I remember when EA's Origin Access subscription service—a bit like a Netflix for PC gaming—only let you play around 40 games, but now it offers just shy of 100 after adding eight new ones this week, including Mad Max, Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera.
EA opened up the service to other publishers last month, and it's added lots of impressive games since, from the first three Arkham games to The Witness. Regardless of what you think of EA as a publisher, it's becoming harder and harder to argue with the price tag of $5/£4 a month, or $30/£20 for the whole year, given the quality of the games that it gives you access to. You can browse the full list here.
The eight new games are:
- Prison Architect
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (from the developers of A Way Out)
- Virginia, the first-person narrative game inspired by Twin Peaks
- Ember, another isometric RPG
- Spore (God, remember that?)
- Mad Max
- Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition
- Torment: Tides of Numenera
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is another standout—it's a relatively simple puzzle game with a masterfully-told story. Here are Tom's thoughts from when it came out back in 2013.
If you want to sign up, you can do that here. Then, you just boot up Origin, navigate to the Origin Access section and add the games to your library in one click. Make sure you go through the full list, because you'll find things that you probably wanted to play at one time and then forgot about. Out of the Park Baseball 19, for example, was added in the last batch of games, and I picked it up just because I'd always been curious. Now, I'm hooked.
What other games would you like to see offered on Origin Access?
Correction: I originally stated that games you added from Origin Access would stay in your library permanently, even if you unsubscribed, which is not true.
