Xbox Game Pass has treated us to a nice selection of titles over the last few weeks, with more to come later this month such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Sea of Stars, before a bumper September for the service. Here though, we want to highlight two short but sweet Game Pass additions that have delighted us over the past week or so.
Venba (Console, PC, Cloud)
The first is brand new launch Venba, which released day one on Xbox Game Pass on July 31. Absolutely more than meets the eye, this cooking sim meets family adventure features a heartfelt story well worth exploring.
Top top it off, it's only about 90-minutes long, so you can have a lovely chill evening with Venba and play through the entire thing in one sitting. You probably will as well, because its tale of family heartbreak, belonging (or lack thereof) and separation is one that manages to tug on the heart strings throughout. You'll also learn how to make some delicious, generations-old recipes as you go - which is just a neat bonus!
As for the gameplay tucked tidily into Venba's recipe book - you're typically solving basic cooking-themed puzzles, and the rest of it is largely story delivery. Make no mistake, this is all about the narrative, but it's well worth spending an hour or two with on Xbox Game Pass.
A Short Hike (Console, PC, Cloud)
Moving onto another short but sweet delight, indie darling A Short Hike is now available in the Game Pass library, and although we've heard about it for years, this writer has only just got around to playing it thanks to Xbox Game Pass.
This is a cutesy affair about leaving the nest and flapping your way to the top of a mountain as a cute little birdo. Featuring plenty of wholesome interactions along the way, A Short Hike has a mesmerising quality to it as you soar and swoop your way around its interconnected island.
This one is a little less narrative-focused than Venba, but A Short Hike is also about the journey you head out on - much like this article's aforementioned cooking sim. It's another under-two-hour experience as well, so, we recommend chilling out one weeknight with this one and letting the chill vibes in.
Both Venba and A Short Hike are great advertisements for the variety present on Xbox Game Pass, and the fact that they both arrived last week has made for a lovely week of chilled out gaming sessions for us. We can definitely recommend giving both of these a go while they're in the library!