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The May is here and Microsoft has already released the list of games that the gamers will be receiving for free under the Xbox Live Gold membership. Following the tradition, there are 4 games with gold that Microsoft has made available for May. Two of these games will be made available for the Xbox One and the other two will be available for Xbox 360 as well. However, the games for Xbox 360 will be playable on Xbox One as well and that too for free.
| Game Title | | Platform | Initial Release | Gold Release |
| SpeedRunners |  | Xbox One | 19-04-2016 | 1-06-2017 |
| Dragon Age: Origins |  | Xbox One & Xbox 360 | 03-11-2009 | 1-06-2017 |
| Watch Dogs |  | Xbox One | 27-05-2014 | 16-06-2017 |
| Assassin's Creed III |  | Xbox One & Xbox 360 | 30-10-2012 | 1-06-2017 |
| Phantom Dust |  | Xbox One & Xbox 360 | 23-09-2004 | 16-06-2017 |
| Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut |  | Xbox One | 12-12-2014 | 01-05-2017 |
| Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris |  | Xbox One | 09-12-2014 | 16-05-2017 |
LEGO Star Wars:
The Complete Saga |  | Xbox 360 | 06-11-2007 | 16-05-2017 |
| Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II |  | Xbox 360 | 29-10-2010 | 01-05-2017 |
| Ryse: Son of Rome |  | Xbox One | 22-11-2013 | 01-04-2017 |
| The Walking Dead: Season Two |  | Xbox One | 21-10-2014 | 16-04-2017 |
| Assassin’s Creed: Revelations |  | Xbox 360 | 15-11-2011 | 16-04-2017 |
| Darksiders |  | Xbox 360 | 05-01-2010 | 01-04-2017 |
| Evolve: Ultimate Edition |  | Xbox One | 10-02-2015 | 16-03-2017 |
| Borderlands 2 |  | Xbox 360 | 18-09-2012 | 01-03-2017 |
| Heavy Weapon |  | XBLA | 24-02-2005 | 16-03-2017 |
| Layers of Fear |  | Xbox One | 16-02-2016 | 01-03-2017 |
| Star Wars: The Force Unleashed |  | Xbox 360 | 18-09-2012 | 01-03-2017 |
| Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge |  | Xbox 360 | 07-07-2010 | 01-02-2017 |
| Project Cars Digital Edition |  | Xbox One | 12-05-2015 | 16-02-2017 |
| Lovers in Dangerous Spacetime |  | Xbox One | 09-09-2015 | 01-02-2017 |
| Rayman Origins |  | Xbox 360 | 15-11-2011 | 16-01-2017 |
| The Cave |  | Xbox 360 | 23-01-2013 | 01-01-2017 |
| Killer Instinct Season 2 Ultra Edition |  | Xbox One | 15-10-2014 | 16-01-2017 |
| World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap |  | Xbox One | 01-01-2017 | 01-01-2017 |
The four games made available for Xbox Live Gold Members for June:
- Phantom Dust
- Watch Dogs
- SpeedRunners
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Assassin’s Creed III
SpeedRunners
Who doesn’t love playing racing games? I don’t know about you but, it was such a thrill to complete the race as fast as possible, breaking through the surroundings, facing enemies. Well, SpeedRunner is a similar racing game which the Gold members are receiving for free under the Gold membership.
The main goal of the game is to race with your friends and stay ahead of them until you eliminate them from the screen itself. In order to do that, it is very important to understand every level so that you can decide when to slide, when to jump and when to use hooks and bounce against the walls etc. Not only that, the players also get many boosts that give you a speed blast to get ahead of each other.
The game offers three modes, Story, Practice, and the Multiplayer. And the best among them is the Multiplayer mode. You can play with your friends and even with other players on the internet via quick race and custom race. In case you have been waiting for a multiplayer game to get together with your friends, you should definitely give it a shot.
Assassin’s Creed III
Assassins’s Creed is not a new game and was released in the year 2012. For those who love to play action – adventure game might have come across this famous title. The game has been developed and published by Ubisoft and was made available for various platforms like Xbox 360, Windows as well as PS 3. Assassin’s Creed III, unlike the name tells, was the fifth installment in the Assassin’s Creed series based on the same concept of reliving the historical moments.
The game features historical but real world events centuries old in which the Assassin’s fight against the Knight Templar forces. On one hand, the Assassin’s try to bring peace as well as the freedom to the masses, the Templars on the other hand fight to gain control and power over the entire region.
However, the game starts in the 21st century where a person named Desmond Miles is able to connect to a machine called Animus that allows him to go back and relive the memories of his ancestors which are available in his genes. Desmond needs to go back and find out a way in order to prevent the 2012 apocalypse that has been predicted by the Mayan people.
The game is an open world game where the player roams around in a third-person perspective and has the ability to interact with other elements lying around in the environment. You get to explore various cities like New York and Boston, that too in the 18th century. Also, the users need to make use of various combat techniques to kill the enemies and progress through the game. There are a lot of side mission offered in the game that makes it even more interesting. There is also a multiplayer mode that allows the players to compete with each other online either solo or in a team. The multiplayer games have objectives that all the players need to accomplish while evading pursuers as well as assassinating different targets.
The Anvil Next game engine brings this game to life. It receives the overwhelming response from the players and positive reviews from the critics for the excellent gameplay, combat mechanics, and the graphics. If you are not familiar with Assassin’s Creed series, the Xbox Gold members now have an option to get it for free under Xbox Live Games with Gold for June 2017.
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Age: Origins is another old game that the players are getting this month under Gold membership. The game was released in the year 2009 and has been developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The game was initially launched for Xbox 360, OS X, PS 3 and Windows.
The game starts in a fictional land of Ferelden. The player has an option to be a rogue, a mage, human, dwarf, elf or a warrior. The main motto in the game is to fight against dark demonic forces known as “Darkspawn”. Being a part of Grey Wardens you have the task of killing the Archdemon and prevent them from invading the entire land. This third person game takes you on a completely new ride with a lot of obstacles to overcome that makes it even more interesting.
The game was received well by the players all around the world and gives you the complete feel of the action adventure mythological world. The game is also available for free under gold this June.
Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs is a very popular open world third-person action adventure shooter game which could be taken as an advanced version of GTA. The game has been developed and published by none other than Ubisoft and was released in May 2014 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, and Windows. Similar to GTA, Watch Dogs also fictionalizes an entire city for the gameplay. In this game, the city is none other than Chicago, Illinois.
The game is the story of a hacker who uses his special abilities and knowledge to take revenge on her recently killed niece. The game is pretty big allowing the players to roam through the urban as well as the sub-urban areas and the countryside too.
This third-person action adventure game is for those who love to play open world games in which the player could interact with uncountable things around him. If you are one of those, you should definitely give it a try. You can get this game for free under Gold membership as well.
Phantom Dust
Phantom Dust is not a new game and was released in the year 2004. This strategy game has been developed as well as published by Microsoft Game Studios only for the Xbox consoles.
Phantom Dust is actually an action and strategy game which takes place after the apocalypse. The main unnamed character needs to interact with few of the leftover outposts in order to find out what actually happened to the earth. As the story progresses, you get a lot of pieces that help you figure out what happened. There is a multiplayer mode as well which allows the player to combat with another online player using their weapons. This game also comes as a bonus with Gold this month.
The four games made available for Xbox Live Gold Members for May are:
- Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut
- Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
- Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director’s Cut
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Director’s Cut is a fast paced game offering a lot of tricky levels in which the player can transform the entire world. In the game, Giana is capable of morphing between the worlds whenever she feels like escaping. As a player, you need to use your skills to defeat various obstacles that wait for you in her nightmares.
The game has very smooth gameplay, intuitive controls as well as good graphics allowing you to control the character with grace and with simple soft touch. When you morph her, you get the punk side which can crush every obstacle coming in her way. In addition to that, you will notice that as the world change around the character, the interactions with it change as well. With so many various obstacles, diverse dangers and uncountable tools to interact and utilize, this game is especially for those who like to discover secret areas, solve real-time puzzles and love mystery element in the game.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is the sequel to the very popular “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light”. The previous game came out on December 9, 2014, and now its sequel is available for free for all Xbox One Games Gold members.
In the Temple of Osiris, Tomb Raider or Lara Croft along with her colleague Carter Bell, who is an archaeologist, and together they are in the mysterious Temple of Osiris. The story is their race find and get the Staff of Osiris, however, in between, Lara warns her not to take it from its place. But Carter does not listen and later regrets why she didn’t listen to Lara.
The game is mainly multiplayer with two characters playing and shooting side by side. One can play in online co-op mode or local co-op mode. If you go solo campaign mode, you take the role of Lara, who possesses Egyptian abilities that assist Carter to solve various puzzles coming on the way.
There are a lot of new artifacts and weapons that both the characters use to fight the enemies. In addition to that, there are various levels of challenges that the players need to solve with each other’s help in order to move forward. The game is really great if you like adventure mystery games which involve sole shooting and action as well.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed & Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
The month of May bring the Star Wars celebrations for Star War fans as well. The first half of the month will bring “The Force Unleashed” game, while the second half of the month, “The Complete Saga”: The Star Wars Lego game is going to entertain you. As we have mentioned before, both of these games will be available for free in Xbox Live Games with the Gold program and since these games are backward compatible as well, you can get and play these games on Xbox One consoles too.
These were the games that have been released this month. However, Microsoft has been releasing games for Gold since long back. It is a big list but given below are Xbox games with Gold that the company has released this year for Xbox consoles.
Xbox Games with Gold for April 2017
Ryse: Son of Rome
Ryse: Son of Rome is an excellent action-adventure third-person hack and slash game developed by Crytek. The game was released at the end of the year 2013 and is set in the old Rome following the life of a Roman centurion by the name of Marius Titus. The player plays the role of Marius who strikes all the enemies using his sword and other weapons as the Roman Legion leader. Starting as a fresh more solid coming from the camp, he needs to serve his duties. However, due to Barbarian incursion, he loses his family and is transferred to different Legion to save Rome.
The action sequences and fight executions are superb but become kind of repetitive over time. One can also play the game in the cooperative multiplayer mode in which both the player needs to take on the wave of enemies back to back in different map areas.
The Walking Dead: Season Two
Recently, a new genre with the name “Episodic Interactive Drama” have turned really popular among the gamers. The Walking Dead: Season Two is a game based on the same genre with narrative gameplay and the special choice element. In every game, the person is offered with a lot of choices, and the decisions you make in the game or in one episode impact the current story as well as the future episode elements as well. As the name says, Season Two is the sequel to “The Walking Dead” and in this installment, the players play as Clementine, who was just you companion in the first game. The game is available with gold for members.
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is a bit old now, but it came with Gold for Xbox gold members for free this April. The game is developed by Ubisoft and is the 4th game in the Assassin’s Creed series.
However, the plot of the game is completely fictional and revolves around real historical events which involved fights between Assassins and kings and other rulers who seek for control. In this game, Desmond Miles, with the help of an advanced machine called Animus, lives his ancestor’s memories in order to find a way to avert the apocalypse that will occur in the year 2012.
Assassin Creed: Revelations is a very good game because it offers an open world environment in third person’s perspective. One can explore various areas and even can interact with a lot of objects lying around in between the missions to complete them as well.
Darksiders
Darksiders is another hack and slash game which Microsoft released in this April with Gold. The game has been developed by Vigil Games and is based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse portion of the Bible. In the game, the player takes up the role of one of the horsemen War. You and other horsemen are to be summoned to Earth whenever the battle of Armageddon starts. But War does not pick sides between Heaven or Hell. Instead, he needs to bring the balance between both the forces as ordered by the rule of Charred Council.
However, it was the old version which Microsoft released for the Gold members as the better and enhanced Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, came out last year in the month of November.
Xbox Games with Gold for March 2017
Evolve: Ultimate Edition
Microsoft released the popular Evolve, the FPS game with gold in the month of March this year. Developed by Turtle Rock Studios, the game came back in 2014 for Xbox One, Windows, and PS4.
The game is more of an asymmetrical multiplayer in which five people play out of which four play the role of hunters and one person is the monster. All the players battle against each other on a planet named Shear. The interesting fact about this game is it contains two types of gameplays. One is first person mode, that every hunter possesses. However, if you play as the monster, you will have to control it in a third person perspective. As a hunter, you have to kill the monster. On the other hand, being a monster, you need to consume the wildlife around you to turn stronger and evolve. One can play this game alone or along with 4 other friends as well.
Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2 comes from Gearbox software and published by 2K Games is an action-RPG FPS game, the sequel to the original Borderlands released in the year 2009. You have to play in a campaign which offers a lot of side quests as well. However, most of the elements like online multiplayer, random loots, character building elements etc. are still there to entertain you in Borderlands 2.
The story starts after five years of the Borderlands event. And now the planet of Pandora is flourished by Iridium and this resource is controlled by Handsome Jack, the president of Hyperion Corporation. He tries to use the resource to bring peace to the planet. But, the rumor of a new hidden vault in Pandora brings a lot of new Vault Hunters to the planet of Pandora.
The game was initially released for Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 as well as OS X. Later, a lot of downloadable content was also made available by the game developers which included a lot of new storylines as well as characters. The game is must play for FPS lover and RPG lovers and the for Gold members, it is now free.
Heavy Weapon
Heavy Weapon is not a very big high definition game, still, it is a very addictive and popular game among the Xbox lovers. It is a side scrolling shooting game that was developed by the PopCap Games around more than a decade back in 2005.
The game is pretty simple. In Heavy Weapon, you need to control a tank and take it through a lot of stages facing enemy forces. However, you can only take the tank left or right with turret gun as your main weapon and some nukes. The storyline of the game is pretty simple too in which the Red Star or the Soviet Union tries to invade, and you take the charge of the Atomic tank in order to prevent them from entering the main headquarters of Red Star. It may look dull and easy, but trust us, it is really addictive game.
Layers of Fear
Layers of Fear is the fourth game that was released by Microsoft with Gold in the month of March 2017. Layers of Fear is a very interesting psychological horror game by Bloober Team. The game was released for Xbox One, PS4, OS X and Windows on 16 February 2016.
The storyline of the game is quite disturbing in which you take the role of a disturbed painter who is seeking to complete his magnum opus. In order to do that he wanders around an old Victorian mansion hiding a lot of dark secrets.
The game is in first person perspective and you will have to solve various mysteries and puzzles to progress through the game.
However, a sequel was released not much later on 2nd August, which was its direct follow-up. If you have not played any of these games and are fond of psychological thriller games, you can get the first game for free if you are a gold member, and then move on to the second, Layers of Fear: Inheritance installment.
Xbox Games with Gold for February 2017
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Almost everyone loves Star Wars. And in the month of February, Microsoft surprised us by releasing Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Gold for Xbox consoles. The Force Awakens is a part of The Force Unleashed project and is full of action as well as adventure. In the game, you will find a new protagonist with the name “Starkiller”. Being Darth Vader’s apprentice, his task is to take down Jedi. At the same time he hides his existence from the Emperor, but later turns to the light side of the Force.
The game has a really compelling story and was initially developed for Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and iOS and was released on September 16, 2008. If you are a true Star War fan, then this game is a must play for you.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition is a very old game which was developed in the year 1991 by LucasArts. It was the sixth game which used the SCUMM engine and the 2nd installment of the Monkey Island series with first being The Secret of Monkey Island.
Monkey Island 2 is about a wannabe pirate named Guybrush Threepwood. In the prequel, The Secret of Monkey island, little got famous for knowing what happened between Elaine Marley and Guybrush, and now in the sequel, he tries to get the secret treasure hidden on the island.
Project Cars Digital Edition
Project Cars is a very popular racing simulator game which was released in May 2015. The game offers you around 74 cars and more than 30 unique locations to play. These locations feature 110 various race tracks out of which 23 are real while others are fictional.
In addition to that, Project Cars: Digital Edition makes use of the advanced Madness engine which also served the base for famous racing titles like Need for Speed: Shift.
Microsoft has already released the Digital Edition of Project Cars with Gold back in February, and you can easily download this amazing car racing game for free if you have the Gold membership.
Lovers in Dangerous Spacetime
Lovers in Dangerous Spacetime gets its title from the famous Bruce Cockburn song with the same title. In the game, you pilot a spaceship which contains a lot of stations inside it. These various stations are responsible for controlling various parts of the ship like engine, weapons, shield, map and cannon.
The game is pretty simple and can be played by maximum four players. Each player holds the station and constantly move from one station to another station to balance the ship, keep it moving, and protecting it from the enemy attacks at the same time. You will also find a lot of gift boxes in between offering you gems, which can be used with a station to give them some enhanced powers.
There are four campaigns available to play named: Cetus, King Cepheus, Orion and Ursa Major. All these modes consist of 4 levels and a final boss in the end.
Xbox Games with Gold for January 2017
Rayman Origins
Rayman Origins is a very popular game among gamers even now. The game was developed back in 2011 with its initial part coming in the year 2003. It was developed by Ubisoft and was made available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS. However, Rayman Origins is the fourth installment in the Rayman series and offers similar but better graphics, design, humor as well as level design.
Like the older versions, Rayman Origins is also a side scroller adventure game allowing utmost 4 players to play at a time. One player takes the role of Rayman, one becomes the Globox while the other two players play as Teensies. Player need to get through each level fighting against enemies to rescue Electoons. One also gets many abilities to use against the enemies as well as to save yourself like shrinking your own size, gliding in midair etc., as the game progresses.
Rayman Origins is an addictive game which also received the “Best Platformer of 2011” award by GameSpot as well. Now since the game is available for free for Gold members, you should download it right away for your Xbox console.
The Cave
The Cave is another adventure puzzle platform video game that Microsoft made available with gold earlier in the month of January this year. It was developed by Double Fine Productions and was distributed by Sega in starting 2013. Ron Gilbert, the creator of this game had a different idea while building it. The game is a cave that lures and attracts people to explore the dark traits hidden inside them. The talking cave gets it voice from Stephen Stanton and contains a whole set of labyrinth tunnels. Seven different characters are then bought from across space and time, and who also possess some dark secret to learn something about their own personality and what they might become in future. There is blood and violence in the game and that is why it is “teen” rated.
Killer Instinct Season 2 Ultra Edition
Killer instinct is an old series of fighting games that was developed by Microsoft Studios, Iron Galaxy Studios, and Double Helix games as a free to play game for Xbox One. Also, the Season Two Ultra Edition of Killer Instinct made available with gold contains the classic Killer Instinct as well. The classic version contains all the elements from the original arcade game released in 1996.
The storyline is, a certain set of players are thrown back in time by Utlratech. Now the combatants that have survived from the first tournament, along with other new combatants bought from across the time, should fight amongst each other to fight the final enemy Gargos and ultimately decide the fate of the entire world. One can play in single player mode or multiplayer over Xbox Live server.
World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap
World of Van Helsing: Deathtrap is an action RPG tower defense game that was initially released just for Windows and OS X by NeocoreGames. In the game, you play the role of a lone protagonist who is sent to some other world in a different dimension in order to protect some strongholds from the monsters that are coming from the deep dark depth of the dimension trying to break through and enter the physical world.
In the game, initially, the player needs to pick a character ( a warrior, a marksman or a sorceress), which then lays the levels and aspect in which the game will progress.Also, there are already some reset routes present from which enemies are going to strike you in waves. You need to successfully kill all the enemies to cross any level.
Some must Have Xbox 360 Games with Gold
Well, these were the games that were released under gold this year for Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles. As we told you earlier, Microsoft has been releasing 4 games every month, and there are much more must have games that you should have on your Xbox consoles. There is no need to go through the entire list as well, as here we have mentioned few bonus Xbox games with gold that you should get and play right away.
Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise came with gold last year in December. Developed by Criterion Games, it is the fifth part of the Burnout series released in 2008 for Xbox 360 and PS 3 consoles. In the game, the player can drive around and through the roads of a fictional city called “Paradise City”. In the city, you can also take part in various races and can also compete with other players online. Paid content is also available for download in case you wish to upgrade the cars and the location. There are a lot of new features like “Crash mode” added to this new installment, which make is way better than the previous parts and one of the most addictive open world racing game.
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WWE 2K16
Who doesn’t love WWE? WWE 2K16 is the seventeenth professional wrestling part of the WWE series. The WWE 2K16 have a lot of changes when compared to its predecessor. Now the player has a limited amount of reversals in a match so that one can not spam reversals in the entire match. The new improved pin fall system gives fairer breakouts and pins as well. The gameplay mostly remains the same as in WWE 2k15 but all of that have been presented along with a lot of animations in WWE 2K16. The number of moves that every fighter possesses is also increased as well as improvise. In addition to that, a lot of fans complained about no tornado tag and handicap mode in WWE 2K15, well, ll these modes are back in WWE 2K16.
Looking at the graphics, you get a better cloth physics as well as crowd variety. The hair physics, facial expressions, sweating etc., everything is way better than 2K15.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a very popular turn-based tactical game which has been developed by Firaxis Games. Well, you can think of this game as a combination of the very old X-XOM: UFO Defense as well as X-Com series that came out in 1990’s.
The game is set in the future times during an Alien invasion. Also, the player is the controller of the military organization known as XCOM and is burned with one and only task, saving the earth from the aliens. You need to command all the troops under you in turns to win various missions. As you progress in the game, you will find a lot of new technologies to fight against the aliens, capture prisoners, manage operations and expand your XCOM base.
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Forza Horizon
Forza Horizon is one of the most played open road racing video game that was released just for Xbox 360 consoles. Developed by Playground Games along with Turn 10 Studios, Forza Horizon is the fifth game of the Forza series. The storyline of the game is unchanged and is about the Horizon Racing Festival which is set in Colorado. This game offers you more than 300 cars with superb, realistic and breathtaking graphics as well as physics. You can find 65 terrains in the game and some of which offer you off-road driving experience as well. However, rest other tracks are guided by guide rails and do not allow you to leave the track while the race is on. There is traffic on the road as well, which in return makes the game even more interesting.
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Crysis 3
Crysis 3 is one of the best FPS game that you can every play on Xbox. Developed by Crytek and EA, the game starts in 2047, in the New York City. The whole city is enclosed in a Nanodome which has been manufactured by CELL Corporation. The whole city has turned into the forest and filled with a strange type of alien creatures. The story of the game revolves around Alcatraz. Alcatraz is actually Prophet’s successor and the holder of Nanosuit, that he uses to take revenge from the main enemy Alpha Ceph. The main element of the game is Nanosuit, which gives a lot of super abilities to the person wearing it. Crysis 3 is a superb first-person shooter that everyone should play with Gold membership since you can get it for free.
Mafia II
Mafia II is one of the best gangster game tat you will find for your Xbox console. This open world action adventure was released in August 2010 for Windows, PlayStation, OS X and Xbox 360.Mafia II is the second installment in the series and is based on the city of New York, LA, Detroit, Boston, and Chicago.
The game is set in the era of 1940 and 50’s during the era of Empire Bay. You get a lot of vehicles to drive around and weapon to create mayhem as well. You get almost all the popular World War II weapons as well including the Beretta Model 38 and MG 42. The game story is in the flashback where Vito Scaletta (Rick Pasqualone, the main character) looks at an album and looks back in his life and the deeds he did. Is the pretty interesting to go through and live the life of an old-time Mafia, and this game doesn’t fail to give you the same feel.
