The 12 best games on Google Play Pass for your new Android phone

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

If you just got a brand-new Android phone for the holidays, you probably want to play some games on your shiny device. Luckily, that’s especially easy to do this year with Google’s $5-per-month Google Play Pass games and apps subscription service, which offers free access to hundreds of games without pushing ads or demanding in-app purchases.

We’ve looked through what’s available on Play Pass, and it has a lot of good games to check out. Here are just a few that we recommend. And since all of the games are also available individually — either free with ads and in-app purchases, or for specific prices — we’ve included their Google Play links as well.

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our...

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Ranji Wrap: Shikhar Dhawan Ton, 20 Wickets Fall in Gujarat-Kerala Tie, Tamil Nadu’s Woes Continue

India’s Shikhar Dhawan announced his comeback with a century while Jalaj Saxena put Kerala in control against Gujarat, in a game where 20 wickets fell on the opening day.

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Palpatine Actor Was Just As Surprised As The Fans About His Rise Of Skywalker Comeback

In all the months of marketing for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, no moment left a bigger impression or inspired more conversation than the final seconds of the film’s first trailer, when some familiar laughter confirmed the return of Emperor Palpatine.

Indeed, while director J.J. Abrams has suggested that Sheev’s comeback was part of his plan for the Sequel Trilogy all along, neither 2015’s The Force Awakens nor 2017’s The Last Jedi so much as hinted at the villain’s reemergence, and as it turns out, even actor Ian McDiarmid was surprised to see his character return to the fold.

Speaking to Digital Spy, the franchise veteran reflected on his supposed death scene in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, before suggesting that he never expected the Emperor to make a recovery:

“I thought I was dead! I thought he was dead. Because when we did Return of the Jedi, and I was thrown down that shoot to Galactic Hell, [he was dead]. And I said, ‘Oh, does he come back?’ And [George] said, ‘No, he’s dead.’ [Laughs] So I just accepted that. But then, of course, I didn’t know I was going to be doing the prequels, so in a sense he wasn’t dead, because we went back to revisit him when he was a young man. But I was totally surprised by this.”

EW Reveals New Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Images

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What’s less surprising is the mixed response that Palpatine’s return has received. After sitting out the first two films in the Sequel Trilogy, the Emperor’s comeback is a twist that’s dropped suddenly in the exposition-heavy opening minutes of The Rise of Skywalker, and while some fans were just glad to see the big bad of the Skywalker Saga back on the big screen, others saw it as a last-minute push for easy nostalgia points.

On top of that, Sheev’s return brought a controversial new development to the table that essentially undoes one of the boldest twists from 2017’s The Last Jedi. And though Abrams himself has claimed that his film isn’t meant as some sort of apology or “correction” to Rian Johnson’s polarizing flick, there are a lot of fans out there on both sides of the debate who evidently think otherwise.

In short, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker remains yet another divisive entry in a series that can’t help riling up the fans with each new release, but at least the internet will have a few years to cool off before the next movie comes our way.

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Star Wars Fans Are Thanking J.J. Abrams For The Rise Of Skywalker And The Sequel Trilogy

Though the new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker certainly hasn’t been to everyone’s taste, it’s evident that there are a good few fans out there who appreciated J.J. Abrams’ Sequel Trilogy finale, many of whom have now taken to Twitter to thank the director for his contributions to the Skywalker Saga.

It must be said that it hasn’t been a great week for Lucasfilm’s era-closing feature, between the movie’s relatively underwhelming box office figures, its mixed critical reception and the lowest CinemaScore for any live-action Star Wars film to date.

Nonetheless, if you scroll down below, you’ll find just a small sample of the fans who feel that Abrams deserves some credit, be it for his latest picture, or for introducing the key players of the Sequel Trilogy with 2015’s The Force Awakens:

#thankyoujjabrams for casting Adam Driver as Kylo Ren (never forget about that) and you've started and ended #StarWars with great new characters!#TheRiseOfSkywalker pic.twitter.com/FNOpZ1z629

— choadila (@cho_adila) December 24, 2019

#thankyoujjabrams for Rey. Her relentlessly positive and kind approach to life despite having endured years of trauma is inspiring for the old – by which I mean me – and the young like my daughters. They sometimes borrow her hair but more often her courage.

— Ryan Call (@IG801) December 24, 2019

And a BIG #thankyoujjabrams for fixing a 42yo mistake by finally giving Chewie his medal. pic.twitter.com/1R0OkDYk2x

— The Park-tridge in a Pear Tree Pals (@parkpalstv) December 24, 2019

#thankyoujjabrams for putting up with a community that is impossible to please and consistently tears down what it claims to love pic.twitter.com/XOVt4zMMV0

— Sean (@shaggertee) December 24, 2019

#thankyoujjabrams for creating my favorite characters of all time. I love the sequel trilogy so much because there truly is someone for everyone to relate to or see themselves in @jjabrams pic.twitter.com/Jx5OFHO8ph

— Wheels (@Wheels02) December 24, 2019

EW Reveals New Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Images

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The Rise of Skywalker was everything I hoped and more. Thank you for tying the whole saga together. All of the characters were redeemed, and it was creative and beautiful. I am forever grateful. #thankyoujjabrams pic.twitter.com/qXibGvgdsT

— Charis (@CharisClouds) December 24, 2019

#thankyoujjabrams for somehow succeeding at the inhumanly impossible task of reviving the Star Wars franchise, and then giving it a fitting and satisfying conclusion. Also thanks for the way you block your scenes and how much you move the camera around, it’s really neat. pic.twitter.com/PWwQwmns2H

— Damian (@DCFlashshill) December 24, 2019

#thankyoujjabrams for re-igniting my passion for Star Wars, for reminding me why I fell in love with it; thank you for introducing me to a wonderful cast of new characters and for showing so much love to the old.

Thank you for inviting me to love Star Wars more than ever before pic.twitter.com/vjTR3Lx65e

— Bailey – 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 (@loverboymedia) December 24, 2019

#ThankYouGeorgeLucas for giving us Star Wars #thankyoujjabrams for bringing it back to us#thankyourianjohnson for treating it like art#thankyouStarWars for being what you are

Thanks for the fun, the joy, the lessons, the adventures, the meaning, and the hope

— Timothy Drennan (@TimothyDrennan) December 24, 2019

#ThankYouJJAbrams#ThankYouRianJohnson#ThankYouGeorgeLucas#ThankYouIrvinKershner#ThankYouRichardMarquand#ThankYouGarethEdwards#ThankYouRonHoward
Thank you all for directing 42 years of Star Wars movies on the silver screen.

— Marc Lombardi (@marclombardi) December 24, 2019

You don’t have to do much searching online to find people who weren’t so wasn’t so keen on The Rise of Skywalker, with many viewers decrying the movie as a messy, overstuffed work that tries too hard to pander to the fans who didn’t care for 2017’s The Last Jedi.

That being said, after all the online drama that’s unfolded in these last few years, delivering a genuinely crowd-pleasing Star Wars film was always going to be an uphill battle, and even Abrams himself has admitted that he was never going to make a movie that satisfied everyone.

At the time of writing, the global box office gross for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker sits at an estimated $433.5 million – a disappointing figure by Sequel Trilogy standards, even if we’re past the point now where the movie can be considered an outright bomb. But while the Skywalker Saga may be going out with a whimper, relatively speaking, Disney has a few years now to regroup before the next film hits theaters in 2022.

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Rassie Van der Dussen to Make South Africa Test Debut Versus England

Du Plessis said a decision on playing an extra bowler would be made on Thursday morning after assessing conditions at Centurion, Pretoria.

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Stokes Rejoins England Team as Ill Father Does Better

All-rounder Ben Stokes practised with the England team on Wednesday ahead of the first Test against South Africa, starting at SuperSport Park on Thursday.

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