XBox Game Pass Ultimate has to be the best game subscription service to date, and it's
certainly one of the reasons that pushes the XBox Series S and X ahead of the Playstation 5 as the
console to get. However, with hundreds of games on offer it can be hard to know where to start.
So, whether you have XBox Game Pass Ultimate already and are looking for what to play next,
or you're thinking of getting the subscription and want to know what games will make it worth
your while, here's my list of some of the top games that i think you should be trying.
Let's get into it!
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There are many first-person shooters that exist on any console platform but none quite epitomizes
that as much for the XBox platform as the Halo series of games. Dating all the way back to 2001
when the first Halo game released for the original XBox, we see currently the latest incarnation,
Halo 5, and all its previous versions for that matter, being available on Game Pass Ultimate.
Grab any version and the story is pretty much the same. Battle the hordes, defeat the Covenant,
and humanity lives a fight another day. The story modes do tend to be a bit short,
but the online multiplayer mode in Halo 5 is where it truly shines. With the next Halo game,
Halo: Infinite, scheduled to release in the fall of this year, and to be available on
Game Pass Ultimate on the day of its release, that's definitely one to keep an eye out for.
The fifth game in the Gears of War franchise, now just called 'Gears',
Gears 5 sees the action start where Gears of War 4 left off. It even has a nice "previously
on Gears" montage when you start the game up to get you up to speed on what's gone before.
Without adding any spoilers here, Gears 5 takes place after the events of Gears of War 4 and
focuses on Kate Diaz as she, along with the rest of the team, uncover the truth behind her family
history, whilst battling the Swarm, in a bid to save humanity from being overrun. The story of the
Gears series is, for me, one of the reasons that i place it over and above others in its genre.
There's a great storyline here that shows a depth to characters, and their development, that few
games in its genre even bother trying to do. Don't get me wrong, the combat is immersive, brutal
and never ending, but it's the attention to the actual story that makes it a great game for me. I
thoroughly recommend playing Gears of War 4 first though as its story leads straight into the start
of Gears 5 and will give you a lot of backstory. It's also a great game in its own right.
Slowing down the gameplay here we move to puzzle games, and here we see Human:
Fall Flat being a great example of just that. It's a unique puzzle game where you have to control
what i can only describe as a half drunk person who seemingly has no skeletal system where you
have to move things around so you can overcome the terrain and progress further. Push, pull,
carry, jump and swing obstacles, and yourself, to progress through the levels. It's a surreal
world that is as captivating as it is charming and i thoroughly recommend you check it out.
In a world of virtual reality, 3D and ray tracing, 2D platformers are becoming a rarity, but here,
'Ori and the Will of the Wisps' is a rarity that excels at what it does.
It is a beautifully created and rendered world that sees you control Ori,
a white guardian spirit. Here you'll need to traverse the various platforms to solve puzzles
where you'll gain new abilities and upgrades allowing you to unlock new areas as you go.
The graphics are beautiful, with a delightful story. It's elegantly done and well worth a try.
In 'Control' you are Jesse Faden, who is chosen by the Federal Bureau of Control to replace
the recently deceased director Zachariah Trench, which is awkward seeing as you're there trying to
uncover your brother's disappearance who was, as it turns out, actually captured by the FBC itself.
While seeking your brother you also find yourself having to battle with The Hiss,
an evil power who takes possession of people and does, well, evil stuff. Control is a psychological
horror and supernatural mystery keeping you as confused as you will be intrigued
by the entire narrative that may leave you with more questions than answers by the end of it.
It received critical acclaim upon its release and it's no less enticing now.
In 'The Medium' you play Marianne, a spirit medium, that receives a mysterious phone call from
a man named Thomas who knows of your abilities and offers to explain the origin of those powers.
So you head off to the Niwa workers resort, an abandoned communist era vacation resort,
in the Polish wilderness to meet him. At its core The Medium is a third person adventure
game where you need to solve puzzles in order to unlock doors and the like to progress further.
It's a formula that has been done many times before. However, here, there's a psychological
horror element to it as being a medium you can travel between this world and the next, and you'll
need to do that in order to solve the puzzles set before you. It's a short game at around 10 hours
of gameplay but it's different enough to make it an engaging game that you'll want to finish.
If on the other hand all you want to do is smash buttons and beat people up then this game is sure
to keep you occupied. 'Injustice 2' is one of the easiest beat-em-ups to just pick up and
start playing, no matter your skill level, which sees you able to play many characters from the DC
Comics universe including Superman, Batman and Harley Quinn. As well as all the standard fight
moves of punch and kick you can also interact with the background to perform different attack moves
that adds another dimension to the game. Each character's special move,
when executed, starts an entire mini cut scene that is massively over the top and i'm surprised
the opponent isn't reduced to a smoldering pile of dust after it. Whilst it can be played as a
multiplayer game it also has a good single player mode which isn't common in the beat-em-up segment,
so definitely a game you should be smashing these buttons with, it's immense fun.
The recent addition of EA Play to Game Pass Ultimate has opened up a whole new
world to subscribers here too, so if you like sports games then you're in here for a treat.
From the likes of FIFA 20 and NHL 21, through to NBA 2K21, Madden NFL 21, and others,
there are plenty to get your teeth into. It also doesn't stop there with both FIFA 21 and
MLB: The Show 21 soon to be added. There's a lot of sport here to keep you busy. Even
if you're not into sport, EA Play has plenty of additional games to wet your appetite too.
For every Star Wars fan out there we have 'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order',
a third-person action adventure game set five years after the events of 'Star Wars Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith'. It tells the story of Cal Kestis, a young surviving Jedi Padawan,
who must complete his training, escape his troubled past, and rebuild the fallen Jedi order,
all whilst being hunted by the Galactic Empire. You will need to fight Imperial Stormtroopers,
droids, and others, on your way to defeating Inquisitors and completing your quests,
or whilst using both your lightsaber and your force powers to defend yourself. It's a well
executed action game that, if you're a fan of Star Wars, has all the right bells and whistles
to do the franchise justice. There's also Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 available, along with
Star Wars Squadrons, if you absolutely want to get the most Star Wars you can from your subscription.
Titanfall 2 underperformed when it was first released for the XBox back in 2016.
However, i really liked this game and i think it's one of the best games i've ever played.
It plays as a great buddy action movie where you, as a pilot,
pair up with your titan 'BT', a large mechanoid robot with an AI personality.
You can switch between acting on your own or jump into your titan and control him.
As the pilot you can wall jump, which is a great mechanic and used heavily throughout the game, and
play in a more traditional shooter sense. You can then jump in your titan though and have some great
titan v titan battles, or just use him to stomp on the people you were just trying to shoot! That's
very satisfying that bit. It also has an online multiplayer mode which is great fun to play too.
If you're more into open gameplay then possibly one of the classics of this
genre has to be 'Grand Theft Auto V,' which is one of the biggest selling video games of all
time. You take control of one of the three main characters completing various missions
as you progress your characters through the criminal underworld of San Andreas.
A huge appeal of this game though is its open gameplay outside of those missions where you can
freely roam the open world, with more gameplay content being unlocked the more you play.
You could literally just stop a car in the street, hijack it, and then drive down the street driving
over people, if that's your thing. There's plenty to keep you occupied here for hours,
days, and weeks to come, it's a classic and definitely deserves checking out.
If RPGs are more your thing then Bethesda software house recently being bought by Microsoft is
Christmas come early. Their back catalogue of games are now available on Game Pass Ultimate,
which includes games such as 'Fallout 4' and the 'Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim'.
'Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' is another classic bestseller that sees you as the dragonborn
on your quest to defeat Alduin, a dragon, who is prophesized to destroy the world. You will
need to complete quests and develop your character by improving your skills in order
to do this. The game continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the
player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time and to ignore, or even postpone,
the main storyline indefinitely. It is an open fantasy world that will suck you in and not spit
you out for many months to come. Having now also received a frame boost update you will
see this game running at a resolution of 2160p at 60 frames per second on the XBox Series X,
and at the same frame rate, but at 1080p, on the Series S.
Another game to see that 60fps boost is 'Fallout 4'. Set within a post-apocalyptic open world,
you awake from cryostasis 210 years after a nuclear war caused devastation across the US,
only to see your wife murdered, and your son kidnapped, and you then go on a mission to
find your lost son. The game sees you explore this open world where you can complete quests, help out
factions, and gain experience points that all help you level up your skill levels as you progress
further in the game. It's a futuristic, but 1950's stylized, game whose attention to detail and story
makes it a compelling game to play. It's a game that you can easily lose your life in.
'Outriders' was just recently released as a day 1 release title on Game Pass Ultimate.
It's a game that sees a mix of Destiny 2 and Gears of War, with a good dose of Quantum Break
for good measure. Think essentially a third person shooter but with elements of a role-playing game.
You choose your character from one of four different classes who each have their own
unique abilities that allows them to manipulate time, fire, earth and technology. You then upgrade
these abilities using a skill tree as the game progresses. It's a fairly standard affair of
loot and shoot, although the saving grace of this game here is that it's a complete
game. There's no micro transactions for loot boxes that many other games do these days, and
that's a welcome relief. It's a rock-solid combat system that will keep you occupied for hours.
These are just some of the great games i think you should be trying on Game Pass Ultimate,
and with hundreds of games available, and the addition of EA Play and Bethesda game titles,
it really is just the tip of the iceberg. The great thing here is that the subscription is
a flat fee so you can download and try as many games as you like. If you don't like the game,
just delete it and try something else. It costs you nothing extra.
The list of games available, like any other subscription service such as Netflix,
is always changing. Old games are getting removed and new games are getting added
all the time so make sure you're always looking at the 'leaving soon'
and the 'recently added' section in your game pass store to know what's coming and going.
I do hope this has given you some great ideas as to what game you should try next.
Game pass ultimate also gives you access to a number of PC games, so if you'd like to
see my recommendation of what i think are the best PC games to get from Game Pass,
do let me know in the comments down below.
Thanks for watching, and as always...
See you in the next one!