April's new Xbox Game Pass arrivals give you Lego racing, Lara Croft and a Lil Gator. Subscribers can play the Mario Kart-like Lego 2K Drive starting on Wednesday, the trilogy-wrapping Shadow of the Tomb Raider on April 11 and the charming stop-motion adventure game Harold Halibut on April 16. Lego 2K Drive, launched in May 2023, lets developer Vision Concepts (known for the NBA 2K and WWE 2K series) take the reins from Travelers' Tales to create its first Lego game. We were quickly pulled in by its charming vehicle transformations and quirky fun in a game that draws equally from Mario Kart and Forza Horizon 5. Our gripes (no quick way to restart races and a suspicious nudge toward microtransactions) will be easier to see past when you can download it for free with your Game Pass subscription. Lego 2K Drive will be available to Game Pass members on April 3 for cloud and Xbox consoles. Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition wraps up Lara Croft's Survivor Trilogy origin story, which rebooted the series as an Uncharted-esque cinematic epic.

Crossplay games--that is, games you can play online with people on consoles or platforms different than yours--are increasingly common but also increasingly fractured. Some games are available only in a couple of places, and it's often unclear why some platforms are supported for crossplay and others aren't. Here, we rounded up the best games that work on the most gaming destinations as possible, so you can play with your friends and family across the globe. Check out our guides to the Best Gaming Headsets, Best Gamepad, Best Gaming Mouse, and Best Gaming Keyboard. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off).

While we wait for Nerf to come to Oculus VR, Hasbro has unveiled a new game featuring its toy blasters. Nerf Legends is a first-person arena shooter with a sci-fi twist that sees players battling robots across 19 single player levels. Of course, the game is another way to sell real-life Nerf products to a generation of kids who have grown up playing Fortnite. As such, there are 15 blasters from the Mega, Ultra and Elite lines, with upgrades and skins, to choose from. To help your side win, you'll be able to use dart power-ups like magnetic push and pull, seeker and freeze on your opponents.

After nearly six years in development, Aliens: Fireteam finally has a release date. Now known as Aliens: Fireteam Elite, it's coming out on August 24th on Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Like in Valve's Left 4 Dead series, you'll embark on a variety of repeatable missions where you'll need to use teamwork and communication to take on the challenges before you. In all, there'll be 20 different Xenomorphs, Weyland-Yutani synthetics and other enemies, each with their own AI systems, for you and your friends to take on. Each time you jump into a mission, two other Colonial Marines will support you, and they can be played by both humans and AI bots.

Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media is huge news in many ways. It brings renowned studios like Bethesda, id and Arkane into the Xbox family, along with popular franchises including Doom, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It makes the Xbox Series X and S more compelling, especially given they're launching with a relatively weak lineup. But most importantly, it's yet another win for Game Pass, as Microsoft has confirmed that Bethesda titles are headed to the subscription service over the coming months. When I argued that the Xbox Series S was an incredible next-gen deal, Game Pass Ultimate was a big part of that. For $15 a month, you get access to 100 recent titles on console and PC, first-party Microsoft games, Xbox Live, and EA Play.