Final Fantasy VIII, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and Gears 5 (sort of) top the list of new games coming to the Xbox One digital store between September 3-6, 2019.
Here’s a weird one. There’s a game in this week’s Xbox One releases that is also going to be in next week’s Xbox One releases. It seems inevitable, given the trend for limited-time exclusivity and pre-order bonuses granting early unlocks, but this still feels a bit weird.
If you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you can play the Ultimate Edition of Gears 5 this week. If you’re waiting to buy the game digitally or at retail, or you only have Xbox Game Pass standard, you’re going to have to wait until next week. Maybe we can just copy and paste this release announcement again next week, and just change the dates? (If you do that to your own work, it’s fine. If you do that to someone else, we call that “doing a Miucin” – plagiarism Ed.)
Gears 5 is looking great, though, all joking aside. It brings the co-op gameplay the series is so famed for, but – based on early impressions – replaces some of the entirely linear sections with hub-and-spoke, semi-open sections, like God of War or Uncharted 4. For years, we’ve said that those sorts of games (Naughty Dog, and their imitators) need to make the “buddy” character playable in local co-op. Gears 5 delivers.
It’s not all Gears 5 this week, though. (Or indeed next week, but we’ll get to that in due course.)
Other big-ticket items include Iceborne, the long-awaited and much-publicised expansion to Monster Hunter World, and the (even longer-awaited) Final Fantasy VIII Remaster. Square Enix has a habit of releasing less-than-stellar versions of its PlayStation-era classics, but given they’ve “fixed” something nobody asked for? Here’s hoping they’ve applied the same diligence to the rest of the port.
On the indie front, Creature in the Well made an impression during this year’s E3, while River City Girls – the follow-up to River City Ransom, from Shantae developer WayForward – will also be kicking ass and taking names.
All of next week’s new releases can be purchased from the Xbox digital games store and the Microsoft online store. Here’s the full lineup.
Xbox One game releases – September 3-6, 2019
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
- Final Fantasy VIII Remastered
- Torchlight 2
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
- Gaijin Charenji 1: Kiss or Kill
- Himmo
- Monochrome Order
- Post War Dreams
Thursday, September 5, 2019
- River City Girls
- Throne Quest Deluxe
Friday, September 6, 2019
- Creature in the Well
- Gears 5 Ultimate Edition (Xbox Game Pass Ultimate only)
- Monster Hunter: World – Iceborne
- NBA 2K20
- Restless Hero
Visit the Thumbsticks new releases page for weekly updates on the latest Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 games. You can also follow Thumbsticks on Flipboard or Twitter.
