PS Plus vs Games with Gold July 2018: Which Free Games are Better?

The PlayStation Plus free titles and Xbox Live Games with Gold have been announced for June 2018. It’s time to pit the collections against each other to see which console comes out on top with June’s offerings. Welcome to PS Plus vs Games with Gold!

Let’s take a look at the contestants. First up, the PS Plus Instant Game Collection.

Heavy Rain (PS4)
Absolver (PS4)
Rayman 3 HD (PS3)
Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess (PS3)
Space Overlords (PS Vita)
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (PS Vita)

Next, here are the Xbox Games with Gold that you can grab on Microsoft’s platform next month.

Assault Android Cactus (Xbox One)
Death Squared (Xbox One)
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown (Xbox 360, Xbox One w/ backwards compatibility)
Splinter Cell Conviction (Xbox 360, Xbox One w/ backwards compatibility)

PS Plus Free Games July 2018

Sony preceded Detroit: Become Human’s June release by offering Beyond: Two Souls back in May. They are now following up Detroit’s success by offering the PS4 remaster of Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream’s PS3 crime thriller. Personally, I thought Heavy Rain was a fantastic game, and liked it a lot more than Beyond. The mystery behind it was twisting, and even if it mostly culminated in one place, the decisions you made along the way had some pretty major impacts. This will also give everyone the opportunity to play the meme-inducing “Press X to Jason” scene if they haven’t yet experienced that magical moment in interactive entertainment.

Absolver is a crazy hybrid of fighting games, brawlers, and RPGs. The unique blend led the game to mixed reviews overall. The formula seemed to click with some players, while for others it just fell flat when they couldn’t fully wrap their heads around it. As a love-it-or-hate it kind of game, that makes it a perfect pick for PlayStation Plus. For some, Absolver will be a gem this month, and for others, they’ll just be glad they didn’t need to pay for the game to try it out. I haven’t played it myself yet, but I’m eager to see what all the fuss is about.

Where previous months have been throwaways on PS3 and Vita, July actually has some okay releases, even if you have to fire up the old console or handheld to play them. Rayman 3 HD may not have the same charm as the more recent side-scrollers like Rayman Legends and Origins (Seriously Ubisoft, where’s a new Rayman game? Also what’s up with using Origins as titles for so many of your games?), but it’s a good quality remaster of a classic game. Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess is a game riddled with untapped potential, but worth checking out if you’ve got nothing else to play.

And finally on Vita, Sony is offering both an amazing title and burning pile of garbage (to put it nicely). To start with the bad, Space Overlords is a game so bad it doesn’t even half enough reviews to have a metascore. The four reviews it does have (two on PS4 and two on Vita) are very low scores. I would say that the Vita wouldn’t be worth turning on this month, but the second game is Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma, which is a fascinating puzzle game/visual novel that shouldn’t be missed.

According to the PlayStation Blog, none of the games are cross-platform this month, so that means you get your two PS4 games, two PS3 games, and two Vita games. This is a huge disappointment, because three of the four games are also available on PS4, including Zero Escape. If you don’t have a PS3 or Vita however, you’re out of luck on being able to play these.

Xbox Live Games with Gold July 2018

Xbox has some pretty good games this month. First up is Assault Android Cactus, an arcade-style bullet-hell game that is full of cute humanoid androids blowing up other robots. If you’re looking for an adorable challenge full of chaos, look no further than Assault Android Cactus. We had some problems with being cued into the taking damage based on all of the sound going on at once, but it’s still an enjoyable experience.

Death Squared is a multiplayer puzzle game that’s been well-received by critics, even if it’s not a high-profile name. The biggest downside is that it works best when playing couch co-op with real-life friends, so if you want to play solo, Death Squared might not be for you. After getting The Witness a couple of months ago, most other puzzle games seem a trivial addition to this lineup that can’t really match up.

Backwards compatibility gives Xbox One players the chance to play Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown. At the time of release, it was called one of the deepest fighting games around, but with more than six years between then and now, the fighting game landscape may have shifted quite a bit. Offering games like this when there are fighting communities keenly interested in other games seems like a move that will leave many uninterested.

The final Xbox 360 backwards compatible game for July is Splinter Cell Conviction. The highly praised Splinter Cell game was the second to last one released. Many expected a new Splinter Cell announcement to come at E3 but we were left disappointed. Does Splinter Cell’s addition to Games with Gold foretell a coming announcement? We can dream, but the answer is probably much more mundane.

All four Games with Gold June games are playable on the Xbox One.

PS Plus vs Games with Gold: Which Lineup is Better?

July goes to Sony if you’re considering every single game, but without cross-buy on the PS3 and Vita games, the list is prematurely crippled. For PS4 owners, Sony has Heavy Rain and Absolver. I would have loved to see Zero Escape be compatible on PS4 too, so Sony takes a bit of a hit by only offering the Vita version.

Even only considering Heavy Rain and Absolver, the PS4 just has a stronger lineup going for it this month. The best game on Games with Gold is a near decade-old Splinter Cell, though to be fair, the best game for PS4 is a near decade-old Quantic Dream remaster. Honestly, Sony missed a pretty big opportunity to make their list stand out, above the crowd. While Heavy Rain is arguably a better headliner than Splinter Cell: Conviction (or even Assault Android Cactus, which is positioned as the “headliner” for this month’s Gold), Sony has some real misses this month with other lackluster titles and lack of cross-buy on the games that matter. Players will potentially be able to find things to love about both lineups, with more games on Xbox One, but it’s not a particularly strong month for either.

Wondering how August’s lineups will fare next to one another? Come back next month when we pit the newly announced free games lineups against one another in PS Plus vs Games with Gold. Do you agree with our verdict? Which lineup do you think is better?

Biggest E3 Surprises in Sony History

A Glimpse Into the Sony Archives

From an erratic Kevin Butler to Final Fantasy VII HD Remake, here are just some of the moments from E3 past that took us by surprise.
PlayStation Price Reveal

We begin with one from the gaming archives: Sony’s reveal of the PlayStation price tag. More than 20 years ago, executive Steve Race walked on stage to announce that the PlayStation, a landmark machine that would go on to redraw the lines of console gaming, was to be priced at $299 – a full $100 cheaper than the Sega Saturn. It was the equivalent of dropping the mic…in 1995.
PS3, Starting at $599

Proving that 10 years is a lifetime in the video game industry, Sony's E3 2006 press conference wrote its name in the history book for all the wrong reasons, whether it’s Kaz Hirai's half-hearted cry of "Riiiiiidge Racer!” or the mere mention of PS3’s eye-watering price point which, at $599, would’ve required two jobs to afford at launch. Yeesh!
Valve Chief Gabe Newell Swings By Sony

To say that Gabe Newell was left disappointed by the PS3 would be to deal in wild understatement. For one, the Valve boss deemed Sony’s flagship hardware to be a “total disaster” and even suggested that the company cancel it and start over. Ouch!

So you can imagine our surprise when Newell swung by Sony’s E3 2010 presser to talk Portal 2. His appearance helped stoke excitement among the crowd, and it certainly helped that he was announcing one of the most beloved sequels of all time.
Final Fantasy Jumps Airship

For the first time in the franchise's decorated history, XIII marked the first Final Fantasy title to go multiplatform, meaning Lightning's adventure was also available for Xbox owners.
That Killzone 2 Trailer

Before the PS3 even hit store shelves, Guerrilla Games was already swinging for the fences – so much so, in fact, that the studio created a by-now infamous E3 trailer for Killzone 2 without actually knowing the PS3's final specs.

And sure enough, the sizzle reel blew everyone away with its deft animation and character models, though it later transpired that the studio was really playing fast and loose with its graphics benchmark for Killzone 2.
Kiefer Sutherland Supplants David Hayter As Snake

For many Metal Gear fans, David Hayter is Solid Snake…and Big Boss, and Naked Snake, and Old Snake and, well, you get the drift. Fast forward to E3, though, and Konami announced changing of the guard. No longer would the gravel-voiced Hayter portray Metal Gear’s beloved lead; instead, the Powers That Be had chosen 24 actor Kiefer Sutherland. And Metal Gear would never be the same again.
Kevin Butler’s Epic E3 Speech of 2010

With each passing year, E3 tends to serve up a headline-worhty speech (here's looking at you, Jason VandenBerghe), but none more memorable than Kevin Butler's epic speech of 2010.

Butler, a fictional marketing character brought to life with real glee by Jerry Lambert, took to the stage at E3 2010 to deliver a celebration of the gaming industry and all of its many quirks.

Cheesy? You betcha'. But there hasn't been another E3 speech like it.
Sony Stakes a Claim For the Console Throne

If the Playstation powerhouse stole headlines left, right and center in 1995, only to drop the ball quite spectacularly in 2006, then E3 2013 marked Sony's claim for the console throne.

With the industry still reeling from Microsoft's newly-unveiled DRM policies and online requirements, all of which formed the basis of the Xbox One architecture, former Sony boss Jack Tretton executed what is perhaps the perfect PR coup, one which allowed PS4 to become the most sought-after console of 2013.
E3 2015 and its Many Megatons

If Sony's 2013 presentation was all about hardware, then E3 2015 brought what will now be referred to as the hat trick of PS4 megatons: an HD remaster of Final Fantasy 7, The Last Guardian, and Shenmue 3.

Only one of those titles has made it to release (and even it took close to 10 years), though we'll be damned if Sony's E3 2015 presser wasn't one for the ages.