In just a few months, the PS+ program will be receiving a much-anticipated overhaul. As far as one can tell, for now, the $10 Plus subscription tier will exist as it always has as the “Essential” tier; similar things were said about keeping Xbox Live Gold alive and it’s clearly been given the cold shoulder for a while now. Then, the other new prestige tiers come into the picture. The middle-of-the-road “Extra” level obviously includes all the benefits of the baseline service, but also grants access to 400 PS4 and PS5 games to be freely downloaded. Then, the “Premium” subscription level unlocks 340 legacy PS-to-PS3 titles, cloud streaming of select PS4 and below games on PS4/5 consoles and PC, and time-limited game trails. Extra will be $14.99/month or $99.99 yearly, while Premium will be $17.99/month or $119.99 yearly.

It’s a big shift that obviously aims to directly compete with Xbox’s Game Pass in some capacity – the $15 tier lacks certain features to offer a direct comparison, while the $18 tier does a few extra things to earn the higher price tag – and I’m sure it leaves subscribers with feelings of both excitement and anxiety. The question remains: will PlayStation keep up the quality of their baseline service’s offerings for those who choose to stay at that tier? Well, if the answer lies in April’s PS+ free offerings, there’s reason to be nervous. An admittedly charming remaster of a classic franchise tie-in platformer, an aggressively poorly-received free-to-play action title, and a niche deckbuilding fantasy game doesn’t instill confidence that they’ll be upholding the base tier’s substance. But, maybe they’re holding the good stuff in the reserves for once the new PS+ framework kicks into gear.

PS5

Hood: Outlaws and Legends

With the likes of Assassin’s Creed, Thief, and other medieval stealth games being around, the absence of a good, dedicated Robin Hood game makes a lot of sense. If someone wants a theft or bow-‘n-arrow simulator, they’re able to scratch that itch in those games alongside their added storytelling differences, covering most of the simulator bases outside of embodying the actual folklore character himself.  At this point, direct comparisons would even be drawn if someone attempted a traditional third-person style of game featuring Robin Hood.

Perhaps those reasons are why Hood: Outlaws and Legends veers away from the norm. Instead of a traditional adventure game that’d essentially adapt one of the many movies about Robin Hood’s fall and rise with the Merry Men, this game from Sumo NewCastle takes an even more straightforward, purely action-based approach by pitting “Hood” and his merry team against rival thieves in a stealth-based race to steal the Sheriff’s key, raid a vault for riches before the others, and escape with the loot. In theory, this kind of light, pick-up-and-go online title that merely uses the familiar characters for a dose of flavor could work, but both critics and players alike have struggled with its shallowness, clunky controls, and monotonous mission design.

PS4

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

Back in 2003, Battle for Bikini Bottom suffered the fate of countless tie-in games like it, where a subpar critical reception really didn’t matter to both young and old audiences who just wanted to enjoy the characters in a videogame format.  More than that, it’s also an original story in the Spongebob world and most of the original cast voiced the characters, so fans will inherently play and at least partly enjoy the story of Plankton’s robot invasion of Bikini Bottom. Over the years, the game’s level design and attitude has invited a new outlook, and the combo of Spongebob’s fanbase and that the game has built popularity among the speedrun community – I know, right? — has given it unexpected longevity.

Is that enough to earn a remastering? The folks at Purple Lamp Studios certainly think so, and it seems as if they knew what to do to craft a satisfying “Rehydrated” version of a PS2-era title. They’ve preserved the original creative intentions and re-recorded the dialogue – the original recordings are also available; no, the missing cast members from the original didn’t come back – and they’ve specifically mirrored the feel of the controls and gravity for an authentic reconstruction with an audiovisual facelift. This will inherently make the title feel like it’s a family-friendly adventure game from the early 2000s, but it also works in overdrive to satisfy the nostalgic and the speedrunners out there.

Slay the Spire

It’s tough to strike a proper balance between the strategy, selection, and in-action combat of deck-building videogames: titles typically of the fantasy variety that incorporate a deck of “cards” as strategic special abilities to use during turn-based combat. Too much focus on the player collecting, refining, and implementing these cards could result in a decrease of momentum in the combat, whereas too little collaboration with the cards might make them feel like an unnecessary step in what’s otherwise a standard turn-based battle system.

Slay the Spire works really hard to make sure that all those elements coexist with one another for a complete, absorbing gaming experience, taking the expected but welcome paths of making it a randomized roguelike dungeon crawler. After selecting one of 4 characters, the player progresses through the spires of a castle and randomly encounters various creatures with a range of strengths of weaknesses, which the player exploits by choosing what types of attack, defense, and special ability cards to use on a turn by turn basis. Both critics and players have heaped praise upon Slay the Spire’s execution of the tricky concept in videogame form, remarking on its sneaky addictive properties despite the inherent sameness of battles and progression.

April’s PS+ Freebies Sneak, Speedrun Through Month In Leadup to June’s Big Changes

To say that February’s a big month for video games would be an understatement, so it stands to reason that gaming subscription services like PS+ would keep from including high-profile free games in their monthly offerings since they’ll likely get overlooked anyway. All points considered, however, this still ends up being a pretty brave month in terms of what they’re offering and an inability to offer them later, from a noteworthy recent sports title – one that’s essentially locked into being a freebie on the competition’s service — to the precursor-slash-inspiration game behind one of the larger titles to be released in March. Let’s take a closer look at what’s in store, but before doing so, remember to head over and Grab a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus at Amazon.

PS5

Planet Coaster: Console Edition

Despite having the name “coaster” in the game’s title, Planet Coaster shares just as much in common with the classic SimCity games of yesteryear as the outlandish ride creation game Rollercoaster Tycoon. While this game does allow for the player to cook up elaborate, chaotic coasters, there’s an entire other side of this management and creation sim that’s far more laid-back, relaxing, and therapeutic in tone, found in how the player designs their ideal theme part to accommodate for guests. In Planet Coaster, the player can really invest themselves in the minutiae of the park’s aesthetics, from the color of booths and types of light sources for ambience to the placement of benches, bathrooms, and garbage cans.

Sure, there’s also aspects of this in Rollercoaster Tycoon, but it’s hard to ignore how the semi-realistic 3D graphics of Planet Coaster lend themselves to being incredibly enjoyable through the lens of someone who’s lovingly crafting their ideal theme park. The general tone of Rollercoaster Tycoon comes across as keeping guests satisfied enough so they’ll stay engaged with the outlandish coasters being created, whereas Planet Coaster’s first priority seems to center on providing a satisfying amusement park atmosphere and then building the rides that “fit” said atmosphere, similarly to fitting bigger structures into a smaller developing city in SimCity. Obviously, the comparisons are tough to avoid as Planet Coaster has been labeled the unofficial successor of Rollercoaster Tycoon by both players and critics, and this Console Edition tries admirably to bring the mouse-and-keyboard intentions to the PS5 … with mixed results, in terms of control user-friendliness.

PS4

Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep

It’s a big deal when a piece of spinoff downloadable content for a base game makes the transition into being a standalone downloadable title, as was the case with Far Cry: Blood Dragon and Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare. But it’s an even bigger deal when the content’s so appealing and holds so much potential that the creators decide that the DLC isn’t enough, and it deserves further development into its own full-scale game. Saints Row IV is kinda-sorta an example of this, where a piece of fleshed-out DLC skipped the add-on phase and became its own thing. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands occupies yet another area, though: it’s a full-sized game that takes the concept of the spinoff DLC, a wild high-fantasy extrapolation from the looter shooter Borderlands, and develops it into a standalone campaign.

So, what’s it about Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep that makes it so appealing? For starters, it takes the general dungeon-crawling and loot-management joys of Borderlands and transforms them into something much more literally inspired by tabletop RPGs, as audience favorite character Tina get the Vault Hunters together to play “Bunkers and Badasses” – yes, Dungeons and Dragons – after the events of Borderlands 2, with her as the dungeon master. The perspective then shifts from the post-apocalyptic wasteland setting to a full-fledged fantasy realm, and you gain control of one of six premade characters that have modified, wacky weapons and abilities to confront a new roster of dark and whimsical baddies. With Tina as narrator and game master, Assault on Dragon’s Keep becomes a fantasy spin on Borderlands of which players couldn’t get enough, hence the coming full-sized game.

UFC 4

What started as a wacky, taboo cage-fighting event in the early ‘90s — probably orchestrated to capitalize on the popularity of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, as well as of Bloodsport and Kickboxer playing on cable all the time — has transformed into a highly authentic, skill-based combat sport. UFC stands as the legitimized face of mixed martial arts, where methods of essentially any hand-to-hand combat discipline are allowed in bouts so long as they follow within the sport’s carefully crafted loose ruleset, ranging from wild punching and kicking strikes to grueling wrestling and grappling. There’s still a “wild west” aspect to the matchups based on the range of disciplines, but between rules, weight classes, and the competitive tactics that consistently work in the octagon, UFC has moved almost entirely away from shock value and into the space of competitive sport.  Almost, as fighter personalities are still key.

Therefore, one shouldn’t go into the UFC games with the expectation that it’ll control like a traditional arcade fighting game, as it’s just as important to get the technical aspects of the sport right as it is to make the fights exhilarating to play. Past installments have struggled with this balance, but UFC 3 and now UFC 4 seem to have gotten much closer to the sweet spot, telegraphing the intense striking and grappling of the sport in a polished and entertaining package.  Critics are quick to point out that while UFC 4 tightens up the gameplay and delivers one of the better MMA games out there, it still leaves a lot of room for improvement, especially in the more technical submission and ground aspects of fights. Players, on the other hand, expressed their distaste for advertisements and copy-and-paste game design between UFC 3 and UFC 4 (not unlike Madden), knocking the franchise on the ground and in trouble.

February’s PS+ Free Titles: A Wonderland of Coasters and Badasses

Competition has greatly benefitted subscribers to Sony’s PS+ program, because the company’s desire to keep up the pace against the awkward tiers of Microsoft’s cluster of services led to a surprisingly robust and consistent 2021, full of both next-gen and current gen free downloadable games.  One would assume that so long as one studio maintains the status quo, the other likely will as well, and the start of 2022 seems to convey this as well.

Sony continues their streak of offering both a decent pair of titles for the legacy PS4 and at least one attention-grabbing title for the PS5, though there’s a little added spice this month: there are actually 2 PS5 titles here, one being a heavy hitter and another being a well-reviewed, badass action-fueled title. It’s not a groundbreaking month for the service or anything, but it does reinforce why the Plus subscription service remains a tremendous value for Sony’s customers.  Let’s take a gander at the titles, but before doing so, make sure to Grab a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus at Amazon.

PS5

Dirt 5

There was a time when Codemasters explored different genres with the games they developed, yet ever since they discovered exactly what works for them with the racing genre, they’ve become reliable industry leaders with a predictable calendar. That consists of the annual F1 title based on the corresponding year’s season, and … some kind of offroad/rally racer, usually alternating between GRID and DIRT. DIRT 5 marks the last title independently developed by Codemasters before their acquisition by Electronic Arts – cue cartoonishly ominous music here – and they make sure to do so with a bang by delivering one of the most refined iterations of the rally racer yet.

For the most part, DIRT 5 doesn’t try to deviate from the formula that works, telegraphing much of the same satisfying borderline-arcade racing action of previous entries in its most refined, graphically impressive state. Some new additions that come along with the jump to next-gen hardware include dynamic weather changing that inherently affects the gameplay, as well as impressively stable 60fps splitscreen compatibility for up to 4 players. There’s also a more story-focused, forward-moving career mode featuring the voice of Nolan North in the lead. Most critics and players have been kind to DIRT 5 and how the PS5 version exemplifies the franchise’s evolution, though players have also dinged it for wonky AI, gameplay that’s tilting too arcade-like, and online connectivity issues.

Deep Rock Galactic

Sometimes, just describing a game with a single sentence is enough to capture one’s attention. With Deep Rock Galactic, it’s this: “First-person shooter dwarves use lots of neat gadgets to blast their way through randomized caverns and alien foes, and you can do it with up to 3 other friends.” The combination of elements has such a wonderful flow to it. Dwarves? Already sold. Not enough games with dwarven playable characters.  First-person shooter gameplay? Even the staunchest of opponents to the genre has got to be mildly intrigued by how these things would fit together.  Procedurally generated caverns/landscapes? A surprise at every turn, and that’s not even taking the destructible aspects of the environments into account.  Aliens? Yup. And 4-player co-op? You have my axe.

Deep Rock Galactic marks the first outing for Danish developers Ghost Ship Games, though they’re also powered by partners Coffee Stain Studios, the folks also responsible for Goat Simulator.  Billed as “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead”, the end result is a delightful blend of genres that hinges on class selection, progression and upgrading along the way, driven by the dwarves mostly just doing honest work of retrieving resources and gear while demolishing their way through colorfully rendered caverns. Both critics and players have noted that the premise does have some slight longevity issues once you’ve been in the caverns repeating tasks for a while, but otherwise it delivers on the concept in an exceedingly fun way that heavily encourages playing with friends (or matchmaking).

PS4

Persona 5: Strikers

 It’s difficult to imagine a more popular spinoff video game series than Persona, originating from the consistently appreciated JRPG series Shin Megami Tensei; the third installment in the series, Nocturne, was recently remastered to critical acclaim. Persona operates around a cluster of focal high-school aged students who utilize the power of “personas” – a real-world materialization of the individual’s psyche – to engage in combat against evil enemy types. Labeling them by genre isn’t very successful since all of the entries incorporate a little something new, though they generally involve turn-based combat scenarios and traditional dungeon crawling exploration.  And from those, there are other spinoffs: Persona 4 Arena delves into fighting game mechanics, while both Persona 3 and 5 have rhythm game modeled after their particular settings.

Persona 5: Strikers finds the series in the hands of Dynasty Warriors game-makers Omega Force, serving as a crossover event between the two franchises and, thus, employing a much more action-oriented gameplay style. A continuation of the Persona 5 narrative in a new gameplay space, the game latches onto the series’ classic role-playing aspects in combat and its vibrant almost-cartoonish visual style, but it also amps up the pacing through the more twitch-based action and dazzling chaos of Dynasty Warriors.  Much like the way the Yakuza series was received when it shifted from straight action to turn-based combat in Like a Dragon, both critics and players have praised the way Persona took a detour into direct action-RPG territory, though a lot of it simply roots in the reunion of the Phantom Thieves in any capacity.

PS+ Titles for January: Dirt, Strikers, SPACE DWARVES

Throughout the year, Sony seems to have viewed the release of the PS5 as a transition point for their PS+ program, ensuring that there has been a mixture of both a shiny new PS5 game and a unique pair of PS4 games with each month. The quality of the games has wavered, for sure, but when compared to the base subscription service of their competitor, they’ve sustained the reputation since the release of the new consoles.

December continues this, but in a clumsy fashion.  The two PS4 games are arguably more satisfying than other months, containing both a successful family-friendly action game and a layered action-RPG for the more intense gamers.  The PS5 title is … a portion of a game? A booster? It’s several things at once without being the full experience of the title it’s representing, ending 2021 on an awkward note for the Plus service. Let’s look closer at all the titles, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus subscription from Amazon.

PS5

Godfall: Challenger Edition

So, what exactly is the “Challenger Edition” of the action-RPG Godfall? After checking around a bit, you’ll discover that this version of Gearbox’s game offers a catch-me-up experience that drops the players into “endgame-level content”, and in turn powers up the player accordingly.  From there, the player engages in a trio of challenge modes that flex the maximum of what Gearbox wants to accomplish with their intense gameplay, where adept player characters – solo or in co-op groups with up to 2 others – can be customized and power through with what’s described as “looter slasher” game design. Essentially, the Challenger Edition jumps ahead of all the grinding and gets the player to the good stuff, then gives them lots of fun trials and tribulations with this newfound power.

What’s missing, however, is the entirety of the campaign of Godfall, which makes this a complicated inclusion for the PlayStation Plus program as its PS5 title. For those who are interested, the Challenger Edition can seamlessly integrate with the preexisting version of the base title, or the rest of the campaign can be purchased later as an add-on. That’s the thing, though: the base game itself simply doesn’t come with this iteration, and considering the state of the game itself – it received middling reviews from critics, harsher impressions from gamers, and can be purchased for $20 – it seems much wiser to include the whole package and spark some positive word of mouth and goodwill instead of providing additional hoops to gamers. The Challenger Edition is a budget title otherwise at $15.

PS4

LEGO DC Super-Villains

By now, most people – not just gamers, but people in general – know what to expect from one of the LEGO video games. While uncomplicated, the third-person action controls are merely there so players of all ages can gain control of toy iterations of their favorite characters, interact with a block-built versions of the worlds in which those characters live and work their way through exaggerated spins on their familiar stories (usually popular movies). Since their rise in popularity, however, there have been new movies made about the LEGO versions of the characters featuring unique stories, which has snowballed into unique games that don’t rely on those familiar stories to push them forward.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it does, but rarely are the games simply unfun to play … especially those from DC and Marvel wing of the work done by Traveller’s Tales.

LEGO DC Super-Villains takes all that to another level, allowing the player to create and customize their own super-villain who powers through levels and bumps into the familiar faces of the DC Rogues Gallery. Instead of getting involved with a “bad guy” plot, however, the villains are forced to take the place of the Justice League and fight against villains from a parallel universe: the Justice Syndicate (aka Crime Syndicate of America), evil counterparts of the Justice League characters from another Earth. As the story progresses, the player’s customized character develops their attributes and eventually gains access to superpowers, the most novel aspect of this LEGO title beyond the gameplay’s pillars of a wide roster of other playable characters, exaggerated environments, and vibrant sense of humor.

Mortal Shell

Sometimes, it can seem unfair to compare one game’s style to another or label it a clone, something that’s fairly common in the arena of third-person action-RPGs. Cold Symmetry doesn’t shy away from those comparisons, though, as they’re happy to prop Mortal Shell up as a “soulslike” game that’s heavily inspired by the Dark Souls franchise. Designed as a pint-sized indie version to scratch the itch in a period when there weren’t any other uncompromising, aesthetically and emotionally grim dungeon crawlers out there, it showcases many evident similarities to the design of the Souls franchise and many areas where they obviously tweaked aspects for specific effects.

Players gain control of an “empty shell” of a character who roams the landscape of a world in the aftermath of humanity’s collapse, and in that collapse they encounter the bodies of the fallen, who provide different shells that the player can occupy and embrace their skillsets. The environment looks and feels like an extension of those from the creations of FromSoftware: shadowed yet stunning, grim with glimmers of possibility, and full of obstacles. Through it, the player engages a layered, weighed third-person combat scheme and intuitive RPG skillsets, and it all gains even more respect when taking the studio’s small size into consideration.  Mortal Shell certainly isn’t perfect in the eyes of either critics or players, with some not seeing enough difference or longevity inside, but most view it as an admirable and engaging soulslike crawler.

December PS+ Freebies: Mortal Shell, LEGO DC … Part of Godfall?

At first glance, there may not seem like there’s much to the PS+ games made available for November, a month that’s bound to be hectic for any and all trying to get their hands on a PS5 for the holiday. An under-the-radar remaster, a deception party game, and a sports game centered on … dodgeball? Thing is, they all have underlying strengths that make them more than meets the eye, and while they may not push new subscriptions or anything, they’re bound to satisfy those hopping onto PlayStations and linking up with their subscription service in this pivotal, chaotic month. Plus, that number actually doubles to 6 this month for those who are into Sony’s VR system.

Let’s take a closer look at the titles, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 1-Year Subscription Card from Amazon to access the benefits.

PS5

Knockout City

In a way, some of the concepts of dodgeball exist in the early pieces of gaming’s DNA, where the likes of Pong and Breakout involve timing the player-controlled icon to “catch” a ball and send it back at a precise target. Games nowadays naturally require a little more oomph to hold interest than that, and when it comes to the actual schoolyard sport of dodgeball, it usually has to coexist with other aspects of a game like as a side activity in Rockstar’s Bully. Developers have picked up on how fun the concept can be in videogame for, however, and they’ve had some success in making dedicated games about it, from the story-based side-scrolling Dodgeball Academia to the hyper-futuristic hybridization of Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball.

None of them have really captured the sport of dodgeball in an objective, near-simulation fashion, though, and that’s where Knockout City comes in … sort of. Sure, the game takes place in a colorful, futuristic setting reminiscent of Fortnite or Splatoon instead of in gym class or a sports arena, it isn’t limited to the confines of a rectangular court, and one strike of the ball doesn’t mean you’re out.  That said, once the player gets involved with the multi-level battlegrounds and adjusts to the power-ups, there’s a fluidity to the gameplay in Knockout City that genuinely gets what playing dodgeball is about, and the rest of what’s going on – the power-ups, life bars, and quirky characters — comes across as the necessary expansions to the gameplay to give it variety and potential longevity.

PS4

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

There’s a pretty odd and winding story behind the original development and release of Kingdoms of Amalur, involving a professional baseball player, incentives through the state of Rhode Island, shut-down and acquired studios and, ultimately, an MMORPG remodeled into a single-player experience. With a host of talent behind the world-building – R.A. Salvatore for the text lore, Todd McFarlane for the visuals – what was once an immensely ambitious project ended up being a better-than-average dungeon crawler with an impressive amount of character customization. Alas, against the likes of Dark Souls and Dragon’s Dogma, not to mention the rampant and enduring popularity of Skyrim, the remodeled fantasy game had to settle for being an alternative, the next in line for genre fans.

That’s a shame, because despite the obvious roots of its creation being visible in the finished game, Kingdoms of Amalur is actually quite enjoyable and layered as a hack-‘n-slash RPG, and it has built a niche following since its initial release. It’s strong enough for THQ Nordic to go back to the well and release the Re-Reckoning version for modern consoles, to perform a measured visual remaster while also including gameplay difficulty tweaks – including zone level recalculations and a “very hard” mode – and a compilation of all DLC. Fantasy RPGs have progressed a bit over the past decade and Kingdoms of Amalur doesn’t attempt to counterbalance this much, allowing its enjoyable aged leveling and customization systems to get the job done in the same way they fought to do so almost a decade ago.

First Class Trouble

Social deduction games have become popular over the past decade, escalating in popularity as the likes of Werewolf and Mafia were modified into variations within different settings, from WWII Germany with Secret Hitler and renaissance times with Love Letter to a dystopian future with The Resistance. However, it could be argued that the format has taken another dramatic jump in popularity with the introduction of Among Us, a like-minded game of deduction that uses various colored spacesuit meeples that are deemed “sus”(picious) or not in their effort to survive on a space station. Determined either by the crewmates completing tasks or the impostors killing off the crewmates before they can, it’s a way of bringing the social concept to a digital interface in a colorful, animated way.

In a way, First Class Trouble piggybacks off the success of Among Us and attempts to bring the social deduction concept back to a more “humanoid” and normal level. Even though it also takes place on an outer space station and some of the other players are murderous robots, it operates around customizable human-looking avatars who are observing the actions of other humans in the beautiful 3D space of a luxury space transport. Players vote on who’s suspicious or not and, of course, throw those on the wrong end of the vote out the airlock, and eventually winners are determined based off whether she ship’s AI maintains control of the transport or not. In theory, First Class Trouble is a smart way of executing a mature videogame version of the social deduction game; however, players have struggled with stability and repetitiveness issues on the PlayStation, so that’s worth keeping in mind.

PS VR

On top of those games, Sony has also made a trio of VR titles available for free download this month: The Persistence, a sci-fi survival horror game hinged on repairing a space colonization ship that’s been plagued by monstrous mutated humans; The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, another horror survival experience set in the popular zombie universe from the comics and show; and Until You Fall, a color and dynamic hybrid of laser sword-fighting and rhythm coordination. It’s worth noting that The Persistence actually has a non-VR mode as well, which essentially makes it a 4^th free general title for this month.

PS+ Games For November: Knockouts, Troubles, a Re-Reckoning

The momentum seems to have slowed down for Sony’s PS+ subscription service and its run of impressive monthly free games. From the release of the next-gen consoles – soon to be current generation – in November of last year, PlayStation has stayed in step with the curve by offering one juicy PS5-enabled game and two others that usually ranged in quality from good to excellent, with the trio of titles amounting to a relevant, audience-aware cluster of additions. Then, over the past months, the quality has hit a downward slope, often including a new PS5 title that doesn’t grab much interest and a pair of support PS4 titles lacking firepower on their own or are sequels that are either dated or have lukewarm reputations. For October, Sony earns a commendation for thinking outside the box with their next-gen selection, but ultimately the trio of games doesn’t scare up enough enthusiasm to trend upwards. Let’s take a look at the titles, but before diving into that, here’s a reminder to Grab a Year’s Subscription to PlayStation Plus from Amazon.

PS5

Hell Let Loose

Developers have a strong, aware grasp on the need to keep players locked into the action of their game, something that has impacted the first-person shooter genre since its earliest stages. When the transition happened from chaotically mowing down monsters or Nazis around every corner to a desire for more realistic combat shooting games, balancing those things grew trickier since constant action doesn’t always line up with real-world military situations. Games like Rainbow Six, Call of Duty, and even Battlefield aim for the middle with their military shooter designs, but the push to constantly keep the experience in motion prevents them from achieving a full sense of realism, especially when it comes to the desolation of historical and tactical warfare that doesn’t begin and end in a flash.

Developed by the globally staffed Australia-based developer Black Matter, Hell Let Loose works hard to satisfy those looking for a more grounded, tactical, and realistically paced military shooter experience. From the scope of the battlefield to the coordination of soldiers for necessary activities and the travel time to points of battle interest, this game lays the groundwork for a sprawling simulation for multiple players … but it can also result in unsatisfying scenarios where, say, a long and semi-uneventful trek to a battle location may result in a quick death. Both critics and players seem to appreciate this focus on authenticity in the landscape of battle achieved by Hell Let Loose, though they also understand the mind state of someone who’d find the execution of this drawn-out, minimal reward gaming experience unsatisfying.

PS4

PGA Tour 2K21

As the Tiger Woods brand of simulator golf games from EA started to wind down in popularity, HB Studios began developing an alternative, initially titled The Golf Club. Upon release in 2014-2015, the franchise was met with lukewarm to subpar reviews that didn’t bode well for its continuation.  However, after the series was picked up by publisher 2K Games and garnered official licensing from the PGA Tour, things have started looking up.  Now, with this installment, the series has been rebranded to PGA Tour 2K21 to better echo the game’s intentions – hearkening back to when the EA games were just called PGA Tour of whatever year – as the new star filling that void.

Is it there yet? Probably not, but it’s getting there. The gameplay has been heavily refined since HB Studios first tackled the golf simulation gameplay a half decade ago, wherein players feel like the simulator’s working with them instead of against them due to faulty aiming or physics issues. The player roster features a hefty list of real-world atheletes, only without some of the bigger names of the sport that’ll still probably take enthusiasts out of the illusion by not seeing them in the mix. And while some of the other modes in PGA Tour 2K21 have been met with critic and player frustration due to shallowness, the game’s create-a-course engine has been widely celebrated.  It may not be in the same place as the simulators of yesteryear, and other zany golf games might prove engrossing enough for the average player, but most seem to agree that the franchise has reached par with room for growth.

Mortal Kombat X

Over the course of its history, Mortal Kombat has attempted to evolve its style into something more contemporary, applying its signature gruesomeness and mythical world-building to 3D movement and action beat-‘em-up style of gameplay. What the folks at NetherRealm Studio eventually picked up on is that the storied game franchise that’s lingered in popularity since the ‘90s thrives on that old-school, side-scrolling fighting game design, amplified by the larger-than-life character appearances and executing those iconic fatalities. The Mortal Kombat rejuvenation of sorts from a decade ago brought that straightforward perspective back to the franchise, but it’s with the sequel, Mortal Kombat X, where the figured out the right way to bring the beloved fighting franchise into a more modernized platform.

The 10^th official release in the Mortal Kombat lineage springboards off the events at the end of 2011’s “reboot” to jump ahead twenty years in the narrative, opening up the possibilities for both old and new combatants – some being younger family members of the legendary original cast — to enter the battle. The result is a huge roster of characters that leads to heaps of variety for players, both in fighting style and aesthetics, all rendered with some semblance of authentic graphical depth and dimensionality in mind against engaging landscapes. The really neat thing about this rebooted Mortal Kombat is that while the graphical polish and tight fighting controls are of this generation, the 2D design and prompts for fatalities make it so old-school players can pick up and play Mortal Kombat X without missing a beat.  

October’s PS+ Titles: No Flawless Victory, But Not Off-Course

This isn’t a month of PS+ titles that subscribers will really be talking about, one way or the other. A remastered compilation of party games for the token next-gen title, a middle sequel of a franchise, and a subpar-reviewed horror/shooter game designed for online competition? This doesn’t spark enthusiasm, but the nature of the games makes it so there’s still a degree of appreciation for what’s there. On the flipside, it’s a celebrated chaos puzzle game to try out with a family-friendly crowd, a sandbox stealth game with a recognizable AAA protagonist, and a 4-v-1 online battle with the Predator that’s probably worth a spin for anyone who perks up at the name of the classic horror antagonist.  

Non-subscribers won’t be swayed, subscribers should find something to latch onto from the docket, and the PlayStation Plus cycle moves ahead another month without impacting the status quo. Let’s take a closer look, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 12-Month Membership to PS+ from Amazon to have access to the goodies (and online Predator shenanigans).

PS5

Overcooked: All You Can Eat! Edition

While it might be annoying for some to see, there’s a reason why certain family/party-friendly games are either repeatedly ported across systems or duplicated in sequel after sequel.   Once a group knows that a game works for their style of playing, it’s bound to be played repeatedly for a long time after, and then the memories of playing it before will be jump-started with each new release. About a half decade ago, Overcooked served up a perfect example of this, a frantic action-puzzle game built around the chaos of making food in both relatively normal and incredibly outlandish situations. Reaching success with their recipe, the folks at Ghost Town Games followed it up with Overcooked 2, which delivers more of the same jubilant gameplay with a few new addons, notably online multiplayer.

The Overcooked games have been viewed so favorably as accessible co-op gaming that a remastered bundled release of them came out as a launch title for both new consoles, titled the “All You Can Eat” edition.  Critics have pointed out that there isn’t much new meat on the bones of this re-release, as even the upscaling of graphics doesn’t seem to have a huge visual impact, but that doesn’t really matter much when there’s this much enjoyment to be found in the titles themselves.

PS4

Hitman 2

The rebooted Hitman franchise has a messy history on the last generation of consoles, ranging from the early backlash toward the first entry being an episodic release to Hitman 3 casually being referred to as a “comedy game” with its breaks in realism. Despite all that, fans of the series generally view the recent trilogy of games with a great amount of fondness, celebrating the freedom in how to complete missions, the increasingly witty tone, and the satisfying stealth energy driving Agent 47 to his targets. It’s possible that Hitman 2 might be the reason why that positive energy exists, as it proved to be the installment that showed developer Io Interactive listens to feedback and doesn’t want to fundamentally change the franchise … while making tweaks and improvements that keep it current.

Hitman 2 directly follows up on the events of the previous game, sending Agent 47 hunting after the elusive “Shadow Client” and introducing the series’ notable twist involving their concealed identity. Across a half-dozen new sandbox maps, the game encourages players to experiment with Agent 47’s stealth capabilities and revel in how the world responds, and it has been praised for both preserving what the first game does well and expanding on variety and performance within those pillars.

Predator: Hunting Grounds

It’s easy to appreciate the difficulty behind making a video game based around an iconic horror villain. There are several components at play: developers obviously want to do justice to the monstrous bad guys at the center of it all, but they also must wrestle with the fact that those playing are a little sharper, more attuned to solutions to danger, and care less about dying than the average horror-movie victim. Thus, it took a long time to get games that succeed in capturing the essence of those movies, from the unyielding terror of Alien: Isolation to the general concept of Friday the 13^th: The Game and how it pits players against each other as either victims or hockey-masked Jason himself. Unfortunately, the same still can’t be said for Predator, with its best appearances being in action-oriented shooters where it shares space with a Xenomorph.

Predator: Hunting Grounds would like to change that, with developers Illfonic borrowing some of the same ideas from their success with Friday the 13^th and applying it to the legendary “ugly mutha” that originally squared off against Schwarzenegger (who returns to voice Dutch here).  One player gains control of the Predator, while 4 others gain control of fireteam members whose objectives range from tracking down a drug dealer in the jungle to killing the Predator and guarding its body until extraction. Alas, despite the familiarity of the game design, the execution left both critics and players wanting much more from Predator: Hunting Grounds, citing balancing issues, a lack of polish, and no single player.

PS+ Titles for September Cook Up a Party With Agent 47, Predator

Ever since the shift to the PlayStation 5 – which remains a sour topic due to how difficult it is to get one – Sony has been keeping up the pressure with their PS+ titles. Every month since its release, they’ve included a new, usually exciting title for the next-gen iteration of their system, alongside a few other substantial games for the PS4 that have a good chance of satisfying its subscribers. August is a tricky month for the video game realm, dominated by the likes of EA’s annual football game and other fall distractions like going back to school and, uh, actual football, and the titles being offered this month suggest that Sony’s aware of this.

Instead of trying to make their presence known, the PS+ titles this month are a lower-key bunch that’s content with letting the bustle of August control things while they offer pick-up-and-play diversions with a family-friendly shooter, an arena fighter, and a tennis game. Let’s dive into the games, but before doing so, be sure to Grab a 1-Year PS+ Subscription Card from Amazon.

PS5

Hunter’s Arena: Legends

There’s an itch that hasn’t quite been scratched since BioWare released Jade Empire over a decade and a half ago, one for a dedicated martial-arts action game with open-world movement and freedom to fight in different ways. The Yakuza series gets in that spectrum with open Japanese districts and hand-to-hand fighting styles, but its modern-era setting and the environmental aspects that come along with that keep it from striking the same chord. Hunter’s Arena: Legends indirectly gets somewhat close to satisfying that urge, though not in terms of a focused story experience.

While there’s an open world exploration aspect and isolated, random battles to encounter, this game’s all about big arena-style combat pitting upwards of 30 “Hunter” challengers against each other. Characters both human and beastly – there’s a humanoid pig and panda! – square off either in a solo free-for-all battle to eliminate everything else or in 3-person squads, and each character has their own skill sets and/or weapons for variety, from melee and magic to ranged strategies. While there’s a narrative, hinged on demons unleashed on an ancient Asian realm and the Hunter responsible for doing it, it’s mostly there to keep the strategic arena combat glued together.

PS4

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville

PopCap Games are responsible for one of the more abrupt and surprising spinoffs in gaming history, turning the tower-defense mobile design of Plants vs. Zombies into a … family-friendly third-person shooter?! The pivot to Garden Warfare worked exceptionally well too, almost immediately gaining popularity with its humorous attitude, effective shooter strategies and multiplayer integration. Since, much like other modern warfare franchises (nudge, wink), it has enjoyed several sequels that modify the concept without straying from the core pillars that remain so effective.

The latest, Battle for Neighborville, struggles with the problem that many of these franchises end up facing after some time: how does it change and evolve without messing up the stuff that works? While this iteration adds a bunch of new classes and gameplay modes that certainly give it variety, some critics and players are frustrated by certain sacrifices made to get it to that point, notably in simplifying abilities and to some of the depth that likely held the attention of older audiences.

Tennis World Tour 2

The concept of hitting a digital “ball” back and forth is, of course, one of the oldest and most satisfying mechanics in the history of video games, but with time the simplicity of it has lost some of its luster. This has translated to a lack of recent enthusiasm even for tennis games, where the likes of Mario and Nintendo have had middling success in crafting successfully enduring titles with their Mario Tennis line, let alone those that aim for actual tennis simulation. The glory days of Top Spin and Virtua Tennis are long gone.

The first Tennis World Tour lobbed over a modern attempt at a core simulator that was met with firm criticism for its lack of precision and presentation, so there was little direction for the series to go but up with Tennis World Tour 2. Improvements were made to the tightness of gameplay, to the available roster and the visuals, and both critics and players seem at least marginally warmer to this entry. That said, the overwhelming impression is that Tennis World Tour still has a long way to go in most respects to be considered a successful tennis simulation.  

Sony’s PS+ Titles for August Serve Up Plants, Zombies, Martial Arts

The free games included with PS+ subscriptions for May probably aren’t going to be considered among the best lineups that the service has seen. One’s a racing game that’s more about demolition than the precision of a simulation, another’s a wartime shooter hit by controversy and meager sales, and the other’s a survival simulator that suffers from moments of dated game design.  Thing is, when compared to the competition, it’s actually a pretty terrific roster that includes suitable variety and prestige, catering to the new console generation with one title and delivering something from the AAA spectrum with another. Let’s take a closer look, and be sure to Grab a Year’s Subscription to PlayStation Plus from Amazon to take advantage of the goodies.

PS5

Wreckfest: Drive Hard, Die Fast

The mechanics of banger racing are largely the same as they are in standard racing environments, but interaction – read: collisions – between the other racers is not only encouraged, but a substantial part of the thrill. Unlike its close cousin demolition derby, it’s not a purely destructive medium, as maintaining control and reaching the finish line maintains its importance. Both banger racing and demolition derby represent a wilder side of racing amplified by the potency of crashes, going hand-in-hand in discussions even though the goals are vastly different. They both make for pretty exhilarating gaming frameworks, too.

Beginning on PC in 2018 and then moving to consoles shortly after, Wreckfest: Drive Hard, Die Fast brings both vehicular combat styles to the newest gen of consoles, currently as a timed PS5 exclusive.  The folks at Bugbear Entertainment — who previously developed the similarly themed game series FlatOut — have crammed plentiful game modes, vehicle customization, and a more grounded, yet explosive approach to racing physics into the experience. Coupled with the unique strategies of vehicular combat, it makes for a distinct racer that’s designed for escapist thrills.

PS4

Battlefield V

The Battlefield series has been kicking around for nearly 2 decades now, but in recent memory, the EA-controlled shooter franchise has become more renowned for its “controversies” than the quality of the games. While they’ve received scores that range from slightly above par to outright strong, there always seems to be technical glitches or a debate over accurate representation that dominate the conversation. Battlefield V could be seen as having the strongest pushback of the lot due to their inclusion of female playable characters in a World War II setting, which sparked debates about historical accuracy.

Underneath this controversy, Battlefield V delivers an experience that’s similar to other installments in the franchise but within the WWII context, producing a chapter-based FPS campaign that shifts between regions and several countries’ militaries. The success of these games hinges on the multiplayer aspects, though, and both critics and players have been left wanting in that regard, citing a lack of innovation in the game modes and an overall lower level of content than expected. Despite this, Battlefield V still earns praise for impressive audiovisual execution, tight controls, and entertaining multiplayer.

Stranded Deep

With it’s no longer as big of a part of pop-culture entertainment as it once was, the “castaway” thought exercise – “What would you do if you were stranded on an island with Person X or had to do Activity Y?” – keeps the concept fresh in a lot of minds. Stranded Deep fully explores the potential of this as a gameplay scenario, crashing the player onto a secluded island in the Pacific with a finite – yet generous – level of resources at their disposal. The goal? To survive, of course, and the folks at Beam Team Games have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to both give players what they need and generate further problems.

To make the experience fresh for each playthrough, Stranded Deep generates a new island and new challenges for the player to explore in each game that’s started. Crafting, exploration, and monitoring the character’s vitals are all critically important to getting through the experience on a session-by-session basis, which also operates underneath a daylight/weather cycle. Despite this cornucopia of simulation moving parts and heaps of potential, both critics and players feel like there’s just enough to Stranded Deep to keep it alive, without the visual appeal and updated gaming mechanics for it to thrive.

PS+ Free Games Crash Through May With Decent, Thrilling Assortment

Sometimes, it’s tough not to outright compare the free games made available on Sony’s PS+ program to the other subscription services. Not even in a title-by-title way, but just whether one’s really doing something better than the others in a given month or series of months. This is one time, however, where a little emphasis on the leader of the pack is merited: while their competition has offered a cluster of unremarkable, not-so-great reviewed freebies for the month of March, Sony has packed its offerings to the gills with what its subscribers want to see.

There’s a monumental AAA title, a brand-new game for their latest generation console, a worthy additional third-person sci-fi shooter and an intriguing, if streamlined VR experience waiting to be downloaded. As one service languishes, the other thrives. Let’s take a closer look, but it’s worth remembering to head over and Grab a 1-Year Subscription to PlayStation Plus at Amazon before doing so.

PS4

Final Fantasy VII Remake

For a long time, asking for a remastering for Final Fantasy VII stood right alongside Half-Life 3 as one of those things that gamers endlessly joked about never getting … yet they really, really wanted underneath the meme culture. A graphically overhauled version for the PlayStation 2 was teased early in the 2000s, so it’s not like the desire came out of nowhere. However, plans to potentially follow through with the remake kept getting pushed, ultimately getting to a point on later consoles where it became unclear whether a remastering or an actual remake would be both more desirable and doable.  

Then, this new Final Fantasy VII experience was finally announced some decade and a half later. As the anticipation began to mount, it became clear which direction Square Enix would go: it would be a definite remake with contemporary battle mechanics, an expanded narrative, and, most importantly, parts split into several games. Purists who want a cleaned-up version of the original experience might feel let down to come so close and not get what they wanted, but the immense retelling has otherwise put both critics and players under its spell, transforming the beloved story of Midgar into one for the modern era.

Remnant: From the Ashes

Whenever a successful developer takes a break from making a popular style of game for a while, even just a few years, competitors will move into the space in hopes of providing a fix during that absence. Players of the Dark Souls and Bloodborne line of games kept their eyes open for alternatives after Dark Souls III wrapped up, In slips Remnant: From the Ashes, developed by Darksiders III makers Gunfire Games, which draws together those dungeon survival strategies with third-person shooting aspects.

The world in Remnant: From the Ashes has been besieged by a hostile interdimensional force known as the Root, driving humanity underground for survival. Through a landscape that blends apocalypse with overgrowth not unlike a hybrid of The Last of Us and Darksiders, the customized character – or characters, as two others can join – navigates through the ruins of society and portals to dimensions for an answer to the threat, armed with either firearms, melee weapons, or a combo of both. There’s a familiar Doom-like wackiness to the story and setting, and both critics and players have favorably compared the ever-changing variety of encounters and strategic gameplay to its inspirations.  

PS5

Maquette

When I hear the name Annapurna, my kneejerk response is always to think of their body of work in the film industry, which includes a lot of engaging, immersive, thought-provoking movies. The titles that come out of their video game publishing division run on about the same wavelength, whether they’re supporting the developers directly or simply getting engaging games from other platforms out to their audience. Maquette belongs in the former category, developed by Graceful Decay under their umbrella and debuting through PS+.

The premise of Maquette involves a mechanic that’s been used in countless other games, in which the main character has a model replica of a room or space and then moves things around in the model, which in turn moves things around in the real-life version of the space. The goal here is to move obstacles around on the map to solve environment puzzles, not unlike Pneuma or Myst, but in doing so Maquette also aims to tell an expressive story about the layers of personal relationships.

PS VR

Farpoint

Sometimes, it takes a few straightforward of games to make the most significant progress in new video game technology. Farpoint offers little beyond being a standard alien-planet shooter, in which the player explores the world on which they’ve crash-landed in pursuit of their team members. Armed with a firearm that’s capable of being controlled with the PS Aim peripheral, the players treks through the exploration prompts of Farpoint, where the shooting gameplay has been critiqued for not being much more than an interactive vehicle for the VR experience.  But, critics and players both seem to think it’s worth the trip just for the immersion.

PS+ Delivers Avalanche of Free Titles in March: FF7, Remnant, PS5 Debut