Best games on Game Pass that aren't famous?

[beanheadmcginty]

I've got Xbox Ultimate Game Pass for three months because it was only a tenner. Now obviously I know what the good famous games are, but can anyone recommend any of the more obscure ones? It's really difficult to even understand what most of them are from the names.

[Kryton]

Just having a quick look here (the one's i know at least excluding big name titles): https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-game-pass/games

Dead Cells - Roguelite action platformer
Kingdom come: Deliverance - Medieval low key RPG
Dishonored 2: FPS / Stealth action RPG
Bloodstained: ritual of the night - Metroidvania style platform adventure
Creature in the well: Pinball meets hack and slash adventure
Enter the gungeon: Bullet hell roguelike
Shadow warrior 2: FPS
Sea of thieves: Narrative pirate adventure thingie
Dead by daylight: Parkour style action zombie adventure
Human fall flat: Great little physics puzzle/platformer
Ark survival evolved: Survival game with dinosaurs/basebuilding
Player unknown battle grounds: Battle royale shooter
State of decay 2: Zombie survival/base builder
Metro exodus: Post apocalyptic shooter
Payday: FPS bank heist multiplayer
Deus ex: Stealth/action cyberpunk adventure
Ruiner: Top down sci-fi shooter
Void bastards: sci-fi strategy shooter
sunset overdrive: open world action game
Hotline miami: Top down reflex action/combo game
Hollow Knight: Metroidvania/platform adventure
Black desert: Fantasy MMORPG
Slay the spire: Card based adventure game
Steam world dig 2: 2d platform/mining adventure
Moonlighter: action rpg
Surviving mars: city building survival game
Descenders: BMX bike race
Braid: Time warping puzzle platformer
Banner saga: isometric strategy adventure
Broforce: 2d action shooter platformer thingie
Terraria: Like 2d minecraft
Ori and the blind forest: platform adventure
Bomber crew: Strategy
Everspace: Roguelike space shooter
Neon chrome: top down cyberpunk shooter
Stellaris: Deep space strategy
Grip: futuristic racing
Wasteland 2: RPG
Astroneer: sci-fi survival exploration
The surge: Dark souls but with robots
Life is strange: decisions matter RPG thingie
Metal slug: side-scrolling shooter
Ape out: Comedy top down ape-based mayhem
Borderlands: Comedy FPS with zillions of guns


Hope this helps a little bit...

[brat-sampson]

I started Cross Code on a whim on PC and it's really really solid. Fun 2d dual analogue action JRPG kinda thing set in an alt-future MMO world. Around you are a mixture of NPCs within the game as well as other 'players' who join your party, discuss elements of the game or sometimes just race past you through a zone getting to another area. It kinda has it's cake and eats it with the whole 'things are a bit tropey and gameified because you're in a game' stuff, but the writing is really charming and fun, and there's a wider level of intrigue as you put together what's happening outside of the game, why you're in there etc.

Absolutely worth playing, and it's a big bastard too. Lengthy with lots to do, deep systems regarding gear, skills, combat etc, fun upgrades, good side quests, the lot.

Highly recommended if you're at a loose end.

[beanheadmcginty]

Cheers both. That's a really handy list Kryty. My reaction speed is like continental drift, so it's nice to know which are the action/shooty ones I can safely avoid.

[Blue Jam]

Yes, cheers for that Kryton, much appreciated.

You reminded me to install Borderlands 2 after I'd been meaning to give it a go for ages and I'm really enjoying it. It's the game I had been hoping Fallout 4 would be.

[Blue Jam]

Is Prey too famous for this list? Get that one anyway.

[Space ghost]

Wish hotline miami was on my gamepass too. Pure unfair.

[Lee Van Cleef]

I would recommend (I know this includes big name games, but thar ye be)

Dead Cells - Only just started playing this recently but I can already see I'm going to get a lot of mileage out if it.
Forza Horizon 4 - Best Arcade racing game I've played since PGR2.
Sea of Thieves - I know the loop is fairly shallow but if you've got friends to play it with it has lots of those "emergent" moments. I've had loads of laughs and tense moments playing it.
The Outer Worlds - again just started it but I'm loving it so far, like a Mass Effect/Fallout Mashup. Find the humour very good.
What Remains of Edith Finch - Probably the most creative walking simulator out there, if that's your bag.
Yoku's Island Express - Pinball platformer with a bunch of charm.
Thomas Was Alone - The narration is a bit marmite from what I've read, but I loved the story along with the puzzle platforming.

[Space ghost]

"Afterparty" the new one from the Oxenfree developers has just become available via gamepass. I loved Oxenfree and this looks like it employs the same conversation system as that title.

[beanheadmcginty]

Ah fuck, I've just discovered The Outer Worlds. This is gonna use up the whole three months isn't it? I'll never get through any of your lovely lists now.

[Blue Jam]

I've seen some suggestions that Game Pass Ultimate is the reason why Games With Gold is now so crap.

Toy Story 3: The Video Game? Last year we got Battlefield 1 FFS.

[bgmnts]

Fuck the new Obsidian game is on Game Pass? Need an xbox again.

[Thursday]

Dishonored 2, PUBg and Deus Ex aren't Big names???

I live in a different world.

Well anyway that's generous of you.

[Blue Jam]

Anyone played pretty-looking open world horror survival game Subnautica? Just installed it, that one sounds right up my street.

[Blue Jam]

Ooooh, Subnautica is nice...

[H-O-W-L]

Sea of Thieves is pretty fucking good honestly, the ship mechanics are so satisfying in and of themselves I find myself clocking in for 20-minute sailing bursts every now and then.

[Blue Jam]

Sunset Overdrive is fun!

[bgmnts]

First game I played on Xbone, second and third were Metros.

Genuinely downhill from those three, not even joking.

[Barry Admin]

Just play Apex Legends, it's free and brilliant.

[Blue Jam]

Alright Neil, I know I need to give it another go, but healing teammates and all that... ;)

[Pink Gregory]

First game I played on Xbone, second and third were Metros.

Genuinely downhill from those three, not even joking.

Best game I've played for years.  Also 2033 isn't too long. 

[Blue Jam]

Massively enjoying Crackdown 3 at the moment. It's like Sunset Overdrive and Just Cause 4 but also better and more fun than both.

Think this thread is due a bump as a lot of new titles have been added and there's also all the EA stuff now. Anyone got any new recommendations?

[bgmnts]

The Outer Worlds,
Pathologic 2,
Maid of Sker,
Subnautica,
Void Bastards,
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice,
Kona.

Apparently the new game Call of the Sea is quite, as well as the Paradox grand strategy/city sim games.


Here's a full list of games, including a list of what's coming and what's going:

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-game-pass-games-list-this-month-price-6400

[El Unicornio, mang]

Tell Me Why is a nice narrative adventure game set in Alaska on Game Pass.

[brat-sampson]

Smashed through Call of the Sea, and Yes your Grace recently. First is a visually arresting narrative first-person walkathon with decent enough story-telling chops and light-to-middling puzzling as you go. Second is a rule-em-up where you work as a king making descisions about how to allocate resources and help people, working against the clock to prepare for inevitable war while dealing with other family issues along the way. It was fun and engaging, but I found my choices didn't matter nearly as much as I'd expected in some cases, which deflated my opinion overall, plus the way you choose who to help and in what way is blinded somewhat, you talk to a person and decide whether to help them, then talk to the next person, and if they want the same thing, but you just gave it to the previous person, you're out of luck. You can never knowingly choose between the two.

Also shout out to Carto, a very chill and jolly indie game where you control the land-mass by moving and rotating pieces of a map on a map screen, pretty imaginative, cheery characters and environments, funny at times, and with puzzles that gradually get more complex but are never impossible.

Loving Game Pass recently, thanks to Doom Eternal and DQXI S on PC as well as smaller titles like these. I'd also like to play Va11 Hall-A, but that's completely broken on PC at the moment, devs are working on a patch.

[Blue Jam]

I enjoyed Deliver Us The Moon recently. Nice atmospheric puzzle game with a good story, even if the last puzzle was utterly infuriating. Still worth it to get to the end of the story. You also get a cute little drone companion and I love drone mechanics in games, I did enjoy sending Jack to electrocute my enemies in Gears 5 (also on Game Pass).

Control is fantastic obviously.

[The Crumb]

Confusingly similar to The Outer Worlds, but Outer Wilds is a fantastic game, my favourite I've played all year and one I'm still thinking about months later. It's a puzzle/space exploration game where you have 22 minutes to stop the sun exploding. The way the mystery unravels as you build up knowledge over loops is a marvel of game design. Despite the initally rinky-dink stylings, there's some spectacular visual moments and the music is great.

Ace Combat 7 is some great daft arcade flying fun

[Bazooka]

Confusingly similar to The Outer Worlds, but Outer Wilds is a fantastic game, my favourite I've played all year and one I'm still thinking about months later. It's a puzzle/space exploration game where you have 22 minutes to stop the sun exploding. The way the mystery unravels as you build up knowledge over loops is a marvel of game design. Despite the initally rinky-dink stylings, there's some spectacular visual moments and the music is great.

Ace Combat 7 is some great daft arcade flying fun

I got a bit frustrated with Outer Wilds with the shuttle control, I seemed to be over shooting or descending but didn't look like I was moving. I did like the concept, and will certainly return to it at some stage.

[The Crumb]

I got a bit frustrated with Outer Wilds with the shuttle control, I seemed to be over shooting or descending but didn't look like I was moving. I did like the concept, and will certainly return to it at some stage.

It's worth perservering, you do get the hang of the very physics heavy movement, and the game never needs you to be super precise with your piloting. I learned by copying what the auto pilot did, without the crashing into the sun part.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

I'm not sure it qualifies as «not famous» (and definitely not in Japan), but I've given up on Dragon Quest XI. I had a lot of fun, especially with the combat and just exploring, during the approx. 20 hours I spent with it, so it's certainly a good game and absolutely gorgeous to look at, but in the end I couldn't justify spending 100+ hours on it. I know you can finish it in 60 hours or so, but I'm a completionist in such games, and would almost certainly have spent at least twice that. It's just so overwhelmingly big (approx. 15 hours of cutscenes alone) and full of stuff to do that it would have become a massive timesink. And I got a little bit tired of navigating the menus, as the game is basically a Menu Navigation Simulator set in a beautiful world. Oh, and I had to turn the music off after an hour or two, as it was driving me mental.

I've now installed Unto the End, a 2D platformer which looks interesting, and the adventure game Call of the Sea, which I see has got some praise in this thread, so that's promising.