After an exceptional start to the month with the release of Doom: The Dark Ages and Revenge Of The Savage Planet, the second half of the month is a bit quieter for Xbox Game Pass. Despite this there are a few more day 1 games of the indie variety if that's your thing. Xbox has unveiled the pretty impressive list via the Xbox Wire post.
Xbox Game Pass New Additions
- Monster Train 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) - May 21
- Creatures of Ava (Xbox Series X|S) - May 22
- Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (Xbox Series X|S) - May 22
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (Xbox Series X|S) - May 22
- Tales of Kenzera: Zau (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) EA Play - May 22
- Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC) - May 27
- To a T (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) - May 28
- Metaphor ReFantazio (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) - May 29
- Spray Paint Simulator (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) - May 29
- Crypt Custodian (Cloud, Console, and PC) - June 3
- Symphonia (Cloud, Console, and PC) - June 3
There are many highlights here but let's start with the day 1 releases of Monster Train 2, Spray Paint Simulator and To a T. Spray Paint Simulator is pretty self explanatory, it's spray painting objects! The game comes from North Star Video Games and publisher Whitethorn Games.
While it is their debut title the duo developers are known for some big simulator games that they've worked on, most notably Lawn Simulator. They will look to recapture that magic with Spray Paint Simulator in hopes to tap into the success of Powerwash Simulator.
To a T is a narrative driven adventure game from uvula LLC and being published by Annapurna. The game is about a teen who is stuck in a T-pose in a small town with his dog. While it is definitely more niche than most games coming to Game Pass it will likely find its footing with gamers.
Monster Train 2 comes as a surprise announcement. The roguelike game releases today and was never mentioned as coming to Game Pass until today. It's definitely a nice surprise addition. Our review is now live for it as well and it is a can't miss game.
As far as non day 1 releases are concerned Metaphor: ReFantazio is certainly one of the bigger ones we've seen in awhile. The JRPG was a strong game of the year contender last year and many people's game of the year. It's a very long game so if you are looking to dig into something and get a lot of value out of it this is the game for you.
Big Day For Standard Subscribers
May 22nd is set to be a big day for those who only have Standard. Xbox console exclusives Creatures of Ava, Hellblade 2 and Stalker 2 all join the service. All 3 are already in the Ultimate tier and all 3 are great games.
Also the addition of the fantastic indie Tales Of Kenzera: Zau is one to look at. We scored it a 9 in our review and it won multiple awards at our Game Of The Year awards.
Xbox Showcase Weeks Away
This is the first time in awhile we've not seen a major day 1 release in one of these announcements. Keep in mind though that the Xbox Showcase is just a few weeks away on June 8th. We will likely see many announcements then!
While this show is definitely going to have a bit of a different feel to it with Xbox's multi-platform strategy, it will likely be stacked with Game Pass announcements. Until then, perhaps you can find some joy in what there is to offer here and now.
