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Would You Kindly Take a Look at February’s Shocking PS+ Titles?

By on February 15, 2020

Remastered collections of past video game franchises have continued to grow in both popularity and frequency during this console generation. Whether that’s a good thing or not is a different conversation altogether – Have developers run out of ideas? Do remastered versions of old games take away from similar new games? – but for those who enjoy revisiting classics, seeing technical tweaks, and future-proofing their favorites have enjoyed something of a renaissance over the past couple of years.  For this round of PS+ freebies in February, players will be able to jump into an installment from one of the longest running slice-of-life simulators out there, but the main draw this time around will be a remastered edition of one of the most iconic franchises to come out of last generation.

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bioshock ps

PS4

Bioshock: The Collection

A little admission: I’m not great at first-person shooters, so the more engaging the story and atmosphere are surrounding the game, the more likely I am to stay engaged with it. Playing Bioshock for the first time was a revelation, where the marriage of visuals and world-building and intuitive customization actively encouraged me to tighten up my shooting skills and progress through the narrative of Rapture. That carried through into Bioshock 2 – despite being from a different development and creative team, with advisement – and into the long wait for Bioshock Infinite, and all three possess their own absorbing qualities in characterization, tonal shifts and thematic undercurrents.  Bioshock: The Collection gathers together almost all of the content previously released for these three games from last-gen (the multiplayer from Bioshock 2 was ditched) in top-shelf visual and technical presentations, fine-tuned at a remastered 60fps. Don’t forget to play Minerva’s Den and Burial At Sea, the outstanding add-ons.

The Sims 4

For many old-school gamers, the first thing that’ll come to mind upon hearing the words “Sim” or “Maxis” will be SimCity, with its earliest iterations still being some of the best simulation games on the market.  Since, they’ve evolved into the section of EA responsible for cranking out The Sims, which essentially morphed their ideology from simulating the creation of urban ecosystems to simulating the creation of human beings, family units and domestic routines. The Sims 4 marks almost 15 years of evolution in the franchise, and to this day – six years later – it still receives substantive, quality-of-life updates for its legions of fans. This console version was ported over in 2017, three years after its initial release, and received mixed reviews from critics who mostly suggest for players to go for the PC version of the game if they can. It’d be a shame if they loaded up one of Maxis’ classic titles on there too, while they were at it.

PS VR

Firewall: Zero Hour

As the virtual reality gaming platform transitions from being a novelty to a consistent source of new content, it’ll need some regular heavy-hitter properties to fuel excitement. Firewall: Zero Hour has been considered one of those titles since its unveiling in 2017, receiving multiple awards in the VR and online gaming spectrums since. In this shooter, players take control of “contractors” who execute jobs from their handlers, and each contractor possesses different skills that help them accomplish their missions … and add variety to the gameplay.  On top of being an immersive visual achievement in the VR spectrum, Firewall has also been celebrated as a great online engagement experience, a foundation that can continue to evolve as the years go by and the format becomes more prevalent.

About Thomas Spurlin

Film, home-media, and videogame scribe who digs green tea and walking his dogs.

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