May’s Xbox Live Games with Gold lineup is awful. There, I said it.
Four games are being added to the lineup in May, including two for Xbox 360 that are compatible on Xbox One. They include Marooners and The Golf Club 2 Featuring PGA Tour for Xbox One, as well as Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon and Comic Jumper for Xbox 360.
In short, this is a lineup stacked with mediocrity. Just to give you an idea of how disappointing this month’s lineup is, not only are there no major headliners, just look at these Metacritic review score averages:
- Marooners – 56 out of 100
- Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon – 68 out of 100
- The Golf Club 2 – 69 out of 100
- Comic Jumper – 74 out of 100
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that review score averages aren’t everything. It’s not an objective measure. It’s an aggregation of many subjective measures. There is also probably a bandwagon effect when it comes to review scores.
In other words, Metacritic and OpenCritic are not bang-on 100% of the time. Critics do miss gems and overhype more games than they should. And, of course, everyone has their own taste in genres.
Still, that being said, this is a weak lineup. And that’s not just based on my opinion but on the opinion of countless reviewers who critiqued these games.
Don’t get me wrong. We can’t expect games like Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 every month, but Microsoft could have at least included a solid indie title or must-play classic. If Humble Monthly can manage to put out a decent lineup every month, certainly Microsoft can.
