Xbox Game Pass releases for December 2019 confirmed

Here are details of the new games coming to Xbox One between July 6 and 10, 2020.

After a couple of fallow weeks, the Xbox One digital game store is back in business with an excellent lineup of new games.

Our first highlight is the keenly anticipated console release of CrossCode, the genre-blending RPG from Radical Fish Games. The game was a hit on its PC, winning plaudits for its story and careful mix of action RPG mechanics and Zelda-like adventuring. We expect it to pick up even more fans on console.

We’re just as excited to play Superliminal, the perspective-bending first-person puzzle game from Pillow Castle. We’re all familiar with Portal-esqe lab rat games, but Superliminal breaks out of the format with a compelling jaunt through a series of optical illusion-based conundrums.

Koji Igarashi also returns with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. It’s another sword-and-whip adventure that combines modern exploratory platforming antics with a classy 8-bit aesthetic.

Finally, F1 2020 is this year’s instalment in Codemasters’ peerless racing simulation series. A wealth of updates under the hood and on the road will likely keep it ahead of the competition. If you’re looking for something a little more straightforward (or slightly curved) check out NASCAR Heat 5.

Each new release can be purchased from the Xbox One digital games store or the Microsoft online store.

New Xbox One releases: July 6-10, 2020

Monday, July 6, 2020

• No releases

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

• NASCAR Heat 5
• Lanternium
• Superliminal

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

• Robozarro

Thursday, July 9, 2020

• CrossCode

Friday, July 10, 2020

• Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
• Distraint 2
• F1 2020
• The Great Perhaps
• Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris
• Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire
• Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris

If none of these titles get you excited, read about some of this week’s big Xbox One game discounts.

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Explore strange new worlds, photograph strange new species, help determine if they should be ground up for their… mineral content? We don’t remember that bit in Starfleet First Contact training.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of a new Pokémon Snap game comes Cellular Harvest, a game that is very much like Pokémon Snap in a lot of ways. But also, different. Very, very different.

Where Pokémon Snap has you photographing critters mostly for the sheer joy of it, Cellular Harvest has a different agenda. You’re still trying to catalogue everything you find, but here, the motivations are–

They’re less twee, shall we say.

Night crowd–I released a new game today!

Cellular Harvest, a shortform photography game.
– Catalog creatures of a new planet
– ~vibe~
– Realize your corporate overlords are gonna steal the creatures' spines
– oh no

Trailer:https://t.co/c8T00vzDS6
Game:https://t.co/kNOswoEjqZ

— Xalavier Nelson Jr. @ Werewolf Bar Mitzvah (@WritNelson) July 1, 2020

From indie developer Redact Games and writer/developer Xalavier Nelson – whose other projects include Can Androids Pray, Hypnospace Outlaw, Skatebird, Mr Bucket Told Me To, and An Airport For Dogs Currently Run By Aliens – Cellular Harvest launched on Itch.io today.

You play as an auditor, sent to a far-flung planet with your camera to catalogue the lifeforms you find. An AI will analyse your discoveries to determine their composition and, thus, their value to your corporate overlords for their component parts. Whether you should be doing this? That’s a question for your conscience. (But it is a brilliant idea.)

In true Pokémon tradition, Cellular Harvest comes in two coloured variants: Cellular Harvest: Green and Cellular Harvest: Purple. You can buy either one for $6.99 US, or buy them both together in the Cellular Harvest: Complete edition, which also costs $6.99. Well, that’s an easier decision than whether you want Pokémon Sword or Shield.

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Nintendo Switch owners can look forward to a free content update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a brand new Tetris 99 event.

The first of two summer updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now live. Update 1.3 adds the ability to swim and dive in the ocean plus a new range of creatures and Critterpedia entries to discover. Pascal the red otter also returns with a selection of mermaid DIY recipes to obtain, and errant seagull Gulliver gets a pirate makeover.

Once the game has updated, Isabelle will inform you that the ocean surrounding your island has been deemed safe for swimming. All you need to do is buy a swimsuit from Nook’s Cranny or Nook Shopping, and you can dive right in. Nintendo will also post a free snorkel to your home.

Also starting today is the latest Maximux Cup/Grand Prix event for online puzzle game, Tetris 99. This time it’s a celebration of Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. The event begins at 12 am PT / 3 am ET today and runs until 11:59 am PT on July 6, 2020.

If you amass 100 points in Tetris 99 mode during the event, you’ll receive a dishy Xenoblade Chronicles theme starring Shulk and featuring a medley of tracks from the game’s glorious soundtrack.

Tetris 99 Event Placement Points

• 1st – 100
• 2nd – 50
• 3rd – 30
• 4th-10th – 20
• 11th-30th – 15
• 31st-50th – 10
• 51st-90th – 5
• 91st-99th – 1

To compete online in Tetris 99 you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Plans start at around four bucks a month, with seven-day free trials available to new subscribers.

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Break out grandma’s vinyl and put on your blue jumpsuit: There’s a Fallout TV series on the way.

After the success of Henry Cavill as The Witcher, in the Netflix series of the same name, it seemed almost inevitable that more TV adaptions of video games would be on the way. The next one to break cover was The Last of Us, in production between Sony and HBO and with Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin joining Neil Druckmann on writing and production duties.

Halo and Resident Evil series are also reportedly in the works, while rumours point to a raft of series from Ubisoft, including Skull & Bones – that one might release before the game – and Watch Dogs.

And now we have a new contender, popping its head out of the vault and into the light for the first time:

#PleaseStandBy. @AmazonStudios #KilterFilms pic.twitter.com/7YmLZKIPAe

— Fallout (@Fallout) July 2, 2020

What do we know about the Fallout TV series so far? Not much.

It’s being run as a joint concern between Bethesda, Amazon Studios, and Kilter Films. That tells us the show will no doubt run on Amazon’s Prime video-on-demand service. (And to be fair, the mega-corporation did make an excellent job of the similarly alternate history Philip K Dick story, The Man in the High Castle, so that’s promising.)

But it’s the involvement of Kilter Films in the Fallout TV series that’s most notable. You may not recognise the production company’s name, but you’ve likely seen their work: most notably on HBO’s Westworld and with Bad Robot and Warner Bros. on Person of Interest.

“Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time. Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re incredibly excited to partner with Todd Howard and the rest of the brilliant lunatics at Bethesda to bring this massive, subversive, and darkly funny universe to life with Amazon Studios,” said Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan of Kilter Films, writers and showrunners of Westworld, in a press release on Bethesda’s website.

And that’s it. That’s really all we know about the Fallout TV series for now. But it’s exciting, isn’t it? Please stand by for further information.

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The Summer Games Fest Demo Event will bring more than 60 games to Xbox One later this month.

The Summer Games Fest has, in some respects, been a bit of a snooze fest, but here’s a big announcement we can get behind. More than 60 games will get free playable demos on Xbox One between July 21 to July 27, 2020.

Similar to recent initiatives on Steam, the Summer Games Fest Demo Event will give every Xbox One owner the chance to experience some of the games we’d normally expect to play at the likes of E3, PAX, or The Mix. The demos will only be available for a week, so it might be an idea to clear some space in your diary now.

It’s worth noting that these experiences will not be like the traditional game demos we often get on console. As the Xbox team notes in its announcement, they are very much work-in-progress titles, rather pre-launch promos.

For those interested in game development, it will be fascinating to play these games at such an early stage and see how they evolve into a finished product. We’re sure that polite, considered feedback will also be welcomed by the studios involved.

More than 60 games are included at launch, with around 75 and 100 expected to be available in total. Look out for the Summer Game Fest Demo tile on the Xbox One dashboard.

The full lineup has yet to be confirmed, but here’s a teaser of the games we can expect.

Xbox Summer Game Fest Titles

• Cris Tales
• Destroy All Humans!
• Haven
• Hellpoint
• Skatebird
• The Vale: Shadow of the Crown
• Raji: An Ancient Epic
• Welcome to Elk

That’s already an impressive selection of games. Bravo to Microsoft, Geoff Keighley, and the studios involved, for coming together and bring their games to the masses.

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