PlayStation Plus vs. Games With Gold – Which Is Better? March 2019 Edition

The third month of 2019 is upon us 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. There has been a change up now as PlayStation Plus appears to be shifting to two games a month versus the previous six so that will change things.

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 March? 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 Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 and Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion for free. On the Xbox 360 you get Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and on the original Xbox you get Star Wars: Republic Commando. Now let’s look at what the games are worth.

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion – $39.99

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 – $19.99

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – $19.99

Star Wars: Republic Commando – $9.99

Total Value: $90

So looking at the lineup you get $90 worth of free games in March which is the exact same value that was offered in February. Adventure Time is the biggest value here being priced at $40. The rest are either $20 or $10 so overall not bad for the month of March. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.

PlayStation Plus Price Values

In March, 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. February’s games on those platforms are still available for a few extra days in March so you can go grab them if you haven’t yet. On the PlayStation 4 both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and The Witness are free. Now let’s look at the price values.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered – $39.99

The Witness – $39.99

Total Value: $80

So for the third month of 2019 you are getting a total of $80 in value which is down from the $143 you got in February. That’s a huge drop from last month and understandable given that only two games are factored in now compared to the six we’ve been use to. It’s still more 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 $90-$80 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

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion – 62

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 – 80

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – 80

Star Wars: Republic Commando – 78

Review Average – 75

So looking at the Games with Gold lineup you end up with an 75 average score between the titles which is five points higher than it was in February. The overall lineup is solid across the board with two games scoring an 80 and another with a high 70. Adventure time was the lowest here with a low 60 but it didn’t hurt the average too much. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.

PlayStation Plus Scores:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered – 83

The Witness – 87

Review Average – 85

So looking at the PlayStation Plus lineup you end up with an 85 average which is up a lot from the 78 average the lineup had in February. I’m not sure but this might be the highest average ever for PlayStation Plus. Now this is easier now that only two games are being factored into the average. Both games this month were very well received with The Witness having won Game of the Year awards and Modern Warfare still being considered the best Call of Duty of all time.

So when comparing both lineups in March, PlayStation Plus comes out far better with a 85-75 win. This area has always favored Games with Gold in the past given that they had less games to factor into the average but that advantage has now shifted to PlayStation Plus. 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 – PlayStation Plus

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.

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion – July 17, 2018

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 – February 23, 2016

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – February 19, 2013

Star Wars: Republic Commando – February 28, 2005

So looking at the Games with Gold lineup, we have one game that is eight months old, one game that is three years old, one game that is six years old, and one game that is fourteen years old. Now let’s look at the PlayStation Plus lineup.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered – November 4, 2016

The Witness – January 26, 2016

Looking at the PlayStation Plus lineup we have one game that is a little over two years old and one game that is three years old.

So when comparing both lineups this month I’m going to give the edge to PlayStation Plus. While Games with Gold does have a pretty recent game in their lineup they also have games that are six and fourteen years 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. PlayStation Plus’s two games are no more than three years old so they both hold up and both might be something you haven’t played yet. 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 third month of 2019, PlayStation Plus comes out as the overall winner with a 2-1 win over Games with Gold in the compared areas. PlayStation Plus won the score category as well as the game newness category while Games with Gold won the value 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 March.

Overall Winner: PlayStation Plus