We covered the letter D last week, which means it’s now time to find the best Xbox Game Pass game beginning with E. Fortunately, selecting this one was a much easier task than in previous posts, due to the limited options. Whilst Game Pass has hundreds of titles, and you’re certainly spoiled for choice, it just so happens that E has considerably less games. There are a grand total of 8 games, and 4 of them are sports games.
Anyway, despite the lower number, I have a job to do, so let’s get into it!
The Contenders – Best Xbox Game Pass game beginning with E
Okeydokey! So before I share my winner with you all, let’s take a look at some of the options. As I briefly mentioned in the introduction, we have a fair few sports games in this category. Now, I’ll be honest, I’m not a sports game person, so I’ve not played any of the options. However, I feel pretty confident in recommending the EA Sports games if you like football, golf, or UFC. From what I’ve heard, FIFA is far superior to PES, so probably go with EA Sports FIFA 20 over eFootball PES 2021. Or don’t, like I said, I’m not the expert here.
If you enjoy space-related games, then you might consider Elite Dangerous. It has excellent reviews, and seems to be well-developed with high production value. It’s an online multiplayer game, but it seems to still be pretty popular, so you shouldn’t have any issues finding other players to interact with. There’s also online co-op if you want to get your friends involved.
Empire of Sin is a relatively new game, as it was only released in December 2020, but it got pretty bad reviews, so I’m going to skip right over this one. Instead, I’ll hype up Enter the Gungeon which is ever-popular with players. It’s a fast-paced, exciting dungeon crawler with guns, and is sure to challenge your skills. You can play by yourself, or with local co-op, so you can decide which way you prefer. It has a basic, arcade-like art style, without looking too outdated. It brings the nostalgia, without the ‘oh God, whyyyy?’ of classic graphics.
So, with just one game remaining, it’s time to declare the best Xbox Game Pass game beginning with E, and that is…
Eastshade
This is a delightfully unique game, and I feel it’s therefore worthy of the top spot. A lot of games put you right in the action. You’re there to save the world, or defeat baddies, or be a hero. But with Eastshade, you’re a humble travelling painter, and your goal is to spread some joy. You don’t try to take over the world, you just exist in it as an equal. There’s something really peaceful about that idea.
Eastshade is an open world exploration game, full of gorgeous settings, and fun characters. Your job is to traverse the landscape, and capture beautiful moments with your easel. You can gift those paintings to others, or capture specific moments as part of a side quest. There’s no combat or danger in this game, making it a really relaxing experience, perfect for just slowing life down.
There’s also a crafting element. You can find items and objects throughout the world, and use them to craft new things for your inventory. Primarily you’ll be focussing on creating new canvases to paint on, as that’s what the game is really about. There’s no shortage of crafting supplies, and you have endless opportunities to explore to find new items.
The painting mechanic is great, too. Firstly, you have to search out the perfect vantage point to take your snapshot. You can adjust the size of your canvas, and make sure that you’re selecting exactly the part of the picture that you want to capture. In many ways it’s similar to photography games, which have been popular lately. You have a lot of freedom to paint the pictures that you want to, and it’s exciting finding the exact places that you need to capture as part of a quest for an NPC.
Overall
Overall, the choices were a lot more limited this time around, but I’m happy with my choice for the best Xbox Game Pass game beginning with E. You can’t go wrong with Eastshade if you’re looking for a calm little break from the action. But when you’re ready to dive into the action again, then Enter the Gungeon is a solid second place.
How about you, do you agree with my choice for E? Join the discussion over in our Facebook community!
