Xbox has only received five new games so far this August, but three of them share a theme. The connective tissue between all of these additions is that they’re new versions of older classics. With collections for some bombastic first-person shooters and cartoony platformers, and a remake of a crime action game, Xbox Game Pass‘ classics catalog has just been fleshed out with some excellent titles that come easily recommended. If you’re looking for something to play on Microsoft’s subscription service this weekend, consider checking out one of these three games.
Mafia: Definitive Edition is a full-on remake of the 2002 mafioso crime action game Mafia. It’s a Grand Theft Auto alternative set in a fictional 1930s city based on Chicago that follows the Italian mob in control of the city at the time. While Mafia never reached the heights of GTA, all the games in that series are creative and interesting in distinct ways. When it comes to the first Mafia specifically, the city of Lost Haven is an intricately detailed setting and provides a solid backdrop for a mob story that fans of movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas will enjoy. A fourth Mafia game is in development too, so now is a good time to get a better idea of how the series started. Mafia: Definitive Edition is available to play across PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud Gaming via Game Pass Ultimate. It’s also available on PS4.
The first two Doom games need little introduction, as the hellish first-person shooters are responsible for putting the game genre on the map. This is the definitive release of those games. Doom + Doom II not only comes with previously remastered versions of those two titles but several additional episodes (including a new one called Legacy of Rust), remixed soundtracks by Andrew Hulshult, mod support, and 16-player online support for Deathmatch and co-op. If you’ve never played Doom or Doom II before, this just gave you the perfect reason to do so ahead of the release of Doom: The Dark Ages next year. Doom + Doom II is available across PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming through Game Pass Ultimate. It’s also on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
Earlier this month, another Activision Blizzard game came to Microsoft’s subscription service in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which was Vicarious Visions’ 2017 remasters of the first three Crash Bandicoot games. Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped are all classics, and Vicarious Visions did a great job refurbishing them so they look more vibrant than ever before. While it’s unknown if a new Crash Bandicoot is in the cards right now at Activision or Toys for Bob, which recently spun off independently from Microsoft, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy became a must-play addition to Xbox Game Pass the moment it was added. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is available through Game Pass Ultimate across PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. It’s also on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.