Microsoft has once again announced a solid lineup of games available for free for Xbox Live Gold members following from March’s impressive lineup. April will see Xbox Live Gold members on Xbox 360 getting access to Star Wars: Battlefront II (the original 2005 release) as well as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2.

Meanwhile, Xbox One owners get access to those two as well, thanks to backwards compatibility. In addition, The Technomancer and Outcast: Second Contact are also available for free. The Technomancer and Star Wars: Battlefront II will go live for Games with Gold on April 1, with the former remaining live till April 30, and the latter till April 15.

On April 16, Outcast: Second Contact will be made free, and will remain free for a month, till May 15. April 16 will also see Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter going live, and it will remain free till April 30. It’s a good, solid lineup- Advanced Warfighter 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront II are great games that you should try out if you haven’t done so in the past. Outcast: Second Contact and The Technomancer are not without their issues, but at the price of free, are worth checking out as well.

With another month comes another set of games added to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service, allowing players unlimited access to download and play a growing library of first and third party Xbox One and PC titles. With the new June additions, 183 titles are available to play. 

We’ve left all of the game descriptions below the story, but players can look forward to Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, Wasteland 2, Technomancer, MotoGP17, Next Up Hero and Disneyland Adventures, which is also for Windows 10. 

If I had to recommend any of these titles, I’m a sucker for Mega Man, and Legacy Collection 2 has a nice variety of titles from the later works of the blue bomber. What do you think of this month’s additions? Sound off in the comments below.

Next Up Hero

Inspired by classic games like Zelda: Four Swords and Smash TV, this is a crazy-fast co-op dungeon crawler with unique heroes, epic loot, and tough-as-nails monsters that will kill you. A lot. Every time you die, you leave behind an echo who can be raised by the next hero to fight as AI followers. The more heroes die, the more echoes are raised, and the stronger the community grows and a robust community is needed to take down the most punishing levels in the game. Xbox Game Pass members can look forward to playing Next Up Hero this June, the same day its available digitally on the Microsoft Store.

MotoGP 17

Ride on the official tracks with all the riders and bikes from 2017 MotoGP Championship and 2017 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. Discover more than 70 legendary riders from 4 Stroke, 2 Stroke, 500cc, 2 Stroke 250cc and 2 Stroke 125cc. Choose your path to become a champion with two different career modes: Rider and Team Manager. With the Rider career, you can be hired by various real teams and race after race gain reputation with the final goal of winning the MotoGP Championship.

Mega Man Legacy Collection 2

Celebrate the Blue Bomber’s 30th anniversary by jumping, shooting, and sliding through a colorful variety of the hero’s unforgettable adventures. This collection showcases the platforming icon’s evolution from the 16-bit to 32-bit era, followed by a triumphant return to his glorious 8-bit roots. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is also packed with a host of new features, such as extra challenges, a museum of Mega Man history, and much more.

The Technomancer

Forge the destiny of Mars in this action-RPG set on a cyberpunk planet during the War of Water. Technomancers are mage-warriors who use their innate ability to harness destructive electrical powers. In The Technomancer, you are on the brink of becoming a full-fledged Technomancer, but to do so you must cross deadly wastes, avoid pursuers, and protect a terrible secret. A dynamic dialog system enables you to alter the course of the plot depending on your decisions. You will also craft equipment, weapons, and armor, recruit companions and explore tribal communities of Mars along your journey.

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut

When words fail, bullets prevail. In Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, the ultimate edition of Wasteland 2, you take on the role of a Desert Ranger – a lawman dedicated to civilizing the post-apocalyptic world. You’ll visit dozens of locations carved out by survivors of the post-atomic age, bringing with you your own brand of frontier justice.  Your decisions in dealing with the factions of the Wasteland will determine the fate of its people, as well as your own.

Disneyland Adventures (Xbox Play Anywhere Title)

Travel to Disneyland where dreams come true and explore the magic of the kingdom! With 18 iconic attractions, there are adventures waiting around every corner for fans of all ages. Get your camera ready to stroll the park and meet the Disney princesses along with all of Mickey Mouse’s friends. Watch stories come to life as you fall through the rabbit hole into Alice’s Wonderland and battle Captain Hook with Peter Pan. Just remember to hang on tight during all of Disneyland’s rides!

The Technomancer is the newest game from Spiders and Focus Home Interactive;Spiders previously brought us Mars: War Logs, and like that game, this new one is set on Mars too. It is a blending of science fiction and fantasy, and seems to suggest an epic adventure of the kind that few RPGs outside of Mass Effect have managed to provide.

Unfortunately, those first impressions are deceiving, and The Technomancer never quite manages to get off the ground and realize its full potential. It’s still something that fans of science fiction and/or fans of RPGs will probably want to check out, but the tragedy is,it could have been so much more.

Regardless, if you pick up the game and decide to play through it, there may come a time where you realize you are stuck, and don’t know how to progress- in those cases, don’t fear. This video walkthrough below should manage to help you out.

The key word is “potential” though. Despite some decent environment design and admittedly smooth combat movement, The Technomancer shows only flashes of brilliance throughout its long, dragging campaign.

"The set-up itself is actually fairly unique but it falls by the wayside with its shallow characters and their voice acting."

You start off as Zachariah, a Technomancer in training who begins his ascent to officer on Ophir, a colony on Mars. This being the future, the planet’s social system is broken up into various factions including the Abundance Army (who you’ll serve in the beginning), the ASC (an Internal Affairs like organization), the Mutants and many more. In the beginning, your main purpose is to accompany your teacher Sean (yes, Sean. Don’t even ask) to a special dome teeming with insects to learn the truth about Technomancers. Following this revelation, you’re sworn into the brotherhood but it doesn’t take long before the ASC takes an interest in your affairs, thus prompting you to venture outside of Ophir for the sake of survival.

The beginning of The Technomancer begins much as you’d think – with a long narrative VO setting up the scenario on Mars, including the scarcity of water. It’s decidedly old-school in this approach and especially so when it takes to introducing you to Zach’s world and character. You’ll spend a good couple of hours trying to acquaint yourself with the world, meeting characters, completing side quests and main missions and just generally smacking things in the face. The set-up itself is actually fairly unique but it falls by the wayside with its shallow characters and their voice acting. Zach’s voice acting is fairly one note – it somehow achieves the feat of immaturity while still being boring. I guess the point is he’s a recent officer and still somewhat young but when you consider examples like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 (which released almost two decades ago), it’s obviously been done better elsewhere.

This isn’t to say that Spiders’ budget meant other corners were cut. The visuals for The Technomancer are decidedly compelling, from when you enter Ophir and glance upon its metal trees for the first time. Venturing into the Slums paints a distinct picture, showcasing the downtrodden and their problems while still feeling lived into. Though the graphics aren’t the best, they’re still leagues above what you’d expect from most other B-grade open world RPGs. In fact, as far as creating the worlds of such games goes, The Technomancer may be one of the better efforts in a while.

"Even if you hit an enemy before their strike lands on you, there’s no guarantee that you’ll stop their attack in the process."

Character design sadly doesn’t benefit from this. Many of the characters look typically drab and samey. At least the clothing does a decent job of distinguishing them down the line, especially when dealing with various factions inside and outside of Ophir. And while performance was pretty good all around on PC, it doesn’t take long before backtracking through the same environments for hours on end that a sense of tedium sets in. Sure, you’ll venture to an Aurora camp here and a lost city there and probably navigate the sewers for missions. But most of The Technomancer‘s gameplay consists of exploring the same restricted environments, which are pretty poorly laid out and require constant checking of your mini-map, for hours at a time. There’s only so much you can do with an industrial Mars aesthetic and The Technomancer could have done well to adjust the pacing so that you explore newer places faster.

Combat is another area where The Technomancer could have used improvement. On the surface, it’s interesting enough – three different styles, along with your lightning abilities, can be used at a specific time. You can spend skill points on these different styles and level up your Technomancer abilities, opt for additional upgrades in skills, allot points in different perks that benefit your Charisma or Crafting abilities among others (and play a role in skill checks during conversations), and increase your base stats like Agility and Strength every few levels or so. The game is fairly rewarding with the levels and offers a good amount of customization – you’ll definitely dabble in more than one style throughout the game. For me, it was a mix between the Rogue and Warrior, outputting high damage and switching to crowd control when necessary. Movement between targets felt pretty solid though I found it to be much better without targeting a single foe.

The problems arise – as they usually do – when you get into the nitty gritty of things. The Technomancer‘s combat feels very much like an action RPG, sort of like The Witcher 3. Stats like disruption play a key role in determining how well you interrupt enemy attacks. Even if you hit an enemy before their strike lands on you, there’s no guarantee that you’ll stop their attack in the process. Couple this with the high damage that enemies can lay out – even on Easy with a few upgrades on your person – and combat quickly becomes a random exercise in dodging to ensure you’re not kited into a corner and taking every single hit at once (and that’s not including scenarios with ranged enemies).

"Some of the stories behind the companions, like Scott Seeker, are interesting but they never really open up all that much to really draw you in."

At times, it felt like the Warrior’s staff just wasn’t doing it – even the stun kick wasn’t doing much to disrupt foes – and I opted for the Rogue’s blade to output tons of damage (Props to you if you can figure out the best way to utilize the Guardian with its slow movement and dodging capabilities). Even then, it felt like enemies were tanking a lot of punishment in the process of dying. Upgrading critical hit damage did turn the tides in my favour on occasion but it certainly felt odd to be slashing a regular enemy eight to nine times before he did. Make sure you save copiously as well – The Technomancer doesn’t have a very reliable auto save system in the open world, which kind of kills some of the excitement of diving head first into encounters.

At least some of the quests are intriguing and the factions system is played up decently enough. Granted, there was a mission where treating Mutants harshly earned a negative reputation with the faction and I still managed to gain a Mutant companion later on but that’s a different matter entirely. It felt kind of cool after a point to be judged for some of my actions and asked to justify why I had done what I had done. Then again, some quests are fairly straightforward and lack a compelling narrative. I didn’t really care all that much about who the mole was in my group, especially because the starting companions are so boring/annoying (and this doesn’t really improve much later).

Helping a mother find her daughter, who got into some rather nasty business with the mob, would have been memorable if (a) I wasn’t running around the poorly laid out slums, talking to various NPCs to find her, and (b) ultimately making a choice that served no purpose other than to push my karma up or down. It also doesn’t help that a lot of these quests are in the same confined areas, thus making you run past the same environments and locales over and over and over again. The motivations behind your character aren’t exactly compelling you all that much either. Some of the stories behind the companions, like Scott Seeker, are interesting but they never really open up all that much to really draw you in.

"However, the initial slog feels draining at times and aside from gaining a level or two, I never felt like I had achieved all that much."

The Technomancer isn’t an awful game. The potential it holds eventually does shine through on occasion. You’ll explore a vast world and have tons of things to do. When you get used to the nuances and quirks of combat, you’ll appreciate the responsiveness of its targeting and movement. The lack of polish did veer its ugly head in other respects such as the inability to set waypoints on one’s map or simply keeping track of one icon while following a quest. Then there are the odd animation glitches. At times, during cutscenes, you can see slightly stutters from one set of dialogues to the next. It’s very slight but very noticeable and can feel pretty jarring in the beginning.

Overall, the initial slog feels draining at times and aside from gaining a level or two, I never felt like I had achieved all that much or had a lasting impact on the world. An upgrade here and there which still didn’t save me from being annihilated by groups of enemies, a new weapon I can’t use until I spec into Strength or Agility more and a new skill that may increase my damage all the more slightly. Woohoo.

If you’re looking for an alternative open world action RPG of sorts, one which channels the Mass Effect series even with its own unique setting, you might want to check out The Technomancer. That being said, there are dozens of other action RPGs with better combat, story, characters, quests and so on that you could be playing instead. The Technomancer seems to capture a lot of the mechanics involved in a genre such as this but lacks a lot of the heart, personality and polish that makes games like Mass Effect so memorable.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Mirrors Edge Catalyst

Faith returns in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, the much anticipated sequel to the original game. That being said, this is no ordinary sequel – Catalyst will be a reboot and origins story for Faith, presenting a whole new tale of oppression and intrigue in a futuristic authoritarian city. A lot has changed from the original Mirror’s Edge, including the addition of a skill tree and a huge open world to explore. Players will have the chance to create races that can stretch through the city or take part in the expansive story (which isn’t nearly as forgettable as the first game). Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is out on June 7th for North America and June 9th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Mighty No. 9

The long-in development, often-delayed spiritual successor to Mega Man will finally be upon us. Mighty No. 9 has seen its fair share of issues and controversies, ranging from failed additional Kickstarters to controversies with its community manager. That’s not even getting into the awful launch trailer that recently released and was apparently publisher Deep Silver’s fault. That being said, we’re still interested in what Mighty No. 9 has to offer with its combo-based gameplay, level design and call-backs to the Mega Man franchise. It’ll be available on just about every home platform on June 21st and June 24th

Umbrella Corps

What do you get when you cross a competitive multiplayer shooter with the zombies of Resident Evil? A horrifying monster, for one, but actually it’s Umbrella Corps. This shooter focuses on teaming up with friends as part of various mercenary groups sent in by bio-weapons corporations. Though primarily third person shooter-based, Umbrella Corps allows for aiming down sights in first person and melee combat. Numerous modes and levels, some which call back to previous games like Resident Evil: Code Veronica, also exist to be explored. Zombies are also a key factor, disrupting your operations when you’re not being gunned down by enemy groups. It’s out on June 21st in North America and Europe for PC and PS4.

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens

You knew it was coming. The Lego Star Wars franchise has been a proverbial juggernaut in its own right and the saga continues with Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Interestingly, Traveler’s Tales is working on incorporating a number of new features into the series such as cover shooting; Multi-Build, which gives you more freedom for building and expanding on paths to explore; and much more. Classic characters like Rey, Poe Dameron, Finn, Kylo Ren and Han Solo are featured and the game will actually include content taking place between the period of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Will we finally experience the battle of Jakku firsthand? One can only hope. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out on June 28th in North America and Europe.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

The Star Ocean franchise returns with the game’s first PS4 outing (though it’s also out on PS3 in Japan) Integrity and Faithlessness, which comes to North America on June 28th. The RPG will be unlike any of its predecessors with a seven member party and seamless transitions from the cut scenes to gameplay. We’ll find out just how good it is when it actually releases next month.

The Technomancer

Spiders has been rather hit-or-miss with its action RPGs (mostly miss with efforts like Mars: War Logs and Bound by Flame). The Technomancer will nonetheless continue this string of efforts, taking place in the same setting as Mars War Logs. With three styles of combat, four skill trees, crafting, varying choices for completing quests and a choice of numerous companions, The Technomancer will also be the developer’s first current gen exclusive, releasing on PC, Xbox One and PS4. It’s out on June 28th worldwide.

We Happy Few

Imagine a dystopia Wellington Wells during an alternate World War 2 era. Something has happened to the city in order for it to win the war but it’s citizens resorted to the drug Joy in order to forget it all. What happens when you play as someone who hasn’t taken the drug and is subsequently hunted by those around them? We Happy Few balances survival horror with a sandbox element, challenging you to escape Wellington Wells without arousing the suspicion of those around you. It’s been in development since February 2015 and despite no solid release date, we know it will be coming in June to PC and Xbox One to inflict some Unreal Engine 4-powered trauma upon us all.

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter

Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter won’t be its last Sherlock Holmes title but it may be a while till we see the famous detective again. With five linked cases, a “deduction board” to piece together various clues and multiple conclusions, The Devil’s Daughter will continue the series’ penchant for compelling mysteries and consequences. It’s out on June 10th for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The Technomancer, the new game by Spider, will see us being joined in our sojourns across Mars by various companions. The video below shows us the multiple social systems at work in the game, including various companion interactions that will bolster relationships with the NPCs, as well as multiple questlines that lead to them joining the party in the first place.

In a lot of ways, the systems here appear to be very similar to the ones employed by Bioware in the Mass Effect series, or Atlus in the Persona franchise- they will be used to unlock new questlines, and to learn more about NPC party members, and learn more about them, in the process.

The Technomancer will be launching on June 21 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. You can check out the new trailer for the game for yourself below, and let us know in the comments what you think.

Spiders and Focus Home Interactive’s The Technomancer, the exciting science fiction RPG set on Mars, will be launching this Summer, on June 21, for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game will see players take on the vast Martian wastelands, and the dangers and threats held within, in a highly nuanced and deep RPG.

“You’ll meet Zachariah, a rookie Technomancer from Abundance, one of the powerful corporations on the red planet. Technomancers are formidable warriors harnessing destructive electrical powers channelled through their implants,” said Spiders Studio CEO and creative director Jeanne Rousseau , explaining the story.

“Your journey starts at Ophir, capital of Abundance, erected from the remains of the first human settlements in the Ophir Chasma. Picking from three combat stances, you’ll be able to specialize your style of play, making use of the Technomancer’s special electrical abilities to buff yourself or actively attack the many monsters roaming the red planet.”

Check out what the game will be like with the new gameplay trailer below for yourself.

The Technomancer is a brand new action RPG coming to us from the makers of Mars: War Logs. The Frwnch developer Spiders and Focus Home Interactive are teaming up to deliver a unique kind of RPG, in terms of its setting, and its mechanics.

The game is due out on consoles and PC this summer. WCCFTech had an interview with Spiders’ CEO Jehanne Rousseau, in which it was revealed that the Xbox One version of the game would be, yet again, running at 900p, which is lower than the 1080p resolution that the developers had looked at targeting initially.

“We are in the final phase of optimizing The Technomancer, and improvements are still underway. We have had to make several decisions which have allowed us to maintain the richness of the game’s fluidity and environments. As such, we’ve decided to use a 900p resolution on Xbox One, which ensures a detailed and smooth experience.”

Of course, while The Technomancer looks good, better looking games have managed a 1080p resolution on the Xbox One- maybe the engine is just poorly optimized?

The Technomancer releases on Xbox One, PS4, and PC in Summer this year.

Spiders’ new, upcoming science fiction cyberpunk RPG, The Tecnomancer, got a brand new trailer. This new trailer introduces us to the Martian wastelands, where the game is set- showing us the harshness of the environments, and the fragility of the human settlements that have been built in stark defiance of that harshness.

The Technomancer promises to be a highly engaging, new, interesting RPG experience- everything we have seen of the game so far looks encouraging, if unpolished. And this new trailer makes us excited too- at the very least, it looks like Spider is going to utilize the rich, unique setting rather well.

You can check out the new trailer for yourself below. The Technomancer will be developed by Spider and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is set to release this Summer for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Let us know what you think of the trailer below in the comments section.

Spider’s brand new sci-fi RPG, The Technomancer, has just received a whole bunch of new screenshots, showcasing the game’s incredibly strong and unique art, as well as how far the graphics have come on a technical scale as well. The new screenshots show us some of the strange, exotic wildlife that players will find on the surface of Mars, which forms the setting for the game.

“Although Mars’ red surface is naturally barren and completely devoid of life, hundreds of years of human civilization has led to the creation and evolution of many hybrid species built from the genetic makeup of animals found on Earth,” Spider said. “What was first an exercise to create an ecosystem to support the original settlers eventually grew out of control, following the cataclysm that wiped most settlers and isolated Mars from Earth. Mutations and accelerated evolution forged what little life there was into threatening beasts scattered all over the red planet.”

I’m glad to see the developers at least attempt a scientifically grounded explanation for why or how Mars has any life. It’s also good to see that they took the chance and ran with it- the game’s wildlife truly seems to be imaginative, and should make for some thrilling encounters.

The Technomancer is slated to launch in early 2016 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.