Just picked up an Xbox 360 because it was dirt cheap at your local GameStop? Maybe you scavenged an old PS3 fat edition from out of a garage sale? Or heck, maybe your uncle gave you his old Wii U because he picked up a Switch? Well, don't expect much support from Minecraft on those legacy systems, because it's done. It's ending. It's finished.

Eurogamer is reporting that there has been one final update for the seventh generation edition of Minecraft for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, the PS Vita, and the Wii U. The update is based on a crossover promotion with The Nightmare Before Christmas, which features the addition of some of the characters and content from the popular Tim Burton film. The developers also added new trophies to the game, new cats, some panda mobs with different personality traits, some new scaffolding blocks, bamboo plants, new dyes, and several fixes for some crashes that would hamper the enjoyment of the game.

Obviously, though, the biggest piece of news surrounding this update is that it's the final update for the legacy consoles. Marking a six year run for Minecraft on the seventh generation home consoles, which isn't bad to say the least, given that that's one extra year worth of content support than what a typical console generation lasts (i.e., five years). What's also interesting is that Mojang and 4J Studios have been supporting Minecraft on the seventh-gen systems almost entirely throughout the eighth generation of gaming. So, whether you were playing on the older systems or the current ones, you were able to get the latest updates for the game.

The conclusion of support for the systems was met with a tweet as the bookend, as 4J Studios announced that the team is packing up and ready to ship back all of the development kits for the legacy consoles.

Eurogamer noted that on the Xbox 360 alone there have been more than 21 million Minecraft players over the last six and a half years and more than 73 title updates.

The article also points out that this isn't news that came out of the blue. Microsoft -- who now owns Mojang and the Minecraft brand after purchasing it for $2.5 billion way back in 2014 -- announced earlier in the year that the last major expansion would be the Aquatic update, which added a number of new biomes, blocks, and tools for exploring the underwater aspects of the Minecraft world. The reason for eventually pulling support was that the previous gen consoles supposedly only made up less than 5% of the current active playerbase for Minecraft, and it was eventually going to start costing more to support the legacy consoles than the amount of revenue that those consoles generated for Minecraft... or, so Microsoft says.

The series is still going strong on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, mobile devices, PC, and the Nintendo Switch. So, if you're inclined to check the game out you can still do so on all of the more recent gaming platforms on the market. But, if you're still rocking those old seventh-gen monsters, the Nightmare Before Christmas update will be the final update for those systems.

Even though we're about half a decade into the current generation of game consoles, the Xbox 360 is still chugging right along. In fact, Microsoft recently rolled out a new system update for the machine, the first to pop up in a couple of years.

Over on Microsoft's Xbox support blog, a recent post announced that a new system update for the Xbox 360 had been made available. When word first started circulating about the update, you wouldn't have been faulted for assuming someone had made a typo somewhere. After all, Microsoft ceased production on the machines about two years ago, with a March 2016 update presumed to be the system's final hoo-rah.

But, while Microsoft is no longer making the machines, it looks like they're still supporting it for the time being. So, if you've got an Xbox 360 still hooked up to your television for some semi-retro gaming every once in a blue moon, you might want to go ahead and turn it on soon in order to get the update downloaded. Better now than when you suddenly get an itch to play some old Halo or Gears games and, whoops, now you've got to wait on an update to get settled.

The blog post offers no information on what the update does outside of "minor bug fixes and improvements." We've done some tooling around the internet and nobody seems to have a clue what was actually updated. The theory gaining the most traction is that perhaps some hackers recently made some breakthroughs, and this is Microsoft's way of combating the console being used for unintended purposes. Then again, we're not sure that's something they'd worry about at this point.

Then again, all of the Xbox 360's online functionality is still up and running, including the Xbox Live Marketplace, so it makes sense that Microsoft might have to clean house every couple of years. It's probably easy to imagine that everyone has moved on to more modern consoles, but we figure there are plenty of people out there who are still happy to keep playing older Forza games and the like on their original hardware. Plus, thanks to backward compatibility on the Xbox One, some of those older games still have an active online community that spans the two console generations. That's especially handy for series like Call of Duty and Battlefield, with specific iterations really sticking with a certain branch of the community.

As for the competition, both the Wii U and PlayStation 3 kept going a bit longer than the Xbox 360, so their most recent system updates were last year. While we may see another PlayStation 3 system update at some point, we're pretty sure Nintendo has moved on completely from the Wii U, so don't expect any bug fixes or final tweaks anytime soon.

After seven years on the market, Microsoft has finally pulled the plug on the Kinect camera. You can still pick up the hardware in stores but, once that stock is gone, they'll be tricky to find as Microsoft has officially ceased production.

At the risk of sounding callous, this is one of those instances when I hear about the death of a celebrity and my reaction is, "Oh, wait, they were still alive?" Microsoft never really put the muscle necessary behind the Kinect to make it a success and developers never really bought into the technology. Combine that with gamers who seemed to be over the whole "get off your couch to play" trend, and you've got the slow death of what was actually a pretty impressive piece of hardware.

In a recent interview with Co.Design, Kinect creator Alex Kipman and GM of Xbox Devices Marketing Matthew Lapsen gave some interesting insight into the history of the device. The first Kinect launched back in 2010 for the Xbox 360. The Nintendo Wii was all the rage back then and both Microsoft and Sony were left to play catch-up. PlayStation utilized their existing camera and the new Move motion controllers in response, but that kind of gaming never really took off on the PlayStation 3. As for the Kinect, Microsoft created a camera that didn't need any additional peripherals to track the player's movement. That seems like a solid concept, but neither developers nor consumers responded. The tracking could get touchy at times and the voice commands didn't always work but, again, it was the foundation for a pretty spiffy idea.

When the Xbox One launched, it came with a Kinect camera that, as it turns out, most people didn't really want. Again, not much effort was really put into the device post-launch and, as a result, it faded into obscurity.

According to the guys behind the hardware, the Kinect helped give birth to other technology, including the reality-augmenting Hololens and even the voice-commanded Cortana. While the latter seems to be doing well, we can't help but wonder what the future looks like for the former. Hololens barely comes up in conversation these days and we can't help but doubt if there's a market for the device, no matter how cool it may actually be.

In other words, if you really like using your Kinect paired with your Xbox One, you might want to run out and buy a spare sometime soon. Once they disappear from store shelves in the coming months, they'll be gone forever. It's always a bummer to see a promising piece of hardware ride off into the sunset, but it never really felt like Kinect was given much of a chance in the first place.

It's that time of the month where Microsoft rolls out details on the Games With Gold for Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners. The August 2017 sale features some really good Xbox 360 titles and some decent Xbox One games for those of you looking to extend your library with some free games.

Major Nelson's blog played host to the news for the games you're going to get for free next month in August for the Xbox console family. This includes:

• Slime Rancher for Xbox One: Available between August 1st and August 31st.

• Trials Fusion for Xbox One: Available between August 16th and September 15th.

• Bayonetta for Xbox 360: Available between August 1st and August 15th.

• Red Faction: Armageddon for Xbox 360: Available between August 16th and August 31st.

August is an interesting line-up because one of those games for the Xbox One is still in the Game Preview program. Slime Rancher isn't finished yet, but Xbox owners will be able to get their hands on it for free throughout August.

The game originally came out on Steam as an Early Access title. It's a mix of Monster Rancher and Pokemon, but the object of the game is to hunt down and capture slimes roaming around the game world. It's an inventive remix on the first-person shooter that avoids the blood and gore found in games like Battlefield or Call of Duty. The game quickly gained a ton of popularity due to its colorful nature and unorthodox themes. I wonder how well Xbox One owners will take to the title?

RedLynx's Trials Fusion is a good go-to game for something fun, challenging and a bit casual. The skill curve definitely ramps up in the title later on, but it's one of those games you can sit down and play with friends and family without having to worry about inappropriate content or having to get them to understand a plethora of functions or controls in order to manage the bike. Some part of me feels as if the Trials games are like today's generation of the Paperboy titles.

For those who still rock an Xbox 360 or for those of you looking to extend your backwards compatible library on Xbox 360, the availability of Bayonetta during August is a nice way to take a trip down seventh-gen memory lane without risking any extra funds in doing so. The fantasy third-person shooter really helped carve out the sort of niche that Platinum Games would later dominate with subsequent games such as Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Nier: Automata. The hyper-sexualized, angel-killing heroine is now an iconic staple in the anime-gaming sectors of the industry. For those who missed out on the game when it came out back in 2009, you can see what all the hype is about.

Red Faction: Armageddon isn't the best way to round out the month for Games With Gold, but it sure beats a game like Vampire Rain, am I right? Red Faction: Armageddon was a clear step back from the destruction and open-world mayhem featured in the 2009 outing, Red Faction: Guerrilla. Nevertheless, Armageddon is a solid enough shooter and you don't have to pay anything for it, so you don't lose anything.

Microsoft is taking advantage of the summertime software drought by offering gamers some deliciously succulent deals when it comes to the digital offerings on the Xbox Store for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Some of the fantastic deals that Microsoft is offering for the Xbox brand, spanning games, software, apps and DLC, was rolled out over on the Major Nelson website. The Ultimate Game Sale will run between June 30th and July 10th, featuring more than 350 games, accessories and hardware that are discounted during the hot summer months. It's noted that for some games and peripherals there's an extra 10% off discount for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Valve has dominated the seasonal sales space with some steep discounts across its catalog of games on Steam, ranging from 5% off all the way up to 95% off in some cases. Microsoft may not be going in quite as steep as the Steam Summer Sales for some games, but there are some noteworthy AAA games up for grabs, including Halo Wars 2, which is marked down by up to 50% for Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold members.

Ubisoft's Far Cry: Primal is also discounted by up to 50% off the normal price, making it a steal at $25.00. One of the other games highlighted in the sale is Titanfall 2, which is being offered up across a number of different deals, including being packaged into a Battlefield 1 bundle that's 67% off the normal price for $48, which means you're getting both games for $24 each. If you decide to get Titanfall 2 as a standalone, you'll save up to 50% on the game.

Rocksteady's highly revered Batman: Arkham Knight is discounted by 60% off, along with various other open world games like Assassin's Creed: Unity and other popular entries in the series such as Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, which is discounted by up to 50%. If you decide to get the Assassin's Creed triple pack, which comes packed with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and Assassin's Creed: Unity, you can save 67% on the bundle.

If you've been itching the Xbox Play Anywhere scratch and need something else to sate that nag, there are games like Thimbleweed Park, Voodoo Vince: Remastered, and Snake Pass that are all discounted, mostly between 35% and 50% off the normal price.

If you're strapped for cash and need something to tide over your software collection on the Xbox One that's cheap and fun, there are games like Cabela's African Adventures that's discounted by 75% off, along with noteworthy indie titles like Deadlight: Director's Cut, which is also 75% off. Going even further up the chain, games like Terraria, The Walking Dead: Season Two and Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix is discounted by 80% off, giving your wallet some much needed relief from all the other discounts. Some backwards compatible games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the Xbox 360 is also slashed by 80% off as well.

New and big games such as Get Even, GTA V and Halo 5: Guardians have also been marked down, assuming you wanted some new or notable AAA games added to your library.

The cross-branded support for the LEGO Dimensions game still astounds me to this very day. The LEGO Group announced that three new Fun and Team packs will be added to the game, including a classic horror character in Beetlejuice, Teen Titans Go! and one of the most iconic Cartoon Network shows out there, The Powerpuff Girls. The figures are expected to arrive by September 12th for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U.

Siliconera did a quick rundown of the three new sets for LEGO Dimensions. The toys-to-life genre may have slowed down drastically after Disney decided to step out of game, and after Activision scaled back on Skylanders, but the new packs for the Lego game are actually pretty cool.

The Powerpuff Girls set includes Bubbles, Buttercup and Blossom. There are two separate packs for the the popular superhero trio. The first pack, the Fun Pack, contains Buttercup and a Mega Blast Bot. Both of these figurines can be used in LEGO Dimensions to bring the characters into the game as 3D avatars based on the toys. The second pack contains the other two heroines, Blossom and Bubbles. They come with a Sonic Squid and a Super Skunk. Using the mini-figures on the base NFC pad for LEGO Dimensions will open up an all new world for players to explore, including Professor Utonium's lab and the Pokey Oaks Elementary School. An additional battle arena will also be unlocked as well.

Funnily enough, the three super heroines don't quite look as LEGO-ized as some other characters. They still appear to be very much mirrored after their Cartoon Network designs. I suppose it's just the nature of their design and the fact that they're so small with large heads that their proportions look closer to their cartoon form than a typical LEGO design.

Anyway, the next item on the list is Beetlejuice, from the eponymous movie and television series. The character doesn't come with a Team Pack but you can get Beetlejuice in a Fun Pack along with the infamous sandworm that has a couple of transformations in LEGO Dimensions, such as a Haunted Vacuum or a Spooky Spider. Just like with the Powerpuff Girls, the Beetlejuice figure also unlocks a new arena and a new world to explore.

The last, but certainly not least of the new Fun and Team Packs includes Teen Titans Go! This is based on the kids television cartoon. The first of the Fun Packs includes Starfire and a Titan Robot that has two different transformations in the game, including a Robot Retriever dog or a T-Rocket. The second Team Pack contains four figurines, two of which feature Raven and Beast Boy. There's also a T-Car that can turn into a Forklift or T-Plane in the game, along with Raven's magical relic the Spellbook of Azarath, which can become a giant hand or wings in the actual game. Two new maps are also added to LEGO Dimensions, including the Titan Tower and the Wacka Doodles Amusement Park.

One of the added bonuses to the Teen Titans Go!, pack is that it comes with a free episode that explains the story of how the Teen Titans went from their world and ended up in the LEGO world. That's a nice little addition to add to the lore of the world.

The game is currently out now for last-gen and current eighth gen systems. Sadly, Nintendo Switch owners are left out of the LEGO Dimensions goodness, but maybe things will change around this fall.

It's a Ubisoft month for Xbox gamers when it comes to the free Games With Gold program for June. They've announced that popular last gen and cross-gen titles like Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed III will be available for those who have Xbox Live Gold.

June's Xbox Live Games With Gold was rolled out by PR front man Major Nelson. The info was detailed over on the official Xbox YouTube channel, where Major Nelson spent just under two minutes in a video detailing the four free games you'll be able to pick up for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, for free.

They start with the indie racing game SpeedRunners. This is a hidden gem that originally came out several years ago on PC. The game is a local or online competitive multiplayer racing game where the objective is to speed through challenging levels, overcoming obstacles and attempting to maintain the lead all while staying on the same screen. It's as crazy and as fun as it sounds. The game is making its debut on the Xbox One for the very first time, and Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to pick up a digital copy for free starting June 1st.

If indie games aren't your cup of tea, they actually have something a lot closer to the sort of content that appeals to AAA gamers as well. For instance, starting June 16th you'll be able to get a free digital copy of the original Watch Dogs. This is for the Xbox One, by the way. I know some people might be leery because the original game was actually a cross-gen release, and there were plenty of complaints about downgrades and missing graphical features when Watch Dogs first released.

As far as gaming goes... the hacktion game was praised for having a grounded take on Chicago, along with offering gamers a visually weighty approach to cyber crimes. However, there were also plenty of criticisms for the game's stark lack of activities to partake in outside of the main mission, as well as mundane gunplay and stiff vehicle handling. The multiplayer component of the first Watch Dogs was highly praised, though, since it was a lot more seamless than how other games handle PvP.

Xbox 360 gamers will have access to Assassin's Creed III at the start of June. This game was extremely controversial because some people hated how linear a lot of the missions were, and the fact that it took almost eight hours of gameplay before you even got to play as Connor. However, Assassin's Creed III still has one of the best and smoothest combat systems around. It's a lot more challenging than the whole rapid tapping of 'X' with a side-order of 'Y' in the Batman: Arkham games, and the animation transitions are some of the smoothest in any game on the market with hack-and-slash, melee based combat.

Ubisoft also implemented the very first iteration of the naval aspects in Assassin's Creed III that would later make an appearance in Assassin's Creed: Rogue and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

The last game on the list for Xbox 360 gamers is Dragon Age: Origins. This game was what kicked-started the high-fantasy franchise so many years ago. It'll be arriving later on in the middle of June.

Both Dragon Age and Assassin's Creed will also be available for Xbox One owners as well due to backwards compatibility, so if you own an Xbox One you get four free games in June.

Additionally, Microsoft is also handing out free DLC throughout June for those playing the remastered version of Phantom Dust on Xbox One.

If you've been itching to expand your library of games for your Xbox One, or maybe you missed out on a ton of Xbox 360 titles during the height of its seventh gen run, it's possible right now to get in on some great deals of some very popular titles that are currently available for backwards compatibility on the Xbox One.

The news comes courtesy of a tweet from Xbox marketing front man, Major Nelson. He posted up the news on his official Twitter account, revealing that on May 16th gamers will be able to save up to 75% off on digital goods for the Xbox One.

These games, as mentioned in the tweet, include popular Xbox 360 fan-favorites such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Those are the blockbuster games leading more than 275 different backwards compatible titles that will be discounted for the Xbox One.

The discounts will range from low percentages all the way up to 75% off select titles. They didn't announce the full list of games that will be on sale, yet, but we do know it gets started on Tuesday.

It's a dangerous date given that on that very same day The Surge, Injustice 2, Farpoint and various other titles will be releasing. It's going to be tough for Microsoft to lure in gamers who may be diving deep into the other games dropping at that date.

Even still, 275 games being discounted is massive. They almost seems like every backwards compatible title in the library for the Xbox One.

The games that Major Nelson rattled off are part of the "Fan Favorites" list over on the official Backwards Compatible website for the Xbox. This likely means that other fan-favorites such as BioShock and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will also likely be discounted as well.

I also wonder if we'll see a discount on the Mass Effect trilogy, too? EA recently slashed the price on Mass Effect: Andromeda, so it would fit in line with having the entire series discounted so more gamers can get in on the action.

This could also mean that other games could be joining in on the discount fray as well, such as Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 1. This could be Microsoft's way of trying to veer people away from purchasing the Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles pack for the PlayStation 4, which is due out on May 16th as well.

It's also likely we'll see a really big discount on the Alan Wake games, given that Remedy recently announced that they'll be pulling the game from digital storefronts due to music licensing issues. They have to renew the licenses and until that happens they'll need to have the games pulled off store shelves.

You can expect deep discounts on plenty of games as well starting next Tuesday.

Microsoft is taking advantage of the warmer weather and the spring season by giving gamers a reason to want to dive into their Xbox collection, or at least expand it by a few titles. They recently announced that they have a spring sale currently on and there are some killer deals that they have available for gamers.

Over on Major Nelson's blog, they announced that there's a week-long sale going on now through April 17th featuring major discounts on a variety of Xbox games. The spring sale includes more than 350 games, along with Xbox accessories, premium apps, music and even television shows and movies.

There are both Xbox One and Xbox 360 games on sale, with Xbox games being discounted by up to 67%. That goes up to 77% for those of you who have Xbox Live Gold, as you can cash in on that subscription for bigger discounts.

It's not just old and small games available on discount either, some big titles are available for purchase, including three different iterations of For Honor, which are all marked down by up to 30%. Other heavy hitters like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the various expansion packs are also all discounted by up to 40% off.

Many of Telltale Games' titles are also discounted, including bundle packs containing many of their popular series being marked down by up to 70% off.

Other games that didn't quite get a lot of spotlight during the fall season due to the over-crowded release of a bunch of AAA games are also marked down, such as Titanfall 2, which is currently half-off.

Fighting games like Mortal Kombat XL are available at a discounted rate of up to 40% off, along with Bandai Namco's Naruto Shippuden series, which are discounted between 25% off and 67% off.

There are also a bunch of discounted Halo packs, with the cash shop items being marked down from between 20% off and 60% off. Halo 5: Guardians is also available for half off, while Halo Wars 2 is marked down by 35% off.

Of course, there are a wide variety of games that they have in their stash, including popular sports games like FIFA 17 and NBA 2K17. Recent releases like Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1 are also up for grabs, along with their DLC packs.

In addition to a lot of the expected games you would see on the marketplace, they also have a number of backwards compatible titles available as well. In fact, 35 backwards compatible Xbox 360 games are also discounted.

In addition to discounting games, Microsoft also announced that first time Xbox Live Gold subscribers can get in on a deal where the first month of XBL Gold is available for only $1. This membership discount is only going to be available for the duration of the week-long spring sale, so you'll have to act fast if you're considering getting in on the deal.

Additionally, if you make your purchases from the Microsoft Store, you can also purchase Xbox accessories along with various PCs with 33% off their normal price. They also have deals at up to 50% off on select television shows and movies. So there's a little bit of something in there for everyone.

Microsoft hasn't stopped adding new (or rather, old) games to the Xbox One's ever-growing library of backwards compatible titles. The newest game to join is actually one of the biggest and best-selling games from the seventh gen, and surefire favorite that many gamers still play to this day.

As noted by Polygon, Grand Theft Auto IV is now fully backward compatible with the Xbox One. Not only that but Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City have also been made backward compatible for the Xbox One, this includes the Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. I loved all the different things you could do in the Ballad of Gay Tony and the story felt light and adventurous, similar to GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas, but I can't help note just how much more I loved, loved, loved the thematic tones of Lost and Damned.

A lot of people compared the the DLC featuring Johnny and the biker gang, The Lost, to the FX smash hit Sons of Anarchy. I found the story one of the most compelling ever told in a GTA game just because it was very grounded, had a lot more realistic mission goals, and the ending -- while utterly depressing -- was fitting for the smaller scale of the narrative that they went with. It was a shame that they didn't make more story missions like that, but a lot of people complained that the original GTA IV story starring Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman was way too depressing, and then following that up with Lost and Damned kept it in a similar tone. Unsurprisingly, The Ballad of Gay Tony and subsequently GTA V both had much lighter tones and went with more absurd satire than the crime dramedy that was the original story following Niko.

Nevertheless, GTA IV goes down in history as being one of the best open world games ever made. The physics from the Morpheme alone made the world feel alive, especially with the way the NPCs interacted with each other and the player character. The vehicle physics were also absolutely top notch. Each vehicle handled differently due to mass, tilt, height and torque variances. There was none of that arcade styling and driving that was featured in GTA V. The soft-body collision damage also was a breakthrough for the industry standards of car crashes, giving gamers near realistic car damage and destruction, which made the chase sequences far more thrilling and unpredictable than what was featured in the fifth numerical game.

Unfortunately, Xbox One owners won't be able to download and install mods on the console version of the game, so the realistic car physics, enhanced Euphoria, and additional weapons and cars won't be possible, but improved performance compatibility will definitely make GTA IV much more palatable for console gamers. Some of you might remember that in the original release on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the game suffered from some major frame-rate drops due to the hardware just not being able to handle what Rockstar implemented into the game. They had to make some major concessions with GTA IV in order for the game to run above 25fps on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Nevertheless, if you have the disc version of GTA IV you can plop it into your Xbox One right now and start installing the game and enjoying it as a backward compatible title.

You can just about set your watch by the new games being regularly added to Xbox One's backward compatibility these days. A trio of new titles just went live, including a couple of first-person shooters and an epic fantasy RPG.

Larry Hryb just updated the Major Nelson Twitter page with the latest three games to be made playable via backward compatibility on the Xbox One games console. They're three biggies, too.

That's right, your old copies of Battlefield 3, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Dragon Age Origins can now be played simply by inserting the 360 disc into your Xbox One. The list of compatible games is basically growing on a weekly basis at this point, with hundreds of last gen titles now playable on Microsoft's latest piece of hardware. With plenty of titles from the Halo, Call of Duty and Gears of War series already playable, not to mention games like the original Mass Effect and Red Dead Redemption, today's latest offerings will help round out that collection nicely.

Again, if you own an Xbox One, you don't need to do anything special to get these games to work on your console. The backward compatibility feature has already been updated so, if you've got an itch to revisit old favorites, you can just pop them in and get to playing.

While Battlefield 3 is great and all, it was yet another modern shooter that took itself very seriously. That's why Bad Company 2 is the clear standout of this batch. It's got all of the great shooting of a traditional Battlefield game, but with the added bonus of big, open environments and a cast of characters that are far more entertaining than your average group of military grunts. We're pretty sure that the next Battlefield game will revisit World War II and, after Battlefield 1, we wouldn't complain about a continuation of the series' new direction, but we'd also trade just about any new shooter currently on the horizon for a Bad Company 3.

After you're done with all of that shooting, you can spend plenty of time questing around the realms of Dragon Age: Origins, saving villages, fighting dragons and casting spells like a wizard on speed. A bright, colorful and fast-paced Western RPG, DAO reminds us that roleplaying games can be just as frantic and exciting as any action game.

So there you have it; three big new games from the Xbox 360 era now available on the Xbox One. At this point, we're running out of ideas as to what Microsoft should try and add next. If you've got any ideas, drop them into the comments below.

Before 2016 concludes and 2017 gets underway, Microsoft is offering gamers one last chance to get their hands on several free games as a way to round out the month and the year. Not only that but there are also some sweet deals and discounts available too.

Gamespot posted up a reminder that the Xbox 360 horror game, Outlast, is still available for free as part of Microsoft's Games With Gold for the month of December. They've already outlined the games they have available for January, but you can still get your hands on the games available in December, and Outlast is one of them. The horror title sees players investigating an asylum while trying to avoid certain death and deranged inmates trying to do unspeakable things to you. The game won plenty of awards and helped put Red Barrels on the map as a legitimate developer working on serious games. Due to the fact that the game is backwards compatible with the Xbox One, it means that you can download it to your profile for the Xbox 360 but play it on your Xbox One. The game will be available for free up until January 15th.

But it's not just horror games available to Xbox Live subscribers. The classic racing title Burnout Paradise is also still available for free. The game can be picked up right now up until January 1st, so you'll have to act fast. The game originally launched for the Xbox 360 as an open-world MMO hybrid, combining the awesome shunt-and-bump racing elements from the previous Burnout games with a Need For Speed World-esque open world map featuring various districts, events and opportunities for players to show off their skills. You'll have to work fast because you only have until the end of today to get the game for free.

The last free title on the list is one of my all-time favorite games, the open-world, action-crime thriller Sleeping Dogs from the now defunct United Front Games. The game puts players in the role of undercover cop Wei Shen, as he attempts to take down the Triads from the inside. The game is really, really fun. The driving is a bit arcady, but you can pull off some neat action stunts- such as jumping from one car to the next, using DLC costumes from other Square Enix-published games such as Hitman, Just Cause and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, as well as engage in some back-alley brawls, some John Woo-inspired shootouts and some Fast & Furious racing. It's also one of the few games where it's an open-world taking place outside of America.

United Front Games put a lot of time and effort into bringing Hong Kong to life, as well as the different districts that add flavor and color to the robustly energetic city. It's a real shame that things didn't work out with United Front Games because a right proper Sleeping Dogs sequel would have been absolute fire. It was one of the new IPs that actually came out of the box and practically did everything right the first time around. A bigger city, with more vehicles, more mini-games and more customization and combat mechanics for Wei would have easily made it a good top contender to go head-to-head against Grand Theft Auto.

Anyway, you only have until the end of the day to get Sleeping Dogs for free, so work fast!

Hard to believe, but the Xbox has been with us for a full 15 years at this point, and the folks over at Microsoft are celebrating with a bunch of in-game giveaways.

If the Xbox brand was a person, it would be just one year away from earning its driver's license, and that's pretty impressive. Nobody knew quite what to expect when Microsoft came onto the scene with its massive console and equally massive controllers and, today, the Xbox continues to go toe-to-toe with industry mainstays like Nintendo and PlayStation.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, team Xbox has invited everyone to share their memories from the past 1.5 decades with the #15YearsOfXbox tag, so feel free to throw that around on social media when reminiscing about your first time playing Halo, Gears of War, Forza and the like. And speaking of trademark Xbox games, a selection of titles are offering free in-game goodies for folks to grab and utilize to show off their support of all things Xbox.

For starters, Forza Horizon 3 is giving everyone a 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor boasting a special skin featuring green and black paint and the Xbox 15 logo. If you're a Horizon VIP, you'll get an additional truck in honor of Xbox's big celebration, though no particulars were offered.

Also available for a limited time are a pair of Rivals events, one for Forza Motorsport 6 and the other for Forza Horizon 3. Horizon will also have a special Bucket List Challenge available in the Pink Lakes area, so look for its Bucket List point and select "Celebrate #15YearsOfXbox."

The original announcement states that more special offers are coming in more games, so we'll just have to sit tight and see what all becomes available in the coming weeks. Various members of Team Xbox will also be hosting events for players looking to dive into multiplayer with the creators, so keep your attention tuned to your favorite Xbox game's social media to see what/when things are going down.

A lot can happen in 15 years. To drive that point home, Microsoft shared a whole bunch of stats concerning the Xbox brand, including an audience of 222,468,423 players. That's a lot of people getting mad at a lot of other people for using the Plasma Sword in Halo 2 competitive modes. Achievements have become a big part of the Xbox ecosystem, too, with a whopping 32,667,582,157 unlocked to date. Keep in mind that 'Chievos weren't even available on the original Xbox, so that's just two generations' worth of virtual trophies. Also, the highest Gamerscore at this point in time is 1,416,465 so, whoever you are, you just keep doing your thing.

And now, we turn to our readers. What's your first Xbox memory? What's your best? Let us know in the comments below.

The middle of the month has arrived, and Microsoft has updated what gets swapped in and what gets swapped out for the free Games With Gold. Gamers looking to expand their library on the Xbox 360 or Xbox One can do so with two additional free games for the month of October.

Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings - Available from October 1-31 on Xbox One

The Escapists - Available from October 16- November 15 on Xbox One

MX vs ATV Reflex - Available from October 1-15 on Xbox 360 & Xbox One

I Am Alive - Available from October 16-31 on Xbox 360 & Xbox One

Gamespot did a quick piece highlighting that Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China and MX vs ATV Reflex being cycled out of the free Games With Gold program for two more games to take their place. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China was available for the Xbox One while MX vs. ATV Reflex was made available for the Xbox 360. Both games were available for free for those who were subscribed as Xbox Live Gold members up until the middle of October.

Now that those aforementioned games have been moved out of the cycle, two more games have taken their place. Xbox One owners can now get their hands on the pixelated smash hit called The Escapists, while Xbox 360 owners will be able to get their hands on I Am Alive.

The Escapists sees gamers having to build up relationships, complete tasks, and ultimately work their way through planning an escape from a prison. If Prison Break the television show came out during the 1990s and there was a tie-in 16-bit game, The Escapists is the closest thing to that game that you can get.

MX vs. ATV Reflex is one of the most underrated racing games from last gen, boasting some great physics and intense gameplay that resonated with a lot of the gamers who played the title. The really cool part about it is that MX vs. ATV Reflex is backward compatible so if you got it on the Xbox 360 you can play it on the Xbox One with no problems. Cool, eh?

With all these free games coming out that are mostly must-have, I wonder how many gamers are finding themselves in a pickle with having to upgrade their hard drives for the Xbox One. The 500GB unit was always going to be a problem even at launch due to the size of games. Some quick tests quickly revealed that you wouldn't be able to keep many games on the Xbox One or PS4's hard drives due to how small they are.

500GB may sound like a lot, but with the size of today's games you'll burn through it pretty quickly, especially when games like GTA V and Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare take up a crazy amount of HDD space.

The upside is that the Xbox 360 titles are fairly small, so you won't be burning through space quite the same as with the free Xbox One games.

Additionally, the October games made available via Games With Gold for the Xbox One are also quite small, with Assassin's Creed Chronicles and The Escapists being budget-priced micro games instead of the mammoth AAA titles that people are usually used to.

You'll be able to get your hands on The Escapists for Xbox One for free between October 16th and November 15th, and I Am Alive for free on the Xbox 360 between October 16th and October 31st. Additionally, Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings will be free throughout the entire month of October.

Microsoft recently unveiled the new line-up of games that will be available for free through the Games With Gold program for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 in October. With just days to go before the month is out, gamers can check out what titles they can expand their library with.

Over on the official Xbox news site, four of the games were revealed on the site. This includes Mega Baseball, The Escapists, MX vs ATV Reflex and I Am Alive. Obviously the offerings are far less impressive than the last two months. Microsoft really hammered home some high-quality games back throughout the summer as a way to lure in gamers and get them interested in both Xbox Live and the Xbox hardware... and it worked!

For July and August Microsoft managed to beat Sony in the Xbox One sales, edging out their competitor in due part to the software line-up and the introduction of the new Xbox One S for $299.99. A nice one-two combo to lure in the fence-sitters.

October isn't quite as jam packed with home-run titles. Yeah there's Mega Baseball but I haven't actually heard of that game before today. You'll be able to pick up a free digital copy of the title between October 1st and October 31st on the Xbox One. The game is a lighthearted, 3D baseball with realistic physics and up to four-player local cooperative play. The game regularly sold for $19.99, but you'll get it free at the start of October.

The second free Xbox One title for Xbox Live Gold subscribers is The Escapists. Now this may not seem like that big of a title, and while it, too, is also available for only $19.99... the game has been very popular with the gaming audience. The game centers around planning an escape from prison while trying not to tip off or alert the guards to your escape. It's a brilliant little RPG from Team17 that actually managed to become a sleeper hit. The Escapists will be available between October 16th and November 15th for the Xbox One.

From there, the next two titles are for the Xbox 360 but they can be played as backwards compatible games on the Xbox One. MX vs ATV Reflex will be available from October 1st through October 15th, featuring break-neck speed racing and high-octane thrills, while I Am Alive will be available between October 16th and October 31st.

The interesting thing about I Am Alive is that the game did not receive very good user reviews. The game came out during a time when Ubisoft was attempting to compete in some minor way with Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. Quite naturally comparisons were made between the two games and most people recognized that Ubisoft's game just did not live up to the standards of Naughty Dog's game. It's weird that the ratings on the store page are as high as they are, but the actual user reviews on other sites break down why the game isn't worth the price. I suppose it's good that gamers are getting it for free because you won't have to worry about a price of entry.

Recently, some footage of GoldenEye allegedly running on the Xbox 360 surfaced online. This sent gamers into a tizzy trying to figure out if it was real or not and if the game was really planned to release on the 360. Well, Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer has finally chimed in on the matter.

What he's saying is not that the game that we've seen running in the video for about half an hour isn't real or wasn't actually capable of running on the Xbox 360, but that doing so was always about getting the rights, which is why GoldenEye wasn't included in Rare Replay. But who has the rights? Well, it's complicated. The 007 license bounces around to various publishers and has also bounced around to various studios.

At the time of release, Nintendo and Rare were able to make GoldenEye 007 for the N64. The game rights were obviously in Nintendo's wheelhouse since it was published by Nintendo and made exclusively for their console. However, the 007 property rights bounced around from one company to the next and at the time MGM owned the rights. The poor 'ole 007 franchise has been fought over throughout the years, with certain films and property rights being bid over and challenged in court more times than it's worth mentioning.

Even if Microsoft did manage to convince Nintendo to let them re-publish GoldenEye 007 on the Xbox consoles, they would likely still have to get the distribution rights from the property holders. It's the main reason why a lot of games based on licensed property are currently unavailable for digital purchase on home consoles and PC, like EA's 007 games and some of Activision's 007 games. Thankfully, you can still find some of the titles being sold from some places that still have the physical copies of the game.

In the case of GoldenEye appearing on the Xbox 360, Spencer doesn't necessarily say who is responsible for the rights hold-up, whether that's Nintendo or the current 007 rights holders. Sometimes these things can turn into a real mess and, unfortunately, a lot of games may not ever see the light of day again due to these legal issues surrounding the rights of the property, an issue that currently has the classic No One Lives Forever stuck in IP hell.

Now Phil Spencer's vague response regarding the GoldenEye footage doesn't necessitate that it's from a real version of the game. There's still the possibility that someone recreated the title with a brush up in textures and environmental improvements and plopped the video online.

With today's technology it's pretty easy to completely reconstruct old games using newer engines. Heck, some modders completely remade Perfect Dark 64 within Valve's Source Engine for Half-Life 2. It wouldn't be too far fetched to believe that some dedicated fans ripped or remade some assets and built their own version of GoldenEye for the Xbox 360. Given that the 360 is moddable and can run homebrew and emulation, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that the whole thing is a basement project.

While it would be cool to learn more about what exact hurdles are holding up the release of a GoldenEye on the Xbox consoles, it's likely that the whole thing will eventually fade back into the dark.

One of my favorite games of all time that came out during the seventh generation of gaming has been added to the backwards compatibility list for the Xbox One. I'm talking about the one and only...Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

As you can see, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb announced on Twitter that one of the most popular low-budget spin-offs that released last gen is now available to play and purchase on the Xbox One.

The update comes as a total surprise because there was no lead-up to this announcement. It just came out of nowhere, unlike a game like Red Dead Redemption, which leaked early and then was the talk of the town for months on end. When the game finally did become available for backward compatibility the sales skyrocketed for the Xbox 360 version of Red Dead Redemption because everyone wanted to get their hands on it for the Xbox One.

In this case, it's just a straight-through news alert letting gamers know that one of the most creative open-world games to come out in a long time is available to play on the Xbox One. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was an awesome first-person romp through a reconfigured Far Cry 3. Creative director Dean Evans took the core mechanics and assets from the original game and reworked them to give it a 1980s vibe. Neon colors, weapons from Terminator and Robocop, along with cool catchphrases and a leading role headed up by Michael Biehn made Blood Dragon an instant hit.

If you don't remember the game the trailer below sums it up perfectly.

This is the only Far Cry game I regularly play for fun. That's no joke.

What made Blood Dragon so cool, is that it didn't feel like a typical fetch-quest Far Cry game. You got to travel around wherever you wanted, upgrade the weapons in ways that were fun and thrilling, and battle with or against the seeming indomitable Blood Dragons. Also, that soundtrack from Power Glove is one of the best retrowave synth scores out there. It captures the cheese, the intensity, and even the melodrama of the 1980s soundtrack scores that were popularized by a number of different movies that were out back then, from Terminator to Predator to Above The Law.

If you're a genuine fan of the awesome-bad action movies from the 1980s, and you adore the over-the-top Saturday morning action cartoons like C.O.P.S., G.I. Joe or Exo-Squad, then you'll definitely enjoy Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

It's such a shame that more of Ubisoft's games aren't as high-quality as the low-budget spinoff (which could effectively be called a total conversion mod) but I guess we'll take what we can get. And, in this case, you can get Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for the Xbox One from the digital storefront for $14.99. If you already purchased it with your Xbox Live profile you can begin downloading it right now onto your Xbox One.

August is just around the corner, which means it's time to take a gander at yet another fresh crop of Games with Gold titles coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One throughout the next 30 days. Get ready to wrestle, fight hordes of enemies, explore endless caverns and more.

Announced this week on the Major Nelson blog, the August Games with Gold lineup is a pretty solid one, boasting four free games that should keep you plenty busy between now and September.

The Xbox One will be getting both Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and WWE 2K16, while folks on the Xbox 360 will enjoy gratis copies of Spelunky and Beyond Good & Evil HD. As a reminder, both of those Xbox 360 games are backwards compatible titles, so you technically can download all four offerings on the Xbox One...Noice. Take a look at the announcement.

As always, the release schedule for the August Games with Gold is a bit all over the place. Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate will be available from Aug. 1-31, with WWE 2K16 up for grabs from Aug. 16 to Sept. 15. Spelunky can be yours from Aug. 1-15, with Beyond Good & Evil HD on the virtual shelf from Aug. 16-31. For those of you who like to feel like you're getting plenty of bang for your buck, this month's games alone would set you back $120 if purchased separately. Even if you occasionally don't appreciate the selection on services like Gold and Plus, you can't really argue with savings like that spread out over the course of a year.

As for what you're getting out of this month's lineup, we'll start with the Xbox One offerings, as they offer very different experiences that still manage to let you beat the stuffing out of your opponents.

Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate comes from possibly my favorite musou series. It combines characters from both the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises with enemies that are frequently oni and other supernatural entities. I appreciate the history of the core series but, when I'm able to mop the floor with 100 enemies' faces at a time, that sort of supernatural crowd control blends better with a story that's equally ridiculous.

As for WWE 2K16, you pretty much know what you're getting here. If you like wrestling games, this one is apparently a keeper, offering a huge cast of characters, plenty of customization options and modes aplenty to grapple your way through.

Over to the 360 and Spelunky likely needs no introduction. A fantastic roguelike full of randomly generated dungeons, you could literally play this game forever and never experience the same levels twice.

Beyond Good & Evil, on the other hand, is a beloved action adventure game from a couple generations back that was lovingly recreated for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. If you haven't played this classic, now would be a good time.

Way back when you first got your gamertag, you might've been excited to score such a perfect username for the Xbox. It fit you completely. But now you've been in college and homework has been piling high and you've been unable to play your Xbox in a while. Well, now time away from your Xbox could mean losing your gamertag.

Microsoft announced today some upcoming changes for its service agreement, and it states,

On the plus side, signing in at least once in a five-year period isn't really asking a lot. Even if you are going through something pretty time consuming for a couple years and need to step away for a bit, as long as it's under five years, you're still good to go.

I first acquired my awesome gamertag on my Xbox 360 back in 2009 and used it all the way up until two years ago when I traded it in for a PlayStation 4. But because of this new agreement, technically my username is still mine for another three years or so.

Freeing up inactive gamertags can be seen as a positive thing, for it allows active users to nab the usernames they want instead of the name disappearing forever after one person claims it. I don't disagree with the new process; I actually think it's pretty fair considering if someone is inactive on Xbox for five years, they probably aren't going to be using their Xbox anymore, so why let them keep their gamertag? Or maybe there are people like me who traded in their Xbox but didn't cancel their account and their gamertag is just hanging around out there somewhere in the universe.

According to GameSpot, earlier this year Xbox released over one million gamertags to a select group of Xbox Live players claiming that they were inactive. So this move by Xbox was bound to happen sooner or later.

So if you'd like to keep your Xbox gamertag and it's been awhile since you logged in, you might want to make a point to log-in again, just to be sure.

Electronic Arts and DICE are continuing to give away free content for Battlefield 4 leading up to their reveal of Battlefield _'s campaign mode. The free DLC is the _Naval Strike content, which came out two years ago back in March. It's available right now for Xbox, PlayStation and PC gamers.

Over on Gamespot, they detailed how Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC games can each get their hands on the Naval Strike DLC without paying a dime for it. It'll only be available for a limited amount of time during the promotion EA is running in part with Battlefield 4 in order to help promote the upcoming Battlefield 1.

For Xbox owbers you can get your hands on the free DLC from the Xbox Store for the Xbox 360 or Xbox One. For PlayStation owners you can get your hands on the free DLC from the PlayStation Store for the PS3 or PS4. For PC gamers, you'll have to get the DLC from Origin.

The Naval Strike DLC contains four all new maps across the south China sea, giving gamers the Lost Islands to battle across, the Nansha Strike to rush through, Operation Mortar to brush up on your siege skills and Wave Breaker for battling across the rocky waves to control a naval base.

The Battlefield 4 DLC contains five brand new weapons, including three new grenade launcher attachments, and the new hovercraft vehicle, which can glide across both land and sea.

But that's not all. The Naval Strike expansion is also accompanied by several other DLC packs that are also being handed out for free, including Battlefield 4's _Night Operations, _which launched back on September 1st, 2015. It's a night-themed pack with a brand new map, six modes to play across and various night-enhanced gadgets to make use of.

EA and DICE also have the free Community Operations and Legacy Operations available for Battlefield 4 as well. It's literally a barrage of DLC being carted out for free.

This is all in attempts to keep the hype levels maintained for Battlefield 1 and get gamers enticed into the series before the next game launches this October.

EA and DICE knocked it out of the park with the World War I shooter's debut earlier this year when they rivaled the reveal of Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the latter of which went on to garner millions of dislikes and lots of scorn from the gaming community. The opposite is true for Battlefield 1, which is currently riding high with a lot of hype and a lot of praise and a lot of interest from gamers.

Supposedly, there's going to be a campaign mode for the game but DICE have yet to reveal it, but I imagine they'll do so well ahead of the October release.

According to Gamespot, EA and DICE have also been giving away free content for Battlefield: Hardline, _ the unloved outing of the _Battlefield series. Even still, the publisher wants to make sure fans of the series are getting as much free content as possible and getting as geeked and hyped as possible leading up to the release of Battlefield 1 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Another long series of rumors, leaks and speculation has evolved into reality, this time involving some classic games from the Dead Rising series.

Dead Rising 4 made its debut at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference 2016, announced as an Xbox One timed exclusive. Until that announcement, it was not known if Dead Rising would ever make its way onto modern consoles. According to a recent announcement, however, it looks like a handful of older games in the Dead Rising series will actually beat Dead Rising 4 to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Speaking with the folks over at Gamespot, Capcom confirmed that modern consoles will be getting a trio of Dead Rising games while the PC will get one of its own. Evidence of this first popped up when a supposed leaked list of PS4 trophies for the original Dead Rising started making its rounds on the internet. Gamespot reached out to Capcom, who just went ahead and upended the entire bag full of cats.

According to their statement, PC gamers will soon be able to play the original Dead Rising, the only game in the series not currently available on the platform. As for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the original Dead Rising will be joined by Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like these are going to be remasters or anything like that. Since the PC is only getting one of the trio of games, it stands to reason that it's getting the standard version of Dead Rising. That being the case, it then stands to reason that all three versions are ports; otherwise, why wouldn't they bring all three to PC?

We don't know if we're looking at a digital release for consoles, or perhaps a single disc containing all three games. Either way, if you haven't gotten into the series yet, this certainly wouldn't be a bad way to take the plunge. Capcom stated that they'll be releasing more information soon, so keep your eyes peeled for additional details in the coming weeks.

As for what newcomers can expect out of the Dead Rising series, you'll get plopped into a world overrun with zombies and only a handful of desperate survivors trying to fight their way through the apocalypse. This ain't no Walking Dead, though, so don't expect gravely whispering through every conversation or heartfelt goodbyes when the zombies get a hold of an innocent.

Instead, expect open worlds positively filled with shambling monsters and a ridiculous number of ways to send them back to the grave. You'll get to craft all sorts of insane weapons and take part in ridiculous activities. Good times will be had by all.

Microsoft will be hosting a sale on Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, giving gamers an opportunity to grab some of the brand's top tier games for anywhere between 40% and 60% off. There will be deals on more than 250 different Xbox titles, but the sale is only going to last between July 5 and July 11. So you'll have to hurry if you want to get in on the deals.

The news was posted up over on the Major Nelson blog, where Larry Hryb explains that not only will games be discounted, but game systems will be discounted as well. Various iterations of the Xbox One and Xbox 360 will be marked down as part of the 4th of July Independence Day sales spree. Those with Xbox Live Gold will also have steeper discounts than those with Xbox Live Silver. He doesn't specifically say what the pricing will be for the consoles, but I'm sure the price-slashing will be significant enough to help move some consoles and get the competition boiling between Microsoft and Sony.

And while this is a sale for Xbox themed games and products, Hryb explains that there will also be discounts on up to 30 different PC titles through the Windows 10 store. Now I know how most people feel about Windows 10 exclusives, so it's unlikely that the discounts will be too significant. It's likely Microsoft's way of partially extending an olive branch due to some of the shoddy ports that have appeared on Windows 10... like Quantum Break and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

As for the games that will be discounted... they aren't pushovers and indie game throwaways. Microsoft is slashing prices on some well known titles, including Ubisoft's recently released The Division, which is a third-person MMO that just came out earlier this year during the spring, as well as Halo 5: Guardians, the premiere Halo game for the Xbox One from 343 Industries. Even critically acclaimed and top selling games like The Witcher 3 are scheduled to be discounted as well.

There's a wide mixture of games, accessories and DLC that are discounted. For instance, Studio Wildcard's ARK: Survival Evolved will be discounted by up to 25%, where-as Assassin's Creed IV will be knocked off by up to 60%.

Gearbox Software's recently released and poorly selling first-person shooter, Battleborn, will be slashed in price by half off, it'll be joined by another Gearbox title, Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which will be available for up to 60% off.

Bethesda's Fallout 4 will be half-off, along with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.

Surprisingly, Evolve and F1 2015 will both be discounted by more than 60%. In fact, Evolve Ultimate Edition will be available for up to 67% off while F1 2015 will be discounted by up to 75% off. Those are nearing Steam-style discounts.

As mentioned, it's not just games getting the prices slashed. DLC will also be on sale as well, including a wide range of Call of Duty add-on packs, as well as cash shop currency for various MMO games such as Neverwinter Online. The cash shop discounts range from 10% off to 30% off, with a little mixture of everything else in between.

You can look to get in on the sale starting tomorrow on July 5 and it will run up until July 11, next week.

Just this morning, 2K Games teased a major reveal on Twitter, asking people to follow _Bioshock, _hinting at the fact that they are gearing up for some kind of reveal.

And slowly as the day has trickled on, more and more information has been pouring out about Bioshock: The Collection. About an hour ago, PCGamer reported that a website for Bioshock: The Collection appeared on 2K Games' website, but when I looked I couldn't find it. They did manage to capture a screenshot of the website.

And now, GameSpot has updated their story saying Bioshock: The Collection cover artwork has been discovered on the 2K servers by All Games Delta, as seen in the Tweet below with a link to the image.

It's really only a matter of time before 2K Games comes out and announces the game to everyone. It's kind of like what happened with Battlefield 1's leak; we know it's coming, so give it to us already!

I played both Bioshock 1 and 2 back in college on the PC, but I was never able to get my hands on Bioshock: Infinite. I know some people would slap me for even saying that, after so many years, I've never played that game, but the series has never really appealed to me that much, which is weird considering one of the Bioshocks had a terrifying hospital scene. But maybe the release of the collection onto current platforms will finally let me play Bioshock: Infinite the way it was truly meant to be played.

We'll continue to keep you updated as we find out more information on this story.

The four free Games With Gold were revealed today, featuring a blockbuster smattering of titles both new and old alike. It's hard to tell which system gets the better games, but both Xbox One and Xbox 360 gamers will be pleased with the offerings, especially if you're a fan of Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Vegas series.

Game Informer did a very quick write-up on the games that players would have access to throughout July for the Xbox One and the Xbox 360. Starting on July 1st Xbox One owners will be able to get their hands on a free copy of Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga 2. Yes, the game just recently came out but it's already free for Xbox One owners who have Xbox Live Gold. The title will be free throughout July all the way to July 31st.

The Banner Saga 2 has already garnered tons of positive press and it's as depressing a story as it is a visually engaging RPG. It doesn't pull any punches with any of its characters and if you don't mind main characters dropping like flies (not unlike Game of Thrones) you'll likely enjoy The Banner Saga 2.

Beginning July 16th and running up through August 15, gamers will be able to get their hands on a free copy of Tumblestone, a new game from Quantum Astrophysics Guild. The title is actually due to release on home consoles and PC starting July 12 and will be available on Steam, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita, PS3 and Wii U. It's a new take on the multiplayer puzzle genre and gives gamers a different set of gameplay rules to play by, turning the competitive nature of the genre on its head.

On the Xbox 360 front, things are a little bit more front-loaded for AAA experiences. How front-loaded? We're talking Ubisoft's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, one of the most popular and best selling games in the early half of the seventh generation of gaming. This game was a blockbuster on Microsoft's console during the early days of the Xbox 360 and it will be free on July 1st and will stay free up until July 15 in the middle of the month. Since the game is also backwards compatible, you'll be able to attach it to your Xbox 360 profile and play Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 on your Xbox One.

Last but not least on the list is Disney Interactive's TRON: Evolution. This was one of my personal favorites from last gen. I know it's a movie-based tie-in game but boy-oh-boy did I love the visual style of this game. The kind of high-fashion neon glitz that came with TRON: Evolution combined with the awesome soundtrack and the cool visuals from the Grid made this an easy pick for playing on a lazy Sunday afternoon or a busy Saturday night. The game features some really cool melee combat that is very layered, so gamers who enjoy a lot of tactical, skill-based melee fighting will easily find themselves drawn to the combat of TRON: Evolution.

The game also took liberties with seamlessly intertwining the multiplayer and single-player components together, so whatever you earned or leveled up in multiplayer could carry over into single-player. There was actually a strong incentive to get good at the multiplayer and unlock new gear to help you along the way in the single-player portion of the game, which I absolutely adored. I spent hours in the multiplayer just unlocking new skills for the character.

You can get your hands on TRON: Evolution for free as either an Xbox 360 standalone title or as an Xbox 360 backwards compatible title for the Xbox One starting July 16. The deal will only be available for Xbox Live Gold subscribers until July 31.

Ever since the debut of The Sims back in 2000, cheat codes have been a critical part of surviving in The Sims universe. Without the cheat codes, how would you make so much money? Get a job? But I wanted to see just how hard it would be if I limited myself to playingThe Sims 4 without cheat codes, and things didn't turn out so well.

Usually when I create a Sims family in The Sims 4, I spend hours building my house because usually I have all the money in the world to spare. But this time, I didn't have that luxury. Instead, I had to buy a little one bedroom house with a tiny kitchen and barely a living room. My television set was hardly high-tech and I had to buy the bare minimum and cheapest kitchenware, stuff that would probably set my house on fire if I tried to cook. Living on a budget in The Sims sucked.

Just like I thought, the first time I went to make my Sim cook dinner for my boyfriend, I set the fricken kitchen on fire. Thank goodness I made room in the budget for the smoke detector, because the firemen were swift and took out the fire, leaving behind a mess. Needless to say, I saved some money and got rid of the stove and just bought a microwave.

So now that part of my house was burnt and I only had the skills to microwave meals from now on, it was time to try and get a job before I run out of money. Instead of using a fancy laptop like I used to use in my past playing experiences, I had to find a job using the newspaper. I picked up a measly job in a restaurant, and I hated it. I would come home totally stressed out and angry, and my asshole of a boyfriend and I would be irritated with each other and I'd just go to bed hungry and sad.

That's probably around the time I stopped showering. I went to bed so late after staying up to argue that I didn't have time to shower in the morning, so I went to work without showering. I strained myself to do well at work so that I could bring home a bonus, only to find I was late paying my bills and got shit taken away.

So now, not only was my relationship falling apart, but so was my cleanliness and general care about life. I was stuck in a dead-end job, I didn't have the money to buy the fancy cooking devices and ingredients I needed to get better at cooking. Therefore, I could not take advantage of the opportunities in cooking that popped up.

Overall, my Sims experience without using cheat codes was pretty harrowing. Things went south extremely fast and it was almost sad to see how depressed my Sims were without money or any way to boost their moods. Needless to say, The Sims wouldn't be the same without their notorious cheat codes. And life in The Sims 4 just wouldn't be as enjoyable---or worth living. Or maybe I've just been spoiled for so long with The Sims that I've forgotten how to truly survive on my own without the help of a cheat code. Whatever the case, I won't be giving up cheat codes again anytime soon.

While some might agree that the Silent Hill movies aren't that bad, I could rage on for hours about all of the ways they totally destroy the Silent Hill name. And even though I'm more keen on the second installment than the first, I would still be open to someone pushing out a third movie to seal the deal.

This past December, Silent Hill fans around the world were met with anger, sadness and despair as Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro announced that their ambitious and highly-popular video game project, Silent Hills, was canceled.

And since the spiritual successor to the game, Allison Road, also just announced a surprise cancellation, Silent Hill fans are feeling a little confused and left out. Silent Hill competitor Resident Evil debuted a solid demo of the new Resident Evil 7 at E3 and even released a quick demo on PS4 which, surprisingly, had all of the horrifying elements of a P.T. It even made Silent Hill fans wonder if this is what the canceled Silent Hills would've turned into.

But even though Silent Hill fans have been battered and beaten and kicked in the nads, they are still there, waiting patiently for someone to feed them what they hunger for: Silent Hill.

While the first and seconds films in the Silent Hill series weren't great, they had potential. And what is a series without its third and final film? Here's what I propose: I propose that someone (please let it be James Wan) take the subject of Silent Hill and, without copying any of the stories from the game, turn it into their own series, using the setting of Silent Hill. Create a new instance of Silent Hill, which is obviously someone wandering aimlessly into the town only to find themselves wrapped up in all of the horrific drama. What's great about the Silent Hill game series isn't the creepy cult or anything like that, it's the creatures and the things that live in that world. Hell, I wouldn't even say no to a whole 'nother trilogy if someone wanted to completely revamp the idea.

Not too long ago I didn't think survival horror was going to make it out of its lull. For a while there, survival horror struggled to make it back to the Triple A game and until Silent Hills _came back onto the scene and introduced us all the chilling terrors of _P.T., no one knew if survival horror would ever be the same. But now that we've reignited this interest in the atmospheric horror that we loved so much during Silent Hill's time, I think it's time to embrace that obsession in the cinematic world. To be fair, the first Silent Hill movies were released during a time of a survival horror identity crisis, so of course people didn't care. Of course the movie didn't meet expectations. But I think horror cinema has the greenlight to give this thing a whirl again.

Silent Hill, as a video game, has so much to play with cinematically. I just think the right director hasn't swooped in to turn it into what it really needs to be.

It's been a long time coming, but Mighty No. 9 has finally launched and players can now take the titular robot on his first big adventure. But does this spiritual successor to the Mega Man series live up to its lineage?

The trickiest part of reviewing Mighty No. 9 is separating the Kickstarter drama, frustrating delays and promotion debacles from the experience of actually playing the game. Letting those aspects guide your purchasing decision is totally justifiable, but they have no place in a critique of the finished product. In other words, if you were looking for a rant rather than a review of the game, you've come to the wrong place.

So what are we left with? The answer is a game that legendary director Keiji Inafune set out to craft into a proper follow-up to his beloved Mega Man series and, you know what? He wasn't too far off the mark. Mighty No. 9 has quite a few shortcomings but, at its heart, it feels like a natural progression of its storied predecessor that, with a bit more time and care, could have been turned into something great.

Mighty No. 9, also known as Beck, can absorb the abilities of other robots (sound familiar?). That comes in handy when all of the world's metallic citizens start going haywire, including the other models in the Mighty No. lineup. There are eight such bosses to track down and absorb and, just like in the Mega Man games, you can tackle those chapters before the big finale in any order you like. They also offer a nice diversity of weapons that help clear certain areas more easily, and juggling them helps keep things fresh.

The trick here is that every robot has a weakness to the ability of another robot (again, a bit of deja' vu), so you'll have to figure out what order to tackle the chapters in on your own. The game actually gives an extremely obvious hint if you're the observant type, or you can just mix and match until you figure things out the hard way.

While all of the Mighty No. robots look great, the worlds they inhabit and their accompanying soundtracks are nowhere near as memorable. That's not to say the platforming layouts are lackluster, as most of the game's 12 main chapters were pretty fun to race through. They're just kind of generic "future world" settings with little to make them feel unique or fleshed out.

The voice acting is Saturday morning cartoon fare, but it feels like that was the mood the team at Comcept was going for anyway, so it's hard to fault the family-friendly banter. Each of the Mighty No. bots at least have a personality and a handful of dialogue scenes that set them apart, even if the world they live in is flat and stale.

I mentioned the soundtrack briefly because that's all it really deserves, especially in a game that's supposed to be a follow-up to a series that's known for having fantastic music. The good news is that you can switch the soundtrack to "retro" at any time, which makes it infinitely more enjoyable.

Mighty No. 9 also offers a nice variety when it comes to the game's difficulty options. Your standard extra lives are two (which is painfully too few when just starting out), but you can crank that all the way up to nine if you want to have more attempts at a level. There are also helpful items peppered throughout each stage and handed out by a companion bot at checkpoints, all of which can be turned off if you want to make things more difficult. And speaking of difficult, you can unlock additional, tough-as-nails modes after besting the game on its normal setting.

The thing that really sets _Mighty No. 9 _apart from its grandfather, though, is the gameplay. You're still running, jumping and shooting your way through tricky sidescrolling levels, but the introduction of a dash move, Beck's absorption powers and a couple of extra special moves make this play like a different beast.

Hit an enemy enough times and it will become "unstable." In that form, you can dash through them to absorb their energy, occasionally granting you stat bonuses (speed, damage, etc.) or even a capsule that restores some of your health. Holding down the right trigger, you can also leap backwards while firing or to get out of harm's way, a move that proved extremely helpful in a couple of boss fights.

That dash, though, is what makes a big difference. At the beginning of the game, I was using it to either absorb powers or get from one platform to the next. The thing to remember is that Mighty No. 9 was made with the speedrunning community in mind. Comcept doesn't want you to simply figure out the best way to get from point A to point B, they want you to do it with your finger hammering on that dash button at all times.

If you do that properly, you'll earn all sorts of score bonuses as you dash through your enemies, rocketing your way to a higher end-level grade and a more respectable position on the leaderboards. While Mighty No. 9 is indeed inspired by Mega Man, it isn't made to be played in exactly the same way, and I think folks who figure that out will get a lot more enjoyment out of the game. Even some of the game's less interesting level layouts seem to be in service to this type of play, but a lack of consistency makes it hard to tell. It's like the team wanted to make a Mega Man game and something almost wholly new and, rather than settle on one, did a bit of both. That, in the long run, hurts the flow.

Fleshing out this discounted package ($30 physical and $20 digital) is a series of challenge missions that offer an assortment of objectives and restrictions to master, as well as online cooperative challenges that are a decent distraction.

While I was bummed to discover that Mighty No. 9 lacked a bit of personality and heart, I also experienced a handful of moments where the framerate plummeted. They weren't game-ruining but, given how basic everything onscreen is, I have no idea why this game can't keep up with the action.

All of that combined, I actually had a pretty good time running through Mighty No. 9. It isn't winning any beauty contests and the framerate issues are baffling, but there are definitely moments that shine through and give us exactly what we've been waiting for these past three years, so long as you're willing to figure out the game's flow. The mechanics are solid; I just wish the rest of the package received as much care and attention.

This review based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.

Players: 1-2

Platforms: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Vita, 3DS, PC

Developer: Comcept, Inti Creates

Publisher: Deep Silver

ESRB: Everyone 10+

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The most popular chatter on the internet right now is just how horrible the launch of Mighty No. 9 has really been---and it's been pretty terrible. Not only did Mighty No. 9 run into issues with sending out broken codes to its backers, but now they are facing three last-minute platform delays and perhaps the loss of their promised DLC. And on top of all of that (it's not over yet), gamers on the Wii U are experiencing severe issues such as the game freezing their console, long load times, lag and crashing. So of course, the internet has taken to Twitter to announce just how they feel about Mighty No. 9, including Sega's very own Sonic The Hedgehog.

Sonic The Hedgehog came out and threw shade at Mighty No. 9 about their rocky launch, making fun of one of the comments spoken by the Mighty No. 9 team during a livestream yesterday, which said of the launch, "It's better than nothing." Sonic got a lot of heat in return because the last known Sonic game, Sonic Boom, wasn't exactly the most successful game either.

Rocman X is the Japanese version of the famed Mega Man X series and was released back in 1995, so of course it's a dated game with its own set of issues. But even some fans are saying the dated Rocman X is still better than today's_Mighty No. 9_.

Kaz Hirai used to be the president of PlayStation and is currently the CEO of Sony, and he had quite a bit to say about the Mighty No. 9 launch. And alongside of commenting on the developer's lame comment about "It's better than nothing," he also made a Tweet targeting Sonic Boom: Rise Of The Lyric.

Some people on Twitter were in disbelief that someone could say something like that about years of hard work put into a game.

Other users poked fun at the disgrace of Mighty No. 9, though it's unclear if the game really is that bad of a game or if people are just upset about the entire situation with Mighty No. 9.

Many users have been experiencing issues on the Wii U pertaining to the game like long loading times and crashes.

Could you imagine the anger of seeing your game crash after beating the first boss?

Mighty No. 9 certainly seems to have quite a few issues happening with its launch and people are not happy about it. I already told myself after how badly they offended gamers in their trailer, I vowed that I wasn't going to play Mighty No. 9, and now I'm thinking I'm glad I made that decision. I've never had a game be so messed up on the Wii U that it hardlocked it or caused something to crash. It honestly just seems like Mighty No. 9 can't catch a break, or they don't care anymore. Somewhere along the way during development, it's as if they just said, "Screw this, I give up." And the comment, "It's better than nothing" certainly gives off that vibe. I couldn't imagine spending so much time on a game that I loved, only to be at the home stretch and release it with a zillion issues and say, "It's better than nothing." It's a horrible attitude to have about something you hope that your fans enjoy. Hopefully we can move on and try to focus on something else that isn't so draining, meanwhile I hope Deep Silver and Comcept can get their stuff together and fix the issues for their fans.

During the middle of the month Microsoft has a refresh on the free games made available to those with Xbox Live Gold. During their Games With Gold promotion for the month of June, The Crew and XCOM: Enemy Unknown have been made available for Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners.

Gamespot did a quick write-up about the new games being made available for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. During the early part of June Xbox One owners had free access to Goat Simulator, while Xbox 360 owners had access to Super Meat Boy.

Following festivities of E3, Microsoft made The Crew and XCOM: Enemy Unknown available to Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners, respectively. This keeps in line with their tradition of having four free games a month, with two being made available at the start of the month and two more being made available at the end of the month.

Lately Microsoft has been on a role when it comes to selecting top-tier titles to give away for free. They've been mixing and matching AAA titles with indie games, giving gamers who are signed up with Xbox Live a lot of great content to add to their library. The best part about it is that unlike PlayStation Plus those who get the free Games With Gold get to keep their titles even after their Xbox Live gold subscription runs out. It's a gesture from Microsoft to help lure in more gamers and give them a sense of value with Xbox Live.

While paying for multiplayer is still clearly frowned upon by most PC gamers, the added bonus of having four free games a month kind of makes up for it. In addition to this, Xbox One owners get the added benefit of having access to Xbox 360 games that are available via backwards compatibility. So even if you don't own an Xbox 360, you still get to add those Xbox 360 titles to your Xbox One library due to backwards compatibility.

What's more is that Microsoft has plans on further expanding the Xbox One's backwards compatible functionality, with their latest update making it possible to play multi-disc Xbox 360 games. This means that the original Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey could soon be joining the fray as backwards compatible titles. It opens the door for some truly unique additions to Microsoft's latest console.

A lot of gamers are also geeked because it means that if the Xbox Scorpio can still make use of the Xbox One's library, then it can still make use of backwards compatible titles. We'll see how well this all turns out when the new system launches in 2017 next year. For now, gamers will be able to look forward to the slimmed down Xbox One S, which is due for release in a couple of months, and hopefully more of Rockstar and Activision games are made available by backwards compatibility heading into the fall season.

We're all still waiting on Microsoft to pull the trigger on backwards compatibility support for Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. In the meantime you can grab The Crew for free up until July 15th and XCOM: Enemy Unknown for free up until June 30th.

During the cinematic E3 trailer for Halo Wars 2, many fans of the real-time strategy series may have noticed that James Gregory Cutter, the captain of the Spirit of Fire, has undergone a serious change in design. Well, Cutter isn't the only one who looks different... the other lead character, Dr. Ellen Anders, has also undergone some major changes.

Gamespot is reporting that both Anders and Cutter look as different as they do because they're now based on real life actors (digitally aged by 28 years to reflect the time that has passed within the lore of the Halo Wars universe), as opposed to being hand made by special effects outlet Blur Studios.

In a post over on the Halo Waypoint website, 343 Industries explained...

They reveal in the post on the Halo website that for the Halo Wars sequel, they've cast actors Gideon Emery and Faye Kingslee in the roles of Cutter and Anders, respectively. Some of you might recognize Gideon from his short stint on the acclaimed Daredevil Netflix show, as well as his voice in both Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Battlefield 3, to name but a few.

Kingslee is no stranger to video games, either. Recently she lent her voice and performance capture to DICE for their recent outing of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. Previously Kingslee was featured in Ubisoft's Far Cry 3.

For Halo Wars 2 both Kingslee and Emery have had their voices and performances used to help bring the characters of Cutter and Anders to life. You can see how they previously looked in the original Halo Wars with the images below from the game's cinematics.

I don't believe they've showcased how the new Anders looks in Halo Wars 2, or if they have it's been reserved for those playing the beta.

Microsoft has been working with both 343 Industries and real-time strategy experts Creative Assembly in bringing the RTS sequel to life. The game will launch next year on February 21st, 2017 for the Xbox One and for Windows 10 PCs. And sadly the game will not have cross-platform compatibility, but it will support Microsoft's new play-anywhere initiative, so one copy will enable you to play across multiple devices.

Blur Studios will also still handle the cinematics just like they did with the original Halo Wars, which was easily one of the best selling points of the game. It will be interesting to see what the sales look like for the sequel, considering that the lukewarm sales of the first game led to the closure of Ensemble Studios.

Swinging mechanics that would make Spider-Man jealous? Check. Massive, grotesque monsters with a convenient weak spot at the back of their necks? Check. A main character who yells a lot? Check. Yep, the upcoming Attack on Titan game certainly lives up to the source material, giving gamers a chance to take down one monstrosity after another in rapid succession.

Coming from the development team at Omega Force (Dynasty Warriors) and the publishers at Koei Tecmo, Attack on Titan looks to be a pretty fun take on the over-the-top action the popular manga and anime franchise has become famous for. I had an opportunity to get some hands-on time with the game during E3 2016 and, while the proceedings seemed a bit easy in the early goings, I left my play session wanting to see what else the full game has to offer.

To be fair, I only had the opportunity to tackle a tutorial mission and a mission that had me battling about a dozen titans that were invading the city. In other words, it's not surprising that taking out the baddies wasn't that big of a challenge since I was playing content from the beginning of the game. Also, despite the fact that you're taking on massive monsters, the characters in the series slice through a handful of towering beasts in a single charge so, despite their size, they probably shouldn't be too challenging in order to keep with the feel of the show.

The tutorial was set in a massive forest where my only opponents were a collection of wood dummies made to look like titans. The controls are actually pretty straightforward. You can hit the grapple button to swing into action anywhere there's a tree or tall building in range. Once soaring through the air, a tap of the button will see you shooting out another tether to keep you swinging. Again, think Spider-Man and you've got the idea.

If a titan is in range, a red arrow will pop up showing you the direction of the threat. When you're ready for a fight, you can tap on the right trigger to enter combat mode. This mode gives tether priority to the nearest titan, so you can latch onto their various limbs and begin your assault.

Once you've hooked up to a titan, you can choose a different limb and try to tether to it instead, or tap the dash button to swing in for an attack...on titan. Sorry, I couldn't resist. The only thing left to do at this point is land a big blow before you collide with the titan and deal some damage.

This is going to sound crazy, but I actually preferred the way the 3DS Attack on Titan game handled this particular mechanic. That game utilized a timing mechanic that rewarded hits and extra damage for careful button presses. It's a small difference, but it made the attacks feel a bit more involved than what's on offer in the console version. But again, things might get more interesting as you go deeper into the game and upgrade your characters and gear.

The main mission was set in the city where titans were starting to invade. Once I got into a rhythm, it was pretty neat to swing from one titan to the next, dishing out attacks to cripple the invaders and, when the time was right, going for that sweet spot on the back of their necks.

I was occasionally pulled away from the main objective by an ally or villager who was under attack, and had the ability to send up a flare to call in backup when the level's boss got sent in. There were also resupply units stationed throughout the city, giving me the ability to pick up extra fuel or blades when I was running low.

I'm sure additional mechanics and titan types will be in the main game, and there was a section of the demo I did not have time to play wherein I'd take on the role of a titan myself. Kind of bummed that time was running low, because that certainly sounds like a lot of fun.

From what I saw at E3, it seems like Attack on Titan will be a fun romp for fans of the series. Here's hoping there's a bit more meat on the bones, and a bit more challenge, when the final build ships on Aug. 30 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One and PC.

An online clothing company called Living Dead have added 26 articles of clothing to their online collection based on 2K Games' BioShock series. The collection features clothing themed around both BioShock and BioShock 2.

Daily Dot picked up the news, reporting that Living Dead's collection of clothing is available for purchase right now in extra small, small, large, extra large and extra, extra large sizes. The clothing items range from t-shirts and leggings to dresses and swimsuits.

The clothing company teamed up with 2K Games to give gamers and non-gamers alike some apparel to throw on that highlights some of the aesthetic charms of the BioShock universe. In one example there's a Big Daddy Cosplay Skater, which is sundress with the Big Daddy helmet sprawled across the upper body and some metal rivet designs stretched across the lower half, presumably imitating the look of his infamous drill. There's an image of the dress that you can check out below, which is one of many available on the Living Dead website, which is located over in Australia.

Some of the other clothing items include a red black dress with syringes sprinkled across it, giving off the impression that they're falling. The syringes in BioShock were oftentimes used by the Little Sisters to extract fluids from victims. There's actually two different kinds of those dresses, one with a more nightlife look to it as if it might be worn at a cocktail party, and the other with a more Halloween-party look to it.

There are other cosplay outfits as well, including one for the Big Sister from BioShock 2. It's form-fitting, two piece suit for those who want to lightly cosplay as the dangerous enemy from the first-person shooter.

Another cosplay piece takes on BioShock's art deco inspirations, with a cream and red sundress called the “Red Little Sister”. It looks like it comes right out of the 1960s.

But it's not all about cosplaying as some of the iconic characters from Irrational Games' first-person shooter series. There are a few standard clothing items as well, like a basic t-shirt with a Big Sister on it, or a shirt called the “Masquerade” that features a bunny mask that one of the Splicers wore in the first two BioShock games. There's also a few casual articles of clothing that you might wear out anywhere, like the Shock Jock t-shirt or Vigor Maxi skirt.

There's quite a bit of variety on the store, but the prices are extremely high. The Vita Chamber swimsuit will run you close to $100, where as a “Would You Kindly” sundress would cost you $89 in Aussie dollars.

If you don't mind the prices then it's something worth checking out for fans of the BioShock series. Unfortunately I didn't see much of anything related to BioShock: Infinite on there, but maybe those items will arrive later. You can check out the full collection over on the BioShock section of the Living Dead website.

While this list was a long time coming, it should be important to note that judging someone by their appearance is totally wrong. But just recently when I was playing Uncharted 4 and watching Nathan Drake and his wife Elena tickle each other on the couch of their lovely suburban home, I got to thinking what defines a sexy video game character? I didn’t think of their appearance, but instead I thought about how they carry themselves. How confident they are. How persistent and determined they are. So instead, I created a list of video game characters who radiate sexiness in the most unusual way.

1. Lara Croft

While Lara Croft was known for her boobs in the early days, Crystal Dynamics has transformed her into something totally different. Rather than be a stigma for the ideal women’s body, Lara Croft now possesses a kind of strength many women today strive for. Her confidence, vulnerability and openness to mistakes make the new and improved Lara Croft way sexier than she’s ever been.  

Jodie Holmes

Jodie, from Beyond: Two Souls, isn’t your typical “sexy” video game character. She’s seen some shit. But her will to survive is undeniable and the strength that she’s built upon after years of dealing with unusual circumstances in relation to her supernatural “friend” make her someone really special. When I think of Jodie, I think of a wounded puppy, someone who needs nurturing but refuses to accept help when offered. She’s damaged and lonely, but it’s those experiences that broke her that have made her grow into someone strong and worthy, and that’s what makes Jodie Holmes so sexy.  

2. Nathan Drake

What isn’t sexy about Nathan Drake? Drake is the guy you want at your side as you’re facing the end of the world. He’s fit, nimble, good hands and has a hell of a head on his shoulders. He’s the kind of guy you want on your side because he’ll fight for you in any circumstance, he’ll take a bullet for you and he’ll make sure you aren’t left behind. That kind of dependability, trust and confidence is so incredibly sexy. 

Jackie Estacado

I probably saved the best for last. Jackie Estacado was the protagonist from The Darkness. His family was part of the Italian mafia and he was born with a dark gift that began to consume him when he turned 18. The sexiest thing about Jackie was his soft side. Even in the midst of battle, on his darkest of days, his childhood friend and girlfriend Jenny could bring out the best in him. He might’ve seemed big and scary to others, but around Jenny he completely melted into a whole different person. 

It looks like the cost of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will be going up, but only for folks living in six countries.

According to the initial report from Gameinformer, Xbox Live customers in certain regions have started receiving email notifications that they will soon see a price change in their area. This information has since been confirmed by Microsoft, who said the changes are due to currency fluctuation in Austria, Hungary, Israel, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey.

The most surprising part of this shift is not that the cost of Xbox Live is going up, but the degree by which it is going up in one particular region. The email being sent to gamers in South Africa, for instance, explains that, as of June 20, the cost of a Gold subscription will shift from the current R 50,000 to R 159,000. That’s triple the cost, which would be a bit shocking if it wasn’t for the fact that, at present, the region is paying about a third of what folks in, for example, the US, are paying. By comparison, South Africa will shift from paying about a third of what customers in the US are paying to just a little bit more.

Again, this is all based on currency fluctuation and things like this happen from time to time. Still, it has to be a bummer for folks who were used to paying a little over $3 a month for the service to now be paying a little over $10 a month.

So if folks in the listed regions want to keep playing Halo and Destiny online, or take advantage of other perks like the monthly Games with Gold, they’re going to have to start forking over a bit more money. The original report is that, similar to South Africa, the adjustments in Hungary, Israel, Sweden and Turkey will likely bring those areas in-line with the roughly $10 pricing seen in most other regions. It’s unlikely the adjustments will be as drastic as in South Africa, though, as the remaining regions were already much closer to the standard worldwide pricing.

The good news here is that these adjustments will basically move all of those regions into the same pricing structure as most of the world, even though we understand it is frustrating to have prices go up. But if you want to play Gears 4 online this fall, it’s the price you’re going to have to pay.

If we have any readers living in the above regions, we’d love to have your take on the price hike. Is this going to affect whether or not you can game online, or is the shift small enough not to make a difference? Do you feel Microsoft has given you enough warning before making the shift? Let us know in the comments below.

One of the biggest setbacks for the Xbox One's backwards compatibility feature was the lack of multi-disc support. This meant that games requiring more than one disc on the Xbox 360 were not playable on the Xbox One. But now they are.

Game Informer is reporting that Larry Hryb, better known in the Xbox gaming community as Major Nelson, revealed that the engineers working on the Xbox One have managed to achieve multi-disc backwards compatibility. In response to a post on Reddit, Hryb stated,

Impressive.

This means that some of the Xbox 360's most revered and iconic titles may soon be playable on the Xbox One, including but not limited to the likes of Hironobu Sakaguchi's Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, both of which spanned multiple discs back during the early days of the Xbox 360's lifespan.

A lot of Xbox owners are excited about the possibility of playing Lost Odyssey on the Xbox One. And who knows, maybe it'll finally garner a bit more attention than what it received back when it first released in 2007.

It's incredible to think that Microsoft had such an illustrious line-up of diverse first-party published games. From Mass Effect and Gears of War to Halo 3 and Crackdown, and all those odd games in between like Viva Pinata, the original Trials HD, even games like the beautifully drawn and tragically told Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Things have really changed for the company over the years, so it's easy to see why so many people are excited about any new backwards compatible game making the leap from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One; excitement is now more than ever with the multi-disc support.

A lot of gamers are now looking forward to seeing Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 make the leap to the Xbox One as backwards compatible titles, along with Rockstar and Team Bondi's troubled but well received L.A. Noire. Although, in the latter's case, it's probably best to just get it on PC where you can crank up the resolution and play the game in black and white to make it look like a real movie.

And speaking of Rockstar, this also means the very data-heavy Max Payne 3 can now be made backwards compatible on the Xbox One. Additionally, a lot of gamers really want to play Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox One. We do know that the western title is in testing for backwards compatibility on the Xbox One, but we just don't know when it's coming. If the rumors are true about a new Red Dead game, then I wouldn't be surprised to see Red Dead Redemption being made backwards compatible with the announcement of the new game.

While this news is big in itself, the bigger news will be when Microsoft announces which new Xbox 360 games will be made backwards compatible and which new games will be a part of the free Games With Gold program.

Disney Interactive has been surprising fans of all ages with Disney Infinity playsets, a direct competitor of Activision’s Skylanders playsets. But after many years of milking Disney movie releases to regurgitate products like the ever-popular Frozen figures for Disney Infinity, Disney Interactive announced suddenly that they were cancelling Disney Infinity. 

The news comes from an official blog post on the Disney Infinity website which briefly describes that Disney Interactive has chosen to cancel the franchise. While there wasn’t any reasoning behind the sudden decision, Disney did give some final plans of Disney Infinity before it finally shuts down.

As reported by Business Insider, Disney Interactive isn’t just shutting down Disney Infinity, but it’s pulling out of video game production entirely, and paying steeply for it, a $147 million kind of steep. The news came after Disney’s quarterly earnings report, which was reported to have been lower than usual. 

While the news is shocking, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise. When I worked at GameStop a few years ago, it was noticeably obvious that there was a much larger audience for the Skylander toys-to-life game than for Disney Infinity. But even if that was the case, what does this mean for toys-to-life games? 

It’s possible with the new craze in virtual reality, toys-to-life games are being left behind and slowly the fans are moving on to better things (like putting yourself in a game rather than a toy). While I no longer work at GameStop and have no idea what the market is like anymore for these types of games, it’s probably appropriate to say these were on their way out a long time ago. Even if Skylanders still has an audience, it won’t be for long. Because even though Skylanders sold better than Disney Infinity at GameStop (usually during special sale days), it still hardly sold at all. 

Disney Interactive wasn't just responsible for the Disney Infinity games, they also published games like Epic Mickey, the battle-racing game Split/Second and Kingdom Hearts II. So if this really is the end of any kind of video game development for Disney Interactive, you have to wonder what they plan on working on instead. And if they don't plan on filling the gap where video game publishing used to be, what's going to happen those working specifically on Disney Interactive video games? There's a lot of speculation up in the air right now, but hopefully more details will leak out as the week moves forward. 

We’ll continue to keep you updated as the story develops. 

While The Sims includes a multitude of ways your Sims’ lives can go wrong, there’s some pretty massive mistakes you can make that definitely won’t help your Sims’ lives get any better. Matter-of-fact, one of the things on the list can even kill your Sim, ending their little Simlish lives forever. So make sure to pay attention to the mistakes on the list and avoid ever putting your Sim through Hell. 

1. Smoke Detectors

This is probably the number one most important item on this list: don’t forget to put a smoke detector in every single room. More importantly, put several smoke detectors in the kitchen. I’ve made the mistake countless times of only putting a smoke detector on a random wall in the kitchen and when my new Sim just began their journey into becoming a sous chef, they lit their kitchen on fire. Needless to say, the smoke detector wasn’t close enough to the stove to sound an alarm, so the fire department never came. I had to watch my Sim tirelessly work to try to put out the fire herself, killing herself in the process. Of course it’s harder to die this way nowadays, but in earlier Sim games, I always seemed to lose a Sim this way. If you’re smart, you’ll put three smoke detectors above your stove and one in every room just in case another fire breaks out somewhere else. 

2. Forget To Sleep

This is so easy to do in The Sims. Usually I am so busy controlling my Sim and turning them into the ultimate party animal that I forget sleeping is actually a very important part of their routine (of course this isn’t true if you cheat). Many times (especially in The Sims Late Night) I wanted my Sim to go out to a club and meet hotties and spend all night dancing and drinking. I would push them through the tired phase and make them dance, only to find they could no longer even stay awake. Doing this will just interrupt your gameplay, so get them home at a reasonable time so they can go out partying tomorrow night. 

3. Forget Your Bills

This is not hard to do in The Sims, although EA has made this a little easier to keep track of in the latest editions of The Sims. But in the past, your bills would secretly arrive in your mailbox. The only way to pay them off or check them was to get the mail, and I rarely cared about doing this, as I’m sure many other people did. And when the bills piled up, you’d start to notice things disappearing from your house, being seized. Just keep up on your bills and you won’t have to worry.

4. Neglect Your Child

Having a child in The Sims is just as irritating as real life. If you place the baby’s crib in your room, every time the baby wakes up, it will annoyingly wake up your Sim (who will stomp and throw a fit for being woken up). But if you give the new infant its own bedroom, chances are your Sims won’t hear the baby crying and won’t wake up to help. And if you purposefully keep ignoring the baby’s cries and neglect the child entirely, Social Services will come to the house and take the baby away. And your Sim will be absolutely mortified and depressed, a huge mood-killer. Parent-of-the-year over here…

5. Anger Your Neighbors

What your neighbors think about you in The Sims really does matter. As The Sims games have continued rolling out with the latest being The Sims, EA has given the Sims in town more of an influence on the rest of the town depending on what they think of you; in other words, they will gossip about you. Whether or not it’s good or bad depends on you. Throw some kickass parties, go out and makes friends and clubs and bars or get an awesome job you can brag about. In this game, your neighbor’s opinion matters. 

Back when I was in college, I got myself an Xbox 360 and occasionally spent weekends playing drunk Halo with my friends in our dorm rooms. But that was before someone introduced me to Steam and all of the wonders of online multiplayer gameplay in Team Fortress 2. After that, I never looked back to the Xbox. 

I went to a fairly nerdy college where the average student spent weekends locked up in their caves sweating over their pizza boxes and piles of Mountain Dew cans playing HoN or WoW. But those were the extremists. My friends and I were a little different. My school was mostly an engineering school, so when it came to computers, diagnosing an issue or getting something pirated was merely steps away. My first year I hung out with the kids who knew where all the basement concerts were. But my second year, I found my niche with the gaming crowd. And it was that same crowd who introduced me to Team Fortress 2. 

When I first saw the game, it was on my friend’s laptop and I sat down to play and had no idea what I was doing. 

“You’ll love it, I promise,” he said.

That turned out to be an understatement. Sometimes I stayed up til 4 a.m. playing the game, sometimes dominating the map and other times running into a few snags when I knew my game was off. Team Fortress 2 began my obsession with PC gaming and suddenly console gaming felt so distant and outdated. PC gaming was where it was at. 

The Team Fortress 2 community was somewhere I could be myself. Sometimes I'd band together with other players to take out an enemy, and we worked together to get things. Other times I trolled the living crap out of someone just because it was hilarious. But then there were the times you'd meet someone and get caught up in serious conversation,a nd you found yourself connecting over who knows how far of a distance. Most of the time, it was a chill place to be. 

From there I fell into other PC games like Counter-Strike, Killing Floor and Left 4 Dead 2. I couldn’t get enough of the online multiplayer. But best of all, these games worked on my crappy laptop, good enough that I could knock out a few rounds with decent kill/death ratios before my laptop began to overheat. I even put money into a fancy laptop cooler just so I could play longer. 

But when Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play, everyone and their mother downloaded the game. Suddenly it wasn’t this niche community where I could joke with strangers during a match and troll to my heart’s content. Now, everyone had the damn game, even 8-year-old kids who didn’t know how to use a mic. Team Fortress 2 lost that special something I had found in it so long ago. 

Not long after that happened, I tried to hang on to playing Team Fortress 2, but it wasn’t the same. And then all of these dramatic changes started rolling out and I didn't like what was happening. And then the next-generation consoles came out and suddenly, my world changed again. I was out of college and no longer surrounded by the best in computer nerdage, so I gravitated back to being a console gamer and I haven’t gone back to hardcore PC gaming since. While I still have a decent gaming PC now, I only ever use it to review games anymore. Nothing will ever be like it was back in 2009 to 2010 when Team Fortress 2 was a part of who I was as a gamer. It’s just something I’ve learned to let go, and I moved along with the changing times. 

Microsoft and various publishers have been working together quite nicely in providing Xbox One owners with a fast growing selection of awesome backwards compatible titles. With that said, five more games have been added to the stash, including a couple of classics from the 16-bit era.

Gamespot picked up the news from Major Nelson, Microsoft's resident PR rep, who made a tweet indicating that a handful of titles are now available from the Xbox 360's library for purchase, or play, on the Xbox One.

So what are the five games that are now backwards compatible on the Xbox One? Check out the list below.

• Altered Beast

• The Cave

• Comix Zone

• Double Dragon: Neon

• Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime

All classics except for Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. Not many games can literally put me to sleep, but I can't count the amount of times I just completely dozed off while playing Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. I had high hopes for that game, assuming that it would be fun following up on the well-received and decent selling Ghostbusters game from Atari a few years prior. But nope... it was not fun. It was very boring and repetitive with practically no gameplay depth.

But don't let Sanctum of Slime get you down. There are still some noteworthy games on that list. Double Dragon: Neon is a great blast to the past. Some reviews were mixed on this title when it first came out, but if you're looking for a true successor to Double Dragon IV: The Return (which was one of the very best and could still be considered the best beat-'em-up game of all time), Double Dragon: Neon isn't a bad follow-up. Unfortunately, Double Dragon V was based on the cartoon that came out around the same time and was a one-on-one fighting game, completely diminishing the beat-'em-up elements that made the series popular in the first place.

Double Dragon: Neon isn't without its faults, it can be a little cumbersome to control at times, but the fighting is fairly solid for the most part, the retro-wave music is perfect, and the inclusion of the skill system makes it replay worthy.

Comix Zone is another classic... a great game whose only fault was being too short. It was a superbly animated title with some awesome side-scrolling beat-'em-up action that really stood out on the Sega Genesis back in the day. I loved the art-style and gameplay, and this was one of those games that really helped define the 16-bit era. Over time this legendary classic has been ported to newer consoles, including the Xbox 360. It's nice to see it make the list of backwards compatible titles for the Xbox One.

Double Fine's The Cave is another well-regarded puzzle-adventure game that features a bit of a throwback to Tim Schafer's original work on Maniac Mansion. The ability to choose from a cast of characters, each with their own abilities opens up a lot of different possibilities for completing the game and replaying it with a different combination of characters. That was one of the features from Maniac Mansion that made it stand out so much back in the day, so it was cool to see Double Fine return to that for The Cave.

Last but not least is the classic Sega title, Altered Beast. This was all the rage back during the the late 1980s and early 1990s and it was one of the games that was used during the 16-bit console wars. Eventually it made a return to form on the seventh gen systems, and now the Xbox 360 port is playable as a backwards compatible title on the Xbox One.

You can either purchase the aforementioned games digitally through the backwards compatible store on the Xbox One, or if you already have them linked to your Xbox Live profile, you can simply go to the game tab and install them on your Xbox One.

May is just around the corner, which means it’s time to take a look at next month’s list of Games with Gold coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Get ready solve puzzles, zap alien invaders, dress up early for Halloween and drive really, really fast.

The Games with Gold list for May just dropped on the Major Nelson Blog, including a quartet of free games for folks who have an Xbox Live Gold account. Two offerings are Xbox One titles while the other two are for the Xbox 360. Thanks to the wonders of backwards compatibility, though, those 360 games can be played on the One, too. Here’s the rundown:

-Defense Grid 2 (Xbox One)

-Costume Quest 2 (Xbox One)

-GRID 2 (Xbox 360)

-Peggle (Xbox 360)

It sounds like Defense Grid 2 will be up for grabs from the start of the month, with Costume Quest 2 hitting your virtual collection on May 16. Over to the Xbox 360, GRID 2 will be available starting May 1 with Peggle joining the collection on May 16. Costume Quest 2 will apparently be available until June 15 while Peggle will only be up for grabs until May 31.

For those unfamiliar with this month’s lineup of Games with Gold, Defense Grid 2 is a tower defense game that tasks the player with destroying invading aliens before they cause too much damage to your outposts. You’ll start off small but, as you nuke baddies and earn resources, you’ll be able to buy better towers and take on even more insane odds.

Costume Quest 2, on the other hand, is a light and colorful RPG that sees a group of youngsters taking on a crazed dentist on the most important night of the year, Halloween. The neat hook is that you can collect costume pieces as you play in order to dress up your characters and, in battles, they transform into whatever costume they are wearing.

As for GRID 2, it’s a racing game. Take everything you know about racing games and GRID 2 probably has you covered. Loads of cars, loads of modes and mechanics that blend a bit of simulation driving with a bit of arcade freedom.

Finally, there’s Peggle, the beloved brick breaking game from Pop Cap. Aim your marble at a puzzle of bricks and fire away. The object is to figure out how to destroy all of the bricks with as few marbles as possible. It’s a simple formula that proves extremely addictive.

So, all of you Xbox Live Gold member, what do you think of May’s list of Games with Gold? Happy with your selection? Let us know in the comment section below.

HBO and Microsoft have teamed up to offer Xbox owners the opportunity to watch the hit series Game of Thrones for free. The HBO Now app will be available to Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners with the availability of a free episode of Game of Thrones between April 25 and April 28.

According to the press release the HBO Now streaming service will be available for $14.99 a month with an entire month of free access as a trial offer for those not subscribed to the service. To help sweeten the deal they're also offering a free episode from season six of the Game of Thrones to Xbox owners whether they're subscribed to HBO or not. But as mentioned in the opening paragraph, you'll only be able to access the free episode between April 25 and April 28. The availability of the free episode will arrive just a day after the premiere season six for the Game of Thrones, which takes place on April 24th, this Sunday.

According to the senior VP of worldwide digital distribution and business development at HBO, Jeff Dallesandro, the Xbox brand has been a go-to device for streaming HBO, mentioning in the press release...

It's interesting that it's mentioned that the Xbox has been a “favorite platform” but no where in the press release do the mention the subscription numbers from Xbox users, nor do they mention the platform adoption rate, nor do they mention the daily, weekly or even monthly active users making use of the current HBO services available on both the Xbox One and Xbox 360. It makes you wonder what context “favorite platform” is being used in?

Supposedly the HBO Now service will work like the WWE Network, where you can pick and choose to watch whatever you want from the HBO catalog, including their new shows and many of their classics like The Sopranos, Sexy and the City and True Blood.

I honestly don't know exactly what the benefit of HBO Now would be over the standard HBO Go service other than the access to the back catalog of shows, but for $14.99 a month on top of things like Xbox Live Gold, that's about $20 a month just for those two services alone.

This television initiative has been a rather popular avenue for home console manufacturers as of late. Microsoft originally focused on the whole TV thing with the announcement of the Xbox One back in 2013 much to the chagrin of hardcore gamers who wanted a really good game console and not a television media station. The decision to focus on television over gaming cost Microsoft dearly, as they lost lots of mind share and market share to Sony and the PlayStation 4.

It appears as if the whole television avenue is still in the play cards for Microsoft as they focus on these extended services through the Xbox home consoles with apps like HBO Now. You can learn more about the streaming service by paying a visit to the official HBO Now website.

Yesterday marked the day that Xbox officially announced they were stopping production of the Xbox 360. While the games will still be playable and Xbox Live will still be fully functional, all newer games from now on will be created for the Xbox One. Though we haven’t entirely lost the Xbox 360, it now stands as a relic of an era where first-person shooters like Halo became a phenomenon. It now takes it place on the shelf next to the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox—while the consoles are still played, they’ll remain as they are: pristine, outdated and never forgotten. So to celebrate the life of Xbox 360, here are my most memorable moments from when I owned a Halo Reach Special Edition Xbox 360. 

1. Halo 2

The first time I ever played Halo, it was the first week of college and classes hadn’t started yet. In high school I was a good kid—I never drank or smoked. But on this particular night, I don’t know what made me decide to try a drink. Maybe because I wanted to fit in. I think this is a good moment to mention I’m only 4’11, so when I knocked one back in a matter of minutes (it’s instinctual when you’re focused on a video game), I was pretty gone. Unfortunately, my headset and mic were turned on so I was screaming at everyone in vulgar tones and speaking like I had inhabited the body of a psycho. Yeah, I was that person. Nowadays, the smart people mute those kinds of players. 

2. Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams

I know you’ll see this title on the list and think “no way,” but this game actually worked for me on the Xbox 360 despite being an original Xbox game. Maybe it no longer works, for I have seen numerous posts about why this game doesn’t work on the 360, but I swear to you it did. And maybe it’s kind of cheating to put this game on the list since it’s more of an Xbox game than an Xbox 360 game, but I couldn’t leave this memory out. 

At the time, I was living in Minneapolis during my Game Informer internship and I so badly wanted to play a game on my Xbox 360, and I wanted something I knew I liked. So I did some research and found that some people have had luck in getting Silent Hill 2 from the Xbox to work on the 360, so I decided to order it off of Amazon and try it out myself.  On the day it was supposed to come, it didn’t, even though my account said it was delivered. At the time, I had shady roommates and they had claimed a package didn’t come, but I just gave up and concluded someone had stolen it. So I ordered another one and received that successfully. 

Words cannot describe how good it felt to play that game again. In a city where I knew no one and not even my roommates were friendly towards me, that game made me feel more at home than anything else—and I’ll never forget that. 

3. Silent Hill Downpour

You might’ve guessed that most of these “memorable” games on this list would be positive memories. Well, not all of them are. I will never forget the first time I played through Silent Hill Downpour. This game was the last installment in the franchise and at the time, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I had such high hopes. The pretty screenshots alone were enough to keep me waiting on the edge of my seat, but when I played it, I felt letdown and deceived. The whole game took me like two hours to beat and it wasn’t scary, but horribly confusing. It tried to be something it wasn’t, and I’ll never forget that moment after the end-credits rolled when I sat there, speechless and stunned, and absolutely upset that this was how the Silent Hill legacy was ending.

4. Alan Wake

The summer Alan Wake first released onto the Xbox 360, I was doing a newspaper internship in a small town in Michigan. It was a sweltering day and I had been waiting for this game to release. It was hot, humid and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and my ride was gone for the day. So I got the bright idea that I’d take a bicycle to the local Walmart to pick up the game. The road there was almost all hills and by the time I reached the parking lot, I was dying. Was it worth the sweat and tears? Probably not. But do I regret battling the summer heat to go pick up a video game from Walmart? Absolutely not. 

5. Snoopy Flying Ace

I’m sure not many people know of this game. It was quietly released as a digital-only game and my sister and I started playing it while I still had my Halo Reach Xbox 360 in college. On one particular day when I was playing with her, I was shouting vulgar things with my dorm room door open just so people walking by would feel confused. There was something about living in the dorms that brought out the craziest part of me, especially when it came to gaming. And I’ll never forget shouting crazy vulgarities from my dorm room to freak out the visiting parents of prospective students. 

Just today, Xbox made a major announcement that has been quickly sweeping across the gaming community. For those who have invested most of their gaming careers on their Xbox 360 and still have yet to upgrade to an Xbox One, you might want to jumpstart that decision sooner rather than later. Because Xbox announced today that they have decided to cease production of the Xbox 360. 

The news comes from head of Xbox Phil Spencer himself via the Xbox Wire blog. The Xbox 360 had just recently turned 10-years old and was a console that defined a generation, from its notable franchises like Gears Of War to the growth it provided the Halo series.

Spencer commented on why they had decided to cease production of the Xbox 360 saying,

Even though the production of the console will be stopped, that doesn't mean Microsoft is going to completely shut down all services on the Xbox 360. Players will still be able to use Xbox Live on the console, buy Xbox 360 games from the Xbox store while supplies last, obtain Xbox 360 support and of course enjoy the backwards compatible games on the Xbox One. 

While I don’t really play Xbox consoles anymore (though I have seriously considered an Xbox One), the Xbox 360 is really where I got back into gaming in college after falling out of it in high school. I was playing Call Of Duty online with my friends and we’d throw Halo parties. I found my gaming niche again through the Xbox 360 and if it hadn’t been for that Halo Reach special edition Xbox 360, I might not have gotten back into gaming at all—who knows. While it’s sad to see the 360 go, it’s nice to be able to focus on the advancements currently happening in the gaming industry, like virtual reality. I respect Xbox for taking initiative to put all of their focus on current projects like the Xbox One, which honestly hasn’t been able to beat out the PS4 yet. Who knows, maybe they are working on some mysterious VR headset comparable to the PlayStation VR. Now that would be something to really look forward to. 

At the end of the blog post, Phil Spencer noted they would be bringing some updates on their game plans for the Xbox One and Windows 10, so while you mourn the loss of a another classic console, just know there are better and brighter things ahead. 

GameStop has a notorious trade-in program for those who have tired of the games collecting dust on their shelves or those ready to trade in their last-gen system for a next-gen system. And I say “notorious” because when I worked at a GameStop, it was always a never-ending train of negative comments about the low trade-in prices. But now GameStop is happy to announce that there is a way to get more than the usual trade-in price for your PS4 or Xbox One.

Of course, there’s always a catch with these marvelous retail deals, and this offer is no different. The $200 trade-in credit will only be possible if you are planning to put it towards the purchase of a new PS4 or Xbox One. So really, this deal is perfect for those who are looking to switch alliances. Or if you’re one of those who trade in their consoles hoping to make some extra money towards rent, this deal probably isn’t for you then.

But remember, when trading in a PS4 or Xbox One, you need to pass GameStop inspection in order to be considered eligible. This means your system must have all of the components it came with in the original box (so that also means the one controller) and it needs to be in good working order. You can’t trade in a PS4 that was dropped and is permanently busted, and you won’t sneak it past associates either, because they test the consoles in-store to make sure they work. This will also count towards the one controller, too. If the one controller is busted or doesn’t work, you will need to buy a controller to add it to your console trade-in in order to get the $200. And when we say $200, we mean in store credit and not cash, so there’s no way to finagle that either.

If you don’t have a PS4, but want to upgrade from a last-gen model, GameStop has another deal where they will also give you $100 in credit if you trade in an Xbox 360 or PS3 toward a new PS4 or Xbox One. Now that’s a deal I can definitely understand.

So while the initial deal may seem a little devious in how it’s advertised, it’s still a really great deal. And even if you wanted cash right now, you can still get $160 in cash from trading it in (estimate only). Just remember, it isn't always super accurate and the wear-and-tear on your console or controller could lower the value too, so don't go raging when your trade-in value doesn't match the estimate. For more information, check out GameStop’s trade value calculator on their website.

Microsoft's new method of adding new backwards compatible games any time they're ripe and ready has turned into a bit of a weekly event. It seems as if every couple of days new games are added, and this time it's the classic DOOM 3: BFG Edition and Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine that made the cut.

Gamespot spotted the tweet from Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb where he let the Xbox gaming community know that the two new games are now available to play on the Xbox One via backwards compatibility.

The Twitter feed is very interesting. A lot of Xbox One owners love that they made DOOM 3: BFG Edition available as a backwards compatible title,but a lot of people are disappointed that it's disc only. While some gamers purchased a disc copy for the Xbox 360, others have the digital version attached to their Xbox Live profiles. This has resulted in some gamers not being able to play their copies of DOOM 3 on the Xbox One since the digital download version isn't available... yet.

A few others had problems with the fact that the games are still region locked, resulting in those from Brazil not being able to play the games via backwards compatibility. When the complaints were made about the region lock, the Xbox support stepped in to offer some help and suggested to gamers from regions where backwards compatible titles are region-locked, to make their voices heard by voting on the Xbox feedback page.

DOOM 3 was one of the games that really helped define gaming two generations ago. Before Crysis it was a game that a bunch of PC gamers upgraded their PCs in mass in order to play the game. It's nice to see the HD Xbox 360 version of the game being made available as a backwards compatible title on the Xbox One.

Monaco is an indie classic that came out last gen. It's a stylish multiplayer game with a snazzy soundtrack that was put together by composer Austin Wintory; yes, the same Austin Wintory who composed the soundtrack to the PS3 classic, Journey.

These two games join shortly after Microsoft made three other games available via backwards compatibility on the Xbox One earlier this week, which included Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, Sonic The Fighters, and one of my personal favorites, Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Some of the backwards compatible titles that Microsoft is making available for their home console is actually putting to shame what Sony has available through PlayStation Now. In fact, Microsoft is quickly catching up to the PlayStation Now's software library, offering approximately half the amount of titles available on Sony's streaming platform. If they keep it up, Microsoft will have the Xbox One's backwards compatible catalog rivaling the likes of PlayStation Now by the end of the year.

You can start playing the digital version of Monaco on the Xbox One right now. The physical version of DOOM 3:BFG Edition is also available to play on the Xbox One as well.

When I first played Beyond Good And Evil, it was years after its release and I felt I had stumbled upon a real gem. At the time, I was playing on some crappy Asus laptop I had bought for myself in college just so I could have some sort of of PC gaming available to me. It ran games like Team Fortress 2 and Counterstrike at low qualities. But I was most proud of being able to play Beyond Good And Evil, even though it chugged and lagged. My dedication was fierce. There are so many reasons the sequel for Beyond Good And Evil needs to happen, but I’ve taken the time to highlight five of the most important.

1. Open-World

In past reports about the upcoming title, creator Michel Ancel has said that the sequel plans on offering travel between cities and even between different planets. Ancel has said they wanted to do this in the first game, but there just wasn’t enough manpower and time to put it together. Perhaps this is one of the biggest aspects of the sequel that is holding the game back? Regardless, having an open world in Beyond Good And Evil 2 would add to all levels of the story in the game. While you could somewhat travel around in the first game, it wasn’t as ambitious as I think Ancel wanted it to be. The second installment would be the best opportunity to perfect the open-world map and truly make it a journey of a lifetime.

2. Lovable Characters

While playing through Beyond Good And Evil, I became very attached to both Jade and Pey’j. Jade had an edge I really enjoyed and felt like more than just a female protagonist. Instead, she felt more like a real person, like someone I could befriend in real life. Pey’j, I mean who couldn’t like Pey’j? He was the comic relief in the first game and probably one of the best characters in the game next to Jade. He’s lovable and flawed and cracks a joke every chance he gets. What’s interesting is Pey’j looks much more hardcore and badass in the released screenshots from when Beyond Good And Evil 2 seemed to be on schedule. So I am wondering if they will change his character at all? With how important he was to the balance of the personalities in-game, I doubt they will. These two were a real pair, though, and I think Ubisoft owes fans a return to the unforgettable duo.

3. A Timeless and Original Story

Of course I am going to talk about the story. While there isn’t really any information on the story in Beyond Good And Evil 2, we can still go off of the story from the first Beyond Good And Evil. The story had the makings of a Disney Pixar movie. A caring and spontaneous woman who isn’t afraid to fight for what’s right takes a stance against a damaging corporation to save her planet from total destruction, along with her trusty sidekick, Pey’j. I mean seriously, how hasn’t this been made into a Disney Pixar movie yet? The story in the first game was captivating and action-packed and full of heart-wrenching sentiment. There were laughs and moments of sadness and fear, and sometimes I felt like I really was watching a movie. I know Michel Ancel has danced around the idea that he wants this sequel to live up to the first game, but let me tell you, if the story and characters are just as witty and enjoyable as the first game, everything else will come together. But then again, I guess for me it’s all about the story.

4. Virtual Reality

Within just the past year, an interest in virtual reality has skyrocketed across the country. Now some companies are talking about building VR arcades and VR theme parks. Hell, there’s a VR gameplay center at one of my local malls where people wait in line to try out a game in virtual reality. Now this is all speculation, but maybe Ubisoft is considering making Beyond Good And Evil 2 VR compatible? Just wondering about this possibility opens a whole new door of questions. And it also creates a lot of excitement. Just given the times that we live in and how much has changed since Beyond Good And Evil 2 announced in 2008, it’s now a viable option to think about when considering a new title. I mean back in 2008, social media wasn’t as big, I had just graduated high school, VR was just a dream and the PS4 and Xbox One didn’t even exist yet.

5. A Legacy

I believe the Beyond Good And Evil series is sort of like a hidden legacy. Whereas Crash Bandicoot is an openly legendary and popular title that fans are still pouring over today, I believe Beyond Good And Evil is riding that same wave. While I’m not sure we’ll ever get another Crash Bandicoot game (I’m still in the “denial” stage), there is still hope for Beyond Good And Evil. I feel the series could grow to be unforgettable, life-altering and a beacon of nostalgia. I believe Ubisoft has this duty to carry out this legacy, to complete Beyond Good And Evil 2 and to relinquish a truly unique and inspirational tale.

For those of you who have taken the plunge with an Xbox 360 but have not yet forked over the extra funds to play online, you’re in luck. For the next three days, everyone on Xbox Live can enjoy a free multiplayer weekend.

You read that right, Xbox Live is open to all comers from April 1-3. You usually need to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription to enjoy the benefits of online multiplayer but, for the next three days, Microsoft is throwing away the velvet rope and letting absolutely anyone into the party.

Look, we get it. Gaming isn’t a cheap hobby and, sometimes, you can either buy a new game or fork over the annual fee for a subscription like Xbox Live Gold. Some might argue that there’s more value in the latter, but that’s for each consumer to decide on their own.

For those of you who have foregone an Xbox Live Gold subscription up until this point and wonder what it would be like to join your friends in multiplayer games, then the next 72 hours are your chance to find out what you’ve been missing. Or, hey, maybe you won’t dig online gaming and decide to return to solo play forever. Your call. We’re not here to judge.

The announcement went live yesterday through the Xbox website. Even though many have already moved on to the Xbox One, there’s still plenty of fun to be had on a previous gen machine like the Xbox 360. To prove that’s the case, this “Friends Become Allies” campaign invites players to “stock up on snacks, get comfy” and enjoy three days of free online gaming for the Xbox 360.

There is one confusing notation worth mentioning, though. At the bottom of the announcement are four games, including the first-person shooter, Halo 4, another FPS, Battlefield: Hardline, the build-it-yourself playground of Minecraft and the footy fanatics delight, FIFA 16. We have no information on whether or not those are the only games available for free multiplayer or not, but it seems highly unlikely. We’re thinking those games are simply being used as examples for the titles you could be playing this weekend rather than a limitation on what games can actually be played.

In case you don’t have any of those games, there is a handy link to purchase each one of them within the announcement itself. There’s also an additional link to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold in case the three days of free play convinces you to take the plunge, and even a link to pick up an Xbox One for $299, just in case you’re feeling extra frisky.

One of the Xbox 360’s indie gems, Shadow Complex, is once again emerging on the Xbox One. Get ready to join Jason Fleming on his legendary adventure as Shadow Complex Remastered hits the virtual marketplace today.

Several years back, downloadable indie games were few and far between. Then came along a little game by the name of Shadow Complex, proving that big things truly could come in small packages. It was one of the games that helped catapult console services like the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network onto a whole new level, bringing us to this era where it’s a rarity to go even a single week without a downloadable title or two launching on home consoles.

If you’re looking to celebrate the history of downloadable console games there’s probably no better place than Shadow Complex Remastered, available today on the Xbox One.

As the above trailer points out, Shadow Complex originally received more than 50 Editor’s Choice and Game of the Year awards back when it originally launched. For a side-scrolling action game that cost like 15 bucks, that’s a pretty impressive feat.

ChAIR Creative Director and Co-Founder Donald Mustard recently wrote about the evolution of Shadow Complex on Xbox Wire, saying that it has been a treat to revisit the classic after all of these years.

Mustard explained that, when ChAIR first set out to make Shadow Complex, the goal was to create a game that harkened back to the side-scrolling glory days while plugging in more modern concepts. He cites games like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as inspirations for Shadow Complex, certainly good company to keep.

Mustard said the team developed Shadow Complex with the hope that it might help reinvigorate the genre. Look back over the past several years of gaming, and I think you’ll find they accomplished that feat, especially on the downloadable market. Mustard even gives a shout out to more recent examples of this, including Ori and the Blind Forest and Axiom Verge.

As for Shadow Complex Remastered, it comes with the requisite graphical upgrade on Xbox One, as well as new Achievements and Master Challenges. Even more interesting are the inclusion of new dynamic melee takedowns that will let you dispatch baddies in more badass ways than ever before.

So, if you have fond memories of Shadow Complex, now might be a good time to revisit the action platformer with some new bells and whistles thrown in for good measure. Or, if you’re still out of the loop, Shadow Complex Remastered seems like a good chance to find out what all of the fuss is about.

Microsoft has been receiving a lot of blow back from their community over Xbox Live being down periodically throughout 2016. Many of the paid Xbox Live subscribers are asking for some kind of compensation for the service being down as often as it has throughout the early goings of 2016. Microsoft has issued an unofficial response regarding Xbox Live being down.

Gamespot points to one of the most upvoted threads on the Xbox One sub-Reddit where user BIGBLOCK22s expressed frustrations over Xbox Live being down, saying that Gold subscribers who pay up to $60 a year for the service deserve better quality service and that for what people pay the service should not be down “almost once everyday”.

Xbox One owners are asking for compensation in the form of a week's worth of Xbox Live Gold... for free.

Gaming Bolt managed to scour through the thread and find a comment from the Xbox brand's PR front man, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, who addressed the issue of compensation, writing...

The thread instantly perked up when comments from Hryb were made, as everyone was quick to thank the Major for dropping in to share his thoughts about the problem.

The Live services being down isn't anything new, and Microsoft and Sony both suffered greatly back during late 2014 when various script and hacking groups were attacking Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. However, in those cases it was a deliberate move by those trolls to take down the services and make life miserable for other gamers. In this case, we don't exactly know why Xbox Live has been down as frequently as it has throughout the early goings of 2016. Microsoft hasn't been very forthcoming when it comes to explaining the lack of stability with Xbox Live.

Some of the users in the comment section of the Gamespot article point out that it's not just that Xbox Live goes down, rendering the multiplayer component on the Xbox One useless, but it's also the fact that playing Blu-rays becomes inaccessible for some users along with certain single-player games. A lot of gamers definitely have issues when offline services become unusable when the online service goes down. It's certainly something to get angry about because the major worry a lot of gamers had with the original Xbox One DRM proposals was that in cases where Xbox Live goes down, when an ISP goes down, when a modem starts acting up or the online services get disrupted, it means that a lot of offline and single-player content becomes inaccessible.

Hopefully Microsoft can work out a way to let gamers know that they're either working out the problems with Xbox Live consistently going down or at least compensate the Xbox Live gold subscribers for the issues.

Electronic Arts and Popcap Games aren't just about throwing out a new game and letting it rot on shelves. They have a nice roadmap laid out for new content they plan on introducing to Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. That all gets started with the new Graveyard Variety Pack that launches on March 8th, tomorrow.

The update is free for owners of the third-person, multiplayer shooter pitting zombies against plants. Shacknews pointed to the new promotional trailer for the update, which briefly explains what gamers can expect from the new content pack. You can check it out below.

The trailer admittedly doesn't do the greatest job of explaining exactly what's new in the Graveyard Variety Pack for Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.

Thankfully, a more comprehensive list of changes and features were detailed in a news post over on the official Garden Warfare 2 website, where creative director Justin Wiebe explained and offered in detail exactly what gamers can look forward to with the free update.

There's the all new “Aqua Center” co-op and team vanquish map. It's the one watery looking dance hall featured in the video above. Unfortunately we don't actually get to see it much in action but you get glimpses of it in between the dance montage.

They've also added a night version of the Great White North map, and have added that version to the Turf Takeover playlist for those looking to spruce up their PvP playlist rotations. They've added two new mission types to the Backyard Battleground, a Hide 'n Find mission and a Bot & Pot mission.

Gamers looking for more social accessibility will now find that all friends playing the game will be visible through the World Options, as opposed to just showing joinable games where friends are playing. In addition to this, Gardern Warfare 2 now defaults to the common chat when in a Private Match, as well as the option to view the scoreboard while Vanquished.

The changelog also points to some minor fixes with the aim sensitivity slider, which is something that some gamers had some problems with before, and they've also allowed gamers to toggle between hold to aim and toggle to aim in the controller options menu.

There's a long list of tweaks and balances that have been made for the game as well, with tons of new modifications and balances made to just about every playable character in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. Amidst the tweaks and tuning are a number of critical fixes for the in-game balance, including reducing the length of round timer in between multiplayer matches, and being able to view Backyard customizations when visiting another player's Backyard area, and they've also made major improvements to the hit reaction during the “flinching” animations. They also reduced the flinching effect for both AI and human characters during gameplay.

There are a ton of other changes and tweaks that they've made in Garden Warfare 2 that you can check out over on the official website. The update along with the patch will go live tomorrow on March 8th and it will be available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One gamers.