Monday, we were in that pre-Gamescom slump or at least I assume so due to the number of press releases I’m receiving daily about things I can’t talk about, so news was quite slim. Tuesday, Xbox Live is no longer alive, replaced by a prequel to that bland Xbox platformer Recore. Wednesday, the second load of Game Pass offerings was unveiled, including TOEM, which is (of course) now available on Xbox systems. Thursday, some homeless turtles that live in the underground might be getting a new DLC.

Moving on to this week’s free games on the Epic Games Store, I have to be entirely honest. I thought something like The Elder Scrolls Online was already free. Admittedly the only MMO I’ve properly touched is of course Star Trek Online which is both free and offers a subscription model. As you can ascertain from that, I might not be the person to ask about an MMO based on Bethesda’s only long-standing successful original series that is also high fantasy, which I’ve stated my disagreements about in the first place. It is a miracle that I like Skyrim at all.

The second offering for the week is a murder mystery crossed with Picross by way of anime. Murder by Numbers was released in March of 2020 (ignore it) and was received positively by critics and fans alike. This, of course, makes sense as Hato Moa of Hatoful Boyfriend did the character design, while Phoenix Wright composer Masakuza Sugimori did the music. It was also written by Sword of Ditto writer Ed Fear. Out of the two options, I’d rather pick the anime set in mid-90s Los Angeles than fetch quest galore.

All this week, you can pick up both Murder By Numbers and The Elder Scrolls Online for free on the Epic Games Store until next Thursday, the 27th of July. Taking a look at next week, it is another double bill but apparently, some of us might already have Severed Steel. Joining the fast-paced first-person shooter is a remastered version of the 1999 and 2003 RTS series Homeworld. Ahh back when Sierra made games that were half-decent and weren’t dead.

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