Bethesda Game Studios has released update 1.15.216 for its sci-fi RPG Starfield. This month's patch isn't the most flashy, but it adds some important features like Very Low display settings and an increase in the file size limit for Creation Kit mods.
Adding Very Low display settings is meant to improve Starfield's performance on low-end PCs. As the game has struggled with performance issues since launch, these new display settings should at least make playing Starfield a much smoother experience for some people. Many Starfield players will likely care about the bug fixes and improvements to Creation Kit more, though. Mod creators can now add new icons to Starfield, upload creations that are up to 2 GB in file size, and bundle their mods on the Creation Store.
Bethesda also used this update to highlight a new mod from Kinggath Creations, a professional modding group known for its Creations in other Bethesda games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. It's called Watchtower and adds a whole new storyline to Starfield where you have to take on the titular new faction, which sees you as a threat to humanity. Watchtower also brings some gameplay features, such as the ability to call orbital strikes.
Sega has announced the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Master Crafted Edition, and it's not coming to PlayStation 5--at least not right away. The new version is coming for Xbox Series X|S and PC, but there is no word yet on a potential release for the PlayStation 5.
The game launches on June 10, and it'll be available through Xbox Game Pass. On PC, people can buy it through Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Given the day-one launch for Game Pass, some are theorizing that Microsoft might have cut a deal with Sega for this. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer previously talked about trying to give players a choice about where they play their games, as opposed to doing "slimy platform things to force you to do what I want." Space Marine is a Sega-published game, however.
When you're running a respectable drug empire in Schedule 1, space quickly becomes limited as you race to fill the available real estate with grow setups, mixing stations, and packing stations. Maximizing your income is the real aim of the game here, so that leaves precious little space for the horde of employee beds required to get a little help with labor. Now, in its open beta, Schedule 1 will no longer require employees to be registered to beds.
Instead, you'll be able to place a locker, which has a much smaller footprint, and removes the possibility of employee pathways becoming entangled, leading to some very confused, and very stuck, NPCs. Solo developer TVGS does mention in the patch notes that existing employees will still need to be assigned to beds for "compatibility reasons" but that any new employees can use lockers instead.
Of course, the obvious solution is to fire everyone, remove their beds, place lockers, and rehire them--if you can be bothered.
Nintendo has revealed four new games coming to Nintendo Switch Online's Game Boy library today, May 23. They are Kirby Star Stacker, Survival Kids, Gradius: The Interstellar Assault, and The Sword of Hope.
Kirby Star Stacker is the highest-profile addition. Originally released by HAL Laboratory in 1997, it is a puzzle game with gameplay similar to Tetris Attack or Pokemon Puzzle League. Players have to match blocks that look like Rick, Coo, and Kine from Kirby's Dream Land 2. The Super Famicom version of this game came to Nintendo Switch Online in 2023, but now the original release also has a place as part of Nintendo's subscription service.
Survival Kids is another notable inclusion this month because it's a Konami franchise about to be reimagined for Nintendo Switch 2. The original Survival Kids is a cult classic that tasks players with surviving on a deserted island. If you enjoy modern survival games, they owe a lot to games like Survival Kids that helped trailblaze some of the genre's mechanics. While the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Survival Kids looks like a lighthearted, cooperative reinterpretation of the series' formula, it's nice to have the rare Game Boy original available through Switch Online now.
The release date for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is drawing closer, and as you'd expect, the marketing machine behind it is starting to shift into a higher gear. We've already seen a few trailers for the game, and over in Japan, employees from Kojima Productions were handing out free Death Stranding 2 tissue packs to help promote the game.
The twist here is that these packs reportedly contain a QR code on them (via Reddit), and scanning it will take you to an unlisted YouTube video on the developer's channel. The clip here is only 40 seconds long and it contains brand-new footage, but don't get too hyped up unless you're a fan of post-apocalyptic environmental ASMR.
In case you can't click the video above, all you're missing out on is a brief clip of an open prepper shelter waiting for a brave deliveryman to come pick up some cargo. At the very least, it's a nice look at the more arid terrain that you'll be able to explore in Death Stranding 2.
Nintendo will need your phone number to use Switch 2 GameChat, the new social hub for the upcoming hybrid system. The company states that the mobile digits are an "additional security measure" for using the feature that provides online voice chat and sharing gameplay streams with friends.
Eurogamer spotted the small text on Nintendo's website detailing that text-message verification is a requirement for using GameChat on Switch 2. The company adds that the phone number associated with your Nintendo Account is utilized for this security check. For players younger than 16, a parent or guardian must enable GameChat functionality.
While the current Switch doesn't ask for a phone number for voice chat, a separate mobile device is still needed to talk with friends through the Nintendo Switch Online app. This will eventually get renamed to the Nintendo Switch app sometime this month and will be where you find Zelda Notes in the enhanced Switch 2 Editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Nearly three decades ago, Nintendo's Super Mario 64 paved the way for 3D platforming as we know it. It's still a popular title in the modding community, and one of the latest creations has put a lot of Minecraft's functions into Super Mario 64's Mushroom Kingdom.
The Super Mario 64 Minecraft mod was created by Arthurtilly, who posted a video of the mash-up on YouTube. The mod is still in an early phase and there aren't any creatures or other characters in the game besides Mario in the current build. But he can create and destroy various bricks, just like players in Minecraft can.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the mod is that it actually works on a real Nintendo 64, with some accommodations for the system's limitations. Another nice touch is the way the music shifts each time Mario moves from one area to another. It's not a full recreation of everything that Minecraft has to offer, but Arthurtilly's commentary indicated that more features will be added to this mod at a later date.
Pokemon Go is setting the stage for its big Go Fest 2025 celebration, with numerous events and gatherings lined up over the next few weeks. Ahead of the global Go Fest event in late June, the mobile game will also bring back all of the legendary giants for an Ancients Recovered event, giving players another chance to snag the elusive Pokemon.
The event kicks off at 10 AM local time on June 23 and runs until 8 PM local time on June 27. During that time, the legendary giants will all return to the game as five-star Raid bosses, with different Pokemon available each day of the event. You can see the full Raid schedule below:
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones is celebrating its 20-year anniversary today, May 23, 2025. Below, we look back at how its villains were unusually sympathetic, lending weight to the story.
It's one of the most haunting scenes in any Fire Emblem game. A soldier and temporary king, Orson, is seen talking with the reanimated corpse of his wife, Monica. She only says one thing--"darling"--over and over again.
Orson, one of the many antagonists in Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, was a man devoted to Monica long before the campaign of the game began. He's only present during a short part of the story, but he leaves a major impression once the credits roll after the game's 30 chapters come to a close. While you'll first meet him as a playable character, he eventually betrays Ephraim, Eirika, and the other heroes in order to (as he believes) save his wife's life.
Following the recent closed test for FBC: Firebreak, game director Mike Kayatta from Remedy has revealed some of the changes that the studio is making to the game based on fan feedback.
Kyatta said Remedy has received lots of important and helpful feedback so far, and this will result in major changes to weapon balance. "Guns are upgradable in Firebreak, but we now think we went too far with how weak they felt at the earliest levels," Kyatta said. "In response, we are making all level-one guns radically more powerful, while adjusting other parts of the game to maintain the challenge balance."
Kyatta added that it heard from players that the double-barrel shotgun did not feel quite right, and the studio agrees, so it's making some changes to "make sure it meets the expectations of its shooting style." The developer also mentioned how "everything" related to general combat intensity and difficulty levels has been overhauled. "Among other things, we're tying different enemy types to different threat levels, adjusting wave frequency and composition, and removing awkward lulls in the action," Kyatta said.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has dropped its case against Microsoft that sought to block the company's blockbuster $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal was already approved, but the FTC was appealing the decision.
A memo from the FTC states that, "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the complaint in this matter be, and it hereby is, dismissed."
Microsoft president Brad Smith said this was a "victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C."
Next month, the entire run of Pokemon the Series: XY will be available to watch on Netflix. This includes the first series--as well as Kalos Quest and XYZ--and like previous Pokemon animated projects, XY is a loose adaptation of the Pokemon X and Y games released for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console.
Once again starring Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, XY is set in the Kalos region of Pokemon and several characters from the game make an appearance here. Traveling alongside his new friends Clemont--the Gym Leader of Lumiose City's Gym--and Bonnie, Ash explores the region, uncovers new Pokemon, and discovers the power of Mega Evolution. Team Rocket also makes several appearances, but as you'd guess, their schemes are quickly foiled by the end of each episode. The series will be added to Netflix on June 1 (via Comic Book).
Overall, you can expect to binge on a lot of Pokemon animation here. The first series ran for 48 episodes, Kalos Quest ran for 45 episodes, and XYZ wrapped up the saga with a run of 47 episodes. There were a handful of special episodes, as well as feature-length movies set during this era of Pokemon. The series is available on DVD, just in case the episodes don't appear on your local Netflix, due to licensing restrictions.
Doom: The Dark Ages excels at making players feel like an unstoppable tank, but developer Id Software is looking to make the game more challenging. What's interesting here is that Id will make use of what it calls "Tunables," a system that allows it to update parts of the game without needing to release a patch.
While Tunables can't fix complex systemic, content, or code-related bugs, they can adjust parts of the new Doom game to create subtle but noticeable changes. Overall, players wanting to test their mettle on Nightmare difficulty can expect to start sweating, as enemies like the Cosmic Baron and Hellknight will start doing more damage. Id says that it wanted to increase the threat level of these enemies on Nightmare difficulty, and as an example, missing a parry on the Agaddon Hunter's overhead slash will break your shield and leave you vulnerable for a short period.
"There are systems under the hood that are designed to give players a better chance to survive when near death, and those systems were being too generous," Id explained. "Players were able to brute-force their way through situations that should've resulted in costing a Life Sigil or death, and we want to make sure we are keeping the player in check and asking for better tactical decisions. These changes will have an impact on player survivability and will be more noticeable the higher up the Damage Scale slider you go."
Google has released a new AI video generation tool, and it's clearly very familiar with what Fortnite gameplay looks like. The advanced AI tool generated some very convincing Fortnite footage in response to a simple prompt, churning out a clip that's almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Veo 3, the latest video generation model from Google DeepMind, released this week, and already is creating some concerningly realistic footage with its added capacity to generate lifelike audio. The AI tool is also showing a blatant disregard for intellectual property--which may be of more concern to many of the companies that have been quick to implement AI technology.
As picked up by IGN, X user Matt Schumer posted a short clip generated by Veo 3 that shows a streamer winning a game of Fortnite. While it looks a little odd to have the streamer's face cam superimposed over a shot of a computer monitor, rather than direct gameplay footage, the clip is otherwise indistinguishable from real Fortnite gameplay.
A big new update for SteamOS is here, after months of development in beta. SteamOS Version 3.7.8 includes a lot of fixes and improvements on a system level, and will also introduce a battery saver feature for the Steam Deck for the first time.
The new battery saver option is called Battery Charge Limit, and can be found under the Power submenu in Settings. The feature allows users to set a maximum charge limit for their Steam Deck, with a maximum of 80% charge recommended for devices that are usually left on charge, or that rarely have their battery fully depleted.
This kind of feature, designed to prolong the working life of lithium-ion batteries, is already commonly implemented in devices like mobile phones and laptops, and now is starting to become more common in the gaming space. Nintendo recently revealed that the Switch 2 will have a similar feature, which will stop the hybrid handheld console from charging once it reaches 90%.
These are the very best Steam Deck games. The Steam Deck has become a staple of PC gaming as the go-to portable solution for many PC players, and its popularity has seemingly inspired more portable PC manufacturers to join the market. Now you can enjoy a wide range of games, from the latest AAA releases to intriguing indie games, all in a convenient portable device.
You can read our Steam Deck review to see what we thought of it, but more than likely, you're ready to dive in for yourself. As soon as you boot it up, you'll find your Steam library is intact, which is exciting, but not all games are created equal when it comes to playing them via Steam Deck.
We've rounded up a few dozen of the best games to play on Steam Deck, including major AAA hits, under-the-radar indies, and everything in between. In most cases, these games have already been declared as "Deck Verified" by Valve, meaning it's fully supported without any caveats. Plus aside from just technical verification, some games just feel great in portable form, so we've taken that quality into account as well. And while the Steam Deck is great for PC tinkerers, for the purposes of this list we've stuck with games that run natively through the Steam interface without any special hoop-jumping. These are our best of the best recommendations for Steam Deck, and we regularly reevaluate and update. That means even now in 2024, you can reference this as a resource for finding great games.
If you do want to expand your horizons, though, you can also install Epic Games Store on Steam Deck to broaden your library even more. In most cases in our experience, these games work just as they would on your home PC, which is great when you consider how often Epic hands out free games on its platform. If you want to get the most out of your new toy, check out our list of the best Steam Deck accessories. As the list of Steam Deck-compatible games grows, so too will this list here. Keep checking back for recommendations on the best games to play on Steam Deck.
Arcade Paradise
Arcade Paradise starts out unassuming enough, as you go through the tedious work of managing an old laundromat. Soon you discover a few arcade machines sitting in storage in the back room and decide to open them up to the public. As you start to develop your business, you build up more and more cabinets, converting more of the laundromat to a burgeoning arcade business. While you need to manage your business, you can also play all of your own arcade machines to your heart's content. In effect, this makes Arcade Paradise a great minigame collection, letting you dabble in tons of different retro-styled games. And those play habits feed into the business management mechanics as well, as your performance in the arcade machines increases their popularity and profitability. The Steam Deck is a perfect fit, as you can while away the hours playing games or just check in for a day of managing your business while you're on the go.
This metroidvania follows closely in the footsteps of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night while forging an identity all its own. The beautiful pixel art and tightly designed combat make it a joy to explore its sci-fi/fantasy dystopian setting, where the world has been ravaged by wild demons. You play as Shin, a high-ranking commander in a paramilitary cult that hunts down demons, whose life gets complicated when a demon bonds with him. It's a delightful surprise and a great harkening back to classic metroidvania design.
The less you know about Blue Prince the better. The puzzle adventure game is one of this year's best-reviewed games, as you explore and learn about a unique shape-shifting manor house that reconstitutes itself every day. You determine the layout of the rooms as you explore and carve a path through the house every day, and slowly learn the ways the rooms and systems interlock with each other. It's a game that will keep your brain churning even when you turn it off, and it's a great fit on Steam Deck so you can put it to sleep mid-run and pick up right
Celeste is a challenging platformer with an emotional story to tell. It follows Madeline as she navigates her anxiety and depression--and it’s a story that’s arguably even more poignant today than it was in 2018. The narrative is best experienced without any spoilers, and it’s a journey that’s propelled to incredible heights thanks to its minimalistic graphics and a fluid movement system that works perfectly on Steam Deck. It only takes about eight hours to finish the journey, but completionists can stick around much longer if they want to uncover everything Celeste has to offer. It's a beautiful game that all platforming enthusiasts should play.
Part dungeon crawler, part simulator, Cult of the Lamb enlists you as the leader of a tribe of cultists as you try to gain the favor of a mystical being that saved you from death. Combat is fast and fluid, with levels randomly generated for replayability. There are also tons of ways to enhance your skills, giving you plenty of reasons to dive back in for another quest. When you’re not swinging swords or slinging spells, you’ll need to manage your cult in typical sim-game fashion. That means feeding your members, giving them jobs… and picking up their poop.
Don’t let its colorful, cartoon graphics fool you--Cuphead is a brutally difficult game. You play as the eponymous Cuphead as he battles a series of increasingly difficult enemies on his journey toward the Devil. Battles play out from a 2D perspective and take place in a single room, although each boss always manages to bring something new to the table. Beyond its striking graphics, Cuphead features some of the smoothest combat mechanics on this list, making it a blast to face off against each new villain (even if they destroy you just a few seconds later). Toss in a variety of unlockable weapons and abilities, multiple playable characters, and the stellar Delicious Last Course expansion, and it’s easy to see why Cuphead remains so popular more than five years after its release. It feels right at home on Steam Deck and is a must-play for anyone who likes challenging action games.
On the surface, Dave the Diver is a cute adventure sim game in which you go spear fishing during the day and then bring your catches in at night to serve as the menu for a burgeoning sushi restaurant. But like the Big Blue Hole that you're diving into, there's unexpected depth here. Dave the Diver ends up being a wild hodge-podge of tons of different genre influences, incorporating lots of different activities as it tells its lengthy story. Still, the loop of catching fish, serving sushi, and using your profits to upgrade your gear is so easy and compelling it's a perfect fit for the Deck. The lovable Dave is a fun, rotund hero, and the game is also home to some of the biggest and best pixel cutscenes we've ever seen.
Disco Elysium is so text-heavy that it can feel like you're actually holding a Kindle when playing it on a Steam Deck, but for fans of deep RPG experiences, it's exactly what you're probably looking for. The latitude for true role-playing is vast and the story goes places that are both smart and unpredictable. The painterly art style also looks great in handheld mode and may have fellow train passengers looking over to see what it is you're doing, which admittedly is a little awkward when you start the game hungover in your underpants.
A video game with a side of Eldritch horror, Dredge has you fishing the shores of Greater Marrow to reel in big catches, upgrade your boat, buy better supplies, and deal with panicked hallucinations. You know, normal fishing stuff! As the story unfolds you discover more about the horrific sea monsters that lurk below the surface, giving the whole thing a touch of lightly creeping spookiness.
After nearly two decades of development, Dwarf Fortress is available on Steam (and playable on Steam Deck). The elaborate simulation game tasks you with growing a small settlement of dwarves into a thriving metropolis. There’s a ridiculous level of depth to the game, as you’ll need to gather resources, craft new gear, engage in combat, build structures, and contend with a dynamic weather system that can impact your city. It’s not for the faint of heart, but Dwarf Fortress is an intricate game that should please anyone itching for a comprehensive sim.
Our favorite game of 2022 recently got even better with the release of a massive expansion. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree gives Tarnished a new set of tough-as-nails combat obstacles to overcome in an entirely new area, with a smart balancing system that recreates the feeling of progression without doing away with all your hard work in the main campaign. And it expands on the rich and layered Elden Ring lore in new and surprising ways. Best of all it works great on Steam Deck, so you can take The Lands Between with you wherever you go.
The classic Final Fantasy series has gotten lovingly restored with the Pixel Remaster, and these classic RPGs feel readymade for portable. Thanks to mods, Steam Deck the best place to play. Not only can you grind levels while binge-watching a show, but it looks and plays great, and you can even install mods to (for example) fix the font. If you can only get one, Final Fantasy 6 is an absolute masterpiece.
Steam is awash with cozy little farm sims inspired by Stardew Valley, and it takes something novel or well-executed to stand out from the crowd. Fields of Mistria is a bit of both. It boasts very familiar Stardew mechanics, but it speeds up the pace a good bit, making it much faster for Stardew veterans. It also sets itself apart with a magical anime-inspired setting and an array of magical powers to warn that will help you delve into dungeons, grow crops, and more. While it's only in early access so far, it's already a great way to relax and farm on Steam Deck.
Just like the original Hades, Supergiant's anticipated follow-up is already a highly polished nail-biting action game on Steam Deck, even in early access. As Zagreus' sister, Melinoe, you cut your way through the underworld in a quest to defeat the Titan Chronos, the mythical figure behind the concept of time. While the trappings are familiar, Melinoe has a feel all her own, and new weapons and abilities make this feel noticeably different than its predecessor. If you'd rather have a game that's fully baked, the original Hades is still available and great on Deck as well.
Hitman 3, now rebranded as the World of Assassination with all of the content from the trilogy in tow, is the culmination of a half-decade of hard work from IO Interactive. But also, on Steam Deck, it's a diverse world tour of portable murder playgrounds, and that's pretty neat too. If you happen to have access to the earlier games in the Hitman reboot series, this third game houses every level, weapon, and ridiculous costume into one central hub, giving Hitman fans the totality of the franchise's best entries all in the palms of their hands. Plus the addition of the roguelike Freelancer mode gives the entire World of Assassination trilogy a new lease on life.
Into the Breach is one of the best-designed games in recent memory, and it's perfectly at home on Deck, thanks to its turn-based nature and bite-sized missions. As the previous Switch release demonstrated, the controls work perfectly well with a gamepad, and the screen here is well up to the task of displaying all of the information you need. Performance is great (it's not terribly demanding from a hardware perspective), and it's a terrific game that you can sink hours into at a time or occasionally glance at while watching something on TV.
The mind-bending puzzle game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes will stick with you even while you aren't playing, so why not take it wherever you go? The game's many mysteries and secrets unfold with meticulous, interlocking detail, to the point where the game opens by encouraging you to keep a notebook in real life to help keep it all straight. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding, and will keep tickling your brain even when you put it down. But you won't want to.
Persona series director Katsura Hashino has returned with his first new game since 2016, and it's a fantastic one. Metaphor: ReFantazio is similar structurally to the Persona series, but it features a new original storyline set in a fantasy world, and a wide array of characters to find and classes to unlock. The turn-based RPG combat unfolds beautifully into deep layers of strategy, and the story is an affecting meditation on the power of storytelling. It runs decently well on Steam Deck, letting you dungeon-crawl while on the go or watching TV. Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of the few games in our history to earn a 10/10 review.
One of our favorite surprises of 2024, Minishoot Adventures blends retro Zelda-like exploration and adventuring with bullet hell shoot-em-up combat and movement mechanics. The combination may seem strange, right up until the moment you try it for yourself and find that it all gels together beautifully. Discovering the world and finding hidden secrets while also upgrading your arsenal to take on increasingly difficult swarms of enemies means there's always something interesting to see and do, whether you're exploring a tricky dungeon or just taking on a giant boss roaming the landscape. And if you miss playing Zelda games on handhelds like Game Boy, this is a perfect fit for the Steam Deck, letting you adventure on the go and soak in its colorful world.
Monster Hunter Rise is another Switch game that eventually found a home on PC, making it well-suited for Steam Deck. The latest game in the franchise does quite a bit to move the series forward, with the Wirebug adding a new verticality to its maps and Rampage quests offering a chaotic break from your usual hunts. Beyond those changes, everything else that made Monster Hunter so popular is here in spades. Whether you enjoy heading out on hunts with a group of friends, meticulously crafting every piece of gear, or trying to slay beasts solo, Monster Hunter Rise is bound to impress.
Much like Slay the Spire, which clearly inspired it, Monster Train is a game well-suited to quick bursts of gameplay. Because it's already available on Xbox, it features controller support, so controlling it on Deck is easy. But just as importantly, the action is readable on the screen, and its turn-based nature lends itself to the type of portable/toilet gaming that Deck enables. However you play it, the gameplay remains some of the very best in the roguelike deckbuilder genre, giving you a great deal of freedom in how you assemble your deck and combine cards from different factions to make each run feel distinct.
2020's Monster Train was one of the biggest games in the roguelike deckbuilder space, and in 2025, its sequel can easily be responsible for consuming far too much of your free time. While it's structurally similar to the first game, Monster Train 2 sharpens the experience with several new ideas and expands on the core concepts to create a devilishly fun sequel.
Octopath Traveler 2
Most of the JRPG homages are riffing on classics from Square Enix, so it only makes sense that Square would make one of the best ones itself. Octopath Traveler 2 is the sequel to its experimental first game featuring eight heroes with their own backstories, and that core idea is still intact here. But OT2 is a vast improvement in every way. The repetitive process of gathering all eight party members has been streamlined, and the roles and abilities are more differentiated. Characters also now have differing daytime and nighttime skills, as well as Latent Abilities to use in combat. It may be a little slow to get started, but when all the mechanics and systems come together, it sings.
The Metroidvania genre fits like a glove on Steam Deck, and among those, one of the absolute best is the Ori series. The two games as a duology remain an immaculate and tightly-designed genre standout, arguably the best of the past decade. Taking that on the go is already possible on Switch and even Xbox Cloud Gaming, so you've maybe had opportunities to play it in handheld mode before, but if you missed it until now, the Steam Deck is the best of those handhelds thanks to it not requiring an internet connection like Xbox and its larger, nicer screen than Switch.
The metroidvania genre is popular for a reason, but it plays especially well on handheld platforms where you can alternate between focusing your attention and idly exploring while catching up with a bake-off. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is no exception, and it's a great fit on Steam Deck for that reason. While it's not on Steam and therefore takes a little extra setup, it's worth the work.
And this is a particularly spectacular metroidvania. The combat is tight and responsive with an emphasis on counters and parries, and it uses an equipment system that lets you cater the action to your own play style. Exploration is vast and varied, thanks to a compelling world and white-knuckle platforming challenges. Every part of it harmonizes with the others, creating one of the best metroidvanias in recent years.
Sea of Thieves
While you do need an internet connection to play Sea of Thieves, it's still worthwhile to play when you aren't out and about. Past iterations of Rare's pirate sandbox have been less short session-friendly, but the team has taken strides to improve the game in that area, offering short and sweet daily challenges for all players and introducing new Sea Forts, which are meant to be challenged and won in as little as 15-20 minutes including the time it takes to sell all your loot. Sea of Thieves, like God of War listed earlier in this feature, is the kind of game that you once could only dream about playing on a handheld. But today the future has arrived by boat.
Shin Megami Tensei V has come to PC, and it's a great fit on Steam Deck--which makes sense for an RPG that originated on the handheld-hybrid Nintendo Switch. The enhanced port, Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, adds loads of new story content and surprises for returning veterans, enhancing your relationships with human and demon characters, along with better navigation tools to find your way around. SMTV was already a deep and engrossing RPG, and it shines on Steam Deck.
Developed by the studio behind My Friend Pedro, Shotgun Cop Man is delightfully weird and wastes no time at all getting you up to speed on your mission: taking down Satan himself. It's time to give the devil his legal due, and while the prince of darkness is pretty fleet-footed, he's no match for a man driven by the momentum of his own weapons--and hatred for all things demonic--in this cheeky little precision-platformer.
Skin Deep
Essentially Die Hard meets Home Alone--but in space--Skin Deep sees you regularly outnumbered, outgunned, andout-clothed by space bandits. Full of sharp humor, gripping stealth sequences, and full of cats to rescue, this immersive-sim is at its best when you're figuring out novel solutions to strange dilemmas.
Like God of War, Spider-Man Remastered is a game that shows just how well Steam Deck can handle a big-budget, AAA experience. Marvel's Spider-Man came out in 2018, but its remastered version helped push the power of the PS5. The PC conversion can run even better with a significantly beefy PC, but the Steam Deck version runs impressively well with the right settings. That means you can pack the great-looking visuals and all the web-swinging action into a portable package.
Stardew Valley might be the most popular farming game on the planet. Created almost entirely by a single developer (Eric Barone), the amount of content packed into its adorable, pixelated world is staggering. What starts as a simple quest to rebuild your grandpa’s farm quickly turns into something more. You’ll chat with the locals and form relationships, head out on dangerous mining expeditions, and watch as the quaint Pelican Town transforms through the seasons. Its laidback pace makes it a perfect fit for Steam Deck, giving you a chance to stick your hands in the dirt no matter where life takes you.
SteamWorld Heist 2 is only the second game in the SteamWorld series to warrant a numbered sequel, but it earns the distinction. The first SteamWorld Heist game was an inventive little take on the tactical game, with close-corridor combat that rewarded trick shots. SteamWorld Heist 2 retains that core, but builds out from it with a massive world to explore, larger stages, and more systems to manage, including a sophisticated class system. You can mix and match class abilities to create powerful combinations, making the strategy that much more rewarding.
Tactical Breach Wizards takes the tropes of a gritty SEAL Team 6-like operator squadron and gives it a hilarious and fantastical twist. Instead of marines, you're a tough band of magic users. The concept grants the ability to merge deep tactical gameplay with magical abilities, like the foresight to see the full outcome of your turns. Combat is like an interlocking puzzle, reminiscent of Into the Breach, while the characters and writing make it feel new and novel. The bite-sized stages are an especially great fit on Steam Deck, where you can breach and clear a single stage or settle in for longer sessions.
An audacious game experiment from a band of developers led by Spelunky's Derek Yu, UFO 50 is not a single game but a collection of 50 games. Presented as the long lost library of 8-bit games made by a developer called UFO Soft, the games range from shoot-em-up to racer to puzzle game and everything in-between. Some games are modernized takes on retro genres, while others are modern genres recontextualized through an 8-bit lens. The package is almost overwhelming in scope, consisting of both a massive collection of games and also serving as a meta-commentary on classic game development.
An early access game you can grab on the cheap, Vampire Survivors is very simple but shockingly fun. The single-stick shooter has you navigate around hordes of enemies while your weapons fire off automatically, building up experience to buy new weapon upgrades. The deceptively simple premise gets increasingly fiendish and chaotic as more enemies join the fray, and your weapon upgrades get ever-more destructive. It's enough to tempt you to play just one more round until you realize, oh whoops, it's 3 AM.
With so many options to choose from, narrowing down the best Xbox Game Pass games currently available can be a challenge. The subscription service has grown in size, offering a massive library of big AAA games, new day-one releases, and even overlooked gems--early 2025 Game of the Year contender Blue Prince is now on the service, having launched on day one. The library is so expansive that you're almost guaranteed to find at least a few games you'll love and classics from yesteryear, thanks to the recent addition of Retro Classics.
To help you navigate the ever-shifting landscape, we've rounded up the very best Game Pass games available now. There are plenty more excellent games on Xbox Game Pass than the ones we’ve listed below--the service is loaded with worthy games. These are just the games we think every Xbox owner should play, and we regularly review this list to make sure we stand by our choices and rotate in newer releases. We'll continue to update this list as the Game Pass library adds new selections. Every month brings new games as well, and in case you missed it, here's what you can download and play in May.
Keep in mind that Xbox Game Pass comes in various tiers at different pricing levels, and the tiers can be somewhat tricky to navigate. Xbox Game Pass Core offers a smaller selection of games along with the online play functionality that used to be Xbox Live Gold for $10 per month. Xbox Game Pass for just the Xbox library is $15 per month, while Xbox Game Pass for PC is $12 per month. The best value by far is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes both the Xbox and PC libraries, along with cloud gaming functionality to play the Game Pass selections on your mobile device, for $20 per month.
For the purposes of this list, we looked at the whole Xbox Game Pass library available in the Ultimate tier, so if you're subscribed to one of the other tiers--especially Core--not every recommendation may be available. And while this list is a good place to get started, the library of games is even more expansive, and more games will be added throughout the year. Be sure to check back for updated recommendations.
The first Plague Tale was an unexpected hit from a relatively small developer punching above its weight. The sequel could have expanded its scope, but instead, Asobo Studio kept its narrative tightly focused on telling a human story set in an alternative French history. Though the rat-controlling mechanics have been expanded, the story is still concerned primarily with the family dynamics between Hugo and his protective older sister, Amicia. It's also a downright beautiful game, with lush environments that rival those from the biggest AAA studios.
Arcade Paradise is an inventive blend of management sim and retro-styled compilation. As the manager of a laundromat with some arcade machines buried in the back, you'll slowly build up your collection of arcade machines, transforming the business into a successful arcade. But you also get to play the arcade machines yourself, unlocking achievements and getting high scores that help the machines generate more money for your business. The result is a compelling gameplay loop that also has a surprisingly resonant story at its core.
Following a dip into sci-fi with The Outer Worlds, Obsidian's return to an RPG fantasy setting is one of this year's biggest surprises. Set in the Pillars of Eternity universe, you play as a godlike--one who has been touched by a god leaving you marked in a way that's visually distinct to everyone around you. Your journey through the Living Lands makes a point to streamline some classic RPG systems, while giving you an incredible amount of flexibility in others. Combat is a particular standout, as you can mix and match just about any variety of weapons and abilities, and easily respec to experiment with new combinations.
Balatro
Balatro was a breakout release last year--in fact, it was one of our favorite games of 2024--and the one-more-round roguelike poker game has only gotten better with subsequent updates. It's now available on Xbox Game Pass, and came alongside a new Friends of Jimbo pack that lets you change the face cards to crossovers with games like Civilization VII, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Bugsnax, and more. If you've never caught up with the incredibly compelling and clever game, now is the time.
Blue Prince
You've never played a game quite like Blue Prince. The first-person puzzle game has you exploring an empty mansion, but this particular manor house has a special quality: It's never the same from day to day, as the rooms appear as you "draft" them from a selection whenever you come to a door. The ultimate goal is to explore the mansion and reach the hidden Room 46, but the game's many puzzles and mysteries unfold and interlock in ways that feel constantly enthralling. And since it's on Game Pass, it's easy to recommend with your existing subscription.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
The Call of Duty series has been among the top sellers for years, but some CoD games are clearly better than others. This year's iteration, Black Ops 6, is the best the series has been in some time, and the first time that a new Call of Duty game has been available on Game Pass at launch. The campaign is a smart and varied action spectacle that keeps you on your toes as it explores paranoid thriller tropes set against global events in the 1990s. Meanwhile, the multiplayer's new omni-movement makes matches feel fast and fluid, especially with the addition of inventive new maps that let you explore the space in a variety of ways. A revision to the perks system helps you specialize in interesting ways. Call of Duty has earned its reputation for a reason, and this latest release shows why.
A logic puzzle game wrapped in a mind-twisting mystery, The Case of the Golden Idol has you solving a series of British murders by carefully inspecting dossiers and the environment to find inconsistencies. The inventive puzzle mechanic has you filling in missing words to solve the riddles. Xbox Game Pass has the full base game, but if you're itching for even more mysteries to solve there are extra Golden Idol Mysteries you can purchase as DLC.
An impeccably crafted indie platformer, Celeste is known for its tough-but-fair difficulty and surprisingly emotionally engaging story. As you climb the mountain you'll come face to face with devilish platforming challenges that will test your skill, all while discovering a subtle story of self-discovery and overcoming depression. It has a stellar 94 score on Metacritic, so don't sleep on this one. And don't worry if you aren't a platforming pro, as Celeste has a full suite of difficulty modifiers that let you experience the climb on your own terms.
A puzzle game built around communication, Chants of Sennaar approximates the feeling of slowly learning a new language while immersed in a strange new culture. As you solve puzzles to unlock new parts of these fictitious languages, you start to recognize snippets of meaning in speech and writing, and it meticulously unlocks new avenues to learn even more and venture further. The whole experience is built around the mythical Tower of Babel, as you make your way through a massive structure with various peoples speaking different languages along the way.
When Microsoft finalized its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, it seemed like only a matter of time before the studio's massive library started to come to Game Pass. We're still waiting on a lot of the catalog, but it started with a big one. The latest in the beloved dungeon-crawling RPG series Diablo, Diablo IV, lets you delve into the deep and macabre world of Sanctuary to protect it from Lillith, the demon mother. With deep and immersive character building and a regular cadence of seasonal content to let you further expand your characters with new abilities, Diablo IV is not to be missed.
Bigger, bolder, and more brutal than ever, Id Software unleashed hell on Earth with Doom Eternal, much to the delight of everyone who played this sequel. Pure action from start to finish and unrelenting when the armies of the damned were thrown at you, Doom Eternal is a metal journey through the apocalypse that takes no prisoners.
Doom: The Dark Ages feels like a return to form for id Software's iconic series. While Doom Eternal would regularly leave you breathless with its hyper-kinetic gameplay and resource-juggling, The Dark Ages keeps the action grounded by transforming the Doom Slayer into an overpowered engine of destruction. The stand-and-fight mantra guiding this prequel works wonders, while the bullet-hell challenge and shield-bashing gameplay makes ripping and tearing through demonic hordes feel more satisfying than ever.
Between its amazing visuals, myriad gameplay options, and bevy of content, Forza Horizon 5 is a racing game that anyone can enjoy. From a technical standpoint, it’s remarkable what the team at Playground Games achieved--everything from the meticulously detailed vehicle models to the lush virtual recreations of Mexico’s landscapes are visually engrossing.. Better yet, the gameplay is some of the best in the racing genre. Unlike the simulation-heavy Forza Motorsport line, the Forza Horizon series lean towards arcade racing, emphasizing player freedom in vast open worlds. Forza Horizon 5 doubles down on the philosophy, letting players focus on the type of experience they want--be that tense races against other players, single-player challenges and story content, or just chilling out and cruising the open road.
Forza Motorsport goes back to the series' roots as a simulation track racer, with stunning recreations of high performance vehicles. Car progression and upgrades are streamlined enough for fans to understand, but with the ability to get your hands dirty under the hood with precise fine-tuning. It's a graphical showpiece for the Xbox, making it a great game to try on Game Pass regardless of whether you're a gear-head.
Gears Tactics cleverly applies the aesthetic and atmosphere of the franchise to a tactics game. Despite being a totally different genre, Gears Tactics still feels like a natural addition to the iconic franchise thanks to sound mechanics and great level design. Many of the notable Gears of War gameplay systems and quirks are adapted into the top-down tactical spin on the genre. With a meaningful progression system, deep but approachable tactical encounters, and a number of great boss battles, Gears Tactics is a can’t-miss experience for Gears aficionados and strategy game fans alike.
If you’ve never played the Halo franchise before, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is the perfect place to start. The Master Chief Collection comes with six Halo games, including remastered versions of the first two original Xbox entries. Halo features some of the very best single-player campaigns in the genre as well as extremely solid online multiplayer, at least after years of fixes and improvements. Back when the collection was originally released, the online multiplayer was spotty to say the least, but it has come a long way. Halo: The Master Chief Collection offers the best way to play some of the most heralded first-person shooters ever created.
Hi-Fi Rush is a bright, popcorn animated adventure from the studio that brought you… The Evil Within? As surprising as that is, what may be even more impressive is that this is an absolute gem of a rhythm-action game. The original IP follows Chai, a good-hearted doofus who signs up for free cybernetic surgery and ends up with a Zune grafted into his chest. He comes out of the other side with the power to defeat corporate ne'er-do-wells to the gyrating beat of the world. It's like Elite Beat Agents mashed together with Devil May Cry.
Enchanting and utterly engrossing, Hollow Knight is one of the best metroidvanias ever made. Team Cherry’s adventure stars a nameless knight armed with a nail who explores a labyrinthine world known as Hallownest. With a gorgeous art style and an incredible amount of variation in the environments, Hollow Knight’s expansive world is a constant joy to explore. Challenging combat rewards those with patience and perseverance. Hollow Knight truly stands out in a fairly crowded genre. If you haven’t waded through Hallownest yet, now’s a great time to slay some insect ahead of the sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong.
MachineGames' take on Indiana Jones is a masterful take on the famous relic hunter. The action is a tightly designed clockwork of action, stealth, and immersive-sim elements that capture Indy's famous improvisational style. The story is rich and engaging and belongs right on the shelf next to some of Indy's other great adventures. And the character and worldbuilding are all top-notch, which helps to sell Troy Baker's take on the famous character popularized by actor Harrison Ford. It's the complete package, and a great reason to subscribe to Game Pass.
Though it's still in early access, Manor Lords has quickly gained a following as a deep and engrossing strategy game that encompasses several different types of strategy at once. You'll build a city with complex social and economic systems at play, as well as take part in huge tactical battles against rival lords. Building your civilization from almost nothing and helping it manage trials like an unforgiving winter is so satisfying, and the depth of the game is made even more impressive by it being the work of just one developer.
Baseball is an annual spring tradition, and recently, so is MLB The Show on Game Pass. The sports franchise game from Sony's San Diego Studio hits Game Pass on release day every year, letting you feel the crack of the bat right as the baseball season starts. This year's iteration, MLB The Show 24, brings back its Storylines mode with a new set of documentary-style tales regarding the Negro Leagues, and for the first time, Road to the Show features women as playable characters. Though parts are in need of a refresh at this point, the total package is still a satisfying way to play America's pastime.
Monster Hunter World introduced loads of new fans to the Monster Hunter series, which up to that point had a niche but enthusiastic audience in the West. That game spent some time on Game Pass, but it's since been removed and you can play the more recent Monster Hunter iteration instead. Rise borrows several quality-of-life improvements that made World such a success, and adds another one: the Wirebug, a new tool that lets you easily and quickly traverse the map by swinging through the wilderness. Monster Hunter Rise is an ideal entry point for franchise newcomers.
Save the Spire saw a new wave of roguelike deckbuilders follow in its wake, and Monster Train was easily one of the best. The bar was set high for the sequel, but Monster Train 2 is a confident follow-up to the first game that builds on its solid foundation and adds a few new twists and a tremendous amount of replayability.
Neon White
A fast-paced first-person platformer, Neon White is a fresh take on competitive speedrunning. You'll have to master tight vertically-designed stages within a stylish afterlife setting, taking down enemies with panache along the way. The breakneck pace is unlike anything else, and it's easy to get lost for a long time promising yourself just one more run.
Octopath Traveler was a daring new RPG concept from Square Enix in which the story was told non-sequentially, as you could play as any of eight protagonists in any order, experiencing their own unique stories. Octopath Traveler 2 improves upon its predecessor in every way, taking to heart critiques from the first game and making a standout RPG experience. The new cast of eight characters are well differentiated with skills both inside and outside of combat, and their distinct abilities create interesting puzzle scenarios for completing missions and side quests. The combat system is rich with possibilities, letting you leverage their strengths in satisfying ways. And the story ties the eight hero narratives together into a cohesive whole. If the first game was an experiment, this one is the proof of concept.
Both games in Moon Studios’ incredible Ori series are worth playing. Ori and the Blind Forest and its 2020 sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps are two of the best platformers available on Xbox. Both have stunning visuals and tell emotionally gripping stories that feed off of the atmosphere and well-drawn characters. While they are similar in terms of aesthetic and feel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is more action-oriented, whereas the Blind Forest largely focuses on platforming and exploration. The Will of the Wisps gives Ori new abilities that help them square off against daunting bosses. Both games are brilliant in their own right, and are must-play platformers on Xbox. You should play them in order to get the full emotional weight of the story.
One of the most unusual games on Game Pass, or anywhere, Pentiment is an adventure game set in 16th century Bavaria. As a manuscript illustrator sent to an Abbey, you're caught up in a series of murders. The decades-spanning story explores the idea of historical narrative and how truth is recorded and remembered across generations. It's really unlike anything else.
Persona 3 was the game to really set the mold for where the series would go, essentially splitting the game in half. It's part dungeon-crawling, turn-based RPG and part social sim where you manage the life of a high-schooler who teams up with other kids to secretly combat monsters at night. Reload improves on the original version of the game in numerous ways, introducing quality-of-life features and improved visuals that make this the best-playing version of Persona 3 (even if it does lack some portions of content from prior versions). This is a substantial experience that will keep you hooked over its dozens of hours, with a great story, terrific music, incredibly slick-looking menus, and fun combat.
The first Pillars of Eternity was a thrilling study in old school RPG gameplay with a modern makeover, but its sequel outdoes the original in almost every way possible. A more confident follow-up that doubles down on its strengths while further refining its formula, Obsidian Entertainment's sophomore effort is an entertaining game filled with rich writing and easily-accessible gameplay for newcomers to the genre.
It's safe to say that there's no game like Psychonauts 2 on the market, as Double Fine's return to the cult-classic world of Razputin Aquato and the titular psychic peacekeeping agency is an absolute mind-blast of imaginative design. Fun to play and packing an emotional wallop with its exploration of several characters and a deep dive into their respective psyches, Psychonauts 2 is both a hilarious and heartfelt effort.
A live-service game that's not all about the shooting, Sea of Thieves is Rare's quirky take on a pirate simulator. It's gone through a lot of iterations since it was first released in 2018, so nowadays it's a full-fledged pirate simulator. You can crew your ship and sail the high seas, plunder other ships, find hidden treasure, and even deal with otherworldly pirate ghosts.
Slay the Spire marries deck-building with roguelike systems to create one of the best indies in recent years. Throughout your journey up the Spire, you square off against monsters, uncover treasures, and expand your deck of cards. Slay the Spire's card-based combat is easy to get the hang of but requires trial and error to find success. While you have to start back at the beginning each time you die, you gradually earn new cards, which help you advance further the next time. It’s an intoxicating loop that makes it easy to want to try “one more time” before putting down the controller. Each of Slay the Spire’s four playable characters have unique decks, adding a ton of incentive to brave the Spire for subsequent runs after the credits roll.
Compulsion Games has repeatedly designed incredible worlds that are rich in atmosphere and intrigue, and South of Midnight is no exception. Set in the American Deep South and inspired by the myths told by the people who live there, South of Midnight encapsulates the sights, sounds, and culture of a place rarely explored in video games and doesn't shy away from delving into the community's hardships and traumas to weave together a fantastical and oftentimes chilling gothic horror tale. The whole experience is brought to life with superb voice acting and a poignant soundtrack, transforming otherwise ordinary moments of combat and platforming into a cinematic experience that's well-worth experiencing.
Tunic, the long-awaited adventure starring a fox with a sword, is more than just a great Zelda-like. While it harks back to old-school Zelda games in terms of not guiding players toward the objectives, Tunic has its own approach to creating mystery and intrigue. All throughout the world you'll find pages of an instruction manual--really does look like one that would've been packaged with a game in the early '90s--that you have to piece together to learn about the world around you. It does a wonderful job replicating the thrill of discovery found in early Zelda games. Tunic is much harder than Zelda games from a combat perspective, but overcoming each challenge feels like a great triumph. Plus, any combat pains you may have are made worthwhile by gorgeous world that is a joy to explore.
After years of busting heads with the Dragon of Dojima, Yakuza: Like a Dragon came along to chart a new course for the long-running Sega franchise. Replacing Kiryu Kazama was the newly-paroled Ichiban Kasuga, a thug with a heart of gold who soon found himself caught in the middle of a vast conspiracy in the Japanese underworld. One other big change that Yakuza: Like a Dragon made was to its combat, as the game pulled heavily from classic Dragon Quest adventures to create a fresh spin on the RPG genre.
Microsoft's newest update for PC has freshened up the settings widget within the Game Bar, offering players better access to adjustments for audio levels and screen brightness. In addition, not only are these improvements available in compact mode, but these quick settings provide a toggle for going into compact mode or back into desktop mode.
The overhauled settings widget within the Game Bar offers quicker access to changing screen brightness and audio levels on the Xbox app for PC.
These new features are part of a larger Xbox update that also saw Retro Classics arriving for all Game Pass membership tiers. The catalog includes well-known titles like Pitfall and Commando--as well as original PlayStation game MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat.
There are few more iconic video game characters than Pac-Man. One of the earliest and most recognizable video game mascots, Pac-Man was a massive and ongoing success, as cabinets remained mainstays in arcades and restaurants for decades after its original release. Bandai Namco is celebrating the anniversary of the game on May 22, 2025--a full 45 years after its first release in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Since then, the simple character has gone through several redesigns and revisions, from 3D platformers to pinball and even a kart racer. Bandai Namco has made the character broad and flexible, with oddball experiments like 2005's Pac Pix living alongside respectful homages like the breakout hit Pac-Man Championship Edition, which played very much like the original with new mechanics and mazes to test the skills of even the most dedicated Pac enthusiasts. But the original Pac-Man, along with Ms. Pac-Man that followed, is still the purest distillation of the idea, a game that has been ported countless times and been played throughout the years.
To mark the occasion, GameSpot spoke with Cyrus Rosenberg, SVP of licensing and business development at Arcade1Up, which has made a point of producing nostalgic, arcade-accurate scale cabinets of some of the most beloved classic arcade games around, including Pac-Man. The company has produced multiple cabinets based on Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, so we spoke with Rosenberg about working with the Bandai Namco license to create cabinets that replicate the feeling of plunking a quarter into an arcade machine in the corner of a pizza parlor.
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