Game Pass subscribers have a solid January ahead of them, with two big games coming to Microsoft's game subscription service: Capcom's eminently replayable Resident Evil 2 remake and Ubisoft's massive open-world adventure Assassin's Creed Valhalla join the line-up this month.
Resident Evil 2 was released in 2019 and is an example of the best of Capcom's work in breathing new life into its older survival horror games. The game sees dual protagonists Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy respond to the zombie outbreak in Raccoon City, with an interlocking story that warrants repeat playthroughs as both characters. In Polygon's review of the game, we called it “a fresh, expensive-looking game that brings back the fondest memories of the PlayStation original, while also being something completely new.”
Assassin's Creed Valhallafrom 2020, casts players as the warrior Eivor on a grand adventure set against the Viking expansion into England. Walhalla is huge – so big that Ubisoft has scaled back its ambitions for last year Assassin's Creed Mirage – with an extensive story that could easily take more than 100 hours to complete. In our review of the game we made the call Walhalla an “intriguing story… about faith, honor and family” that is buried in a “vast, enormous world full of battles and side quests.”
These games will be accompanied by All hell unleashed, the World War II shooter RTS that made its debut in 2021 after years of early access. Here's the full breakdown of January's Xbox and PC Game Pass games for the first half of the month:
- Close to the sun (cloud, console and PC) – January 3
- All hell unleashed (cloud, PC and Xbox Series X) – January 4
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla (cloud, console and PC) – January 9
- Fabrication (cloud, console and PC) – January 9
- Super Mega Baseball 4 (cloud, console and PC) – January 11
- We lucky few (cloud, console and PC) – January 11
- Resident Evil 2 (cloud, console and PC) – January 16
- Those who stay (cloud, console and PC) – January 16
As previously noted, a handful of games will be leaving the service in January, including Grand Theft Auto 5which will complete its third stint on Game Pass later this week.
- Grand Theft Auto 5 (cloud and console) – January 5
- Garden story (cloud, console and PC) – January 15
- MotoGP22 (cloud, console and PC) – January 15
- Person 4 Golden (cloud, console and PC) – January 15
- Persona 3 portable (cloud, console and PC) – January 15
Xbox Game Pass costs $10.99 per month, while PC Game Pass costs $9.99 per month. PC Game Pass provides access to EA Play, which offers an additional 70 games on PC. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, for $16.99 per month, gives subscribers access to everything – the PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass libraries, EA Play on both console and PC – as well as access to online multiplayer. Xbox Game Pass Core (formerly called Xbox Live Gold) costs $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year.