Xbox Games With Gold For July 2023 Announced

@Suda52

Legit what I was thinking. I wish Forza Motorsport 7 became on here or some other titles. Meanwhile PS get impressive collection on a monthly.

Games with Gold really needs to reevaluate what games they give away. The excuse used to be Microsoft was focused on gamepass but now you have the new PS+ and they are offering AAA games in their essentials tier which is the same as GwG while still offering a catalogue of monthly games for extra & premium.

I tend not to bother with gwg offerings, but 'When the past was around' is the kind of game I play and enjoy with my wife, so I shoulld pick that one up.

I am surprised MS havent changed this service a bit as its direct competitor offers clearly better titles every single month. I would have thought MS would wish to change the optics of that comparison.
In both cases though I consider the games as 'free' so its a nice bonus if you like them, and not the end if the world if you dont.

I’ve been tempted a bunch of times to get Darkwood on Switch. Reviewed decently too. Has loot, leveling, quests, plus crafting and survival aspects. Basically an isometric Dead Island.

Was also tempted by When the Past Was Around, NL gave it a 9/10, and I like point n click puzzlers with good stories.

Also GwG seems to be an after thought at this point, and I get that MS main focus is Game Pass. I’d be willing to bet, at least for the first year or two, 75% of Gold Subs were also Game Pass subs (thanks to the cheap upgrade). Does suck for those that are only Gold. As a GP subscriber GwG is just a nifty bonus.

Edit - there is/was a major difference with GwG vs Ps Plus. With gold, you get to keep the games regardless of sub now. Ps Plus wasn’t like that during my PS4 sub (first 5-6 years). If you stopped subbing, any games you had with plus went poof till you renewed.

Anyone else here getting the glitch where you can't claim the GWG games? If you have it you also can't get the deals with gold offers either.

It seems to be affecting those who upgraded from Gold to Gamepass recently and has been reported online. I had to get support to add The Vale to my library.

Ps releases call of duty and Alan wake on plus
And Xbox says here look at this garbage fire it’s yours. I feel like Xbox is pulling a Mavericks tanking on purpose to prove why they need it Activision because that’s about when these free games got laughable around the time England said no.

When The Past Was Around is a good game. My wife enjoyed it a lot in Switch. We played it during a travel.

@Suda52
Another post from you bashing Xbox. Wow. I'd rather try Darkwood than the samey CoD or a game I played 10 years ago on PC (the remaster changes little for me).

@gollumb82 I'll second his opinion as an owner of both an Xbox and PS. He's right, albeit maybe in the wrong place to be saying it.

@Dm9982 You are correct, psplus essential games never expire, but you do lose access to them if you are no longer a member.
For someone like myself who subs to the services for as long as im on the machines, its a moot point. But someone who dips in and out of the subscription services might get more benifit from gwg. I suspect most people remain subbed for online access and dip in and out of the GP element, but if people drop in and out of gwg, then they clearly get a better deal.

@Dm9982 keeping GWG after your sub lapses was only for 360 titles. And those are not offered anymore so they are equal in that regard (PS Plus essential).

@gollumb82 Be fair mate, hes questioning the value of gwg and thats not quite the same as bashing xbox? Is it? Surely those of us who sub to these services can question their worth without it being seen as 'bashing' or are we all supposed to take what we are given and sing its praises regardless? I'm asking as I genuinely would like to understand why some people get so upset when we want xbox to do better with this service. Would you not also want better offerings?
Values of the offerings will of course be completly personal, but I should mention there are 3 titles in ps essential line up, you neglected to mention the 2022 title 'endling' which has been given a 4k 60hz ps5 update and is the third title this month.
Im not much into COD myself, so seeing as how im gonna play both of these titles its a 2-2 score draw for me this month. However, if you were to look at the retail values of the titles it looks a little more lopsided. As I said before, they are free so im happy enough.

@OskarRex Thanks for clarification!

I'm fine with these games, Darkwood has been on my wishlist forever. Probably I'm in the minority here preferring indies 'cause the big games I get them when they come out (no new games for me next month on Plus), so it's nice to discover games that otherwise would have flown under my radar, The Vale is one of them and was the first GWG I've enjoyed in a while.

But not every month the indies are even good or hidden gems. So I share the sentiment of it being an after-thought or not on par in quality with PS Plus.

@OskarRex Ah I thought it was for all GwG now. Regardless, dang sight better than Ps plus ever offered me if i cancelled my sub. Plus, at the time, never really offered stuff I wanted anyways, and if it did, I usually already had the game. Same thing when Nintendo offers me my yearly birthday discount - I always have the games they offer the discount on! 😂

Edit - I will say I love Game Pass for being able to test out games I’ve had on my wishlist. Like Unpacking, wife loved that so we ended up getting it on her Switch, and on Xbox for the kiddos. And Plague Tale never really crossed my radar until I saw it on Game Pass. Now own the first with the second still on my wishlist.

@Titntin
If you check out the last few articles on here you will see that he takes advantage of every single opportunity to lash out at MS/Xbox. I'm just tired of this old trope that PS Plus dunks on GWG which is used by PS fans, that is a just a way of bashing Xbox, veiled in sarcasm. Everyone and their mother know that GwG has been getting progressively worse over time and it's GP where the value is at. That's all.

i'll at least download darkwood

Lol the most pathetic service ever games with gold is 😆 compare it ps plus its laughable

@gollumb82 games with gold deserves bashing gamepass on the other hand is great

@gollumb82 Fair enough mate, I'll admit im not keeping track and I am aware that some of that goes on. Thanks for the reply.

@Suda52 Everyone seems to have forgotten about all of the good games they gave away for a long time and I guess they just ran out of them. Everyone compares to PlayStation Plus, but PlayStation Plus didn't give away a good games for a long time. It's just that games with Gold gave away good games a long time ago when PlayStation Plus was not and now it's the opposite, so it's all the same. I can understand the frustration coming from people who are new or relatively new to the service. Either way, it doesn't even matter. I've had Xbox live since day one. There were years and years I didn't get any free games and I was more than happy to pay to pay online. I paid to support the service. I didn't expect any free games and when they started offering them it was just icing on the cake.

what a mess! Happy with Alan Wake remaster and a free CoD. purely for the single player.

@Suda52 Yes, I am perfectly happy with paying for services rendered. I am not a cheapskate that expects everything for free.

@Suda52 I do not have game pass and I have paid for every game I have, which is almost 900 just in Xbox games.

@Suda52 You are mistaken if you think you have free speech on a privately owned website. Constitutional Free speech rights do not apply on privately owned forums or communication platforms. That's why they have a terms of service you have to agree to.

@Suda52 I'm sure it is the best thing in the gaming industry. Maybe you didn't read my previous comment where I said that I have almost 900 Xbox games. I have a far superior library to Game Pass, so I have no need for it. There is already not enough time left in my life to play all of the games that I already have, even if I played 24 hours a day.

These games are somewhat interesting to me, but I doubt I will download them.
On the console war front, I also have PS plus and probably will not download those either.
It is just the nature of the monthly free games being a mystery box. You will never make everyone happy every month. I have not been to push square yet but they usually have a poll and thread where over half the responses are not satisfied with the monthly games included with the sub : )

@Suda52 lol, I know right!

It needs to end, yesterday. GwG is so outdated and wasted resources. Just stick with Game Pass and roll the online play into it, stop giving away games. If you “own” games that require an active subscription to play, it’s more like they own you. PS+ is the same crap. Id rather just play on a subscription and consume games the way I do with TV.

Microsoft might as well be telling us to go buy a PS5. Seriously Games with Gold needs to keep up with PS Plus or go away.

I wish people would understand that only because they don’t like a game doesn’t mean that said game is bad or bad value. By that logic I would have to say CoD is a bad game, worthless, and Sony should be ashamed to offer it. Why? Because I don’t like CoD! … Does that make any sense? No, it does not!

A game is for you or it isn’t for you. There is nothing more to it. Silver lining? Even if a GwG game isn’t for you, you don’t lose anything because it‘s a free addition! Yet there are those who expect MS to cater to their taste almost every time, or even worse, rather see GwG ended. That‘s quite frankly insane. Sorry.

I cancelled my gamepass ultimate sub last week, It has a huge value in the library that you can access but with the price increase it just isn't for me any more. The choice paralysis is real for me, and I found I would not give games their deserved value when they are all "free" in GP or GWG.
When I pay for a game I am determined to really enjoy it to the fullest and I feel the game I have purchased has real value to me. So, I bought Aliens Dark Descent last night at full price and I am going to take my time and play my moneys worth out of it. The fact that the game will remain in my library as long as xbox is a thing is also pretty cool to me...

@BooBreaker Games with Gold is nothing to do with Gamepass (The clue is in the name). But PS Essentials is everything to do with PS Plus it is one of 3 Tiers.
If you only have Gold then convert it to Ultimate Gamepass for £10 or less by adding a months Ultimate Gamepass code.
It's easy for Sony to throw an Old AAA 3rd party title on their lowest Tier as they spend peanuts on their tiers overall compared to what you get with Gamepass.

Sony charge you £70 for each of their games and the bigger 3rd party games no matter if you have a PS Plus subscription or not, whereas you get all Xbox First party games at no extra cost with Gamepass and that also includes a lot of bigger 3rd party games day One of their release.
Between now and November Sony will release yet more 'Old' 3rd party games onto their Tiers whilst Microsoft will give you games (All Day one) including
Starfield.
Forza Motorsport
Lies of P​
Exoprimal
Payday 3
Cities Skylines 2
The Lamplighters League
Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Persona 5 Tactica

And then there's PC Gamepass, EA Play and streaming also included with Ultimate Gamepass.

Oh *****! Darkwood. Highly recommended for ppl who want a challenge. The atmosphere is spooky(not scary). The game wont really hold your hand.

I've recently 1000g Hoa and Adios. Below average games I ended up having a way above average time with. Hoas last level imparticular.

Comparing ps plus to gwg is fair. But honestly, keep feeding me the supposedly crap games as they are usually short like taking in a strange episode of something on TV. Cod and Alan Wake are objectively better, but I wont play them - especially with the recent influx of huge games. Something bitesized which doesn't shadow my game collection Is a win ATM.

@Mooky779 great point mate. Really interesting actually.

A solution to choice paralysis is simple. Only ever have 6 games on your hard drive. Only replace a game when it's done (or you are done with it)

When it comes to replacing a game on your hard drive, install either the first or last game in your gamepass 'to play' list. The only choice you ever make is between 2 games.

@themcnoisy The choice paralysis is a real struggle for me too. Literally as you said, just have a few games installed and play those before deleting and replacing them is the best bet.

Another month, another mediocre selection of gold games I probably won't even bother downloading.

PS+ actually gets good free games, this is like someone giving you their loose pocket change.

@BANJO Yeah that is actually why I didn't want to have a 2TB expansion on my PS5 and went for just a 1TB M2 drive instead. 2TB's weren't that expensive but I knew that it would make me download too many games on my console. Same season why I wouldn't want to upgrade my 1TB Xbox expansion to the 2TB. In fact even with me having limited storage it feels like I often have too much to choose from.

@JayJ That's a good choice to make. Just concentrate on a few games at most. I find it to be much more rewarding. Worst thing I did was get a 5tb drive for my Xbox One X 🤣
It seemed fine for about a month, I was filling it up and before I knew it I had about 250 games installed on it.. It felt amazing at first but quickly soured. I started a game and then moved on quickly to another, never finishing anything... Felt overwhelmed with the choice.
Now with my Series S, I only have the internal memory plus the 1tb SSD attached. I still have 33 games installed, more than enough to be playing..

@gollumb82 it’s a very valid complaint. I can’t even remember the last time I bothered to claim a Game with Gold, while PS Plus has much more compelling offerings, having AAA games that are not so old regurlarly. At this point I don’t know why Microsoft even bothers with games with gold.

@Sifi why are you comparing Gamepass to the basic tier. Those are not comparable offerings. PS Plus essential competes with Games with Gold, not game pass.

@BANJO Yeah I also had a 4TB drive hooked up to my One X, now I have that in the form of two 2TB SSD's (the 4TB got too slow). I took it offline so it's basically just full of classic original Xbox, 360, and X enhanced One titles. Probably about 250+ games on that as well.

It's nice to have these now offline consoles full of games I like, but at the same time it's totally overwhelming unless I have something specific in mind.

I also pretty much do the same thing, only playing most games for a short while. I can only really play a couple of games regularly. Trying to focus on one game at a time on my Series X made it a lot easier for me to get through some games.