Microsoft has once again decided to give Xbox One owners just one free game via the Games with Gold December 2014 program, while Xbox 360 owners once again have two. The three Xbox Games with Gold December 2014 free games follow a pattern that Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners have grown accustomed to during the past five months, but aren’t necessarily happy about. Sony’s PS Plus December 2014 free games roster includes at least two titles for each PlayStation platform.
The Xbox Games with Gold December 2014 free games for Xbox One are Volgarr the Viking, a holdover from the Games with Gold November 2014 roster, and Worms: Battleground. Worms: Battleground is a nice game to get for free via Games with Gold in December, as it normally retails for $24.99.
Microsoft’s Games with Gold free games generally run in the $14.99-$19.99 range. So maybe Microsoft did grease the proverbial wheels, so to speak, and give gamers a little extra something for the December 2014 holidays.
Worms: Battleground is bigger than any Worms game to date, with players in charge of an army of weaponized worms. Players must aim their shots and then rely on various elements — including actual elements such as gravity and wind — to determine whether they hit their target and how much damage they do. As an Xbox One game, Worms: Battleground has deformable terrain and includes both single- and multi-player modes.
Volgarr the Viking, the second Xbox One Games with Gold December 2014 free game, is a hack-and-slash platformer that looks and plays a lot like those games we all grew playing in the 1980s and early 1990s. It doesn’t shy away from being difficult, and the controls rely on just two buttons.
Xbox 360 owners have two entirely new Xbox Games with Gold December 2014 free games to look forward to. The first is The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief (normally $9.99), while the second is SSX (normally $19.99).
The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief takes place in Europe in the 1960s as gamers follow an art thief who leaves black feathers at the scenes of his crimes. In the first episode, Xbox 360 gamers must pursue the thief and catch him before he can steal a legendary gem: the Eye of the Sphinx.
As for the second of the Xbox Games with Gold December 2014 free games on Xbox 360, SSX should need no introduction. The extreme snowboarding game was a big part of the PS2’s launch success, and in some ways its inclusion as a December Games with Gold title is a shot at Sony’s PlayStation 20th anniversary celebrations going on this month.