Let’s get ready to rumble…
Last week both Microsoft and Sony announced what will be available on Games With Gold and Playstation Plus for December respectively. For the first time ever the PS4 will be receiving a triple-A title, Injustice: Gods Amongst Us Ultimate Edition, this has been a major request from subscribers so it is good to see the PS4 finally get a Triple-A game. Both December offerings have been well received by fans, this is unlike last month where both offerings were considered to be ‘less-than-stellar’. The competition has heated up so let’s find out which company has the better offering for the final month of 2014:
(You can view the Playstation Plus offering here and the Games With Gold offerings here)
How New Is Each Offering?
With only one Xbox One title for December, the Games With Gold is not the newest offering ever, but it is not ancient either. Worms Battlegrounds is most recently released title, releasing in June 2014 (May 2014 for the EU). The Xbox 360 titles, SSX and The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief were released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. While the Games With Gold offering is not extremely new, it is a lot better than last month’s offering which was came from the stone ages.
The Playstation Plus titles are completely mixed, there are two brand new title coming to the service and that is the PS4 game, Secret Ponchos, in addition to Final Horizon. Elsewhere Injustice and Titan Attacks! both came out in the past 12 months. What holds PS Plus down in this category is Deadly Premonition and the Hitman HD Trilogy which came out in 2010 and early 2013 respectively, it could really be argued that the Hitman trilogy came out in 2002-2006 but since the Trilogy is its own retail release we will count it as such.
Overall the average Games With Gold title came out in late 2013 whereas the PS Plus offering is slightly older with an average of early 2013. If PS Plus did not have the 2010 title Deadly Premonitions, it would have won this round.
Winner: Games With Gold
Which offering has the highest levels of quality?
Both PS Plus and Games With Gold have high Metacritic averages this month. PS Plus has an average of 73.75, it is worth noting that the average was calculated without the titles which have not released yet, even though it is on the Instant Games Collection as a Vita title, we used the PS4 score for Titans Attacks because it was the only score available and the game is exactly the same on both the Vita and PS4. It was good to see Sony stick to their own rule of games having to be 70+ on Metacritic to be a part of the IGC.
Games With Gold has a lower average of 68.89, this is a wider gap between the two services than usual. Unfortunately The Legacy of a Master Thief single handily dropped the average for Games With Gold this month.
Winner: PS Plus
Which Service Has More Value For Money?
We are heading into the final round at one a piece but it should be no surprise which service has the most value.
The PS Plus offering includes six games; the most valuable title is Injustice: Gods Amongst Us which can be found for around £25/$40 in most retailers. Deadly Premonition can be found for about £20/$30. The other PS Plus titles can be found for a lot lower prices, examples of this include Titans Attacks! which costs £8/$12 and Hitman HD Trilogy which can be found for £10/$15 in a bargain bin. If the two new releases are listed at the standard indie game price of £8/$12 the total monetary value of PS Plus for December will be an impressive £79/$133.
Games With Gold on the other hand lacks in value this month, Worms has the highest price point of £15/$25, SSX can be picked up for £7/$15 while The Raven is pretty cheap at £5/$10. The total monetary value for Games With Gold is £27/$50.
Winner: PS Plus
Playstation Plus maybe the better of the two services this month but the real winners are the subscribers to both of the services. Both Games With Gold and PS Plus have ended the year with a bang so get ready to download all of those games next week.
Which service won in your opinion? Which game are you most looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below.