Get Caught Up With Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Free to Xbox Live Gold Members

Microsoft has some big games in store for gamers throughout the month of August and September for the Games With Gold program. Prepping for the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the company will be giving away Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for free.

The news was made recently on the Major Nelson blog where Larry Hryb let gamers know that two free Xbox One games and two free Xbox 360 games will be available for the month of August for the Games With Gold service. Anyone with a Gold subscription to Xbox Live will be able to get in on the deal.

Starting August 1st, Xbox One owners will be treated to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, for free. This will help get gamers acquainted with the Metal Gear Solid universe heading into the launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on September 1st.

There's a lot that happened in between both games, including Snake's coma, his missing arm, the shrapnel in his head and how the Diamond Dogs get formed. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was basically a precursor to help setup what happened after Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, which connects to Ground Zeroes. Players find out what happens to Paz and Chico, as well as get an introduction to Skull Face.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes encountered a little bit of controversy because many felt it was a glorified demo and that it wasn't worth $40. Complaints centered around the fact that the game could be completed in as little as two hours and there were frustrations with the short amount of gameplay length. Others argued that the game offered a fair amount of replayability and the price was justified in the amount of freedom offered to players who could spend up to four to six hours scouring through some of the radio logs and trinkets found throughout the game.

Additionally, there were side-missions for players to go on in Ground Zeroes, opening the game up for more gameplay than what's available from completing the standard missions. One of those side-quests involved the interesting mini-game that saw Snake having to find all the logos to the Metal Gear games produced by Hideo Kojima and the Kojima Productions crew. The goal of the quest was to erase all of the logos from within the designated location. Many gamers thought that was kind of trippy... and some still think it lends itself toward the theory that Kojima and Konami falling out was all one big hoax.

Right now there's really no telling what's going to happen between Kojima and Konami, but Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is still scheduled to launch on September 1st for home consoles and PC.

It's smart of Microsoft to offer Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for free as a way to lure people to pick up the follow-up for the Xbox One. However, Metal Gear games have historically been associated more with PlayStation consoles than anything else.

Xbox One owners can look to get their hands on Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for free on August 1st, and starting August 16th you'll be able to get How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition. Xbox 360 owners will be able to look forward to Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light as the free games for August, starting August 1st and running up until September 1st.