Microsoft’s Game Assist for Windows 11’s Xbox Game Bar has received some pretty nifty upgrades this March. This clever mini-browser is an awesome sidekick, letting you dive into guide content without tearing yourself away from your beloved game.
One of Game Assist’s slickest tricks is its ability to recognize the game you’re knee-deep in and offer up useful content without you having to lift a finger. This March, the roster of supported games is growing. New titles on the block are:
– Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
– Avowed
– Civilization VII
– Grand Theft Auto V
– Rocket League
These fresh additions join other fan-favorites like Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo 4, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Keen to see if your favorite is covered? Microsoft has a full rundown of supported games.
Here’s a heads-up though: in my own gaming adventures, Black Ops 6 and Avowed haven’t been playing nice with the Game Assist suggestions just yet. Whether it’s a location glitch or a phased rollout remains to be seen. I tested it with Minecraft and had no issues, so it might just be a matter of time.
Another cool update involves ad blockers. Let’s be real—nothing’s worse than having your game time disrupted by a giant ad blocking your view of the guide content you’re trying to access. Luckily, Game Assist now plays nice with ad blockers, provided you’ve got one set up in Microsoft Edge.
This update widens the net beyond just ad blockers:
“We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear: ad blockers are essential. We’re excited to announce that Game Assist now supports several extensions, like ad blockers, that can seamlessly run on webpages. You can install and manage these through Microsoft Edge’s desktop version.”
Keep an eye out, too, as there’s chatter about extending this support to sidebar apps soon, not just browser tabs. It’s currently being tinkered with in the Canary and Dev channels and will eventually land in the Stable version.
Among other new goodies in the latest Stable channel update are:
– Trimmed down size requirements for the Game Assist widget.
– Sharpened picture-in-picture mode for a better full-screen video experience.
– New keyboard shortcuts for opening a new tab (Ctrl+T), closing tabs (Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4), duplicating tabs (Ctrl+Shift+K), reopening closed tabs (Ctrl+Shift+T), refreshing pages (Ctrl+R or F5), and bypassing the cache for hard refreshes (Ctrl+Shift+R or Shift+F5).
There’s a bunch more stuff too, and a lengthy changelog in the Canary/Dev channel update. A notable test feature here sees the default page rendering switch from mobile to desktop, which should enhance compatibility.
Feeling adventurous? To explore all these features, just make sure you’ve snagged the Game Assist widget from your Microsoft Edge settings, and you’re all set.
