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This article was originally published in 2021, which in the world of gaming is a whole lifetime ago.
It has been updated with new picks for 2025.
Eight years since its initial release, Xbox Game Pass is still a solid deal.
These arent budget titles, either.
Its a hallmark of a rapidly changing entertainment industry, which seems to be affecting all varieties of content.
Everything, even the Xbox whirring underneath your TV, has embraced the Netflix model.
That isnt the case anymore.
Brand-new arrivals are now gated off to the Game Pass Ultimate tier, which costs $20 a month.
Seriously, there are more than 100 games on the service, including, like, sixMaddengamesalone.
If that all seems daunting, were here to help.
Here are the 25 best games on Game Pass.
(Have three kings?
Might as well have a go at snag the last one for a four of a kind.)
Maybe youll have converted all 52 cards into spades?
A masterpiece, through and through.
Nearly 30 years after release,Banjo-Kazooiestill runs circles around so many contemporary platformers with its charm.
Celeste
Straight up:Celesteis the greatest 2-D platformer of the last ten years.
And yet, whenever I sink into a lengthy session withCities: Skylines, I am always downright relaxed.
Citizen Sleeper
Citizen Sleeperwont be for everyone.
However, if this game gets its hooks in you, it will likely be because of its premise.
So, think a little bit ofBlade Runnerand a little bit ofSeverance.
On paper, this is a third-person shooter with some fun, physics-y telekinetic abilities.
By the end, youll be a believer.
ButCrusader Kings IIIis the only title on Game Pass that gives players dominion over a bloodline.
How do you engineer your ascendence?
Simple, by engaging in all sorts of royal skullduggery.
Do you align your children in an array of strategic marriages to accumulate a thick dossier of inheritances?
Do you arrange a few powerful alliances and go to war?
Its likeThe Simsfor sickos.
So, yes, Game Pass members can absolutely boot up a copy ofDiablo IV.
Hell hath frozen over.
Thankfully, the merger has brought a lot of new players to the game.
Which is good, becauseDiablo IVis perhaps the most purely satisfying RPGs on the market.
It is total video game excess at its most joyous.
(That experience is still available in the form of the statelyForza Motorsport 8.)
Its like the more subdued older brother ofBurnout.
The glory days are right in front of you.
The more you dig, the more youll be rewarded.
Inscryption
I cant tell you much aboutInscryptionwithout giving up what makes the game so special.
Poke and prod correctly, and the gears of this puzzle box begin to turn.
After that, youll find just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
What would I do if I was the worst cat in the world?
Dont expect an opus, but do expect a game your mother will want to play.
This is especially true withMass Effect, which before Legendary Edition was trapped on the Xbox 360.
But now, any enterprising gamer can witness the trilogy in full, warts and all.
The libertine romance options?
The moonlit check-ins with your crew members in between missions?
The hybrid of dice rolls and headshots?
It all starts here.
Im partial to the middle chapter, which felt like a true blockbuster event back in 2009.
Banking a left turn into a perfect landing for the first time is genuinely thrilling.
Minecraft
I mean, itsMinecraft.
The narrative is grounded in the specter of death, in ways that can be a tad on-the-nose.
(The way we summon our Personas?
By shooting ourselves in the head with a phantasmal handgun.)
Still, its nice to serve as a light in all the gloom.
If nothing else,Persona 3makes you feel like you are doing some good in the world.
(One operator has a grenade that specifically mutes the other teams hearing.)
The selling point is how modularSieges maps are.
Doors can be kicked down, walls can be shredded, ceilings can be blasted through.
Sea of Thieves
If ancient Rare games arent your thing, consider takingSea of Thievesfor a spin.
You havent lived if you and your friends havent run your frigate aground on a desert island.
Slay the Spire
Slay the Spireis extremely simple.
Starfield
Starfieldis an interesting case.
And yet, whenStarfieldmade landfall in late 2023, the reception was fairly muted.
Vampire Survivors
It really shouldnt work.Vampire Survivorsweighs in at a puny 600 megabytes.
Its rendered in an outrageously garish 8-bit color palette.
The combat is basically automated.
The soundtrack is mostly MIDI acid jazz.
And yet, there is something aboutVampire Survivorsthat gets under everyones skin.
This is a run-based game about slaying, seriously, thousands of different sprites in 20-minute intervals.
This game is a miracle, through and through.
