Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That’s really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.
The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal
Id Software has always been one of the video game industry’s premier first-person shooter developers. According to rumors, it’s gearing up to announce a new Doom game set during medieval times this year. If that’s happening, you’ll want to be all caught up with the Doom games. Every one of them is available on Xbox Game Pass, but if I had to choose a specific one, I’d pick Doom Eternal, which was released right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
This game offers up plenty of demons for Doomguy to mow through with his chainsaw and a variety of other weapons, but the game is also a lot smarter than that. It can be surprisingly tough at times, and that’s because each encounter is basically a puzzle where players have to determine the best weapons and series of actions to take in order to come out victorious. You can never go wrong playing anything from id Software, so Doom Eternal is an obvious recommendation now that a new game is the series appears to be imminent.
Doom Eternal is available on Xbox Game Pass across PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. It’s also available on PlayStation 4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
Gears 5
Since the Xbox 360 days, Gears of War has been one of Microsoft’s hallmark gaming franchises. Rumors suggest the sixth game in the series will finally be shown off at the Xbox Game Showcase this year. No matter which platform you primarily play Xbox games on, the latest entry in the series is worth a revisit before then. Gears 5 launched in 2019 and is the biggest entry in the whole series. It sports more expansive levels, a campaign that delves more into Kait Diaz’s backstory, and fantastic multiplayer, co-op, and extraction-based Escape modes.
While the game is coming up on five years old, it’s actually still one of Microsoft’s best-looking games, even on Xbox Series X/S. It has a current-gen native upgrade that looks outstanding and makes me start to wonder how gorgeous Gears 6 is going to be in the wake of The Coalition’s work on games like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
Gears 5 is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S through Xbox Game Pass.
The Outer Worlds
One of the biggest upcoming Xbox-exclusive games of the year is Avowed, a new fantasy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. If you want a better idea of the style of RPG Obsidian Entertainment is known for, then you should check out 2019’s The Outer Worlds. Obviously, The Outer Worlds is a sci-fi game rather than a fantasy one, but it still sports Obsidian Entertainment’s trademark focus on creativity and player choice.
It’s one of my personal favorite RPGs because of its immense replay value. Almost every NPC can be interacted with or killed, and the game accommodates it, so I’ve done runs where I’m clearly the savior of this troubled solar system, as well as ones where I’ve devastated The Outer Worlds‘ planets by killing everyone I’d meet. Alternatively, if you’d rather get immersed in Avowed‘s world rather than the style of gameplay, both Pillars of Eternity games are also on Xbox Game Pass.
The Outer Worlds is available through Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s also on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5, with the PlayStation versions of the game also being in the PlayStation Plus Extra game catalog.
