If you’re a fan of strategy or simulation video games, this will be a great Xbox Game Pass month for you. Its biggest day-one releases — Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, and Frostpunk 2 — are all strategy games, while games like Expeditions: A MudRunner Game and Riders Republic are keeping things interesting on the simulation front. If you’re looking for something to play this weekend, I’m highlighting a trio of games that provide entertaining sandboxes to play around in.
Age of Mythology: Retold
Following remakes of the three Age of Empires games and the launch of Age of Empires IV, World’s Edge gave the series’ fantasy spinoff some love. Age of Mythology: Retold is a real-time strategy game similar to the Age of Empires titles in many ways, as players are building up towns and fighting rival civilizations. The biggest twist Age of Mythology provides is the Major and Minor Gods players choose before playing, which give them additional abilities. This remake also gives the experience a graphical overhaul, lets players reuse god powers, and has well-implemented controller support. Whether you’re a fan of the original or never played it before, this is worth checking out. Age of Mythology: Retold is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S via Game Pass Ultimate.
Core Keeper
While the idea of a mining sandbox game isn’t a new concept, Core Keeper is one of the best the subgenre has to offer outside of Minecraft. There’s plenty to uncover in its massive underground cavern, and lots of systems work together to ensure that’s always something you can do to progress. It’s a lot of fun with friends, and its top-down perspective and farming systems add a Stardew Valley-like feel to the adventure. Core Keeper launched out of early access in August and is now available with Xbox Game Pass across PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It’s also on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PS5.
Riders Republic
Riders Republic is Ubisoft Annecy’s successor to Steep, and it focuses on extreme sports like biking, skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, and more. Riding and exploring its massive vistas and gameplay hubs is a lot of fun on its own, but there’s also a Career Mode to work through, a trick-based 6v6 multiplayer mode, and massive races that can support up to 64 players at a time. It’s the best modern extreme sports game on the market right now, so it’s worth checking out if you miss the genre’s glory days. The PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions of Riders Republic are available through Game Pass Ultimate. It’s also on PS4 and PS5.
