Rising though. The catalog for the One really isn't big enough to give us much on GwG yet. Give it time. I'm never going to complain about getting free games.