Xbox Games With Gold for March includes 'Evolve,' and 'Borderlands 2'

By Gabe Gurwin February 22, 2017

Xbox - March 2017 Games with Gold

The world and other planets can be miserable, dark, and violent. Microsoft apparently wants us to remember this, as March’s Xbox Games With Gold offers a heaping helping of death in a variety of flavors.

From March 1 through March 31, Xbox One owners can acquire the “psychedelic horror” game Layers of Fear. Originally released for the console last year, it was praised by reviewers for its scares and atmosphere, and it offers a more subdued take on horror than some of its contemporaries.

Also available for Xbox One owners in March — March 16 through April 15 — is Evolve Ultimate Edition. The asymmetrical multiplayer shooter from Turtle Rock Studios contains the base game as well as the “Monster” expansion pack and two “hunting seasons” containing additional hunters and monsters. The whole package typically retails for $50 on the Xbox store. If you just want the standard version, however, and don’t subscribe to Xbox Live Gold, you can find it at GameStop for just $10.

From March 1 through March 15, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Borderlands 2. As with all new Games With Gold picks, it’s also fully playable on Xbox One, but doesn’t contain the enhancements seen in the Handsome Collection version of the game, nor does it pack in any downloadable content.

Following Borderlands 2 from March 16 through March 31 is Heavy Weapon, a cartoony shoot-’em-up originally released in 2007. Though a tad older than some of the other games we’ve seen given out via Games With Gold, its retro-inspired action appears to have aged better than much of the Xbox 360 library.

With a selection of old releases and inexpensive indie games, March isn’t the strongest lineup we’ve seen Xbox give us through Games With Gold. What do you think of this month’s games? Are you satisfied, or are you hoping for newer games like Quantum Break and Halo 5 to make the list? Let us know in the comments.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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One of the year’s best reviewed games is coming to Xbox Game Pass

Issac Clarke exploring ruins in Dead Space Remake.

Microsoft revealed the next batch of games coming to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service this October. While no Activision Blizzard games are coming to the service just yet following that acquisition, one of 2023's best-reviewed games is: this year's Dead Space remake.

Dead Space came out in January and is a stunning remake of a 2008 horror classic. The game follows an engineer named Issac Clarke as he searches for his girlfriend Nicole on a gigantic spaceship called the USG Ishimura. It's overrun by disgusting creatures called Necromorphs, though, leading to plenty of horrific situations as Issacs looks for answers on the ship. The original was an atmospheric and tense horror game, and developer EA Motive only enhanced all of that with this remake that updates the game's visuals and makes some other tweaks to bring the experience more in line with future games in its series and other modern horror games.
It's a great choice if you're looking for a new horror game to play this month, so we recommend checking it out when it hits Xbox Game Pass on October 26. It's not the only game coming to the service during the back half of this month, though. Here's the full list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass throughout the rest of October.

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Play Xbox Game Pass’ weirdest game before it leaves on September 30

weird west leaving game pass september 2023 art

Earlier this year, Arkane Studios disappointed on Xbox Game Pass with Redfall, a game that dropped much of the studio’s immersive sim expertise for an underbaked multiplayer adventure. But what if I told you that the person who founded Arkane and helped create series like Dishonored had left the studio prior to Redfall and made an excellent immersive sim that is also available on Xbox Game Pass?
Well, that actually happened, and the game in question is Weird West.
In March 2022, former Arkane Studios founder Raphaël Colantonio released Weird West under the newly formed WolfEye Studios. While it swaps out a third-person perspective for an isometric one, Weird West is a joyfully odd supernatural Western game that manages to tap into the immersive sim design philosophy that made many of the games Colantonio worked on excellent.
Unfortunately, Weird West is leaving Xbox Game Pass on September 30, so we recommend you give it a shot before it’s gone.
Embracing the weird
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of games set in the Wild West, and even fewer that lean into creepy, supernatural elements like Weird West does. The game’s world is full of supernatural cults, magic, and creatures like pigmen, zombies, and werewolves. Its story is told across five distinct campaigns, starting with one about a retired bounty hunter whose child is killed and husband kidnapped, setting her off on an adventure to get them back.
The individual stories of all five of Weird West’s playable characters are emotionally captivating and quite distinct from each other. That’s very noticeable as soon as you jump over to the second story, which follows a human turned into a Pigman. Still, it’s a living and reactive world, so decisions made and characters killed in an earlier character’s journey do have an impact on subsequent characters’ adventures; you can even find and recruit characters that you previously played as.

It’s here where Weird West’s immersive sim roots start to shine, as a lot of emergent narrative moments with impact feel crafted by the player. This carries over into gameplay, which is done from an isometric perspective. Like Arkane’s best games, there are always multiple solutions to any objective, and going in with guns blazing isn’t always the best option. Instead, players are encouraged to stealth around, sweet-talk characters, and even use some magical abilities if the playable character can learn them as they progress through a character’s journey.
With these more dynamic elements, the isometric perspective, and the narrative focus, Weird West can feel like as much of a CRPG as an immersive sim at times. As such, it might be an enjoyable follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3 for players finally coming off that lengthy RPG. At the very least, if you enjoy games that emphasize player freedom and also find novel ways to make it influence the game’s broader narrative, then you’ll enjoy Weird West.
The game had some technical issues and rough edges when it was first released, so it has flown under the radar. Most of those have all been smoothed over by now, though. Post-launch updates have fixed most of the major bugs and improved the character progression, aiming, and companion and stealth systems by adding more depth and UI clarity to them. Weird West is in the best state it has ever been in, but still feels as distinct and strange as ever.

Gaming

The best Xbox Series X games for 2023

Key art for Starfield

After an uneven console cycle with the Xbox One, Microsoft's latest consoles are aimed at getting the ship back on course. The Xbox Series X is a next-generation powerhouse that rivals gaming PCs, while the Xbox Series S is an affordable stopgap for those who are curious about trying new games.

There's no shortage of games to play on either console thanks to Xbox Game Pass, which gives players immediate access to a library of titles old and new. That built-in catalog is an extra value on top of all the new games available on the system that take advantage of its impressive technical specs. When it comes to first-party exclusives, the Series X is still growing. Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 gave a good boost to the console's library following a somewhat sparse first year. More games are also on the way. Microsoft's Bethesda acquisition will bring exclusives like Starfield and the potential addition of all Activision Blizzard games would further bolster that list, but the console's real strength lies in third-party support.