Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Outer Wilds hit Game Pass this week

Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Outer Wilds are part of a new batch of titles headed to PC and Xbox Game Pass this week.

Joining the Game Pass platform on cloud, PC, and console today are three popular indie titles; Gorogoa, Olija, and The Pedestrian; but the real heavy hitters are going live a couple of days from now on Thursday, January 6. Mass Effect Legendary Edition bundles together the single-player campaign and over 40 DLCs from the much-loved Mass Effect trilogy, and all three games have been remastered in 4K. GamesRadar's 4.5/5-star review heaped praise on the value-packed collection's ability to update the games for modern audiences without losing their charm.

"Mass Effect Legendary Edition strikes the difficult balance of appealing to both long-time lovers of the series and people who have never played a minute of it," wrote Alyssa Mercante. "The changes to Mass Effect 1 make it playable in a modern game world, while visual upgrades massage the eyes and lightning-fast load screens ease the wait throughout all three titles."

Outer Wilds, launched in 2019 to near-universal acclaim, is also hitting PC and Xbox Game Pass on Thursday. Mobius Digital and Annapurna Interactive's action-adventure title throws players into the space shoes of an unnamed astronaut trapped in a 22-minute time loop, which resets every time the solar system's mother star ends in a supernova explosion. We were surprised, and entirely delighted, by last year's Echoes of the Eye expansion, which is a decidedly more tense and stressful experience than the base game.

Here are the best games on Xbox Game Pass you can play right now, and check out these Game Pass deals if you aren't signed up.