What’s On Game Pass March 2023

There’s not much that I want to talk about this month. That’s good for you because you don’t have to put up with me for too long, but that also means there hasn’t been many games for me to play this month. The games I’ve listed weren’t the only games that have come to Game Pass: they’re the only ones I’ve enjoyed playing.

Hopefully next month I’ll have more to share with you. In the mean time, you can read my breakdowns of two excellent games, as well as my monthly update on what I’ve been playing. Please note all games linked are for Xbox but are available for all platforms.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

From the minds that brought us Nioh, now we have another Soulslike, or should I say, Gaidenlike, to relentlessly belittle and frustrate us. Christmas has come early.

Wo Long moves away from the Japanese setting featured in Nioh, crossing the East China Sea to a land ruled by an imperial dynasty on the verge of collapse. Wo Long is centred on an unnamed militia soldier who rises to power to fend off a plague of demons intent on destruction and ruin.

The game features swordplay based on Chinese martial arts and a narrative that focusses on the rise of an apparent ‘nobody’. Characteristically, it’s very difficult. With some players even finding the first boss excessive.

If you enjoyed Nioh then you’re bound to get something from Wo Long. Although the game feels like a cut and paste job, there’s some new elements, such as the morale system that differentiate it somewhat from the Nioh franchise.

Atomic Heart

The long-awaited Atomic Heart finally arrives – and it’s playable on Game Pass! It’s been in development for what seems like, forever. The game depicts an alternate-history in which the Soviet Union are the victors of WW2.

Technological breakthroughs have freed much of the Soviet Union from manual labour, which is instead done by advanced robotics. Dr. Sechenov created a linked artificial intelligence and wants to implement the same technology in humans. However, something goes wrong and the robots decide to kill everyone. You couldn’t write it...

The game features first-person combat, role-playing elements and a novel glove device that gives the player the use of powerful abilities, like telekinesis and electrical shocks. There’s an elaborate crafting system that sees the player wielding robot enhanced weapons, and some mild stealth so that you can eliminate those robots quietly.

Although heavily influenced by Fallout and BioShock, it does enough to qualify as original. Atomic Heart is an ambitious game that tells an equally ambitious story.

What I’m Playing

I’ve been spending too much time playing Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. The huge battles and monumental sieges are my favourite aspect of the game, but I do occasionally dabble in the nobler arts of economic exploitation.

The game is rather janky, but I’ve become so fond of it precisely for that reason. In every inch of the game, there’s character to be found that so few games have. The game design isn’t overly familiar, so it feels new and exciting. I recommend playing if you enjoy troop/inventory management, having a genuine freedom to explore a rich, lived in world, and like the idea of playing Age of Empires in first person.

What have you been playing recently? Let us know over on our socials.