Is Xbox Game Pass Still Worth It?

Thursday’s letters page recommends The Finals and other free-to-play titles, while a reader suggests a new retro-styled God Of War game.

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Changing levels
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Microsoft insist a few months ago that there wouldn’t be a new, more expensive tier for Game Pass? I looked it up and here’s what they actually said, in response to the rumors: “At launch, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playable on Xbox and PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for console members.”

That’s simply not true. Xbox Game Pass for consoles won’t even exist by the time Black Ops 6 comes out, and whatever they put in its place won’t include Black Ops 6. Either they were knowingly lying, or they changed their plans so quickly that they’ve done a complete U-turn in just two months.

I regret buying an Xbox Series X/S over a PlayStation 5 and I won’t make that mistake again, especially since I expect most games to be multi-format within a year or two anyway. Game Pass clearly hasn’t worked and it’s only getting more expensive and restrictive. Microsoft says most people have Ultimate, but why should I trust them given their track record?

I didn’t have it and I certainly won’t pay for it now that the cheaper tier is so watered down. To me Game Pass just isn’t worth the money and I’ve had enough of it.
Benson

Place your bet
I don’t think my memory is playing tricks on me, but didn’t Microsoft say they weren’t changing Game Pass tiers because of Call Of Duty? I’m sure someone did the math and realized that wasn’t a good idea. For a company that can blow $72 billion like it’s pocket change, they don’t really seem to have a plan.

How many billions of business leaders could they have hired for that amount of money, who could have given better advice than Phil Spencer and his cronies? Or just ask ChatGPT. It’s really time we replace our executives with AI, instead of the creative people who actually contribute something valuable to gaming.

I don’t give a shit about Call Of Duty so this doesn’t really affect me, but it just seems to continue the slow downward spiral for Microsoft as they deny anything is happening and then immediately announce it. How long is anyone going to bet it’ll be before they announce more multiformat games? A month or two?
Overseas

The Dead Zone
We’re kind of in a dead period of the year for new games right now, like summer usually is, but I’m looking forward to Star Wars Outlaws. I know I shouldn’t and it’ll probably just be shallow and unoriginal, but I love the universe and the graphics look really good anyway.

I think games have reached such a level now, in terms of graphics and the basic quality of gameplay – which will generally never get better. That bad anymore – that even with an unoriginal or repetitive game you can still have a lot of fun. There is now fun in experiencing the world itself and not even necessarily what you do in it.

For me, that’s definitely the appeal of something like Assassin’s Creed, where even the story isn’t that important, it’s just the comfort of knowing that you can do anything and go anywhere, take in the sights. I think that’s why Elden Ring did so well, because it’s similar, except it’s super hard. So it’s kind of the flip side of the same thing.

I wouldn’t want to do it this way all the time, but I can enjoy both approaches: the super challenging hardcore variety and the super unchallenging casual variety.
Davis

Router Advisor
I have Elden Ring installed on my PC but it keeps kicking me out of the game due to frequent disconnection. How can an online only streaming device work as intended? It could be the router Plusnet provides but I can’t imagine I’ll be able to stream games.

Half the time my Xbox Series X can’t even connect to the network. My PS Vita/Wii U had to go downstairs to get even the slightest connection.

Can a reader recommend a better third party router, hopefully for under £100?
Bobwallet
There are currently impact beds due to Mesmer the Impaler.

Character action
I know there’s a lot of talk about a God Of War half-sequel coming, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, but wouldn’t it have been cool to have it be a throwback to the old style of games? I miss those and while I do like the new games, they’re so different that we’ll basically never see them again.

I think it would be cool to tie the last two games into whatever the new setting is with an old school adventure, it doesn’t even have to be Kratos. The old God Of War games were really the only Western style game in the vein of Devil May Cry and I think it’s a shame to see it go.
Zipper

Free advice
For the reader asking about free games, I would recommend The Finals. Fantastic game, me and the kids put hours into it and didn’t spend a dime. Or even a penny.

Great, exciting matches, brilliant destruction physics and just plain fun. Highly recommended.

GC’s review of Squad Busters recently had me downloading it for a quick spin and… I can’t stop playing it. Great gameplay loop and really fun mechanics. Maybe not for everyone, but I appreciate it for what it is. And polished to a T. Whatever that means.

Finally, my favorite game at the moment is Population One on Meta Quest. Just an amazing atmosphere. Again, me and the kids have put hours into it and spent nothing, just game after game of laughing our asses off and working as a team. It doesn’t get enough recognition, I love it.

Have you guys looked at it GC? It used to be a paid product but they made it free a while ago. Great community, map making if that’s your thing, and just constant fun.
Pugmartin

Main class: We didn’t know it was free now. We only played it briefly at launch.

Football pass
So Microsoft has seen fit to expand Game Pass. Personally, I don’t mind. I’d happily pay a little extra to keep getting the day one releases. But from what I’ve seen and read, I can’t figure out if I buy Ultimate, will I still have access to the PC library? Or do I have to play for that too?

I am an avid Football Manager player and am suffering from withdrawal symptoms if I can’t play.
Marking

Main class: As far as we know, Ultimate still includes consoles and PCs.

Gruesome revelation
Well, that Nintendo horror game reveal was certainly unexpected! What is it? Who’s making it? Why are we just hearing about it now? I have no idea, of course, but this is such a welcome surprise. As GC points out, Nintendo isn’t as averse to horror games as you might think. Geist was a little creepy too, and they were really into Resident Evil back in the GameCube era. So while this may have come out of nowhere, it’s not unprecedented.

I just hope it has nothing to do with Bloober Team. I have no idea why they became the go-to developer for horror, but I’ve never liked their stuff, it’s just dumb jump scares and bad storytelling. The teaser for Eimo is vague enough that it’s not clear if it’s made in Japan or not, but I guess the fact that the original name seems to be Japanese suggests that it probably is.

Will it come out this year? Who knows, but I would love it if it came out around Halloween and was a surprise hit to make the Switch’s past year even better.
Woogie

Inbox-also-rans
I don’t even play Apex Legends and I’m furious about what EA did. It almost seems like a tax break or something where they’re purposely trying to make it fail as quickly as possible. If that’s the goal, then they seem to be doing a good job.
tackle

Is it Sony or Edge trolling the Bloodborne fans?
Wonk

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