Xbox One April System Update 2 Adds New Features, Games With Gold For April Revealed

Microsoft’s march to improve the Xbox One continues with the April System Update now in preview. Wave 2 of the preview has recently gone out, focusing on Voice Messaging, dedicated Party Chat and media discovery.

Details of the new features come via Major Nelson’s Blog, which outlines improvements to the various systems and notes that the preview system update has already started rolling out. A new video on the official Xbox YouTube channel provides an overview and shows off the new features in action. The headline new feature for most gamers will be the arrival of dedicated servers for party chat, which means Xbox owners who previously had NAT restriction problems will be able to join in the fun more reliably.

Thanks to the new April System Update, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners will also be able to record and play back voice messages, even across Xbox consoles. Major Nelson adds that the Xbox engineering team is still experimenting with the “What’s On” feature of Xbox One, adding that it will be expanded to Canada and the U.K. This second wave of updates follows the previously reported April Xbox One wave one System Update, which focused on improving the Party Chat App, Game Hub links and Achievement notifications.

As noted by Polygon, Xbox Live Gold subscribers get six games free in April, double the usual amount available from Games with Gold. On Xbox One, gamers get to chose from “Pool Nation FX” and “Child of Light,” while Xbox 360 owners have a much wider section, including “Terraria,” “Gears of War Judgement,” “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” and “Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel.”

Ubisoft’s beautiful 2D ode to JRPG’s, “Child of Light” leads the charge for Games with Gold on Xbox One. Built on the UbiArt Framework engine used for “Rayman Legends,” players take the control of Aurora on her quest to return home and free the moon, the sun and stars, who have been kidnapped by the Queen of the Night. IGN rated “Child of Light” a 9.3/10, praising the gorgeous art, fun combat and well-balanced gameplay.

If the Xbox One options seem a little light on content, the Xbox 360 options more than make up for it. Side-scrolling “Minecraft”-alike “Terraria” is likely to keep gamers busy for a good while and “Assassin’s Creed IV” offers a lengthy single-player campaign to supplement its fun multiplayer mode. The full breakdown of games available on Games with Gold for April includes:

Xbox One

“Pool Nation FX”: Available all month
“Child of Light”: Available all month

Xbox 360
“Gears of War: Judgement”: Available April 1-15
“Terraria”: Available April 1-15 on Xbox 360
“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag”: Available April 16-31
“Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel”: Available April 16-31

(Credit: YouTube/Xbox)

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