Xbox Game Pass Ultimate added additional perks for subscribers to redeem. The perks cover a wide variety of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles, so users should consider checking them out to see if any of their favorite games are included.
03.01.2024 - 17:25 / ign.com / Ryan Dinsdale / Leon S.Kennedy / Jill Valentine / Xbox Game
Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2024, with Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Resident Evil 2 headlining this month's offerings.
Revealed on Xbox Wire, the mysterious adventure game Close to the Sun is available today, January 3. Set in the 1890s, players must board a mysterious ship complex created by Nikola Tesla in an alternative version of history. In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Close to the Sun is a harrowing and thoughtfully designed first-person exploration adventure that shows a twisted world in which Nikola Tesla’s ideas came to life."
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the 2020 entry in the long running and popular franchise in which players take on the role of Eivor, a Viking raider who does as much screaming and smashing as they do sneaking and stealth. Following on from the role-playing game style gameplay of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, Valhalla features England as its main map but also lets players visit the likes of Norway and North America.
In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive, beautiful open world fuelled by brutal living and the dirty work of conquerors. It's a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels."
Resident Evil 2 is the other heavy hitter of early January, with the 2019 game completely recreating the beloved survival horror entry for a modern audience. Players take on the role of Leon S. Kennedy as he starts his first day as a police officer in Raccoon City in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, or Jill Valentine who goes searching for her missing brother. These intertwining storylines see both characters forced to overcome one horrifying challenge after the other.
In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Now this is how you remake a classic. Resident Evil 2 expertly reanimates the horrifying atmosphere and moments of extreme tension that made the original so revered."
Sticking to the spooky atmosphere, We Happy Few is another horror title joining Xbox Game Pass in January. It sees a group of slightly terrible people try to escape from a prescribed cheerful lifestyle, having to force their way through some horrifying citizens to do so. In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "There's a great story lurking in We Happy Few, but you'll have to escape some repetitive levels to find it."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate added additional perks for subscribers to redeem. The perks cover a wide variety of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate titles, so users should consider checking them out to see if any of their favorite games are included.
The multiplayer monster-collecting game Palworld is now available on Xbox Game Pass in early access. Developed and published by Pocketpair, the game is available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as PC via Game Pass and Steam. Palworld has been dubbed “Pokemon with guns” by the developer and offers players the chance to fight and team up with creatures called Pals, while also crafting and exploring the game's vast open world and dungeons.
The recent Xbox Developer Direct has confirmed previous leaks that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is launching for PC and Xbox Series X/S on Tuesday, May 21 as a day one Xbox Game Pass game. The original Hellblade is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning game, and so expectations are high for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
Xbox Game Pass growth is slowing down, a newly emerged analyst report suggests. This bit of unofficial insight into the popular service could help explain why there are currently no up-to-date Xbox Game Pass subscriber figures to speak of.
The talk of video game subscription services has come from many different places over the last week or so. You might remember an article we wrote yesterday about statements Ubisoft made about gaming subscription services in the wake of their upcoming Ubisoft+ service. But the “king” of such services is easily the Xbox Game Pass. The point of the service is to make scores of games available to players for just $10 a month. Plus, some games will be “day one releases” of significant gaming titles. Microsoft has been quick to tout the success of their service, but how well is it really doing?
The January 18 Xbox Game Pass update will introduce two additional games to the service: F1 23 and Turnip Boy Robs a Bank. These releases mark the second expansion of Microsoft's subscription catalog since the turn of the week, arriving just two days after Xbox Game Pass added two acclaimed horror games in the form of Those Who Remain and the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Xbox Game Pass is known for its continually expanding library of games, but along with the frequent additions to the subscription service, it does occasionally lose some titles as well. Games that are set to be removed are usually announced alongside additions, so it's often easy to prepare for the changes coming in a month ahead of time. Even with an active subscription, games can't be played after they leave the service, so having enough heads-up for a decent window to play the game tends to ease a lot of potential frustration.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is coming to Xbox Game Pass on Thursday, September 5, 2024 as a day one game. STALKER fans have well over a decade to get their hands on STALKER 2. Unfortunately, the ambitious first-person shooter has been delayed multiple times, with this latest delay seeing it pushed out of its previously-announced Q1 2024 release window.
Xbox Game Pass has been busy this week, adding two new games on January 16, revealing new games coming later this month and in February, and also confirming a new day-one Xbox Game Pass title for some time this year: Frostpunk 2. This highly anticipated sequel follows the original apocalyptic survival city-builder game and asks a dangerous question in a frozen wasteland: what's next? The biggest external threats are gone, and only internal ones remain.
The Xbox Game Pass additions keep rolling in with the new year, with January 16 seeing Resident Evil 2 and Those Who Remain join Microsoft's subscription service, and even more is on the horizon. Alongside their additions, Microsoft took the time to confirm the next five games coming to Xbox Game Pass in January, as well as the two coming in February.
The Xbox Game Pass subscription service is losing Hitman: World of Assassination on Wednesday, January 31. Xbox Game Pass subscribers know to expect game removals on the 15th of each month and the last day of each month. However, there are times when the Xbox Game Pass removals stray from the established pattern and happen on unexpected days.
Xbox Game Pass made quite a splash in the marketplace when it arrived. This offered a wide collection of video games for players. If you’re playing on the latest-generation Xbox Series X/S consoles, chances are you might be participating in this subscription service. With a wide assortment of video games constantly rotating monthly, even if there’s no major release on your radar, you’ll likely have a few games to check out through this service. That said, two waves of game reveal posts typically come to Xbox Game Pass each month. Today, we’re getting word as to what that second wave of games is for this month.