‘PvZ: Garden Warfare 2’ And More Coming To EA Access, ‘Battlefield 1’ Trial Dated
EA Access subscribers on the Xbox One have three new games to look forward to through August as well as some new trials. Electronic Arts announced its schedule for the Netflix-like subscription service that will serve up Need for Speed, Unravel, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.
The new entries to EA Access starts on July 12 when Need for Speed and Unravel are added to the EA Access Vault. They will later be joined by Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 on August 30.
Additionally, a Madden NFL 17 Play First Trial will be available for Xbox One owners subscribed to EA Access on August 18. This will be followed by a similar trial for NHL 17 on September 8 and FIFA 17 on September 22. Play First Trails give full access to the game for a limited period of time. Progress made in the title during the trial will carry over if the game is purchased when released.
Want to know what's coming to #EAAccess? @NeedforSpeed, @unravel_game, and a whole lot more: https://t.co/uPSZ8SeqqG pic.twitter.com/Q1bgowQQFL
— EA Play (@EAPlay) July 6, 2016
Electronic Arts also confirmed Battlefield 1 will receive a Play First Trail ahead of its launch. Xbox One owners will be able to try DICE’s take on the World War I battlefield on October 13, eight days ahead of the scheduled October 21 worldwide release.
Need for Speed is a reboot of the long-running Electronic Arts arcade racing series. The game received a disappointing 65 score average on Metacritic, where it was nailed for repetitive gameplay, lackluster online modes, a forced story, and poor framerate performance.
Unravel became an indie-styled darling after it was introduced by EA during the publisher’s E3 2015 press conference. The puzzle-platformer introduces the cute character Yarny, who is on a journey about the bonds that tie a family together. While it serves up a heaping dose of metaphor, it also provides some beautiful visuals and challenging puzzles. Unfortunately, some of those puzzles turned out to be too repetitive and frustrating at times, dragging the game’s average Metacritic score to a 75.
PopCap Games took their original Garden Warfare concept and dialed things up to 11 with Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. The game features more characters, more things to do, bigger maps, and a huge Backyard Battleground hub world. The game is supported by microtransactions to unlock variants and costumes for characters. This makes all of the DLC free, including the recently released Trouble in Zombopolis: Part One and Part Two. The game received an 80 Metacritic score, with most praising its charm and others complaining about its lack of depth.
EA Access is available to Xbox One owners via a $4.99-a-month subscription or a $30-a-year subscription. Meanwhile, Origin Access is only available as a $4.99 subscription. Both services come with a selection of around 15 free games to download, along with the ability to download trials ahead of a game’s release. A 10 percent discount on digital purchases of Electronic Arts titles and all DLC is also included as part of the service.
The EA Access Hub app from the Xbox Store is where subscribers can find all titles available to download at no extra cost. The list of games currently available includes Battlefield Hardline, EA Sports UFC, Battlefield 4, FIFA 16, Madden NFL 16, Dragon Age: Inquisition, NHL 16, Titanfall, Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, Need for Speed Rivals, NBA Live 15, Peggle 2, and older sports titles. It also includes Xbox 360 backwards compatible titles like Dead Space and Plants vs. Zombies.
Neither EA Access nor Origin Access is available on the PlayStation 4. The console is the only major platform that receives Electronic Arts-published games without the option for owners to subscribe to the services. A PlayStation representative previously explained that Sony turned the service down for its new console because it didn’t provide a good value, as the Inquisitr reported.
What do you think of the upcoming line-up of EA Access games? Sound off in the comments below.
[Image via Electronic Arts]
