Remember last week when I recommended Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc to you all as part of my free games column? Well, I actually gave it a go! What did I think? Well, let's just say it took a lot of strength for me to drag myself away from the screen and stop prying into the bizarre murder school I was dropped into in order to pen this week's free game recommendations.
Don't worry, though. I made it. And I'm here to give you the lowdown on all the other freebies you should look to get your hands on this week! The next 25 or so hours of my life will be taken up by Danganronpa, but golly, it sure looks like I'll struggle to keep my hands off the latest batch of great freebies.
Anyway, here are the best games dong the rounds on your subscription services this week!
Daemon X Machina
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Coming for free on the Epic Games Store on PC, Daemon X Machina is looking like a real delight.
What do you think about piloting a giant mech, surviving the post-apocalypse, whilst ploughing through mountains of enemies in the process? If this sounds like something that wets your whistle, you'll be well up for giving this game a shot.
If that description even slightly tickles your fancy, go watch a trailer for the game. The music is intense and high-energy, the action looks absolutely wild, and you fight mechs even bigger than your huge mech! Where was this game in my early teens? To be fair, I could've played Armored Core, which is set to return after Elden Ring's release, but for the moment this should do nicely.
Puppy Pics
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Pupperazzi is basically Pokemon Snap but with dogs. Dogs need to have their photos taken (I know mine does, all the time because he's so damn cute). You have a camera. Your job in Pupperazzi is to photograph all the dogs!
Playable for free on Xbox and PC Game Pass, it's a super cute little game you can pick up and play with just a few hours on the clock.
Sure, the zeitgeist of it being in any way endearing to call dogs 'puppers' is long gone, but they're still precious babies and deserve to work that camera like it's fashion week, baby.
Jammin'
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Windjammers is a bit of a classic. First released on the Neo Geo in 1994, I never played it. That's because I was three years away from being born. Well, now it's time for us young 'uns to start flinging our frisbees because Windjammers 2 is out and available right now.
Thankfully, we have the perspective of a seasoned veteran who was around back when the original Windjammers hit the arcades. Mike gave Windjammers 2 a healthy 8/10 score in his review, and reckoned it's well worth giving a try.
"Windjammers 2 isn’t a tough game to gel with, and with three difficulty settings its arcade mode allows you to learn its ropes at your pace. Better still, local one-on-one play is a fantastically fun way to make mistakes and learn from them, as you get the satisfaction of rubbing your same-sofa rival’s nose in it when you fight back from 0-12 down in a round."
That does sound pretty good, to be fair. The praise is doubly applicable when you know it's available for free on Xbox and PC Game Pass, meaning subscribers can literally just hit the download button and play it right now. What do you have to lose? Apart from my frisbee, I threw it into the neighbour's garden again, can you go ask for it back please?
Death's Door
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In his Death's Door review, Ewan described it as "a near-perfect adventure". That's high praise. What's so good about it?
Well, for the purposes of this list: it's free on Xbox and PC Game Pass, which should be enough to convince you alone. However, if you're feeling difficult to please, I'll explain the premise to you.
It's an old-school Zelda meets Dark Souls dungeon crawler in which you play as a crow whose job is to go around and reap the souls of the dead. Honest work. When your assigned soul is stolen though, you're required to fight your way across a realm untouched by death - aka, not your wheelhouse.
"Where other adventure games so often collapse into mediocrity under the weight of their own influences, Acid Nerve has combined excellent combat and striking world design to evoke the very best of Zelda and Dark Souls for a journey that feels genuinely fresh, if not entirely revolutionary. I may well have seen pretty much everything Death's Door has to offer elsewhere... but very, very rarely is it this good. A clear Game Of The Year contender, and one you won't want to miss."
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Sounds pretty good, no?
Broken Sword 5 On Xbox Live
Well, it's on Xbox Games with Gold, but I couldn't resist the rhyme.
That's right, you'll be able to download Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse on Xbox Live Games with Gold from February 1st until February 28th. That's the whole month!
If you're into your point and click adventure games, this is perfect for you. It's a detective adventure, featuring your two playable characters chasing down a stolen painting and discovering a deeper layer of treachery beneath.
As someone who adored the likes of Grim Fandango and Thimbleweed Park, Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse might just be onto a winner.
Primed And Ready
If you're a subscriber to Amazon Prime Gaming, you're also in luck. February's lineup includes a whopping five games. These range from entertaining arcade-style jaunts like Golazo! Soccer League to grand strategies with depth I can only dream of comprehending like Stellaris. Here's the full list of this month's free Prime games:
- Ashwalkers: A Survival Journey
- Golazo! Soccer League
- Stellaris
- Double Kick Heroes
- As Far as the Eye
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I hope there's enough there to keep you going for the next week! Don't you worry if not - there's always a freebie around the corner. Just keep your eye right here, and I'll be back next week with some more bangers for you to sink your teeth into.
February is coming up too - have you got much planned? I've been waking up with an achy back, so have been trying to do a bit of daily resistance band work to fix it a bit. It feels like a temporary solution though - anyone got any ideas?
Seriously though, if you didn't like this week's games, go play Hitman. It's the best. See you next time.
Featured Image Credit: Billy Freeman, Martin Katler, Mateo via UnsplashTopics: Free Games