Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II will be offered for free in the coming months.

Microsoft has announced that Defense Grid: The Awakening will be the next free title released as part of its freshly unveiled Games With Gold promotion.

Defense Grid: The Awakening will be available to Xbox Live Gold members for free from July 1 through July 15. Hidden Path Entertainment's tower Defense game was originally released on Xbox Live Arcade in September 2009, and is normally sold for 800 Microsoft points.

GameSpot awarded Defense Grid a rating of 8.0 in its review, saying that "this exceptionally balanced tower defense game will keep you coming back to fight off the alien invasion for just one more wave."

A new title will replace Defense Grid on July 16 for two weeks, with the Games With Gold campaign offering up a new game every two weeks.

Microsoft announced the Games With Gold promotion during its E3 2013 press conference, with the Xbox owner looking to set up a rival to Sony's similar PlayStation Plus service. Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3 will be coming to the service over the next few months.

Sony's PlayStation Plus service is currently offering the following games in Europe: Uncharted 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Little Big Planet Karting, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Classics HD, Demon's Souls, Catherine, Malicious, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and The Cave.

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