Another month is in the books, which means it’s time for both Sony and Microsoft to push out a selection of free games for PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live subscribers. As gamers, we love a good competition, so we’re gonna pit them all together to see who’s offerings are the best. This is now our third of these such competitions, with each month being starkly different. We’ve seen AAA games both old and new, and a ton of indies that range in quality from great, to totally skippable. This month, once again offers something fresh, with both companies pushing totally different sets of games for their fans. So, let’s see who wins PlayStation Plus vs. Xbox Live Games with Gold for April 2016.
First up, the games. As usual, we’ll list them with their Metacritic score, though this isn’t the only determining factor in the quality of the games…
PlayStation Plus Free Games for April 2016
Zombi – PS4 – 71%
Dead Star – PS4 – No score, brand new game
I Am Alive – PS3 – 73%
Savage Moon – PS3 – 73%
A Virus Named TOM – Vita – 65%
Shutshimi – Vita – 85%
MetaCritic Average Score – 73.4%
Oldest Title – 2009
Newest Title – 2016
Xbox Live Games with Gold for April 2016
The Wolf Among Us – Xbox One – 83%
Sunset Overdrive – Xbox One – 81%
Dead Space – Xbox 360 – 78%
Saints Row IV – Xbox 360 –Â 81%
MetaCritic Average Score – 80.75%
Oldest Title – 2008
Newest Title – 2014
The Winner Is…
This is the first month that I’ve been doing this where I feel like there is a clear winner: Xbox Live Games with Gold. PlayStation Plus put up a good fight, but Microsoft promised “blockbusters” for this month’s Games with Gold and they delivered fairly well. The one thing that is a definite advantage for PlayStation Plus users is that they’ll be getting a brand new game on launch day, which is a staple of Sony’s service. However, the games presented by the competition are just too overwhelming.
The Wolf Among Us is easily one of Telltale’s best games, and one of the best narrative driven games available. Sunset Overdrive was a big title in the early days of the Xbox One, and for those that haven’t picked it up, this is a huge offering. Then you get Xbox One Backwards Compatible versions of Dead Space and Saints Row IV to top things off.
Sony, of course, is offering a lot more games for fans, but they just aren’t of as high a quality. Even with newer titles overall, the lack of a big “wow” game just drags the whole thing down. With that said, Dead Star could turn out to be another Rocket League, i.e. one of the best games of the year, in which case we’ll drive to Microsoft headquarters and snatch this award out of their tear soaked hands. Forgoing that, the PS Plus free games are nice, but no contest next to the powerhouses that Microsoft threw out there.
To grab all of these games head to the PlayStation Store and Xbox Store.
Published: Mar 31, 2016 09:55 am