Yesterday, Xbox announced its latest lineup of Xbox Games With Gold, the free games given out to subscribers each month. July 2021's Games with Gold include Planet Alpha and Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break on Xbox One, and then Conker: Live & Reloaded and Midway Arcade Origins via backward compatibility. It seems that Xbox didn't want to wait for July to arrive, however, as two of the four Xbox Games With Gold titles for the month have been made available a day earlier than expected.
The two titles that are now available are the Xbox One release of Planet Alpha and the original Xbox release of Conker: Live & Reloaded. Planet Alpha will be available for Xbox Live Gold subscribers to download from now through the end of July. Conker: Live & Reloaded will be available from now through July 15, as older Xbox titles in Games With Gold are only available for half a month. Conker: Live & Reloaded is also available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X through backward compatibility.
Planet Alpha is a 2D adventure game that combines platforming, stealth, and puzzle gameplay. It originally launched in 2018 to positive reviews, buoyed by praise for its worldbuilding and visuals. Many players also made the connection between Planet Alpha and Another World, a 1991 platformer that was seen as particularly innovative for the time. Planet Alpha is clearly building on that legacy and is now bringing it for free to Xbox Gold subscribers.
Conker: Live & Reloaded is something else entirely. Released in 2005, Conker: Live & Reloaded is first a remake of the 2001 3D platformer Conker's Bad Fur Day. It's an over-the-top comedic adventure with low-brow humor too ridiculous to be offensive. However, it also builds on the original Conker game to off an all-new multiplayer mode capitalizing on the Xbox's online multiplayer. While it may not have aged gracefully, Conker: Live & Reloaded is, if anything, an interesting look back at games of the early 2000s.
It's becoming a not-uncommon event for Xbox to release its Games With Gold somewhat early, oddly enough. Perhaps it has to do with the Xbox Games With Gold team's schedule and wanting to get releases out there early in the week. Perhaps it's just gotten to the point where if the team is ready to release the game, it does so. It would be interesting to hear an official explanation.
As for the other two games in July's Games With Gold, Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break and Midway Arcade Origins, they're both scheduled to unlock on July 16. Then, expect August's Xbox Games With Gold to be revealed before the end of the month.