The Best Games On Xbox Game Pass (April 2026)

Updated April 26th, 2026, 6pm EST by Amanda Hurych: It’s the last week in April before we dive into May, with a whole new host of Xbox Game Pass game recommendations. In this final “spring-cleaning” of our Best Games on Xbox Game Pass article, we added another recent game to the service. Kiln is a multiplayer ceramic fighting game (it’s true), and so far, it’s pretty goshdarned charming. You can read more about it in our Recently Added section.

We’ve also gone ahead and removed a few game entries from our Must-Play Essential section. Both Grand Theft Auto V and Citizen Sleeper left Xbox Game Pass, and while we’re sorry to see them go, it looks like we have a lot to look forward to in the future. As always, happy gaming, and we’ll see you next month with our big article overhaul!

The selections listed here will include games available on EA Play and Ubisoft+, which are included with a subscription to Game Pass Ultimate.

Recently Added

If you’re looking for what’s new on Game Pass, look no further than our collection of the best games that have recently arrived. We like to give all new games a try if we can. Here’s what we think you should put on your radar if you want something fresh.

Kiln

Multiplayer games that pit you against other players in a brawl sort of situation are a dime a dozen. But man, we’ve never played a game like Kiln. The premise itself is weird as heck. You play as a sentient piece of pottery in some sort of ceramic universe ruled by a goddess who just wants to watch everyone break things, douse kilns, and have a good time.

It’s a novel approach to multiplayer because you get to design the “pot” you inhabit, and the type of pot you make determines the abilities you can use in the arenas. You can make a conventional shape, or you can make a globby vessel with errant handles and studs, dipped in a hot pink glaze with pigeon stickers all over it. And every player gets to do this. So matches can end up looking quite hilarious as one player inhabits a small bottle and someone else decides to make a gargantuan vase.

This ceramic world is your oyster. Just be prepared to break that oyster into a million pieces. It’s fun.

Tiny Bookshop

Confession time. If we weren’t here sitting at our computers writing articles about video games, we would probably be trying to open up a tiny bookshop. The latest addition to the Xbox Game Pass library makes that dream a fictitious reality.

Tiny Bookshop is a cozy management sim game that sees you interact with customers, stock your little book cart with various types of books, and sell them. And that’s basically it. You won’t see the depth or complexity of a big-time cozy game like Stardew Valley, but Tiny Bookshop shines in its simplicity. You’re here to sell books and chew bubblegum. And you’re all out of bubblegum.

Super Meat Boy 3D

The trials and tribulations of Super Meat Boy continue, only this time, he’s in a three-dimensional platforming space. That’s right, folks. Super Meat Boy is joining the ranks of Spyro, Mario, and Crash Bandicoot as a 3D platformer star. Only Super Meat Boy 3D is a total meat grinder of a 3D platformer, if you catch my drift.

The difficulty and hair-pulling frustration of Super Meat Boy’s two-dimensional adventures permeates this extra dimension as well. The traps, the secrets, the instant deaths at the tiniest mistakes have all been recaptured in this sequel. However, if you’re a fan of Super Meat Boy or a glutton for deserved punishment, this is the kind of game that will lay claim to your soul. The platforming controls are very precise, so it’s rare that you feel a particularly meaty death wasn’t your fault. It’s a fantastic game, especially if you love a good bad time.

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

I don’t want to get off the Resident Evil train so soon after finishing Requiem, and thankfully, Xbox Game Pass is keeping me aboard. With the addition of RE7 Biohazard to Game Pass libraries, you can now play a HUNK (get it?) of the series as part of your subscription. Biohazard serves as a linchpin moment for the Resident Evil franchise.

After the extremely campy action of RE6, Biohazard brought us back to horror. Play as Ethan Winters, a man trying to find his wife in the creepiest bayou house you’ve ever seen. The Baker family and the “Mold” monsters that populate the area will linger in your nightmares for years.

Plus, Biohazard gave the series the joys of first-person perspective in a horror scenario, solidifying both a satisfying gameplay loop and scaring the living daylights out of us when we turned a corner and a giant Mold creature was just waiting for our faces to pop out before swiping at us.

Disco Elysium

If the allure of a CRPG has called to you in the past, but you’ve hesitated due to a worry about navigating through dense mechanics, pump the gas right now. Disco Elysium has come to Game Pass. It is the number one game I would recommend to anyone trying to crack the genre. Not only is it a phenomenal game in its own right, it presents the classic bits and bobs of a role-playing game in an approachable, if zany, fashion.

You play as a stumbling detective in the city of Revachol. You’ve got a case on your hands, but more importantly, you’ve got your inner demons to wrestle with. The various aspects of your personality, your darkest thoughts, your hidden wants, all vie for control of your character, but it’s up to you how you wish to forge your path through the story. With amazing voice acting, you get to choose which options define your character and the narrative you want to pursue. It’s seriously amazing. I’m going in for a replay later tonight.

Cyberpunk 2077

Though its launch was accompanied by widely reported bugs, Cyberpunk 2077 has grown into another diamond in CD Projekt Red’s collection of games that can stand proudly alongside the likes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Post-launch updates have made it a title worth experiencing.

You play as V, your player-designed mercenary struggling to survive in the bowels of Night City. This neon-vibrant but dangerous urban sprawl is home to gangs, tech-laden authorities, and oh so many side quests. Cyberpunk 2077’s narrative hits home with V’s fight to make it through heists, gunfights, and corporate squabbling, all while being tormented by the “ghost” of Johnny Silverhand due to a corrupted biochip. Johnny, played by Keanu Reeves, is a delight for players to have whispering in your ear, but a serious complication for V’s plans.

The story is couched in an incredibly immersive open world. Night City feels like a character in its own right. And while V’s journey might grip you in steel clutches, the allure of exploration is sure to tug you away now and then.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Too many great games came out last year in 2025, if such a blasphemy can even be said. From Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to Hollow Knight: Silksong, there was just masterpiece after masterpiece launching. And while having an abundance of superb gaming experiences is never a bad thing, it did mean that some games didn’t get the prime limelight they deserved. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is just such a game.

You play as Henry, a man on a revenge quest, but the great thing about Henry is how you as a player can shape him based on your decisions. You can customize his appearance, sure, but you can also engage in an array of diverging quest pathlines to ensure your first playthrough of the game can be wildly different from your next (if you dive in a second time).

It’s an amazing RPG that leans into classic medieval aspects. And the breadth of options before you, from skills you hone to story choices you make to NPCs you meet, will have you eyeing that replay while you’re still on your first go.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

RPG fans are eating good on Game Pass this month. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is largely considered to be one of the best role-playing games ever made. You play as Geralt, a gruff, monster-hunting witcher, as he follows the tracks of an apprentice of his, Ciri. That’s a basic description of the premise, but you can’t expect us to describe the entirety of The Witcher 3’s lore given how dense it is.

Another thing that’s dense about The Witcher 3? Its gameplay loop. As a witcher, you need to prep for every fight you undertake, ensuring you have enough potions, the right weapons, and the best armor for monster encounters. An ill-prepared witcher is a dead one. If diving into pre-planning is your cup of tea, The Witcher 3 will reward you with an intricate storyline, with multiple side quests branching off from the main narrative, rich with choice and consequence.

Diablo II: Resurrected

We never thought we’d live to see the day that Diablo II got an update, but here we are. Update aside, Diablo II was added to Xbox Game Pass recently, and even though Diablo IV is also on the subscription service and is the more modern of the two, we hold the former in such high regard, it deserves its own playthrough despite its age. For many Diablo fans, it was the game that solidified the series as a classic action RPG, setting the dark fantasy tone and shaping game mechanics that would stay with the series decades later.

Playing as one of the archetypal classes, you can slay your way through dungeons full of undead and monsters, giving yourself a reminder why Diablo II deserves to be resurrected.

Mio: Memories in Orbit

If you blazed through Hollow Knight: Silksong and are looking for your next Metroidvania, Mio: Memories in Orbit serves an appealing dish of unique art direction with a contemplative premise. You play as a little android on a ship where machines have gone haywire; your job is to save the ship’s remaining denizens. The gameplay is fairly straightforward for a Metroidvania, upgrading your abilities, uncovering more of the map, and fighting bosses.

Mio truly shines in its art style. The cel-shaded, sketch-quality of the backgrounds and characters is amazing. It takes effort to turn your brian off from appreciating the art in order to fight your robotic enemies. So while the hallmarks of tough combat and precise platforming prop up the experience of playing Mio: Memories in Orbit, the environments and art serve as the solid foundation.

What We’re Personally Playing Now

In order to keep this article alive (and also just because we want to), we regularly dip into Xbox Game Pass, whether it’s to play new games or replay old favorites. If you’re at all interested to know what we’re playing at this very moment, we’ll update this section with our current Game Pass plays.

PowerWash Simulator 2 – Amanda

I’m not sure if anyone doubts my love of Powerwash Simulator 2 anymore. But just in case you were in a camp of naysayers, rest assured, I’m still playing it. The Adventure Time DLC pack dropped, and it is a goddamned delight. The environments from around the land of Ooo perfectly capture the vibes and style of the animated series. And even the stream of water from your powerwasher has been cartoonified.

You get to clean the Ice King’s castle, Finn and Jake’s treehouse, and even some noteworthy vehicles from the Candy Kingdom. It’s an amazing homage to Adventure Time. The developers have once again shown they know how to honor the IPs they work with in making these bonus packs.

Diablo 2: Resurrected – Damien

My 2026 bingo card did not include one of my absolute most-played childhood games receiving a DLC some twenty years later (though I could’ve said the same about it receiving a console port in 2021), but you’re not gonna catch me complaining about it.

Diablo 2 is the quintessential loot goblin ARPG. It’s simple, it’s straightforward, and it feels like home. It doesn’t quite pack in the same start-to-finish replay value of, say, a Soulsborne game due to the obscene grindiness entailed if you want to shoot for true endgame gear and activities — that’s a pretty deep time commitment, even for a game as aged as it is — but seeing an item you know is rare and amazing drop off your billionth disassembled skeleton provokes a distinct sort of serotonin boost that few competitors have ever managed to do as well.

I’m still working through whether or not that’s adjacent to the reward system for gambling. I mean, technically it isn’t. You’re not specifically risking anything beyond a time investment, anyway. But there’s definitely a venn diagram there, right?

Regardless, old game, still pretty damn fun, would recommend it if you’re on a nostalgia kick or want some historical context on where every isometric click-fest ARPG or modern looter-shooter essentially got its core inspiration from.

Absolute Must-Play Essentials

If you made the decision to get Xbox Game Pass and you want to know which games are the prize diamonds in this treasure chest, we’ve lassoed up the must-play titles in one handy spot. It was rough narrowing it down to this bunch, and even then, it’s still a hefty collection of games. Enjoy!

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

The adventures of the Master Chief have never been as accessible as they are in the Master Chief Collection. This gathering of Halo games is the definitive collection of 343 Industries’ endeavors to immortalize the series. Not only is every mainline Halo game (not counting Halo 5: Guardians or Halo Infinite) included, but the fantastic Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach were added as well.

From beloved campaign co-op to thrilling Firefight matches to iconic multiplayer modes, the Master Chief Collection has it all. Anyone who thinks of themselves as a Halo fan should consider it a must-play from Xbox Game Pass. And for those who have never completed the Master Chief’s saga, there is no better way to finish the fight.

Hades

Supergiant Games’ smash hit roguelike dungeon crawler already had an immense following, and now Game Pass subscribers finally have the chance to see what the hype is all about. Cast as Zagreus, a son of the titular death god himself, players are tasked with guiding the cocksure anti-hero in battling through Tartarus as he seeks to escape the dour realm of his father and take up residence with his Olympian cousins.

Of course, he’s met with significant resistance — initial failure is a certainty, though players will have the opportunity to unlock upgrades, boons, and more between runs to improve their odds with the next attempt. The action itself is buttery smooth, playing as an isometric hack-and-slash RPG with a host of intriguing weapons and powers for Zagreus to peruse in his quest. However, it’d be criminal to not draw particular attention to the presentation.

The game’s lighthearted yet artfully detailed take on Greek mythology is the core of its charm. The cast of characters is brought to life with a strikingly vibrant art style and brilliant voice acting. Hades is definitely one for the books, and its arrival on consoles is sure to seal the deal.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Normally, there’s a bit of a grace period between when a game is added to Xbox Game Pass and when we play it. Sometimes, months can go by before we get the chance to fully play a game. We played Silksong just an hour after it launched. Let us assure you, if you were at all excited for it after playing the original Hollow Knight, you will not be disappointed.

Silksong is everything you loved about the first game and more! Though perhaps “more” isn’t the best way to put it. It’s just “different.” Hornet is a lot more acrobatic than our dear old Knight, and you can feel this in every leap, dash, and swipe of her blade. So the combat will diverge from your expectations from the get-go. However, the story (and the music, my god, the music) is still top-notch. No spoilers. Go play it!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has become a darling star of the Xbox Game Pass library. Clair Obscur tells a phenomenal story about a collection of desperate adventurers trying to prevent a god-like “Paintress” from erasing their age group. (Literally erasing their age group from existence; this isn’t a metaphor.) To further describe the plot would be a disservice to Clair Obscur, as the narrative is the jewel of this crown.

But alongside this harrowing journey are the game’s mechanics. Clair Obscur combines turn-based gameplay elements with real-time ones, creating a unique system that stands out from the RPG crowd. While turn-based purists may turn away from the parry and dodge windows, if you’re a fan of the genre at all, Clair Obscur is a must try. The characters, the story, the world are all amazing. Terrifying. But amazing.

Blue Prince

As difficult as it is to describe how you play Blue Prince, we’ll do our best. Blue Prince is a walking simulator puzzle game that sees you exploring the estate your rich uncle left behind for you. This estate is no ordinary building, however. Every time you open a door on a given day, you have the opportunity to “draft” a different room. This means that every day you explore the estate, it will never look the same, especially depending on your drafting actions.

This mechanic feels awkward to describe without some sort of visual aid, but rest assured, it’s a puzzle-game lover’s dream. The one comparison we can think to make is to Outer Wilds. If you loved the discovery-based progression of Outer Wilds, we think the drafting problem-solving of Blue Prince will enchant you.

With every day that you learn something new about a room you’ve drafted, a password for a critical safe, or a layout that’s particularly useful for reaching your end goal, Blue Prince will build the foundation for a lasting impact in your memory.

Balatro

How could a list of the best games ever, let alone a list of the best games included on Xbox Game Pass, be truly complete without a mention of Balatro. In case you haven’t heard, Balatro is the indie roguelike gaming sensation that’s swept the nation. It is a remarkably simple yet incredibly engrossing title; once you start playing it, you’ll find yourself hard-pressed to put it back down. You’ll keep wanting to play one more run, build one more hand, and beat one more boss blind.

Though its naming conventions and terms are based off of poker, it is in no way a game played like poker. It is a roguelike through and through. Normally, for a small game like this, I’d recommend it by saying it’s a great game and should take you no time at all to complete. That’s not the case with Balatro. While it’s not a vast RPG like Avowed, with character building, side quests, and an explorable world, it’s still a timesink because of how often you will return to it. It’s glorious as heck.

Resident Evil 2

While there are plenty of great game remakes in the world, none of them showcase the same degree of polish, innovation, and care that Resident Evil 2 did. This remake overhauled the original game from the ground up. Where the original was this fixed-camera-angle campy horror fest, RE2 remake was a behind-the-shoulder tense collect-a-thon that was equal parts nerve-wracking and equal parts satisfying.

You can play as either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield, roaming the halls of the iconic Raccoon City police station in search of safety and answers. Shambling zombies patrol the hallways, so while it behooves you to be thorough in your exploration so you can collect items to make you stronger and more capable, every new room could contain your next death screen. And that’s before Mr. X and his pounding footsteps from hell show up.

If you love Resident Evil as a franchise, RE2 remake is a must play. If you love a tight zombie survival experience, RE2 remake is a must play. If you love fantastic games in general, RE2 remake is a must play.

Celeste

Games typically take players on a journey, but Celeste gives whole new meaning to this concept. Players control Madeline, a young woman set on climbing to the top of Mount Celeste. Along the way, she must face her inner demons while remaining steadfast in her goal. The poignant story is wrapped in the trappings of a demanding platformer, but the tough nature of the gameplay ties in to the themes the story shares with its players. Celeste is not for the faint of heart, but seeing it through to completion is incredibly rewarding.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Where Will of the Wisps developed a robust combat system that integrated perfectly with Ori’s skill set, Blind Forest laid some phenomenal groundwork for nearly every other aspect of that game. The jaw-dropping visuals, the incredibly responsive platforming, and rewarding progression system were all things Ori and the Blind Forest excelled at.

Quite frequently, you’ll hear the game compared to Hollow Knight, and that’s an apt comparison to make. Both games are haunting and beautiful to look at while giving players that perfect blend of exploration and discovery you get in most successful Metroidvanias. If any of this sounds appealing, you shouldn’t skip out on playing Ori and the Blind Forest; you’d be doing yourself a massive disservice.

Dishonored

Dishonored is a classic, and while its successor improves on multiple aspects (loud nonlethal takedown options for starters), nothing feels quite as good as the original. Corvo’s journey to take vengeance (or find justice, depending on what route you take) is one for the ages. No matter what scenario you’re placed in, you feel like you have options for how you choose to respond.

Do you want to throw glasses and bottles in different directions to confuse the guards as they try to gather for whiskey and cigars? You can. Do you want to find the high ground and constantly jump-assassinate unsuspecting victims below you? You can. Do you want to struggle to be a good person, choking out and dragging the people who get in your way to broom closets so no one finds them and alerts the whole building? You can try. Though Corvo was thrown in jail and is constantly hounded by the law for a crime he didn’t commit, Dishonored is all about freedom. And few games capture that quite like it does.

Dead Cells

Dead Cells is one of the most finely-tuned 2D action-platformers ever made, following in the footsteps of classics like Castlevania and Spelunky. The game has players collecting new abilities and powers throughout a given run with the objective of clearing the entire game in a single run. It’s not for the faint of heart, but with enough perseverance, Dead Cells is an incredibly rewarding game to play through. With pixel-perfect controls and precision, Dead Cells is an absolute must for fans of the genre.

Among Us

Among Us is the indie hidden-role game that could. Having swept into immense popularity due to its accessibility across platforms and omnipresence in streaming and YouTube communities, it was only a matter of time before it made the leap to living room consoles. It just took that extra step to plant itself on the Game Pass roster.

The premise is simple — several players find themselves on board a spaceship (or remote research facility) and are provided with tasks to complete, ranging from cleaning out dirty vents to blasting asteroids out of the ship’s way. The catch? One (or more) of your crewmates is an imposter with the sole purpose of murdering you and everyone else. The game ends in one of three ways: the crewmates complete all tasks, the murderer is identified and ejected, or the imposters manage to wipe out the crew.

The game’s best played with colleagues and friends, as there’s nothing more entertaining than knowing someone’s tells and desperately trying to suss out the truth when they claim they were on the other end of the level when a body’s discovered.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is easily one of the most zen experiences to be had in its genre. That’s quite a statement when discussing farming sims, but really, it’s so much more than that. With dashes of dating sim and retro action-RPG thrown into the mix and sealed up in a charming 16-bit aesthetic, SDV tasks players with moving out to the countryside to restore their grandfather’s farm after inheriting it — as one does in a farming sim.

Players grow crops, find romance, assist the locals with their various problems, dive into the mines to fight monsters and liberate riches, and more over the course of their stay in the Valley. But one of the best parts of Stardew is easily the relaxed sense of progression. At no point are players prodded to advance the storyline, they’re free to live as they please as they eke out a living selling turnips, raising goats, hatching dinosaur eggs, and bashing slimes.

Halo Infinite

Halo Infinite’s campaign is something between a love-letter to the distinct charm of Combat Evolved’s more “open” segments (referring specifically to the levels such as “Halo” and “The Silent Cartographer”) and the franchise’s many innovations since — it distills some of the series’ high marks into a singular, bulletproof formula and then, to top it all off, drops it into a seamlessly connected open-world environment that you’re free to approach as you see fit.

Its multiplayer offerings also capture that feeling. Players can jump into a Big Team Battle or a ranked Arena match and have the time of their lives. Well-crafted maps, new weapons, and entertaining game modes keep Infinite feeling fresh. Plus, it just caters to Halo fans in all the right ways. Halo nostalgia is real, and Infinite completely satisfies it.

Gears of War

The Gears of War franchise is emblematic of third-person cover-based shooters with a heavy emphasis on cooperative gameplay, but at this point, the original titles are starting to really show their age. This is what makes Gears of War, whether you’re playing the Ultimate Edition or the newer Reloaded, a fantastic get on Game Pass — it gives players a chance to experience the series’ roots with a fresh coat of paint and some great quality-of-life improvements.

The graphics have been generally enhanced, enemies can be spotted, and weapons can be switched during mad dashes from cover to cover. But aside from these improvements, this lets players take a peek at the beginning of Marcus Fenix’s journey and reintroduces the chainsaw-action of the series’ staple weapon, the Lancer. What more could a Gears fan want?

Doom (2016)

Doom (2016) was the revitalization the series needed to prove to the world that it was still relevant. For a long time, Doom was considered a game of a bygone era, influential but no longer in its prime. Id Software changed all that with the creation of Doom (2016). The Doom Slayer came roaring back into existence, ripping and tearing a new place for himself in the gaming landscape.

Not only did this reboot bring Doom back into the cultural awareness, it showed that a single-player campaign that is well-crafted and vigorous good fun can entice players just as much as, if not more than, another battle royale. Doom (2016) is not one to miss for fans of fast-paced shooters and action-packed combat.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight’s exploration and genuine sense of discovery are easily some of the best in the genre. It’s a shining example of how to make a Metroidvania in the modern era. Hollow Knight never trades in its mystery or world-building for padded side quests or game-breaking boosts. It remains a somber, magical, and deceptively challenging game all the way through. It definitely takes a page from the Dark Souls series, so be prepared to wander into new areas with caution, and get ready to learn every boss’ pattern exactly.

Prey

Becoming immersed in a science-fiction universe that is as well-crafted as Prey’s is an experience like no other. Thrown into the mind of Morgan Yu, players must unravel the mystery behind the catastrophe that has befallen the Talos I space station. A strange alien life form known as the Typhon has taken over, and Morgan must contend with the peculiar threat they pose to the humans left alive on the station.

Arkane Studios blends aspects of Dishonored, BioShock, and Soma in a masterful fashion, allowing players to choose how they wish to tackle problems they encounter. They can proceed in a stealthy fashion, upgrade weapons and go in guns blazing, acquire almost supernatural powers from Neuromods, or use the handy GLOO Cannon to tackle the Typhon menace. The appeal of Prey comes not only from the immersive world of its narrative, but from the diverse array of playstyle options it gives its players to do with as they will.

Fallout 4

Bethesda’s latest spin on the definitive post-apocalyptic roleplaying experience isn’t without its valid detractors, but it’s hard to argue that anyone’s getting a raw deal with its inclusion on Game Pass.

As the Lone Survivor of Vault 111, players are immediately faced with tracking down their son after he’s snatched from the Vault by a mysterious band of mercenaries and scientists. It’s a simple and lofty motivation, but factoring in an irradiated wasteland rife with terrifying mutants, raiders, and long-abandoned ruins concealing vital supplies, it becomes apparent that the road’s going to get bumpy.

Fallout 4 took a significant (and fair) amount of flak for its relatively rail-roaded narrative and lackluster dialogue navigation, but frankly, there’s still a lot there to love. Describing a wasteland ravaged by nuclear war as “beautiful” doesn’t procedurally roll off of the tongue, but rest assured that Bethesda’s signature open-world charm is still well-intact. The Commonwealth serves as a compelling setting, from the ruins of Boston to the Glowing Sea. And as per usual, there’s a near-endless amount of content for players to explore and uncover.

And once poring over the vanilla content has lost its luster, one can turn to an impressive and accessible selection of mods to spice up their playthrough utilizing the modding community’s boundless creativity.

Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2’s relatively understated presence in the FPS genre is more than a bit puzzling, because it was the object of significant critical acclaim upon release. And its die-hard fanbase has quietly asserted that it’s handily one of the most solid shooters to have ever hit the market for years since. Frankly, they’ve got a lot going on to support that opinion.

The game’s campaign is practically as solid as its multiplayer suite, with the former weaving a compelling sci-fi narrative around pilot-in-training Cooper and his surly oversized robot acquaintance, BT-7274. Big mechs and wall-running mechanics go a long way on their own, but Respawn’s take on the FPS formula just feels polished in a way that many contemporary shooters don’t — and is more than partially responsible for its remarkable overnight success with Apex Legends.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Beauty is not often associated with video games, but Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful title. The artistry with which character motions and backgrounds were created is astounding. Even the music that accompanies players along their journey with Ori is gorgeous.

However, Ori is not simply a great game because it looks good. It is functionally exquisite as well. The precise platforming from the first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, is still in place, with even more tools of traversal at players’ disposal. New combat mechanics have been added to Will of the Wisps as well, and they are extraordinary to execute. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the complete package: jaw-dropping visuals, emotional storytelling, and perfectly honed gameplay elements.

Skyim

The Elder Scrolls has been synonymous with the very concept of open-world RPGs for decades now, and Skyrim is the title to show if a demonstration is required. All memes aside, the Dragonborn’s quest to defeat Alduin is a spectacle rarely equaled by RPGs in general, and a lot of that is due to the fact that it has as many chapters as the player would like it to have.

The frigid province of Skyrim is unforgivingly gorgeous, and the amount of “optional” content is nearly endless. Factor in the innovative decision to make a stunning library of user-generated mods available on Xbox consoles, and you have what is likely the most content-rich game currently available on Game Pass.

Deep Rock Galactic

Danger. Darkness. Dwarves. Everything that needs to be known about Deep Rock Galactic can be summed up in its tagline. Up to four players can dive into the dangerous mines of Hoxxes IV, braving the enemies that lurk in the darkness as doughty dwarves. The straightforward nature of Deep Rock Galactic’s gameplay belies the deeper system in place.

There are multiple mining assignments players can tackle, intuitive upgrade paths, and a delightful hub area where players can relax (or randomly bellow “Rock and Stone!” between pints of ale) before diving into a tense mission. Deep Rock Galactic knows what its strengths are, and it knows how to play to them. All players have to do is prepare themselves for a good time.

Grounded

Obsidian Entertainment is back at it again with a unique take on the survival genre. Players assume the role of kids who have mysteriously become minuscule in a strange Honey-I-Shrunk-the-Kids kind of scenario. Now no larger than an ant, these kids have to find out what happened to them and survive the perilous environs of an average backyard.

Grounded is an utter joy. Collecting grass blades to construct shelter, pebbles to make hammers, and water droplets to quench your thirst puts a fresh sheen to this rather crowded genre. The only thing to watch out for? The spiders. Common spiders are the primary enemies in Grounded, and for those who suffer from a touch of arachnophobia, a sudden attack from one of them can be practically heart-stopping.

Gears 5

The latest mainline entry in the Gears franchise is one of its boldest. Gears 5 rolls right into new territory with a fresh multiplayer mode, a partial open-world experience in the middle of the campaign, and a devastating story twist that has left fans reeling. As with any Gears title, Gears 5 offers a robust campaign co-op experience with up to three players.

The game follows Kait Diaz and her companions as they struggle to hold the line against the encroaching wave of the Swarm. Action is the order of the day any time a player picks up Gears 5, and between roaring a Lancer’s chainsaw at an enemy and diving for cover from an onslaught of bullets, there’s hardly a moment left to breathe.

Dead Space

Combine the measured horror of Resident Evil 4 with a cold and unfeeling sci-fi environment, and Dead Space is the end result. Players join Isaac Clarke as he traverses the dark, metallic hallways of the USG Ishimura, a gargantuan planet-mining spaceship. Gruesome terror lurks around every corner in the form of Necromorphs, the reanimated corpses of the Ishimura’s crew.

Though Dead Space was first released in 2008, it maintains an unrelenting sense of dread that exceeds the bounds of most modern horror games. Its atmosphere will linger in your memory long after you’ve finished the game, and whispers of “Make us whole” will haunt your worst nightmares.

Minecraft

What is there to even say about Minecraft at this point? What started out as a small sandbox game that revolutionized the genre has become a juggernaut that dominates the genre. Though the simplicity of its blocky design stands in stark contrast to the push for photorealism seen in many games, its embracing of open-world chaos, creativity, and straightforward rules are Minecraft’s greatest strengths.

We remember the first time we started a Minecraft game, building our first house, trawling our first dungeon, crafting the best armor. And look where we are now. Movie theater chaos across the nation, with the cries of “chicken jockey” still ringing in our ears.

PowerWash Simulator 2

This is the best game in the world. There’s almost nothing left to say aside from that. Am I wildly biased? Perhaps. I played the first PowerWash Simulator to the moon and back (kind of literally since I got the Wallace & Gromit DLC pack), sinking over 480 hours into the game since I got it. So when I say I know my PowerWash Simulator, I know my PowerWash Simulator.

This sequel takes bits from the first game that I didn’t even think could be improved upon and improves upon them. Scaffolds now come with a ladder on the side that can take you directly to the top of the edifice. The soap system is revolutionary and satisfying instead of useless and ignorable. Your home base is not only customizable with furnishings, it’s got cats in it.

I could, hand to whatever literary document you hold sacred, write over 50,000 words in an academic dissertation style about the nuances of PowerWash Simulator 2. I have half a mind to, without any compensation of any kind. But alas, all I have is this entry, and hopefully that will be enough to convince you that PowerWash Simulator 2 is a game well-worth your time.

Spring Cleaning: Games That Are All About Tidying Up

Cleaning isn’t always a tedious chore. There are too many games in the cozy sim genre that simulate it for it to be considered a forever-arduous task. Here are some titles that can get you into the spring cleaning mindset.

Winter Burrow

Winter Burrow is a delightful little survival simulator with a cute art style. You play as a little mouse returning to his woodland home. The catch? It’s winter time, it’s cold, and the house is in shambles. In addition to surviving the elements, you need to spruce up your stump house by fixing what’s broken and adding cute furniture. True, this “spring” cleaning comes in the dead of winter, but the vibes are the same. It’s cozy, adorable, and all about tidying up your childhood home.

Unpacking

This is a “spring cleaning” type of game if there ever was one. Your character goes through several stages of moving, from moving into a college dorm to moving into their first house. At each stage, you unpack all their boxes and situate their various belongings in places that they best go, organizing the space as you see fit within the bounds of common sense. (You don’t place shampoo bottles in a kitchen cabinet, for instance.) Perhaps of all the games in this section, Unpacking is the one that’s most emblematic of fresh starts.

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check

Okay, hear me out. Screening people before allowing them into a quarantine zone is the kind of spring cleaning you would do during a zombie apocalypse. It’s a bit grim and morbid, as you’re essentially cleaning out infected people, whether that means sending them to liquidation or research.

But there’s a strange satisfying loop to the gameplay as you scan people for signs of being a zombie, send them to where they need to go, slowly unlock new methods and tools for scanning them, and then repeat the whole process again. It’s spring cleaning, zombie style.

Moving Out 2

If you’re in the mood for clearing things out alongside a friend, the sequel to Moving Out is the perfect game to play. You’re less cleaning, more picking up and tossing, which is a form of cleaning if you really think about it. In a sort of Overcooked style, Moving Out 2 has you and your squad visit different locations.

And in each one, you’re assisting the residents with moving out by picking up their pieces of furniture and tossing them onto your moving truck. Not a lot of care is taken with the tossing, but each location ends up pretty clean afterwards. It’s spring cleaning in an arcade-like package.

Crime Scene Cleaner

And I thought Quarantine Zone was a morbid pick. Crime Scene Cleaner has you cleaning up crime scenes, exactly as the title suggests. You work for the mob, ensuring scenes of grisly murders are pristine once you’re done with them. You scrub, mop, and vacuum up the evidence. And by evidence, it’s usually buckets of blood and a body. On occasion, you may have to pocket incriminating evidence to protect your employers, but overall, it’s mostly cleaning up blood.

Roadside Research

I downloaded this game on a lark, mostly because I was at loose ends after finishing up Resident Evil 9 and I wanted something light and silly to dabble in before moving on to my next big time investment. Boy, did I pick a winner. You play as an alien masquerading on Earth as a human who is running a gas station.

Clear shades of Supermarket Simulator here, as you’ll spend your time stocking shelves, determining prices, and gassing up customer cars. But what they don’t tell you is how much goshdarned trash you end up picking up. Your customers spew trash with the ease of politicians spewing words. And if you haven’t upgraded your trash cans (yes, that’s a thing), you’ll spend a lot of time running around outside picking up soda cans and cigarette cartons.

Firefighting Simulator – The Squad

Clean fire with the power of professional firefighting equipment! You and friends can get together and fight various conflagrations that erupt in different parts of the city in Firefighting Simulator. You drive to each location in what can be a very exciting fire truck ride, depending on the driving skills of whoever is behind the wheel.

Once there, you need to carefully ascertain the kind of fire you’re dealing with before selecting the tools needed to put it out. In addition to that, your approach into buildings matters in order to rescue people in danger before the fire reaches them.

Pigeon Simulator

When I first booted up Pigeon Simulator, I thought I would get something akin to Goat Simulator. A zany sandbox where I could get up to shenanigans as a city pigeon. I was woefully wrong. Instead, you play as a pigeon that works for some sort of secret pigeon agency that needs to locate and eliminate “anomalies” in the city. These anomalies are a kind of interdimensional entity that is leaking into our world, and it’s apparently up to the pigeon community to clean up the streets from this paranormal filth.

House Flipper

What’s better than cleaning up your house in the spring? Completely remodeling it. House Flipper lets you perform the ultimate spring cleaning by going into houses and renovating them. You get to tear down and restructure dilapidated houses, clean them up by throwing away garbage and unwanted furnishings, and then stuff these new empty boxes with the decor you like. A real fixer-upper. It’s almost literally a cleaning simulator.

FBC: Firebreak

Hey, even Federal Bureaus of Control require cleaning. It just takes a more shooty-shooty-bang-bang approach to clean up the Oldest House. Remedy’s multiplayer title, FBC: Firebreak, plays like a streamlined Left 4 Dead game.

You and a squad fight your way through parts of the ever-shifting and Twilight Zone-esque building, eliminating troublesome and otherworldly anomalies. These anomalies include Hiss-ed enemies and a plethora of sticky notes. So if you want more action in your spring cleaning game, Firebreak is the perfect title to try.

Tax Season Survival: Best Games to Decompress After Filing Your Taxes

Filing taxes sucks. Nothing you can do about it in real life makes it any easier. So we’ve picked the games we’re going to be playing once we’re done.

Ball X Pit

Mindless yet engrossing, Ball X Pit is one of the best games to come out this past year. It couples the arcade enjoyment of pinball with the run-after-run nature of a modern roguelike. You are part of a community delving down into levels in order to clear them.

Clearing levels means taking various characters on ball-shooting runs in which you need to destroy enemy “blocks” by upgrading your ball powers. (No, I’m not joking.) When you’re not on a run, you can spend resources you’ve collected on the run improving the village where your characters live and upgrading your characters themselves. It’s a lot of fun and a heck of a lot more fun than taxes.

Chivalry 2

Filing taxes makes me want to scream. Luckily, Chivalry 2 has a dedicated scream button to press as you bumrush the opposing army. This is a big multiplayer game, where you’re placed in the plated shoes, first-person style, of a medieval soldier. The way I see it, if you want to immerse yourself in a battleground fantasy, where it’s you and 60 other people colliding against each other in one epic mash-up of swords, shields, and bows and arrows, Chivalry 2 is the place. And right after you’ve finished dealing with taxes is the time.

Terraria

Terraria itself can be demanding. The game combines the sandbox nature of Minecraft with a two-dimensional perspective and a larger emphasis on combat. The bosses can be brutal, and its Hardmode world is legendary. But if you’re looking for a game to wholly engross your mind so you don’t think about anything else whatsoever, Terraria is the game for you.

You’ll be so focused on your builds, finding new weapons, learning how to use them, plumbing the depths, setting up workable mines, that you won’t even have the bandwidth to think about unseemly things like taxes.

Vampire Survivors

Mindless monster destroying is just what the doctor ordered after a month of stressing about taxes. And nothing is more mindless (in the best way possible) than Vampire Survivors. Move your character around a map and let their passives demolish everything on the screen as you slowly but surely upgrade them to be a flashy, monster-killing tornado. And thanks to all the new content added over time, you have a lot to keep you busy while you unlock everything Vampire Survivors has to offer.

Goat Simulator 3

Causing inordinate amounts of chaos is the antidote to a lot of ills, especially when there are zero consequences to doing so. Goat Simulator 3 is here for you if you feel like breaking a few things and roaming around a bustling city as an anarchy-loving goat. And the variety of secret goat trophies you can uncover and pop culture references you can notice make this game diverting as well as stress-relieving.

Golf with Your Friends

Chill time with your friends is always going to be less stressful than tax season; raucous time with your friends will also be less stressful than tax season. Golf with Your Friends is a hilarious way to chillax with a group of buds after a tough beginning to April. It’s basically like online minigolf.

You and up to eleven other people can tee up in these small but wildly ridiculous courses. Due to the power of video game, you don’t solely have to contend with physical obstacles. Black holes, insane water features, and more conspire to make each round a true challenge to reach par.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Even without the looming threat of taxes over your head, nothing beats the decompressing nature of playing a Lego game. Those little click-click sound effects of Lego bricks being slotted together must have been designed with de-stressing in mind. While there are a plethora of Lego games to choose from, Xbox Game Pass currently offers subscribers one of the best in the bunch.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga compiles the film adventures of Luke Skywalker and family in one happy package. Live through both trilogies, swinging your lightsaber around and destroying Lego buildings. And then afterward, you can click-click them all back together.

Totally Reliable Delivery Service

If I could have any job in a video game, it would have to be that of a delivery person in Totally Reliable Delivery Service. This physics-based, humorous title sees its delivery person survive getting walloped in the face with boxes, falling from great heights as they try flying planes to transport packages, and getting dunked into an ocean multiple times.

This is one of the zaniest games I ever dabbled in while exploring the corners of Xbox Game Pass. Would recommend to anyone looking for a side-splitting co-op experience or the ultimate distraction.

Doom + Doom II

There are quite a few “hell” and “filing taxes” figures of speech I could make to say that Doom is better than tax season. But suffice it to say, if you want to relax after dealing with the nightmare of a tax form, why not decompress by visiting a video game version of hell. The original Doom and Doom II are both available on Xbox Game Pass. Mowing down demons, even with the dated graphics, is one of the best gaming experiences you can play. It certainly beats taxes, hands down.

April Fools! Games With The Biggest Plot Twists

I feel like every single one of the entries that follows needs a spoiler warning, so here it is. WARNING. SPOILERS AHEAD.

A Way Out

When I first played A Way Out with my partner, we thought we were just going to play a comedic little buddy-heist-jailbreak game. Little did we know how invested we would become with our caricatures of characters, despite how corny bits of the plot were. So after going on our adventure as Leo and Vince, when we came to the part where ONE OF US betrayed the other, we were suitably upset. And then to pit us against each other? Josef Fares, why did you break our hearts?

Little Nightmares II

Little Nightmares II sees you take on the role of Mono, another small child protagonist sneaking past the grotesque creatures of this world. However, Six, the protagonist of the original game, joins you on your journey as an NPC companion. Obviously, feelings of attachment toward her remain, so you care about what happens to both of them and how their relationship, vague as it is, progresses.

So when Six lets go of Mono’s hand toward the end, dropping him to his doom and his future becoming one of the grotesque creatures you spent the whole game avoiding, it’s quite the upset. Did not see that one coming.

Pentiment

Pentiment is all about the plot. The story takes place in the 16th century, when a journeyman artist working at a Benedictine abbey stumbles upon a murder mystery. In a dialogue-heavy manner, you must question the monks, the townspeople, and the peasants in an attempt to solve it. You can only do your best given who you talk to and the information they give you.

Regardless, since the narrative extends over several years, you can see the consequences of your accusations and their long-term effects. And when you finally uncover who the real killer was, I guarantee you won’t see it coming.

1000xResist

The entirety of 1000xResist feels like a plot twist. You reveal the story and motivations behind actions bit by bit through a narrative disjointed by time jumps. The premise alone of a post-apocalyptic society of clones struggling to survive and live by the mandate of their creator begs so many questions and invites so many plot-twisty answers.

What caused the disease that wiped out all of humanity? Why was only one person immune? How did these clones grow into a culture of venerating their original? And it all culminates into one climactic ending where no one is as you expect.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage reveals its story to you through the lens of four adults struggling to remember the events of their childhood. Swann, the main character, meets up with her old friends after receiving an ominous message about their past. So you spend the majority of the game playing in Swann’s memories, reliving scenes from her youth, all in an effort to “remember” what happened. And whatever you were thinking would be revealed, I bet it wasn’t a weird interdimensional hole in the ground.

Firewatch

After a sobering start to the narrative, Firewatch presents you with a first-person walking simulator that you think will be about main character Henry’s desire to cope with the upheavals in his personal life. It’s all well and good…until events spiral into a conspiracy-sounding suspense-fest. Is someone spying on Henry and his fellow watchtower coworker, Delilah? A serial killer psychopath? The government? That’s up to you to figure out. The ending will both shock and sadden you.

Puzzle Games For The Puzzle Minded

Puzzle games are a tried and true video game genre, whether we’re talking about a puzzle platformer or a physics-based head-scratcher. So looking for a low-key brain teaser? We’ve got you. (Also, I don’t know why most of these puzzle games have a single-word title. It’s puzzling.)

Unravel

Unravel is a gentle puzzle-platformer where you play as a small creature called Yarny. As his name suggests, Yarny is made of yarn and he can extend a rope of himself to lower his body down to the ground or swing himself across chasms. That’s the basis of Unravel’s puzzle-solving. It’s not too taxing, and the visual design of the world is delightful. Simple, short, sweet. Everything you’d want in a casual puzzle game.

Peggle

Ode to Joy will forever be imprinted in my memory thanks to Peggle. In Peggle, your goal is to shoot balls at orange pegs in order to clear them. Blue pegs will often overlay the orange ones, so you need to tactically shoot blues in order to clear the shot for an orange.

Different “characters” provide ball-shooting abilities that can be utilized to varying effect. One clears all pegs within a certain blast radius, another lengthens the targeting line so you can better judge the angle of a ball’s bounce when aiming. And best of all, when your ball nears the final orange peg to clear, the screen zooms in on it, a drumroll ensues, and Ode to Joy bursts into triumphant melody.

Inside

If you like an ounce of horror in your puzzle games, Inside is the perfect title for you. Be warned, though, you’ll have to deal with a bit of trial-and-error puzzling. You play as a young boy on the run from some grim organization. The environments are dark and moody, highlighting the horrific nature of the world through a show-don’t-tell method.

As you navigate forward, you’ll come across traps that may require running into them first in order to figure out what the game wants from you. And thankfully, Inside’s save system means each death won’t put you too far back.

Keeper

Ever wanted to play as a walking lighthouse? I didn’t know I wanted to until I tried out Keeper. Made by Double Fine, the team behind Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, Keeper sees players step into the brick foundations of a lighthouse. Accompanied by a bird, the lighthouse travels the lands solving puzzles and carrying the bird around. Puzzles are a light affair, not difficult at all, and the visuals are stunning.

Superliminal

If the Portal series were to have a spiritual successor, I’d say Superliminal is it. Taking perspective as the groundwork for all its puzzles, Superliminal has you go through room after room, area after area, solving puzzles and working out your brain muscles.

You use forced perspective to make objects larger or smaller than they appear. Once they’re the size you need for whatever puzzle you’re on, you can progress. And that’s only a part of the puzzle mechanics. You use light and shadow and other visual illusions to make your way through to the end.

Human Fall Flat

What’s a puzzle game without a little humor? In fact, what’s a puzzle game without a little help from friends? Human Fall Flat is a cooperative, physics-based puzzle platformer that tasks you and your group with navigating through an area from start to finish. You control your little dough character with the most awkward controls imaginable.

The stiffness of your character’s limbs and the floaty jumping just makes for supreme hilarity as you try to climb over ledges, lift boxes onto buttons, and drag planks where you need them to be.