Xbox Live Games with Gold serves up some heavy hitters in August

It seems that the great minds at Sony and Microsoft were indeed thinking alike today because just as Sony revealed the PlayStation Plus games for August, Microsoft did the same thing for Xbox Live Games with Gold. The Games with Gold lineup is arguably more compelling than the PlayStation Plus lineup for August, as Games with Gold has some very familiar names available for free next month.

The first game up for grabs next month is Darksiders III, the most recent game in the mainline Darksiders series. In it, players take up the mantle of Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as she attempts to find the Seven Deadly Sins. Though it wasn't met with quite the stellar reception its two predecessors got, this is a good chance for anyone who was on the fence when it first came out to give it a spin without dropping some cash first.

Next up is Yooka-Laylee, a platformer that also serves as the spiritual successor to the beloved Banjo-Kazooie. If you're looking for a colorful collect-a-thon that reminds you of the N64's glory days, this is almost certainly worth a download.

For the backward compatibility titles, we've got Lost Planet 3 and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Lost Planet 3 was the last time we heard from the popular Lost Planet franchise, but unfortunately, mixed reviews meant that the series ended with less of a bang and more of a whimper. Garou: Mask of the Wolves, on the other hand, was the final game in the Fatal Fury series, so it seems that we're looking at a pair of lasts in August's backward compatibility titles (even though Lost Planet 3 is technically a prequel).

As always, all four games will be available at different times of the month. Darksiders III will be available August 1st-31st, while Yooka-Laylee will go live on August 16th and remain available until September 15th. The two backward compatibility titles will split the month of August down the middle, with Lost Planet 3 available August 1st-15th and Garou: Mark of the Wolves available August 16th-31st.