Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking Those in the know are probably sick of hearing people praising Game Pass to high heaven but for the layman gamer, there’s still a degree of hesitation. What’s the catch? Well, there really isn’t one. It’s as simple as it sounds. You pay a monthly subscription fee and get access to a huge library of games that you can download to your console or PC. The only catch is that with all that choice, you might struggle to settle on just one game. Still not convinced? Okay, let’s dig into it. As reductive as it sounds, it’s like Netflix for games, except you download games in their entirety instead of streaming them. With that said, there is a streaming option for Xbox users known as xCloud that lets you play Xbox games on smartphones, tablets and PC, but it’s still quite new and the technology isn’t 100% ready for Australia’s slow broadband yet. There are three tiers to Game Pass: Console, PC, and Ultimate. For a full comparison, here’s how much each Game Pass plan costs in Australia and what it includes: Ultimate subscribers will also get all the associated perks with Xbox Live Gold, such as Deals with Gold (regular discounts) and Games with Gold (free monthly games). Microsoft is offering a deal that gets you your first month of Game Pass Ultimate for $1, after which you will continue to pay $15.95 per month. Like all Game Pass subscriptions, Ultimate is month-to-month with no lock-in contract so you’re free to cancel at any time. If you do cancel, the games downloaded via Game Pass will be locked until you resume your subscription but you won’t lose any save data. Console Game Pass costs $10.95 per month and there’s no $1 trial promotion like there is with Ultimate and PC Game Pass. PC Game Pass costs $10.95 per month but your first month will only cost you $1 just like Game Pass Ultimate. The only technical requirement for using PC Game Pass itself is that you need the latest Windows 10 update and the Xbox App for PC. Otherwise, device requirements vary from game to game and can be found on the store page for every title. In 2021, Microsoft also finalised its acquisition of the world’s biggest video game publishers, Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom and more). Soon after Microsoft sealed the deal, it made short work of bringing Bethesda’s back catalogue of classics into the Game Pass library. Game Pass is now home to 20 massively popular Bethesda games. With the exception of 2021’s Deathloop, all future Bethesda games will be available on Xbox Game Pass at release (including the 2022 space adventure Starfield). It’s not just first-party games. Some incredible third-party make their way to Game Pass at launch too, like the side-scrolling brawler Streets of Rage 4. As we’ve mentioned above, Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass also include access to EA Play titles (like Battlefield V, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, FIFA 21, Knockout City and more). Most of the very best Xbox games are available on Game Pass but with over 100 to choose from it can be hard to decide what to play next. Don’t worry, we’ve picked out some of the best hidden gems on Game Pass here.
