Just Cause 4 is the latest major video game title to join Xbox Game Pass’ library of playable games. The game launched in December 2018, just three months ago, and is the fourth entry in the popular Just Cause series that follows the character of Rico Rodriguez on a variety of adventures with heavy action and explosions.

Here’s the official game description and trailer:

Just Cause 4 is a huge open world game full of stunts, destruction, and conflict – buy now and for a limited time only receive bonus content – the Deathstalker Scorpion Pack containing customized gear crafted by Rico Rodriguez himself.

Welcome to Solís, a huge South American world home of conflict, oppression and extreme weather conditions. Just Cause 4 sees rogue agent Rico Rodriguez land in Solís to hunt down the truth about his past, at any cost. Strap into your wingsuit, equip your fully customizable grappling hook, and get ready to bring the thunder!

Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s subscription service that gives members around 100 full Xbox games to play in exchange for a monthly fee.

Are you an Xbox Game Pass subscriber and will you play Just Cause 4 now that it’s part of the service? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below and then follow us on Pinterest for more Xbox gaming content.

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Just Cause 4 – Standard Edition

Developer:
Square Enix

Price:
Free

Microsoft is rumored to be looking onto acquiring Relic Entertainment, a Canadian game development company known for their work on the upcoming Age of Empires 4 game. The rumor comes from a well-known leaker who goes by the name of Klobrille on Twitter. As noted by Game Rant, the user has built his reputation by accurately leaking accurate info such as the development of Age of Empires 4 prior to the E3 2016 event.

Look. I start with a cool looking one. pic.twitter.com/MOwRkCmCaI

— Klobrille (@klobrille) February 25, 2019

Such an acquisition could make sense for Microsoft, especially given the collaboration between the two companies for the development of the Age of Empires series. The Redmond giant also acquired numerous other companies last year including Playground Games, Undead Labs and Ninja Theory as announced during E3 2018. Perhaps the acquisition of Relic Entertainment could be announced at this year’s event, which interestingly won’t see anything from Sony this year.

One thing is for sure, there will be a segment for the Age of Empires franchise during one of the Inside Xbox this month, which the team says will include “exciting announcements” about the game. The developers encourage those interested to check out the official Xbox Mixer page to livestream the event next time the video becomes available.

Apparently, the new upcoming no-disc Xbox “Maverick” will go by the name of “Xbox One S All-Digital Edition.” As noted in a report by Windows Central, the new Xbox One S All-Digital Edition naming will be used when the console is available for pre-order, starting sometime in April 2019. Xbox Maverick was first reported on by Brad Sams, along with Scarlett, Lockhart, and Anaconda being other Xbox codenames being mentioned.

The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition would be the first disc-less console by Microsoft. Currently, Microsoft sells the Xbox One S and Xbox One X. No confirmation on what the new All-Digital Xbox console will look like, although it may just be an Xbox One S without a disk drive. In addition, Windows Central notes that Microsoft is looking to offer a custom Fortnite Xbox console too, but no official word from Microsoft on whether this is true or not.

Microsoft may be updating its Xbox console lineup for a disc-less gaming and streaming future. With the Xbox Maverick being available for pre-order in April 2019, we could see next-gen Xbox consoles being revealed later this year. Microsoft is also working on bringing Project xCloud, its own cloud game-streaming service, to the masses.

Despite the seemingly constant barrage of personal attacks Donald Trump engages in with journalists, heads of state or private citizens via Twitter, the First Lady persists with her anti-cyber bullying campaign.

Thanks to a report from GeekWire, we have glimpse into a recent visit from the First Lady Melania Trump who sat with Microsoft president Brad Smith to discuss how the two could leverage their respective influences and resources to help address online safety and accessibility.

Mrs. Trump visited Microsoft’s office in Redmond to learn how the company’s online efforts could presumably work to help promote her Be Best campaign.

Part of the Be Best campaign is directed at raising awareness of online well-being for children as well as partially addressing the opioid epidemic sweeping dense populations through the US.

During her 30-minute visit, Mrs. Trump was met by Smith as well as Microsoft VP Dave McCarthy, head of Xbox Phil Spencer, Microsoft safety officer Jacqueline Beauchere, and chief finance officer Amy Hood.

Microsoft executives showcased some Xbox related hardware and software that empowers parents to protect their children’s gameplay online as well as other company tools that help protect kids while on the internet, to which Trump added, “We need to educate the parents as well. Maybe some of them, they don’t even know about it and they just let their kids play. This is very, very informative.”

Smith also addressed the seeming hypocrisy of Mrs. Trump’s visit to discuss her Be Best anti-cyber bullying campaign amid her husbands online behavior with a diplomatic response issued later.

“We’ve always said that we’ll partner where we can, we’ll stand apart where we should. We have days when we disagree with this administration, just as we’ve had days where we’ve disagreed with other administrations, but today was a day where we could stand together to underscore an important message.”

The short visit looked to address the valley between parents and their children regarding the transparency of online activity. When children and parents keep an open dialogue about activities and protections taken to ensure a better well-being online, the easier it is to identify instances of malfeasance and cyber bullying by both parties.

All the talk in Microsoft-watching land is about Windows Lite, Windows Core OS, Centaurus, Pegasus, and Andromeda. That may seem like a lot, but they’re all related. The idea apparently is to pare down Windows into a “core OS,” and then build experiences on top of it, including a pared down OS for Google Chrome-like devices (Windows Lite, or if you prefer code names, Santorini), a foldable tablet like device, bigger than a phone but with foldable pixie dust sprinkled on it (Centaurus), those Chrome killer laptops (Pegasus), and even the long rumored “Surface Phone,” Andromeda.

This is all exciting talk, and to be sure we’ll spend a lot of time here at OnMSFT.com bringing you the latest on this new initiative, but there’s a problem: all of this has been tried before in the marketplace, to not much success.

Way back in the days of Netbooks (lightweight, cheap laptops running Linux), Microsoft scrambled and got a flavor of Windows XP running on them in order to “kill” the Chromebooks of the time. That worked, for a while.

We all know what happened to Microsoft’s disastrous foray into mobile computing leading to the eventual death of Windows Phone, and while Microsoft Surface can be considered a success, it really hasn’t put much of a dent into Apple’s iPad. Windows 10 S has been another attempt to cut into Chromebook’s education market, but from all indications it’s withered on the vine. In fact, Microsoft has been chasing, and demeaning, Chromebooks for a long time:

Sure, it makes sense, a lot of sense, for Microsoft to cull out the core of Windows and build everything on top of that core: Surface Hub, HoloLens, Windows 10 itself, “Windows Lite,” laptops, foldables, and well, everything else. But as intelligent as an engineering solution that is, is it really going to mean much in the marketplace?

Chromebooks have a solid foothold in education, and a new device from Microsoft, whatever it’s running, isn’t going to magically change that. Same for iPads – the Apple ecosystem is firmly entrenched, and a new Centaurus device, while cool in its Microsoft-ish way, won’t cause Apple fans to throw out their iPads and their iTunes and their AirPods. Of course we have yet to see the third party pushes, the marketing efforts, and the actual overall cool factor of these new devices, but this isn’t the first time that Microsoft has tried to retake a market they once dominated, but frankly don’t anymore.

We’re heading into some exciting times for Microsoft, and could be hearing more about Windows Core OS and “Windows Lite” as soon as at Build in early May. It’s going to take a lot longer than that, however, for Microsoft to even begin to unseat Chromebooks or iPads, or even to (shudder) think about attacking the mobile space once again.

Things are apparently not going so well for Anthem, BioWare’s new online RPG released last month on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The game received worse reviews than Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare’s previous game that was also plagued with issues at launch, and Anthem is unfortunately not faring any better on the technical front.

Yesterday, Kotaku reported that many PlayStation 4 players have been complaining that Anthem can cause their consoles to randomly shut down. Worse, one PS4 owner claimed on Reddit that his console has been completely bricked following a shut down that happened while he was playing Anthem.

Forbes video games journalist Paul Tassi, who recently reviewed Anthem on Xbox One X, said that he experienced similar shut down issues while playing the game on Microsoft’s console. He explained:

Like the PS4 crash, my crashes on Xbox didn’t just restart the console, they act like someone yanked the cord out of the wall completely. My Xbox is usually on “sleep” mode as in, when it’s off, it’s not really off as you can boot it quickly to get back to what you were playing. But both times when Anthem crashed during a mission and shut off the console, it was off off, as in the entire console had to restart from scratch. Xbox does not do the disk-checking animation like PS4 does when it shuts off involuntarily, but it was a similar situation. I have literally never seen this happen with any game on Xbox before, and thought it was bizarre, but didn’t think too much of it until I saw what a widespread problem it apparently was.

The good news is that EA has already acknowledged these shut down issues and has asked affected gamers to share their crash data reports with the company. Still, this is terrible PR for the company and we hope the company will be able to quickly provide a fix.

We’re aware of a crashing issue some of you have been reporting for #AnthemGame. We’re investigating and ask that you share your crash data reports when prompted. If you have, we’ll be reaching out to gather info; if not, please reply to this thread on AHQ:https://t.co/36P21YFjYL

— EA Help (@EAHelp) March 4, 2019

Anthem isn’t the only game to have shipped in a broken state over the past couple of months. Fallout 76 was a huge disappointment for Fallout fans, forcing developer Bethesda to quickly discount the game and offer some free DLCs to early adopters. EA’s situation with Anthem is more worrying as this is a brand new IP from BioWare, a talented studio that doesn’t really have a lot of experience with Destiny-like loot shooters. Anthem received praise for its beautiful graphics (the game runs in 4K on Xbox One X), but most reviews have pointed out the insane loading times, repetitive missions, and lack of true solo mode.

EA and BioWare took quite a big risk with Anthem, but in this “games as a service” era the game could look quite different in the near future. Have you been disappointed by Anthem so far, and do you think BioWare can still fix the game? Let us know in the comments below.

The idea of running the full version of Windows 10 on a phone such as the Lumia 950 is certainly cool, especially if that phone can be docked and hooked up to any monitor to bring the full desktop computing power to anywhere. However, what might be even more strange is that a group of hackers are currently working on bringing the Windows 10 on ARM computing experience over to the Nintendo Switch.

According to a tweet from someone named Ben (spotted by Windows Latest), the OS is not quite working on the system. That said, WL mentions that a series of tweaks to the operating system, such as that for memory management, are required for a successful run.

Hey Windows team / Nintendo, you know how to fix this right? ???? pic.twitter.com/KmeneIT9eh

— Sunshine Biscuit at scale ???? (@imbushuo) March 3, 2019

While the idea of having a Windows 10-powered Nintendo Switch is definitely strange sounding at first, it also makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The console is a small tablet at first, but can be docked to a television or monitor to bring everything to the larger screen. This is especially useful as the dock is bundled with the console as part of its $299 price point.

If course, due to the Switch running a customized NVidia Tegra ARM-based processor, only the Windows 10 on ARM version will work. Most programs were designed for the Intel-based architecture in mind, so the system has to emulate it in order for those applications to work. This, in turn, can considerably reduce performance, so don’t expect too much coming out of this experiment.

Still, it’s certainly an interesting thought, and only a real look at the system can tell you whether the work to install it is really worth the trouble. For now though, it seems that a remote desktop client is the best way to access Windows 10 from your pocket-sized device, for now anyway.

Following some testing with Windows Insiders, Microsoft has started rolling out the improved dark mode in its Windows 10 Mail app (via The Verge). This inbox app has had a dark mode since the launch of Windows 10 four years ago, but until now the email preview pane always kept a white background, which made this dark mode pretty much unfinished.

This finally changes with the update rolling out this week, and you’ll notice that Microsoft has also added a “turn on/off the lights” button in the top bar to switch between a white and dark preview pane background at will.

Another neat new feature we’ve spotted in the Windows 10 Mail app is the ability to set a default font per account. You can find this new feature in Settings > Default Font, and checking it out will should also make you notice some persisting UI inconsistencies. Most in-app settings use a slide-out menu from the right, but others use a pop up windows with a white background, even though when you’re using the app with dark mode enabled.

Are you satisfied with this improved dark mode in the Windows 10 Mail app, or do you think Microsoft can still do better? Sounds off in the comments below.

In celebration of Sydney Mardi Gras 2019 (yep, that’s a thing), Xbox Australia released a relatively low-key video/gif of what looks to be a new custom colored Xbox One Elite Controller.

The video, which was first brought to our attention by Stevivor, depicts a colorless Elite controller that eventually becomes infused with a rainbow color scheme and just like that, Xbox Australia has seemingly ignited a forest fire of enthusiasm and anticipation for what could be a nice addition to the Xbox One arsenal of accessories.

Unfortunately, the new rainbow clad Elite Controller is more a proof of concept than an actual purchase option for anyone looking to style up their Xbox One console.

It does, seem as though there might be some potential in nudging Microsoft in the direction of actually making this new design a reality as Xbox Australia claims to be “keeping track of the numbers”, via their Facebook page.

Windows 10 Mobile isn’t the only product that will finally go out of support this year. If you’ve been using a Microsoft Band or the company’s Health Dashboard service, you may have received an email today explaining that both the Microsoft Band mobile apps and the Health dashboard web app will be retired on May 31.

For those unfamiliar, the Microsoft Band apps and the online Health dashboard could actually be used without having a Microsoft Band device, which have been discontinued in October 2016. If you have synced any data with the Microsoft Health Dashboard service, you’ll be able to export it on the site until May 31. If you still use your Microsoft Band device, you’ll be able to continue to do so with limited functionality after May 31, though Microsoft notes that it will be impossible to set it up again if you reset it after that date.

That’s quite surprising, but Microsoft is actually offering refunds to Microsoft Band owners that still have a device under warranty, or who used it between 12/1/2018 and 3/1/2019. If you’re eligible, you will be able to get $79.99 for your Band 1 or $175 for your Band 2, which is actually quite a lot for discontinued devices. “All eligible users will receive an email with refund instructions,” the company explained in a FAQ.

With no new hardware in the pipeline, it’s not surprising to see Microsoft shut down these services after some time. Yesterday, it’s the Microsoft Wallet app for Windows Phone that has been discontinued, and we doubt many users noticed.