Microsoft has unveiled three Day One games for Xbox Game Pass today.
As a brief refresher, Xbox Game Pass is a monthly subscription service that gives you access to a dynamic catalog of games. Expanding on the original Xbox Live Gold, you get your pick of platform to play games from this catalog. You can download these games on your Xbox One, Xbox Series X, or Xbox Series X. You can also opt to download the games in full on your PC. You also do have the option to play these games via the cloud, so that they can be played on any Apple or Android device, and even prospectively on low-power and older PCs. Day One is one of the incentives for Xbox Game Pass, with video games that are coming up for the first time debuting under the service.
The most high-profile Day One game today is Slime Rancher 2. The sequel to 2017’s Slime Rancher lets you play the eponymous rancher again, Beatrix Lebeau. This time her slime breeding adventures are running on the Unity engine, utilizing its High Definition Render Pipeline. The Game Preview label has also been added to this version of the game because it still does not have Xbox exclusive features added in, like Xbox Achievements. These and other enhancements will come to the game in time, but making it available now also makes it possible for Xbox players to have an early say in game feedback and development.
Also part of Xbox Game Pass Day One is SpiderHeck. This is a physics-based couch co-op versus multiplayer game. You and your friends work together or compete as spiders, picking up weapons like laser swords, to take on waves of enemies. The game will feature 20 weapons, 32 maps, 36 modifiers AKA stage conditions, and 27 levels, or as they are referred to in-game, Tiers of Heck. It should be noted that SpiderHeck will not be playable on Xbox Game Cloud.
Lastly, Beacon Pines is an adventure game with cute super-deformed anthropomorphic characters but telling a horror story. The game’s conceit is that you are reading the story from a book, as its lead character Luka, and affecting the outcome of the story while going through it. While the game has conventional choice story paths like other adventure games, you can also collect charms. These charms have words attached to them, and at certain points of the story, you can use them to change certain story outcomes. Beacon Pines already received awards as the Official Selection Showcase for LudoNarraCon in 2021 and 2022.
This coming September 29, 2022, Xbox Game Pass will also be adding Moonscars, Grounded, Let’s Build A Zoo, Valheim on Game Preview, and Paw Patrol Grand Prix is coming on September 30, 2022.
Source: GameRant