After using Xbox GamePass Ultimate for a week, here are some of my second thoughts. There are tons of PC games to choose from, but installing comes with many issues. First, these games are huge downloads. Our family Comcast Xfinity plan has a monthly download limit of 1229GB. Trying out new games eats into that limit really quickly. (Even an RTS like Age of Empire IV was 86GB for Christ’s sake.)
Also, installing these new games made me realize how outdated my PC is. My Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti graphics card is from 2014; my AMD Ryzen 5 1400 CPU is from 2017. If I want to become a serious gamer again, upgrading my PC or buying a console might be necessary. For the time being, I’ll probably just stick to Cloud Gaming.
iOS support for Xbox GamePass was confusing. The app from the App Store didn’t show any options to stream, so I assumed it was a no go. It was later that I found that you had to go to xbox.com/play with Safari as opposed to installing an app. (I successfully tested the touchscreen controller mode with Lumines Remastered on my iPad.)
The dusty Xbox 360 controller I found in the garage worked for the most part, but I decided to upgrade. I took advantage of the $10 off from Costco and bought a $45 white Xbox Wireless Controller on Friday. The new controller is compatible with MacOS, allowing me to play games on the living room TV or on my iPad. It lacks certain features (aka gyro motion and USB charging) so it’s not that much different from the 360, but it does feel nicer in my palms.
