This renewed focus shines through in a lot of diffe෴rent ways, but it's perhaps best evidenced in the ways in which stealth has been made a v𒐪iable playstyle. Game director Brandon Adler tells me that "Fallout: New Vegas and the Deus Ex games were a big inspiration", which is clear in the synergy The Outer Worlds 2 presents between this wildly expansive approach to character building and more complex, interlocking environments.

Play Your Way

Let's start with the world you'll be exploring, because I think this is one of the most significant improvements that ♎I noticed after my time playing Thඣe Outer Worlds 2. Setting out into a mysterious research facility, the variety of pathways towards my objective does summon fond memories of Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex games. There's locked doors and ventilation shafts, hackable electronics, and secret routes waiting to be found if you're willing to tease the camera above the centre point of the screen.

"We've tried to make sure that we have good stealth paths through most of the environments," says Adler, who explains that Obsidian has introduced throwable distraction devices and takedowns to "make it easier for players to understand" that stealt�𒀰�h is truly viable.

"Even as we're closing production of the game down, we have a strike team that is going through every major place of interest, room-by-room, to see if we can stealth properly through each location. And if we can't, well, what are the adjustments? Can we change a patrol here to linger longer, not facing you? Can we place some distraction devices? We're doing a lot of that type of stuff right now, because we want to ♛offer this typꦡe of experience for the players who want it."

More complex environments and the addition of takedowns alone does not make for a compelling stealth game. Thankfully, Obsidian is matching its ambitions in this space to so൲me really complex character building opportunities. Traits (both positive and negative) give you the ability to really lay the foundation for your fantas🉐y.

Skills like 'Lockpicking' (lowering the difficulty of locked doors and increasing your invasion chance) or 'Sneak' (increasing stealth attack damage while decreasing the NPC awareness detection rate) allow for further specialisation. And combinations across the perk tree not only unlock new abilities but change how the entire world reacts and respon🐼ds to your character.

Given the scope of these intertwining systems, it's difficult for me to even convey just how many options you'll have here to play your way. Say you want to build a stealth assassin, then the coꦍmbination of the 'Nimble' Trait, skill point investment into 'Sneak', and the Assassin 'Perk' mean you'll eventu♎ally end of moving faster when crouched than you would while standing, with your movement speed increasing dramatically every time you chain kills from stealth.

You can no doubt imagine how a combination like this would make you move like a force of nature through environments. Furthering the fun, perhaps you imbue this characte🙈r build with a Flaw like 'Bad Knees' which d✨ramatically improves your base movement speed, but creates a cracking sound every time you stand from a crouch – alerting enemies in the vicinity to your location. There's an exceptional amount of depth, and that applies beyond the stealth playstyle focus I'm taking here.

"One of the biggest pieces of feedback we received for The Outer Worlds was around the moment-to-moment gameplay," says executive producer Justin Britch. "We're on a journey to make this nirvana RPG 🐬experience. We want everything to feel reactive; from the moment-to-moment gameplay, the dialogue choices you make, to the way you solve probl💎ems in the game," he says, adding, "we can't wait to see what players come up with in The Outer Worlds 2."

The Outer Worlds 2 will release on October 29, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. It'll also be available through Game Pass on day one.

Grounded was one of the first titles from Xbox Game Studios to go multiplatform, part of a new initiative at Microsoft Gaming to make its output more widel🌱y accessible to players. Grounded made its way to PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch last April following four years of console exclusivit꧒y on Xbox, spurring the survival-adventure on to reach more than 25 million players worldwide. A big achievement, one I expected Obsidian would want to repeat should the studio ever break ground on a sequel.

Humble Beginnings

Speaking exclusively with GamesRadar+, Feargus Urquhart🅷 tells me that Grounded's success on platforms outside of the Xbox ecosystem didn't guarantee that its sequel would do the same. "It really is on a title-by-title basis," says Obsidian's studio head and CEO.

"The simplistic way of looking at Grounded 2 is that it's all about being in Game Preview and Early Access. It's about building the core. We got Grounded into the playℱer's hands and then we could see what they liked and what they didn't like, and you don't want to complicate that by having tons of different SKUs."

When Urquhart refers to "SKUs" here, he really means platforms. For a video game that's all about quick iteration, Obsidian says there's benefit in keeping the scale smaller as its development t♉eams build an early access roadmap and adapt it through ongoing conversations with the community.

"Adaptability and reacting to what players are asking for helps inform how we will evolve the game," says Marcus Morgan, executive𒆙 producer of Grounded 2.﷽ "That was the spirit of everything we did throughout the development of Grounded, including the expansions to new platforms."

Morgan tells me that Obsidian had long wondere🐭d whether the original Grounded could ever exist outside of the Xbox ecosystem, as players spent years commenting that they "wanted to play this game with their friends on PlaySation and Nintendo" – but there were never any guarantees. "We were thinking, yeah, let's try to see if that works within the broader Xbox strategy to make that happen, to connect players together. That process played a role in how we thought a𓆏bout expanding Grounded."

I have spoken to multiple developers an✨d decision makers at Obsidian, and they all maintain that a limited early access release for Grounded 2 has been the plan from the beginning. I asked Morgan whether the success of Grounded on PS5, PS4 and Switch – production was already underway on the seq🎐uel by the time it arrived – made Obsidian consider a wider day-one release for Grounded 2.

"Even before we headed to new platforms, there was already a vision for where we wanted to take Grounded going forward. So while the influx of new players certainly didn't hurt – and neither did making more money – we were already on the road long before that even happened. We knew wha෴t we wanted to do, and there was already excitement and support across the Xbox organization to go out and keep growing this franchise."

So, does that mean that Grounded 2 will eventually launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2? It could depend entirely on whether that's som🎃ething players actually want. "You know, there are pros and cons of doing an early access game," Morgan continues," and one of those things is that you're releasing a game that is inten🌞tionally unfinished so you can build on it with the community."

"Starting with that as a baseline initially helped us make Grounded successful, which is the only reason we're here for Gꦗrounded 2. Our focus is just on what our players are enjoying, and what's satisfying is that we can do that in a sustainable manner," he says. "That's the a💞pproach that we'll take going forward, and we'll see what happens in the future – with regards to how it grows and how it expands."

Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on July 29, 2025.

"The starting point for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Grounded 2 in early access is the same size as the entirety of Grounded 1.0," says executive producer Marcus Morgan. "One reason for that is: this is Grounded 2, right – obviously it's g𓃲ot to be bigger! But the more important reason is that it facilitates the Buggies, which are our mounts. We really had to push to redesign the entire world, because now that you have mounts you can navigate the world much more quickly. That decision has actually change💧d the way we design all of our areas in Brookhollow Park, both above and below ground."

Brave New World

While Obsidian (and Deus Ex developer Eidos Montreal, who is partnered on production of this sequel) is yet to settle on a final size for Brookhollow Park, it's expect𓆉ed to be roughly three times the size of the original game's backyard by the time Grounded 2 eventually emerges from early access. Part of the challenge here, says game director Chris Parker, is in making this new setting feel distinct. "The challenge with a sequel – and this is certainly something that we think about a lot – is that there can be this perception that Grounded 2🍸 looks a lot like Grounded 1."

"We've tried to make everything more beautiful," says Parker, speaking to the shift to Unreal Engine 5. "The areas that are essentially grass, which there are a lot of in Grounded, have new creatures and new elements about them which work to refresh those areas and make them new, but then 🥀we also have completely new biomes too." Brookhollow Park is this vibrant, nostalgia-soaked suburban wilderness that offers far more variance – expanding your options in exploration, building, and survival.

Producer Miles Winzeler tells me that "the change of locality" was driven by🔴 Obsidian's desire to look beyond new featuresets like the Buggies, refreshed combat, and a suite of mechanical improvements. "Outside of the map-size changing, the move from a backyard to a park has been huge for us."

"We've kept the organic parts of Grounded, as they were essential to the survival elements, but these changes open the door to a lot of new situations in more man-made structures. Areas like the Ice Cream Cart and the Barbecue which are built for public consumption. This is a natural progression for Grounded, and a grea൲t blank slate for us to build on through early access," says Winzeler.

Making sure that Grounded 2 feels like a true sequel is clearly something Obsidian and Eidos Montreal is wary of. It's why I ask Morgan whether the studios ever considered expanding the player count beyond four in co-op to match the expanding scope of the world. "The shared-world na🎃ture and the intimacy of playing with your friends is a really, really important part of what made Grounded feel special and unique. We identified areas we could build upon – the new mounts, world, story, and plenty more – but that part we wanted to keep the same. There's an intimacy to that."

Morgan adds: "The relationship you build with your friends, and the camaraderie you have in doing this all together, was something we wanted to retain. So that's a component of why we didn't go to like a 60-player server, because it would have undermined what Grounded was really about. Grounded is about going on this no𒐪stalgic a๊dventure with your friends, and we want to keep that spirit alive as we move into Grounded 2."

Grounded 2 lands in Game Preview/Early Access for PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on July 29, 2025.

That surprise you're picking up on isn't because I think developer Obsidian Entertainment isn't capable of greatness – the studio is, after all, undoubtedly responsible for some of the best RPGs of the last 20 years. Role-playing games, not shooters – there are sharp degrees of expertise reqꦇuired to succeed in either landscape. But the studio has clearly set itself exceptionally lofty targets here, with big ambitions fuelling what could be its most definitive title to date.

A True Evolution

The Outer Worlds 2 is a substantial evolution over its predecessor, designed to be more reactive and intricate in all that it does. Obsidian has drawn from the legacy of Fallout: New Vegas to help inform The Outer World🌞s 2's complexity. There are more varied flaws and traits, and over 90 perks – even from a brief time poking through the menus, it's clear that there's a dizzying variance to character creation and expansion. Stealth has been carefully overhauled, and there's a dynamism to speech that demonstrates growth over similar sy𝔍stems seen in Obsidian's Avowed and Bethesda's Starfield.

Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is really shaping up to be a pretty exceptional RPG…but let's get back to that shotgun. The one adorned in shards of ice. The one which blasts enemies back with this shatteringly concussive force. I haven't stopped thinking about the reload animation, as individual shells are slotted into place before the barrel is cocked back into position with a satisfying snap. It speaks volumes that, while exploring a sprawling environment full of branch🦩ing paths, locked doors, and ventilation systems, I feel so inclined to charge into enemy encounters with this thing in my hands. This isn't how I'd traditionally play a video game lik﷽e The Outer Worlds 2, but I can't help myself.

For a studio like Obsidian, with decades of experience and expertise in the RPG genre, I was keen to understand how it is delivering gunplay that could legitimately outshine dedicated shooters. Brandon Adler, game director of The Outer Worlds 2, was only too happy to answer: "Ev🐻en before The Outer Worlds shipped, that was one of the tꦇhings we knew we wanted to improve when it became time to target a sequel."

Adler tells me that this process included the design team completing a "full breakdown of Destiny" for inspiration, and a masterclass with another key team from the Xbox Game Studios network. "Another big aspect was talking to the Halo folks. We asked them: 'What do you guys do? How can we improve this, and what are we doing wrong?' They gave us this huge list of stuff and said that we should target these types of things, add this to our weapons con♊figurations. So we did all of that."

He also points to the decision to brꦇing in dedicated combat and weapons designers into development early, and the impact increased resources can have on a production – the original game was published by Private Division, rather than Xbox Game Studios. You can feel this flood of expertise in the way the guns handle; the personality inherent in every reload, the unique recoil patterns attached to every weapon class, and the sharp snap into ADS.

Which is all to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is shaping up to be a compelling prospect, regardless of whether you're coming to it for the most in-dep🅘th RPGs of the year or have typically leaned towards more traditional shooters in the past. There was always going to be this ne🌠ed for The Outer Worlds 2 to prove itself on a larger stage than the 2019 original.

It's the first title out of♉ Xbox Game💫 Studios to be priced at $80, and another would-be Xbox exclusive that's set to land on PS5 from day one. It's difficult to know whether Obsidian is truly ready for the scrutiny that's about to follow. But what I do know is that after three runs through a small slice of The Outer Worlds 2, I'm absolutely desperate t♊o carve my own path through Arcadia.

The Outer Worlds 2 will release on October 29, 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

Xbox Game Pass received its澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: latest price increase in 2024 alongside the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier. And recently, Microsoft announced that it was increasing the price of the console and its first-party releases, with The Outer Worlds 2 stepping up to the $80 plate later this year.

This price increase on its games had Xbox players💛 sure Xbox Game Pass was sure to be bumped up in the near future, so Microsoft can pull the "it's even more value now" line due to increasing the price of games, and would you look at that, it's probably happening.

posted an image from the html code of the Xbox Cloud Gaming website, and noticed that a new notification type called "SubscriptionPriceIncrease" has been added. And given that we're about to reach the one-year anniversary of the last Game Pass price increase (which, in turn, came 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a year after the previous one), things aren't looking good.

Granted, the blow may be less for some this year as Microsoft has released several games this year, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, and Doom: The Dark Ages all releasing to solid acclaim, and the likes of Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, 🍰and The Outer Worl🐓ds 2 still to come.

Playing Gears of War: Reloaded on PS5 is exceptionally surreal, especially in online co-op with a player on Xbox Series X

In an age where “everything is an Xbox,” I've never felt less inclined to play an actual Xbox console. Previous generations, like the Xbox 360, had the allure of exclusivity as it was the only place where you could play titles from series like Fable and Gears of War. But the tech giant’s cross-platform changes and remote play capabilities on everything from your smartphone to your gaming laptop, mean that almost every major Xbox release can be played elsewhere.

Even some of the best features of the Xbox Series X/S, including access to a vast digital game library, day-one releases on Game Pass Ultimate and compatibility with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox accessories can be accessed through a gaming PC, and with one you also get all the usual PC advantages at your fingertips instead of a minimally upgradable console. At launch, the Series X/S made sense as a lower-cost alternative to PCs and its current-gen rivals like the PS5, especially as finding the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X bundle deals was an easy feat. But the multi-platform releases an🦩d recent price hikes have left me questioning if anyone should buy an Xbox in𝐆 2025.

Price

The Xbox Series X and S launched way back on November 10, 2020, for $499 / £499 and $299 / £200, respectively. To put that into perspective, Sony’s PlayStation 5 launched with its Disc Edition for $499.99 / £499.99, and $399.99 / £359.99 for its Digital Edition just two days afterwards.

At the time, Microsoft stated it was the “company’s largest console launch” on the . Of course, for just $499.99, players were getting a device that was boasted as being twice as powerful as the Xbox One, a machine that could match the power of some gaming PCs, at a fraction of the price.

The Xbox was even more attractive to players who wanted access to the latest releases but didn’t have all the cash in the world once the Digital Edition Xbox Series X dropped on October 15, 2024. It was $50 cheaper at just $449.99 / £429.99, and pairing it with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription at the time was one of the most budget-friendly ways to get involved with the latest generation of Microsoft hardware, which is what helped make the Xbox so alluring to just about everyone.

Where the cost of the consoles got even more intriguing lay in the discounts that followed. In the 5 years since the Series X and S first landed, finding the best Xbox Series X bundle deals was a piece of cake, with both iterations of the Microsoft machines regularly seeing discounts across the biggest retailers from anywhere between $50 to $200 off. If that were still the case, I'd whole heartedly recommend buying a disc edition, or all digital Xbox this year.

But all good things must come to an end, and as recently as May 1, Xbox announced that it has “adjusted recommended retailer pri🍌cing” of its consoles, games, controllers, and other accessories. This price hike cℱoncerned not just the US, but the UK and Europe too, and has meant that the Series X has increased by $100, with an MSRP now of $599.99. Meanwhile, the 512GB version of the Series S was increased by $80 (now $379.99). The most egregious change came down to the limited edition Galaxy Black Xbox Series X, which launched with 2TB worth of storage just last year. Now, instead of $599.99, the upgraded console is $729, a whopping increase of $130.

Typically, consoles and gaming hardware get cheaper as the years go on, not more expensive. But the recent tariff upheaval has meant Xbox players and prospective Xbox console owners have taken a hit. The recent price increase has not only meant that this ninth generation of Xbox hardware is less affordable than ever, but the newest Xbox Series X is even more expensive than the PS5 Pro.

It's also now possible to stick to the tech you already have to play the latest releases. If you already have a gaming PC capable of playing most modern AAA games, you can grab PC Game Pass for just $35.99 at Amazon, which will give you access to all the games available on the subscription service. And if you don’t like playing with a mouse and keyboard setup, you could grab one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X controllers and still fork out less cash than the $100 price hike. That's not even considering the fact that, yes, your phone can now play Xbox games provided you have decent enough internet and maybe a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:mobile controller.

Verdict: If you’re on a budget, the recent price hikes have made both the launch Xbox Series X/S and the refreshed iterations difficult to recommend, especially if you already have access to a reasonably powerful PC, or even a tablet, smartphone, or PC handheld, which can also run Game Pass and other Xbox ga𓄧mes.

Games

One of the main reasons why anyone wants to stick with a brand of consoles is down to its exclusive games. But if you want to play any big releases from the ever-growing repertoire of Xbox-owned studios and developers, an Xbox Series X/S isn't the only place to find them.

Until April 30, 2024, Rare’s pirate adventure Sea of Thieves was only found on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and through the Xbox PC app. But now, it, along with other previously exclusive titles like Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment, can all be found on the PS5 and other platforms. Ensuring even those on the PS5 can experience what some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox games have to offer is a nice pro-consumer move on behalf of Microsoft. Without those exclusives, there’s less of a need to actually own a Series X/S.

Of coꦅurse, the main draw of this generation of Xbox consoles is the same as the Xbox One, and it's all about that precious Xbox Game Pass. You definitely can’t access that on the PS5. Just this month, both the Oblivion Remaster and Clair Obscur Expedition 33 are available for free for existing Game Pass members, both games you’d have to pay for separately if you want access on Sony's console instead. Plus, there’s a massive existing game library available through the service.

But Xbox Game Pass isn’t just available on the Series X/S. You can buy a monthly subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and get access to all the same games, but on your PC. If you already have a reasonably high-powered desktop lying around, just paying for a Game Pass subscription is going to save you a lot of cash as opposed to buying a whole fancy new piece of gaming tech. The Xbox Cloud Gaming app also means you can turn just about everything into an Xbox, just like Microsoft's marketing says.

Verdict: ꦐThe best Xbox games, including day-one releases on Game Pass, can be accessed on other platforms. Plus, the ex꧒istence of the Xbox Cloud Gaming app means you don’t need an actual Xbox console to play Xbox games, as “everything” is an Xbox if you try hard enough.

Setup & Hardware

I'm not going to get into the nitty and gritty details of comparing the launch model Series X's Custom AMD Radeon GPU and its 16 GB of GDDR6 RAM to the PS5, upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2, and other current-gen console iterations. Instead, I want to point out one of the biggest remaining motivators as to why someone may want to still buy an Xbox console in 2025 - ease of use.

Sure, you'll going to get more value out of a high-powered gaming PC, but gaming on a PC isn't going to be as straightforward as setting up an Xbox device.

Those who just want a platform to play Oblivion Remastered without messing around with settings are going to naturally be more drawn to a console instead. A gaming PC requires not just the appropriate space and wealth of accessories from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming keyboards and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming mouse, but also ensuring all of your drivers are up to date and more, which can put off anyone who isn't the least bit tech savvy. On the other hand, an Xbox Series X or S comes with everything you need, so long as you have a compatible TV (or gaming monitor) and a good internet connection at the ready.

If an easy setup is a high priority,ღ then buying an Xbox makes a lot of sense even in 2025. You don't have to tinker around with any confusing in-game settings to be able to play the latest Xbox games, and you can just download or pop in the disc, and you're good to go.

Not to mention, upgrading your Xbox Series X/S storage, so you have more space for all those precious Game Pass downloads, is easier than it would be on a gaming PC. Unfortunately, the Xbox consoles of this generation don't haಌve any M.2 ports, so you do have to buy storage specifically licensed and designed for Xbox hardware in mind.

This also limits how you use the storage as you can only store games on licensed drives, and can't play Xbox games directly from them like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best SSDs for PS5.

That being said, it does mean that adding new storage is a lot easier, as you don't have to pop open your Xbox to give it a little storage boost. The official Seagate expansion card, and other compatible drives, just attaches via one of the console's USB ports, so even the least tech-savvy individual could easily give the console more space.

Verdict: If you don't have the means to fork out on a high-powered gaming PC and all the components that go with it, or just want a straightforward setup, picking up an Xbox Series X/S in 2025 is a valid choice. Your﷽ games will work from the get-go without any tedious prep involved. Adding extra storage is also as easy as popping a compatible drive.

Should you buy an Xbox Series X/S in 2025?

Overall, it's the current pricing of Xbox hardware and how that affects the value of what you can get out of the current-gen hardware, which is the primary factor of whether or not I'd recommend an Xbox in 2025. The recent price hike has brought even the most alluring version of the Series X, the digital model, up to $549.99, which is a lot to pay for a 5-year-old digital device. There’s also a chance you already have plenty of hardware around you that’s able to tap in and play Xbox games, as you can run the Xbox Cloud Gaming app without having access to a console at all.

Sure, you’ll need to make sure you have a stable enough internet connection to get the best experience. But modern Xbox consoles will need that anyway for downloading games and online multiplayer. The cloud gaming app can be set up on everything from most modern smartphones, gaming tablets, and even the Steam Deck. It’s not as straightforward as just loading up your Xbox console and selecting a game to play, though.

If you still haven’t picked up an Xbox Series X/S and simply prefer the ease of use of a console, by all means, go ahead and add one to your current setup. But its recent price hikes have made th♛e Xbox experience on gaming PCs and other low-priced alternatives more attractive and easier to recommend than ever. If I weren't fortunate enough to own almost every bit of hardware this generation has to offer, I'd instead resort to grabbing a Game Pass🦩 Ultimate PC subscription for my PC, and put any fraction of the cost of new Xbox hardware towards future upgrades.

If you've already got an Xbox console, picking up one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X accessories, from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X headsets to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best external hard drive for gaming, can help get you even more value out of your aging Microsoft machine.

"Expedition 33 is the latest game to get unwillingly dragged through gaming Twitter as people debate the viability of Game Pass," Bucky tweets. "I feel🐲 like I’ve just a little more knowledge on the topic than most so I’ll just say yes, yes it is very worth having your game on Gam🔯e Pass."

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Clair Obscur sold 500,000 copies faster than developer Sandfall Interactive "e🧸ver imagined," and that's despite launching alongside the Oblivion remaster, which is also on Game P▨ass. By day three, it had sold over one million copies, and that doesn't include Game Pass players at all, so it's safe to say the game is doing well, despite also being available on the subscription service at no extra cost.

"I speak from the pov of an indie btw🐻," adds Bucky. Pocketpair had Craftopia on Game Pass for "a year (or two)" and Palworld is still on there. "I’ve no experience working in the AAA space so I’m not sure what sort of deals are cooked up there, but we have shipped two games on Game Pass and were very happy with both so all I can say is I’m happy with the experience I had."

So, while it may not be the preferred platform f💯or every developer, don't count a game out just because it's on Game Pass.

In the meantime, check out all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Game Pass games you can play right now.

Billed as the🎀 definitive edition of the October 2023 release, 2.0 is crowned by something I desperately wanted on day one: "full shared progression co-op."

Co-op is something that Soulslikes have generally struggled with, and despite boasting of the best co-op in the genre, Lords of the Fallen redux left a friend and I feeling high and dry. You could play together, slightly more synchronously than in something like Elden Ring, but you couldn't truly progress together. Bosses and rewards we🌄re instanced, so any sort of🎃 co-op run required interminable hoop-jumping and reconnects.

In the end, my friend and I decided it wasn't worth it and just beat the game separately, exc💙hanging anecdotes as grimdark medieval pen pals instead. But no more. "Embark on a seamless co-op journey with Shared Progrꦜession Co-op!" developer CI Games implores in update 2.0. Here's the rundown, straight from the patch notes:

• Both players now save all mainline progress.
• Join a fellow lampbearer via automatic matchmaking or adventure with a friend (must be on the same New Game playthrough and have defeated a similar number of bosses, within a margin of one).
• Option to play standard co-op without shared progression.
• Both players can revive each other, collect 100% vigor, and loot in all online sessions.
• Full crossplay support via password matchmaking.

Okay, CI Games, I'll give it to you. This does genuinely sound like the best co-op experience in the whole genre. I'm eager to try it myself, especially because many of the game's plentiful previous update🧜s already had me hankering for a replay.

I once described Lords of the Fallen as the most 3.5/5 game to ever get a 3.5/5, and its 64% positive Steam reviews (a whopping 24,390 of them) aren't undeserved, but I have fond memories of it. It's my kind of game, jank and all. With substantially less jank and markedly smarter features, it may one day reach the dizzying heights of mostly positive overall.

Elsewhere, this whopper of a patch refines combat and movement, tightens lock-on mechanics, adds a game-sharing crossplay friend pass to make co-op even more accessible, expands the character creator with more body types, and streamlines tℱhe UI. The new dynamic HUD, which can be totally disabled if you want maximum immersion and field of view, is another standout.

To the game's credit, this could've been another Code Vein ౠ澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:(which I also 🐎enjoyed despite huge problems) that launched pretty janky and just sort of stayed that way, but Lords of the Fallen has demonstrably improved in the past year and change. It was always a heck of a lot better than the first Lords of the Fallen, that's for sure. Here's hoping the studio's next game can preclu❀de the comeback arc by building on this evolution and folding in lessons like these before launch.

Even if it isn't a Soulslike, Phantom Blade Zero still wants to channel that "pre-Elden Ring" FromSoftware level design with secrets and layers.

But the 'Bow of Hope' isn’t the only weapon available so far in Thunder Lotus Games’ new title; four other weapons are available to try, each filling a specific role. The Tank role gives you a reasonably long sword to swing, and it has bo🌞th quick and charged variants. Then there’s a 'Staff of Sloth' mage’s staff which lobs magic projectiles into the fray, and finally (for now) a close-up, quick-moving pair of knꦫives called the 'daggers of greed' for slashing your way through enemies.

Ticket to hell

The server for my session was switched on for just two hours, and the first of those was spent getting to know how the game worked. It’s a bit like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fortnite in that you join a publicly populated server with, in this case, up to 32 other players. You ideally need six players to take on some rooms and bosses, but in the main levels, you can hold the left trigger and bring up a map showing you where every player is in the level, allowing you to go and join in the fun where the crowd is. It certainly is more fun when you join up with other players, not least because you can perform large-scale team up attacks us💙ing screen-filling magic. Even at the lowest of levels, these are still pretty to look at and excit🐭ing to pull off when you get two other randoms to step into your casting circles and activate the magic.

For the second of the two hours I was fortunate enough to find five other players who had also worked out how the game works, allowing us an attempt at finishing the first of three proposed gameplay loops. This involved finding Torture Chambers, which close off when up to six players enter. If you enter alone and nobody follows, you’re basically screwed, as waves of enemies appear and you can’t possibly beat them all. But get in with some good people and the screen fills with enemies, magic attacks, and environmental hazards, making for a grand old time. It’s the logical evolution of 80s classic Gauntlet, only here it’s set in the literal (and literary) hell of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dante’s Inferno.

Completing these challenge rooms gives you two chests, and each contains a perk, though one of the chests needs a key. You can buy or find keys, but eventually you fill the left-hand side of the screen with perks like an additional health point every 5 seconds or 20% extra damage to large enemies. It works really well. And then? You complete an ascension challenge with even more fearsome enemies, before you face Lucife🧜r himself, attacking his hand-drawn heart with everything you’ve got.

You go boss

The game does a good job of elevating the comparatively mundane button mashing battles of the low-le𒐪vel crowds with more cerebral encounters with large enemies, and these boss battles, bringing in organ music coupled with cinematic camera pull-outs to show the scale of the scenes you’re engaged in. The drama level does ramp up well, as does the challenge. Sadly that did prove to be my makeshift team’s undoing, as we clea💫red almost half of Lucifer’s segmented health bar before running out of chances to revive each other, ending up with a ‘failed rebellion’ message.

The hand-drawn artwork does look gorgeous in static screens and moves beautifully and smoothly on the Xbox Series X I played it on, but is let down a little by the slightly thin feel of its movement. Attacks don’t feel particularly meaty, and the pauses to aim and recall arrows detract a bit from the fluidity of play. The game also began to feel a touch repetitive after just an hour and a half, though there are plenty of perks and noticeboard quests to unlock through levelling up, as well as costume upgrade🧜s to earn and buy, so there should be more variety coming.

The first two hours have certainly made me want more, and knowing now how the gameplay loop works, the prospect of exploiting its possibilities to maximize my chances against Lucifer is very enticing. But that said, be warned: it seems it's only fun when the people around you know what they're doing too, otherwise you'll be left high and dry with hordes of abominations engulfing you. Still, it's early days so there's every reason to expect the enjoyment to ramp up as the character levels and weeks t🔯ick by and people learn how to play it. You can play it later today on Game Pass for Xbox/PC or via the Epic Games store. One of the stronger Early Access starts, that's for sure.

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I also wasn't expecting it to activate my combat sicko senses. Skyrim, which I've staunchly and perhaps unwisely only played unmodded, just makes me think of circle strafing enemies while I gently touch with a sword until it activates a killcam. I understand RPGs often have a layer of abstraction around combat, but its many skirmishes ended up feeling like dull busywork, and its acres of caves much the same. Avowed on the other hand, the big return to a fully first-person RPG mode for Obsidian Entertainment, isn't just a🌺 shorter, focused experience overall (taking about 30 hours), but makes an💟 impact and then some.

Sword meet skull

After all, I love combat that feels crunchy and in-your-face. When at a loose end, I'll always return to ꦬmy beloved N🅘inja Gaiden 2 Black, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Devil May Cry 5, or Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. Which isn't to sa♔y Avowed's systems have quite the same depth, but here the first-person scraps have a real sense of weight – it takes the vibes of my action loves and applies it, wonderfully seamlessly, into a RPG context. Reaching up with a shield to parry a lizard-like xaurip as it leaps towards me feels tactile, as does charging up any attack in my dual-sword attack chain, or summoning a blizzard from the sky to rain down on foes and freeze them in place then blasting them into shards with a well-placed pistol shot.

You'll notice a few of those examples involve a bit of a one-two punch. That's because of the way Avowed uses its two-handed gear system, which means not only can any one-handed bit of kit be applied to left or right hand – regardless of if it's a shield or weapon – but you can have two of those loads out to swap between with the press of a single button. Quickly consigning two-handed weapons to the item box forever, I embrace the mix-and-m💜atch style of weapon-swapping to constantly tweak the possibilities in combat, which isn't a far cry from how some of my favorite character action games encourage on-the-fly weapon switching. A well-charged swing will send enemies comically ragdolling. It's downright cackle inducing.

While the excellent-feeling parry keeps a shield in constant rotation, I end the game with a pistol and spellbook loadout, backed up by dual fire-and-ice swords for really bringing the element🐻al pain once I close the gap. Most unique gear can be specced towards certain special properties, which add an extra element to combat, just as much as in exploration. My pistol crackles with lightning, which can stun enemies from a distance for my companions to wail on, or it can even act like a TV remote to power up some lightning-powered door switches from distance. There's a real sense of immediacy at all times.

Adventures on the way

Just like when cracking skulls, Avowed has an extra layer of depth when it comes to exploration as well, which also embraces the immersion created by first-person. Coming across ancient doors sealed by strange contraptions can elicit a similar feeling to 澳𝄹洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Legend of Zeld💃a: Breath of the Wild, w♔ith the closer framing empha﷽sizing how old, strange, and mysterious the Living Lands are around me as I really poke around.

Inside may be further puzzles, and uniquely designed enemy encounters that have the shape of a sidequest, but aren't formally in the journal at all. One has me poring through notes to figure out the code sequence to u🌃nlock an abandoned vault, just by virtue of me finding it. It's an adventure that spills out.

Similarly, even formal sidequests can be encountered out of order. Pilfered stolenꦬ contraband in advance of being asked to retrieve it? No worries. Stumble upon a scheming faction about to launch a terror attack on an unwitting popu♏lace? The blood may still not be dry by the time you unravel just why they were tetchy about you sniffing around their explosives, but the job is done, ready to be reported.

Enemies don't respawn, either. While there's loads of bust-ups in Avowed, they're all bespoke, arranged to add flavor⛄ to a certain bit of the environment, or to gently push you to engage with the first-person combat in new ways. A cliffside camp provides ample opportunity to give a mighty kick to encroaching enemies to send them tumbling into the water below, while a rickety rope bridge 🌞may introduce a bottleneck element not present in other dust-ups (no problem if you're sniping from a distance, heh heh).

Importantly Avowed doesn't just reward those details in the large scale, but the small scale too. Stumbling upon large points of interest all the time may get exhausting. Just as rewarding is discovering a new lookout point where you can plumb your godlike memories ofꦅ ancient times (via dialogue-tree, visual novel-like scenes), or simply poking around a suspicious looking nook to find a small treasure chest. Obsidian has always pre-empted my curiosity, with almost every unusual part of the map stuffed with prizes.

It's not perfect, but it is like little else, which makes all the points of comparison with other gaming titans hard to go blow-for-blow with. It's a little like a lot of things,✅ while also being all its own. Avowed isn't the game that finally got me to understand how to love Skyrim. But it is the game that told me that it was okay to want somet🃏hing different.

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Avowed takes Obsidian's penchant for stellar storytelling and combines it with breathtaking visuals to create what might just stand as one of this year's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPGs. It feels twice as big as The Outer Worlds, the studio's impressive 2019 sci-fi adventure, perhaps setting the stage for what's to come with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds 2. Likewise, Avowed's exploration of Eo🍸ra's complicated history is fathoms deeper 🌟than what we get in Pillars of Eternity.

This is due in part to Avowed's r♓emarkable writing – and not only its dialogue, either. Sure, there's plenty of fun chatter to be had around the campfire with your companions, but it's the seemingly smaller narrative choices that make it stand out. The books and letters housed by Eora's most out-of-sight nooks and crannies exemplify as much. So much so, in fact, that I lost literal hours searching for and reading coll♐ections of in-game diaries, documents, novellas, you name it (The Soul Unbound, I'm looking at you).

That's not to say that companions should be overlooked. While limited in number, each one has their own compelling storyline, with both emotional dialogue and impactful questing. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:lack of romance was something I feared going into Avowed, having been spoiled by the likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3 and its fleshed-out companion system, but here it's simply not needed to make its relationships meanin🥂gful. Obsidian previously admitted its devs wanted "to focus on other aspects of our companions" in Avowed, and it's safe to say they did so – and then some.

Three's not a crowd, it's a party

The first thing that truly strikes me about Avowed isn't its vibrant scenery or quick combat, but rather the first companion I meet upon finishing what essentially serves as the game's tutorial – Kai. I arrive at the docks of Pa𒉰radis, a once-prosperous city in Dawnshore torn by an unforgiving empire's presence and the ever-spreading Dreamscourge, a mysterious plague marked by the colorful mycelium it leaves behind on those affected. I'm the Aedyran envoy, a controversial figure at best, and a Godlike, someone "blessed" (arguably cursed) by a God.

Many of the folks you come across in Avowed cast immediate judgment on you, a Godlike and the envoy, whether goo🎀d or bad – but not Kai. A gentle giant of sorts with a brilliant sense of humor despite grappling with his difficult past, Kai listens to the protagonist and always has either a funny remar꧟k to input or genuine advice to provide when called on. He's the sort of adventuring companion I'd love to have by my side during a long Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and someone my Godlike grows to see as a dependable friend.

He's not the only dependable companion Avowed has to offer, as I learn when I meet the admittedly more fiery mountain dwarf Marius. A skilled hunter who isn't afraid to share his opinion or disagree with ♔you, Marius, meanwhile, is the type of companion I like having around to keep me in check. Do I make the correct decision when I free the man who atte♑mpted to assassinate me? Regardless of how I feel, Marius lets his own thoughts be heard, vehemently disagreeing with my mercy, and I love his character all the more for it.

Avowed is, after all, an RPG, which means that choices are core to the gameplay. I often find myself asking my party how they feel about said choices in difficult situations. From politics to murder, it's all up for discussion – and what's more, each companion's input actually feels valuable. More opinionated followers, the cutting-edge animancer Giatta for instance, will openly voice their concerns prompted or not. It not only makes for some seriously intense moments during weighty decisions, but𝄹 it also adds to the overall immersion.

I'll remember the conviction in Giatta's words in every conversation regarding the Burning Queen-devout Inquisitor Lödwyn and her Steel Garrote legion for years to come I'll remember archaeology-obsessed mage Yatzli's bubbly excitement whenever we have the chance to plumb the ancient, mysterious ruins of the Godless. Kai's concern when he confesses his doubts about whether he can fit in among a team. And Marius' frequent cursing of bleste when anxious of traps ahead. Crafting convincing characters is quite a feat as is, but crafting convincing characters whose stories and quirks stick with players long after the 𒈔credits roll is another – and Obsidian manages to nail both in Avowed.

Despite how each member of the party grows on me as I play, however, I do wish I cared about the companions' combat systems more. Barkingꦗ the odd command doesn't add much to the game for me, as they can mostly take care of themselves as is – especially as I don't feel like pressing more buttons than I already have to as a spellcaster. Sure, I spec Giatta into some heals and shields for utility, but that's about it. I assign skills to companions, but ultimately I let them take the lead during combat and utilize their kits however the AI s𒀰ees fit, ironically ending up making these unforgettable allies in conversation the complete opposite in the fray where I rarely need to think about their presence.

The good, the Gods, and the Godless

I also find myself desiring more cinematics or cutscenes. Is this anoꦰther result of my Baldur's Gate 3 brain rot – have I been spoiled into needing elaborate visuals to accompany dialogue or imp꧃ortant milestones throughout the story? No, I just think that a world as breathtaking as Eora's Living Lands and writing as strong as Avowed's deserve it. Some of the scenes shared with the so-called "Voice" in the Godlike's head (whose identity I won't go further into for the sake of avoiding spoilers) are lacking in impact – more detail would go a long way to making these important moments more powerful.

Avowed's story is moving as it is, although I was initially skeptical given its breezy opening hours. As things move along and I uncover more of Eora's secrets, I'm drawn deeper into the intricate lore. Importantly, as someone less familiar w🦂ith Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian does a wonderful job of intro🍸ducing the world to both newcomers and longtime dwellers alike. There are bite-sized documents to fill in any gaps regarding Gods, Godlikes, the Godless, and everything in between. Handily, you can even pause a conversation at any time to flick through additional detail on any keywords mentioned during the chat. It all makes me hungry to know more about the world in a way I've not felt since the likes of Planescape: Torment and Disco Elysium.

Circumstances, dialogue, and scattered texts leave me questioning morality, mortality, colonialism, imperialism, religion, and the nature of man – sometimes all at once. 💮It might seem like a lot for a fantasy RPG to balance, but it all blends into Eora seamlessly and breathes a gust of real life into Avowed's story. 🤡Nothing ever strikes me as overly complicated or mentally taxing, though – and this speaks to Obsidian's strength in world-building. I fit into the setting not as a partially disconnected player, but as the Godlike envoy concerned with the dealings of Eora.

Every decision carries weight, drawing me further into Avowed's clutches. As I do in Dungeons & Dragons (and just about every other RPG, tabletop or otherwise), I opt to walk my usual chaotic good path, shying away from the court and Gods in favor of a legacy marked by forgiveness, understanding, and above all, a thirst for unveiling the truth. I'm not always objective, nor am I lawful by any means, but I do try to steer the envoy and her companions down a road painted by as little blood and as much discovery as possible.

As for consequences, there are plenty. Choices are important in Avowed, and I live with each one I make as I play. It's not only the companions who care about my envoy's decisions, either (although I personally would recommend not going for the "Everyone Disliked That" achievement), but all of Eora in a way – the world and its unfolding circumstances are actively shaped by my choicesꦡ. A certain city ca🍰tching fire at the hands of the Steel Garrote will stick with me for some time to come, but I'm no save scummer – I'll just have to follow a different route next time and snag another ending while I'm at it.

So much to do, so much to see

There's so much more to Avoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚwed than just its main story. I complete every side quest I can, of course, but between cryptic treaꦍsure maps and totem pieces strewn about Eora, I'm still adventuring across the Living Lands. This is a first-person fantasy RPG, but that's only for starters – it's an action-packed adventure with unforgettable twists and mysteries to solve galore. With so much gear to upgrade, so many memories to unlock, countless people to help, and various puzzles to ponder, Avowed is never dull.

Before p⛦laying, I thought I might miss the freedom found in open-world games like Skyrim – but I don't feel restricted in Avowed. The flow between each rather large map is natural, and fast travel makes it easy to poke your head back into previous areas for more questing. My only real gripe here is the fact that I can't place any custom map markers – a fact my scatterbrained ADHD self can't quite cope with when it comes to locked treasure chests and other significant finds I might want to go back to eventually.

Enemies are also plentiful in Avowed, but thankfully, combat is as fun as it is fluid. I play a wizard wielding a wand in one arm and a grimoire in the other – because one can never have enough magic on hand, I suppose – and I love it. Able to quick-swap between two loadouts at once, and weapons able to fit into either hand, you can mash together pretty much any combination of spectacular weapons you want. Admittedly, I struggle to find my🎐 footing at first after so much time spent in third-person RPGs and top-down turn-based CRPGs, but once I do (and once I secure some gear upgrades), it's game over for the Dreamthralls and the Xaurips as I send them rag-dolling across ravines with surging missiles to the face. The difficulty curve is well-judged too, ensuring that each new zone offers fair yet challenging fights (and lots of them!).

Overall, I f𝓰ind just as much enjoyment within the more active gameplay as I do the story. I'll not soon forget my time with Avowed – chaos, comedy, catastrophe, and all. It's an enchanting return to the immersive first-person fantasy RPG vibes I've been searching for since 2011, but it's also so much more than that. Nostalgia-inducing, perhaps, but revolutionary in its own way, Avowed marks the beginning of an eye-catching new page in Obsidian's already well-thumbed book of top-notch games with exceptional storytelling – and I can't wait for more.

Avowed was reviewed on PC, with a cဣo♛de provided by the publisher.

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These devices provide larger screens, more RAM, and better battery life than mainstream smartphones, but while mobile gaming continues to shoot for the moon, tablet sales are keeping their growth modest. A couple of years ago, this industry was in danger of slipping into decline. In February 2024, it was revealed that both Apple and Samsung experienced a shrink in their tablet shipments over the course of 2023 (), with -29.3% decline for the former and -6.6% for the latter - mobile gaming revenues took a smaller -2.1% hit in the same period (). Both sectors are back on the up, but mobile gaming is moving faster - by 2029, expects the number of mobile gamers worldwide to reach 2.4bn, continuing an annual growth rate of 🧸5.56% compared to the 2.82% tablet growth rate in the same period ().

It's no surprise that the responsibility of this mobile gaming market's growth looks set to be split by tablets and smartphones, but with more 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming handhelds hitting the market, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch 2 now firmly on the horizon, the gaming tablet could ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚfade into irrelevance. I'd argue that would be the case if it weren't for two big factors; the re-emergence of mid-market games (helping tablets run more games natively) and the rise of streaming (opening tablets up to larger experiences separately).

Double-As are on the comeback

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Lies of P and It Takes Two are just a few examples of Double-A titles re-emerging as some of the most popular and talked about games of the last few years. These are simpler than Triple-A blockbusters but are still visually impressive and mechanically satisfying experiences that can feel high-end without requiring top-of-the-range specs to run well. That also means they'll generally run fine on a tablet, and as more of these midmarket releases hit the shelves more players will tune into the fact that they don't need a console or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:gaming PC to play some of the bigꦇgest releases of the year anymore.

Apple's Arcade service is still largely indie-focused (though let's not forget that Balatro took the world by storm last year, earning itself a stack of awards in the process). But m♋ore midmarket titles are being added to the App Store itself all the time - Alien Isolation, Monster Hunter Stories, and Divinity Original Sin 2 are already mobile mainstays. If developers want more of these easier titles out on the market, and hardware brands are hungry for less demanding games to show off their shiny screens with, things could move fast in the next few years.

Stream if you want to go faster

Whether you love it for its convenience or hate it for its impermanence, streaming is here to stay - and it could be one of the first reasons you consider buying a gaming tablet. No, Microsoft, not everything is an Xbox - but it's undeniable that the Game Pass streaming service has changed things. It's the only subscℱription I regularly keep up with, and it's become the model for the likes of PS Plus and Amazon Luna.

Withܫ internet speeds rising, servers growing in power, and service systems becoming more sophisticated, it's now entirely possible to stream the year's biggest releases, without dropping a penny on hardware. You can do that via your existing laptop's browser or your phone, but if you're looking for a portable device with the screen specs to keep up with your favorite games, a tablet is a clear consideration.

The handheld problem

The state of both the midmarket industry and streaming services seem to be pointing towards a move towards more efficient games less dictated by hardware - but there's one problem. The gaming hardware market is moving with it. In the last few years aloneꦚ we've seen🦩 a massive explosion of dedicated handhelds hitting the shelves - and different models will do a better job at running your games (both natively and streamed) than a gaming tablet.

And this is where we really get to the crux of the question. Should you buy a gaming tablet in 2025? Only if you need a tablet first and foremost.

If you need a slab for browsing the web, watching your favorite shows and movies, taking notes in class, and firing off the odd email, but you also want a device to play a selection of native games and stream the year's biggest hits, a gaming tablet is 𝄹the most cost-efficientꦿ and rewarding options you can choose. The future's looking bright for these dedicated devices, and with cheap Bluetooth controllers and on-screen controls growing in power and dropping in price, the sky's the limit at the moment. There's never been a better time to be a casual player.

However, If you just want a device to play your games on the go or whenever the TV's already booked, a gaming handheld is going to serve you much better overall. These devices have built-in controls, game-ready refresh rat🌄es, VRR features at a lower price, graphics-oriented processing systems, and a level of control over individual power and cooling settings that you just won't find in a tablet - no ma♛tter how gamified its marketing has been.

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But journeys are more than just the beginning, and Avowed promises to be an epic one. Sailing away from the island we finally land at Dawnshore, a harbor just a stone's throw aꦺway from the bustling city of Paradis, and our gateway to The Living Lands. And who d☂o we stumble upon at the docks but Kai? He cuts quite the figure.

For starters, he's blue and mermanღ-like, as are all coastal Aonuma in Eora (which is also the Pillars of Eternity setting), and looks like a seafaring swashbuckler, backed up by a holstered cutlass and large flintlock pistol. Chiseled like nobody's business, Kai even bears more than a passing resemblance to Handsome Squidward – and yes, that's as big a compliment as they come.

In a heated debate with Captain Cynric as the pair await my arrival as an Envoy of the King, I'm immediately endeared to🐠 Kai when, off-put by my hero's funky fungal facial features, Cynric stumbles over her words and Kai gives an eye-rolling response. He's sassy from the off, but all in the name of being righteous – while also being well aware of the danger that abounds in The Living Lands, especially as the Dreamscourge has everyone on edge.

Our goals align. He needs to find a claviger, and I need to find an ambassador – both of whom were last seen traveling together out in the wilds. Our tutorial pals already took off as soon as we arr🔯﷽ived, so, hello sailor, Kai becomes our first full-time companion.

He may be a new face, but he's immediately a warm welcome to RPG fans like mys💎elf beyond making a good first impression in conversation. He's voiced by Brandon Keener, who also plays Garrus Vakarian in the BioWare-developed Mass Effect sci-fi trilogy. Fan affection for the character is fervent to say the least – I'm among them – so it's a great way to make us feel right at home as we begi🤪n to develop a party of misfits across the game to come.

Whether it's something slower paced like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3 or more action-focused like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard, companions really do form the backbone of a great RPG. Beyond Bran🐟don Keener as Kai, other recognizable favorites also play roles in Avowed: Mara Junot will play Giatta; Anjali Bhimani will play Yatzli; and Scott Whyte will play Marius, .

More than a feeling

Having lived in Dawnshore for about six years, Kai is a great companion to get you to grips with the land you've come to explore. He's been aroundꦐ long enough to have connections with some of the early characters you meet – like some shopkeepers – but still has an outside perspective to bring to the table, which gives you some common ground.

So far 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:we love Avowed's camp party feature, and it's given us ample opportunity to get to learn about Kai's history and more. Having come to The Living Lands as an expatriate drifter from Rauatai after his naval service, he's found an off-the-grid new home here. He's clearly been through hell in his earlier years, having served in a Rauataian campaign to try to reclaim Aonuman ancestral land in the Deadfire Archipelago while restoring order to the pirate-ridden islands and improving relations with its current inhabitant💮s. Young and idealistic, it was something he believed in – but after constant bloody conflict he began to question the motives of his superiors and ponder the pointlessness of war.

Having deserted and left it all behind years ago, rather than grow jaded it's given him some perspective. He has a lot of history rather than just baggage, and is using what he's learnဣed to help build a path forward, not just for himself, but for those he cares about as well. Get on his good side, and he'll stick by you. But he's still on his own journey as well – in the process of healing. He's got plenty more to say about his background too,🔜 but don't worry, I'll leave you to discover more about that yourself!

Supporting fire

Kai is also a great mechanical addition from early on. Just as you have your own skills easily accessible on the d-pad or skill wheel, Kai's own moves can become a part of that. With just a nod, he can lay down some covering fire from behind, or even assist in exploration with the power to burn down parts of the environment (you'll need it to deal with cobwebs and ivy early on ifꦺ you can't be bothered to flick through your own spellbook).

Most importantly, his cutlass and pistol aren't just for show. He dual-wields both in the fray. It's an effective loadout, but serves as a handy reminder to players that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed's flexible combat system empowers you to play with your own gear sets and switch them 🉐around on the fly – it⛄'s super customizable. Also, Kai just plain looks cool doing it.

Some RPGs can really feel like they take🅠 a long time to get going. In part, that's because you often don't have a fꦉull party until several hours in, and that dynamic takes time to form. While it's true that in my first few hours with Avowed the party is incomplete, its opening doesn't feel lesser for focusing on Kai and the player character's dynamic. If anything it feels better for it, allowing for some deep character work to come to the fore, all while Kai handily introduces you to what the deal is with The Living Lands and guides you into the flow of the game.

Also, to anyone annoyed at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:lack of romance options in Avowed I say to you: skill issue. Must we lock up our hearts simply because the digital code that powers a game has limits? As those who engage with art, as humans, our affections aren't beholden to any such rules. Whether the game allows me to codifyও it or not, I already feel myself growing close to Avowed's companions even though we've only traveled together for such a short tim🥃e. It really is all about the journey and who you spend it with, and I for one can't wait to see what the journey throws Kai and I's way next. What more could I ask for from an RPG hook than that?

Obsidian's new RPG is sure to be our next Xbox RPG favorite. Despite the Skyrim comparisons, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG first and foremost: "Let's bring in all the greatest hits"! Want to set off an adventure and can't wait? Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games list has your back!

But this isn’t a list of the ten best RPGs on Xbox. Otherwise The Witcher 3 and Skyrim would have definitely gotten shoutouts. Instead, please enjoy this trip down memory lane as we embark on this perilous quest to tell the story of RPGs on Xbox in just ten titles. These are all game-changers that, while they might not seem it today, altered the way we even thought about RPGs on a console for decades to come. Oh, and every game on this list is backwards compatible on Xbox Series X and S! And a bunch are some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Game Pass games you can try with your subscription. Handy, as many of them are still among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games to play today, which is great news if you have a spare 1꧒0,000 hours free…

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: June 6, 2002

Long before the all-conquering Skyrim, Bethesda brought a much weirder RPG to Microsoft’s original Xbox. This 2002 release was a hugely ambitious open-world for the time. Fair warning, mind, that a babysitter who lets your children play with the liquor cabinet would be less hands-off than Morrowind. It’ll happily tell you a quest location then leave you to work out how to find it in an absurdly hostile land with no mission markers, decent tutorials, or any of the things we take for granted in modern RPGs. A difficult game to master, then𝕴, which also makes it incredibly rewarding if you’re willing to persevere with it. Good luck!

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Developer: BioWare Edmonton
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: July 16, 2003

A year after 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Was: Episode II – Attack of theꦐ Clones had given us the line “I hate sand”, Bioware massively overcompensated with this beautifully written 2003 epic that’s still one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Star Wars games ever made. Hot off the success of Baldur’s Gate 2 (which was a genre highpoint many, many years before the recent 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3) Bioware crafted an RPG for PC and Xbox simultaneously with all the accessibility of a console title but all the brains its acclaimed PC games wer💛e known for. An incredibly confident sci-fi debut from a studio that was just getting started with this genre. This wasn’t just a good Star Wars game, it was as essential a part of your Xbox collection as the original Halo.

Fable

Developer: Lionhead Studios
Platform(s): Xbox (Remaster: Xbox 360)
Release date: September 14, 2004

Designer and visionary Peter Molyneux knows his fantasy, even if that's partially due to some pie-in-the-sky promises for this flawed-but-fun first entry in the Fable series. Yet, while the game didn’t make good on all of Peter’s ideas – honestly, nothing could – it was still a delightful romp through a gloriously silly fantasy universe that nevertheless delivers on its lofty ambitions. The opening alone, in which you play a child who can punch any NPC and happily take a bribe from a cheating husband to not to tell his wife about his affair (you’ll then be called out by a guard as "accessory to Improper Man and Lady Behaviour"), is a sublimely cheeky antidote to more self-serious RPGs. Here’s hoping the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new Fable can pull off the same trick.

Jade Empire

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox
Release date: April 12, 2005

A passion project from studio veterans, this RPG mixed Chinese mythology and homemade fantasy in Bioware’s first attempt at an original IP. Tragically overlooked on Xbox as the Xbox 360 was on the horizon, this was an essential part of Bioware’s journey. The usual sharp writing and great characters were now joined by a far more hands-on martial arts combat system that replaced KOTOR’s sit-back-and-watch fighting. Didn’t hurt that the game was filled with great villains who really deserved a smack in the face, either. We also wish more fantasy RPGs had aerial combat sections inspired by top-down arcade shooters (no, really!). If you loved 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard, go try this studio’s hidden gem immediately.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: March 20, 2006

A lot of early Xbox 360 games were simply HD ports of what we’d been playing on the original Xbox. That all changed when Oblivion came along. Finally, a game that used all that extra horsepower to give us, well, a really big field. But what a field! Oblivion was beautiful, utterly massive, and would probably be talked about a lot more fondly today if Skyrim hadn’t completely stolen its thunder a few years later. As much of a statement of what consoles could do as Morrowind had been on Xbox, except this is infinitely more accessible and has Patrick Stewart in it. So world-shattering was this release that we declared "welcome to the first day of the rest of your role-playing life" in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion review back on Xbox 360.

Mass Effect

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: November 20, 2007

Easy to forget that this was once an Xbox 360 exclusive, and a series so important to that console’s identity that it was basically Xbox’s Final Fantasy. Mass Effect 2 may have been the peak of the series, but none of that would have happened had this game not gotten so much right the first time. You’re the subtly-named Commander Shepherd, leading a squad of loveable/hateable/I-want-to-romance-you-able characters on an unforgettable mission through the cosmos. An incredible achievement that proved Bioware didn’t need Star Wars to make a beloved sci-fi adventure, and led to one of the greatest trilogies ever in gaming. So much so that in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mass Effect Legendary Edition review we reiterated that it's "an unmissable" series.

Lost Odyssey

Developer: Mistwalker, Feelplus
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: December 6, 2007

We could have written an entire list of poo꧒r, doomed games that Microsoft developed to try and crack the Japanese market (RIP Blue Dragon). One of the more successful attempts was this heartfelt RPG from 𝓀no less than the creator of Final Fantasy. There was a real hunger for a more traditional turn-based JRPG after the divisive Final Fantasy 12, but Lost Odyssey is probably most fondly remembered for its frequent flashback sequences that tell NPC short stories. These play out like little visual novellas and really go for the heartstrings. It’s probably the most conservative game on this list, but a surprisingly strong JRPG on a console that’s as American as a bald eagle eating an apple pie.

Fallout 3

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: October 28, 2008

New Vegas gets all the love these days, as if it wasn’t working off the incredible template that Bethesda forged here. One it got so right that we basically accepted an identical shinier retread with 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 4. There’s the incredible opening that sees you go through your entire childhood before the shocking reveal of leaving the bunker and seeing the post-nuclear wasteland for the first time. A terrifying horror game lurks in its ghoul-infested subway stations. And there’s a bit where you meet a cult worshiping a sentient tree that begs for death. Fallout 3 pushed the 360 to breaking point, but few Xbox games were as willing to take the RPG to such ambitious, bizarre places. Back on release, we called it "a huge, varied, epic, ambitious masterpiece" in our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 3 review.

Dragon Age: Origins

Developer: BioWare
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: November 3, 2009

Bioware was so un-confident that this game would be a hit, that it didn’t plan any sequels (which some of Dragon Age 2’s meaner players might say is pretty damn clear). It's easy to forget after the success of 3 that the idea of a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate was a pretty tough sell back in 2009. But Bioware attempted – and succeeded! – in making the old-school character-focused fantasy RPG more appealing to modern console players' tastes. So began a series that’s still giving us great games today, based on our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: The Veilguard review.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings – Enhanced Edition

Developer: CD Projekt Red
Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release date: 17 April, 2012

One of the PCs most ambitious RPGs was somehow miraculously squeezed into your humble Xbox 360, in what would be the most incredible Witcher-based miracle until some demons somehow got the third game running on Switch. Geralt’s second adventure is no 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Witcher 3 – few games are – and yet it might even be more ambitious, famously featuring a second act that can play out completely differently depending on early decisions you make. Proof that a series which was PC to its bones could work on console, this was Geralt’s first victorious step into the gaming mainstream, and well worth revisiting. In our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Witcher 2 review, we gave it a five star rating and called it "a꧙ brilliant maste✱rpiece".

Want more? Avowed is set to be a more up-to-date Xbox RPG favorite. Despite the Skyrim comparisons, Avowed is an Obsidian RPG first and foremost: "Let's bring in all the greatest hits"!

Which means I jumped at the chance to go hands-on with a brand new slice of the game picking up from the very beginning. Unleashed onto the Dawnshore, I've already spent three hours (and change) questing across it. While 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed doesn't feature a full open world, but rather large and dense zones, it's still nevertheless quite a rich area to get to grips with what makes Avowed unique. As someone who bounced off Dragon Age: The Veilguard and has always struggled with Skyrim (sorry!) I wasn't sure what to expect. But Avowed already has me hooked. Here's the 10 things you need to know, and what's stoo♒d out to me the most from what I've played so fa♔r.

1. Allows you to get stuck in with combat

Not everyone is always in the mood for stacks of numbers. While Avowed certainly has those to offer for the digit delighted stat lovers out there, the first-person combat is fun to simply get stuck into, allowing you to really embrace some ಞaction-first hacking and slashing if you so desire. Combat has a lovely weightiness about it, and whether you're pinging a bow, taking a hit wiౠth your shield, or about to fling out elemental spells, it's all intuitive and easy to understand. Just stick 'em with the pointy end until they're dead (and that charge attack is so satisfying to pull off, as it can send enemies ragdolling).

2. Jumping is vital (for secrets and more)

When you see fantasy swords and sorcery, it's easy to imagine you'll be trundling around an open world in a slight jog as you bosh baddies on the noggin. But Avowed's open areas are detailed spaces to explore thanks to some parkour-like first-person clambering. Its movement isn't quite as fully featured as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dying Light 2, but you're nevertheless nimbler than you might expect, and some quest areas will reward clever jumping with great prizes. But even on 𝔉the standard path you may come across broken br🐠idges or outcrops that can get you to your destination. Just look where you're going lest you take a fall.

3. The power of the lore button

No fantasy world is complete without a web of proper nouns to become properly entangled in. After all, learning the language of a new world is all part of the immersion, and how fans are made. But if Avowed is your first foray into the Pillars universe, then worry not, as you always have the option within dialogue to pull up an expla🦩nation of any lore terms you've encountered.

While both 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Metaphor: ReFantazio and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Final Fantasy 16 have attempted this in their own way, Avowed takes a simple but powerful approach, similar to narrative heavy visual 👍novels. It opens up a fresh box that ꦜhas the terms mentioned throughout your entire chat right there ready to select and browse without breaking the flow of conversation. Never feel lost again by fancy fantasy words!

4. The smart, clear UI makes it great for controllers

Avowed's UI is far from over-designed, though it's still quite pretty. Most importantly, it's clear. I love how it's clear from both your health bar and an enemy's when they're blocking as it adds a purple shield overlay, maki𒐪ng it obvious when you're safe and when to go for a guard break. I love the clear waypointing that makes it obvious what's optional and what's going to progress your main path forward. But most importantly I love how natural it feels on a controller, making Avowed a crunchy RPG that feels tailor-made for Xb🐬ox, from clear d-pad shortcuts, to using the triggers in combat, to assigning and managing gear in the inventory. Even the sprinting works a bit like in Call of Duty. It all feels wonderfully natural.

5. Double weapon wheels for twice the fun

While you'll be speccing your Envoy hero to favor certain stats and skills from the classes available, Avowed isn't about locking you into one style of play and forcing you to commit to one or the other. With the touch of a button, even in mid-combat, you can dynamically switch your loadout, altering both your main-hand and off-hand in the flow of combat. Yes, like 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Bayonetta. That means you go from shield and little stabby knife ♍to dual wielding💛 a pistol and a spellbook in an instant, giving you loads of options at your battle-ready fingertips.

6. Sword AND sorcery!

Again, Avowed empowers you to find your own combat flow and get it the way you want it, meaning you can mix and match your main-hand and off-hand dynamic as you see fit. While some weapons take up both shots, like bows or greatswords, others are a lot more flexible, and many are one-handed. For instance, though shields can be placed in the off-hand, spellbooks also must inhabit that slot. Which does mean you can cast aside a shield and wield a tome instead, relying more on the (very powerful) dodge button instead of blocking. Some ranged weapons are also one-handed, meaning you can go shield and mace in one slot, and combine a gun and magic for the other (we won't stop mentioning it – you can literally dual-wield guns and magic!)

7. Keep the spells flowing

You've a finite pool of magic power for casting spells, which you can top off with potions and consumables. 💜Yet, you can also restore it by absorbing the purple drops that come from enemies as you slay them. Which is all to say, you can find a rhythmඣ of spell-slinging that means you can stay topped off in the midst of combat without having to micromanage yourself constantly, pushing you to stay on the offensive with magic while also supplementing it with other ways to finish off foes so they'll spill that all important purple juice. Bonus points if you shatter frozen foes with a bullet.

8. Go arrow happy

This one goes out to all our fellow Elder Scrolls fans who like to make their rangers viable so they 💜can snipe their way out of danger. Not only is the ranged build in Avowed, at least early on, a very valid option, but it's joyous to play. Aiming down sights, you can power up shots, hitting weak spots for big damage. But you can also let go of your bow pull early to get off shots a bit faster. It's very powerful, as it allows you to get damage in at a distance and seemingly shoot past shields. Be warned, however, there are a lot of ranged enemies as well, so you may end up in a sniper battle. Played this way, it all becomes a marvelous fantasy flavored ♊FPS in its own right.

9. Making camp means making friends

What's an RPG without a party? And what's a party without a camp within which you can trade tragic backstories, chatter about recent events, and simply grow closer? While early on the party hasn't grown to its full potential, we're already enjoying our camp detours as a great way to get more color on the world and learn more about our allies. Kai, a merman-like coastal Aumaua (voiced by Brandon Keener AKA Garrus from Mass Effect) is our first proper pal, and a fantastic introduction to the world we find ourselves in as we cut about Dawnshore. No you're obsessed!

10. Getting to play a character

While we 🧸can't show you the character creator yet, we can talk about it, and there's plenty of really interesting elements you can adjust even in the early build we played. As a Godlike, you've been uniquely touched by divinity even before birth, which means you can give yourself some funky fungal features. And yes, some people will be very rude about it in conversation (you look great, though, don't listen to them). Even beyond appearances, in the opening hours there's quite a lot of opportunities to use your stats to unlock new options in dialogue, making these branches feel quite weavy and providing ample room to roleplay.

Can't wait for Avowed? We've got a list of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPG games to play right now instead! Or looking for more of what's next from Xbox? Then check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games!

It goes without saying that when we got the call to visit Obsidian Entertainment HQ in Irvine, California, we jumped at the opportunity to neglect the sunshine and instead stay indoors pouring 🔴over every facet of Avowed available to us. That means talking to the great RPG developers responsible for this rather unique and funky fungal take on the genre, and, of course, spending many hours with the opening of the game. We g⛦et into it all, from getting started with questing, meeting the companions, the combat, and more – all while discussing it all with the many individual developers that have been crafting it.

Keep reading to discover our Avowed Big Preview, your best place to get started with one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games and one of the most anticipated 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025.

Avowed: The Big Preview

New Avowed Gameplay

Hands-on with Avowed

Insight from Obsidian

Dive Deep Into Avowed

Retrospective

Your Guide to Avowed

Thank you for reading our Big Preview on Avowed, our deep-dive into one of the most-anticipated RPGs of 2025. Be sure to stick with GamesRadar+ in the months ahead as we cover the game ahead of its release on February 18, 2025.

FBC: Firebreak i🍸s a three-player co-op shooter set inside The Oldest House from Control. In it, you take on the roles of a fearless first responder from the Federal Bureau of Control, diving into the darkest recesses of The Oldest House to fend off para-natural threats with your friends. It's a strictly PvE affair, with communications director Thomas Puha promising that Remedy isn&ap🧔os;t pitching FBC: Firebreak as an all-consuming live service – but rather something you can dive into at your leisure. 

"FBC: Firebreak should be easy to get into and quickly understandable, not feel like a second job or that you have to spend an hour setting up your loadouts etc. before you get into a session. This is not that game," . "It's a pick-up-and-play exp🔯erience [about] having fun with your friends when you have the time. That's not to say that FBC: Firebreak doesn’t have deඣep player progression and things to unlock, it does, but this isn’t about logging in every day for some loot or fear of missing out on materials." 

From what we've seen of it so far, FBC: Firebreak certainly has the otherworldly elements that Control nailed, and Remedy is putting that Northlight 🌼Engine to great use, rendering o🎐ut some highly detailed weapons and environments. We've only seen a little so far, but the mission-based, enemy-rich structure seems promising. 

Remedy has been teasing its first multiplayer game for some time now. Project Condor has been a known quantity since 2021, with a drip-feed of new info confirming that it would share a universe with Control and that it would be a premium experience – which is to say, not free-to-play. Today is where we saw Project Condor for what it really is🦩, a fast-paced multiplayer shooteไr that seems on-track to harness the weird and wonderful sensibilities that make Remedy games so unique. 

There's still a lot more to learn about the game, particularly in the aftermath of PlayStation Studios' 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:struggles with PvP shooജter Concord this✱ year, but I'm keen to see more ahead of FBC: Firebreak's release in ไ2025 for PC, Xbox Series X, and𝄹 Game Pass. 

Come check out the other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games set to launch as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games in 2025.

Despite all of that, I've been dying to take my Geiger counter out for another trip. It's been 15 years since the series' last game, Call of Pripyat, and in that time few games have been able to match The Zone's bleakly immersive survival experience. But before getting to play the series' long-awaited follow-up 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which launches in November, I've been worried that the newest entry would dial back some of its grit in an effort to appeal to more mainstream tastes – after all, it's quietly become one of the biggest 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games of 2024, with Micros♏oft Gami🌃ng partnering with developer GSC Game World to bring Stalker into the world. 

Those worries, in hindsight, were very stupid. I recently visited GSC Game World in Prague – where due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine – and in the three hours of Stalker 2 I got to play, the game became near-comical in how little it cares about the player. At one point I survived a tense shootout with three bandits, only to die when I couldn't bandage a bleeding wound in time. Later, an attempt at hunting a band of wanted men for their bounties backfired when the sound of gunfire drew a pack of feral dogs, who decided I looked like the tastiest stalker of the group and tore me to shreds. There were other occasions where I didn't even risk fighting, preferring to bribe bandits for a key lead rather than🔥 waste my limited ammo fighting them for it. 

Like everything in The Zone, Stalker 2 is deeply unforgiving – but that's precisely why I think it's going to induct a whole new generation of stalkers. I have concerns over how stable the game will be at launch, but if you've spent any time in Fallout's survival mode, counting your ammo in Metro, or even slogging through The Last of Us on Grounded difficulty, it's hard to think of another game I can so ꦰreadily recommend ahead of its launch in November.

No tourists

If you're worried about jumping into Stalker 2 without h▨aving played the original trilogy, be at ease. The game begins with a midnight incursion into The Zone, where all-new protagonist Skif wants to find an anomaly strong enough to charge a mysterious artifact, an item changed by The Zone's near-supernatural energy. It's a fairly forgiving and straightforward introduction: you're given plenty of medical supplies, enemies are scarce, and your objective – to scan a series of anomalies – is straightforward and linear. Predictably, though, it all comes crashing down when you're ambushed and left for dead by a stalker with a much bigger gun. It's a neat introduction, and it means that when you wake up later with almost no equipment, you'll be (roughly) familiar w𝔉ith The Zone and its oddities. 

While the main quest encourages you to search for leads on the stalker who wronged you, you're ultimately free to go your own way from here on out, and that's exactly what I do. It's hard to express just how big Stalker 2ไ is until you open its map for the first time – zooming out on the map reveals its staggering size, but even my immediate surroundings are dense with points of interest to check out. Given this expanded scope I'm particularly keen to see how Stalker 2 works as an open-world game (and selfishly,꧟ I need money to re-equip myself), so make my way to a nearby town of scavengers and hoover up work. 

The first job I take from a bartender seems simple: head down the road and rough up a stalker who ꦍowes him money. Unfortunately, a group of bandits have beaten me to it, and they've got him pinned in a warehouse. Said bandits force me into being a mediator, and when the indebted stalker tells me he's stashed his valuables on top of a nearby water tower, they also send me to retrieve it. Unfortunately for them, said stash includes the f✃irst scoped gun I've seen all game. GSC seems to read my mind, as the weapon's owner radios me to suggest I have the perfect drop on the bandits below. 

Shooting at range is difficult due to bullet drop and my gun being an SMG, but it's worth it for the supremely satisfying thunk that comes with a fatal headshot.  Stalker 2 carries forward the meaty gun violence that helped establish the grit and weight of its predecessors. Humans keel over with a well-placed shot to the head, but trying to line that shot up while just-as-lethal bullets are flying in your direction is incredibly difficult, and staying in one place for too long will turn you into an easy target. By the time I've killed and looted everyone, manually stripping their guns for ammo, I'm so eager to find my next shootout that I nearly forget to collect the bartender's debt. Nearly.

Unfortunately, fighting mutants isn't as fun. As cool as their designs are – Bloodsuckers, for example, are towering humanoids with mouthfuls of tentacles and a penchant for turning invisible – they're largely just bullet sponges, limited to battering you and occasion🌼ally circling around before lumbering in to batter you once again. I was hoping for a little more counterplay here, but it lacks the strategic depth that fighting humans boasts. 

Likewise, anomalies are as tricky as they've always been. You can throw a rusty bolt into the shimmering air around an anomaly to temporarily dispel them, but if you plan on getting through one, don&a🗹pos;t expect the bolt to keep it gone for long. When someone asks me to rescue their brother's body from a ravine filled with them, I initially try to🎶 do the right thing and reach the body in one piece, but he proves too heavy to carry through each anomaly in time. After respawning out of the ravine one time too many, I do something I'm not proud of: as soon as the surviving brother turns away, I shoot him once in the back of the head and empty his pockets into mine. 

It's grim, but it's also fundamentally Stalker. There's an overbearing pressure to make ends meet, whether t🍌hat's stripping every gun you come across for ammo, or taking odd jobs for a little cash. It's this purposefulness that makes Stalk🎉er 2 deeply immersive. Most of my time in the game was spent indulging in curiosity and exploring The Zone's lush green wasteland, but that constant ebb-and-flow of supplies often dictated whether I'd wade into a mutant-infested cave or pass it by until I found more medkits. 

Campfire tales

When I finally reign in my wandering to tackle Stalker 2's main quest, I quickly learn that stalkers are as stingy with information as they are ammo. My hunt for the stalker who betrayed Skif means wading into regional politics, as an authoritarian group called the Wardens have come down har⛎d on a town of scavengers. To get a lead I've got to play ball with either the Wardens or the town's residents, which means tracking down a stalker who's suspected of killing and looting a few Wardens outside of the town. I hit up a nearby bandit encampment where he was recently seen, forking out all of my hard-earned cash to buy a lead rather than waste my precious ammo fighting. 

When I find my man, who's hiding out in a booby-trapped windmill, I'm given the option of killing him or aiding in his escape. I choose the latter, which means traipsing through a radioactive, mutant-infested cave to find an artifact that will help. During these more choice-driven quests, I run into a few snags that pull me out of the game a little. I'd already explored this cave earlier, but nothing spawned or happened there until I was meant to find it. After fishing an artifact out from a pool of frothing radioactive gloop and helping my fellow survivor escape, I give his stolen goods to the town's loose coalition of stalkers rather than the Wardens I'd originally promised to help – which is all well and good, but when I return to the Wardens (because I can't resist the drama) they don't so much as acknowledge my betrayal. Navigating The Zone's splintered factions is something I've bꦯeen particularly looking forward to, so I'm hoping this occasion was the exception rather than the rule – consequences drive everything else in Stalker 2, so it would be a real shame for the game's story elements to not capitalize on that. 

While we're on the topic of concerns, it's also worth acknowledging that this in-development build of Heart of Chornobyl꧃ was a little rough around the edges. Some of the issues I encountered were relatively minor (like one dog getting its head 🤡stuck in a fence, which was admittedly quite funny) but others were more irritating, such as quick-saving being inconsistent, or finding a quest-giver's unreachable body strung through the rafters of a cottage. It's important to note that this is an in-development build – GSC Game World tells me it will be working on polish right up to launch – but given the original trilogy's notorious jankiness, it wouldn't surprise me to see Stalker 2 have issues of its own come release day. That's never stopped me from enjoying the series before, but given Stalker 2's launch will eclipse anything GSC Game World has done before, I'm hoping another month of polish pays off for the sake of making a good first impression to newcomers.

Ultimately, I do think Stalker 2 is going to take a lot of players on Xbox and PC by surprise. The likes of Elden Ring, along with a bloom in "realistic" difficulty modes, shows that we're generally willing to get punished time and again if it's for a world worth surviving in. The Zone follows this rule – after all, what's a little bit of radiation between friends? I ended my time in Stalker 2 battered, bruised, and low on just about every supply imaginable, but came away with a craving to let my curiosity guide me into just one more moldering warehouse or dark cave, to score just ꧒one more thunk-ing headshot before being killed myself. No, The Zone might not want me there – but given how much fun defying it is, I can think of no place I'd rather be dying at come launch. 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl launches on November 20 for Xbox Series X and PC. To pass the time, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best shooters you can play until then. 

More and more, this is the design philosophy the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best mobile controllers are gunning for, and they’re all the better for it. There’s no denying that the Backbone One started a mobile gaming revoluti🔜on, but with every new rival that’s arrived to compete with it, the more basic it’s ended up looking. For those who find the Backbone too small, too scaled back, the Razer Kishi Ultra offers a ♚full-sized alternative.

For what Razer is calling the god-tier of mobile gaming though, it does set you back a lot. $149.99 / £149.99 is an investment a lot of people would struggle to justify for an at-home gaming controller, let alone one for their phone. Unfortunately, while this is so close to being the best option on the market, that price is just one of many reasons I’d recommend the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GameSir G8 Galileo instead. 

Design

The Razer Kishi Ultra reminds me more of one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC controllers than any other mobile controller I’ve used. To get specific, it feels more like a successor to the Wolverine family than it does the next Kishi. The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Kishi V2 has been a mainstay of the mobile market for a while now, but looking at this side by side with it, they barely look like second cousins. The Ultra has the ergonomics of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Razer Wolverine V2 Pro, and as a r💎esult, it’s easily the most comfortable mobile pad I’ve used - especially in longer sessions. 

Full-scale, chunky controller grips are a standout feature here, and I’d understanꦚd if anyone bought the Ultra on the merit of those alone. They take what GameSir’s G8 Galileo did to a whole new level, and room for my pinky fingers on the bottom of them attest to that. The clicky microswitch buttons aren’t quite as spongy as the ones ⛎on the Wolverine V2 Pro, but they exude the same sound. What does feel original is the Kishi Ultra’s triggers, which feel so satisfyingly narrow that they add to immersive gunplay.  

The Wolverine family’s circular D-pad feels so familiar it may have been ripped straight from Razer’s other controllers, and the thumbsticks are truly full-sized. Annoyingly, they aren’t Hall Sensor ones, which feels like a drawback for the money you spend, especially when GameSir includes them for cheaper. They’re also offset (or asymmet൲rical), which, might be the trend, but for handheld platforms, I’m personally not sure how long they’ll remain the favorite. The CRKD Nitro Deck+ has bucked the offset trend, and the Scuf Nomad is following suit.

Going against the latest Bluetooth connection trend though, the Kishi Ultra connects to an Android or Apple device using USB-C. The G8’s pivoting connector has well and truly spoiled me because even with the Kishi Ultra’s laᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrger form factor, the rigidity of the USB-C component is a flaw to me. Luckily, there are various rubber stoppers in the Kishi Ultra’s box which means you can slot a myriad of devices into it, and you won’t need to take your phone in and out of its case for compatibility.

Not that I’m throwing side-eye at the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Backbone One there at all.

Features

I don’t know what Razer has against back buttons, but they feel like a glaring omission from the Kishi Ultra I’m quite sad about. Extra functionality is here in the form of additional bumpers which are just as tactile as the controller’s face buttons. Still, these really aren’t as versatile as back buttons would have been, and arguably take a lot more dexteꦍrity to use sinceไ your index fingers are already assigned to working bumpers and triggers. The benefit of back buttons is that you don’t need to move your fingers out of position to gain extra functionality, and back buttons would have been right at home on the Kishi Ultra’s chunky-feeling grips. 

Like a lot of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 controllers, you’ll find a USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom of the Kishi Ultra. The pad also features some function buttons, including a h꧒ome, options, and share button. Additional♌ly, you can use these central buttons to map the extra bumpers.

In a first for mobile controllers I’ve tested, the 🤡Kishi Ultra features some nice ambient RGB as well. This adds a nice touch, but does slightly compromise the sleek all-black look. Luckily, the RGB can be dimmed if you want to be a low-profile gamer on the train without drawing too much att✨ention. Or, you can customize the RGB since it's compatible with Razer Chroma RGB software. 

The Kishi Ultra is also the first home for Razer’s new Sensa HD Haptic technology. We’ve seen this teased in a few product videos before, and even in a few chair cushions. In this controller, however, they help to evoke some more accurate feedback than standard rumble can. It’s a real shame there’s no PlayStation support because it would have been a really nice addition to remote play. Sadly, the blame probably lies at Sony’s door for th🔯at shortcoming though.

Performance

The Razer Kishi Ultra is one of those controllers that’s so close to the top of the field that I actually feel bad for not calling it my favorite. With its attributes, I think it’ll be a lot of 🐽people’s top pick for a mobile controller. Seeing other reviewers praise it with full marks and top spots on buying guides makes that clear, but for me, it comes up just shy of the mark. 

For starters, I love using this thing for longer sessions. It is undoubtedly the most comfortable mobile controller out there, and that’s all down to the size and girth of the grips. It makes such a difference to mobile gaꩲmeplay because even if its got asymmetrical sticks, the larger face means fewer thumb cramps. Running around in third-person games is where this felt best for me. Dungeons of Hinterbgerg controlled nice and smoothly, and I felt like I could be agile in combat thanks to the shoulder buttons not requiring me to move my thumb off the camera stick.  

This is, however, where I started to notice the flaws of extra bumpers, as opposed to bac𓄧k buttons. They sit further in than the regular bumpers, and that means that reaching for them often means accidentally pressing the L1 and R1 buttons by proxy. It’s something you can adjust to with time, but in higher-pressure moments, it’s a design flaw that does rear its head.

First-person shooters were more fun than mobile controllers typically allow for thanks to the full-sized thumbsticks. Annoyingly, the deadzones were a tad large for my liking, making more precise aiming a bit difficult. Thankfully, while I was playing the WW1 Italian war front game Isonzo, the triggers came into their own. I also appreciated that you can slam them in and they remain pretty quiet - no loud plastic clacking noises to be heard. I particularly liked this because there have been a few times whe🃏n I’ve been testing a mobile controller on the couch wh🧸ile my girlfriend reads a book, and the loud triggers on rival models have drawn me some library-esque looks of disdain.

Unfortunately, the straw that broke the camel’s back was one of my go-to testing games for controllers on all platforms. Celeste is actually a fairly simplistic platformer mechanically spea🅘king, but to succeed on its deadly mountain levels, you need precision above all else. I found using the Ultra’s extra bumpers often let me down. Granted, I did test them out on the game’s annoying windy section, but even so, I felt like the controller was offering me nothing in the way of precision. I’d say for anyone serious about using this controller for tricky platformers, think about another option. The face buttons did provide some nice tactility, and the haptics did mean each dash felt more subtle than a lot of rumbling gamepads do, so at least there’s that.

Overall, I am a big fan of this controller. It feels so comfortable to play with for longer sessions - moreso than I think any other mཧobile controller. Annoyingly, it just misses out on my top spot.

Should you buy the Razer Kishi Ultra 

I think for anyone with larger hands especially, this is a mobile controller worth considering. If you hate the thumb pain you get from using smaller mobile pads, this is the one that makes it a thing of the past. If you mainly play third-person games, it’s a treat to use, and the Ultra’s design 🐟flaws are mitigated particularly in that genre. Moreover, if you have the money to splash out, or you’ve only ever liked the feel of Razer’s previous controllers, there’s a lot worth buying here. If you need something for long commutes, there really isn’t anything much better. 

For me personally, the GameSir G8 Galileo hasn’t been kicked out of my backpack. It’s been close, but as a lover of ergonomic back button♏s, I’ll always prefer the utility they give me over extra bumpers. I also tend to play a fairly wide genre of games, and since the G8 performed better across the board, not least in pl🧸atformers, I think that’s what I’ll stick to. 

I think for the money you pay, the G8 does offer more value; PlayStation Remote Play, the same sort of comfort, and now some increased compatibility thanks to a new Bluetooth model. All that, and the G8 costs well under $100/£100. Razer charging more than the competition for a gamepad is nothing new, but when riv𓄧als are so much cheaper, it becomes a tough sell.

How we tested the Razer Kishi Ultra

I put the Razer Kishi Ultra to the test for a little over a month before this review. In that time, I’ve used it as my only mobile controller and played a myriad of games on Xbox Game Pass with it. Some titles include Dungeons of Hinterberg, Celeste, EA Sports PGA Golf 2024, Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2, and🌱 Isonzo.

I compared my experiences closely with my time spent using a Backbone One controller, as well as other mobile controllers like the GameSir G8 Galileo and the Nacon MG-X. For more on how we test the latest gaming controllers, check out the full澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.  

For more gaming on the go, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming handhelds, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best gaming laptops, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best VR headsets. 

Alas, it seems unlikely that Marvel's Blade will launch this year alongside the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games of 2025 confirmed for imminent release. Still there's lots here to get excited about. A recent in-depth discussion with Arkane lead Sébastien Mitton revealed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:a first ꧑tease of the in-game character model, giving us a sneak peek of what we can likely expect when Marvel's Blade actually launches. Thirsty for more? Here's everything we know to be confirmed about the ne𒈔w Blade game right now in 2025, from story speculation to development and more.

Marvel's Blade release date speculation

Xbox Game Studios is yet to set a firm Marvel's Blade release date or window. When the team at Arkane Lyon revealed the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Marvel game back at The Game Awards 2023, the team 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:said that it wa💞s going "silent for a while" as it moved through the next phase of production. Which is a♑ll to say that I'd be shocked to see this one appear before 2026.

Marvel's Blade platforms

Marvel's Blade is coming to PC and Xbox Series X, and will be available from day one through the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription service. It's unclear whether a Marvel's Blade PS5 release is being targeted, although a striking number of titles from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios group are shedding 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox exclusivity right now – the latest is Bethesda's 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is due to land on PS5 in 2025.

Marvel's Blade trailer

The first Marvel's Blade trailer dropped as part of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Awards 2023. It's a cinematic affair that essentially gives us a small snapshot of the setting and our first introduction to Blade as a character. It's a mood 🔯piece designed to give you a sense of the vibe Arka🍒ne is shooting for, and it's exceptionally effective.

Marvel's Blade gameplay

Arkane is yet to showcase any of the Marvel's Blade gameplay, although we do have some first details. For starters, this experience will be a strictly single-player affair, with players controlling Blade from a third-person perspective. This is a big shift for the studio, with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Arkane games typically operating from a first-pers🍌on angle – Dishonored, Deathloop, and Prey, for example.

Still, even with this big shift in gameplay styles, it's likely that Marvel's Blade will leverage Arkane's immersive sim and snappy combat ten𝕴dencies – Blade is both a master of stealth and deception, as well as an expert martial artist and competent gunslinger. "As a kid of mixed origins, I felt a special connection to Blade – a hero with a dual heritage himself," said Dinga Bakaba, Game Director, A🅠rkane Lyon. "The opportunity to put our spin on this character is a dream of mine and a challenge that our team embraces with a passion. We couldn’t be happier to put players in Blade’s boots, as he becomes the champion of my hometown of Paris, one stake at a time."

Marvel's Blade story

Marvel's Blade will feature an original story that's more 'mature' in tone that we have come to expect from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Marvel games released in recent history. Arkane is looking beyond the best 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Blade stories from the comics for this new adventure, although the studio has confirmed that Eric Brooks is the Daywalker we'll 🐻be taking command of.

Speaking🐠 to how Arkane is putting its spin on the legendary character, studio art director Sebastien Mitton says: "From h🦩is trench coat to his iconic sunglasses, Blade is a slick, stylish, and driven character. This project is the perfect opportunity to push Arkane’s art style into an even more modern and bold territory. The essence of our work lives at the junction of impactful ideas and innovative know-how."

Marvel's Blade setting

The Marvel's Blade setting is confirmed as "the heart of Paris" which is trapped in some sort of vampiric emergency. Little else𒀰 is known about the setting, although we're𒅌 expecting that the legendary Daywalker will be navigating a quarantined section of the city as they dance "between the warm society of the living and the rushing power of the undead."

Twitter and Reddit users are reporting receiving Xbox Game Pass app notifications, revealing Balduꦇr's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 were now on the service. We should clarify that the two RPGs aren't on the service right now, and neither Xbox nor developer BioWare - Overhaul Games, if we're talking about the enhanced editions - have ever announced such a move to the subscription service.

It's not even just several Twitter users that have reported receiving the revealing notification. Just below, you can see one example of a Reddit user being notified about the two new games💝, and there's a litany of other examples on of Xbox Game Pass subscribers getting a heads-up about the two older BioWare RPGs.

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It's pretty damn good timing for Xbox users to get access to the two classic Baldur's Gate games. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Baldur's Gate 3 is set to launch out of early access tomorrow, August 3, but only for PC users, with a PS5 launch set for next month on September 6.

Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to Xbox cons𒁃oles, eventually. Unfortunately, there isn't a confirmed release date for the Xbox port of the new RPG, so while Xbox players patiently await the arrival of Baldur's Gate 3, they might want to head back into the vaults of the D&D RPG's storied past.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look ahead at all the console exclusives players can look forward to in the near future. 

Overall, Microsoft's experienced an 8% rise in total revenue, with a 1% increase coming from its overall gaming profits, which will include Game Pass subscriptions and software sales. In fact, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X games and services grew by 5%.

On a more optimistic 𒀰note, Microsoft has stated that it reached a record number of monthly active users on the🐠 Xbox platforms during the last quarter, with total hours played rising by 22%.

For those who want to dive into what those revenue percentages equate to: total revenue for Q4 (ie, the figure that's up 8% year-on-year), which is the three mont💦hs ending June 30, is up to $56.2 billion.

Total revenue for the whole FY23 (which is up 11%), grossed $211.9 billion. Of course, this is all amid a series of international legal battles as 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:🌜Microsoft at🀅tempts to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.

These numbers come courtesy of , which reported in April that Q1 Pc and console game s🅠ales were down 11% across Europe despite an increase in hardware supply compared to the last few years. This is most likely due to widespread cost of living crises but certainlꦗy speaks to a portion of Xbox's slumped hardware figures.

Meanwhile, the PS5 had reportedly sold a total of 32 million units as of February of 2023, selling 7.1 million units in the three months ending December 31, 2022, accor♐ding to In c✅omparison, the Xbox Series X and S reportedly reached 21 million units sold by July 3 of this year, according to .

Xbox head Phil Spencer recently stated in an interview that Microsoft lost the "澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:worst generation to lose" with regards to the༒ PS4 versus Xbox One battle. He has also said on multiple occasions that Xbox no longer views Sony as a competitor, instead, the company looks to cloud streaming services 🔯as the future of the games industry.

Want more on Xbox hardware? Check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X hard drives, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X accessories, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X controllers.

That's according to provided by publisher Activision, marking their financial results for the end of the second quarter of the ♋2023 financial year. Activision writes that over 10 million players "experienced" Diablo 4 during its launch month in June, which is admittedly a very odd way to phrase it.

Does that mean that all the 10 million people who "experienced" Diablo 4 in June didn't actually buy the new game? There isn't a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass by which you can play the new game without putting down $7✨0, so the phrasing here from the publisher makes very little sense.

The trouble is, very few of Diablo 4's players are happy right now. Blizzard announced a hefty new patch yesterday, on July 18, and it's basically decimated multiple builds, including kicking the lowly Sorcerer while they're do꧒wn, and tearing apa𝓡rt som🤪e of the most successful Barbarian builds around.

Activision also writes that "retention trends for the title are particularly strong," and we're about to see just how strong that retention is. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Diablo 4 Season 1 goes live tomorrow on July 20, bringing with it a whole heap of new content like brand new story quests to undertake, Dungeons to delve into, and even a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new seventh Uber Unique item to track down and acquire.

A 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历💛史查询:second Uber boss is on the way as well as in the debut season, in case Uber Lilith wasn't tou🗹gh enough for you already.

You can head over to our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Diablo 4 Battle Pass guide for a look at how another key feature in the new season will launch.

Xbox Game Pass Core will automatically switch over existing Xbox Live Gold subscribers, but for anyone new, you'll either need to shell out $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year. There'll be 25 Xbox Game Pass titles offered through the service, as was originally leaked below, but there'll be more games announced late💎r this year, with more titles being added two-to-three times a year.

Original: Microsoft is reportedly scrapping Xbox Live Gold and replacing it with aꦬ new service later 𓂃this year.

It's been 21 years since Microsoft launched Xbox Live Gold, but according to , it's coming to an end, and a new Game Pass subscription dubbed Xbox Game Pass Core is taking its p🧸lace. The story has since been removed, but not before it was spotted by a that posted images and details of the supposed Xbox Live Gold successor.

If this is to be believed, on September 1, all current Xbox Liv𝓀e Gold subscribers will become Xbox Game Pass Core subscribers. It will cost the same ($9.99 per month), and, like with Gold, you'll need a Core subscription to play online multiplayer. Additionally, Core members will get access to the special deals and discounts available to current Game Pass subscribers.

The key difference between the two is rather than offer monthly games that you can add to your library for free, Xbox Game Pass Core gives you access to a collection of over 25 ꦕGame Pass titles. These are Among Us, Descenders, Dishonored 2, DOOM Eternal, Fable Anniversary, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Forza Hoꦑrizon 4, Gears 5, Grounded, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo Wars 2, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Human Fall Flat, INSIDE, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Psychonauts 2, State of Decay 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. 

Microsoft will apparently be adding to th🌺e above list in the coming months. This also means that Games with Gold will be no more come September, though the games you've claimed so far will still be playable on your account. 

We've yet to have official word from Microsoft on the matter, so, as ever, it's best to take all this☂ with a pinch of salt until we do.🅷 

Last month, the company announced that Xbox Series X and Game Pass are both🌺 getting🐭 price hikes. The console is g൲oing up in price outside of the US, while the subscription service is getting more expensive across the globe.

Looking to save on Game Pass? Check out our guide to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Game Pass deals.

Apparently anyone can add the Xbox head of gaming on their Xbox friends list by following them, hence why people are now discovering Phil Spencer is playing Starfield early. One of the perks of being in charge of Xbox is that you get to play games ahead o👍f release - who could've guessed?

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"Damn, I should pay 6 billion too for early access," writes one Reddit user. Yeah, if we had a spare six billion dollars lying around somewhere we'd probably steer it away from the good of humanity and into purchasing Zenimax to play a🥀 game a couple months early as well.

It turns out Bethesda's head of marketing, Pete Hines, is also playing Starfield ahead of release. When Phil Spencer said earlier this year that just about every Xbox console used for quality assurance at Microso🧸ft was playing Starfield, he could've ꦺextended that to Bethesda employees as well. 

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"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME༒, NOT HIM," chimes in one user with images of Yu-Gi-Oh fresh in their mind. "This is why it's taken so long. They forgot they were supposed to be working," writes another Reddit user. If we had early access to💃 Starfield we'd probably forget about our day jobs too, in all fairness.

Starfield is releasing in under two months from now on September 6, and you can play Bethesda's game five days early if you're willing to upgrade to the Digital Premium Edition and effectively buy your way into 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield Early Access. Otherwise, it'll be available for Xbox Game Pass users on PC and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X/S consoles alike at launch.

Head over to our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield weapons guide for a look at all the weapons we've come across so far for the new game. 

On June 17, Adam Fletcher, Diablo 4's community manager, took to Twitter to clear up any confusion about the upcoming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Diablo 4 battle pass. "People that purchased [Dia𝓡blo 4] Digital Deluxe and Ultimate Editions of the game recౠeive one Premium Battle Pass unlock," Fletcher explains, "you will be able to activate it via the Battle Pass menu after you start a seasonal character."

Further clarifying the situation, Fletcher also revealed that those who fall into that category can claim the premium battle pass for season 1 -൲ which is set to go live the same day as the battle pass on July 20 - or can keep hold of it for a future season. Diablo 4 players also took this as an opportunity to ask further ౠquestions about the upcoming battle pass. 

As revealed in the to Fletcher's tweet, if you purchased mult𝔉iple deluxe editions of Diablo 4 (eg: one for console and one for PC) you🙈'll actually get two Premium Battle Pass unlocks which could be used in both season 1 and a future season later down the line. Fletcher also revealed in a to someone else's tweet that the release times for season 1 will be revealed "in the coming days," so keep an eye out for that. 

Don't worry if you didn't pur😼chase one of these versions of the game though, as you can still get your hands on the Premium Battle Pass - it'll just cost you 1,000 Platinum ($9.99 / £8.39). There's also the Accelerated Battle Pass - which Diꦏablo 4 Ultimate Edition players will already have access to - which can also be purchased for 2,800 Platinum ($24.99/£20.99).

If you were hoping to try out Blizzard's MMO thanks to Xbox, we've got some bad news - Diablo 4 still isn't coming to Xbox Game Pass.

Schade makes the comment in an interview with YouTube channel to 🃏discuss Everspace 2, developed and published by Rockfish Games, ahead of its release on console.

Everspace 2 was in Steam early access from 2021 until April 2023 when it fully released🤪 on PC. In the meantime, the studio has been working on console versions of the game and Schade says the deal with Xbox Game Pass added "nine to twelve months of more production time".

"We could have [made Everspace 2 without a deal with Xbox Game Pass] but it wꦦould have been a smaller game," he says, explaining that the extra funding provided by the Game Pass deal allowed the t💦eam to add more content to Everspace 2 and polish the game.

This, in tu꧂rn, benefits players who'll be getting the game on PS5, Schade says. "It's maximum flexibility, extra funding, y✤ou just make a better game, and everybody's happy," he states, "even the PlayStation fans get a better game on PS5 because of the deal with Game Pass."

Schade is also asked whether putting Everspace 2 on PC Game Pass hurt Steam sales of the game. "To be frank, I couldn't see any dip," he says, confirming that Steam figures weren't affected by PC Game Pass. He calls the deal with Game Pass "one of the best, if not the best" in the industry, as it allowed Rockfish to remain independent whilst getting the studio more visibility and e🧜xtra funding.

So no, Game Pass doesn't cannibalise sales and developers aren't going to put worse versions of their game on PS5 compared to Xbox Series X|S. In the case of Everspace 2, at least.

Here's the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best space games which let you explore the unknown that you can currently play.  

Yesterday, July 13, a US court released from the case of the Federal Trade Commission against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The court documents reveal Microsoft Gaming's CFO Tim Stuart believed the company could see over 10 million Starfield sales on PS5 alone if it had kept Bethesda&apඣos;s RPG on Sony's ൲platform.

Obviously, we know Starfield isn't coming to PS5 anymore. What persuaded Microsoft to ditch these 10 million potential Starfield sales was the belief the company could recuperate these profits by launching Starfield via the Xbox Game Pass subscription service on both 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X/S and PC, not to mention in💫creased console sales.

It's a bit of a gamble from Microsoft, which clearly believes Starfield will be enough to get people to buy into Xbox and Game Pass purely for Bethesda's new game. 10 million sales is a hell of a lot to sacrifice for a game, especially one that's been in development for so long at a d🌄evelopment studio as big as Bethesda Games.

It's not just St♌arfield that's mentioned here by Stuart, either. The CFO also  believed the Indi𝓡ana Jones game from MachineGames, part of the Zenimax umbrella Xbox acquired when it also took over Bethesda, could also see 10 million sales on PlayStation consoles. But just like with Starfield, Microsoft chose to forgo these possible sales in favor of launching exclusively on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

These court documents were published alongside 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史ꦜ查询:the FTC losing their court case again🐓st Microsoft. A judge decreed the FTC hadn't provided sufficient evidence to grant an injunction൩ halting Microsoft's acquisiꦺtion of Activision Blizzard, and so the planned purchase is now officially cleared to proceed in the US.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games guide for a look ahead at all the new-gen games coming to the console.

In the first 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft vs. FTC court hearing, Hines confirmed that Bethesda originally had a deal with Disney to release its Indiana Jones game on multiple platforms, presumably includi💞ng PS5, but the FTC revealed the deal was amended after the studio was acquired by Microsoft. 

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:We've been speculating on whether the new Indiana Jones game would be an Xbox exclusive since it was announced shortly after Microsoft had already revealed its intention to buy developer Bethesda Game Studios. For that reason, it&a🐭pos;s not entirely surprising to hear Xbox plans to get its money's worth and release the game as an Xbox console exclusiv♋e. 

Multiple outlets with reporters in the FTC vs. Microsoft courtroom, including , are also saying the Indiana Jones game will be available at launch on Xbox Game Pass. Again, not a huge shocker if the game's now being planned as an Xbox exclusive, but it&a🌜pos;s good to have confirmation regardless.

With the FTC's ongoing lawsuit now in the courtroom phase, Microsoft and Activision are just beginning to confront their biggest obstacle yet in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:$70b acquisition, which has already faced significant headwinds including the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:UK's formal block. The buyout did notch the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:approval of the EU, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft🐭 plaꦰns to appeal the UK's ruling, but nee🎃dless to say there&ap🌠os;s a long road ahead to full completion, which Microsoft originally aimed to get done by the end of the month.

Here are the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox exclusives you can play today.

The basic console Game Pass subscription will be $🉐10.99 / £8.99 / €10.99 (up from $9.99), while Game Pass Ultimate will be $16.99 / £12.99 / €14.99 (up from $14.99). PC Game Pass prices are unaffected by the news. These new prices go into effect on July 6, but only for new subscribers. Existing subscribers won't have to pay anything extra until their next renewal after August 13.

Like the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PS5 before it, Xbox Series X is getting more expensive throughout much of the world. As reports, the console will be priced at "£479.99 in the UK, €549.99 across mos♒t European markets, CAD $649.99 in Canada, and AUD $799.99 in Australia starting August 1st." Existing prices will remain the same in the US, Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Colombia. Xbox Series S will remain ꦿat its same price globally.

"We’ve held on our prices for consoles for many years and have adjusted the prices to reflect the competitive conditions in each market," Xbox communications head Kari Perez tells The Verge. Perez also s♕ays the Game Pass price increases "are not related to the Activision Blizzard deal, and are intended to match local market conditions."

While Game Pass will still be the cheapest way to play 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield later this year, it looks like you'll have to drop Microsoft a couple of extra bucks for the privilege. As we've seen in other subscription services, like with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Disney Plus price increase, you can never count on these costs remaining s🀅table.

Can those 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games justify the increased cost for you?

As one of the studios that fall under the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios list, State of Decay 3 is among some of the most anticipated 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games in the works, but we're still awaiting a more in-depth look at the gameplay, and of course, news on𒉰 when it will be arriving. But from everything we've seen and heard so far, it cert꧟ainly sounds like it's stepping things up from the last installment, with improvements to co-op, and more.

Below, we've brought together all of the details and information you need to know about this exciting new game, so if you're looking to get caught up on all things State of Decay 3, you've come to the right place. Read oඣn below to find an overview of all of the trailers, gameplay details, and more.

State of Decay 3 release date window

Xbox Game Studios is 💛yet to confirm a release date for State of Decay 3. After being announced at the Xbox Games Showcase back in 2020, a trailer later dropped in 2024, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet about when we can expect the third entry to launch.

State of Decay 3 platforms

State of Decay 3 is set to release on Xbox Series X and PC. Like all of the other video games in development under the Xbox Games Studio publishing wing, State of Decay 3 will launch day one on the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass subscription service, and is expected to be available via 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Cloud Gaming like its predecessor, State of Decay 2.

State of Decay 3 trailers

State of Decay 3 made its debut during the Xbox Games Showcas꧅e at E3 2020. It was revealed with a 90 second cinematic trailer, showing a lone character equipped with a knife and crossbow trying to survive in a s♊nowy wasteland. You can watch the first State of Decay 3 trailer above.

Four years later, 澳洲幸运5开🍎奖号码历史ဣ查询:we then at long last got another look at the upcoming survival zombie game with a trailer that debuted during the Xbox 🌃Game Showcase 2024 (which you can watch below). Appearing to show small snippets of gameplay, the trailer showed off State of Decay's emphasis on the survivors and the permadeath feature from previous games, with the characters remembering those they've lost along the way.

State of Decay 3 gameplay

We've still not really seen all that much in the way of State of Decay 3 gameplay, but the studio is aiming to deliver the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: "neꦿw ultimate in zombie survival simulation." As for what the "next evolution in State of Decay" will ultimately look like, from Xbox's Major Nelson back in 2022 revealed that the game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, with Undead Labs collaborating with Gears of War developer The Coalition to get the most out 🔜of the platform.

State of Decay 2 was a survival simulation which let you navigate a zombie apocalypse by shaping your own community of survivors, managing resources, and establishing defenses against a surmounting horde of undead intruders. (For a refresher, check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 2 review).

An following the Xbox Game Showcase 2024 detailed that State of Decay 3 is set to build on those foundations in a "much larger, truly shared open world". Features from previous installments will be making a comeback, with a greater emphasi🌼s put on permadeath to really drive the idea that a community member has been lost.

"I think it's important for not just the player to have that remembrance, but the characters in the world as well," creative director Kevin Patzelt explains on Xbox Wire. "So, our narrative systems are really 💙going to be there to help support those biggest ones. Because there’s nothing bigger than losing a community member, especially if there's someone that you invested a lot📖 of time and energy into. I think we need to do a better job of showing that sacrifice is meaningful and how it might impact the community."

State of Decay 3 co-op

The June 2024 Xbox Wire post also detailed that Undead Labs is collabora♎ting with Obsidian Entertainment - the studio behind co-op game Grounded - to brin🧸g to life the "shared world feature" and enable more "flexible online♔ co-op".

“We're heavily emphasizing engaging co-op combat," Patzel💃t details in Xbox Wire. "Taking a close look at our 🌺level design and approach to how we're building the world to ensure that players can have a blast smashing and shooting zombies together out in the open world".

State of Decay 3 development

State of Decay 3 may have been announced in 2020, but it was later reported that the game was still in pre-production as of 2022. This news came out as part of an investigation into devཧeloper Undead Labs'༒ workplace culture, in which studio staff put forward .

Following these reports, it had been quiet on the State of Decay 3 front for quite some time before a fresh trailer dropped for the game during the Xbox Games Showcase in summer 2024. Most recently, the studio has revealed a logo change, with a shedding light on an increased headcount on the team, which is now six times larger than it was for the first State of🥂 Decay.

While we wait for more information, check out the other 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming horror games set to release in the future.

Project Q looks like it will only play games that have been downloaded and installed on a PS5 too, so it's not exactly a substitute for buying a home console like the Steam Deck is. The appeal of portable gaming PCs like a Deck or an ASUS ROG Ally is that you can take one on the go or dock it with a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Steam Deck dock to play at home. It doesn't require you to have a gaming PC already that you're tied to. So where does Project Q fit into the market then? I'd say it's Sony's foray into the mobile gaming market, but the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Backbone One PlayStation Editions already exist.

Perhaps more importantly, who is this device for? As funny as the emerging memes are, the closest comparison to Project Q might genuinely be a Wii-U,🐲 which feels like a major step backward. For folks who just want an extra screen to play on while someone's using the TV, I can understand the appeal, but there must be an easier way of going about it that doesn't warrant the high pr✤ice this thing will no doubt have. 

With the born-again handheld gaming scene being what it is at the mܫoment, and the demand from PS Vita stans b🐟eing more present than ever, there are some fairly obvious-seeming beats Project Q seems to have missed.

Switching it up

The reason I think the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Nintendo Switch sent shockwaves out into the wider games industry is that it nails the one thing portable gaming has always lacked. Yes, you want to be able to take games on the go, but you want a seamless way of playing the same games when you're at home in a more stationary setup. Not only that, but it's a cheaper alternative toไ a more powerful stay-at-home platform. That's why The Steam Deck and its emergent market have done so well - it's proven there's a serious demand there for that type of gaming. 

Project Q, if it's only for streaming games from a PlayStation 5 you have to own first, misses the appeal of those devices entirely. If Sony is𒈔n't going to make a PS5 Pro, why not really hit Nintendo and Valve where it hurts, and attack the ne🍌w-found market for portable gaming properly?

The PS5 is expensive enough, so the idea of paying more for a beefed-up version that, let's face it, just isn't necessary at the moment, is ludicrous. But a cheaper PS5 that has portability and a few minor downgrades in its specs? You'd best believe that would have been a fire-starter - if you don't believe me, look at how well the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch are selling.

As it stands, Project Q won't likely add anything to the PS5 ecosystem you can't do already. Mobile gaming is easily the biggest platform in the industry, and the officially licensed Backbo✅ne One PlayStation Editions shows it's worth the Japanese console giant's time. But with those mobile controllers already on the market for probably cheaper than Project Q, it makes me ask what the point is. 

Who wants to spend extra for a controller with a screen when, as far as we know, it has the exact same functionality a🀅s the phone in your pocket? 

Pro controller, anti consumer

Project Q just feels a bit anti-consumer to me✱, and its biggest rival shows us why. Xbox's route into attacking the portable market is the same as its answer to any other.🌜 Game Pass - with its one-liner being "play on the device you own". 

There's no need to buy an Xbox, nor an Xbox handheld, to have genuine access to the library of games you're subscribed to. Remote Play doesn't quite live up to꧋ that, because it requires you💃 to have a PS5 first and foremost, and have it at least on standby and connected to WiFi.

What Sony could have done, was make a PS Plus app that has the same cloud gaming fu🐬nctionality as the Game Pass one. But instead, it's coming out with Project Q, which I'd be willing to bet will be around $300 if not more. And that's on top of a PS5 purchase, remember.

That isn't even bringing into question that Project Q has "all the same buttons of a regular DualSense", because if that's true, I'd bet it'll suffer the same stick drift issues and battery life problems we know from that gamepad already. I had enough problems with Sony not having an authentic solution to the potentiometer sticks in the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:DualSense Edge, never mind a hand✤held th🥃at will probably cost more.

Close, but yet so far

I'm trying to stay somewhat measured here because we have such limited information on Project Q. But from what Jim Ryan said in the showcase, this seems like a very misjudged and anti-consumer 🅺move into the handheld scene that won't live up to the potential of what a new PlayStation handheld could be. I'm not optimistic, because if Project Q was going to have features that rival the biggest handheld competition, sure Jim would have been shouting about it straight out of the gate.

If you need a PS5, you need it to be connected via WiFi, and you can only play games you ha🌠ve installed, Project Q is a really hard sell to me. Sony is already late to the party in the new handheld scene, so I don't know why the device they're cooking up seems like a Wii-U. In a day and age where handheld gaming is becoming more and more advanced, this feels like a serious step back.

Upgrade your PS5 loadout in other ways by looking at the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: best PS5 accessories, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PS5 controllers, and the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best TV for PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Launching just last week, Redfall was met with mixed critical reception, and players were📖n't kind to Arkane's new game either, branding it a disappointment. Despite this though, it looks like Arkane's shooter has had a strong start to life, as is reporting that Redfall is the second-biggest Xbox game lau𒈔♈nch of 2023, sitting only behind Atomic Heart.

For the week ending May 7, True Achievements reports Redfall is the third-biggest game on Xbox systems in terms of pure gameplay time. It sits behind Fortnite in the pole position and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in second place, two undisputed juggernauts in terms of pla🧸yer base and player retention across all systems, let alone Xbox consoles.

Redfall has the advantage of launching through the Xbox Game Pass subscription service though, which has no doubt helped both it and 𒁃Atomic Heart have really strong launches on Xbox consoles. It seems despite the negative buzz, Xbox users were intrigued enough to give Arkane's latest effort a shot.

This is honestly a big surprise for Arkane's new game. Redfall's launch clearly didn't go to plan, as even Xbox head Phil Spencer acknowledged he 🍃was "disappointed" with the game's launch, and lamented Xbox not being able to step in with Redfall earlier in its development to hel✤p Arkane deveꦗlop its Unreal Engine-made game and steer it away from technical issues.

Our own 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Redfall review, which awarded Arkane's new game with 2.5 out of five stars, calle🧔d it "rushed, unfinished, and unsatisfying." Whilst Arkane's latest has really intriguing vampire designs and an interesting world to explore, we deemed its limited story and litany of bugs really let Redfall down. 

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Redfall Underboss Skulls guide if you're wondering what they are, and how you can acquire the powerful tools.

Developer Colossal Order has been keeping its fanbase well-fed, drip-feeding us some juicy new tidbits on its upcoming sequel via . Following a what we learned at 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gamescom 2023, our hands-on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cities: Skylines 2 preview shows 𓆉what else we can expect from the gamꦇe when it launches this October.

It's definitely one of those 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PC games to keep an eye out for, not to mention one of our top 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games for 2023 if you live and breathe city-builders. Here's 🐼a breakdown of everytꦍhing  we know about Cities: Skylines 2, from a release date to gameplay details.

Recent Cities: Skylines 2 news

• City builder fans fear for Cities: Skylines 2 performance after console delay and raised PC system rꦅequirements
• Cities: Skylines 2 will launch with some great features the previous city builder sold as DL꧟C
• Citཧies: Skylines 2 is so realistic it ♕simulates layoffs and homelessness
• Cities: Skylines 2 maps are now "bigger than🃏 some coun🌌tries"

Cities Skylines 2 release date

The Cities Skylines 2 release date is set for October 24, 2023 for PC only. Sadly, it was confirmed on September 29 that the game&ap꧋os;s release onto PS5, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass has been delayed to Spring 2024. 

Cities Skylines 2 Game Pass

Cities Skylines 2 will be a part of the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass list, meaning that any 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Game Pass subscribers♚ will be able to play the new city builder from day one through the service. Paradox is yet to confirm whether Cities Skylines 2 will be available for both Xbox and PC Game Pass players, although this does appear to be the case. 

Cities Skylines 2 trailer

You can watch the first Cities Skylines 2 trailer above, whic🃏h isn't actual gameplay from the upcoming city builder but does give us a little insight into what Paradox and developer Colossal Order wants to achieve with the title. 

We then got the Cities Skylines 2 g🎐ameplay trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, revealing a great look at what you'll be able to crea🧸te. All the footage shown in the gameplay trailer is captured in-game too, so it's going to be pretty!

Cities Skylines 2 pre-order bonuses

If you pr🍎e-order Cities Skylines 2🃏 you'll get access to nine unique buildings, all of which are based on world famous landmarks. They are as follows:

• The London Eye
• Notre Dame
• National Gallery
• Grand Hotel
• Botanical Garden
• Näsinneula
• Xi'an Bell Tower
• Sungnye
• National Diet

You'll also get a map based on the geography of Tampere, Finland, which just so hꦉappens to be where developer Colossal Order is based.

Cities Skylines 2 Expansion Pass

If you purchase the Cities Skylines - Ultimate Edition you'll get access to the Expansion Pass. This includes instant access to the San Francisco set, an assets pack and radio station that&apos♚;ll drop in Q4 2023, the content creator pack and radio station coming in Q1 2024, and the full expansion and another radio station in Q2 2024.

Cities Skylines 2 gameplay – What's new?

Cities Skylines 2 gameplay will be an evolution over the original title. It's dubbed the "most realistic city builder - ever" on its Steam page, where it also mentions "new epic scale". That's backed up by the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Cities Skylines 2 achievements that have leaked, which state that you'll be able to utilize 150 map tiles in a single city, rather than the nine from the🌃 original game. There are also mentions of hailstorms, tornados, and forest fires – some of which were only available via DLC packs for the original game. You'll also be able to "🎉Follow a citizen's lifepath from childhood to old age", which certainly suggests a depth of simulation much greater than the OG Cities Skylines. 

"With unprecedented amounts of cus༒tomization and player control, Cities: Skylines 2 will continue to push boundaries for the city-building franchise," said Fredrik🌼 Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. 

The official press release states that you'll be able to experience the managing of everything from individual households to the transport and economy systems of the city, including plenty of construction and customization options, and "advanced modding capabilities". It goes on to say this will be the "most open-ended city-building sandbox on the planet", 🐭so pretty lofty goals here.

Each of the game's maps - some if༺ which are "bigger than some countries" - will have its own challenges, including unique climates and other opportunities. The climates can impact the pollution, weather, and provide seasonal challenges too. Then, when you're building your city, every choice you make will ripple across it, thanks to intricate AI and economic systems. 

You'll even be able to follow around specific citizens as they go about their daily lives. There's even an achievement you can unlock to reward you for your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:stalkery antics, meꦓaning the game doesn't just let you observe the lives of your townsfolk, 🍌it encourages it.

Will Cities Skylines 2 multiplayer exist?

There are currently no plans to make a Citi🤪es: Skylines 2 multiplayer mode.

In March, Colossal Order posted a small . In response to a question asking whether there would be scope to add multi𓆏player, the devs said: "Adding multiplayer support takes an incredible amount of time and resources that would take away from building the core player experience we ar🐻e striving to create". So it's safe to say we won't be seeing multiplayer come to Cities: Skylines 2. 

While clever players of the original game have modded in multiplayer suppo🦩rt, we will note that it's never been an official feature of the Cities Skylin👍es series. 

Cities Skylines is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Game Pass games to play while we cross our fingers for more news on its sequel, hopefully during Summer Game Fest 2023.

We knew that Valheim was targeting a Spring release on 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, and crossplay will be fully supported between all platforms, but now we have a confirmed 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim console release date: March 14, 2023.

We even have a new teaser trailer to mark the event, too – you can check it ♐out below: 

Even though the fan-favorite sandbox survival game is already available🦄 on PC Game Pass, this'll be the game's first voyage onto Xbox consoles, alongside the Steam, Microsoft and Humble stores. And it's been a l🐬ong time coming, too.

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim Mistlands update launched back in December, adding a slew of additional content, including a new biome as well as new enemies, weapons, and material🎃s to the survival sandbox. 

Work then moved on to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim Ashlands update, which will reportedly offer an experience that is distinctive from what's come before. "It will be quite different from what we're all used to, given that the Ashlands ꧟is a large chunk of land at the far south of the map, rather than small islands spread out over the world," developer Iron Gate explained at the time.

Apparently, Valheim devs want to make a sequel, but one idea has already been vetoed. 

Missed your stop on the Valheim hypetrain? Our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim explained rundown explained why 🍸we ⛦think it's still on the "Steam bestseller list for a reason". 

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim tips | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim Root Armor | Valheim Thunder Stone and Obliterator | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim workbench |澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Valheim repair | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim seeds | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim merchant | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim biomes | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim roadmap | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Best Valheim weapons | Valheim cheats and spawn item list | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Best Valheim armor | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:How to plant seeds in Valheim | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:How to tame boars in Valheim | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim barley and flax | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim flint | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim crafting progression | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim Black Metal | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim silver | 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Valheim Ymir Flesh

This year is different, however. As the cost of living crunch continues to bite, gaming is becoming ever more a luxury - not helped by Microsoft's decision to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:raise the price of Xbox first-party titles from $59.99 to $69.99 in 2023. That's a big jump and one that will make lots of us think twice before purchasing a brand-new release on launch day. That's why finding one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Game Pass Ultimate prices amid increased🌜 competition from Sony and Nintendo can make a huge difference. 

At an entry price of $9.99 / £7.99 a month, the subscription is reasonably affordable compared to many other gaming or streaming services out there. With upwards of a reported 25 million subscribers, Xbox Game Pass has grown exponentially, jumping by seven million from 2021 to 2022. But does its price or increased popularity warrant a subscription, though? Is simply being cheap enough to jump on the Xbox Game Pass bandwagon? As PlayStation bolsters PS Plus and the concerns over Xbox exclusives continue to loom, is Xbox Game Pass worth it in 2023? Let's 𝓡takeܫ a look. 

How much does Xbox Game Pass cost in 2023? 

Simply put, an Xbox Game Pass subscription is priced across console and PC at . However, Microsoft also offers a for the first month of the PC tier. This gives you access to hundreds of video games on each specific platform, member discounts, and most enticing of all, access to Xbox Game Studio titles the same day as release. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:EA Play is also included for no additional fee. 

Xbox 𒉰Game Pass Ultimate combines the console and PC tiers with Xbox Gold (worth $9.99 / £6.99) at . Again a is also available to test ou🌳t the most lucrative tier for the first month. 

We've made an 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass explainer guide with all of the tiers broken down if yo🙈u're looking for further information about each. 

What games are worth playing on Xbox Game Pass? 

Going into 2023, there has been fair criticism of Microsoft's lack of first-party games in recent years, something that Xbox chief 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Phil Spencer addressed in October 2022. The likes of Grounded, Pentiment, and As Dusk Falls have proven to be few and far between from fans' ꦐexpectation🐠s. So what's 2023 got planned for Xbox Game Pass?

Well, the year has already kicked off with the fantastic 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm-based action that shadow-dropped on Janua𒐪ry 25th, 2023. We then have Redfall, Forza Motorsport, and what is arguably one of the biggest releases of the calendar year in Starfield. On top of this, there's Age of Empires IV, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Lies of P, Replaced, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, all scheduled for 2023. 

This doesn't even take into account the plethora of third-party games at your disposal by signing up. EA Play alone grants you access to FIFA, Madden, Mass Effect, It Takes Two, Star Wars, Burnout, and Titanfall among others. More recently, Persona 3, Persona 4, Monster Hunter Rise, Goldeneye 007, High on Life, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga all joined the line-up and are likely to be present f🎃or the full year. 

In total, there'ౠs always a guarantee to be more than 300 games, so you'll never run out of options. Allꦰ in all, Xbox could be poised for one of its best years in recent history. 

How does PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online compare? 

The new 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:PS Plus tiers - Essential, Extra, and Premium - present another conundrum for consumers. At $9.99 / £6.99 a month for the cheapest tier (Essential), you do get significantly less for your cash, in comparison to Game Pass. This gives you access to online play, a number of PS5, PS4, or PSVR titles every month as well as exc💖lusive discounts on the PS Store, but it doesn't give you access to any of Sony's first-party titles on release - and neither do any of the other tiers.

PS Plus Extra costs a month, offering the same suite of content as Extra but with a catalog of almost 400 games across PS5 and PS4. Finally, the PS Plus Premium tier costs $17.99 / £13.49, which encompasses all of the previous tier's offerings as well as PS3 game streami🦂ng, time-limited game trials, and access to classic PS1, PS2, and PSP games. 

Naturally, this can all come down to personal preference between Xbox and PlayStation's offerings but look specifically at price makes it quite interesting. As there is no official annual subscription for Xbox Game Pass, a standard subscription is priced at $119.88 / £95.88 per year and an Ultimate is $179.88 / £131.88 per year. PS Plus offers quarterly and yearly subscriptions with the top tier coming in at , a saving of $80.88 / £47.89 in compar꧟ison. As you are paying for $70 new release▨s on top of that, Xbox Game Pass does still come out on top in our books.

On the other hand, a Nintendo Switch Online membership is available for $3.99 / £3.49 per month or per year. This gives you access 🍰to online play, data cloud saves, certain freebies, and the ability to play NES and SNES games. 

By upgrading to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack at , you also get a handful of N64 and Sega Genesis titles as well as Mario Kart 8 Deluxeღ, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Splatoon 2 DLC. It's the cheapest of the lot for a reason, only really beneficial to those that were looking to pick up the DLC separately. Many people consider this as an add-on, more than a competitor to PlayStation and Xbox but again if money is a factor, Xbox comes out on top again for value.  

Is Xbox Game Pass worth it in 2023 for the price? 

Xbox Game Pass is absolutely worth the money if you are gaming on a budget. By simply picking up one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X deals or finding one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series S prices or bundles yo🐭u then only need to pay $9.99 / £7.99 a month to gain access to the latest games from Microsoft's first-party studios anཧd hundreds of games that are constantly refreshed. 

If you have access to larger funds and enjoy a balance of console and PC gaming, then Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the right way to go at per month. By opting for this, you even get the freedom to stream via the cloud or play on mobile with further free perks and offers. It's all about versatility. Siꦑmply put, if you are dedicated to one platform, stick to the cheaper tier. ♌If you like a mix of both, Ultimate is the one for you. 

It's also worth knowing that modern Samsung TVs now come packaged with the Xbox app too, so you can stream games without the need for a console. Many of these models make up our top recommendations for the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best TV for Xbox Series X in 2023, just like this Samsung 55-inch S95B TV that is going at Best Buy - a saving 𝔍of 𒁏$450.

Finally, for anyone yet to get a console, grants you an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S plus two years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $20.99 / £20.99 per month. One simple payment and you don't have to think twice about it for two years. Better yet, you can often find some amazing Xbox Game Pass deals (like this three-month subscription at places like CDKeys - a saving of $14.98 🐷/ £9.00). You can find more great Xbox Game Pass deals just below:

Looking for suggestions on what to play? Check out the 25 best games on Game Pass for Xbox and PC that you can jump into now. We've also rounded up all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X accessories as well as the best cheap Xbox Live Gold 12-month deals to help make the hobby cheaper all around.  

Microsoft updates the full 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass library every month, with titles dropping in and out of the service with frequency. That's why this living list will not only track every game in Game Pass for Xbox and PC, but also flag the games that are leaving each month. It's worth remembering that new games from 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios – such as Redfall, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport – will be available through Xbox Game Pass on the day of their release, something which is factored into the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass price. To see all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games for 2023 that are coming to Game Pass, check out the full lineup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games. 

This list of every Xbox Game Pass game is extensive, and that means that curation is more important than ever before. That's why we went ahead and put together a list of the 25 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Game Pass games on the service – with our recommendations covering as many genres as we could manage. So be sure to check that out,💝 or continue on reading to see what games are in Game Pass right now for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. 

New Xbox Game Pass games in April 2023

• Loop Hero (April 4)
• Iron Brigade (April 6)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (April 12)
• NHL 23 (April 13)
• Minecraft Legends (April 18)

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass in April 2023

• Life is Strange: True Colors (April 15)
• Moonglow Bay (April 15)
• Panzer Corps 2 (April 15)
• The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (April 15)
• The Long Dark (April 15)
• The Riftbreaker (April 15)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction (April 15)

Every game on Xbox Game Pass

There are curren🌞tly over 400 games available through the Xbox Game Pass service. The available titles on Xbox Game Pass run across four generations of Microsoft Gaming's history in the space, so you'll find some of the best original Xbox games and best Xbox 360 games here, as well as more recent titles for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. This list of every Xbox Game Pass game also includes games available via EA Play, which can be accessed with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. 

• 7 Days to Die
• A Memoir Blue
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:A Plague Tale: Requiem
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:A Way Out (EA PLAY)
• Alice: Madness Returns (EA PLAY)
• Alien: Isolation
• Amnesia: Collection
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• Among Us
• Anthem (EA PLAY)
• ANVIL : Vault Breaker (Game Preview)
• Aragami 2
• ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:As Dusk Falls
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Origins
• Astroneer 
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Back 4 Blood
• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts 'n' Bolts
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Banjo-Tooie
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Batman: Arkham Knight
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Battlefield 1 (EA PLAY)
• Battlefield 1943 (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Battlefield 2042 (EA PLAY)
• Battlefield 3 (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Battlefield 4 (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Battlefield 5 (EA PLAY)
• Battlefield Hardline (EA PLAY)
• Battlefield: Bad Company (EA PLAY)
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 (EA PLAY)
• Battletoads
• Beacon Pines
• Before We Leave
• Bejeweled 2 (EA PLAY)
• Bejeweled 3 (EA PLAY)
• Ben 10: Power Trip
• Black Desert
• Black (EA PLAY)
• Bleeding Edge
• BLiNX: The Time Sweeper
• Bridge Constructor Portal
• Broken Age
• Brütal Legend
• Bugsnax
• Burnout Paradise Remastered (EA PLAY)
• Chained Echoes
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Chinatown Detective Agency
• Chivalry 2
• Chorus
• Cities: Skylines
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Citizen Sleeper
• Clustertruck
• Coffee Talk
• Commandos 3 – HD Remaster
• Conan Exiles
• Contrast
• Cooking Simulator
• Costume Quest
• Costume Quest 2
• Crackdown 3
• Cricket 22
• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
• Crown Trick
• Crusader Kings 3
• Crysis 2 (EA PLAY)
• Crysis 3 (EA PLAY)
• Crysis (EA PLAY)
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair 
• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony 
• Dante's Inferno (EA PLAY)
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• DayZ
• DC League of Super-Pets: Adventures of Krypto and Ace
• Dead by Daylight
• Dead Cells
• Dead Space (EA PLAY)
• Dead Space 2 (EA PLAY)
• Dead Space 3 (EA PLAY)
• Dead Space Ignition (EA PLAY)
• Death's Door 
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Deathloop
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Descenders
• Despot's Game
• Destroy All Humans!
• Dicey Dungeons
• DIRT 5 (EA PLAY)
• DiRT Rally 2 (EA PLAY)
• Disc Room
• Dishonored 
• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dishonored 2
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Disneyland Adventures
• DJMAX RESPECT 5
• Donut County
• DOOM 
• DOOM 2
• DOOM 3
• DOOM 64
• DOOM (2016)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:DOOM Eternal 
• Double Dragon Neon
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Dragon Age 2
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Dragon Ball FighterZ
• Dragon Quest Builders 2
• Dreamscaper
• EA Sports UFC 3 (EA PLAY)
• Eastward
• Edge of Eternity
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
• Empire of Sin
• Escape Academy
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination
• Eville
• Exo One
• F1 2020 (EA PLAY)
• F1 2021 (EA PLAY)
• Fable Anniversary
• Fable 2
• Fable 3
• Fallout 3
• Fallout 4
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Fallout 76
• Fallout: New Vegas
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Far Cry 5
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:FAR: Changing Tides
• Farming Simulator 22
• Fe (EA PLAY)
• Feeding Frenzy 2 (EA PLAY)
• Feeding Frenzy (EA PLAY)
• FIFA 21 (EA PLAY)
• FIFA 22 (EA PLAY)
• Fight Night Champion (EA PLAY)
• Floppy Knights
• Football Manager 2023 
• For Honor
• Forager
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Horizon 4 
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Horizon 5 
• Frostpunk
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel
• Full Throttle Remastered
• Fuzion Frenzy
• Gang Beasts
• Garden Story
• Gears of War
• Gears of War 2
• Gears of War 3
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears of War 4
• Gears 5
• Gears of War: Judgment
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Gears Tactics
• Generation Zero
• Genesis Noir
• Ghost Song
• Goat Simulator
• Golf With Your Friends
• GRID
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GRID Legends
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Grounded
• Gunfire Reborn
• Gungrave G.O.R.E
• Guilty Gear –Strive
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Halo 5: Guardians
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite
• Halo Wars
• Halo Wars 2
• Halo: Spartan Assault
• Hardspace: Shipbreaker
• Heavy Weapon (EA PLAY)
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
• Hello Neighbor 2
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:High On Life
• Hitman Trilogy
• Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
• House Flipper
• Human Fall Flat
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Immortality
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Injustice 2
• Infinite Guitars
• Inside
• Insurgency: Sandstorm
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:It Takes Two (EA PLAY)
• Jetpac Refuelled
• Joy Ride Turbo
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Just Cause 4: Reloaded
• Kameo
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Kill It With Fire
• Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition
• Kraken Academy!!
• LAPIN (Game Preview)
• Lawn Mowing Simulator
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Let's Build a Zoo
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Life is Strange: True Colors
• Final Fantasy 13: Lighting Returns
• Little Witch in the Woods (Game Preview)
• Lonely Mountains: Downhill
• Loot River
• Lost in Random (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Madden NFL 21 (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Madden NFL 22 (EA PLAY)
• Maneater
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Avengers
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
• Mass Effect
• Mass Effect 2
• Mass Effect 3
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mass Effect Legendary Edition
• Mass Effect: Andromeda
• Matchpoint-Tennis Championships
• Max: The Curse of Brotherhood
• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
• Medal of Honor Airborne
• Medieval Dynasty
• Metal: Hellsinger 
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Middle-earth: Shadow of War
• Midnight Fight Express
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Minecraft
• Minecraft Dungeons
• Mirror's Edge (EA PLAY)
• Mirror's Edge Catalyst (EA PLAY)
• MLB The Show 22 
• MLB The Show 23
• Monster Sanctuary
• Monster Train
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Moonglow Bay
• Moonlighter
• Moonscars
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Mortal Shell
• MotoGP22
• My Friend Pedro
• My Friend Peppa Pig
• My Time At Portia
• Naraka Bladepoint
• NBA Live 19 (EA PLAY)
• Need for Speed Rivals (EA PLAY)
• Need for Speed (EA PLAY)
• Need for Speed Heat (EA PLAY)
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (EA PLAY)
• Need for Speed Payback (EA PLAY)
• Neon Abyss
• New Super Lucky's Tale
• NHL 21 EA PLAY
• NHL 22 EA PLAY
• NHL 94 Rewind EA PLAY
• Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered
• Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:No Man's Sky
• Norco
• Nuclear Throne
• Oblivion
• Octopath Traveler
• Olija
• Omori
• Opus: Echo of Starsong
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ori and the Blind Forest
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Outriders
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Overcooked! 2
• Pac-Man Museum+ 
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Paradise Killer
• PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
• PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls
• PAW Patrol: Grand Prix
• Payday 2
• Peggle 2 (EA PLAY)
• Peggle (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Pentiment
• Perfect Dark
• Perfect Dark Zero
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Persona 5 Royal
• Persona 4 Golden
• Persona 3 Portable
• Phantom Abyss (Game Preview)
• Phoenix Point
• Pikuniku
• Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
• Pillars of Eternity
• Plants vs. Zombies (EA PLAY)
• Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare (EA PLAY)
• Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville (EA PLAY)
• Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 (EA PLAY)
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• PowerWash Simulator
• Prey
• Prodeus
• Psychonauts
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Psychonauts 2
• Quake
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Quantum Break
• RAGE
• RAGE 2
• Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan
• Rare Replay
• ReCore
• Research and Destroy
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Return to Monkey Island
• Road 96
• Rocket Arena EA PLAY
• Rubber Bandits
• Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure
• Ryse: Son of Rome
• Scorn
• ScreamRide
• Sea of Solitude (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sea of Thieves
• Serious Sam 4
• Shadowrun Returns
• Shadowrun: Dragonfall
• Shadowrun: Hong Kong
• Shredders
• Signalis
• Sid Meier's Civilization 4
• Skate 3 (EA PLAY)
• Skate (EA PLAY)
• Slay The Spire
• Slime Rancher 2
• Sniper Elite 5
• SnowRunner
• Soccer Story
• Solasta: Crown of the Magister
• SOMA
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Somerville
• Spacelines from the Far Out
• Spelunky 2
• SpiderHeck
• SSX (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA PLAY)
• Star Wars Battlefront (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars Battlefront 2 (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars: Squadrons (EA PLAY)
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stardew Valley
• State of Decay
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 2
• Stellaris: Console Edition
• Stranded Deep
• Sunset Overdrive
• Super Lucky's Tale
• Super Mega Baseball 3 EA PLAY
• Superliminal
• Surgeon Simulator 2
• Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master!
• Tainted Grail: Conquest
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Tell Me Why
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Telling Lies
• Terraria
• Tetris Effect: Connected
• The Ascent
• The Bard's Tale ARPG : Remastered and Resnarkled
• The Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut
• The Bard's Tale Trilogy
• The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim 
• The Elder Scrolls Online
• The Evil Within
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Evil Within 2
• The Gunk
• The Legend of Tianding
• The Long Dark
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Outer Worlds
• The Riftbreaker
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Sims 4 (EA PLAY)
• The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
• The Walking Dead: Michonne
• The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season
• The Walking Dead: Season 2
• The Walking Dead: The Final Season
• The Yakuza Remastered Collection
• theHunter: Call of the Wild
• This War of Mine: Final Cut
• Tinykin
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Titanfall 2 (EA PLAY)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Torment: Tides of Numenera
• Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service
• Townscaper
• Trailmakers
• Train Sim World 3: Standard Edition
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Trek to Yomi
• Tunic
• Turbo Golf Racing (Game Preview)
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Two Point Campus
• UFC 4
• Umurangi Generation 
• Undertale
• Unpacking
• Unravel (EA PLAY)
• Unravel 2 (EA PLAY)
• Unsouled
• Vampire Survivors
• Valheim
• Viva Pinata
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• Wasteland Remastered
• Wasteland 2
• Wasteland 3
• Watch Dogs 2
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Weird West
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Worms W.M.D
• Wreckfest
• Yakuza 0
• Yakuza 3 Remastered
• Yakuza 4 Remastered
• Yakuza 5 Remastered
• Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
• Yakuza Kiwami
• Yakuza Kiwami 2
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Yakuza: Like a Dragon
• You Suck at Parking
• Young Souls
• Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War
• Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection
• Zuma (EA PLAY)
• Zuma's Revenge! (EA PLAY)

Every game on PC Game Pass

There are over 400 games available for PC Game Pass. While there is a lot of crossover between what is available on the Xbox and PC Game Pass lists, there are some subtle differences – such as the addition of games like🐈 Age of Empires, or even one of the best PS5 games in the form of Death Stranding. This list of every game on PC Game Pass also includes titles available on EA Play on Windows PC, which is available to PC Game Pass subscribers at no extra cost. 

• 7 Days to Die (Game Preview)
• A Memoir Blue
• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• A Way Out
• Age of Empires 
• Age of Empires 2
• Age of Empires 3
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Age of Empires 4
• Alice: Madness Returns
• Alien: Isolation
• Amazing Cultivation Simulator
• Amnesia: Collection
• Amnesia: Rebirth
• Among Us
• An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
• Anthem
• ANVIL : Vault Breaker (Game Preview)
• Aragami 2
• ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition
• Arx Fatalis
• As Dusk Falls
• Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Assassin's Creed Origins
• Astroneer
• Back 4 Blood
• Battlefield 1 
• Battlefield 3 
• Battlefield 4 
• Battlefield 5 
• Battlefield 2042
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Battlefield Hardline 
• Battletech
• Battletoads
• Beacon Pines
• Before We Leave
• Ben 10: Power Trip
• Bleeding Edge
• Bridge Constructor Portal
• Broken Age
• Bugsnax
• Burnout Paradise Remastered
• Chained Echoes
• Chinatown Detective Agency
• Chivalry 2
• Chorus
• Cities: Skylines
• Citizen Sleeper
• Clustertruck
• Coffee Talk
• Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
• Commandos 3
• Conan Exiles
• Cooking Simulator 
• Coral Island (Game Preview)
• Crackdown 3
• Cricket 22
• Crown Trick
• Crusader Kings 3
• Crysis
• Crysis 2 
• Crysis 3
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair 
• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony 
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered
• DC League of Super-Pets: Adventures of Krypto and Ace
• Dead by Daylight 
• Dead Cells
• Dead Space
• Dead Space 2
• Dead Space 3
• 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Death Stranding
• Death's Door 
• Deathloop
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Descenders
• Despot's Game
• Destroy All Humans!
• Dicey Dungeons
• Dirt 5
• Disc Room
• Dishonored 
• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
• Dishonored 2
• Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Disneyland Adventures
• DJMAX Respect 5
• Donut County
• DOOM (1993)
• DOOM 2
• DOOM 3
• DOOM 64
• DOOM Eternal 
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Dragon Age 2
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• Dragon Ball FighterZ
• Dragon Quest Builders 2
• Dreamscaper
• Dune: Spice Wars (Game Preview)
• Dungeon Keeper
• Dungeon Keeper 2
• Dyson Sphere Program (Game Preview)
• Eastward
• Edge of Eternity
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
• Empire of Sin
• Escape Academy
• Europa Universalis 4
• Everspace 2 (Game Preview)
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination
• Eville
• Exapunks
• Exo One
• Expeditions: Rome
• Fallout
• Fallout 2
• Fallout 3
• Fallout 4 
• Fallout 76
• Fallout Tactics
• Fallout: New Vegas 
• Far Cry 5
• FAR: Changing Tides 
• Farming Simulator 22 
• Fe
• FIFA 21
• FIFA 22
• Floppy Knights
• Football Manager 2023
• For Honor 
• Forager
• Forza Horizon 4 
• Forza Horizon 5 
• Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery
• Frostpunk
• Fuga: Melodies of Steel
• Full Throttle Remastered
• Galactic Civilizations 3
• Gang Beasts
• Garden Story
• Gears of War
• Gears of War 4
• Gears 5 
• Gears Tactics
• Generation Zero
• Genesis Noir
• Ghost Song
• Ghostlore (Game Preview)
• Goat Simulator 
• Golf With Your Friends
• GRID Legends
• Grim Fandango Remastered
• Grounded
• Gunfire Reborn
• Gungrave G.O.R.E
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
• Halo 2: Anniversary
• Halo 3
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo: Reach
• Halo 4
• Halo Infinite
• Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
• Halo Wars 2: Standard Edition
• Halo: Spartan Assault
• Halo: Spartan Strike
• Hardspace: Shipbreaker 
• Hearts of Iron 4
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
• Hello Neighbor 2
• Her Story
• Hi-Fi Rush
• High On Life
• HITMAN Trilogy
• Hollow Knight
• House Flipper
• Human Fall Flat
• Humankind
• Immortality
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Injustice 2
• Inside
• It Takes Two
• Jade Empire
• Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Just Cause 4: Reloaded
• Kentucky Route Zero
• Kill It With Fire
• Killer Instinct
• Kraken Academy!!
• LAPIN (Game Preview)
• Last Call BBS
• Lawn Mowing Simulator
• League of Legends
• Legends of Runeterra
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Let's Build a Zoo
• Life is Strange: True Colors
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13
• Little Witch in the Woods (Game Preview)
• Lonely Mountains: Downhill
• Loot River
• Lost in Random
• Madden NFL 21
• Madden NFL 22
• Maneater
• Marvel's Avengers
• Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition
• Mass Effect
• Mass Effect 2 
• Mass Effect 3 
• Mass Effect: Andromeda 
• Matchpoint-Tennis Championships 
• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
• Medal of Honor Airborne
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault 
• Medieval Dynasty
• Metal: Hellsinger 
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 
• Microsoft Solitaire Collection
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War
• Midnight Fight Express
• Minecraft Dungeons 
• Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition 
• Mirror's Edge
• Mirror's Edge Catalyst
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Monster Sanctuary
• Monster Train
• Moonglow Bay
• Moonlighter
• Moonscars
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Mortal Shell
• MotoGP22
• My Friend Pedro 
• My Friend Peppa Pig
• My Time At Portia
• Naraka: Bladepoint
• Need for Speed 
• Need for Speed Heat 
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 
• Need for Speed Most Wanted
• Need for Speed Payback
• Need for Speed Rivals
• Neon Abyss
• New Super Lucky's Tale
• Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered
• Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection
• No Man's Sky
• Norco
• Nuclear Throne
• Octopath Traveler
• Offworld Trading Company
• Olija
• Omori
• Opus Magnum
• OPUS: Echo of Starsong
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Outriders
• Overcooked! 2
• Overwhelm
• Pac-Man Museum+
• Panzer Corps 2
• Paradise Killer
• PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
• PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls
• PAW Patrol: Grand Prix
• Peggle
• Peggle Nights
• Pentiment
• Persona 5 Royal
• Persona 4 Golden
• Persona 3 Portable
• Phantom Abyss (Game Preview)
• Phoenix Point
• Pikuniku 
• Pillars of Eternity
• Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
• Plants vs. Zombies 
• Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare
• Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville 
• Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2
• Populous
• Populous 2: Trials of the Olympian Gods
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
• Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• PowerWash Simulator
• Prey
• Prodeus
• Psychonauts 
• Psychonauts 2
• Quake
• Quake 2
• Quake 3 Arena
• Quake 4
• RAGE 2 
• Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan
• ReCore: Definitive Edition
• Research and Destroy
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Return to Monkey Island
• Rise of Nations: Extended Edition
• Road 96
• Roboquest (Game Preview)
• Rocket Arena
• Rubber Bandits
• Rush: A DisneyPixar Adventure
• Scorn
• Sea of Solitude
• Sea of Thieves
• Serious Sam 4
• Shenzhen I/O
• Shredders
• SIGNALIS
• Sid Meier's Civilization 4
• SimCity 2000 
• SimCity 4 
• SimCity: 
• Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
• Slay The Spire
• Slime Rancher 2
• Sniper Elite 5
• SnowRunner
• Soccer Story
• Solasta: Crown of the Magister
• Soma
• Somerville
• Spacelines from the Far Out
• Spelunky 2
• SpiderHeck
• Spore
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
• Star Wars Battlefront 
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Star Wars: Squadrons
• Starbound
• Stardew Valley
• State of Decay 2
• Stellaris
• Stranded Deep
• Sunset Overdrive
• Super Lucky's Tale
• Super Mega Baseball 3
• Superliminal
• Surgeon Simulator 2
• Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master!
• Tainted Grail: Conquest
• Teamfight Tactics
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
• Tell Me Why: Chapters 1-3
• Telling Lies
• Tetris Effect: Connected
• The Ascent
• The Bard's Tale ARPG 
• The Bard's Tale 4: Director's Cut
• The Bard's Tale Trilogy
• The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos
• The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind 
• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion 
• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim 
• The Evil Within 
• The Evil Within 2 
• The Gunk
• The Legend of Tianding
• The Long Dark
• The Outer Worlds
• The Riftbreaker 
• The Saboteur
• The Sims 3 
• The Sims 4 
• The Walking Dead: Season 1
• The Walking Dead: Season 2
• The Walking Dead: The Final Season
• The Yakuza Remastered Collection 
• theHunter: Call of the Wild
• This War of Mine: Final Cut
• Tinykin
• Titanfall 2
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Torment: Tides of Numenera
• Total War: Three Kingdoms
• Total War: Warhammer 3
• Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service
• Townscaper
• Trailmakers
• Train Sim World 3
• Trek to Yomi
• Tunic
• Turbo Golf Racing (Game Preview)
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
• Two Point Campus
• Umurangi Generation 
• Undertale 
• Unpacking
• Unravel
• Unravel 2
• Unsouled
• Valheim (Game Preview)
• Valorant
• Vampire Survivors
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
• Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
• Wasteland 3
• Wasteland Remastered
• Watch Dogs 2
• Weird West
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Wolfenstein 2: Standard Edition
• Wolfenstein: The New Order 
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood 
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood 
• Worms W.M.D
• Wreckfest
• Yakuza 0 
• Yakuza 3 Remastered 
• Yakuza 4 Remastered 
• Yakuza 5 Remastered 
• Yakuza 6: The Song of Life 
• Yakuza Kiwami 
• Yakuza Kiwami 2 
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon
• You Suck at Parking
• Young Souls
• Zero Escape: The Nonary Games
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War
• Zoo Tycoon

Xbox Game Pass has so much to offer, with many games available to play on both Xbox Series X/S and PC - so you can even try out some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best PC games around right now depending on your setup. Lots of new games for 2025 will also be available to play day one as part of the Ultimate subscription, including the likes of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:State of Decay 3 and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:South of Midnight.

Happily while we wait it out for exciting new arrivals, some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best games of 2025 so far have alreadyꦡ found a happy home among the growing library of experiences. But with so much choice at your fingertips, you might be wondering what some of the biggest highlights are - and that's where we come in.

Below, we've brought together the 25 best games currently available on Xbox Game Pass with picks across a variety of genres so you can find something to suit you - from the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best FPS games to the most memorable horror games, action-adventures, and latest additions to the lineup - including some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox Series X games in recent years. So read on below as we take you through♛ 🔯our selection of the best games on Xbox Game Pass

The 25 best Xbox Game Pass games to play in 2025 are...

25. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Developer: MachineGames
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best adventure games to come out of 2024 if you'r🌜e willing to give it a shot. Set in 1937, the game follows Indy as he sets out to stop an ancient power from falling into the wrong hands. As such, you'll be embarking on a worldwide expedition filled with puzzles, danger, and stunning cinematics that make you feel like you're really starring in a movie.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the most immersive RPGs on Game Pass right now. MachineGames really reminds us of their pas♋t work's excellence for storytelling (think Wolfenstein: The New Order), 😼as Indy's latest adventure truly finds the balance between fun and compelling gameplay.

RELATED: 澳♔洲幸运5开奖号码ꦓ历史查询:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: "The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 ♏years"

24. Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Developer: Ubisoft Quebec
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

If you want to lose a few hundred hours in one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best open world games within the Xbox ecosystem, look no further than 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey. This sprawl🤪ing action-adventure game, set across a beautifully rendered Ancient Greece, will let you progress from outcast to living legend.

You'll fight to define your odyssey and uncover secrets from your past, get caught in the middle of epic battles between Athens and Sparta, and take to the Aegean Sea to demonstrate your ability to lead. Between its fantastic story, challenging combat, and immersive world, there's no doubt that Odyssey is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Assassin's Creed games out there and it's a fantastic entry to make the most of on Game Pass - especially since the latest game, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Shadows, is not currently available.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Assassin's Creed Odyssey review: "No-one's made an open-worldไ RPG with this much depth since The Witcher 3"

23. Microsoft Flight Simulator

Developer: Asobo Studio
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Travel the world from the comfort of your own home. It's actually a little absurd, just how utterly wonderful 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft Flight Simulator can be. Whether you're a wannabe pilot, world travel en꧂thusiast, or are just looking for some truly stunning fluid screensavers to stick on in the background.

At the same time, you complete other activities, Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the most unintentionally zen experiences available through Game Pass – you know, aside from the horror of taking off and landing. Available for both Xbox and PC, and surprisingly comfortable to play on both gamepad and keyboard, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an illuminating 🐎experience that'll help give you a new perspective on the world we inhabit.

22. Mafia: Definitive Edition

Developer: Hangar 13
Game Pass: Xbox, PC, Cloud

Mafia lets you step into the shoes of Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver-turned-unwilling gangster in 1930s Chicago. Crime certainly pays in this grit⛎ty action-adventure, spearheaded by a compelling narrative that easily puts it up there as one of the best games to play on Xbox Game Pass if you're a sucker for a little historical fiction.

Expect high-speed car chases, plenty of gunslinging, and a stylish cityscape to explore that simply oozes period-specific charm. With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mafia: The Old Country on the way, there's no time like the present to get familiar with ꦕthe game that kicked off Hangar 13's Mafia franchise.

21. Powerwash Simulator

Developer: FuturLab
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

What's the appeal of simulator games? Typically, they let you experience a side to life that you're unable (or otherwise unwilling) to do IRL. Now, I never really considered myself a power washing enthusiast – but all that changed once I sunk more hours than I'm comfortable admitting into what is undoubtedly one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best sim games out there right now.

PowerWash Simulator is ostensibly about making dirty objects clean again, but it's also an effective mindfulness retreat – hosing down vehicles and houses is surprisingly relaxing, and the endorphin hit you receive for a job well done is almost enough to make you want to get up off the couch and tackleജ the mess in your own home.

RELATED: How Pow❀erWash Simulator is helping me unwind, one clean surface at a time

20. Sea of Stars

Developer: Sabotage Studio
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Sea of Stars is a love🌳 letter to classic RPGs. It's the sort of game that rekindles fond memories of the 16-bit greats: from Shining Force to Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger to Phantasy S🐷tar, and plenty of others.

But developer Sabotage Studio hasn't just crafted a beautiful nostalgia play here, with Sea of Stars pushing for greater exploration and world-building than some of its contemporaries. An utter💮ly delightful JRPG that you won't regret spending 40 or so hours with.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Sea of Stars review: "A delicious, Michelin-starred tasting menu of🌜 an🀅 RPG"

19. Atomfall

Developer: Rebellion
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

If you're looking for a fresh survival adventure to step into, look no further than Atomfall. Set in Northern England after a nuclear disaster, you're thrown into a fictional quarantine zone where you set out to find ou🐟t what's going on, why you're there, and what really happened to this place. Of course, you'll have to try and survive the many dangers that await you in the zone, from threatening cults to nuclear bunkers, and more.

Inspired by a real-worlꦦd event, the lush countryside contrasts with theꦚ treacherous scenarios you'll face as you scavenge, craft, and explore the zone. It's sure to speak to fans of Fallout, but it also stands out entirely on its own merits and makes for a fantastic Game Pass option to try out.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallou🌠t – it's something much better than that"

18. Still Wakes the Deep

Developer: The Chinese Room
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Imagine if '80s monster movie The Thing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:had been set on an oil rig. That's what fans of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best horror games can look forward to in first-person terror Still Wakes 🧜the Deep. Set in 1975, Scottish oil worker Caz McCleary has just been fired, but no sooner has he left his boss's office than his day gets even worse.

With a creeping, malevolent entity moving about the gigantic floating vessel and no way to contact the mainland some thousands of miles away, Caz has no way to fight back – but he has plenty of places to hide. Still Wakes the Deep's haunting audio design, heart-pounding hide-and-seek mechanics, and utterly terrifying monsters will appeal to any Amnesia: The Dark Descent or Outlast superfans. What's m🌃ore, you can download and play it on Xbox Game Pass right now.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Still Wakes the Deep review: "a moody, ambient piece of short💧-form horror fiction"

17. Hi-Fi Rush 

Developer: Tango Gameworks
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

If we're talking unexpected grea🐈ts among the best Game Pass games, Hi-Fi Rush is a clear frontrunner. Tango Gameworks' vibrant world of rhythmic hack n' slack was an instant hot topic when it launched in early 2023, and ever since then, it's been cemented as a certified banger.

Playing as Chai, a kid who just happens to have his MP3 player soldered to his skeleton after a little accident, Hi-Fi Rush players will be using the power of music to defeat enemies to the tune of some sweet, sweet tunes. With its splashy visual language straight out of a comic book paired with a distinctly '90🍸s anime aesthetic, Hi-Fi Rush is the definition of charming. And yes, you'll want to download the whole soundtrack.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hi-Fi Rush review: "an undeniably wild ride that shouldn't be ignor💟ed"

16. Vampire Survivors

Developer: Poncle
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

The worst thing that you can do is write-off Vampire Survivors without trying it for yourself. And lis🙈ten, I get it: a quick glance at a screenshot or slice of gameplay and Vampire Survivors looks like it's little more than a hastily-assembled retro throwback. Get your hands on the damn thing, though, and prepare to have time just sink right out from underneath you.

Your mission is to survive until dawn, and the only way you can accomplish that is by marauding against thousands of enemies. Easy controls and light roguelike elements combine to create an experience that is just absurdly replayable – willing you into just one more round to add a few seconds to your survivability.

RELATED: Have you tried… killing thousands🍷 of ghouls with the power of WASD in Vampire Survivors?

15. Age of Empires 4

Developer: Relic Entertainment
Game Pass: PC, Xbox

I don't know about you, but when I think of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RTS games my mind automatically clicks into 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like Age of Empires – consider that a result of my wasted♏ youth advocating for The Rise of Rome. Age of Empires 4 is a fantastic installment to the series, expanding upon the core foundations with more depth and detail with💝out losing sight of the approachability that helped define the earlier adventures.

Age of Empires 4 is currently available on Game Pass for PC. However, a rel꧃ease on Xbox Game Pass also came out recently, allo💙wing a generation of console players to finally understand why Age of Empires reigns supreme.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Age of Empires 4 review: "History, carnage, and te൩eny weenyꦬ elephants - it has it all"

14. It Takes Two

Developer: Hazelight Studios
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

It Takes Two took the world by storm in 2𒁏021. 🐼This innovative experience blurs the line between action-adventure and puzzle game, and can only be experienced in either online or local split-screen configurations with one other player.

It Takes Two has you attempting to repair a fractured relationship, with each level introducing a new way to play and a suite of controls to learn – while that may sound intimidating, the result is an experience that constantly keeps you guessing. It's considered to be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best co-op games for good reason and is a must-play via Game Pass for PC or 🔯through EA Play on Xbox Gam꧋e Pass Ultimate.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:It Takes Two review: "A co-op experience unlike any other"

13. Inside

Developer: Playdead
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Some video games stick with you forever. Inside is one of those experiences, a haunting platformer that uses a stark visual design and all-encompassing atmosphere to tell a strange little story. With simple environmental puzzles to solve and best-in-class controls to help guide you through the world, Inside is considered by many to be one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best games of all time.

It must🌞 be played to be properly apprec𒈔iated, though, so I'd recommend that you avoid reading up on it too much and just take the dive. Developer Playdead has established itself as a master of economic narrative design, and Inside will keep you guessing breathlessly right up until its final moments.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Inside review: "A nightmari🅺sh journe𒊎y which is fascinating and frightening in equal measure"

12. Avowed

Avowed is an engaging fantasy RPG from Fallout: New Vegas and Grounded developer Obsidian. Taking on the role ꧑of the Envoy of Aedyr who sets out to look into a plague that's spreading across the Living Lands, you get to step into the colorful, inviting landscapes of Eora which is based in the Pillars of E🎃ternity universe. You're also a godlike - an individual who was blessed by a deity at birth, and curiously, your godlike features share some resemblance with the very plague you're looking into.

Spinning an engrossing story that's yours to shape through your choices, it also features an enjoyable flexible combat system that lets you dual wield a variety of different weapons - from daggers to magic grimoires and bows - that can be swapped out with ease. Topped off with memorable companions and parkour, Avowed is one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Xbox exclusives on Game Pass right now.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Avowed reviewꦫ: "No Skyrim, but an unforgettable return to form for Obsidian Entertainmen🐻t"

11. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Let's not pretend that you don't know what The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is. It's one of the best-selling games of all time and has been released on just about every platform you can imagine. So consider this more of a PSA: If you want to sink a few more hundred hours into one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best RPGs then you can do so thanks to Game Pass.

With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Elder Scrolls 6 still years away, there's no harm in diving back into a world of dragon slaying and♛ boundless exploration. What's incredible is that Skyrim still holds up today, over a decade on from its original re🍸lease on Xbox 360.

RELATED: Skyℱrim survived the decade and Bethesda believes "people will still be playing it" in the next one

10. Deathloop

Developer: Arkane Studios
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Deathloop was crowned the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+ Game of the Year in 2🥀021 for good reason. Arkane Studios built its reputation off the back of immersive sims like Dishonored and Prey and leveraged its talent for world-building and imaginative action to create one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best shooters of the modern era.

This smart action game strands you in a time loop, and the only way to break the cycle is to assassinate eight targets in a single day. The island of Blackreef is a vast, intuitively designed space that contains a multitude of mysteries – each day an opportunity to explore new paths, gather more intel, upgrade your abilities anℱd fi🐼ght for your freedom.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Deathloop review: "You won't play anything eꦗlse quite like it for a very long time"

9. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

Developer: BioWare
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

The toughest part of creating a list like the best Game Pass games is one of curation. With hundreds of viable video games available, whittling it down can be a frustrating exercise. That's why I appreciate sometꦗhing like Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which collects three of the best RPGs into one brilliantly remastered package.

Developer BioWare built one hell of a trilogy herꩵe: a science-fiction epic that tasks you with navigating intergalactic politics, building a crew of reliable heroes, and fighting to save the galaxy from extinction. The Legendary Edition also ♛smooths out some of the series' rougher Xbox 360-era edges, making this a collection of truly essential role-playing games.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Mass Effect Legendary Editio⛄n review: "The only way to play an unmissable series"

8. Hollow Knight

Developer: Team Cherry
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

With 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hollow Knight Silksong on the near horizon, time is running out to get acquainted with one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best Metroidvania games of the modern era. The Voidheart Edition of the ▨original Hollow Knight is available on Game Pass, which takes the fantastic foundations of the original experience – a challenging action-adventure set in a visually awe-inspiring hand-drawn 2D world – and improves upon them.

There are new key balance fixes for some of the boss battles and quality-of-life improvements to core movement and combat system💖s. Hollow Knight isn't the easiest game in the world, but it is one that'll delight you from start to finish – don't let this one pass you by.

7. Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 

Developer: Ninja Theory
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Bridging the gap between film and video game, Sena's Saga: Hellblade 2 is a cinematic adventure 🎃with just as much of an internal journey as an outward one. Blending Iceland's unforgiving real-world terrain with Nordic mysticism and folklore, Ninja Theory doubles down on the graphical fidelity in this grueling ﷺsequel to make it one of the best-looking Xbox Series X games ever.

Hacking through draugr, parsing environmental puzzles, and delving into the secrets of these harsh lands is a journe🗹y you'll not soon forget, making it without a doubt one of the best games to play on Xbox Game Pass right now.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Hellblade 2 review: "nothing short of video game sorcery"

6. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Developer: MachineGames
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is one of the most entertaining firs🦋t-person shooters of the last generation. Set in an alternative history timeline, one where Nazi Germa🌞ny emerges victorious from World War 2, you join a ragtag crew to stand as the last line of defense. And it is utterly, truly absurd in all the right ways.

MachineGames delivers where it matters: weighty weapons, challenging enemies, and a healthy smattering of gore. But the studio also does an ♓excellent job of creating characters that you'll care about, full of life and laughter, and of weaving together a narrative that'll always keep you guessing – it's impossible to anticipate whe💖re this adventure will take you, so just strap in and enjoy the ride.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus review: "Be bold, in 🌳this boldesꦗt of games, and you'll have a blast"

5. Stardew Valley

Developer: ConcernedApe
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stardew Valley is among the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best farming games released in the modern era. You arrive in a small town to inherit an🐓 old plot of land from your late grandfather, pick up a selection of hand-me-down tools, and set out to make a few coins ওfrom whatever life you can dig up out of the ground.

Stardew Valley starts slow but quickly becomes all-consuming as you're enveloped in the daily rituals and routines required to keep your burgeoning business expanding. Stardew Valley may have started life as a love letter to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like Harvest Moon, but after 🍬years of free expansions and quality-of-life improvements, it no💜w stands as the best example of the genre.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Rediscovering the joy༺s of Stardew Val🏅ley: After so many updates, returning fꦓeels like 💧a breath of fresh air

4. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Developer: 343 Industries / Bungie
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

Halo: The Master Chief Collection features six games and one epic saga, making this one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best FPS games packages available ꧃in the ecosystem. Join Spartan-117 and Cortana on theirꦐ original adventure in Halo: Combat Evolved through to their final Xbox 360 outing in Halo 4.

And when you're done with each of these fantastic campaigns, there's a streamlined multiplayer offering to jump into, too – which has cross-platform support between Xbox and Windows 10 to keep those classic servers populated. If you're looking for more Halo, the adventure continues in Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox Game Pass and then into 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Halo Infinite on Game Pass for Xbox and PC.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历༒史查询:Halo: The Master Chief Collection review: "A product of memory, nostalgia, and lon♊g-term perceptions"

3. Forza Horizon 5

Developer: Playground Games
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Horizon 5 has sat atop our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best racing games list since its release in 2021, and there's no sign of its dominance waning. Playground Games delivered an ambitiously scoped,🅷 visually awe-inspiring, and bewild🌟eringly smooth road-tripping experience in Forza Motorsport 5.

It gives ༒you the freedom to explo♔re the vibrant open-world landscapes of Mexico, all from the driver's seat of some of the world's most awesome vehicles – each recreated with pixel-perfect precision. Whether you're looking to race planes, trains, and other automobiles, journey cross-country with friends online, or create custom cars for your community, there are activities for everybody to enjoy in Forza Horizon 5.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Horizon 5 review: "Playground Games' most exciting and beautifully crafted entry y💫et"

2. Minecraft

Developer: Mojang
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

One of the most popular and enduring video games of all-time, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Minecraft is an easy Game Pass recommendation. Mojang Studios has encouraged countless generations of players to leverage 𓆏their imaginations in service of redefining its blocky sandbox.

Minecraft works as well as it does because it lives by a simple mantra: if you can dream it, you can build it; and if you can build it, you can share it with others. While there is a compelling adventure at the heart of Minecraft, it has become so much more than a video game. It's a social spot f🍷or friends new and old, a foundation for global collaboration, and a blank slate for you to express your creativity.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Minecraft review: "A big, beautiful welcome mat to the front door ♎of your imagination"

1. Starfield

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Game Pass: Xbox, PC

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield is the perfect Game Pass game. It's an open-world RPG where you aren't just free to explore🀅 a sprawling continent but an entire universe, piloting a ship of your own desi𒆙gn between planets to define your place in the stars.

If you're a fan of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:games like Skyrim and Fallout, you're going to love this one, owing to its open-ended design and free-fo𓆉rm approach to character building. Starfield is the sort of game that eats time though, so prepare to be playing this one for years into the future.

RELATED: 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield review: "The best thing Bethesda's done since Oblivion"

Looking for something new to play? Be sure to check out all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games coming in 2025 and beyond.

How to cancel Xbox Game Pass on console

To cancel your Xbox Game Pass subscription on either the Xbox Series X or Series S, players needꦡ to do the following:

1. Log into the Account you want to cancel Game Pass on.
2. Once logged in, press the Xbox button in the middle of the controller.
3. Go to the "Profile & System" tab.
4. Select "Settings".
5. In Settings, select "Account".
6. Finally, select "Subscriptions".
7. You'll see a list of all Subscriptions you're under on your account.
8. Select the Game Pass subscription.
9. Select "Turn off recurring billing" and follow the instructions provided.
10. Your Xbox Game Pass subscription should now end on its expiration date without renewing.

It's not the most intuitive system, but this means that you'll have whenever you were paid up until, whereupon at that point the subscription will end altogether without you being charged again. Of course, you can sign up for the subscription again in the future, or select to turn it 😼back on before it ends, but for now you're officially unhooked, and will only have until whatever you paid up for.

How to cancel Xbox Game Pass on PC

If you'd rather cancel Xbox Game Pass on your PC, the p🌌rocess is different, but the results are the same. Do the following:

1. Go to .
2. Log into the Microsoft Account you want to cancel Game Pass on.
3. Go to "Services and Subscriptions" at the top of the page.
4. Find the Game Pass subscription on the list and select "Manage".
5. Select "Turn off recurring billing".
6. Confirm on the next screen that you want to turn off recurring billing.
7. Your Xbox Game Pass subscription should now end on its expiration date without renewing.

You can use this to cancel a subscription that you play entirelཧy on Xbox if needed, merely through logging into the same account. Likewise, you can start recurring billing again if you change your mind through the same Services and Subscriptions tab on your account.

Redfall is expected to launch on May 2 2023, and being a first-party Xbox Series X title, it will have a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass by default. The latest fast-paced FPS from Arkane Studios, Redfall's creepy open world and vampire-slaying machinations have made it one of the more notable 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2023. While you'll still get the base game included with your mont💃hly Game Pass subscription, the recently announced Redfall Bite Back Edition includes exclusive additional content – and it's definitely affordable as 🌟long as you buy the right version.

The Bite Back Edition comprises two additional content packs. The Vampire Hunter Pack is built into all base copies of Redfall on Game Pass, featuring the Blood Ravager Stake, Grim Tide Shotgun, and Polar Vortex Multi💝-Weapon Skin. On topꦿ of this, you'll be receiving four character skins (Northern Expedition, War Clothes, Eyes In The Dark  and Engineer Volunteer), a laser beam multiweapon skin, and the Tactical Knife Stake as part of the Bite Back perks. You'll also unlock the Hero Pass, giving you access to two future Heroes when they are released further down the line.

The pre-order Bite Back add-ons can be purchased as an upgrade from the , costing £26.99 / US$33.50 for Game Pass subscribers in addition to your monthly subs. Even with these subscription fees on top of the up💧grade, that would cost a standard Xbox Game Pass subscriber to just under £35 / US$44 for both the game and the Bite Back upgrade.

These are some sizable savings when comparing it to the digital copy of ; it's currently going for a baffling £99.99 / US$124 for non-Game Pass subscribers, so you definitely want to make sure you check which version ✱you opt for before you✤ pay up.

No, Redfall isn't Arkane's version of Left4Dead – the studio is going for a Far Cry vibe instead 

Nintendo and Microsoft announced j🅘ust earlier today on January 25 that GoldenEye 💦007 would be coming to Nintendo Switch Online and Xbox Game Pass later this week on January 27. When Friday rolls around, all subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack and Xbox's subscription service will be able to download GoldenEye 007 straight away.

This, somewhat uꦺnfortunately, is the only way GoldenEye 007 is returning to a modern Nintendo. GoldenEye 007 seemingly won't be available for standalone purchase on Nintendo Switch systems, and as soon as your subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service expires, you'll immediately lose access to the remastered game.

Is was back in September that 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Microsoft announced GoldenEye 007 would be coming to both Nintendo Switch and Xbox platforms at some point in the near future. Right now, it's not entirely clear if GoldenEye 007 will be available for purchase on Xbox systems outside of download via Xbox Game Pass, as it isn't available outside a subscription service on Nintendo's devic🔴e.

One important thing to reiterate is that only the Switch of GoldenEye 007 will feature online multiplayer. This was one unfortunate catch of the remaster, announced last year, as Xbox pl📖ayers will have to make do with local multiplayer action if they want to go head-to-head with others🐼.

Check out our 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2023 guide for a look over all the new titles coming to both Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms throughout the rest of the year. 

Starfield

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Release date: Spring 2023

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Starfield will be the system seller the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Series X and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass needs in 2023. Developer Bethesda Game Studios is best known as the steward of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, but with this spacefaring RPG the team will deliver its first entirely new IP in 25 years. Starfield is set to let you define your own adventure between the stars, where you'll be able to create your own character, define their personality, and travel a galaxy comprising ov𝔍er 1000 explorable planets. Between the in-depth crafting and customization systems, the emphasis on dialogue and persuasion alongside considered first-person combat, and the ability to outfit your very own starship, this looks every bit a dream RPG for fans of science fiction. Starfield was supposed to launch as an Xbox Series X platform exclusive on November 11, 2022, but a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:delay pushed the game to the ༺first half of 2023. 

Redfall

Developer: Arkane Studios
Release date: Spring 2023

Arkane Studios earned a reputation for building some of the finest action games of the past three generation cycles through Dishonored, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Dishonored 2, Prey, and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Deathloop. Now the team is turning its attention towards a new type of experience with Redfall, a cooperati𓃲ve shooter which will let you join up with three friends and hunt vampires in a contained open-world coastal town in Massachusetts. Yet, despite the differences to the immersive sims Arkane is best known for creating, the ꧂studio's DNA can be found all throughout Redfall – from the suite of audacious weapons and supernatural powers at your disposal, to a sharp focus on intertwining levels and environmental storytelling. Redfall is scheduled to launch in the first half of the year and, whether you're coming to it via Game Pass or the storefront, it's all-but set to be a defining Xbox Series X game for 2023. 

• Learn how Redfall is Arkane's love letter to Far Cry, Stalker, and Borderlands in our exclusive 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Big in 2023: Redfall feature. 

Forza Motorsport

Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Release date: Spring 2023

It's funny to think that we used to receive new Forza Motorsport games every two years; that changed in the Xbox One era, and it's now been over five years since the release of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport 7. Thankfully, Turn 10 Studios is making its long-awaited return in Spring 2023 with an experience that is designed to take full advantage of the power and performance of the Xbox Series X. For 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 has focused its resources on creating a more detailed simulation engine to deliver a more realistic driving experience. With improved car physics and weighting comes a greater focus on damage modeling to💃o, while the introduction of ray-tracing will ensure that every blemish on your bodywork is clear for all to see. Forza Motorsport is destined to be the system showcase that the Xbox Series X is in desperate need of, with all signs pointing to this being among the best looking and performing titles on the platform.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl 

Developer: GSC Game World
Release date: 2023

The legendary S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has long been confined to the realms of PC gaming, but this year Xbox Series X owners will get a chance to see what all the fuss is about. 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is back in active development after GSC Game World was forced to halt prod꧟uction as a result of🦩 the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, with the shooter now scheduled to release in 2023. It'll be worth the wait too. Everything we have seen of Stalker 2 continues to impress – from the reactive enemy and mutant AI to the stunning borderless open-world, and the awe-inspiring anomalies cast out across it. Expect a heady blend of challenging FPS action, light survival mechanics, and immersive sim sensibilities to all be present and accounted for in Stalker 2; GSC Game World wants to make the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone truly inhospitable🅘, and we can't wait to dive back into it after so many years away. 

Planet Of Lana

Developer: Wishfully
Release date: TBC 2023

Planet of Lana is one of those video games where, once you see it in action, you immediately feel the impulse to dive headfirst into its world and waste away the hours exploring its mysteries. Developer Wishfully is billing this Xbox console exclusive as an "off-earth odyssey" but it's perhaps best described as a love letter to Limbo and Inside with a gorgeous Studio Ghibli-style visual design. This cinematic puzzle adventure is scheduled to launch Spring 2023 and we're already counting down the days, especially after discovering that The Last Guardian composer Takeshi Furukawa will be handling the score. We've been impressed by everything we have played of Planet Of Lana so far, with the adventure offering a nice blend o𓂃f quiet exploration, logic-based puzzles, and action sequences that'll test your reflexes. Planet of Lana will be available through Xbox Game Pass on day one too, so you've n💞o excuse for not jumping into this awe-inspiring world.

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Big in 2023 is the GamesRadar+ guide to the most anticipated games of the year. Join us all throughout January as we explore the biggest upcoming video games of 2023, and the developers making them.

But mention of Ark 2 has steadily been popping up in recent months, with Studio Wildcard revealing that the Lost Colony expansion for 🥂Ark: Survival Evolved is directly linked to Ark 2, before a trailer 🍸dropped for the DLC which appeared to be AI-generated. We haven't heard much more sin🅷ce, but with the summer season fast approaching, we'll be crossing o🌟ur fingers for Ark 2 to resurface.

The Ark series is home to some of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best survival games of all-time, after all, and with Ark 2 promising to be a major expansion on what's come before, fans everywhere are eagerly awaiting the new survival game. Plus, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Vin Diesel is on board as an executive⛦ pr🔯oducer, and the actor is also set to play a leading ro𓃲le, which only adds to the excitement. While we await more news, read on below as we give you a rundown of everything we know so far about Ark 2.

Ark 2 release date remains TBC

There is no Ark 2 release date or release window confirmed. It was widely expected that the new survival game 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:would launch late 2024, although that pe🌠riod has come and gone without an update from Studio 🙈Wildcard.

It's now believed that Ark 2 may as one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games for 2025, a𝔍lthough this remains speculative, and thanks to news of an upcoming expansion for Ark: Survival Ascended, 2026 seems m💞ore likely now.

According to aꦓ recent press release for Ark: Lost Colony, the new expansion "connects the storylines of Ark's Extinction and Genesis expansions and leads into the events of Ark 2." Lost Colony will be released in November this year and is the first expansion for Ark: Survival Ascended (aka the Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Ark: Survival Evolved). For more information, you can watch the Ark: Lost Colony trailer below.

But, if you want to skip the teaser, the important information to keep in mind regarding the expansion is that Actor Auli'i Cravalho will appear as Meeka (Vin Diesel's character's daughter). With that in mind, since it’s meant to be the bridge to the new game, we're guessing that Lost Colony will have to be released first befoღre Ark 2 launches.

That means we're looking at a potential 2026 relea🦋se window🍌 rather than 2025. However, this is just speculation on our part, and we may get an announcement sooner rather than later. So, keep your eyes on this page for more details.

Ark 2 platforms

Ark 2 is one of the most anticipated 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming PC games and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Xbox Series X games, b൩ut there's also a window of console exclusivity to consider.

Ark 2 is a launch exclusive for Xbox Series X; Studio Wildcard announced this partnership with Microsoft Gaming 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:alongside its reveal of the game. Ark 2 will also be added to the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Pass list from day one.

With the impending arrival of the Switch 2, there's also been no kind of confirmation as to whether we'll see Ark 2 come to the new console. Still, given that past Ark games have come to Switch eventually, there's always the chance that it could join the lineup of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:upcoming Switch 2 games someday. We'll be keeping a close eye out for any n🍌ews or updates re♚garding platforms!