Race to the battlefield with September’s Xbox Games With Gold freebies

By Gabe Gurwin Updated March 2, 2022

Xbox - September 2017 Games with Gold

Microsoft might not have a huge lineup of exclusive games this holiday season, but who needs new games when you can play older classics for free? September’s Xbox Games With Gold lineup has now been revealed, and it includes a classic shooter and a terrific story-focused indie title.

For the entire month of September, Xbox One owners will be able to download Forza Motorsport 5: Game of the Year Edition for free. The game comes with 10 extra cars as part of the “Top Gear Car Pack,” and it’s the only Forza game that is exclusive to Xbox One — Forza Motorsport 6, Forza Horizon 3, and Forza Motorsport 7 are also on Windows 10.

Xbox One owners will also be able to grab Oxenfree for free from September 15 through October 15. The 2D puzzle and exploration adventure takes places on a creepy remote island and uses a dialogue system that allows you to build (and destroy) relationships over the course of the story. It was first available on Xbox One back in early 2016 before coming to PlayStation 4 a few months later.

Xbox 360 players will receive two very different games in September. From the first of the month through September 15, they’ll be able to download Hydro Thunder Hurricane, a speedboat racer that you’ll probably recognize if you’ve ever spent any time in a place like Dave & Buster’s. The game features both single-player and multiplayer modes, and like all recent Xbox 360 games in the program, it’s backward compatible with Xbox One.

From September 16 until the end of the month, the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 will be available to download for free. Though it lacks the enormous 64-player battles of the PC version, the Xbox 360 port is still a ton of fun in competitive multiplayer, and its campaign offers a slightly more grounded take on the Call of Duty formula. Still, if you can find an inexpensive copy, we recommend playing the similar Battlefield 4 on Xbox One. The larger stages and destructibility make for some intense multiplayer matches, and the campaign features the always entertaining Michael K. Williams.

What do you think of September’s free games? Do you hope to get Forza Motorsport 6 in the future? Let us know in the comments!

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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