July's Games with Gold Includes Splinter Cell And Virtua Fighter

It's that time of the month where gamers who are subscribed to Xbox Live Gold get to rub their hands together like little kids on Christmas Day in order to find out exactly what free games will be offered for Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners. Microsoft revealed the official July, 2018 Games With Gold line-up as June begins to wind down, and some of the games include the highly popular stealth-action series Splinter Cell and one of the more underrated fighting games of last gen, Virtua Fighter.

The news was rolled out in typical fashion over on the Xbox YouTube channel, where Major Nelson detailed what games would be available throughout July for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. There will be Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown and Splinter Cell: Conviction for the Xbox 360, and Death Squared and Assault Android Cactus for the Xbox One.

Things kick off at the start of July with Assault Android Cactus, the 3D twin-stick shooter that hearkens back to the days of Robotron. The game originally came out back in 2015 by Witch Beam Games, featuring four-player cooperative action and multiple game modes, including a story mode, a campaign mode, boss rush mode, daily activities, and a challenge mode. It's likely not the sort of game all Xbox One owners probably wanted as a free title as part of the July line-up of Games With Gold, it's not a major AAA title, but if you have three other friends or family members, then it's not a bad game to add to your library.

For Xbox 360 owners Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown will be made available from July 1st up to July 15th. The fighting game was the last one that Sega produced for home consoles back during the seventh generation of gaming. Back then fighting games were going through the ebb and flow of what is and what isn't popular, and at the time they just weren't quite as popular, hence Virtua Fighter 5 kind of fading away into obscurity for all these years. However, the highlight with this being made available as part of the Xbox Live Games With Gold offering is that everyone who missed out on Virtua Fighter 5 can take the opportunity to dive into the game for the very first time on the Xbox One thanks to it being backwards compatible.

During the middle of the month, starting July 16th, gamers will be able to gain access to Death Squared as the second free title for the Xbox One. The game is a unique puzzle title where players must work together in order to solve color-coordinated puzzles across a bevy selection of different levels. It's a tricky game that's designed for people who love brain-wrecking puzzle titles.

Last but not least is Splinter Cell: Conviction, which will be available starting July 16th for the Xbox 360. This was one of the last big Splinter Cell games made, and was also a stark departure from the previous games in the series by focusing more on combat and third-person shooting as opposed to relying on stealth. The gameplay was very similar to Activision's 007: Blood Stone, insofar that performing stealth kills filled up a meter that allowed you to perform instant kills on enemies with the tap of a button.

You can look for the Games With Gold to go live for Xbox Live Gold subscribers starting July 1st.