awp69

The Project Gotham Racing series.

For those that think there aren’t as many indie games on GamePass these days, this will be welcome news!

Guess there’s no timeline yet on when we’ll see the DLC? Anxious to dig back into this fantastic game!

Why are people acting like an 8 is a bad score? It’s literally “great” on this website and some of my favorite games of all time scored in 80s.

Heck this is scoring better than the latest Yakuza game.

@Adidas3590 Not sure what you’re smoking but 99% of the games each month are not under $20.

Ninja Gaiden Black 2 - $50
Sniper Elite Resistance - $50
Eternal Strands - $40
Citizen Sleeper 2 - $25
Orcs Must Die Deathtrap - $30

Those five were all Day One in January and that isn’t even all of them!

You do you but it ABSOLUTELY is delivering for me.

@Fiendish-Beaver GamePass may have peaks and valleys but it still has outstanding months. Just in January we had 7 Day One third party games including Eternal Strands, Sniper Elite: Resistance, Citizen Sleeper 2 and Ninja Gaiden Black 2.

Have you looked at what is coming to GamePass this year? It’s a mind blowing list with WAY more than just first party.

https://www.purexbox.com/guides/xbox-game-pass-in-2025-the-full-list-of-everything-announced-so-far

Third party includes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Ninja Gaiden 4, Mixtape, 33 Immortals, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Hollow Knight : Silksong (hopefully) and many, many more. The service is not going to “suffer” this year, it’s going to explode.

To act like all there is to look forward to is first party titles is incredibly disingenuous.

I’m stoked about this year’s lineup more than I ever have been for GamePass with so many great games coming.

If you want to drop the service, that’s your call. I’ll be excited with what’s coming this year and saving money on games I would have been buying.

@jesse_dylan Meanwhile gets Xbox gets Atomfall?!?! I’d take that over Lost Records any day.

Then we’re having Avowed, just had Eternal Strands, Sniper Elite Resistance, Citizen Sleeper 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Seven new day one games in January alone isn’t slowing down.

PS+ only gets new games every few months and is stuffed with older games you can get for pennies on the dollar.

GP had been amazing lately and with all that’s coming this year, even better things to come!

@Ralizah So Ghost of Tsushima got similar review scores is it not “Sony-tier”?

Also think games like Pillars of Eternity 2 are definitely top-tier and not merely “decent”.

So about the same scores as Stellar Blade and Ghost of Tsushima, which are both great. Yeah, 81 is nice.

@IronMan30 An 82 average is middling? That’s pretty good in my eyes.

This is getting better reviews than the new Trails game.

There’s an indie showcase later this month. Betting there will be some shadow drops there.

Nice. Despite the narrative out there, Xbox keeps on rolling and I’m here for it!

Takes a bit of time to get going but it’s a fun game once it does. Another win for GamePass for me!

Lots of good day one games. Fantastic start to the new year!

More money for Microsoft to keep pumping out great first party games for us to play on GamePass! Bring it on!

As long as GamePass exists and continues to provide a great line up of games, I know I’ll still be in line to get the next Xbox.

Nice. Plan on juggling this with Eternal Strands this week!

Really hope this is the last story on this for a while. It’s really, really getting old.

@Fiendish-Beaver “Let's face it, putting aside first-party games, the games that have been entering the Service were noticeably fewer and mostly smaller than they were in the heyday of Game Pass in 2020-2022. The Service is not what it was”

Have you looked at the line up of games this year? Aside from first party games, there are some fantastic third party games coming to the service. Many $50+ that I wouldn’t call “small.”

Games like Eternal Strands, Sniper Elite: Resistance, Atomfall, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Mixtape, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and many, many others. There’s around 50 third party games already announced for GamePass this year. And sure there will be many others.

I actually have think this will be the biggest year by far for GamePass.

https://www.purexbox.com/guides/xbox-game-pass-in-2025-the-full-list-of-everything-announced-so-far

GamePass is the big reason I will stick with Xbox consoles. Obviously if there are huge price increases, I might reconsider (though I have never paid even close to full price). It saves me a hell of a lot of money in the long run.

How many of these stories do we really need?

And as usual, I’ll just say that l really don’t care. I’ll continue to buy an Xbox as long as GamePass is as good of a value as it is now. And this year is absolutely amazing for GamePass so where else the games go matters exactly zero to me.

Having a blast with Ninja Gaiden 2 Black on my Series X. Thanks GamePass!!!

I’ve bought prior upgrades because they included story DLC that I would have bought anyway. But with none in this upgrade, I’m going to pass this time.

Definitely excited for it. All of the previews I’ve read have been very positive so can’t wait to play next month !!!

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Only Claire was third party. Ninja Gaiden 4 is being published by Xbox Game Studios, which most consider to make a game first party (or at least second party).

I honestly could care less about exclusivity these days. The fact that I can play every one of these day one on GamePass is enough for me!

Easiest grade ever. An ‘A’ all the way. Simply fantastic and only covered a fraction of the games coming from Xbox this year!

@Ash_uk1 Don’t worry just because it wasn’t at this. They’re coming.

Well deserved. He did a fantastic job!

Lonely Mountain Snow Riders is also out and it’s fantastic!

Lot of exposition in that clip but once it gets to the gameplay and battle with the dragon, it looks pretty awesome. Can’t wait to check this out!

Five new Day One games including some bangers like Sniper Elite: Resistance, Citizen Sleeper 2 and Eternal Strands. Great back half of the month!!!

There’s rumors that it’ll actually release in 2026. If those are true, we might hear something before the end of the year.

I have a strong feeling that Towerborne will be shadow dropped. It’s been in beta/early access for a while and seems like it’s close to release. Only thing is it’s a F2P game. Guessing GamePass will have some “perks” though.

Played a little of the beta. It’s a fun game if you’ve been wanting 2 new Castle Crashers style beat em up.

A lot of those PC games require mouse and keyboard so not sure how many exclusives there would be to stream. Recently got a better laptop and found most of them are more complex strategy games without controller support.

@Ricky-Spanish Well, he acts like he does.

Why not just announce the console itself at the Xbox Developer Direct? 😀

That would surely ensure the element of surprise!

As long as we continue to get the line up of games similar to what’s coming this year to GamePass, I’ll still want to have an Xbox console. The list this year is amazing with not only the MS games but also some fantastic third party games like Atomfall, Sniper Elite: Resistance, Expedition 33, Mixtape, Eternal Strands, Hollow Knight Silksong, etc., etc.

Getting all the MS games day one without having to pay $70 each and all those third party games still makes GamePass a tremendous value for me. That and liking the Xbox ecosystem itself will keep me buying into the brand if there’s a next gen console.

Now if GamePass was available on PS6…. But that will never happen.

I’m thinking if they’re saying it’s a “brand-new game”, they’re talking about something that hasn’t even been announced. Just my 2 cents.

@Millionski Nah, it’s supposed to be “ another studio’s brand new game”. So won’t just be a port.

People complaining should realize the second half of the month is stacked.

Day One releases of significant games:
Eternal Strands
Sniper Elite: Resistance
Citizen Sleeper 2

Those three games alone make this an awesome month.

MS should announce games for a full month because this happens a lot and gives a false impression.

I mean, on this site, Indy deserved more love. Just sayin’

@Jark Lol. Sorry I was under the influence of pain medicine from surgery I had yesterday and that slipped through. Corrected!

@Sol4ris Yep, good idea when we’re being asked what we want to see more of from Xbox — more MachineGames Misfires please!!! 😀

Just saw that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was Eurogamer’s GoTY beating out Astro Blast, which finished second. Metaphor was only #10 on their list, which is way too low for me.

Right now I’m going with:
1) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
2) Metaphor: Refantazio
3) Astro Bot

I have a lot of competition for the rest of my top 10 so still figuring that out.

David Jeffe (game director of God of War and Twisted Metal) said it was easily his GoTY and may overtake Elden Ring as his favorite game of all time. Impressive words coming from him (and even a 6/10 Pure Xbox review can’t take that away 😀).

https://x.com/davidscottjaffe/status/1873455067682218490?s=46

@somnambulance Added around the same time as Indy so there’s probably a lot of people who haven’t even tried it yet.

I would have moved Metaphor to #2 behind Indy. Otherwise the list is pretty solid the way it is IMO. Glad the readers overlooked some doozies of reviews (that were outliers among critics - not just us lowly readers) to give games the recognition they truly deserve.

I never get these things. Phil doesn’t love me.

2D? Wonder if it’s going to be some sort of Metroidvania game.

@Titntin But they’re only free if your an EA Play member on PlayStation though right? (Also a requirement on Xbox obviously)

@Kraven MLB: The Show is a first party Sony game on Xbox. And there are rumors that Lego Horizon may come as well.

@DarthCvrle66 One already has: The Show. And there are rumors that Lego Horizon may as well.