The Xbox Games with Gold for August include cat cafe sim Calico and heist ’em up Monaco

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The free Xbox Games with Gold for August 2022 have been revealed, with four free games being handed out to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Live Gold subscribers over the course of the month. It’s the same set up as always – well, until October, anyway – but how does it compare to the confirmed batch of PS Plus Essential titles?

What are August 2022’s Xbox Games with Gold?

The four games are the usual set of two Xbox One titles and two Xbox or Xbox 360 games that can be played via backward compatibility. Everything is playable on Xbox Series X|S as well. The four games will be made available at different points through the month, as follows:

For long-time Xbox Live subscribers, there will likely be some disappointment here, as there’s some repeats. Monaco was given away with GwG all the way back in 2014 – arguably, a repeat after 8 years is long enough to ensure there’s plenty of people that haven’t played it – Saints Row 2 was also featured two years ago in July 2020, though now has the series reboot to tie into. It’s a sign of why Microsoft are ditching the 360 games from Games with Gold in October

There’s plenty here for fans of quirky games, though. Calico tasks you with rebuilding a cat cafe in a fantastical town – Microsoft know that cat games are pretty hot right now. In our review, Drea said:

“Calico is a wonderfully weird and whimsical game. With a few tweaks to the rendering of the game, a few glitch fixes, and the ability to customise the controls, it would be an ideal island to visit for a few hours at a time. If only I could get my Animal Crossing island to have the same atmosphere…”

ScourgeBringer, by contrast is one of the many Roguelites out there, with Reu saying “If you’ve got an itch for recurring death and frustration, this will definitely satisfy for a time, but there are far better examples of the genre out there.”

Stepping back to the two 360 games, and Saints Row 2 was a great iteration on the plucky GTA clone original, adding more of a distinctive identity (before then going completely barmy with Saints Row The Third). Digging all the way into the TSA archives from 2008, CC_Star reviewed the game for us, writing, “The game may lack that Hollywood shine and polish, but this is only Violation’s second outing: Imagine what will be possible by the time they get to number IV, after all any game which features guns, gangs, hookers AND zombies is great in my book.”

Little did he know…

My personal highlight, though, is Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine. This fantastic co-op heist ’em up is just tons and tons of fun, with plenty of mad cap capers to get up to. I am very, very much looking forward to the sequel!

There’s no more Xbox 360 games from October 2022?

That’s right. Microsoft has announced that Xbox 360 games will no longer be included in Games with Gold, with Microsoft saying this is due to reaching the “limit of [their] ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalogue.”

We’ve seen more and more repeat games in recent months, including Torchlight in July, and now both Monaco and Saints Row 2 in August. It’s likely been more and more difficult for Microsoft to grab licenses, as well as trickier to find 360 games that can stand out. It’s led to offerings that have not compared too favourably to Sony’s PlayStation Plus Essential over the last few years. Sony previously dropped legacy PS3 and PS Vita titles from the service and now only promises two PS4 compatible titles (though has consistently overdelivered with a third game that is often cross-gen since the PS5 launched). Perhaps Microsoft can shake things up in a similar fashion?

Can I still download the July’s 2022 Games with Gold Games?

Yes! You’ve still got a couple days to grab most of last month’s games. Due to Microsoft’s staggered freebies, Thrillville has already exited the service, but the the other three games are still available, either until the end of today (be quick!) or until the middle of August. Here’s the links

Source: Xbox

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