Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Gears of War 2, Hand of Fate free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers in February

By Danny Cowan January 28, 2016

gears of war 2 hand fate free for xbl gold in february gow2free header — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Xbox Live Gold subscribers have another prime batch of free games to look forward to next month, as Microsoft revealed that Gears of War 2 and Hand of Fate are among February’s scheduled freebies.

As in recent months, Xbox One owners will be able to download and play all of next month’s featured Games With Gold titles, including Xbox 360 releases, via the platform’s backward compatibility technology.

All throughout next month, Xbox Live members with an active Gold subscription will be able to download Defiant Development’s action-RPG Hand of Fate free of charge. Featuring deck-building mechanics at its core, Hand of Fate deals players a series of digital cards that manifest themselves during gameplay as enemies, weapons, and dungeon floors.

Hand of Fate features combo-driven combat in the vein of Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series, and its randomly assigned gameplay elements ensure an unpredictable and challenging experience throughout.

Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners alike can download a free copy of the Xbox Live Arcade release Sacred Citadel between February 1st and the 15th. A spinoff in publisher Deep Silver’s Sacred series, Sacred Citadel offers up gameplay similar to arcade-styled brawlers, and serves as a prequel to the storyline featured in Sacred 3.

Related Offer: Xbox Live Gold Membership

Between February 16th and the 29th, Xbox One and Xbox 360 players can also grab Gears of War 2 free of charge. A follow-up entry in Epic Games’ popular third-person shooter series, Gears of War 2 was recently given away as an incentive for Gears of War Ultimate Edition early adopters, but will soon be available for all Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of the Games With Gold program.

February’s final Games With Gold release is Styx: Master of Shadows, a third-person stealth game from Cyanide Studio that features character-building mechanics and RPG elements. Styx will be free to download for service subscribers from February 16th through March 15th.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days

A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Gaming

3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)

Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Gaming

3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)

Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal