It’s July! Well, not just yet, but it will be soon. Thankfully Sony and Microsoft both issued their lists of free games for July 2017 a bit earlier than usual, allowing me to get this ready before I go on a bit of a vacation. Xbox One gets a new set of four free games and PS4/3/Vita get their usual six, but which is the better selection? We’ll answer that right now with PlayStation Plus vs. Xbox Live Games with Gold for July 2017.
As always, this is just our (really just my) opinion. I’m giving some facts and figures about these games to give more of an objective assessment, but the final verdict is just my opinion based on the games offered. Sometimes great games don’t interest me or other players, or AAA titles are offered that literally every person who had any interest in has already bought. So, here’s the breakdown.
PlayStation Plus Free Games for July 2017
Until Dawn, PS4 – 79%
Game of Thrones, PS4 – 69%
Tokyo Jungle, PS3 – 74%
Darkstalkers Resurrection, PS3 – 80%
Element4l, PS Vita – 62%
Don’t Die, Mr. Robot, PS Vita (Cross Buy on PS4) – 76%
MetaCritic Average Score – 73.3%
Oldest Title – 2012
Newest Title – 2015
Xbox Live Games with Gold Free Games for July 2017
Grow Up, Xbox One – 74%
Runbow, Xbox One – 82% on Wii U (brand new for Xbox One)
Kane & Lynch 2, Xbox 360 (back. compatible for Xbox One) – 63%
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Xbox 360 (back. compatible for Xbox One) – 73%
MetaCritic Average Score – 73%
Oldest Title – 2010
Newest Title – 2017 (brand new game)
The Winner Is…
So this one comes down to the wire in a few ways. As usual PS Plus offers more games, but for once it’s Xbox Live Games with Gold that has the brand new title. In fact, Sony’s entire selection is pretty old. It’s also always nice that Xbox’s selection are backward compatible on Xbox One, making it so you can play all four on your shiny new console. But it all comes down to the games here, and as the Metacritic figures show, there’s some good and some bad in both. For me it all comes down to one game…Until Dawn.
This is one of those games that feels a bit underappreciated. I know I was excited for it and due to the schedule of a game reviewer it just slipped through the cracks. Getting it for free from PS Plus makes this a great month for me personally, but I think more gamers will be excited for this than they will be for Runbow, which looks good and is brand new but still has a somewhat limited audience.
Game of Thrones will also probably be a nice get for many PS4 gamers, though it did turn out to be one of Telltale’s worst series to date. The rest of PS Plus and Games with Gold’s titles are mostly a mixed bag of quality. Maybe there’s something in there you’ve been dying to play, but for me PS Plus takes the win of PlayStation Plus vs. Xbox Live Games with Gold for July 2017.
