The Game Pass Thread

[ZedClampet]

I thought it might be good to have a thread that anyone can update on good, or at least potentially good, games that they've found on Game Pass. I, for one, tend to use it for awhile and then forget about it and don't always see what's on there. On multiple occasions I've been about to buy a game that I could play as a part of Game Pass.

I'll start by just listing some games I find interesting from the new arrivals section:

Expeditions Rome - CRPG, Party-based, turn-based.

Ubisoft Games - Apparently this is a thing now. I saw Ghost Recon Wildlands and Watch Dogs 2, both of which I enjoyed at release. There's probably more Ubisoft games. I didn't specifically search for them.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion - RTS

As Dusk Falls - Visual Novel, QTE's

Escape Academy - Puzzle

Two Point Campus - Management, Simulation

 

[Frag Maniac]

This pretty much shows all Game Pass games on both PC and Xbox. https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/games

Here's a list that shows when each game was added, and how many people are playing. https://www.trueachievements.com/pc-game-pass/games

 

[WoodenSaucer]

The ones I have played at least some of are: A Plague Tale: Innocence, Psychonauts 2, Halo Infinite, It Takes Two, Doom Eternal, No Man's Sky, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Myst, Forza Horizon 5, Outer Wilds, Sunset Overdrive, Golf with Friends, The Long Dark, Tunic

Of those, I liked most of them. But I thought Sunset Overdrive, Golf with Friends, and Tunic sucked. I loved Psychonauts 2 up to a point, and then it turned into something I didn't care to keep playing. Doom Eternal was too fast paced for me.

I think these games look interesting to try out: Grounded, Sable, Sea of Solitude, Tell Me Why

 

[ZedClampet]

The ones I have played at least some of are: A Plague Tale: Innocence, Psychonauts 2, Halo Infinite, It Takes Two, Doom Eternal, No Man's Sky, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Myst, Forza Horizon 5, Outer Wilds, Sunset Overdrive, Golf with Friends, The Long Dark, Tunic

Of those, I liked most of them. But I thought Sunset Overdrive, Golf with Friends, and Tunic sucked. I loved Psychonauts 2 up to a point, and then it turned into something I didn't care to keep playing. Doom Eternal was too fast paced for me.

I think these games look interesting to try out: Grounded, Sable, Sea of Solitude, Tell Me Why

I tried Grounded for awhile. It really wasn't my kind of survival game, but lots of people love it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Doom Eternal was too fast paced for me.

Yes it's a very fast paced game. I played on Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra Violence, then Nightmare. Despite knowing the game fairly well by the time I started my Nightmare run, at first I thought that mode was going to be too much for me. I finally developed a method in the big battle arenas where I'd control a small area at a time, then move to another location. Some of the tougher battles take several tries to get to know where the tougher enemies spawn and when. Even the platforming can feel daunting at first, but I eventually got to where I could do shortcuts in several spots. It's definitely a game that leaves you feeling drained after beating it on Nightmare though, and honestly, despite starting with all skills and perks unlocked, The Ancient Gods DLC is even more demanding. I started it up, got most of the way through the first level, and after many months, have not gone back to it yet.

 

[ZedClampet]

Yes it's a very fast paced game. I played on Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra Violence, then Nightmare. Despite knowing the game fairly well by the time I started my Nightmare run, at first I thought that mode was going to be too much for me. I finally developed a method in the big battle arenas where I'd control a small area at a time, then move to another location. Some of the tougher battles take several tries to get to know where the tougher enemies spawn and when. Even the platforming can feel daunting at first, but I eventually got to where I could do shortcuts in several spots. It's definitely a game that leaves you feeling drained after beating it on Nightmare though, and honestly, despite starting with all skills and perks unlocked, The Ancient Gods DLC is even more demanding. I started it up, got most of the way through the first level, and after many months, have not gone back to it yet.

I don't think most people are willing to play like this. It's like me playing on Unbeatable. Most people couldn't handle losing that often.

 

[Ryzengang]

I tend to hop in and out of gamepass, but I end up coming back simply because I can't ignore how much I can save trying games I'm lukewarm on. I like trying games from a wide range of genres and I can really safe a lot of money with gamepass. I'm not playing anything right now, but two games that I'm keen on trying are Trek to Yomi and Lost in Random. I don't know that I'd purchase them, but they seem interesting enough to give a shot. Luckily, temps are more moderate at the moment here, so my gaming habits will probably start going back to normal. Running a rig with a 3080 in it during summer with no AC isn't a good experience, as I'm sure you can imagine.

 

[redmark_]

I tend to hop in and out of gamepass, but I end up coming back simply because I can't ignore how much I can save trying games I'm lukewarm on. I like trying games from a wide range of genres and I can really safe a lot of money with gamepass. I'm not playing anything right now, but two games that I'm keen on trying are Trek to Yomi and Lost in Random. I don't know that I'd purchase them, but they seem interesting enough to give a shot. Luckily, temps are more moderate at the moment here, so my gaming habits will probably start going back to normal. Running a rig with a 3080 in it during summer with no AC isn't a good experience, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I don't do gamepass, but based on what you said, is it really better to do gamepass just to try out games?
sort of like a super sampler taste test of various games... 🤔

 

[Frag Maniac]

I don't think most people are willing to play like this. It's like me playing on Unbeatable. Most people couldn't handle losing that often.

Well, it's probably nothing quite like I imagine Dark Souls games to be, but it certainly can take a lot of tries and careful observation. On the one hand, you're definitely mentally and physically exhausted by it, but on the other, if you're observant enough, it can really open up your eyes regarding easier ways to play such games.

What people often forget I think is there's always times when you can exploit Fodder enemies to gain health, armor and ammo via glory kills, belch, and chainsaw during battles, but also after battles. It's cleverly designed to where there's quite often such stragglers after big battles. So it's not just fast paced, but methodical as well.

Where Doom Eternal really gets fun, is when you get more familiar with the Meathook.
At that point you're not just shortcutting the platforming, but enemies as well.

(Skip to 24:07 for Meathook evade to avoid Revenant and fire pits)

(Skip to 9:07 for Meathook evade to avoid Tentalces)

In fact someone did a great video just on the many ways to use the Meathook.
There's many ways you can use the Meathook, but none more effectively than the Fling.
I never mastered it anywhere near this level, but enjoyed using it a lot.

For me, a big part of my incentive for soldiering through such games is capturing them and showing to others whom may be struggling that there are easier ways, even for those whom, like me, struggle with the reflexes and dexterity it takes to master aerial combat and lighting fast switching of multiple weapons like many can do.

Many of my great memories of Doom Eternal though were watching the true greats at playing the game with high level skill. I hate watching Any% speed runners that use glitches, but the ones that can play games like Doom Eternal on Ultra Nightmare and even 100% it in less than 2 hours 30 minutes, are truly remarkable.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yes it's a very fast paced game. I played on Hurt Me Plenty, Ultra Violence, then Nightmare. Despite knowing the game fairly well by the time I started my Nightmare run, at first I thought that mode was going to be too much for me. I finally developed a method in the big battle arenas where I'd control a small area at a time, then move to another location. Some of the tougher battles take several tries to get to know where the tougher enemies spawn and when. Even the platforming can feel daunting at first, but I eventually got to where I could do shortcuts in several spots. It's definitely a game that leaves you feeling drained after beating it on Nightmare though, and honestly, despite starting with all skills and perks unlocked, The Ancient Gods DLC is even more demanding. I started it up, got most of the way through the first level, and after many months, have not gone back to it yet.

I think I probably played it on Easy, and it was still too much for me.

I usually play games that are a little more laid back.

I don't do gamepass, but based on what you said, is it really better to do gamepass just to try out games?
sort of like a super sampler taste test of various games... 🤔

Game Pass is great for that. I've tried out a lot of games that I never would have tried if I had to buy them all. Some were crap, and I'm glad I didn't have to buy them. And some were great, but I never would have known.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I think I probably played it on Easy, and it was still too much for me.

I usually play games that are a little more laid back.

Yeah Doom Eternal is definitely not laid back, and anyone wanting it to be going into it is going to get laid down, repeatedly. I know I did a lot on my first playthrough.

 

[Zloth]

I had to shift-down to Easy in Doom Eternal to get through it. I was able to do normal difficulty fine for the first third of the game or so, but then I started dying a lot. I started shifting back and forth between easy and medium for a while, then just left it on easy. Even easy mode was hard by the end of the game!

Let's see here... my top 10

1. Outer Wilds. Don't worry about the DLC. Great game with great puzzles, great exploration, great music, and so on. It does start pretty slow with you nosing around the village (don't worry about how hard it is to control that model spaceship), but it takes off when you take off.
2. Subnautica. No DLC to worry about. I guess you would call it a survival game? You can turn the survival stuff off, so that seems a bit dubious. Anyway, it has THE best exploration I've ever seen in any game.
3. Yakuza 0. Kind of a JRPG but with fighting game style combat. The main quest is very serious, but the side quests are zany, making for some good laughs. The starting tutorial goes a long way before letting you save (which you do at telephone booths) so don't start playing it near the end of a session. This is the start of a huge series.
4. Dragon Age: Origins. The start of Bioware's swan song. Getting a little long in the tooth, but the graphics are plenty good.
5. BATTLETECH. You don't get any DLC on this one, so I would play it for maybe 20 hours. If you are really enjoying yourself, bail out and restart after buying all the DLC. If you're having fun but not a great time, just play on through.
6. No Man's Sky, with all (or at least lots of) the updates. Survival space game with sooooo many planets to discover!
7. Mass Effect: Legendary. Bioware's, umm, other swan song. More shooty than Dragon Age.
8. Prey is an excellent immersive sim with some horror thrown in. I didn't even check if the DLC is included because it's good either way. (Also: grossest way to upgrade your magic skills EVER!)
9. Dishonored is another excellent immersive sim. I don't think the first game is as strong as Prey, but the entire series is here and, taken together, provides a lot more fun than Prey.
10. Middle Earth: Shadow of War. You don't get the DLC, but you'll do find without it. Lots of action and the nemesis system works out better than in the first game of the series. Taking over fortresses is fun stuff!

Spoiler: Notes

Watch Dogs 2 is a good one. It's silly to see the main character berate somebody for bad behavior considering how much property damage he does on a daily basis, but that's just a few cutscenes. The gameplay is good stuff.

Alice: Madness Returns is pretty good. The art direction is very good, but the gameplay gets stale after several hours. No biggy on Gamepass, though - just play it until you get bored.

Arx Fatalis - without some mods to help it out? I'm a bit dubious.

BATTLETECH is a really good one! Looks like they want you to cough up cash for the expansions. That might be a game that's better to do as a long term demo. If you like it OK, just play it through on Gamepass. If you like it a lot, bail out, then buy the whole thing and start again.

Dishonored series is an excellent immersive sim series. The areas you play in aren't very big, but they are amazingly detailed.

Dragon Age series is especially good, particularly the first game. That has all the DLC, which is very much a good thing.

Dungeon Keeper games are a classic, but pretty old. There's some newer knock-offs that you're better off with (IMHO) unless you're looking for pure nostalgia.

Europa Universalis 4 - wow, look at those DLC prices!

Final Fantasy 13, possibly the worst of the whole series, is the only one available? Weird. Channeling people to one of the weakest games in the series to try out for the first time is a terrible business practice! At least get FF10 out there.

Galactic Civilizations 3, but with no DLC unless you pay up. I guess you could use it as a demo, but the full version of the game is pretty different than what you'll be playing.

Just Cause 4 might be fun to try out but I never went past JC3, which I'm fairly sure is more fun. You can get it for mighty cheap in Steam Sales, too, so I think you're better off just putting that on your wish list and buying it at the next big sale. JC2 is also great and even cheaper.

Mechwarrior 5 - the shooty version of BATTLETECH for all you haters of turn-basedness. Also very fun. The DLC is good but not good enough that you'll want to buy the whole game. What is worrisome, though, are the mods. The game has quite a few excellent mods. Can you use them with this version? (And can you find mods that work with the base version?) Maybe it's best to do this one as more of a demo, too, to see if you like it. Tutorial is kinda blah but doesn't last too long.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is a good one. You don't get the DLC but you should be fine without it.

Mirror's Edge is worth a look just to see how it plays.

No Man's Sky with all updates! Fun stuff!

Outer Wilds is a great one! One of the best exploration games around. Has some light platforming and lots of puzzle solving. You can definitely live without Echos of the Eye.

Phoenix Point sans all the DLC, even "year one" stuff? Maybe as a demo.

Prey is an excellent immersive sim. More scary than Dishonored, especially for coffee addicts.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a pretty good one

Subnautica and Below Zero - I don't think exploration has ever been done better. No DLC worries, either.

Tropico 6. No DLC, but you can have a lot of fun without it. Good city builder. (The campaign is actually fairly difficult!)

All the Yakuza games! That will keep you busy for a long time.

P.S. Sins of a Solar Empire is technically a 4X game, even though it isn't turn based. Stellaris is in the same classification.

P.P.S. The games starting with "The" are under the T's?? Seriously!? (eye roll)

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah Doom Eternal is definitely not laid back, and anyone wanting it to be going into it is going to get laid down, repeatedly. I know I did a lot on my first playthrough.

My problem was that I thought I was ready to jump into a high-speed FPS game, but then I felt like I was going to have a stroke, so I quit.

Truthfully, I was enticed by the fact that it's one of the only games on Game Pass that makes use of ray tracing. It does look nice.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Well, it's probably nothing quite like I imagine Dark Souls games to be, but it certainly can take a lot of tries and careful observation.

I almost posted earlier, but Doom 2016 for me on Ultra Violence needed the exact same mindset as Dark Souls to keep running at encounters to learn and improve tactics and execution.

Except in Souls games (Except Sekiro) you can summon help, grind levels, or look up ways and tactics to cheese many of the bosses or make them way easier.

I havent even played Eternal yet, but on the harder difficulties I expect its harder than a Souls game and requires much faster reflexes.

 

[Frag Maniac]

My problem was that I thought I was ready to jump into a high-speed FPS game, but then I felt like I was going to have a stroke, so I quit.

Truthfully, I was enticed by the fact that it's one of the only games on Game Pass that makes use of ray tracing. It does look nice.

Did you upgrade the Grappleshot completely and do those powerful shock punches with it? That's what's interesting about this game, that kind of cool but arcade stuff is one of the first things that hooks you, it's like being a combination of Batman and Superman, but if you play on Nightmare without all those upgrades, then it can be very challenging as well. On top of that the Grunt humor when playing with the IWHBYD skull is priceless, and can ease the tension by making you chuckle regularly.

I almost posted earlier, but Doom 2016 for me on Ultra Violence needed the exact same mindset as Dark Souls to keep running at encounters to learn and improve tactics and execution.

Except in Souls games (Except Sekiro) you can summon help, grind levels, or look up ways and tactics to cheese many of the bosses or make them way easier.

I havent even played Eternal yet, but on the harder difficulties I expect its harder than a Souls game and requires much faster reflexes.

From what I've seen and read of Souls games, they take a lot of patience through boss fights that can be long and require well timed strikes and dodges. Doom Eternal is different in that you need to move around a lot, and make use of portals, jump pads, and monkey bars as best you can. It really comes down to whether you're better at timing dodges and strikes, or running around like a rat in a maze full of monsters. For me, Souls would no doubt be harder, because I've never been great at those games that require well timed dodges and strikes. It's also why I gave up on God of War 2018 when I had to fight the Valkyrie Queen. She might have a bit quicker attacks than most Souls bosses though.

That Valkyrie fight, as well as pretty much any of them, required faster reflexes than Doom Eternal. In Eternal it's mostly about moving before you get in a bad situation, maybe with the exception of the Marauders here and there, and the Gladiator in the Sentinel mission. Even those enemies though have eye flash signals that tell you when they're going to attack, so I doubt they're harder than the tougher Souls bosses. As I implied though, it really comes down to what is your forte, and what is your weakness. As has been said by many Doom fans though, Doomguy may be outnumbered, but he's also the one with the incredible arsenal, tools, and skill set, so it's the demons that better be scared.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

From what I've seen and read of Souls games, they take a lot of patience through boss fights that can be long and require well timed strikes and dodges. Doom Eternal is different in that you need to move around a lot, and make use of portals, jump pads, and monkey bars as best you can. It really comes down to whether you're better at timing dodges and strikes, or running around like a rat in a maze full of monsters. For me, Souls would no doubt be harder, because I've never been great at those games that require well timed dodges and strikes. It's also why I gave up on God of War 2018 when I had to fight the Valkyrie Queen. She might have a bit quicker attacks than most Souls bosses though.

That Valkyrie fight, as well as pretty much any of them, required faster reflexes than Doom Eternal. In Eternal it's mostly about moving before you get in a bad situation, maybe with the exception of the Marauders here and there, and the Gladiator in the Sentinel mission. Even those enemies though have eye flash signals that tell you when they're going to attack, so I doubt they're harder than the tougher Souls bosses. As I implied though, it really comes down to what is your forte, and what is your weakness. As has been said by many Doom fans though, Doomguy may be outnumbered, but he's also the one with the incredible arsenal, tools, and skill set, so it's the demons that better be scared.

They do take some patience and its one way to play, dodging and/or parrying takes a lot of practice but I think its more about learning timings and not panicking than reacting quickly. Instead of all that you could piece together a poise build, heavy armor and a great shield with the right buffs and just face tank all damage Althought to get to that point might take some time, you can definitely go strength and shield from the start and work your way there mainly blocking. Its just not how I find it fun to play those games.

The Valkyrie fights in GOW were really tough, as we talked about before. I never beat all of them but they were fun. Closer to Sekiro than Souls maybe.

Made a start on Doom Eternal now, so thanks for the inspiration, I'm not very good at FPS but I do enjoy banging my head against a good wall.

 

[Brian Boru]

I do enjoy banging my head against a good wall

Ah, a true RPG stalwart—what a breed!

Me? I prefer to go around the wall.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Ah, a true RPG stalwart—what a breed!

Me? I prefer to go around the wall.

Banging head on wall is a bad way to put it really. Trying different strategies and finding what works over several attempts for each situation is more accurate.

 

[Pifanjr]

P.S. Sins of a Solar Empire is technically a 4X game, even though it isn't turn based. Stellaris is in the same classification.

Thank you. Describing Sins of a Solar Empire as just a RTS does a disservice to the game.

 

[Sarafan]

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion - RTS

So did you play this game? How do you like it? It's one of my favorite RTS. The problem is that it doesn't offer a single player campaign. It didn't keep me from sinking a few dozens of hours just to play skirmishes with the computer.

I had to shift-down to Easy in Doom Eternal to get through it. I was able to do normal difficulty fine for the first third of the game or so, but then I started dying a lot. I started shifting back and forth between easy and medium for a while, then just left it on easy. Even easy mode was hard by the end of the game!

It was with or without The Ancient Gods DLC? If the second, don't even try to start the add-ons as they will murder you with difficulty level. I finished the game with The Ancient Gods on normal and I had an unbelievably hard time during the DLCs...

As for Gamepass it's a very good service, but not for everyone. I'm getting tied to games that I play, so renting them in a way that Gamepass offers is not for me. I had Gamepass for three months in the past and finished only The Outer Worlds. I don't know why, but I don't have the motivation to play games to which I'll loose access after some time. As for today, I already bought most of the games included in the Gamepass that I'm interested in.

 

[ZedClampet]

So did you play this game? How do you like it? It's one of my favorite RTS. The problem is that it doesn't offer a single player campaign. It didn't keep me from sinking a few dozens of hours just to play skirmishes with the computer.

No, but I've downloaded it and was planning on giving it a go. That's the main reason Game Pass works for me, so I can try games out that I wouldn't normally. If I end up loving them, then usually I'll buy them. But there are games that I enjoy on there that I don't feel the need to own, like Hardspace: Shipbreaker. It's fun to go in and play for a bit, but if they take it out of the service, I won't lose any sleep over it. If I end up not finishing it before it leaves, I might wishlist it just so I don't forget it, and if it ever goes 80 percent off get it during a sale.

 

[Pifanjr]

I went through the indie games playable on Windows to see if I could recommend any of them, but I only found one I've actually played, liked and which might be overlooked: Besiege, a physics puzzle game about making contraptions to destroy stuff. With the amount of tools you get, there's a lot of different ways to complete each level. Enough so that it's fun to replay each level or to play with someone else and each come up with a different solution to each level.

I did also spot Superliminal, which I've seen some stuff from and which seems like an interesting puzzle game as well, where you play around with optical illusions.

 

[ZedClampet]

I went through the indie games playable on Windows to see if I could recommend any of them, but I only found one I've actually played, liked and which might be overlooked: Besiege, a physics puzzle game about making contraptions to destroy stuff. With the amount of tools you get, there's a lot of different ways to complete each level. Enough so that it's fun to replay each level or to play with someone else and each come up with a different solution to each level.

I did also spot Superliminal, which I've seen some stuff from and which seems like an interesting puzzle game as well, where you play around with optical illusions.

I'd forgotten all about Besiege. Love that game.

 

[Zloth]

So did you play this game? How do you like it? It's one of my favorite RTS. The problem is that it doesn't offer a single player campaign. It didn't keep me from sinking a few dozens of hours just to play skirmishes with the computer.

Huh? It's a 4X game. Not many of those have campaigns, but there's certainly a single player game. (It also has some massive mods to switch out the ships to use other IPs, like Star Wars.)

Oh, it also got updated just recently, over 10 years after release. Stardock for the win!

It was with or without The Ancient Gods DLC? If the second, don't even try to start the add-ons as they will murder you with difficulty level. I finished the game with The Ancient Gods on normal and I had an unbelievably hard time during the DLCs...

The DLC was included in the package but I wasn't about to touch them.

As for Gamepass it's a very good service, but not for everyone. I'm getting tied to games that I play, so renting them in a way that Gamepass offers is not for me. I had Gamepass for three months in the past and finished only The Outer Worlds. I don't know why, but I don't have the motivation to play games to which I'll loose access after some time. As for today, I already bought most of the games included in the Gamepass that I'm interested in.

You mean lose access while you're playing them, or lose access some years later?

But yeah, when I look through the catalog, there's a lot of "don't want what I haven't got" on there. (It's even worse on GOG.)

 

[ZedClampet]

But yeah, when I look through the catalog, there's a lot of "don't want what I haven't got" on there. (It's even worse on GOG.)

That's an odd criticism/observation of GOG. If Game Pass doesn't have a few games you want to play then it's a waste of your money, but GOG is just a store. There's literally at least 50,000 games on Steam I don't want.