‘Crackdown,’ ‘Dead Rising 2’ Are The Next Free Games For Xbox Live Subscribers

If you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you’ll soon be getting your next round of free games as part of the “Games with Gold” program. Starting tomorrow, August 1, Microsoft has confirmed that it will be offering Crackdown to subscribers for free.

If you plan on downloading Crackdown, you’ll need to act fast – the offer will be over by August 16, at which point Microsoft will be rolling out the second free game for the month: Dead Rising 2. Not only will you be able to grab that for free on that date, you can also get the Dead Rising 2: Case Zero DLC for the low price of nothing.

Crackdown may be an old game at this point – it originally launched back in 2007 – but it’s considered by many to be one of the best early Xbox 360 titles. Crackdown is an open-world game that took some cues from other open-world titles, but with a twist: your character is a superhuman.

Your character is on the “good side,” but the game doesn’t do a whole lot to stop you from doing whatever it is that you want. Imagine going on a rampage in Grand Theft Auto IV, but this time you have powers such as superhuman strength and the ability to leap tall atop buildings from the street.

The game has a story to it, of course, but all you’ll likely care about is causing mayhem. Or maybe that’s just me, but I regret nothing.

Dead Rising 2 is another fantastic game that, funnily enough, would make a good match for people who enjoy Crackdown’s wacky open-world mayhem. Dead Rising 2 never received a great deal of mainstream popularity, but it was well received by most critics.

The game is classified as “open world survival horror,” but there isn’t as much horror in Dead Rising 2 as there is hilarity. The game never takes itself too seriously; players can plow through the walking dead with a chainsaw. or they can attach two chainsaws to a pole and cause even more destruction to the living-impaired.

Again, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously – and that’s exactly what makes it so fun.

If any (or all) of these games interest you, be sure to download them while you can. Crackdown goes away by the end of the day on August 15, and Dead Rising 2 will go away on August 31.