Game Pass games for October have been revealed

Another month, another fresh batch of free games for Game Pass subscribers in Australia. The two headliners here are: Sifu and Inscryption. Sifu is the stylish beat 'em up known for its frankly cruel difficulty, whereas Inscryption is the cryptic card game from Pony Island creator Daniel Mullins. Let's get stuck into the list of games. 

Sloclap's martial arts brawler quickly made a name for itself when it landed back in 2022, thanks mostly to it's crushing difficulty. You may look at Sifu and mistake it for your run-of-the-mill beat 'em up but the game pulls no punches with its unique aging mechanic. When the player dies in Sifu, they are resurrected in the same place but a few years older. As you age in Sifu, your attacks grow stronger, but your health bar shrinks until you're a senior glass cannon. 

Sifu will be available to all Game Pass subscribers from today, the 2nd of October. 

MLB The Show was one of the first PlayStation-owned games to release on Xbox and it's hard to see why. Major League Baseball might not be the first sport to come to mind for the average Australian, but over the years the MLB The Show series has amassed a global following to rival some of the biggest sport games, like NBA2K. Even if you don't strictly follow Major League Baseball, there's still a lot of fun to be had with the games in the same way you don't need to be a fan of golf to enjoy the Tiger Woods series. 

MLB The Show 24 is available to all Game Pass users  from today, October 2nd.

Featuring the voice talents of Keri Russell (The Americans) and Kaitlyn Dever (who will play Abby in the upcoming second season of The Last of Us,) Open Roads is story-heavy game for those who like indie darlings like Gone Home and Firewatch. Described as an "adventure mystery-thriller," Open Roads follows mother and daughter, Opal and Tess, on a road trip to uncover family secrets and, potentially, buried treasure somewhere close to the Canadian border. 

If you were to just look at images of Mad Streets, you'd probably be expecting a Streets of Rage or Street Fighter clone. Those two properties have clearly influenced Mad Streets style to the point of parody, but the gameplay itself is closer to something like Gang Beasts. Multiplayer mayhem with whacky, exaggerated physics. The gag never gets old. 

Every now and then, a game comes around that's so good it kind of puts you off games altogether for a while. That's what happened with me and Inscryption. Those who have played the creator's previous games, The Hex and Pony Island, will have a faint idea of what to expect but for everyone else, expect the unexpected. What begins as a rather straightforward (but addictive) card game becomes something much deeper as you progress. 

Rounding out the list are three more games that are already available for all Game Pass users:

• Trials of Mana
• Legend of Mana
• We Love Katamari ReRoll+

And as we do every month, it's time to bid farewell to a selection of Game Pass games in October. You've got until October 15th to download Everspace 2, From Space, F1 Manager 2023, Scorn and Dyson Sphere Program (PC-only.)