‘Grow Up’ and sail the seven seas with July’s Xbox Games With Gold

By Gabe Gurwin Published March 2, 2022

The sun is shining, public pools are open, and the allure of the outside world might be drawing you out of your game room, but worry not! Xbox’s Games With Gold program has four new free games arriving to Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners in July, and it is an eclectic mix of titles.

Beginning on July 1 and running through the end of the month, Xbox One owners will be able to download Ubisoft’s Grow Up for free. A sequel to Grow Home, it sports a cute, polygon-filled art style and clever open-world platforming. Though it was criticized for failing to innovate, Grow Up received praise for its changes to the game’s overall mission structure.

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From July 16 through August 15, Xbox One owners will also be able to download Runbow. With support for up to nine players both locally and online, each contestant must race against the clock, carefully avoid obstacles and take advantage of new platforms whenever the game’s background color changes. Runbow was previously released on PC and Wii U. If you don’t have an Xbox One or Xbox Live Gold, you can pick it up on Steam for about $5 right now. It also just released for Nintendo 3DS, if you haven’t put your old handheld into storage.

From July 1 through July 15, Xbox 360 players can download Kane and Lynch 2. The violent crime game can be played both solo and with a friend on Xbox Live, and like all Xbox 360 games released through the program from now on, it is fully playable on Xbox One, as well. Kane and Lynch 2 might be the perfect game to tide you over until Hazelight’s cooperative thriller A Way Out releases.

Disappointed with the recent film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales? Perhaps a video game will help ease the pain. From July 16 through July 30, Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners can grab Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game. Featuring all of the films’ major characters and contents from the first four movies, the game also supports local cooperative action. It isn’t Sea of Thieves, but it should keep us satisfied for now.

Which game are you most looking forward to playing from July’s Games with Gold lineup? How do you think it compares to last month? Let us know in the comments?

Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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