I should stress, of course, that if you don’t own a Xbox One or an Xbox One X at the moment, then the extra benefits you get by opting for the Ultimate tier of Microsoft’s gaming subscription service, such as access to the console Game Pass library and free Xbox Live for playing online, are pretty much null and void. Instead, you’re much better off signing up for the PC only side of things, which you can still get for just £1 / $1 for your first month, which then rises to £4 / $5 a month thereafter. Normally, one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate would cost you $15 a month, so getting three for $23 is a pretty good deal. Plus, you can buy as many as you like and bank them for later, too, making this a great way to bump up your membership on the cheap. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, for those that don’t know, is Microsoft’s answer to “Netflix for games”. You pay a flat monthly fee and then get unlimited access to a smorgasbord of games for as long as you keep paying. While games do come and go from the service, the big hitters tend to be from Microsoft-owned studios, and it’s a great way to gobble up games like Gears Tactics, Minecraft Dungeons, Ori And The Will Of The Wisps, The Outer Worlds, Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3, Halo, Forza Horizon 4 and Gears 5 without shelling out for them at full price. As an Xbox and PC owner, I’ve got plenty of value out of it personally, having recently worked my way through A Plague Tale: Innocence and Streets of Rage 4. Next up, for me, is Metro Exodus – unless Dead Cells, Hollow Knight or Night Call grabs me first. That’s the one problem with Game Pass Ultimate: too much damned choice.
