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Xbox Live Gold members can play 'Forza Horizon,' more for free in September

Xbox Live Gold members will be able to enjoy some AAA games for free in September, thanks to the Games With Gold program.

Microsoft’s Larry Hryb, known to gamers by his handle, Major Nelson, has revealed next month’s offerings, which feature some big titles.

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Games With Gold is Microsoft’s equivalent to PlayStation Plus. It’s a subscription service that not only gets gamers on Xbox Live, but also nets four free games each month.

Next month’s big titles are Forza Horizon and Mirror’s Edge. Forza Horizon is a more arcade-like offshoot of the Forza franchise, and features a large open world to race around. Mirror’s Edge is a first-person action game that has gamers playing as Faith as she runs from rooftop to rooftop, trying to topple a totalitarian regime. Luckily, both games are backwards compatible, meaning that Xbox One owners who sold their Xbox 360s will still be able to play.

On the Xbox One end, gamers will get Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China. It’s a side-scrolling action game that treads far from the series’ third-person action-adventure roots. It’s the only game in the series to take place in China and features a female assassin. It takes place in 1526, and the main protagonist, Shao Jun, is an assassin trained by Ezio Auditore de Firenze. Firenze was the main protagonist from Assassin’s Creed 2 to Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. She returns to China to fight the Chinese offshoot of the Templars, who destroyed the Chinese brotherhood years earlier.

And finally, a new game, Earthlock: Festival of Magic, will be premiering on Xbox One, and is free to those with Gold subscriptions. It comes from Norwegian developer Snowcastle Games, and is a turn-based role-playing game that originated as a Kickstarter in 2011.

Next month’s Games With Gold will go live on September 1, and will be available to download until September 30.

Imad Khan
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
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