No more new games are coming to Xbox Game Pass for the rest of 2024. In fact, the service is going to lose some games at the end of the month. All of the games leaving the service on December 31 are very entertaining, and the lineup encompasses wacky racing games, hardcore strategy games about the history of humanity, and goofy fighting games where players control cute animals. These games are worth checking out this weekend as they’re leaving Microsoft’s gaming subscription service very soon.
Racing games are some of the most approachable ones out there, so it makes sense that the genre would be a perfect fit for a Lego game. Visual Concepts and 2K went a step further than they had to with Lego 2K Drive, though, adding large open areas full of missions and minigames to experience. Lego 2K Drive is a light and breezy arcade-like racer that doesn’t ask too much from players unless they want to spend a lot of time building vehicles piece by piece. After this game leaves the service at the end of the month, Forza Horizon 5 will be your only option when it comes to open-world racing games on Xbox Game Pass.
Lego 2K Drive leaves Xbox Game Pass across PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 31. It’s also on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
In the gap between Sid Meier’s Civilization VI and VII, some competitors emerged. One such title was Amplitude Studios and Sega’s Humankind, a 4X strategy game where players guide humanity throughout history. This game stood out by allowing players to change what civilization they were controlling at the start of each year, a feature that Civilization VII is copying. If you want to get comfortable with how that works in a 4X strategy game, I recommend checking out Humankind. Thankfully, even once it leaves the service, Ara: History Untold remains on PC Game Pass as an alternative.
The PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions of Humankind leave Xbox Game Pass on December 31. It’s also on PS4 and PS5.
Finally, Party Animals will be leaving Microsoft’s subscription service at the end of this month. Party Animals is a cartoonish 3D fighting game similar to Gang Beasts. The main difference is that in Party Animals, players are controlling cute animals as they flop around and hit and throw each other. It’s a hilarious game to play with others and could potentially be a good title to pull out during the holidays when you’re visiting with friends and family. Unfortunately, you will no longer be able to do that via Xbox Game Pass when the new year rolls around.
The PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions of Party Animals leave Xbox Game Pass on December 31.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.