Xbox One gift guide: Choose between single games or Xbox Game Pass
What’s the better gift: a full game forever or access to Xbox Game Pass? Image: courtesy of Microsoft Xbox via AFP Relaxnews
One of the year’s best games, Xbox console platform exclusive “Gears 5”, is included as part of Xbox’s subscription scheme, Xbox Game Pass. So what’s the better gift, a full game or several months’ access to the service?
Released in September 2019, “Gears 5” serves as partial reinvention to the sci-fi shooter franchise and, for console players, it’s exclusive to the Xbox One line.
It’s available to buy for $59 (P3,000) on Xbox One or PC, and then keep forever.
At the same time, it’s also included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription scheme.
That’s $9.99 (P500) per month on Xbox One, currently $4.99 (around P250) per month on Windows 10 PCs, or both together, plus online multiplayer for Xbox One (it’s free on PC), at $44.99 (around P2,300) for three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
However, under Xbox Game Pass, “Gears 5” is only available as long as the player has an active membership — $120 to $180 (about P6,000 to P9,000) per year outside of discount offers.
So before buying a game for an Xbox One owner, it’s worth finding out if they have, and plan on continuing to have, an active Xbox Game Pass subscription.
Xbox Game Pass currently includes over 240 games on Xbox One (160 on Windows 10 PC). Numbered among them are 2019 releases such as sci-fi jaunt “The Outer Worlds”, action games “Remnant: From the Ashes” and “Rage 2”, adventures “Afterparty” and “Unavowed”, as well as console versions of farming and village sim “My Time at Portia” and cross-continental story collector “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine”.
There are also a selection of well-rated console exclusives — that is, not or not yet available on Nintendo or PlayStation — such as “Outer Wilds”, “Operencia: The Stolen Sun”, “Void Bastards” and “Hello Neighbor” sequel “Secret Neighbor”, and the ongoing updates to pirate crew multiplayer “Sea of Thieves”.
However, there are a ton of top-rated and top-selling releases that haven’t been added to Xbox Game Pass.
Look to historical strategy “Sid Meier’s Civilization VI”, survival horror “Resident Evil 2”, paranormal government agency mission “Control” and racers “Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled”, “F1 2019” and “Dirt Rally 2.0” for examples.
Then there’s “Monster Hunter World: Iceborne”, the 2019 expansion to Xbox Game Pass title “Monster Hunter World” (get the digital add-on for Xbox Game Pass users instead of the complete retail disc); bear in mind that the “Forza Horizon” and “Forza Motorsport” games are part of XGP and may nullify the appeal of other racing titles to some extent.
Finally, some of the year’s bestsellers remain outside of Xbox Game Pass: shooters “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”, “Borderlands 3”, and “The Division 2”, sports titles “NBA 2K20”, “Madden NFL 20”, “NHL 20”, and “FIFA 20”, one-on-one fighter “Mortal Kombat 1” and Disney crossover adventure “Kingdom Hearts III”. IB/JB
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