

Departing are Besiege, Edge of Eternity, Skul: The Hero Slayer, The Last Kids on Earth and the Staff of Doom and Infernax on February 10th Total War: Warhammer III on February 17th Wreckfest on February 18th and Galactic Civilizations III on February 24th.

Unfortunately, while few games are being added, quite a number are leaving. We at least have the reassurance that Atomic Heart (TBD) will come on February 21st. The rest of the month is admittedly looking slight for Game Pass additions, but there’s a likely announcement of more games midway through the month. We can only imagine what the Hot Wheels community has dreamt up in that period. It has also had over a year’s worth of community-created tracks. Doch jetzt ist die Game of the Year-Edition von Hot Wheels Unleashed doch im Xbox Game Pass zu kriegen, wenn ihr eine Xbox Series X/S habt. Let’s not forget that Hot Wheels Unleashed has also had over a year to fix some of the more jarring bugs and gameplay quirks. Not bad for a simple Game Pass subscription. Let’s just admire that list, shall we? You get the base game, Hot Wheels Pass Volumes 1, 2 and 3, the Sportscars Pack (which includes the Track Manga and the GT-Scorcher), the Beefed Up Pack (which includes the Armoured Truck and Baja Bone Shaker) and the Street Beasts Pack (featuring the Shark Bite and the Tomb Up). Evidently, there isn’t a cap on how quickly your rival is supposed to catch up to you.Which is a neat little segue to all of the post-launch content that VERY much is included in today’s release. I thought it was hilarious when I found an exploitable shortcut on one track, which caused such an advantage that the other drivers had to catch up at ludicrous speed. It also makes the first two laps feel cheap. While I generally found it to not be terribly disruptive, the fact that a single mistake late in a track after a perfect performance can lose you the race is always annoying. There’s also rubber-band AI, and while I could write an essay on how much I hate this method of adaptive difficulty, this isn’t the place. It can take a few attempts to clear a mission, as mistakes happen. There are bumps that, if you hit them too fast, will send you off course, or curves that if you take too loosely will knock you over.

It starts becoming a game of precision driving and track memorization. Tracks start getting pretty complicated in the later game, and while you can change the AI difficulty, that’s not going to help you on the time trials. I’m pretty sure the Hot Wheels target market is split between kids and adult collectors these days, anyway. Don’t think the game is going to be easy because it’s based on a line of toys.
