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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 May 2nd – June 5th, 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 May 16th, 2023.
PlayStation Plus Premium
€16.99/£13.49/$17.99 per month. Playable on PlayStation 5/PlayStation 4. Available since May 16th, 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.
Leaving on May 31st:
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.
Leaving on May 31st:
Ubisoft+
€14.99/£12.99/$14.99 per month, available on PC. Ubisoft+ Multi Access: €17.99/£14.99/$17.99, available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Amazon Luna.
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Humble Choice
€9.99/£8.99 Pfund/$11.99 per month. Available on PC from May 2nd – June 5th, 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.
Cassette Beasts is a monster collecting RPG that distances itself from Pokémon in a number of ways. Not only does it have more of a focus on its story and characters, the way its titular Cassette Beasts are handled makes for a more enjoyable experience overall.
Taking place on New Wirral, an island seemingly separated from the real world, you’re tasked with finding a way home for both your character and the others trapped there. You’ll be accompanied at most times by a partner, who’ll offer useful advice and help out in battle. It makes for a better story than something like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, since you’ll have people alongside you rather than just in cutscenes. Exploration is also handled in a more satisfying way, as the monsters you collect also allow you to obtain new abilities, like gliding or climbing up walls.
But it’s the RPG and battle elements that I really enjoy, as they eliminate the grind that’s sometimes necessary in monster collecting games. Rather than each Cassette Beast having its own level, your character (and partner) has a level instead. This means that switching out monsters won’t leave you at as much of a disadvantage due to levels. You’re still incentivised to level multiple beasts, since increasing your friendship with them will unlock new stickers (moves) that can be mixed and matched between your entire party.
Battles in general are quite fun, as you manage the point costs for moves and take into account each element — rather than just doing more damage, using moves of an advantageous type can apply extra debuffs like reduced attack or point gain. The level system gives you the freedom to experiment with different party setups easily, and I often found myself switching out different Cassette Beasts often. The game also brings in something I’ve been hoping other monster collecting games would do for a while: fusion. Cassette Beasts can fuse together during battle to create new combinations, giving you even more options during fights. It’s cool to see how different monsters combine, even if the animations are (unsurprisingly) limited.
Cassette Beasts does a lot to freshen up aspects of the genre that have often felt quite stagnant. It really does feel like its own game, rather than trying to go after the nostalgia for older 2D Pokémon titles. With optional boss fights and extra encounters to discover, I can definitely see myself playing this one to completion. Cassette Beasts is available on PC and Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
Humanity is a 3D puzzle game in which you take control of a magic fox guiding people to the light. There are some cutscenes telling a very mysterious plot but that’s not the main focus of the game. The game challenges you with increasingly difficult puzzles and equips you with additional abilities as you progress. You’ll have to pass obstacles such as wind machines, water, tickets and a whole lot of deadly abysses. If you’ve played the Clank levels in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart or Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, you know what you can expect from the puzzle design in Humanity.
As you move through the game’s more than 80 levels you can place directions, jumps, floats and much more for the never-ending waves of people. Every few levels the elements placed in each level change such as different kind of switches, moveable blocks, conveyor belts and fans. Each world also offers optional levels and you can collect golden people to unlock new abilities such as being able to pause the game at will, display the connections of switches or restart the current level with your commands already in place. The latter is especially useful since quite a few levels require issuing commands with good timing. You can also unlock new outfits for your people.
The game already ships with a lot of content, but you can also create your own puzzles with a very powerful editor or download levels created by the community. The visuals are impressive but don’t affect the performance and the audio design is well executed. If you like puzzle games, you should definitely give Humanity a chance. The puzzles are varied and challenging, the controls are tight for the most part and the learning curve isn’t too steep. Humanity is available on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, PS5, PS VR2, PS4, and Steam.
Planet of Lana is a heavily Studio Ghibli-inspired 2.5D platformer set in a colorful world called Novo which gets invaded by an army of robots. 11-year old Lana is able to escape and sets out to save her older sister Elo. On her journey through a vast desert, lush forests, agiant ocean and a sterile robot factory she is supported by Mui, a small adorable black creature. Planet of Lana is a linear experience in the vein of FAR: Lone Sails, Limbo or Inside. Just like the aforementioned games Planet of Lana tells its story mostly through its environment. Stone tablets provide more background on what has transpired on Novo beforehand.
In order to find your sister you’ll have to get past robots by using Lana’s and Mui’s abilities. While Mui is able to control Novo’s animals, Lana can take over flying drones or machines. Don’t miss the clues written on the walls. The puzzles get increasingly difficult as the progress through the four- to five-hour long campaign while never frustrating you. Novo is the silent star in Planet of Lana. Travelling through the incredible environments displayed in all its low-poly aesthetic is a pure joy. Developer Wishfully created a unique language (written and vocal) for this game and the incredible orchestral soundtrack which themes range from menacing over hopeful to tearjerking sad was composed by Takeshi Furukawa (The Last Guardian) with vocals provided by Siobhan Wilson.
Planet of Lana is a competent 2.5D platformer with clever environmental puzzles, an engaging story from start to finish and a fantastic presentation. It should appeal to core gamers as well as non-gamers due to its beautiful Ghibli-esque aesthetic and story as well as sophisticated but never overly challenging puzzles. It’s available on PC and Xbox Game Pass, Steam, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
Images of Cassette Beasts courtesy of the publisher. We captured the screenshots on PC (Planet of Lana) and PS5 (Humanity). The publisher provided us a Steam code for Planet of Lana, Xbox and PlayStation provided us with access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PlayStation Plus Premium.
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