October is a peak time of year for gaming. No more guilt about evading the sunlight like a mole rat, no more large-scale summer social duties like weddings, while excursions into the 'real' world peter out in the face of the encroaching cold. Plus, longer nights mean earlier starts for gaming sessions.
And right on point, Microsoft is lying in wait with a payload of games added to Game Pass to usher in the new season. From the sun-kissed, gore-filled glamour of LA to the frozen wasteland of a post-apocalyptic London, this month's selection has you covered. Here are the standouts as far as we're concerned:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (October 25)
A juggernaut like Call of Duty is inevitably going to have its ebbs and flows, and with its last outing being a bit of an downswing, we're hopeful that Black Ops 6 will bunny-hop it back in the right direction.
Omnimovement is the buzzword this time, with slides, backwards sprinting (don't ask how), and diving over tables like a 90s action movie hero holding the promise of more thrilling shootouts. One of the big complaints about Modern Warfare 3 was the extent to which it rehashed old maps, so it's nice to see that Blops 3 will be launching with 16 all-new ones. It sounds like Treyarch has listened to the players, so now we await the verdict.
Frostpunk 2 (out now)
Polish outfit 11 bit Studios have nailed the whole 'gruelling survival with weighty decision-making' genre pretty well over the years, but the freshly released Frostpunk 2 is their opus. Our Chris Livingston loved it, calling it "packed wall-to-wall with torturous choices, agonizing consequences, and a sliding scale of morality that's slippery as ice."
The sequel to the steampunk strategy-survival hit once again tasks you with keeping a future London ticking in a world that has frozen over. This time it goes for a grander scale while digging deeper into politicking with the grumpy factions of the city, which range from law-and-order militarists to a group who endure the cold with their shirts off (Wim Hof Methodists, basically). It's a deeply challenging yet rewarding exercise in people management, but make a few misguided decisions and you'll soon find yourself face-down in the snow.
Dead Static Drive
What godless person wouldn't be intrigued by a game describing itself as 'Grand Theft Cthulhu'? In this stylish survival horror set on the dusty highways and backroads of 80s America, you'll need to evade both cops and eldritch horrors as you try to find out what happened to your parents. The game has plenty of sneaking and survival elements, as well as some silliness that can ensue from, say, ending up on your ass because you tried running too far with a petrol hose in your hand.
It's an interesting combination of Tarantino-esque criminal hijinks and the weirder end of fiction inspired by the likes of David Lynch and T. E. D. Klein, where a scene of old-school American—abandoned motels, pokey gas stations, forests filled with steep trees—can suddenly make way for tentacles bursting from the ground and building-sized insectoids gaining on you as you try to start the car.
Dead Island 2 (October 31)
If you're concerned about the lack of spooky season representation in this month's lineup, then Dead Island 2 (or any of a number of great horror games already on Game Pass) should sort you out. If you ever thought that L.A. is a soulless hellhole full of brainless people who'll eat you alive given half a chance, then Dead Island 2 is essentially a sim: for the rest, it's a first-person melee rampage through a zombie-infested 'City of Angels,' where the fun is amplified with a trio of friends.
Dead Island 2 is the kind of silly, splattery halloween fun of the variety that has you shrieking in horrified delight as half a zombie's head smashes loose against your modded super-shovel, rather than sprinting past darkened doorways in your house in skittish fear.
Goat Simulator: Remastered (November 7)
Of all the games to get a remaster, I wasn't expecting Goat Simulator. The jankiness, the bugs, and the joyful sandbox chaos that arise as a result were the very point of Goat Simulator, so what would a remaster do? Add more bugs? Well yes, according to the developers, as well as updated graphics and every DLC released for the game. Besides, the devs have also stated that this is "The Remaster no one asked for," so they've pretty much covered themselves against any criticism. It's the remaster no one needs but the tribe of Goat Sim fans will almost certainly love.
The remaster is sure to be replete with all the physics nonsense and headbutting of hapless civilians we've come to expect of the game that started out as a joke but turned into a phenomenon. How did it come to this?
