The fourth month of 2019 is here and Sony and Microsoft have announced their lineup of free titles for their paid gaming subscribers. As always we’re going to compare and contrast these two lineups here. We’ll look at several different areas and compare them such as the price value, how well the games were received by critics, and how old the games are.
Keep in mind this is just our opinion on which is better for the month as every person has different tastes and may like certain games better than others. Which is better in April? Let’s find out.
Games With Gold Price Values
Games with Gold is offering four titles as always with two on Xbox One, one on Xbox 360, and one original Xbox game. As always you can play the Xbox 360 games and Xbox games on your Xbox One thanks to backward compatibility. On the Xbox One you get both The Technomancer and Outcast Second Contact for free. On the Xbox 360 you get Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and on the original Xbox you get Star Wars Battlefront 2. Now let’s look at what the games are worth.
The Technomancer – $39.99
Outcast Second Contact – $39.99
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 – $19.99
Star Wars Battlefront 2 – $9.99
Total Value: $110
So looking at the lineup you get $110 worth of free games in April which is up from the $90 that Games with Gold offered the past two months. The two Xbox One titles are the biggest value here with each being $40. Now both of those games can be found much, much lower at retail but since these are digital versions you have to go by the current digital price. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.
PlayStation Plus Price Values
In April, PlayStation Plus members are getting two games for free. This is because PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita games are no longer offered as part of the service. On the PlayStation 4 this month you can download both The Surge and Conan Exiles for free. Now let’s look at the price values.
Conan Exiles – $49.99
The Surge – $49.99
Total Value: $100
So for the fourth month of 2019 you are getting a total of $100 in value which is up from the $80 you got in March. With only two titles they both ended up valued at the same this month. A large amount of PlayStation Plus members are still asking for more games to make up for the PS3 and Vita lineups being dropped. However these past two months are still offering more value than what you pay for a year of PlayStation Plus so despite only being two games you are still getting good value.
So when comparing both lineups, Games with Gold wins with a $110-$100 difference. It’s a small gap considering Games with Gold now offers double the amount of games as PlayStation Plus. Regardless, you’re getting more value this month on both services than what a year of membership costs so it’s a win for both services.
Price Value Winner: Games with Gold
Now we have looked at what each service is giving you in terms of money value but are the games any good? In this area we are going to look at how each game was received critically and see which lineup comes out on top. I’ll be using Metacritic to pull the scores from and for multiplatform games I will use the platform that had the most review scores. However for games that only have scores of a PC version I will not use them as PC versions can differ greatly from console versions.
Games with Gold Scores
The Technomancer – 60
Outcast Second Contact – 61
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 – 86
Star Wars Battlefront 2 – 83
Review Average – 72
So looking at the Games with Gold lineup you end up with an 72 average score between the titles which is three points lower than it was in March. The overall lineup is basically half good and half average. Both of the Xbox One titles scored in the low 60 range while the Xbox 360 and Xbox title both scored in the low to high 80 range. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.
PlayStation Plus Scores:
Conan Exiles – 68
The Surge – 73
Review Average – 71
So looking at the PlayStation Plus lineup you end up with an 71 average which is down a lot from the 85 average the March lineup had. While last month had two critically acclaimed titles in the lineup this month is more of a mixed bag. Both Conan Exiles and The Surge scored around the 70 range when they released which makes them just good games. Something to keep in mind though is that both of these titles either have or still are getting post launch updates today which means they are both in better shape now than when they were first reviewed. Overall they are solid scores but we’ve certainly seen much better from PlayStation Plus in the past.
So when comparing both lineups in April, Games with Gold comes out better with a close 72-71 win. Even with less games in the lineup PlayStation Plus wasn’t able to top Games with Gold this month. Either way, both lineups offer some good games this month and it’s up to the gamer to decide which games look more interesting to them.
Review Score Winner – Games with Gold
Third Round: Game Newness
Once again we will be looking at and comparing how new are the games that each service is offering. Some gamers prefer to get newer games versus older games so we like to look at when each of these games came out and see which is better in this area.
The Technomancer – June 28, 2016
Outcast Second Contact – November 7, 2017
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 – March 6, 2007
Star Wars Battlefront 2 – November 1, 2005
So looking at the Games with Gold lineup, we have one game that is around a year and half old, one game that is almost three years old, one game that is over twelve years old and one game that is over thirteen years old. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.
Conan Exiles – May 8, 2018
The Surge – May 16, 2017
Looking at the PlayStation Plus lineup we have one game that is almost a year old and one game that is almost two years old.
So when comparing both lineups this month PlayStation Plus is the clear winner. They have a game that is less than a year old and another that is almost two years old while the newest title on Games with Gold is a year and a half old. They continue to include these original Xbox games in their lineup and I’m just not sure how many people care to play a game that is that old. The Xbox 360 titles is also almost as old as the original Xbox game they are offering. Again this area might not mean anything to you but some gamers like getting newer games for free as there is a lesser chance that they have played them.
Game Newness Winner – PlayStation Plus
So for the fourth month of 2019, Games with Gold comes out as the overall winner with a 2-1 win over PlayStation Plus in the compared areas. Games with Gold won the score category as well as the value category while PlayStation Plus won the Game Newness category. All of this doesn’t really mean anything though and as always it’s up to each gamer to decide which lineup is better for their individual tastes. Be sure to let us know in the comments which lineup you like better in April.
Overall Winner: Games with Gold
Ucouldntbemorewrong
Ya I’ll agree with that this month.