Kicking off Xbox Game Pass titles for August 2022, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Wildlands joins the line-up and is available now on Cloud, Console, and PC. For the more tactical out there the very good Expeditions: Rome is coming to PC (our review here) and sim fans have the day one launch of Two Point Campus to look forward to.

Here's the breakdown.

Ghost Recon Wildlands (Cloud, Console, and PC) - Available Today

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Create a team with up to three friends to experience Ghost Recon Wildlands, the ultimate third-person military shooter set in a massive, dangerous, and responsive open world. The Ghosts, a US Special Forces team, are tasked to combat the Santa Blanca cartel and save Bolivia from collapse. You decide how to play, and every decision affects the world around you.

Shenzhen I/O (PC) ID@Xbox – August 4

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An open-ended programming puzzle game that challenges players to build circuits using a variety of components. Inspired by real-world electronics engineering, the game takes players on a journey to a near-future Shenzhen, the electronics manufacturing capital of the world.

Turbo Golf Racing (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) ID@Xbox – August 4

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Available on day one with Game Pass: Turbo Golf Racing is an arcade-style sports racing game for up to eight players online. Drive, boost, jump, flip, and fly your turbo-powered car. Slam into oversized golf balls. Race your friends in an explosive dash to the finish flag.

Two Point Campus (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 9

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Available on day one with Game Pass: Build the university of your dreams with Two Point Campus, the sim with a twist from the makers of Two Point Hospital. Build, hire staff, and run an academic institution packed with wild courses.

Cooking Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC) – August 11

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Play one of the best cooking games! Take control of a highly polished, realistic kitchen equipped with all kinds of utensils and stands. Unlock and master over 80 recipes or use dozens of lifelike ingredients to cook everything you like. A simulator spiced up with a dash of real-life physics!

Expeditions: Rome (PC) – August 11

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Determine the destiny of Rome as you conquer foreign lands and navigate political intrigue in this turn-based RPG. Directly fight with your party of Praetorians, guide your legion to victory, and choose your own path in a story where every decision matters. How will you shape the future of Rome?

Offworld Trading Company (PC) ID@Xbox – August 11

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Mars has been colonized. Now, Earth’s greatest corporate titans have been invited to build companies to support it. The competition to dominate the market is fierce in this fast-paced economic RTS.

And with that the following games are leaving the service on August 15 - Boyfriend Dungeon (Cloud, Console, and PC), Curse of the Dead Gods (Cloud, Console, and PC), Library of Ruina (Cloud, Console, and PC), Starmancer (Game Preview) (PC), and Train Sim World 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC).

Ubisoft continues its impressive run of post-launch content for its open-world games, with the recent content drop for Assassin's Creed Odyssey leading the way which is now being followed up with a new in-game event taking place in Ghost Recon Wildlands, homaging Ghost Recon Future Solider.

The content is free and features iconic characters Scott Mitchell and John Kozak from Ghost Recon Future Solider as part of Special Operation 3.

In this third major update of Year 2 content, players will be able to team up with Mitchell and Kozak for this free two-part special crossover event starting tomorrow, December 12, on all platforms.

Exclusive Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Future Soldier–themed content will be introduced to the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands main campaign and PvP mode, including two new Future Soldier–inspired Ghost War PvP classes and a PvE mission, Operation Silent Spade. In Operation Silent Spade, Ghost Leader Scott Mitchell calls on Nomad and his team to help rookie John Kozak investigate a plot that links the Santa Blanca Cartel to a nuclear threat. The special challenge is playable solo or with up to four players in co-op.

Upon completing Operation Silent Spade, players will be rewarded with the Optical Camo Backpack, perfect for a stealth approach. In addition to the rewards for completing the challenge, players can further customise and arm their Ghosts with the Silent Spade Pack, which include a weapon and new customisation items.

Special Operation 3 will also bring two new Ghost War PvP classes, Vanguard and Sharpshooter, inspired by Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Future Soldier characters. Vanguard uses sensor grenades to uncover and highlight hidden enemies in the area of effect to his team, while Sharpshooter charges his shots by using his Long Range Specialist ability, which at a full charge enables him to negate the effects of sway and bullet drop. In addition to two new classes, this update will also contain two new PvP maps, Lithium Mine and Outskirts.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands Year 2 Pass offers seven-day early access to the two new Ghost War classes starting December 12, along with one exclusive customisation pack. Non-owners of the Year 2 Pass will be able to access the new Ghost War classes starting December 19.

PC players wanting to share the experience with friends can gain Battle Crate rewards including Spec Ops and Ghost War Crates, via the PC Referral Program from December 12 - February 12, 2019. Invited friends who purchase the game will also receive Battle Crate rewards, including one Ghost War Crate and One Spec Ops Crate. The more friends players invite, the more rewards they will receive.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands Year 2 will continue to expand the Ghost Recon universe with free major Special Operation updates, each featuring a unique theme, updates to the PvE campaign with free special content and special challenges with exclusive rewards, community-requested features and updates for the Ghost War 4v4 PvP experience. The development team is committed to supporting the game with free new content and improvements to the core experience.

Watch a trailer detailing all of the above, embedded below.

As with comic books set in the same universe, it seems that the digital realm of Tom Clancy also follows the same rules. In that a free crossover mission is coming tomorrow to Ghost Recon Wildlands featuring Rainbow Six Siege Operators - Valkyrie, Twitch and Caveira.

The new PvE mission, called Operation Archangel, spans two-parts and will see the Ghosts team-up with Rainbow Six operators to track down Caveira - who's gone missing.



Players who complete the mission before August 14 will be rewarded with Rainbow Six Siege themed items - like Caveira's gloves, which adds her CQC move to reveal the positions of nearby enemies.

This all arrives as part of the new Special Operations 2 update for Ghost Recon Wildlands that also introduces the new permadeath PvE Ghost Mode.

A free Special Operations 2 update is coming to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands next week on July 24 and it introduces a new challenging PvE mode called Ghost Mode. Where if you're not revived it's game over and your progression is reset. Not only that but friendly fire is in plus only being able to carry one main weapon and a sidearm.

Here's a new video that goes through all the changes.



The new Ghost Mode will also offer exclusive rewards in addition to a new survival-style challenge.

Permadeath: If players are not revived when down, their game is over and progression is reset.

New Loadout: Players will only be able to use one main weapon and one handgun.

Real Reloading: When players reload with a partially full clip, remaining bullets will be lost.

Friendly Fire: Players’ shots and actions can cause damage to teammates.

Gear Management: Players can only switch weapons at ammo boxes or by looting enemies.

Teammate Removal: For a true solo experience, players can now choose to play without AI teammates (also available in the main campaign of the game).

Special Operation 2, as per the video breakdown will also feature a number of PvP changes including two new classes and two new maps. Plus updates to the competitive ranked side of the experience. The update comes as part of the Year 2 road map for Ghost Recon Wildlands.

With players helping Sam Fisher infiltrate a heavily guarded camp at night because it seems that someone in the Bolivian cartel has been stealing CIA secrets. The limited-time reward for completing the mission will net players their very own pair of Sam Fisher-grade night-vision goggles. Plus, more love for the bad-ass voice work of Michael Ironsides.



The Ghost Recon Wildlands presents Splinter Cell update is being labelled Special Operations I for the newly announced Year Two of content for the game. With four Special Operations planned, read more about that here.

The new content also comes alongside a free weekend taking place from April 12 until April 15, 2018. Where players can play all content including the PvP Ghost War mode, the new Splinter Cell mission, and the wonderful Predator mission from late last year.

As in Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell series, and voiced by the one and only Michael Ironsides. Watch the teaser trailer after the jump, where Sam is told to "Brush up on your Spanish, you're headed for Bolivia." More details as to what the new mission or mode entails is coming Tuesday, but in the meantime - we can speculate that a new Splinter Cell might be incoming.

And that it will be unveiled at E3 - with Michael Ironsides back in the role of Sam Fisher. Maybe. That's just a guess, but it's great to see the character return in his original form.



Ghost Recon Wildlands has been on a roll lately, after the excellent Predator mission and the addition of PvP it has quickly become one of the most fun co-op tactical shooters in years.

In a move so many other games and companies should be following, Ubisoft has revealed a heady content release plan for Ghost Recon Wildlands' second year out in the wild, cleverly dubbed "Year 2". The first of these drops as soon as April 10.

Here's what comes in the first content release, Special Operations:

• Teammate Customisation is the number one feature requested by the community and will allow players to customize teammate outfits with all items they have unlocked for their own character.
  
• PvP Update: A new game mode called “Sabotage” with five exclusive maps, the first of six new PvP classes for Year 2 and new perk and explosive device.
  
• PvE Update: A free special themed PvE mission and special challenge with exclusive rewards.

Additionally six new classes will be made available throughout the release roadmap, with four free Special Operations drops in total. Impatient players can purchase a "Year 2 Pass" which will give you a seven-day early access to "all the six new Year 2 Ghost War classes, an exclusive customization pack, and eight Battle Crates (four Special Ops crates and four Ghost War crates) to further customise players characters in the main game as well as in the Ghost War".

Watch a trailer detailing all of the above, embedded below.

Look, I'm a Predator tragic. It's the best Arnie movie of all time (yes, even over True Lies). It's one of the best action movies of all time. It's one of the best sci-fi concepts of all time and, in particular, the Predator itself is one of Stan Winston's greatest achievements. So when Predator-related news comes around, my ears prick up and I look to the trees, because he's using them. And that's looking like happening in a forthcoming Ghost Recon: Wildlands event coming this December called "The Hunt".

On December 14, you better accept that you're in the meat grinder and that you're nothing but assets. But you also better know when "never to quit" (and stop pushing pencils, you Jabroney) because he's hunting us, all of us, one at a time. But if it bleeds, "we can kill it", so it's not an impossible task.

Anyway, well done Ubisoft on thinking outside the box and coming up with this incredible mashup. I talked recently about which studio would make a great Predator game (elsewhere), so seeing this just makes me very happy.

Watch the teaser embedded below and stay tuned for solid details shortly.

After spending several hours deep in the Bolivian jungle, desert, and for some reason the scenic snowy mountain region, we're ready to share our review of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The latest Tom Clancy joint that looks to transpose the stealth squad-based mechanics of the series into a large open world experience. How does it fare? Well, pretty well. To a point.

There comes a point when you begin adding bits and pieces from various titles, specific open-world elements that have worked well enough on other games, mechanics from genres more conducive to the idea of leveling-up a character, an aesthetic that implies gritty realism, and things start to look a little muddy. And often require a bit of explanation, or comparison to like-for-like examples to make sense. Ghost Recon Wildlands from Ubisoft Paris is a little bit Far Cry, a little bit Just Cause, a dash of Grand Theft Auto, a sprinkling of The Division, and every bit a Ubisoft Open World Game.

Click Here to Read Our Full Ghost Recon: Wildlands Review

Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Wildlands offers up a massive open world co-op experience where players will get to team up to take down drug cartels. But, the game can also be played solo. And in the latest look at gameplay we get a decent chunk of single-player stuff that includes a run and gun style mission, taking to the skies to show off the open-world, and finally a stealthy take-down of an installation.

The game certainly looks pretty (we're assuming this is the PC or PS4 Pro version), and the squad mechanics are very much like the ones we've seen in Ghost Recons of the past.



Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands is out March 7.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands may have dropped off the radar a bit recently, thanks to its release being pushed back to March next year. But the new open-world stealth action title from Ubisoft is shaping up nicely. With a new gameplay video showcasing the same mission that we saw at E3, but this time set at night, and executed in stealth, the freedom and intuitive co-operative elements of the game are put front and centre.

Naturally the game can be played solo, with AI taking over the role of your squad members, but the teamwork we see on display here could result in Ghost Recon: Wildlands becoming a must-play co-op action game.

Check it out.



Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands will be out March 7, 2017, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands' open-world reveal at E3 2016 was one of the big surprises from the Ubisoft camp, and while I've already shared with you a written hands-on experience, I've also gone ahead and put together a video showcasing three gameplay captures I managed to nab from E3, featuring a single mission, with three different approaches.

The idea here is to highlight how diverse the game is in terms of its emergent qualities against myriad dynamic systems, when driven by four individuals in co-op. In other words, how the game can change based on player-choices. The actual mission was relatively long, so Part 1 of this video highlights the first part of the mission, and I'll be hosting Part 2 in the coming days.

Watch the video embedded below and drop your thoughts on Ghost Recon: Wildlands in the Comments section.