Gamer hours here: Grab a sick day off work or school or whatever. So seriously. Look at your calendar and if necessary, fake a cough because HOLLOW KNIGHT SILKSONG IS HERE AND LAUNCHING ON XBOX GAME PASS. Like, what?? Another big game even drops today: the latest DLC for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, The Order of Giants. Such a huge day for releases! My backlog is screaming, and honestly, who even cares about backlogs anymore.

Let’s get down to it real fast for all who just woke up and haven’t checked their feed: The sequel to the widely loved Metroidvania all of us and their mothers waited for has just landed-with Hollow Knight Silksong. If you happen to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass, the best part: you don’t have to pay a dime to play it. This is really huge, right? How long have we all waited for this? Years; act-u-al years. And now it just drops straight on that, nobody batted an eye. Meanwhile, the very first big DLC expansion for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle appears to offer more story content or new missions or something to that effect. The official post is pretty thin in detail, but that hasn’t stopped the players from going bonkers in excitement.

Reactions from the players’ community are as expected: pure chaos and excitement. One player said, “@Hat3Asylum IndAs in the same day? There goes my productivity for the next month.” Yeah, right there with you, son. My productivity is already down the drain, and I haven’t downloaded either one.” @Lenzolth said he was going to tackle the Indy DLC first because the main game was good, so I think that’s a positive for the DLC.

Well, there have been questions and confusions just like with every release. “@Dark_shifu About when? Cause the game is released now.” Well, yes, the tweet today should mean that it’s already live. Then there was @JobbeWake expressing concern for the price and length of the Indiana Jones DLC: “how long is this DLC? I hope not just a few hours since the price is 17.99€.” Point well made. It can always be tricky figuring out the right price for DLC, and if it’s short, the players might feel short-changed. Hopefully, it’s solid.

Then there’s the whole Game Pass thing. “@TroelaAmmehoela It must’ve cost Microsoft a small fortune to get Silksong on GP on day one considering how highly anticipated it is.” More like, maybe. Microsoft’s been emptying their pockets so they can score these day one releases, and Silksong is a huge one.” Meanwhile, @Pelekat had to clarify to someone that the DLC for Indiana Jones is NOT on Game Pass, only the base game is. So if you want The Order of Giants, you gotta pay separately. Nice try indeed.

Some players seem to be looking ahead already; @clairobscur4evr teased something else, perhaps a Cyberpunk announcement? But that is presumably a separate matter. And, perfectly justified lately given the state of the industry, @B_Nasty21 hoped for no layoffs today. But today is for games, so let’s celebrate those.

If you never got around to playing Hollow Knight, it’s an absolute masterpiece of exploration and challenging gameplay. Silksong continues the story but with you playing as Hornet rather than the Knight and it’s been in development forever, so the hype is through the roof. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person action adventure that saw the light this year with rather good reviews, so more content can’t be bad.

Interesting timing as well, just hitting mid-week. With no big buildup to it, just BAM, here you go! I really love that from companies. They don’t tease for months. It’s a straight-up surprise release, feels more… genuine somehow.

Also, shout out to @Roschy88: “Schöner Geburtstagsgeschenk,” German for, “Nice birthday present.” So if it’s your birthday today, happy birthday, and here are two fantastic games for you to download and play.

The burning question now: what does one play first? Silksong is probably the bigger deal as it is a full brand new game, but if you’ve been deep into Indiana Jones, the DLC does sound tempting. Personally, I’m gonna hit Silksong first because I’ve been waiting forever and I need to see if it lives up to the hype. Hollow Knight is one of my all-time favorites, so the expectations are extremely high.

The overwhelmingly positive vibes from this community were echoed by players like @lelouch5485 stating simply: “Whoever likes video games wins.” And that is what it’s all about. Days like today remind everybody why we all love this hobby. Two high-quality releases dropping at once, available to millions via Game Pass, and all sharing excitement online about it. Today’s a glorious day to be a gamer.

So, yeah, if you do have Game Pass, download Silksong. If you don’t, maybe consider subscribing since that’s the kind of value that makes Game Pass worth it. And for everybody who enjoyed the base game of Indiana Jones, go check out that DLC. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gaming now or never for me, and my productivity is long gone. Wait, what was I saying? Oh right, games are cool. Go play them.