Those that are already available are Her Story (PC), Jurassic World Evolution 2 (cloud, console, and PC),  Little Witch in the Woods (console and PC, part of Xbox Game Preview Program), Skate (Cloud, through EA Play), and Umurangi Generation Special Edition (cloud, console, and PC).

Games that are yet to be added include Farming Simulator 22 (May 19 – cloud, console, and PC), Vampire Survivors (May 19 – PC), Floppy Knights (May 24- cloud, console, and PC), Hardspace: Shipbreaker (May 24 – PC), Sniper Elite 5 (May 26 – PC, console), Cricket 22 (May 27 – PC), and Pacman: Museum+ (May 24- cloud, console, and PC).

In related news, Xbox Game Pass’ rumoured Family Plan is also supposedly set to release sometime in Fall 2022- read more on that through here.

For the sports enthusiasts out there, MLB The Show 22 and Cricket 22 are both available on Game Pass for console and cloud starting today. Starting April 7, cloud users will be able to play Dragon Age 2, Star Wars Squadrons, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare via EA Play. The same day will also see the launch of Chinatown Detective Agency, a cybernoir point and click adventure, for Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud.

April 12 is also going to see some activity, with the addition of Life is Strange: True Colors (console, cloud, and PC), strategy title Panzer Corps 2 (PC only), and tactical RPG The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (already available on console and cloud, coming to PC).

Finally, on April 14, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get access to Lost in Random on PC, cloud, and console via EA Play.

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Microsoft has yet to announce the latest titles coming to Xbox Game Pass this month. However, noted Game Pass and PlayStation Plus leaker BillBill-Kun has revealed the first wave of titles on Dealabs (translation via DeepL) and they’re fairly impressive. Deck Nine’s Life is Strange: True Colors is reportedly coming and will be available for cloud, consoles and PC.

Zoink’s Lost in Random is also apparently coming to the service via cloud and console along with releasing on PC via EA Play. Previously confirmed Game Pass titles for the month include MLB The Show 22, which is out today for consoles and cloud, and Chinatown Detective Agency, which releases on April 7th for cloud, consoles and PC. Cricket 22 will reportedly join PC Game Pass starting today while Panzer Corps 2 is seemingly coming at a later date.

Existing titles on the service are also apparently coming to other platforms like The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos being available on PC Game Pass. Star Wars Squadrons, Dragon Age 2 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare will also be available to play via the cloud. Take things with a grain of salt as usual but an official announcement should be coming soon.

Big Ant Studios has been shouldering the responsibility of making good Cricket games for a while now, and after have taken a couple of years off following Cricket 19, they’ve returned with Cricket 22, a game that promises major improvements to the series’ formula. Thankfully, for Cricket fans, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be found here- but for the most part, that’s down to the fact that there just aren’t a great many alternatives out there. Cricket 22 is a solid, enjoyable game, but it’s more than a little rough around the edges, and not nearly as much of a step up above its predecessor as many would have hoped for.

"Cricket 22 is a solid, enjoyable game, but it’s more than a little rough around the edges, and not nearly as much of a step up above its predecessor as many would have hoped for."

One of the biggest issues found in the game is also one of the ones that’s most instantly apparent- the production values just aren’t up to scratch, especially in terms of what you’d want to see in a sports game. Top-notch visual and audio design have long been core pillars of this genre, more so than many others, because that, after all, is where the pomp and style of a television broadcast of an actual match is conveyed most often. Cricket 22 falters in this area, just as much as its predecessor did. Player likenesses are, to be fair, pretty good (at least for the teams that come with official licenses), but everything else is… well, not.

Pitches and stadiums look bland and lacking in detail, with the crowds and distant background elements in particular looking rough and muddy. Audio design is lackluster, and the crowds don’t sound nearly as energetic as they should. Given the inherently slow pace of Cricket as a sport, you’re obviously not going to get the kind of stadium atmosphere in a Test match as you would, say, in the Manchester Derby in the Premier League, but even the T20 finals in this game feel and sound disappointingly tame. It doesn’t help that the commentary sounds completely dead, like they’re bored out of their mind and would rather be anyone else, whether it’s the cadence of their words you’re talking about, or even the fact that half the time, the stuff they say doesn’t make much sense within the context of the whole match. An over that’s gone for two boundaries doesn’t suddenly become a good one for the fielding team just because its last two deliveries were dot balls- but clearly, Cricket 22’s commentators, in all their wisdom, disagree.

But of course, you have to look at the big picture- Cricket doesn’t have as big of an audience in gaming as something like football does, and this game in particular has been made by a team that’s significantly smaller and has far fewer resources at its disposal than the likes of EA Sports or 2K. Cricket 22 was never going to be a hyper-polished game with best-in-class visuals and sound, and as long as you go in with your expectations in that department firmly in check, you won’t be too disappointed (or at least surprised). It is nonetheless disappointing, especially because Cricket 22 doesn’t seem to have made many meaningful improvements over Cricket 19 in this area.

"Cricket 22 was never going to be a hyper-polished game with best-in-class visuals and sound, and as long as you go in with your expectations in that department firmly in check, you won’t be too disappointed"

Thankfully, when it comes to the on-pitch action – which, after all, is what counts the most – Cricket 22 is a far better experience. Batting is far more fun than bowling, which has been a rule of thumb for the sport for as long as it has existed, and continues to be so in this game as well. There are two control schemes on offer, and while I personally enjoyed the arcade style far more, owing to its reliance on button presses and more direct control inputs, both of them are, by and large, implemented pretty well. Nailing the timing of your shots and picking your strikes carefully depending on what kind of delivery you’re facing and what field you’re batting against remains consistently enjoyable on a fundamental level. Whether or not you’ll be able to sit through an entire Test match is entirely down to you and how much patience (or love for the sport) you have, but for those who’re looking for bite-sized chunks of fun rather than longform play sessions, Cricket 22 has a robust enough mid-match simulation tool to help with that.

Bowling and fielding feel more uneven than batting for several reasons. Meanwhile, where the fielding is concerned, issues boil down largely to animations and the AI. Animations are jerky and imprecise, and the AI is wildly inconsistent. When you’re the fielding side, your players can often move at a snail’s pace, and waste precious seconds between picking up the ball and throwing it back to the pitch that could have been crucial in a potential run-out. Meanwhile, when you’re on the batting side, all too often you’ll find opposing fielders dropping the easiest of catches that even I wouldn’t miss (and let’s be honest, I’m not good at all), which can also take you out of the experience.

Meanwhile, another major pillar of the Cricket 22 experience is the Career mode- which is actually quite a lot of fun. As your career begins, you pick your general attributes, decide which club team you want to start your career in, and the take it from there. Rather than just being a collection of matches one after the other, Cricket 22’s career mode also peppers in things such as training sessions in the nets and sessions in the gym, the latter of which comes with fun little minigames and actual consequences on how much your attributes improve. You can also use rest days to rest in a variety of ways to relieve your fatigue, from going to the sauna to heading on a multi-day retreat. Performing well in matches and training, meanwhile, also sees you leveling up and improving various stats. It isn’t an awfully meaty and complex experience, and the cutscenes and voice acting are unsurprisingly bland, but it’s still an engaging and addictive experience that should especially suit the tastes of fans of the sport.

"Thankfully, when it comes to the on-pitch action – which, after all, is what counts the most – Cricket 22 is a far better experience."

Ultimately, there’s no getting around the fact that the reason for Cricket 22 being the best Cricket game in recent memory is that, well, there haven’t been an awful lot of those in several years. In an ideal world, this would be a far more polished and far more feature-rich game with better AI, better animations, and better production values in general. But it doesn’t seem like we’re going to get to that point anytime soon- so until then, I’ll gladly take Cricket 22 and what it has on offer. Because you know what? For now, this is good enough.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.