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Your 2021 Samsung TV may get Xbox Game Pass and more game apps next week

By Giovanni Colantonio November 16, 2022

Samsung is expanding its Gaming Hub by adding the cloud-based streaming app to some 2021 smart TV models starting next week. The service itself is getting more enticing, as the app will soon support 4K cloud game streaming at 60 frames per second (fps) on select games via Nvidia GeForce Now.

Samsung Gaming Hub launched this summer on the company’s line of 2022 smart TVs. At launch, the service allowed TV owners to stream games on their TV through cloud services like Xbox Game Pass and Amazon Luna. With its latest update, Samsung has made it clear that the service is only growing as it looks to retroactively put it in front of even more smart TV users.

Starting next week, Samsung Gaming Hub will be available on select 2021 model Samsung smart TVs. To check if your TV has access, you can head over to the Samsung App Store and download the hub next week. The company says it plans to roll out the service on more 2021 TVs throughout the year.

The service itself is getting some new features too. Chief among those is a new perk for Nvidia GeForce Now subscribers using the Gaming Hub. Within a few weeks, the app will allow players to cloud stream PC games on this TV in 4K and at 60 fps. Users will need a GeForce Now Premium membership to access those features, though.

The lineup of cloud services available on Samsung Gaming Hub will expand too. In 2023, Samsung plans to add Antstream Arcade and Blacknut to the service. Both are monthly subscription services that allow players to stream games, with Antstream offering a selection of retro titles like the original Mortal Kombat and Pac-Man.

Samsung looks to draw even more Gaming Hub users in by the end of the year thanks to a new holiday campaign. Through December 31, you can get an Xbox controller and three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate when you buy a Samsung QN85B, QN90B, QN95B,
QN800B, QN850B, QN900B or S95B.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

Gaming

Check out this fantastic horror game before it leaves Xbox Game Pass next week

A gun sits in a drawer in Signalis.

Grief can be unexplainable. I lost my grandfather a few years ago, and after his cremation, my family and I went back to his house and argued a bit about who would be sleeping in his bed. The bedroom was the same as before he passed, but there seemed to be a weird hole on the side of the bed where he used to sleep. It was like a shadow hovering just above the sheets. He was both there and not, and it was tough to put into words, even with others in the house.

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Gaming

One of the year’s best reviewed games is coming to Xbox Game Pass

Issac Clarke exploring ruins in Dead Space Remake.

Microsoft revealed the next batch of games coming to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service this October. While no Activision Blizzard games are coming to the service just yet following that acquisition, one of 2023's best-reviewed games is: this year's Dead Space remake.

Dead Space came out in January and is a stunning remake of a 2008 horror classic. The game follows an engineer named Issac Clarke as he searches for his girlfriend Nicole on a gigantic spaceship called the USG Ishimura. It's overrun by disgusting creatures called Necromorphs, though, leading to plenty of horrific situations as Issacs looks for answers on the ship. The original was an atmospheric and tense horror game, and developer EA Motive only enhanced all of that with this remake that updates the game's visuals and makes some other tweaks to bring the experience more in line with future games in its series and other modern horror games.
It's a great choice if you're looking for a new horror game to play this month, so we recommend checking it out when it hits Xbox Game Pass on October 26. It's not the only game coming to the service during the back half of this month, though. Here's the full list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass throughout the rest of October.

Gaming

Play Xbox Game Pass’ weirdest game before it leaves on September 30

weird west leaving game pass september 2023 art

Earlier this year, Arkane Studios disappointed on Xbox Game Pass with Redfall, a game that dropped much of the studio’s immersive sim expertise for an underbaked multiplayer adventure. But what if I told you that the person who founded Arkane and helped create series like Dishonored had left the studio prior to Redfall and made an excellent immersive sim that is also available on Xbox Game Pass?
Well, that actually happened, and the game in question is Weird West.
In March 2022, former Arkane Studios founder Raphaël Colantonio released Weird West under the newly formed WolfEye Studios. While it swaps out a third-person perspective for an isometric one, Weird West is a joyfully odd supernatural Western game that manages to tap into the immersive sim design philosophy that made many of the games Colantonio worked on excellent.
Unfortunately, Weird West is leaving Xbox Game Pass on September 30, so we recommend you give it a shot before it’s gone.
Embracing the weird
Surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of games set in the Wild West, and even fewer that lean into creepy, supernatural elements like Weird West does. The game’s world is full of supernatural cults, magic, and creatures like pigmen, zombies, and werewolves. Its story is told across five distinct campaigns, starting with one about a retired bounty hunter whose child is killed and husband kidnapped, setting her off on an adventure to get them back.
The individual stories of all five of Weird West’s playable characters are emotionally captivating and quite distinct from each other. That’s very noticeable as soon as you jump over to the second story, which follows a human turned into a Pigman. Still, it’s a living and reactive world, so decisions made and characters killed in an earlier character’s journey do have an impact on subsequent characters’ adventures; you can even find and recruit characters that you previously played as.

It’s here where Weird West’s immersive sim roots start to shine, as a lot of emergent narrative moments with impact feel crafted by the player. This carries over into gameplay, which is done from an isometric perspective. Like Arkane’s best games, there are always multiple solutions to any objective, and going in with guns blazing isn’t always the best option. Instead, players are encouraged to stealth around, sweet-talk characters, and even use some magical abilities if the playable character can learn them as they progress through a character’s journey.
With these more dynamic elements, the isometric perspective, and the narrative focus, Weird West can feel like as much of a CRPG as an immersive sim at times. As such, it might be an enjoyable follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3 for players finally coming off that lengthy RPG. At the very least, if you enjoy games that emphasize player freedom and also find novel ways to make it influence the game’s broader narrative, then you’ll enjoy Weird West.
The game had some technical issues and rough edges when it was first released, so it has flown under the radar. Most of those have all been smoothed over by now, though. Post-launch updates have fixed most of the major bugs and improved the character progression, aiming, and companion and stealth systems by adding more depth and UI clarity to them. Weird West is in the best state it has ever been in, but still feels as distinct and strange as ever.