Xbox August Games with Gold: Gears of War and Forza to be given away for free

Games are available on Xbox One and Xbox 360, Microsoft announces

Xbox console & Gears Of War 4 game on display at the Xbox & Gears Of War 4 Miami Launch Event (Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for Xbox & Gears of War 4)

Xbox has announced its Games with Gold for August, giving away a host of different games to players.

First up on the Xbox One will be Gears of War 4, which will be available for free throughout August and normally costs $29.99.

It comes soon after Microsoft showed off Gears of War 5 at the E3 conference. That will be out in September, so players have an opportunity to try out – or get reacquainted with the series before jumping back in with the new title.

Then will come Forza Motorsport 6, the racing game first released in 2015. Unlike Gears of War, a new release in the Forza Motorsport series is not expected to be imminent – players are still getting to grips with the wide variety of updates for Forza Horizon 4, which recently got a Lego expansion that allows players to drive cars made out of bricks.

Forza will be available from 16 August to 15 September.

On the Xbox 360, players will get Torchlight free in the first half of August, and the second half will see players get access to Castlevania: Lord of Shadow.

Those games will be available on the Xbox One, too, through backwards compatibility.

As ever, games got through Xbox's free Games With Gold programme require you to have a paid-for Xbox Gold subscription to download them. But they are stick around once they have been bought, even after they leave the programme and if you stop paying for your premium account.