Game Pass Gets Vampire Survivors, One Of The Best Games Of The Year

Sony might have made a splash with its recently-detailed PS Plus revamp, but Game Pass continues to grow its library. The park-builder Jurassic World Evolution 2 is obviously a main draw and—bonus!—out today. Later this week, Game Pass will also get one of the best games of the year: Vampire Survivors. Here’s everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in the coming weeks:

May 17

Her Story (PC)

Jurassic World Evolution 2 (Cloud, Console, PC)

Little Witch in the Woods (Console, PC)

Skate, via EA Play (Cloud)

Umurangi Generation Special Edition (Cloud, Console, PC)

May 19

Farming Simulator 22 (Cloud, Console, PC)

Vampire Survivors (PC)

May 24

Floppy Knights (Cloud, Console, PC)

Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC)

May 26

Sniper Elite 5 (Console, PC)

May 27

Cricket 22 (PC)

Pac-Man Museum+ (Cloud, Console, PC)

Jurassic World Evolution 2—which, fun fact, was announced by Jeff Goldblum himself at last year’s Summer Game Fest—is the follow-up to one of the quietly-excellent planning games of 2018. Despite its many variables and room for creative designs, Jurassic World Evolution was a little clunky and lacked details. But the thrill of designing a park for freakin’ dinosaurs was unmatched. Fans say the sequel plays like a more robust, polished version of the first one. Vampire Survivors, meanwhile, is a can’t-miss top-down bullet hell with clear Castlevania inspiration. It is tough, but like the best roguelikes, you get better and better without even realizing it, until you eventually become unstoppable. Really hard to put down.

As ever, Game Pass can’t add without taking away. The following go away at the end of the month:

EA Sports NHL 20 (Console)

Farming Simulator 19 (Cloud, Console, PC)

Knockout City (Console, PC) EA Play

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Cloud, Console, PC)

SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest (PC)

Superhot: Mind Control Delete (Cloud, Console, PC)

Yes, Your Grace (Cloud, Console, PC)

Most curious here is the imminent departure of Knockout City, the dodgeball-themed competitive arena game that was played by a gazillion people and then instantly lost its steam. In February, developer Velan Studios announced it would take the Rocket League approach and make the game free-to-play. Velan also said it will start self-publishing the game, assuming responsibilities from EA, which has been the game’s publisher so far. Representatives for Velan Studios told Kotaku that character progression will carry over seamlessly, and anyone who played via Game Pass will get a handful of free cosmetics.

Update: 5/17/22 11:05 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from Velan Studios