This is a good week for strategy game fans subscribed to Xbox Game Pass because November’s first new additions to the service all fall within that genre. Two of them are real-time strategy game classics from Blizzard Entertainment, and the other is a strategic take on an arcade classic. If you’re playing on a console, these additions may not mean as much to you, but for Game Pass subscribers with access to a PC, these recently added strategy game games are well worth your time.
The original StarCraft is a monumental release for Blizzard Entertainment. It gave the studio a third pillar franchise alongside Warcraft and Diablo, was one of the first major esports games, and set a standard that most RTS games after it have tried to follow. In 2017, Blizzard released StarCraft: Remastered, updating the classics’ visuals, audio, and online features; that’s the version of StarCraft that has come to Xbox Game Pass. While there are more approachable RTS games nowadays, PC gamers should check out the original StarCraft if they’ve never played it before to better understand the foundational building blocks of the RTS genre.
StarCraft: Remastered is available on PC with a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
Metal Slug is one of SNK’s classic arcade series and is known for its bombastic run-and-gun action. Metal Slug Tactics transforms this concept from an action-platformer to a turn-based strategy game, which works surprisingly well. While most grid-based strategy games have players navigating units between cover or staying in the same, advantageous place, Metal Slug Tactics encourages players to keep moving their units around to set up synchronous attacks or accrue the resources needed for more powerful abilities. It’s a clever reimagining of an arcade classic and a no-brainer for strategy game fans with Xbox Game Pass subscribers to download.
The PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions of Metal Slug Tactics are now available with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. It’s also on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.
StarCraft II is the greatest RTS game of all time. It nailed the fundamentals and proper game feel of what makes RTS games work so well, and it has a high skill ceiling for competitive play. Although its multiplayer mode is free, its campaigns and co-op modes released throughout the years are equally compelling. StarCraft II: Campaign Collection is now on Xbox Game Pass, and with it, you can check out all of the content from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops. Needless to say, this is an amazing get for PC Game Pass subscribers.
StarCraft II: Campaign Collection is available on PC with a Game Pass subscription.
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.