Microsoft has announced October 2018’s collection of free games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. This month’s lineup includes Overcooked! and Victor Vran on Xbox One, as well as Stuntman: Ignition and Hitman: Blood Money for Xbox 360. As always, the Xbox 360 games are backwards compatible on Xbox One.
This month’s offerings show the disparity between Xbox One and the older 360. While Overcooked! and Victor Vran are both fairly recent, the two 360 games are downright ancient. That’s definitely not a knock on their quality, but it’s certainly still worth noting.
Overcooked! (October 1 - 31)
Generally speaking, there aren’t quite as many local co-op multiplayer games as there should be. That being said, Overcooked! is one of the greats in the genre, allowing up to four players to work together in an effort to assemble a meal.
The game features over two dozen unique kitchens (levels), each of which has their own unique hazards and obstacles to overcome. With the right set of friends sharing the couch, the pure jolly vibes of Overcooked! are second to none… Except, perhaps, in the recently released Overcooked! 2.
Victor Vran (October 16 - November 15)
Fans of Diablo-style dungeon crawling have been waiting years for a new action RPG to parch their unquenchable thirst. It may not be Diablo IV, but Victor Vran is a strong addition to the genre, with plenty of personality to match its horde-slaying gameplay.
Players control the title character as he fights off demons and saves the day. Unlike Diablo, there are no classes to choose from in the beginning, but their character is shaped by the equipment they wear and the spells they cast. The game features local couch co-op for two, and online play for up to four players.
Stuntman: Ignition (October 1 - 15)
Despite losing developer Reflections (who joined Ubisoft after releasing the first Stuntman game and went on to create the legendary Driver: San Francisco), 2007’s Stuntman: Ignition certainly earned its place as a worthy follow-up to the original. Like in the previous game, players assume the role of a daring stunt driver working in the movie business, pulling off insane vehicular tricks and stringing together stunt combos in an effort to make the most off-the-wall action sequences ever.
Stuntman: Ignition features six films, varying in genre from Batman-esque thriller, to volcanic disaster movie, and a Smokey and the Bandit parody. The Stuntman games never fully enjoyed the appreciation they deserved, but now’s as good a time as any to see why the series is so vehemently venerated as a cult classic.
Hitman: Blood Money (October 16 - 31)
Developer IO Interactive has shepherded the Hitman series from the start, from the humble beginnings of the maddeningly obtuse original, Hitman: Codename 47, to the upcoming Hitman 2 – which is actually the seventh game of the series, but it’s best to not worry about it.
For many fans, Agent 47’s finest hour arrived in 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money, which would be the final entry in the series until 2012’s Hitman: Absolution. Blood Money features massive playgrounds full of unique opportunities to take down targets like a true “silent assassin.”
The game was re-released, along with its two immediate predecessors as Hitman HD Trilogy, which makes this release a bit irksome, since it doesn’t include ports of the old-gen Hitman 2 (the first Hitman 2, that is) and Hitman: Contracts. Still, Blood Money is arguably the best title in the series, so those who have yet to play it are in for a treat.
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What do you think of this month’s Games with Gold? Do you plan on playing any of these during downtime from Black Ops IIII or Red Dead Redemption II? Sound off in the comments!
