Three Game Pass Games We're Playing Over the Weekend (October 10-12)
After Microsoft's recent announcement of Game Pass subscription changes, including a cost hike for the top tier to $30 monthly, numerous members are looking for fresh ways to maximize their membership. If you holding onto their subscription or thinking about joining, here are this week's picks.
Our selected titles include a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a delightful indie journey, and a brilliant puzzler set to leave the service soon.
Persona 4 Golden
Among the best methods to get your money's worth from your subscription is by immersing yourself in a extensive, captivating role-playing game — and Persona 4 Golden fits that description perfectly. Players take on the role of a teenager who has just moved to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. By day, your goals involve forming friendships, taking on part-time jobs, and managing schoolwork. By night, you work to solve a disturbing string of murders by exploring strange locations based on your friends' inner fears.
With a unforgettable cast of characters, strategic turn-based combat, flawless art design, and a plot full of surprises, Persona 4: The Golden Edition is considered a masterpiece for good reason. It also boasts a highly engrossing gameplay loop that will have you playing late into the night, repeatedly.
Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato
Although major titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a primary attraction for Game Pass, the subscription also showcases smaller games. A perfect example of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from Spirited Away, this enchanting indie game is a magical realist journey steeped in South American traditions. You join Miho, who, after helping his grandma make soup, is pulled into a vibrant realm populated by potato-stealing frogs and various eccentric creatures.
Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato unfolds like an learning-focused PC game from the 1990s, as Miho solves challenges and helps the world's inhabitants by collecting an assortment of items. Even if it's a bit unpolished, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a sweet small experience that openly showcases its love for the region's culture.
Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure
Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure is set to exit the service on Oct. 15, leaving only a short time to experience it via subscription — and you definitely should. Developer Geometric Interactive crafted one of the best puzzle games of recent years in the 2023 release Cocoon. Its core gameplay element focuses on transitioning between realms inside other worlds, and frequently you'll transport those worlds, in the form of vibrant spheres, with you.
Although it lacks direct guidance, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's puzzles is built in a highly intuitive manner, yet they can challenge you as well. 2023 was a massive period for video games, so it's understandable if Cocoon was a bit missed by the masses. Let's correct that now.
