FIFA 22 and a PC phenomenon emerge from the tunnel onto Game Pass today

It was a matter of time before FIFA 22 arrived on Game Pass via Microsoft’s collaboration with EA Play, and so it has proven with its launch today on PC, Console and Cloud. More of a surprise is the arrival of Naraka Bladepoint (Console), which has been doing the business on PC, where it has quietly become a mainstay of the Steam Top 20 Most Played. This might be one to dip a katana into. 

You know what you’re getting with FIFA 22. Enjoy it while it has that name, of course, as we will soon be calling it EA Sports Kickball, or whatever they plan to slap across its little green box. The Mbappe-fronted FIFA 2022 was a hit with our reviewers, as it managed to sidestep the usual chant of “you’re just a glorified DLC pack”. 

We gave it a 4/5, saying “with the inclusion of HyperMotion technology, FIFA 22 on Xbox Series X|S is in the best shape it has been for years. HyperMotion may sound very buzz-wordy – and it is – but it also fundamentally changes the action on the pitch into something very much resembling real-life football”. Timed well with the demise of PES, we think you’ll agree.

Newer, so deserving of slightly more description, is Naraka Bladepoint. If you’ve ever played a Dynasty Warriors or Ninja Gaiden and wished that someone would make a massively multiplayer version of it, then Naraka Bladepoint might be worth a download. Impressively, this is a sixty player PVP game, which can only be a chaotic mess, right? But the emphasis is on melee combat, martial arts to be more specific, which is not something we’re necessarily exposed to in our multiplayer deathmatches or battle royales. This one could have an unusual flavour. 

To keep things ticking over, it comes packed with gravity-defying mobility, vast arsenals of melee and ranged weapons, customisable heroes with epic abilities, and a setting inspired by the legends of the Far East. It’s also one of those ‘live service’ games, so expect plenty of things to purchase and a battlepass to chew through, should you want to invest.

Thanks to its performance on PC and the legions of followers it has, we’re eager to play this one, and will return to you with a review once we’ve skewered a few more enemies. 

There is wind of a few removals from the Game Pass service too, so get playing these games before they abscond on the 30th of June: Jurassic World Evolution, Last Stop, MotoGP 20, EA Sports FIFA 20.

So, are you more HyperMotion or samurai? Let us know in the comments or on our social channels.