The Games with Gold lineup for March 2017 is…okay?

Borderlands 2 being the clear winner

I’m a little shocked at the game selection for Games with Gold next month. Usually Microsoft kills it in terms of big-name titles or critically acclaimed indie hits. This month, though, we’re getting a bunch of nonsense on the Xbox One and an inferior version of a fan favorite shooter. I can’t say much about Heavy Weapon, but I know PopCap Games made it, so it probably isn’t too bad.

For Xbox One users, you’ll be able to get Evolve: Ultimate Edition from March 16 to April 15 and Layers of Fear from March 1 to March 31. For 360 users, you’ll get Borderlands 2 from March 1 to March 15 and Heavy Weapon from March 16 to March 31. Remember, those 360 titles are backward compatible, so it isn’t a total loss on the Xbox One front.

I don’t know how the 360 version of Borderlands 2 fares against the PS3 version, but that port was a total pile of garbage. Split-screen was an absolute nightmare with horrible framerates, poor load times, and a bunch of crashes. My friend and I actually really hated the game until we gave the PC version a shot, which quickly reversed our opinion.

Why Microsoft opted to go that route with Borderlands 2 is strange to me, since it could have just as easily given the better Handsome Collection version on Xbox One and skipped over the basically dead Evolve. Well, you can’t win every month for free games and getting something is better than nothing.

Xbox Live Games With Gold For March 2017 [Major Nelson]