You steer a ship, blow up other vessels, and somehow balance chaos with genuine emotion.
As the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics converge on a single weekend, those who choose the controller over the remote will find Xbox Game Pass offering three distinct escapes: tropical absurdism, galactic carnage, and the chance to rewrite sporting fate. Each game speaks to a different hunger — for chaos with heart, for cooperative spectacle, or for the simple satisfaction of winning the game within the game. It is a quiet reminder that leisure, too, has its seasons, and February has always been a time for retreating inward.
- A major sporting weekend pulls millions toward their screens, but a quieter audience is reaching for controllers instead of remotes.
- Xbox Game Pass arrives with three timely additions that each promise a different kind of weekend-long immersion.
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii offers a chaotic, emotionally grounded adventure that doubles as a perfect entry point before next week's Yakuza 3 remake.
- Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 delivers a completable campaign and co-op mayhem that rewards bringing a friend into the carnage.
- Madden NFL 26 hands football fans the one thing the real Super Bowl cannot — the guarantee of their own championship.
The Super Bowl arrives Sunday and the Winter Olympics open Friday in Italy, but for those who'd rather hold a controller than watch a broadcast, Xbox Game Pass has assembled a quietly compelling weekend lineup.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is the standout curiosity — a spinoff in which series antihero Goro Majima wakes up with amnesia and somehow ends up commanding a pirate crew. It is as absurd as it sounds, but the game carries the emotional sincerity the Yakuza series has always balanced against its chaos. With the Yakuza 3 remake arriving next week, this is a well-timed entry point into a world where ship battles and genuine character moments coexist without apology.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 offers something more immediate. The lore may be impenetrable to newcomers, but the game doesn't require fluency — it requires a trigger finger. The campaign plays like Gears of War, brutal and cover-heavy, and it's short enough to finish before Monday. Co-op is where it truly opens up, and multiplayer modes wait for anyone who wants to stay longer.
For the football faithful, Madden NFL 26 makes the simplest case: the real Super Bowl will crown one champion, but Game Pass lets you crown yourself. It is an obvious pitch, and on a weekend like this one, obvious is sometimes exactly right.
The Super Bowl lands on Sunday night, and the Winter Olympics open Friday in Italy. For millions, that means a weekend locked into sports coverage. But plenty of people will be doing something else entirely—sitting in front of a screen with a controller, not a remote.
If you're among them, Xbox Game Pass has some solid options to fill the hours. The service added a few games worth your time this week, each one built for the kind of binge-gaming a cold February weekend invites.
Start with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, a spinoff that arrives just as the studio prepares to remake Yakuza 3 next week. The original Yakuza 3 is one of the series' brightest entries, set partly at a seaside orphanage. This spinoff takes the tropical energy further into absurdity: Goro Majima, the long-running series antihero, wakes up with amnesia and finds himself commanding a pirate crew. It's ridiculous—even by Yakuza standards, where ridiculous is the baseline. But the game doesn't abandon the emotional weight the series is known for. You steer a ship, blow up other vessels, and move through a story that somehow balances genuine character moments with pure chaos. If you want a taste of the series before the Yakuza 3 remake lands, this is the weekend to do it.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 hit Game Pass last week and offers something more straightforward: a campaign short enough to finish in a weekend. The story itself may not land if you're new to Warhammer—the lore is dense and the narrative can feel impenetrable to outsiders. But that's almost beside the point. The game's real appeal is simpler: you shoot waves of alien enemies in the face with a variety of firearms and melee weapons. It plays like Gears of War, all cover-based shooting and brutal close-quarters combat. Bring a friend or two into the campaign, and the co-op becomes the whole draw. Finish the story and the multiplayer modes are there if you want to keep playing.
For the actual football fans—the ones who will watch the Seahawks and Patriots on Sunday but want to play football too—Madden NFL 26 sits on Game Pass. You can win the Super Bowl yourself, which is something the Patriots and Seahawks won't both be able to do. It's a straightforward pitch: if you like football and you like games, this is the obvious choice for the weekend. The real world will crown a champion Sunday night. Game Pass lets you crown yourself one too.
Notable Quotes
It's completely ridiculous (even by Yakuza standards), but it still has some heartfelt moments that make it just as worthwhile as any other game in the series.— Giovanni Colantonio, on Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
The whole appeal of this game is shooting hordes of alien enemies in the face. In that aspect, Space Marine 2 delivers in spades.— Austin Manchester, on Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone skip the Super Bowl to play video games?
Not everyone cares about football, and even if they do, not everyone wants to spend five hours watching it. Game Pass gives you something to do that's engaging on its own terms.
But the Yakuza game sounds completely unrelated to anything happening this weekend.
It is. That's the point. It's escapism—you're in Hawaii with a pirate crew instead of sitting in your living room watching other people play sports.
Does Space Marine 2 require you to know Warhammer lore?
No. The writer admits the story didn't make sense to them, and they still loved it. You're there to shoot things, not understand the universe.
So these are all just time-killers for a cold weekend?
They're more than that. They're games worth playing on their own. The weekend timing is just convenient—you have the time, and they're all on Game Pass right now.
What if someone actually wants to watch the Super Bowl but also wants to play games?
Then Madden is the obvious choice. You get the football experience without the passivity. You're making the decisions, throwing the touchdowns, winning the championship yourself.