These three new Game Pass games are worth cancelling your weekend plans to play (August 15-17)

Digital Trends

8 hours ago

The entire internet is currently obsessed with the Battlefield 6 beta, and this is the last weekend you can jump in and see what all the fuss is about. But you might be setting yourself up for disappointment since that game won't be hitting Xbox Series X until October, so you might as well rip the band-aid off now and see what new games have been added to Game Pass. Don't think of this as a consolation prize, either, because I would cancel my plans to play any of these games this weekend regardless. There's an amazing co-op shooter to test your teamwork in, a new roguelike just begging to be broken, and a surprise return of two amazing retro titles.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite
We all know and love Left 4 Dead, but aside from Back 4 Blood from many of the original developers, not that many games have attempted to iterate on that survival co-op formula. Not only does Alens: Fireteam Elite pull it off, but the Aliens franchise is a perfect fit for it. And with Alien: Earth hitting streaming this month, why not fully engross yourself in the world of Xenomorphs? Squads of three Marines will fight their way through four campaigns on planet LV-895 against waves of Xenomorphs, Prowlers, Spitters, and more. There are 7 classes to pick from and level up, with tons of weapons and ways to customize your character. This isn't a walk in the park, so make sure you and your friends are well prepared or you might end up saying…game over, man. Sorry.
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Aliens: Fireteam Elite is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.
9 Kings
If you've never heard of 9 Kings, you're not alone. This roguelike kingdom builder came out earlier this year and completely flew under my radar until I saw it was coming to Game Pass as an Early Access game. The game is played on a grid where you place cards to build your kingdom, grow an army, and survive through as many decades of time as possible. Each King you can play as comes with their own unique deck of buildings, troops, and so on, but you can collect more cards by defeating rival Kings. Like any roguelike, 9 Kings is all about systems and synergies, allowing you to make completely busted runs.
9 Kings is available now on PC.
Heretic + Hexen
At the beginning of this month, only the two games I talked about above were scheduled to be coming to Game Pass, but we got a welcome surprise when Heretic + Hexen dropped with no prior warning onto the service. Anyone who was playing games back in the early '90s will at least recognize these names, but for everyone else, this is a remastered package of Doom-style FPS games originally made by Raven Software. Unlike many direct clones of that age, these two games had a distinct theme, the ability to aim vertically, character classes, and even an inventory. Between all the content of the originals, plus two new episodes added with this release, you're getting 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps, so there's plenty to dig into.
Heretic + Hexen is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.