Microsoft has just announced via the Major Nelson blog that February's selections for the Games With Gold program include Dead Island and Toy Soldiers: Cold War. This means that any Xbox Live Gold subscribers (ie, anyone that plays games online) will be able to download both games for absolutely free later this month. It's not a bad selection but when Sony is doing what it's doing with PS Plus the service is still lagging far behind.
But seeing as Dead Island is normally $19.99 and Toy Soldiers: Cold War is usually $14.99, that's a pretty good deal for Xbox 360 gamers. Now Dead Island is a bit of a mess- there's some great zombie mayhem but you'll soon get tired of doing fetch quests for every idiot on the island who would prefer to stay in safety and tell you what to do- but hey, free is free. Even if it gets incredibly frustrating that every weapon breaks after a few wacks and you end up stuck on some missions that are ridiculously tough with no build-up.
Toy Soldiers: Cold War, however, is an excellent title, the perfect follow-up to the 2010 original. It's pretty much the same as that title but as indicated by the title features Russia as the enemy in a battle of toys. It's a tower defense game that lets you jump into any of the emplacements or vehicles and bring the fight to the enemy, and the large boss enemies that show up at the end are a blast. The game comes with a bunch of DLC so likely they hope you'll like your free taste enough to download some.
As always the games release on the 1st and the 16th, respectively, so log into Xbox Live tomorrow to grab your free copy of Dead Island. Also don't forget that today is your last day to get Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for free!