Back 4 Blood might headline the first batch of October’s Game Pass offerings, but sadly several terrific games — like the roguelike ScourgeBringer — are leaving, and they won’t have a chance to come back for blood. Is this lede anything? No? All right, ok, fine, whatever, here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in the next few weeks:
October 7
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Visage (Cloud, Console, PC)
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The Procession to Calvary (Cloud, Console, PC)
October 12
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Back 4 Blood (Cloud, Console, PC)
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Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PC)
October 14
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Ring of Pain (Cloud, Console, PC)
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The Riftbreaker (Cloud, Console but next-gen only, PC)
October 15
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The Good Life (Cloud, Console, PC)
It’s a decent batch of games. In August, when Back 4 Blood was in open beta, I teamed up with Kotaku’s Zack Zweizen to play.. The game shined due to paint-by-numbers simplicity — not the sort of thing I could see myself playing solo (way too scary), but definitely something I’d be happy to sink hours into in co-op mode. Meanwhile, I’ve long had my eye on The Riftbreaker, which is basically a Bingo board of cool shit: giant mechs, interdimensional travel, and base-building RTS elements.
Still, some of the upcoming departures hurt. The following games will be unplayable as of October 15:
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Gonner2 (Cloud, Console, PC)
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Heave Ho (PC)
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Katana Zero (Cloud, Console, PC)
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ScourgeBringer (Cloud, Console, PC)
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Tales of Vesperia HD (Console, PC)
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The Swords of Ditto (PC)
Yes, the Tales series recently received a buzzy, long-awaited entry in last month’s Tales of Arise, but I’ve long maintained that Tales of Vesperia is a standout, and rejoiced when it came to Game Pass (almost a year ago to the date). Of course, if you haven’t started yet, you will not be able to finish by the time it leaves, at least without neglecting the other commitments demanded of life, like moving and sleeping.
Katana Zero just straight-up rules: a side-scrolling action game with some neat time-manipulation features that allow you to slow the action down like you’re in the Matrix. It’s deliciously cyberpunk. Killer soundtrack, too. You can beat that one before it goes away.
And then there’s ScourgeBringer, a relentlessly punishing roguelike that marries the zipping dashes of Celeste with high-risk, high-reward combat. I’ve been playing on and off since it dropped on Game Pass last year, and have yet to beat it. And now Game Pass has made the choice for me, consigning ScourgeBringer to rest evermore in the graveyard of my backlog, burning with the perpetually embered flame of a relationship that ended before its time.
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