Xbox will receive 27 games and downloadable content listings from August 17 through August 21. Microsoft’s weekly Xbox release roundup covers titles coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and Game Pass, with individual entries identifying their supported features.
The week includes major releases such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope and Mortal Shell II, alongside family games, roguelites, retro revivals, puzzle adventures, and several smaller releases.
August 17
Black Flower
Black Flower will arrive as a strategic roguelike about keeping a fragile garden alive. Players will make daily decisions through a magical calendar, respond to changing weather, protect their plants, and manage resources as each day creates different dangers and opportunities.
August 18
Backyard Baseball
Playground Productions’ reimagining will launch for Xbox Series X|S with Smart Delivery and Xbox Play Anywhere support. Priced at $39.99, it will feature 11 remastered stadiums, 24 original teams, six game modes, 30 returning Backyard characters, unlockables, and achievements.
The Sinking City 2
This third-person survival horror game will take players to 1920s Arkham. Careful inventory management, tense combat, unsettling puzzles, and shortcuts that open up after returning through previously visited areas will shape the descent into the city.
Archerio
Archerio will bring a fast action roguelite built around accuracy, quick movement, and upgrade choices. Handcrafted arenas will combine traps and increasingly dangerous enemies, while each run offers improvements that can change how the character fights.
Driving is Hard
Elegant Horse Studios’ $9.99 physics-based challenge will put players behind the wheel of a bathtub on wheels. Steep terrain and punishing mistakes are paired with Jeff’s story about self-doubt, family problems, emotional growth, and finding hope.
Driving is Hard will support Xbox Series X|S and Smart Delivery.
August 19
Arcade Archives 2 CYBER CYCLES
NAMCO LIMITED’s 1995 motorcycle racer will return through the Arcade Archives 2 line. The game originally stood out with its large bike-style arcade cabinet, and its near-future races let players choose machines with different performance traits.
Cloudy Day
This hand-drawn 2D platformer follows a lonely cloud trying to learn how to fly and keep pace with the other clouds.
Dark Reflection
When a friend disappears, the protagonist must enter a hostile, distorted version of reality. The pixel-art adventure will combine side-scrolling action, puzzles, and a heavy metal presentation.
Dungeon Antiqua 2
Dungeon Antiqua 2 will offer a 2D hack-and-slash RPG with SNES-inspired pixel art and sound. Strategic dungeon trips will sit alongside a flexible character-building system.
Grim Trials
Soft Source Pte Ltd.’s heavy metal action roguelite follows Avelin, a young woman recruited as one of Death’s Reapers after dying. Players will customize weapons and equipment, hunt impure souls, confront Avelin’s demons, and fight for the chance to see her living love again.
Hidden Cats in Barcelona
The hidden-object series will travel to Barcelona, where players will search for cats around places such as a local churrería and Park Güell. The release will support Xbox Play Anywhere.
WonderCat Adventures
A stranded cat will need help finding a missing companion after crash-landing in strange mines. With only a robot pod for assistance and no UFO in sight, players will face 55 levels filled with hazards, stamina challenges, and quick-reflex platforming.
August 20
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope
This downloadable expansion will send players on a new expedition through the Zone. It will offer dozens of hours of non-linear content, twisted characters, and stories built around a fragile peace between rival factions. Players will have to choose a side in a conflict filled with intrigue and half-truths, where clean answers will be hard to find.
Mortal Shell II
The standalone sequel will expand on Mortal Shell with faster, harsher combat, deeper weapon upgrades, and free movement through a compact open world. The ruined setting contains the remains of exceptional warriors, and discovering those corpses will let players possess them to access their innate strengths and abilities.
The Devout Edition will provide up to 72 hours of advanced access beginning August 17. The standard release is scheduled for August 20 on Xbox Series X|S.
Berry Bury Berry
This surreal first-person incremental game will revolve around growing berries and placing them in a hole. Money earned from the harvest can buy upgrades and tools, opening more ways to increase profits and move through the strange garden.
Educational Family Games
The local 1–4 player collection will give children learning activities while adults compete in the same room. It will support Xbox Series X|S, Smart Delivery, and Xbox Play Anywhere.
Emoji Killer – Casino Massacre
This first-person roguelike shooter will send players into a casino controlled by hostile poker emojis. Runs will feature modifiers that can make enemies bounce, add funny hats, or increase the chaos, with fast combat against enemies using their own casino-themed powers.
Find the Cats 2
More handcrafted scenes and colorful settings will provide hiding spots for the cats in this relaxing hidden-object game. Players will search each area for every sneaky animal before moving on to the next level.
Gallipoli
The latest World War I entry from the series that includes Verdun, Tannenberg, and Isonzo will focus on the Gallipoli landings and the Ottoman Front. Its player-versus-player battles will use objective-based combat and one-shot, one-kill rules across muddy shores and sun-baked deserts.
Ground Zero Hero
In the radioactive wasteland of Ground Zero Hero, every defeated mutant will become fuel for evolution. Players will absorb remains, collect mutations, and build unpredictable combinations while fighting through the aftermath of the apocalypse. The release listing uses the name Ground Zero Hour.
Wings of Beyond
This space shoot ’em up will feature 30 increasingly difficult stages across three galactic systems. Each system will bring its own environments, enemies, bosses, and upgrade demands as players fight through waves of foes.
Yet Another Zombie Survivors (Game Preview)
Awesome Games Studio’s $14.99 Game Preview release will challenge players to assemble a team and build character enhancements that work together against thousands of undead enemies. The reverse bullet hell will focus on surviving waves, evolving the squad, and pushing each run further.
August 21
Creepy Shift: Uncle Joe’s Motel
The third game in the Creepy Shift series will follow an actress who takes a job at a decaying motel while trying to escape her troubles. Cozy simulation tasks will sit beside psychological horror, a darker narrative, and mysterious rules inspired by original creepypastas.
Dark Dungeon Head Haze
This low-poly isometric puzzle game will challenge a thief moving through a dungeon where most of the route disappears into darkness after the first step. Players will need to memorize each level’s layout before the lights go out.
KeyQuack Quest
A clever mallard will collect keys, avoid traps, and reach exit doors in this pixel-art platformer. The stages will become harder over time while combining precise movement with light strategy.
Mega City Force
Players will choose an agent and fight through a crime-ridden city controlled by a corrupt megacorporation. Battles against criminals and bosses will lead the Mega City Task Force through the city’s darkest districts.
No More Slimes!!
Bouncing slimes will fill the screen in this action game, with battle loot feeding into branching skill trees. Cards and relics can grant abilities such as lightning strikes or a boomerang that rebounds off walls.
With Eyes of Ice
With Eyes of Ice will tell Gréta Egilsdóttir’s story as she faces frostbite and tries to understand how her life reached such a desperate point. The narrative reaches back to Steina’s baby, Kai’s decision to stay the night, a near-kiss with Nataníel, Gréta’s work as a housemaid in a distant fishing village, and the earlier loss of her grandmother. Her meeting with Nataníel Jóhannsson begins a love story that may be impossible to survive.
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