It’s that time of the month again, Microsoft has announced the latest free titles as part of the Games with Gold service. October is already a busy month for games with Forza Motorsport 7, The Evil Within 2, South Park, and Wolfenstein 2. It’s even worse if you own a Nintendo Switch and plan to pick up Super Mario Odyssey. For a lot of gamers, their wallets are going to be running on empty, so free games are just what the doctor ordered.
Starting on October 1, Xbox One owners can dig into the critically acclaimed, first-person adventure game Gone Home. After a year abroad, Katie returns to find none of her family home. As players move her throughout the house, they can interact with keepsakes and photographs to uncover the mystery. The heartfelt narrative tells a story of love, heartbreak, and growth. Developer The Fullbright Company went on to release Tacoma, another narrative-focused game that takes place on a space station.
For the Xbox 360, and Xbox One through backward compatibility, Rayman 3 HD will help lighten the mood. This charming 3D platformer has players fighting an army of Hoodlums led by the Black Lum, Andre. Remastered visuals and updated audio make this the best way to enjoy some of the wackier moments of Ubisoft’s history.
Halfway through the month, gamers with an Xbox One gain access to The Turing Test, another narrative-focused game, but with first-person puzzle mechanics. Set on Jupiter’s moon, Europa, players must use an Energy Manipulation Tool to transfer power from machines to structures and back again.
Once again for Xbox 360, players can get a taste of some action with Medal of Honor: Airborne. From the moment the character jumps out of the plane, players take control. After navigating to the desired insertion point, players must navigate through villages and towns as they fight enemies on rooftops, balconies, and other ruins. Customizable weapons and free-roaming objectives make this a fun shooter to come back to.
Each month of Games with Gold brings new free games for Xbox owners. For those who may have forgotten about September’s titles, there are only a few days left to pick them up.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.