Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Gears of War 2, Hand of Fate free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers in February

By Danny Cowan January 28, 2016

gears of war 2 hand fate free for xbl gold in february gow2free header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Xbox Live Gold subscribers have another prime batch of free games to look forward to next month, as Microsoft revealed that Gears of War 2 and Hand of Fate are among February’s scheduled freebies.

As in recent months, Xbox One owners will be able to download and play all of next month’s featured Games With Gold titles, including Xbox 360 releases, via the platform’s backward compatibility technology.

All throughout next month, Xbox Live members with an active Gold subscription will be able to download Defiant Development’s action-RPG Hand of Fate free of charge. Featuring deck-building mechanics at its core, Hand of Fate deals players a series of digital cards that manifest themselves during gameplay as enemies, weapons, and dungeon floors.

Hand of Fate features combo-driven combat in the vein of Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series, and its randomly assigned gameplay elements ensure an unpredictable and challenging experience throughout.

Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners alike can download a free copy of the Xbox Live Arcade release Sacred Citadel between February 1st and the 15th. A spinoff in publisher Deep Silver’s Sacred series, Sacred Citadel offers up gameplay similar to arcade-styled brawlers, and serves as a prequel to the storyline featured in Sacred 3.

Related Offer: Xbox Live Gold Membership

Between February 16th and the 29th, Xbox One and Xbox 360 players can also grab Gears of War 2 free of charge. A follow-up entry in Epic Games’ popular third-person shooter series, Gears of War 2 was recently given away as an incentive for Gears of War Ultimate Edition early adopters, but will soon be available for all Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of the Games With Gold program.

February’s final Games With Gold release is Styx: Master of Shadows, a third-person stealth game from Cyanide Studio that features character-building mechanics and RPG elements. Styx will be free to download for service subscribers from February 16th through March 15th.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

Embracer Group is splitting into 3 companies. Here’s who owns what

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Embracer, the embattled gaming company that went through a massive restructuring over the past year, just announced that it will split up into three different companies: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.

If you need a refresher, Embracer Group gained a reputation for acquiring gaming IPs and studios, including everything from Borderlands' Gearbox Entertainment to Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics to The Lord of the Rings' rights holder Middle-earth Enterprises. It functioned as one massive company separated into several operating groups. After a deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Group fell through last year, Embracer went through a massive period of "restructuring" where it laid thousands of developers off, shut down studios, and sold the likes of Saber Interactive and Gearbox. Now, it seems the saga of Embracer Group is nearing its end, as the company admitted in a press release "that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group’s shareholders and other stakeholders."

Gaming

Hades 2: release date prediction, trailers, gameplay, and more

Melinoe standing in a stone circle.

Just like Zagreus' never-ending quest to escape the Underworld in Greek mythology, it seems we too are destined to continue fighting through new levels of demons and monsters in the sequel to the amazing roguelike Hades. We're not complaining, as that game was one of the best games released in 2020, and no one expected a sequel at all, let alone one announced so soon. Hades 2 will be the first sequel studio Supergiant Games have ever made, and it makes sense given how successful and popular the first game ended up being. Aside from some notable exceptions like Rogue Legacy 2 and Spelunky 2, not many roguelikes ever get a direct sequel, so there's a lot of mystery surrounding how Hades 2 will be different from the first game. But there's no need to dive into the depths of the Underworld yourself in search of answers, as we've pulled all the information we could from the jaws of Cerberus.
Release date

Hades 2 has no release date quite yet. However, the team has apparently been working on it since early 2021, and, just like the first, will come out first in early access. Supergiant has stated that details about this early access period would be revealed in 2023, however, that does not guarantee it will actually begin in 2023. The first Hades was in early access for almost two years, but we know that a slightly bigger team is working on Hades 2 from the start so this game may hit 1.0 a bit faster.
Platforms

Gaming

Tales of the Shire is a The Lord of the Rings-themed take on Stardew Valley

A Hobbit gardens in Tales of the Shire.

Private Division revealed a new game set in the Middle-earth universe called Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game. The title, developed by Wētā Workshop Game Studio, is a cozy life simulator set within the world of the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In 2022, No Rest for the Wicked publisher Private Division first teased that it was working on a game based on The Lord of the Rings with Wētā Workshop, the visual effects studio whose initial claim to fame was working on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Wētā Workshop has technically had a game studio since 2014, but Tales of the Shire will be its most significant release yet.