Ultimate Chicken Horse follows on July 3rd, while Neon Giant’s The Ascent returns to the service on July 8th for all three tiers and Minami Lane debuts on July 9th. On July 11th, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 will be available for cloud, console and PC on PC Game Pass/Ultimate. It will also be available for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch for $49.99 (with its Switch 2 price yet to be confirmed).

High on Life rounds out the first wave, also making its return for all three tiers and platforms on July 15th. Several titles will be leaving the service on the same day, but subscribers can purchase them for 20 percent off.

• Flock (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mafia Definitive Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Magical Delicacy (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Tchia (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Callisto Protocol (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Back 4 Blood

Turtle Rock Studios’ Back 4 Blood is a glorious tribute to Valve’s Left 4 Dead series, and while it definitely has a few flaws – that doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a really fun time with friends. There are plenty of enemy types and the encounters do a good job of mixing things up on a consistent basis, which makes it a consistently enjoyable experience that’s even better with friends. 

For PS4 players, there’s Circus Electrique, Dynasty Warriors 9, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, Monster Jam Steel Titans, Samurai Warriors 5, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and Undertale. PS Plus Premium players gain access to three new Classics, starting with Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2 on the PlayStation One.

Gravity Crash Portable on the PlayStation Portable is also playable. All three titles are available for PS4 and PS5. PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers can also download titles from the Essential tier, like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered and Endling – Extinction is Forever. These are available till July 31st, so claim them now.

TORMENTED SOULS

For fans of classic survival horror games, Tormented Souls is almost a must-play experience. While the genre is thriving right now, Tormented Souls is one of few games that delivers that classic fixed camera experience that old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill games used to be known for, and it does it to great effect. It’s a little rough around the edges, admittedly, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons here.

Arcade Berg, creative director and studio co-founder said, “A million thanks to all our players for visiting Veles. We’re excited and thankful to you, our team and our partners for making this possible.”

John Clark, Curve Games CEO, said, “We’re delighted to celebrate this incredible milestone with Arcade, Tor and the team at Neon Giant. The team has continued to release great new content, building on the game’s growing fanbase, and I’m sure there will be more good news to announce soon.”

The Ascent takes place in the world of Veles within a cyberpunk arcology. As part of The Ascent Group, you’re indentured for life, performing menial tasks until the group suddenly collapses. Rival gangs and corporations are looking to move in, and it’s up to you and the arcology’s residents to stop them.

Check out our review for the base game here. The Ascent is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC and has received a new story DLC, Cyber Heist, which adds new missions, weapons, enemies, and more. As for the future, Neon Giant was acquired by Krafton last year and is working on a new open-world first-person shooter. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Halo Infinite

For all the reports of its reduced scale and performance issues on PC at launch, the Slipspace Engine did deliver on the promise of a somewhat-open world in Halo Infinite. Environments were lush with sharp textures and vibrant lighting and shadows, while the effects were on point. It achieved all this while still running at 4K/60 FPS on Xbox Series X, which is still an impressive feat.

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Korean-based publisher Krafton is one of the biggest names in gaming right now, and though the vast majority of that is down to PUBG and its offshoots, the company has other irons in the fire as well, some of which have certainly caught the eye. The most prominent, of course, is upcoming survival horror title The Callisto Protocol– and unsurprisingly, it seems that the company has plans to keep that momentum going.

Part of that will seemingly come through acquisitions. As reported by GamesIndustry, Krafton announced in its recently released quarterly fiscal results that it intends to acquire Swedish indie developer Neon Giant, along with opening a new studio of its own in Canada. There’s no word on how far along the process of said acquisition is, but the company has, at the very least, made those plans abundantly clear.

Neon Giant, which comprises of just 11 people, is the studio behind 2021’s cyberpunk action RPG The Ascent, which received plenty of praise upon launch and became publisher Curve Digital’s most successful ever launch, with $5 million accumulated from sales in its first weekend. You can read our review of The Ascent through here.

Set after the main story, the DLC sees Kira offering the player a new job. It involves exploring a new arcology run by the Malhorst-Gelb Group. In addition to new main missions, there are also tougher side missions and new characters like Ontario and Zell to meet.

Of course, you’ll need to complete the base game’s campaign in order to access Cyber Heist. The good news is that it can be tackled with friends, even if they haven’t completed the main campaign, as long as the host has done so.

Head here for Microsoft platform-specific patch notes; here for Steam notes; and here for PlayStation-specific notes. You can also check out our review for The Ascent here.

The Cyber Heist DLC is looking like it’s going to be a meaty one for The Ascent. Set after the events of the base game (so you’ll need to have finished The Ascent), your former employer Kira will hire you for a top-secret job that’ll send to to an unfamiliar arcology owned by the Malhorst-Gelb Group.

The DLC will bring new locations for players to explore and discover, many new missions and side missions that will be playable solo and co-op (just like the base game), and a number of new weapons, including advanced melee weapons, which is a first for the game.

Cyber Heist will launch on August 18 and will be available for $9.99. Meanwhile, publisher Curve Games is also releasing a Cyber Edition of The Ascent, which includes the base game, the Cyber Heist expansion, and the CyberSec and Cyber Warrior DLC packs. It’ll retail for $44.99.

The Ascent is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, and PS4. Read our review of the base game through here.

“We’re humbled by the support and love we’ve had since launch,” said the studio on Twitter. “Thank you to our awesome community for sticking with us and for playing a game!”

“Gear up for an all new contract,” says the ominous text in the short teaser video on Twitter.

The Ascent is an action RPG set in a cyberpunk world. Players can take on contracts as they fight their way through seedy underbellies and take on megacorps.

Originally released on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, The Ascent finally made its way on to PS4 and PS5 earlier this year. The Ascent also got a hefty update earlier this year, adding New Game Plus to the game.

With the release of New Game Plus earlier in the year, Neon Giant has fulfilled its original roadmap for the game, and the new expansion the studio just teased will likely lay the groundwork for more content down the line.

https://twitter.com/AscentTheGame/status/1553047968428818435