I recently joined Xbox Game Pass to see what games were available, to test out the available cloud gaming service, and to decide if it was worth the money. The Game Pass service provides a huge library of games, over 100 of which can be played on mobile devices. What a great time to be a gamer! At a glance, this looked to be a good value, but it’ll take more than a few good games to keep me on as a subscriber.
The Service
Being that I wanted to try out cloud gaming, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the only option. This tier is the top end of all Game Pass services and runs for $14.99 a month. Compared to the standard Game Pass option, available for either Xbox or PC at $9.99 a month, there isn’t too big a difference in cost. One major benefit to Ultimate is that Xbox Live Gold membership is included, which runs about $5 per month if paid annually or $9.99 if paid monthly. With this in mind, it makes the most sense to jump in with Ultimate because the cost is the same as the standard service.
An additional feature of the Game Pass Ultimate option is that games for both PC and console are accessible. I have never been heavy into PC gaming, probably because I have an old school mentality from growing up on early console games. Having such a vast library available for download with a simple click, however, has changed this in the past few weeks, and I have probably played more on my PC than on my Xbox.
Cloud Gaming
Cloud Gaming is the third leg of the service and, although it is in its early stages, it runs surprisingly well on mobile devices. While writing this article I saw well over one hundred games available on the cloud platform. I have played only a hand full of these titles myself but was very pleased with the gameplay. Using an all but obsolete Samsung Galaxy S9 I was able to run Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, in all of its graphical glory, astonishingly well. I will dive further into the cloud gaming platform and how it performs in an upcoming review.
The Games
With a couple of hundred titles, across all genres of gameplay, there is more than enough to stave off the boredom. My tendancy is to go for first person shooters but there is far too much content available with Game Pass to keep such a narrow view, so I found myself jumping into puzzle and strategy games. Not everything on the platform is gaming gold, but the majority of the games available are worth a play. The list of games is constantly moving, with new content added and some going away in a given month, so the catalog stays fresh. Follow this link to see the currently available games.
To make things more interesting, a membership to EA Play will be included with Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions starting November 10th. This will add another dimension to the library and substantially expand the game list.
To sum up my experience with the this service, I have to say that I am happy with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and I will continue to subscribe. It will be quite some time before I run out of fresh games to immerse myself in, and that’s not taking into account the upcoming inclusion of EA Play. Ultimate is really the only choice, in my opinion, because allows gaming virtually anywhere, through the Xbox, PC, or phone. If you are on the fence about diving into Game Pass, I say give it a go.