PS Plus vs. Xbox Games with Gold: Which Free Games Were Better In 2018?
Sony PS Plus
For years, the general consensus was that Sony’s online service was holding back on quality “free games.” After 2018, that’s surely been well and truly stamped out. What a superb 12 months it’s been in that respect, with multiple AAA titles generously stacked throughout the year.
PS Plus started strong and managed to keep up the momentum throughout. January’s Deux Ex: Mankind Divided basically laid down the marker and then Sony kept rolling out the big guns. With Bloodborne, Mad Max, XCOM 2, and Destiny 2 gazing down the list of headline PS4 games this year you can honestly say that there’s enough quality to have never spent a penny on additional games beyond your subscription fee.
I don’t think you can really say any of them are “bad” months. Even if the genre or particular game wasn’t your cup of tea, they were generally of a very good standard.
Perhaps October is the only month we’d flag as a slight question mark. The headline titles of Friday the 13th and Laser League weren’t quite of the same caliber as other months.
Although it’s easy to get sidetracked looking at each month’s headline games, it’s worth pointing out that Sony continued its support of PS3 and Vita games in 2018. Highlights include Read Only Memories 2064, Grand Kingdom, and Zero Time Dilemma, which were often cross-buy compatible with PS4, a functionality that further bolstered the overall service this year.
Despite inconsistent support, PSVR had its share of “free games” throughout the year too, such as psychological horror Here They Lie. Again, the variety of games across multiple systems meant that PS Plus’ value was in its quantity as well as quality.
You can check out the full list of notable PS Plus releases below, broken down into different months:
- January – Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
- November – Knack/RiME
- March – Bloodborne/Ratchet and Clank
- April – Mad Max
- May – Beyond Two Souls
- June – XCOM 2
- July – Absolver/Heavy Rain
- August – Mafia 3/Dead by Daylight
- September – Destiny 2/God of War 3 Remastered
- October – Friday the 13th
- November – Yakuza Kiwami
- December – SOMA
