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Our monthly update on new games being added to PlayStation Plus, Xbox Game Pass and other subscription services.
It’s easy to lose track of new games being added to the countless subscription services. Catch the latest titles below. All information is subject to change.
PlayStation Plus Essential
€8.99/£6.99/$9.99 per month. Included in PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium. Playable on PlayStation 5/PlayStation 4. Available from March 7th – April 3rd, 2023.
PlayStation Plus Extra
€13.99/£10.99/$14.99 US-Dollar per month. Included in PlayStation Plus Premium. Playable on PlayStation 5/PlayStation 4. Available since March 21st, 2023.
PlayStation Plus Premium
€16.99/£13.49/$17.99 per month. Playable on PlayStation 5/PlayStation 4. Available since March 21st, 2023.
Xbox Games with Gold
€6.99/£6.99/$9.99 per month. Included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Playable on Xbox Series/One.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Xbox Game Pass for Console / PC: €9.99/£7.99/$9.99 per month each, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (Console + PC + Games with Gold): €12.99/£10.99/$14.99 per month. Playable on Xbox Series/One.
Nintendo Switch Online
Nintendo Switch Online: €3.99/£3.49/$3.99 per month or €19.99/17.99/$19.99 per year. Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack: €39.99/£34.99/$49.99 per year.
EA Play
EA Play: €3.99/£3.99/$4.99 per month. Included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. EA Play Pro: €14.99/£14.99/$14.99. Available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One.
Ubisoft+
€14.99/£12.99/$14.99 per month, available on PC. Ubisoft+ Multi Access: €17.99/£14.99/$17.99, available on PC and Amazon Luna.
Humble Choice
€9.99/£8.99 Pfund/$11.99 per month. Available on PC from March 7th – April 3rd, 2023.
Prime Gaming
€8.99/£8.99/$14.99 per month. Available on PC.
Check out which games we’ve been playing lately. These games are either part of a subscription services at the time this articles gets published or were made available recently.
Tchia takes us to a South Pacific archipelago inspired by New Caledonia and then fictionalized. At the beginning of the game, the father of the eponymous protagonist Tchia is kidnapped and after family friend Tre has brought her to the first island, the young girl’s task is to track down the villain Meavora. Aside from the main story, you can pursue numerous activities and complete tasks for the inhabitants of the archipelago or pursue a treasure hunt that takes you across the entire archipelago. The comic-like colorful look, the relaxed music and numerous hidden secrets invite you to explore and linger.
At the push of a button you can also take a snapshot or two and play with your trusty ukulele. The mini-games require a fair amount of rhythm and skill, but can be skipped at the touch of a button. You are free to roam the archipelago not only on foot, by boat and gliding through the air, but also in the role of animals such as birds, fishes and deers. That’s right, after all, Tchia has magical abilities and can take on almost any animal and next to any object. Each animal has a special ability that you must use when solving the environmental puzzles. As a crab you can crack locks, as a dog you can dig up objects and using eggs you can blow up rockfaces. At the beginning you can only take over animals and objects for a short amount of time, but you expand this window of time quite quickly as the game progresses.
The game is postcard-perfect, but the refresh rate on consoles is a thorn in our side. Regardless of whether you play Tchia on the PlayStation 4 or – like us – on the PlayStation 5, it always runs at a maximum of 30 frames per second. Surely with some optimization effort a higher framerate would’ve been possible. Anyway – you get used to the low refresh rate after a few hours and on the PC (Epic Games Store) this limitation doesn’t exist.
Tchia is a charming, laid-back action-adventure, which playfully brings us closer to the culture of New Caledonia, looks beautiful and offers a lot of variety in terms of gameplay. However, you shouldn’t expect too long of a playing time, after all we’ve already found almost every animal species in our approximately four hours of play and completed about half of the story. If you liked games like Submerged: Hidden Depths, Beyond Blue or Never Alone, you should definitely give Tchia a chance.
It may have taken a few months, but I finally tried out Tango Gameworks’s Hi-Fi Rush. Despite the surprise release back in January, the game seems to have been well received by both critics and players. And, after playing for a few hours, I can absolutely see why.
Hi-Fi Rush sees protagonist Chai become fused with a music player after an experiment gone wrong. Labelled defective by the evil corporation that got him into this mess in the first place, Chai has to fight through an army of robots to find his freedom. The game’s story is light and to-the-point, having you interact with a number of goofy characters (and often fighting them too). The story blends with the stylish cell shaded visuals to make for a light hearted adventure that moves at a breakneck pace.
Despite this quick pacing, combat requires you to actually time your attacks properly. Rather than just a set timing, you must instead match your moves against the background music. It takes what is a relatively simple set of moves and adds some spice, and it feels great to make it through a fight in one uninterrupted combo. It also helps that enemies follow the rhythm too, removing any frustration that could have been present if enemies weren’t bound by the same rules and could attack at any time.
In many ways, Hi-Fi Rush feels like a modern take on the many action games that you’d be able to find during the PS2-era. Simple titles that offered some fun for a few hours, without making things too complicated or being weighed down by bad monetisation. And yet, it still feels like a modern title, with its solid visuals, musical battle system, and what seems like a surprising amount of content. I’m looking forward to getting back to the game again soon, as I want to see what else it’ll throw at me during its later chapters.
Images courtesy of the publishers. Xbox and PlayStation provided us with access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium.
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