November has finally arrived, and with it comes some jockeying between the Xbox camp and other consoles for who’ll come out on top during the holiday shopping rush. Thing is, due to the rampant unavailability of consoles across the board because of supply-chain issues, it’s looking like a complicated month – more so than normal — where folks will be beyond lucky to buy a console of any kind throughout the holidays. There’s a lot of distractions going on right now, but at least Microsoft is stepping up with quality releases through their Game Pass program to help out.

While their Games With Gold titles remain lackluster, they’ve provided some real attention-grabbing titles to their other subscription program this month, from a huge new release and an game-of-the-year contended to a highly popular remastered classic … even though that one’s getting dragged through the mud right now.  Let’s take a closer look at the games, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon for access to these downloads and exclusive deals on their marketplace.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games’ Forza series has become appointment-worthy over the past decade of its development, providing some of the clearest examples of how the Xbox console’s graphics and tech are progressively pushed beyond their limits. Starting with the original 360 title and moving to Forza 4 on the One, there’s a clear and observable succession of improvement across the life cycle Microsoft’s last-gen system. From game modes and familiar included cars to the general impressiveness of the graphics, the advancements aren’t of the same caliber as sports games that seem to reproduce largely the same experience year after year. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the company’s first installment designed with the Xbox Series X in mind would be hotly anticipated, and it arrives in style.

Forza 5 takes the action to Mexico, producing an open-world driving landscape that’s been crafted with research and reference from across the range of areas there, a purposeful design choice to amp up the variety in gameplay. That is, if the 500+ cars available in this installment can’t do that on their own, on top of the new dynamic weather system, the car and player-character customization, and the scattering of play modes across the otherwise sandbox environment. Both critics and players alike have had nothing but positive things to say about Forza Horizon 5 up to this point, celebrating both its aesthetic polish and its combo of gameplay variety and arcade excitement.

Grand Theft: Auto San Andreas — Definitive Edition

Enough has been said about the quality of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over the years that it almost feels unnecessary to mention how thoroughly it impacted the PS2-era of gaming consoles, whose popularity could be attributed to reason we’ve got the juggernaut of GTAIV and GTAV today. Unfortunately, there’s another hot topic going around about Rockstar’s game, notably about the quality of the most recent remastering of San Andreas and its predecessors GTAIII and Vice City, being billed as the “definitive edition” of the trilogy. Most would assume that a company like Rockstar – again, the studio behind both these games and the stellar-reviewed Red Dead Redemption series — would effortlessly produce satisfying, crowd-pleasing remasters of these games, but that’s not quite the case.

Developed by Grove Street Games, formerly known as War Drum Studios and as the folks responsible for other Rockstar ports, these Definitive Editions of the GTA games have been labeled less than stellar for a number of reasons. From sound quality dips and text misspellings to rampant graphical issues related to both character models and the landscape, the grievances have been voiced quite clearly by early players. It’s for this reason that the addition of San Andreas to the Game Pass library should be celebrated, as players are able to try out this remastered iteration for themselves before jumping into a full trilogy purchase; for some, the issues could be overpowered by the improvements and nostalgia factor.

It Takes Two

The title above is a literal expression of what’s required to play Hazelight’s most recent creation: It Takes Two needs a willing pair of gamers to get through it. This can be a hurdle for some players who like to plow through action-platform style games on their own speed, but when it’s from the mind of content director Josef Fares, there’s a sense of confidence in the requirement having enough purpose to justify it. Fares first made a name for himself in the game arena at Starbreeze Studios by developing the under-the-radar hit Brothers, which utilizes siblings with individual strengths to create innovative gameplay situations that are hinged on expressive storytelling. These are aspects he carries over to his own Hazelight Studios in development of the similarly dramatic co-op adventure A Way Out.

It Takes Two transforms those emotional concepts into actual gameplay designs, in which the young daughter of a soon-to-be divorced couple takes doll versions of her parents off to play, then tries to repair their relationship through thrilling adventures in fantasy landscapes. As these Coraline-esque doll versions of the parents – each controlled by a different player – complete tasks in the level design that echo a wide variety of gameplay styles, it brings aspects of their family relationship more into focus as the two characters gain control of new abilities and coordinate them with one another.  Both critics and players have adamantly sang praises for just about everything involved with It Takes Two, from the novel variety of fluctuating genre styles to the visuals and the cooperative synergies.

Xbox Games With Gold

While Game Pass continues to thrive by offering day-and-date megahits and game-of-the-year contenders, Microsoft’s legacy program Xbox Games With Gold maintains its slope in the opposite direction, showcasing little firepower in their monthly included freebies. Let’s start on the Xbox One with a moving simulator … yes, a moving simulator, as in a puzzle game designed around moving out of a house. In the same vein as Overcooked, Moving Out (November 1-31) takes a mundane activity with potential complications and transforms it into a fast-paced, outlandish cooperative experience that’s assuredly more fun than doing the real thing. Also on the current Xbox system is Kingdom: Two Crowns (November 16-December 15), a beautiful 8-bit inspired, side-scrolling fantasy game that combines settlement management with exploration and survival. Critics and players praise the aesthetic, but feel the slower pace and simplicity hold it back.

Over on the legacy Xbox systems, we’ve got a pair of recognizable faces within middle-of-the-road action games that clearly have younger audiences in mind with their inclusion. First, there’s Rocket Knight (November 1-15), an action-platform game featuring a classic Sega Genesis character revived for the current era. While the original Rocket Knight continues to be regarded as one of the better platform titles on the Genesis, this new iteration proves that modern examples of the genre need a little something extra and need more longevity than what it provides. There’s also LEGO Batman 2 (November 16-30), and let’s be real, the LEGO titles are effortlessly entertaining across the board regardless of peaks and valleys in quality, so the inclusion of the Dark Knight in his blocky form will always be welcome.

November’s Xbox Freebies: Game Pass Moving Up, Gold Moving Out

To certain sports fans out there, one of the most significant developments in video games will be happening in the month of April, where a longstanding series will finally be breaking free from a lengthy exclusivity deal. This is a big deal that’s been a long time coming, and with its preplanned release and the shift in seasons, it’s not surprising that the rest of the offerings throughout April aren’t that attention-grabbing.

With that being said, there are a few other solid new releases to keep other gamers occupied, from a new sci-fi shooter-RPG and a novel spinoff from the popular Yakuza series to another installment in a low-key popular racing franchise. Let’s take a closer look.

Outriders – April 1 (PS4, PS5; XBOX O/S/X; Stadia; PC)

Next month, gamers will be able to relive the original Mass Effect experience all over again, and while several aspects contribute to that franchise’s popularity, one of the key successes can be found in how the gameplay mixes shooting and spellcasting with its “biotics” abilities. Outriders taps into a similar premise, only it extrapolates much further on the potential. After a colonization mission goes south due to the emergence of the Anomaly – a life-altering energy storm – the player’s customized character awakens from cryostasis several decades later to find the environment in shambles and the human remnants embroiled in civil war.

They also awake to find that their body has been altered by the Anomaly, in a way determined by the player’s selection of 4 different classes, and that they’re not the only ones given gifts by the Anomaly: other humans now also have those almost superhero-like abilities. Either solo or with cooperative buddies along for the ride, Outriders tosses them into the harrowing, alien-populated expanses of the world, guns and spells in tow and a skill tree ready to fill up.

Get Outriders at Amazon Here

Lost Words: Beyond the Page — April 6 (PS4; XBX; Switch; PC)

Rhianna Pratchett – daughter of the late renowned fantasy author Terry Pratchett – has been, in one way or another, responsible for some of the more compelling video game narratives of the past few console generations: Heavenly Sword, Mirror’s Edge, the rebooted Tomb Raider, several others. Lost Words: Beyond the Page brings her writing focus down to a smaller, intimate scale, in which a family story is told around the gameplay mechanics of a young girl walking throughout the pages of her diary, changing in subtle ways depending on the multiple-choice word options selected by the player.

Light platforming gameplay guides the character through vibrant side-scrolling level design as it spins a tale about the heartbreak of losing someone and the importance of discovering purpose, a game largely uninterested in difficulty and more about drawing those playing into the themes being crafted.

Get Lost Words: Beyond the Page at Microsoft Store Here

MLB The Show 21 – April 20 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X)

Yup, The Show was an exclusive on PlayStation consoles for almost exactly a decade and a half, providing one of the more peculiar, yet effective console exclusives for the past 3-4 generations. Why exactly the decision was made to jump onto rival consoles this time isn’t clear, except for the obvious: a much wider audience of players will now have access to the game, which of course increases the opportunity for revenue later down the line. It’ll be part of Microsoft’s Game Pass program as a free download at launch to celebrate the happening, so Xbox players will want to keep an eye out for that … but really, the money’s still going to come through in-game purchases.

Thing is, The Show sees this opportunity and knows it should deliver something special, resulting in the inclusion of some potent new aspects such as stadium creation, additional immersion aspects in the career mode, and cross-platform play between platform types. Not only is exclusivity broken, but players on different machines can play against one another on The Show’s first step up to this plate. That’s pretty impressive.

Get the Jackie Robinson Edition of The Show 21 at Best Buy Here

MotoGP 21 – April 22 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; Stadia; PC)

Racing titles – especially motorcycle racers — have a special lineage in the history of video games, as the velocity and responsiveness of flooring it through tracks was one of the earliest effective usages of realistic graphics. While the likes of Road Rash’s battle bike design established a reputation early, the more focused simulators gradually gained in popularity, especially those under the MotoGP official branding in the PS2 era.

Since, the rights to MotoGP has shifted from studio to studio, and now we’re in the middle of Italian developer Milestone’s tenure, slated to last until 2026. Also the folks behind the Ride and Monster Energy Supercross racing franchises, Milestone brings a reliable prestige to each title that comes out from them, with MotoGP 20 being a unique title that depicts the season as if COVID hadn’t happened. MotoGP 21 will likely see mild improvements to simulation and immersion aspects.

Get MotoGP 21 at the PlayStation Store Here

Get MotoGP 21 at the PlayStation Store Here

Judgment – April 23 (PS5; Xbox O/S/X; Stadia)

Yakuza is currently in a state of transformation, exploring new protagonists and gameplay styles within the same general universe created within SEGA’s popular franchise. Like a Dragon rolls the dice on both a new lead character and a turn-based battle system, and fans were surprisingly warm and welcome to the changes, something that can be tricky for even other franchises under SEGA’s umbrella; they’re the house of Sonic, after all.

With franchise mastermind Toshihiro Nagoshi at the helm, they also took another risk with Judgment, though it’s probably considered a lower risk. While the gameplay sticks to the action-based fluidity of previous installments in Yakuza, the perspective shifts to that of a private investigator, and some of the gameplay complexity branches off from that change in objective. Critics haven’t been entirely positive toward the superficiality of the investigation mechanics, but the overall shift in objectives for Judgment has been embraced, and will continue to do so with this upgraded release on PS5 and debut on Xbox consoles and Stadia.  

Get Judgment at Amazon Here

Between MotoGP and Judgment, the Stadia system isn’t having a bad month, as it’s also getting a port of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on April 1. A remastered edition of the classic PS1 RPG Saga: Frontier will be charging into battle on April 15, while stalwart protagonist Super Meat Boy will see his adventures come to more consoles as Super Meat Boy: Forever ports over from the Switch to Xbox One and PS4 on April 16. A remastered version of the Nier: Replicant variant of the game from Cavia and Square Enix will be coming on April 23. Rounding things out for the month will be R-Type 2 Final, the first official release from the franchise in over 15 years, coming in on April 29-30.

April’s Video Game Roster: The Show 21, Outriders and Bike Racers

It’s essentially been a year since society has adopted the “lockdown” way of doing things, and we’re still in the difficult period after the launch of new video game consoles where they’re still very tough to come by. Both of those things make for a frustrating month in March, as the backlog of games to play might be running a bit dry and the inability to try out old favorite games on the new machines remains an issue. It doesn’t help that the admittedly long list of new video games hitting shelves this month remains lower key and underwhelming despite the volume, with many of them dedicated to next-generation upgrades of older titles. Best to keep digging through the backlog bin and looking out for sales on other titles, but let’s take a peek at the ones that might generate some interest.

Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition – March 4 (Series X/S; PS5)

Leading into the release of Marvel’s Avengers and the remastered edition of Kingdoms of Amalur last year, Mortal Shell fell under the radar in the school-prep and Madden-dominated month of August. While it didn’t break any barriers, the third-person action-RPG from Cold Symmetry got many things right, blending credible battle movement, an ominous atmosphere, and a novel gameplay mechanic hinged on sporadically gaining control of several body types – “shells” – with different combat styles.

Comparisons to Dark Souls are not only merited, but intended and invited by the developers, who seek to fill the void left in the absence of further installments from the universe. Mortal Shell elicits those intended responses as it earns favorable comparisons to the Souls series, though its short length and sluggishness with enemies are a recurring critique.  The Enhanced Edition for PS5 and Xbox Series X arrives digitally in March, but with physical goodies if you wait until April, including a reversible cover and an art book.

Get Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition at Amazon

Mundaun – March 16 (Xbox One/Series; PS4/5; Switch; PC)

Every frame of Mundaun seems like it’s been lifted straight from the pages of an old novel with illustrations, heavy on the cardboard/sepia brown aesthetic as the backdrop for hand-drawn animation.  Developers Hidden Fields utilize this vintage essence to tell a tale of horror, survival, and the chilly expanses of the Alps, applying artist sketches to 3D models of buildings, humans, and creatures alike to preserve the illusion throughout the icy landscape.

Mundaun acts like it’s wanting to tap into the same lingering sense of dread and ominous presence of the likes of Limbo and Return of the Obra Dinn, but with its own fabled lore pushing the first-person experience forward. Little is known about the game beyond its early promo footage and glimpses at the artistic process, but those are more than enough to raise the interest level in any horror, mystery, or survival gamer yearning for the next absorbing fix.

RBI Baseball 21 – March 16 (Xbox Series/One; PS4/5; Switch; PC)

The market for baseball games has been a tough one, and one of the few where a single console has held a monopoly over the official, most realistic and successful title: MLB’s The Show on PlayStation. That is, until this year when it finally debuts on the Xbox.  This also marks the end of a long gap of opportunity for any other developers to make a worthy multi-console competitor, with Super Mega Baseball essentially becoming the Hot Shots Golf of the baseball video game realm; despite the cartoon designs, it’s an exciting and deep sports experience.

Despite many attempts, RBI Baseball has never been able to fill that void, always lagging one step behind in both the simulator and arcade aspects against its competitors.  RB1 21 steps up to the plate for yet another attempt to make something happen in the space between those games, and while it doesn’t have the realistic pop of The Show or the flair of Super Mega Baseball, it does look like it has continued to take steps in the right direction by keeping its grounded gameplay tweaks and amplifying its personality with play-by-play commentary.

Get RBI Baseball 21 at Amazon

Balan Wonderworld – March 26 (Xbox Series/One; PS4/5; Switch; PC)

Yuji Naka has been involved with the creation of some of the most iconic platform games in existence with the Sonic franchise, but he also played a key role in developing the delightfully whimsical Nights Into Dreams, which had a hand in breaking people’s perceptions of where 3D gaming could go. A strong grasp on level design and a clear vision for characterization guarantee that just about project under his direction will, at the very least, have vibrance and personality laced through challenging environments.

Now under the Square Enix banner, he’s taking on his first completely new project in a while with Balan Wonderworld, in which a mythical maestro guides the player character through a musical wonderland filled with various costumes of creatures and other organisms.  While the maestro evokes memories of Nights Into Dreams, the gameplay of Balan Wonderworld seems like it fits somewhere between Sonic, 3D Mario titles and Kameo: Elements of Power in the shifting forms undertaken by the character.

Get Balan Wonderworld at Amazon

Monster Hunter: Rise – March 26 (Switch)

While many franchises tend to stick exclusively to one console or eventually make it onto all of ‘em, Monster Hunter has generous bounced around between both PlayStation and Nintendo consoles during its lifespan. The sixth proper installment in the Monster Hunter narrative, Rise, has been designed with the Switch in mind and will likely stay an exclusive on that format, though a PC version will trample onto the scene sometime next year.

As one can tell by the mere existence of the recent live-action adaptation starring Milla Jovovich – good or bad as it may be — Monster Hunter holds a lot of potential with its world-building and action-oriented extravagance, with a clear knack for the scope of strategic boss battles against huge enemies that need to be scaled to be defeated. Rise furthers the advancement of the previous installments as the Hunter pursues contracts for monsters to be slain, and players can both take the challenges on alone or get together with others online for a co-op hunt.

Get Monster Hunter: Rise at Amazon

There are a lot, and I mean a lot, of ports and upgrades being released in March. Sea of Solitude: Director’s Cut hits on March 4, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning makes it way onto the Switch on March 16, and the vast majority of Kingdom Hearts titles are making their way onto PC at the end of the month. Yakuza: Like a Dragon gets its PS5 makeover on March 2, Samurai Shodown gets a nice spit-polish for the Xbox Series consoles on March 16, and Crash Bandicoot 4 arrives on the Switch and the other next-gen consoles on March 14. Meanwhile, for those still interested, the upgraded version of Marvel’s Avengers finally lands on March 18. And, at some point during March, certain consoles will be getting the highly-anticipated Disco Elysium: Final Cut … with others coming a few months later.

March’s New Video Games: Wonderworlds, Monster Hunters, Lotsa Ports

With the beginning of 2021, eyes are on Microsoft and how they’re going to handle their subscription services on the Xbox for year(s) to come. Sure, they’ve confirmed that the baseline Live Gold subscription will be an option for the foreseeable future, but it’s hard to deny the assertive shift that the company has enacted toward their pricier but more rewarding Game Pass option. From the choice for subscribers to “upgrade” their current pre-paid Gold service months into Game Pass Ultimate for $1, to the higher-profile games included with the premium service and the automatic inclusion of the Gold free downloads into the monthly Ultimate price, there seems to be a clear direction of where it’s headed.

For the time being, however, regular old Live Gold seems to be sticking around, and with it comes another lukewarm, yet still reputable list of freebies that simply aren’t keeping up with the competition. Let’s take a look, but before that, be sure to Grab a Prepaid 3-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Card at Amazon.

Xbox One / Series

Little Nightmares (January 1-31)

It’s delightful to see that a niche subgenre like “horror platformer” can thrive in the current gaming environment.  While there have been plenty of horror-themed action games released over the years – the Castlevania series being the big one that comes to mind – the ability to create genuinely scary and/or unsettling games that play like the most family-friendly platformers out there is a relatively new phenomenon.  Confidence in the concept began to rise with the beautifully haunting Limbo and has spread throughout the indie circuit, becoming some of gaming’s most creative, emotional experiences.

Little Nightmares grabs the concept by the back of the neck and drags it further into the realm of the deranged and the macabre, while still retaining a sort of artfulness to what’s happening. Players gain control of a young girl wearing a bright yellow raincoat, who maneuvers through a maze of corridors and dimly-lit rooms within The Maw, the underwater living space for ghoulish, oversized humanoid dwellers. The 2.5 platformer design disappears into the tangible grotesquery and the ominous tone of what’s happening, though players and critics feel the clumsy controls occasionally yank them out of the illusion.

Dead Rising (January 16 – February 15)

In the early days of the 360, a handful of games were part of an unofficial exclusive “starter pack” when buying the console within the first calendar year of its release, which included Oblivion, Kameo, Gears of War, Geometry Wars … and Dead Rising. Dead Rising was particularly inviting because it flexed the power of that system in a unique way: it rendered tons and tons of zombies that the player could take out in an absurd number of ways, from wrestling moves to chainsaws and other weapons. Wrapped in a mall-shaped package that reminds one of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, and you’ve got a winning experience.

Now fifteen years old and a few sequels deep, Dead Rising may not be the graphical powerhouse it once was, but there’s still something infectious about the concept and the freedom that it affords the player.  That’s one of the reasons why Capcom went to bat and knocked out a remastered edition of the game, released in 2016 and the version available here.  It’s a marginal upgrade that takes the original content and gives it a nice spit-polish in resolution and contrast.

Xbox / Xbox 360

King of Fighters XIII (January 1-15)

Amid the console wars in the mid-‘90s, another loomed in the background that boasted a wealth of content for fans of the fighting genre: the Neo Geo. On that platform, both in arcade cabinets and at home, the King of Fighters brawling franchise gradually built up a reputation for being “arguably better than Street Fighter” in both the briskness of the combat and the composition of the characters. Over the years as the other big names – and Neo Geo contemporaries like Samurai Shodown – have continued to thrive, King of Fighters has also been sticking around, reaching a high point with King of Fighters XIII.

Fighting franchises evolve with the development of consoles, and the 13^th primary entry of this one hits its stride by improving on strengths introduced in the previous entry, at the end of the 360’s prime. KoF XII introduces hand-drawn characters, but the next one vastly improves on their appearance for a visually appealing upgrade, though that’s promptly abandoned in the next game. More importantly, SNK sees what fighting systems work and don’t, then smartly removes the excess and smartly adds features both old and new.  This one’s well-regarded for continuing the brisk reputation of the franchise.

Breakdown (January 16-31)

There’s a fine line between capturing realism in a video game and making a game too realistic, a line that’s been continuously tested in recent years with the rising popularity of “walking simulator” games. Perhaps with today’s modern polish and niche audiences, a game like Breakdown would have been more warmly received than it was almost two days ago. On the heels of Halo, this game from Namco boasts a unique science-fiction story involving earthquakes, near-invincible aliens, and a super soldier serum injected into the main character, Derrick, that makes him able to fight against the alien forces. The shooting gameplay in Breakdown is frequently considered to be clunky and dull compared to its contemporaries, yet the first-person interactions with the environment – how Derrick refuels, reloads guns, opens doors and gets in fistfights – are now looked at fondly as ahead of their time.

Xbox Gold Titles for January a Little Scary, Little Punchy