January is nearly here and, just in time, Microsoft have announced next month’s Xbox Live Games With Gold titles.
There are two Games With Gold titles on offer, both Xbox One titles since Microsoft have, some time ago, stopped including 360 games. The games in question are Iris.Fall and Autonauts, an eerie adventure and an automation-based strategy game respectively.
But.. hang on.. isn’t there something missing, announcement-wise? If that’s what you’re thinking right now, don’t worry, it’s not just you. We did only get one wave of Xbox Game Pass games in December, compared to the usual two. Hopefully January will see a return to regular service.
As for January’s Gold titles, we’ve not played Iris.Fall but we have tackled Autonauts and it’s an awful lot of fun. It’s also an excellent way of getting into programming, since it sees you automating your farm with robots. Sounds like you can just put your feet back, right?
Once you’ve sorted things out yes, you can – in theory. But it’s getting things running smoothly that’s likely to task you. Sure, you can program a robot to cut down trees or plant seeds, but what does it do when its tool breaks?
So you start wondering.. what if I get another robot making tools.. or planting seeds, depending upon the task you’re dealing with. But that robot will also need wood, which means ensuring a ready supply.
There’s a real joy in just streamlining your farm, figuring out how to minimise downtime and so on. And if that’s the kind of thing that appeals to you, you should absolutely snap Autonauts up. Remember, unlike Xbox Game Pass games, once you claim a Gold game you can re-download it any time you have Gold.
This month’s Games With Gold titles will be available as follows:
You’ll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription of course. In the next few days, you can expect Microsoft to announce the first wave of Xbox Game Pass games. In the meantime, this is your last chance to claim December’s Xbox Games With Gold titles.
