Xbox Game Pass for PC is an awkward, beautiful beast. It consistently manages to impress me with its ever-growing games line-up, while at the same time baffling me with its obscure user experience.
Take the EA Play integration, for instance, which gives you access to dozens of games from EA's subscription service. Not only can you not search for specific EA games within Xbox Game Pass for PC, but I recently discovered that there are actually over 20 EA Play games not listed at all in the Xbox app that you can play with an Xbox Game Pass PC subscription.
To play one of these games, you need to sign into the EA Play or Origin app, then simply type the game name into the search box and download it (make sure your EA and Xbox accounts are linked).
It's a pretty good bunch too! The headliner has to be Crysis Remastered, which came out last year, but among them you'll also find Worms W.M.D (in my eyes, the silliest and most complete Worms game of them all) as well as the greatest Battlefield game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (complete with the Vietnam expansion).
There's also a solid selection of indie titles including Superhot, Trine 2, The Sexy Brutale, and even something for the videogame historians in the form of Ultima Underworld 1 and 2.
Having trawled through the EA Play catalogue, here are all the EA Play games not listed in the Xbox app that Game Pass subscribers can play:
- Aragami
- Bard's Tale Trilogy
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Beholder
- Capsized
- Crysis Remastered
- Diluvion
- Dungeons of Dredmor
- Epistory
- Legrand Legacy
- Mini Metro
- The Sexy Brutale
- Peggle Nights
- Rebel Galaxy
- Superhot
- This War of Mine
- Torchlight
- Torchlight 2
- Trine
- Trine 2: Complete Story
- Ultima Underworld 1
- Ultima Underworld 2
- Worms W.M.D.
This list might quietly grow too, so be sure to check into the EA Play app, then set the filter to only show EA Play membership games to see if any new surprises pop up.
Looking at that list, it’s tempting to chirpily conclude that ‘Xbox Game Pass for PC is just the gift that keeps on giving’ and wish everyone a Happy Cyber Monday, but it's yet another indicator of what a weird, unwieldy experience it is. The Xbox app feels like one of those arcade claw machines filled with really great goodies that you need to brute-force, kick, or attempt several times before getting your prize. Or in this case, a clunky claw machine that drops your prize into another clunky claw machine (EA Play) through which you can eventually get your goodies.
I want to love you Xbox Game Pass, but sometimes you make it so hard...
