The month of April has some big releases in the form of Persona 5 and Yooka-Laylee, but that isn’t quite enough to keep us busy until May. Thankfully, Microsoft and Sony have fresh batches of free games for PlayStation and Xbox players alike. But the classic question still remains unanswered: which console will give you a better bang for your buck? An online subscription for each box costs $60, so let’s see if you can make your money back this month.
PlayStation Instant Games Collection
Here are this month’s PS Plus games and their standard prices:
PS4
Drawn to Death – Free to Play
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – $14.99
PS Vita (also available on PS4 with cross buy)
10 Second Ninja X – $9.99
Curses ‘n chaos – $9.99
PS3
Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom – $19.99
Alien Rage – $19.99
The April PlayStation Plus lineup of free games offers players a chance to try out David Jaffe’s new game for absolutely free. Drawn to Death is a multiplayer shooter inspired by the drawings of an adolescent child come to life. Hardened soldiers, demon pirates, and punk rockers all battle to claim victory. The outlandish premise gives way to outlandish gameplay, making for a very different kind of online shooter.
Also being offered on PS4 is Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. It can be played alone but if you want to enjoy it at its best, you should bring a friend along for the ride. Players work together to pilot a massive, spherical spaceship, running from room to room to steer, shoot, and control shields. The are always too many tasks to be done. It’s an incredibly stylish, insane co-op game that is a great deal of fun.
The PlayStation Vita also has two great games for free this month. Both are also available via cross buy if you would prefer sitting in front of your TV. 10 Second Ninja is a tough as nails platformer similar to Super Meat Boy. You flip and jump through levels, dispatching all enemies and making it to the goal. Precision and timing are key and you’ll likely die quite a few times.
Curses ‘n Chaos offers up classic beat ‘em up action. Take control of a handful of unique characters and beat a selection of ghosts, ghouls, and other baddies of the night back into their graves. Light RPG elements add extra layers to the increasingly difficult combat, making it a lot of fun to punch everything that moves.
PS3 players can jump into Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom. The series takes advantage of augmented reality, letting players interact and bond with their Invizimals. It’s a fairly simple platformer and action game but a good one at that. The last game up for grabs this month is alien Rage for PS3. It’s a sci-fi FPS with plenty of big guns, bigger explosions, and enough attitude to eclipse both. It’s a fun romp through a dangerous space station that is worth a look.
Drawn to Death may not even have a marked price but Sony is still thanking you for your patronage with $73 worth of savings. The games on offer are great and are incredibly diverse in terms of gameplay as well. Another good month to be a PlayStation player.
Xbox Games with Gold
Below are the Xbox Games with Gold for this month and their original prices:
Xbox One
Ryse Son of Rome – $19.99
Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 2 – $24.99
Xbox 360
Darksiders – $19.99
Assassin’s Creed Revelations – $19.99
Xbox One players get to sink their teeth into some fantastic games this month for no cost at all. Ryse Son of Rome still holds up incredibly well visually, portraying a glistening Rome, battles soaked in mud and blood, and some of the best looking armor in gaming. The combat is rather simplistic, but it’s visceral enough to remain fun for your first playthrough.
Telltale’s the Walking Dead Season 2 is just as bloody as Ryse but different from it in nearly every way. It continues the heart-wrenching story of the first season. Clementine is left to her own devices, forced to find a way to survive in the incredibly unforgiving world. It’s another harrowing chapter in this fantastic series and worth playing through if you haven’t yet.
The Xbox 360 games for the month are also available on Xbox One via backwards compatibility. Darksiders mixes the brutal combat of God of War with the dungeons and puzzles of The Legend of Zelda. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well. The story of one of the horsemen of the apocalypse clearing his name in a destroyed world is a fantastic adventure that is equal parts engaging action and mind-bending puzzles.
Lastly, Assassin’s Creed Revelations is the final chapter in the Ezio trilogy. The wise assassin travels to Constantinople to wage war against the Templars once again. The city is incredibly different from the Italian venues he visited in previous games. It also serves as a thoughtful bridge between Ezio and Altair, bringing the two assassins’ adventures to a fitting end.
Xbox not only gives players four stellar games to sink their teeth into, they also save Xbox Live Gold subscribers a whopping $104. That more than makes up for the $60 asking price of the subscription.
Best Bang for Your Buck?
Xbox is the clear winner this month with $104 of savings compared to PlayStation’s $73. Microsoft’s offerings include more AAA titles whereas Sony focuses more on indie games this month. Both companies give gamers plenty to play, though. The release schedule is slowing down as summer approaches so these certifiably good titles are a great way to spend a couple of quiet nights.
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