20 PLN monthly best. Xbox GamePass PC has restored the joy of playing games

I pay more subscriptions per month than I am willing to admit in public. However, none recently gives me as much joy as the PLN 18.99 Xbox GamePass PC monthly.

Unlike most of my editorial colleagues, I don't have a console. Although I planned to buy one (and maybe eventually I will crack and buy a Nintendo Switch to grow peaches in Animal Crossing with my friends), I still play mainly on the PC.

The decision is a result of pure economic calculation and brutal force of habit. After spending all of your adult life with a mouse and keyboard, it's difficult to get used to the rain. With an extensive library of games and an even richer pile of shame on the PC, it's hard to justify the purchase of a console, to which I would additionally have to buy a TV.

Until last year, however, I envied the console of one service: Xbox GamePass. Microsoft's subscription for console games is so rich, so cheap compared to buying games that you can't deny.

Therefore, as soon as Microsoft released the Xbox GamePass for PCs , I immediately took out a credit card from the wallet and launched a subscription. And despite the fact that the PC currently has no shortage of subscriptions (even from EA or Ubisoft), and Epic Games is giving away free games every week, for several months I've been playing almost exclusively with GamesPass games. And I am delighted.

The Xbox GamePass PC has few weak points.

I can talk about Microsoft's subscription for games in superlatives. First of all: it's cheap as a borscht. I pay PLN 18.99 a month for it, and the first three months cost me a symbolic dollar. This promotion has moreover returned , so if anyone would like to test the Xbox GamePass PC now - you can do it for three months, paying just PLN 4.

I will say more - even when the Xbox GamePass PC equals the price with its console counterpart and will cost PLN 40, I will pay for it with a smile. Because when I calculate the annual expenditure on the subscription, it turns out that I pay Microsoft about the same as 2-3 new games cost. In return, I get access to more productions than I can dodge my whole life.

The biggest advantage of GamePass, which I really appreciate as an almost thirty-year-old, who has less and less time to play, is the possibility of stress-free testing of every game in the library. I download the game, I play a few minutes, if it pleases: it stays. If not: I remove and look for a new one without regret. Life is too short for poor games.

If I practiced a similar approach in the case of games bought on my own, I would quickly run out of funds for further fun.

And yes, sure, we can buy cheap PC games at cheap sales and promotions. Still, GamePass is a more cost-effective option. In addition, by paying for a subscription on the march we get a discount for the purchase of games in the Microsoft store. If we like a game so much that we want to own it, thanks to the subscription we will buy it cheaper.

In fact, from the perspective of a few months with the Microsoft service I can only attach to two things.

The first is the Xbox GamePass PC (Beta) application, which clearly has a problem leaving the Beta stage. It happens to hang regularly (not while playing, but while browsing the library) and I have often encountered an interface that is not fully translated.

The application is also poor in functions and develops very slowly. Functionally and visually, almost nothing has changed here since the start of the service.

The second drawback is the relatively slow growth of the library. When GamePass was launched last June, there were 100 items in the library. Today there are 192 games and unfortunately many productions do not coincide with the GamePass subscription for the Xbox (of course, we are talking about multiplatform games).

This does not mean, however, that there is nothing to play in Xbox GamePass PC.

Because it is. 192 games on paper sound not very impressive, but in practice it is almost an endless sea of ​​production. At first, I was surprised by the existence of the "draw" of the game in the GamePass application on the PC. Over time, however, I realized that this is a very interesting way to choose something from a cavernous library, when we have no idea what to play.

You can view the full list of games available in the subscription at this link .

Hardcore players will probably not be very impressed with GamePass content. However, someone who plays games mainly on weekends will certainly find something for everyone, regardless of the preferred category.

GamePass for PC contains great productions in every genre. From the fabulous Super Lucky's Tale, through the touching (and damn difficult!) Ori and The Will of The Wisps, to new Gearsy, Forza Horizon 4 or a classic such as Age of Empires.

It has not happened to me that I have started GamePass and shut it down thinking "there is nothing to play". Whenever I launch the application, I discover something new and reach for productions that I would probably not have touched with a stick (this is how I came across the brilliant Steamworld: Dig 2 and the psychotic Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice).

Everyone will find something for themselves at GamePass. There are big games and small games. Long-tailed role-playing game and short turkeys. Fairy-tale platformers and bloody horror movies. There is no Fifa, but personally I think it is no loss ...

Yes, as in other streaming platforms, games also appear and disappear here. I regret, for example, that I did not manage to outrun Vampyra and Shenmue I&II when they were still available. But I got to try Yakuza 0 and Overcooked! 2, not to mention the remaining 190 games in the subscription.

Thanks to the subscription to games I play more.

I admit with pain that I have played little in recent years. While in my student years I went through at least 2-3 games a month, now good results are 2-3 new games a year (+ occasional gameplay in old, long-played productions, which I like to return to).

Thanks to GamePass on the PC, I discover more new or relatively new games than ever before. I don't have to wonder whether to reach for a long-played title or spend a mountain of money on something new - I just turn on the application and play what I want.

And for one reason alone, I think the Microsoft subscription is worth every zloty. Ultimately ... so what if in "free sale" we have access to practical vastness of games, if we do not reach for any? What do I need from Steam's vast resources if I don't buy anything there?

GamePass for PC can and does have a relatively small library. But thanks to the fact that it is always available, you do not need to argue over whether to buy a game X or Y. You can simply play.

20 PLN monthly best. Xbox GamePass PC has restored the joy of playing games