Vote Now for July 2023's TA Playlist Game

New games are always being added to the Xbox Game Pass service, so you can’t be expected to play them all, but these nominees for the July 2023 edition of the TA Playlist are certainly worth your time. Help us choose which of these Game Pass hits from the past year should be featured as next month’s winner!

The TA Playlist community has spent the month of June solving clues and cracking skulls throughout Gotham City in this month’s featured game, Batman: The Telltale Series, but now it’s time to take a quick break from crime-fighting and turn your attention to picking next month’s TA Playlist winner.

Xbox fans have gotten tons of big news over the last couple weeks, with the Xbox Showcase and Summer Game Fest both bringing out some big reveals to get us hyped for what’s coming over the next year. Alongside highly-anticipated games like Fable, Avowed, and of course Starfield, it’s also nice to get a glimpse at what we’ll be seeing added to Xbox Game Pass in the coming months. With five new games already confirmed for Xbox Game Pass in July, we thought now might be a good time to take a look back some of the other highly-rated games that have come to the service over the last year, before the new additions draw all your attention. So without further ado, here are July’s TA Playlist nominees!

Hi-Fi Rush

Up first is the surprise Game Pass sensation Hi-Fi Rush, which was shadow-dropped onto the service by developer Tango Gameworks and publisher Bethesda back in January.

Labeled “defective” after a shady corporate experiment mistakenly fuses a music player to his heart, wannabe rockstar Chai and his ragtag team of allies must fight for his freedom in a slick animated world where everything — platforming puzzles, enemy attacks and even the colorful gags and banter — are synced to the beat. Take on armies of corporate drones (read: actual robots) in satisfying, rhythm-amplified combat.

Hi-Fi Rush currently sits at a stellar community rating of 4.5/5.00 on TA. Over 120,000 tracked gamers have started the game so far, with just 272 fully completing all 61 of the game’s achievements, a feat estimated to take around 60-80 hours. That will all change on July 5, however, when the Arcade Challenge! Update is set to launch, adding two new game modes and several new exclamations points to the overall experience.

High on Life

Our second nominee for the month also has some new content on the way. High On Life, developed and published by Squanch Games, launched day one on Xbox Game Pass in December of last year, and while no date has been announced for the game’s first DLC expansion, this recent teaser trailer tells us that “High on Knife” is coming soon.

Fresh out of high school with no job and no ambition, you’ve really got nothing going for you until an alien cartel that wants to get high off humanity invades Earth. Now, you and a team of charismatic talking guns must answer the hero's call and become the deadliest intergalactic bounty hunter the cosmos has ever seen. Travel to a variety of biomes and locations across the cosmos, go up against the nefarious Garmantuous and his gang of goons, collect loot, meet unique characters, and more in this comedy adventure.

Despite a few glitched achievements at launch and a serious controversy surrounding studio founder Justin Roiland, High on Life still carries an impressive TA user rating of 4.07, with around 5,200 of the more than 272,000 tracked gamers who’ve started the game earning all 32 achievements. The base game is estimated to take around 20-25 hours for the full completion, although we don’t yet know how much time will be added with the High on Knife DLC when it arrives.

Pentiment

Pentiment is our third nominee for the month. Another day one Xbox Game Pass addition, this narrative-driven adventure game was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios in November 2022.

Walk in the footsteps of Andreas Maler, a master artist who finds himself in the middle of murders, scandals, and intrigue in 16th Century Europe. Choose different academic and social backgrounds and meet a colorful cast of characters as you discover the stories and secrets that lie within the small Bavarian town of Tassing and nearby Keirsau Abbey. In an era of great religious and political change, each decision you make can have a profound impact on the community’s future.

Pentiment released with great reviews, and it carries a superb 4.26/5.00 community rating on TA. Just under 24,000 tracked games have played it so far, with fewer than 800 unlocking all 41 of the game’s achievements. The full completion is estimated to take 20-25 hours, though the TA walkthrough can probably help you shave some time off that mark, and avoid missing any of the game’s 38 missable achievements as well.

Return to Monkey Island

Our final pick for the month is Return to Monkey Island, a new entry in the venerable Monkey Island Series with the original creator, Ron Gilbert, back at the helm. Developed by Terrible Toybox and published by Devolver Digital, this point-and-click adventure was another day one addition to Xbox Game Pass in November 2022.

It’s been many years since Guybrush Threepwood was last locked in a battle of wits with his nemesis, the zombie pirate LeChuck. His true love, Elaine Marley, has turned her focus away from governing and Guybrush himself is adrift and unfulfilled, having never found the Secret of Monkey Island. Banter with old friends and new faces on familiar islands now under dangerous new leadership. Then, take to the high seas and explore the new and unknown as you work your way out of tough predicaments. Clever puzzles, bizarre situations, and devastating ripostes are all that stand between Guybrush and glory.

Return to Monkey Island is another highly-rated game according to the TA user score of 4.11 out of 5.00. Of the 20,506 tracked gamers who’ve started it, around 5% (just under 1,000 users) have unlocked all 39 achievements, which is estimated to take 15-20 hours. A TA Return to Monkey Island walkthrough is available to help you navigate the choppy waters surrounding Monkey Island, including the elusive “Speed Runner” achievement for completing the game in under two hours.

You might have noticed that this isn’t the first time we’ve done a “Best of Game Pass” theme for the TA Playlist, but with new games coming in and out of the service all the time, it makes sense to revisit this theme every so often to scoop up all the new additions. That said, we’re always open to suggestions for games or themes to be featured, so if you’ve got any ideas please leave us a comment in the TA Playlist Game Suggestion Thread. Thanks to everyone who has already chimed in with some great ideas!

Thanks to BetaSigX20 for this news suggestion.

Which game should the community play for July 2023's TA Playlist?

Hi-Fi Rush
High On Life
Pentiment
Return to Monkey Island

TA Playlist