Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launches on Steam and the Microsoft Store today. Developed once again by Asobo – otherwise celebrated for their stinking rat hordes – it builds upon the 2020 game by “[taking] advantage of the latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming”, in the words of the launch announcement release
We’ve got a review in the works, but code has landed late, so our write-up might take a while. In the shorter term, I thought you might like to know how, exactly, MFS 2024 makes use of “machine learning” technologies, taking into account the energy cost of such wacky gadgetry and the creeping relationship between increased reliance on automated tools and laying people off. More immediately, you might like to know how much of your internet package it’ll devour as you play.
If you’ve been a part of the Nintendo gaming community for a while, then chances are you’re well acquainted with ‘DK Rap’, the charming introductory theme tune seen in 1999’s Donkey Kong 64. It’s gained significant notoriety and love over the years, though many fans do concede that the song isn’t actually that good.
Well, it’s good now, folks. Almost 25 years after its debut, DK Rap has been remade, courtesy of original composer Grant Kirkhope and rapper Substantial, bringing it fully up to date, albeit with one eye firmly on the past. Indeed, one commenter on the YouTube video said it had been given the ‘3rd Strike’ treatment, and we have to agree with this assessment.
Coming to Game Pass: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Nine Sols, Genshin Impact Benefits, and More
Megan Spurr, Senior Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass
If you’re not too busy taking off for the skies in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 today, may we interrupt your flight with these games? We have a selection of day one games, game benefits, indies, and more. What can we get started for you (aka: what will you put in your download queue first)?
Available Today
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 19 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one! From Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studios, pursue your aviation career with dynamically generated missions, compete against other pilots, and explore the most detailed digital twin of the world to date. Set out on your global adventure with our largest fleet of aircraft as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 takes simulation to new heights of authenticity and realism.
Coming Soon
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 20 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Available on day one! Discover the vast Chornobyl Exclusion Zone full of dangerous enemies, deadly anomalies, and powerful artifacts. Unveil your own epic story as you make your way to the Heart of Chornobyl. Choose your paths wisely, as they will determine your fate and shape the future of humankind in the end.
Little Kitty, Big City (Console) – November 20 Now with Game Pass Standard
Available with Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and now coming to Game Pass Standard members. In this open-world playground, you’re a curious little kitty with a big personality on an adventure to find your way back home. Explore the city, make new friends with stray animals, wear delightful hats, and leave more than a little chaos in your wake. After all, isn’t that what cats do best?
PlateUp! (Console) – November 20 Now with Game Pass Standard
Coming soon to Game Pass Standard, PlateUp! brings classic cooking action with permanent rogue-lite progression. Cook and serve your dishes, design and decorate your restaurants, and expand your culinary kingdom with unlocks, abilities and dishes in procedurally generated layouts. Take on the challenge solo or hire up to 3 friends.
Nine Sols (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 26 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Nine Sols is a lore-rich, hand-drawn 2D action-platformer with Sekiro-inspired, deflection-based combat. Embark on a journey through an Asia-inspired fantasy world, explore a land once ruled by an ancient alien race, and follow a vengeful hero on a quest to slay the 9 Sols—the powerful rulers of this forsaken realm.
Aliens: Dark Descent (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 27 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
In Aliens: Dark Descent, command a squad of hardened Colonial Marines to stop a terrifying Xenomorph outbreak on Moon Lethe. Lead your soldiers in real-time combat against iconic Xenomorphs, rogue operatives from the insatiable Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and a host of horrifying creatures new to the Alien franchise.
Genshin Impact Benefits Coming to Game Pass Ultimate on November 20
Go on an adventure in the fantasy world of Teyvat in this free-to-play open-world adventure RPG on Xbox Series X|S. Game Pass Ultimate members will receive recurring rewards via their in-game mailbox, starting off with 2 Intertwined Fate, 1 Northlander Billet Trove, 10 Hero’s Wit, 100,000 Mora, and 15 Mystic Enhancement Ore in-game to celebrate the release on November 20!
In Case You Missed It
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
The original roast master is now on Game Pass! Same sick burns, same smoldering attitude, now all scaled up in stunning HD! Rekindle the fire with the original three games, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, all in fully-remastered glory.
DLC / Game Updates
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone Season 01 – Available now
Ready to wreak havoc? The Black Ops 6 era is here with Season 01. Prepare for a vast new season of content with six Multiplayer maps including a festive Nuketown variant, seven new weapons, a brand-new Zombies map, and full Call of Duty: Warzoneintegration alongside the debut of Area 99 in the new Resurgence map.
New League of Legends Champion: Ambessa, the Matriarch of War – Available now
From Arcane to the Rift, Ambessa is ready to dominate all in her path. Unlock League of Legends’ newest top laner instantly with Xbox Game Pass.
Celebrate Arcane Season 2 in Valorant – Available until December 5
Celebrate the release of Arcane’s second season on Netflix by putting on Vi’s Atlas Gauntlets or causing some chaos with Jinx’s Fishbones-themed Vandal skin.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks
The Elder Scrolls Online: 10-Year Anniversary Pack #4 – Available Now Celebrate 10 years of ESO with the 10-Year Anniversary Pack #4! This bundle includes 2 Grand Gold Coast Experience Scrolls, 1 Major Instant All Research Scroll, and 500 Seals of Endeavor. Claim your Perk today!
Sea of Thieves: Festive Fighter Pack – Available Now For a limited time, claim the Festive Fighter Pack! Along with four weapons (blunderbuss, cutlass, pistol and Eye of Reach) themed around the Festival of Giving, you’ll also receive the Humble Gift and Mistletoe Emotes to express your holiday spirit.
Leaving November 30
Don’t let the following games leave without a proper farewell! Don’t forget to use your membership discount to save 20% on your purchase to keep them in your library.
Conan Exiles (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Coral Island (PC)
Hello Neighbor 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Remnant: From The Ashes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Rollerdrome (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Soccer Story (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Spirit of the North (Cloud, Console, and PC)
The Walking Dead: The Final Season (PC)
While the Iron’s Hot (Cloud, Console, and PC)
As always, keep an eye on Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox for reminders when these “coming soon” announcements turn into “play today”! In the meantime, enjoy your time in the skies and we’ll be back here soon. Cheers!
Microsoft has announced the next wave of games coming to Game Pass, taking subscribers up to the end of November.
Today, November 19, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a first-party day one release from Xbox Game Studios and developer Asobo Studios.
Tomorrow, November 20, GSC Game World’s long-awaited Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass as another day one launch.
Also on November 20, Little Kitty, Big City (Console) launches into Game Pass Standard. It’s already available with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. November 20 is a big day for Game Pass, with PlateUp! (Console) also launching on Game Pass Standard.
Moving on to November 26, Nine Sols (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) arrives on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Nine Sols is a lore-rich, hand-drawn 2D action-platformer with Sekiro-inspired, deflection-based combat.
A day later, on November 27, Aliens: Dark Descent (Cloud, Console, and PC) launches into Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. In Aliens: Dark Descent, you command a squad of Colonial Marines to stop a Xenomorph outbreak on Moon Lethe. IGN’s Aliens: Dark Descent review returned a 7/10. We said: “Aliens: Dark Descent is a fascinating, tense, inspired survival horror RTS with a few too many technical bugs to recommend it without caveats.”
PlateUp!(Console) – November 20 Now with Game Pass Standard
Nine Sols(Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 26 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Aliens: Dark Descent(Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 27 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Microsoft also announced the games leaving Xbox Game Pass on November 30. As always, you can use your membership discount to save 20% on a purchase to keep these games in your library.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
A long while ago I wrote about Vampire Survivors-likes needing to stop overwhelming you with visual clutter. I’ve since played a few games of a similar ilk that don’t hammer you with a chaos that’s impossible to dissect with your eyeballs. One of these is Bloodshed, an old school FPS take on the VS formula that actually works pretty well and did have me thinking the treacherous phrase “just one more run”.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s players numbers are up compared to this time last year, seemingly due to official mod support from developer Larian Studios.
Larian director of publishing Michael Douse shared the improvement on X/Twitter, revealing the average daily active users is up 20% over 2023. “Mods are very good,” Douse said of the improvement, referencing the release of official mod support as part of Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7.
The Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which released in August 2023, is also enjoying an increase of 3% in average daily peak concurrents and a 61% boost in Steam Deck users compared to last year.
This increase is impressive for a largely single-player game. Baldur’s Gate 3 does have cooperative multiplayer but is not a live service that may be expected to enjoy a boost in player numbers year-on-year. And while Larian has continued to update Baldur’s Gate 3 with new features and improvements, it has not released DLC for it.
In our 10/10 review of Baldur’s Gate 3, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Earlier this year, the Switch emulator Yuzu was shut down after being caught in the fiery gaze of the great eye of Nintendo. A follow-up based on the same source code, Suyu, appeared shortly after, though it unsurprisingly met the same fate. Now, over eight months on, there’s another new kid on the block (thanks, Overkill).
Citron is the latest Yuzu fork, now available in early access on Android. According to AndroidAuthority.com, the Switch emulator is much the same as its predecessor, with a couple of “minor upgrades and optimisations” to keep things slightly distinct.
EA is currently investigating issues with the PlayStation 5 Pro version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor but fell short of revealing when fans who spent $699.99 on Sony’s latest console can expect a fix.
“We’re aware of issues with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on PlayStation 5 Pro and are actively investigating,” it said on X/Twitter.
Digital Foundry discovered what it called “severe image quality problems” in the PS5 Pro version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. “There are severe image quality concerns when elements like foliage interact with ray tracing,” it said. “The end result is a strobing image quality downgrade that makes this Pro patch difficult to recommend.”
The PS5 Pro arrived November 7 as Sony’s now standard mid-generation upgrade. More than 50 games received PS5 Pro specific patches upon its launch but, as this list includes Alan Wake 2 and Black Ops 6 among others receiving complaints, it’s worth proceeding with caution.
In our 7/10 review of the PS5 Pro, IGN said: “The PlayStation 5 Pro is an impressive console with noticeable boosts in performance and graphics for games that take advantage of its powerful hardware. But for $700, you’ll need to think twice about whether or not the upgrade is worth the price tag.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
I am a very casual enjoyer of Metal Slug games. I’ve never actually paid for one of these side-scrolling shoot ’em ups, except for all the countless coins I happily pumped into arcade machines as a child. To this day, if I see a rare glittering cabinet running one of these crunchy shmups, I will go ham for twenty or thirty minutes, and walk away satisfied that I have seen a lot of very good pixels. These games, I am convinced, were never really designed to be completed, but to be played exactly like this, as a coin-gobbling invitation to become a bandana-wearing sisyphus, a tiny Rambo pushing a bouncy, juddering tank up a hill occupied by cartoon nazis. You die a bunch and say: “ah, that was good.”
So what happens when you rearrange the molecules of this run and/or gun ’em up into an isometric turn-based strategy game? You get Metal Slug Tactics, an off-kilter nod to Into The Breach and other grid-based turn-takers, but secretly housing the aggressive notions of an unhinged pyromaniac. You still die a lot. And you still walk away feeling fairly happy about it.
Good morning, how about a nice big bowl of your favourite breakfast cereal: Corporate Consolidation? Sony are in talks to buy Kadokawa, the parent company of Elden Ring developer From Software. Sony is eyeing up the company as a hefty snack because they want the various manga and anime owned by Kadokawa, according to a report by Reuters. But also because they want all the tasty games owned by them too, such as the Danganronpa series, the Octopath Traveler games, and the biggest corn flake of them all, the Dark Souls series.
