More and more, especially with their September lineup of free games, Sony seems to have gotten the message about their waning lineup of PS+ titles following the removal of their legacy offerings.  Over the past few months, in degrees both small and significant, the quality and prestige of their titles has gone up to a near-respectable level.  This round, however, makes a big case for them being back in the game, though, boasting two AAA titles – one that’s been out for a while, another that’s fairly recent – with recognizable brands and strong prestige behind ‘em. Will they continue to offer games of this caliber? Who knows, but for now, this seems like a strong indication that PlayStation Plus’s monthly free games might once again make it worth the price of admission for a subscription. Let’s explore them further.

PS4

Batman: Arkham Knight

Rocksteady’s third installment in their Arkham series of videogames shares more than a few similarities with the final entry in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film trilogy: it’s an excellent conclusion to a remarkable series, despite also being the lesser of the three due to some story missteps. Arkham Knight finally takes Batman outside the separated boundaries of the previous games — both the institution grounds of Asylum and the “quarantined” section of the city in Arkham City — and into the full space of Gotham itself, though its millions of citizens have been evacuated due to a plot orchestrated by Scarecrow.  Piloting the Batmobile and soaring across rooftops, Batman battles the criminals who remain in its boundaries, including both familiar faces as the “new”creation of the Arkham Knight: a seasoned, familiarly-trained adversary who dresses in a mech-like suit resembling Batman. Exploration, drama, stealth and combat variety are all there in classic Rocksteady sandbox fashion, though the twists and turns of its story may leave some players, even seasoned comic-book readers, a little perplexed.

Darksiders III

The original Darksiders surprised with its Legend of Zelda-like progression of hack-‘n-slashing and puzzle-solving through a mythical storyline and high-fantasy action, while Darksiders II unleashed even more of developer Vigil’s potential with open maps, expanded loot, and tightened combat.  Vigil has shuttered and will be missed, but the hope was that Gunfire Games — the folks behind the Darksiders II remastered edition — might be able to continue their legacy with the third installment, featuring the female among the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Fury. What they’ve done instead, to mixed successes, is tweak the game’s mechanics to adapt to the current realm of reflexive, deliberately challenging dungeon crawlers. Critics and players seems divided on whether the spike in difficulty seems fitting or cheap, but some agreements can be made on two fronts with Darksiders III: while the graphics are decidedly lower-fi than one might expect of the current generation, the mythology of the setting, the fluidity of the world, and the execution of combat still make this yet another ride worth taking.

PS+ Delivers Big in September With Dark Knight, Darksider Freebies

There isn’t much hesitation in saying this about Sony’s PS+ free downloads for the month of June: this marks the first truly decent slate since their decision to reduce the number of titles per month.  Granted, there still isn’t anything to generate an extreme amount of excitement, as we’ve got a compilation of remastered favorites from one franchise and a throwback revival of a classic platformer in another.  With that said, the all-around quality and value this time around is leaps and bounds above previous months, delivering on titles that’ll trigger interest among gamers out there. Yes, it might be slightly … safe to tap into fond memories of past games to rejuvenate some feelings about the benefits for the subscription service, but it’s a good start that’ll hopefully fire up the momentum.  Let’s take a look.

Click Here to Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus Subscription at Amazon

2K

PS4

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

Making this remastered collection of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel a freebie title couldn’t have come at a better time, as Borderlands 3 was announced at PAX East just a few months ago, with a release date of September 13.  Those who haven’t played through these installments in the franchise — or any of ‘em — will have a blast discovering what the loot-based post-apocalyptic shooter is all about, relishing the cel-shaded graphics in both that have been remastered at 60p and can run at 4K with a quick patch update.  Those who’ve only banged through the Game of the Year edition of the first Borderlands will, of course, appreciate the availability to jump into the next ones.  And then, there are those who know and love everything that Borderlands 2 did to improve upon the solid foundation of the first game, who will jump at the chance to go nutballs throughout the wastes again.

SEGA

Sonic Mania

While the quirky, small-eyed and furry-legged redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog for his motion-picture debut might be the most recent instance of controversy around the blue speedster, it’s far, faaaaar from the first time, as the SEGA Genesis darling has struggled to find his footing on any of the most recent current-gen consoles. Whether it’s the weight of the physics, the graphical presentation, the precision of controls or … the color of Sonic’s arms, he’s hit numerous stumbles in adapting to the current climate that have made it tough to get excited about his return.  To cleanse the palate and get things back on track, SEGA released a healthy dose of nostalgia with Sonic Mania, a new release that mashes up “remixed” old-school levels with new creations in an incredibly stringent replication of the 16-bit aesthetic.  Turns out, sometimes the best answer is to return to one’s roots instead of trying too hard to innovate, because Sonic Mania had the best critical and player reception of any of the franchise’s titles released in over a decade and a half. As evidenced by the fan response to countless forms of Sonic media in recent memory, that’s no small feat.

Sony’s Handsome PS+ Titles For June Are a Big Dash Forward

“As a reminder, after March 8, 2019, PS3 and PS Vita games will no longer be offered as part of the PS Plus monthly games lineup”.

That’s straight from the mouths — well, fingers — of Sony and the folks behind their PS+ program, making good on the decision to limit the monthly freebies to current-gen titles.  What does the future hold for the months after this? Perhaps there will be extra PS4 titles added to the total downloads every month; perhaps they (inaccurately) believe only a pair of titles and monthly discounts will be enough.  Regardless, it’s the last month for this longstanding paradigm of PlayStation’s subscription service, and they’re going out with … well, a modest bang, more like firecrackers than the display you’d see at a holiday celebration. Along with solid, yet not particularly attention-grabbing PS4 titles, it’s a tolerable sendoff under circumstances where they probably should’ve gone all-out.  Let’s take a closer look.

Click Here to Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus Subscription at Amazon

IO Interactive

PS4

Hitman: The Complete First Season

Releasing chopped-up portions of a full gaming experience as periodic “episodes” has grown in popularity during this generation, a controversial yet effective method that SquareEnix adopted with their semi-reboot of the Hitman series, Hitman: The Complete First Season. After all the episodes had been released, this installment now gets referred to as “Hitman 2016” — or “the Hitman reboot” — and can be viewed simply as another full experience from the perspective of Agent 47, the chrome-domed antiheroic assassin who traverses the world eliminating marks. Lighter on plot in order to introduce the characters in this rebooted universe, this Hitman earns attention for the sandbox-style nature of the environments in which Agent 47 navigates to kill his targets.  Through this, Hitman taps into the versatility of older, popular entries while updating the franchise in a way that’ll compete with the likes of Dishonored and Far Cry, helping it hit the mark both critically and commercially.

For Honor

While some top minds like to discuss who’d win in battles between the likes of Superman and Thor or Batman and Black Panther, others (with overlap!) contemplate who’d win in wars waged between the great armies of history.  In a way, For Honor attempts to bring this concept to the videogame front, pitting three historical forces — Knights, Vikings, and Samurai — against one another in third-person battle. Selecting from classes that range from light to heavy forces, as well as hybrids, the mechanics exist in the space between fighting and strategy war games.  Different classes are directed to perform fitting battlefield tactics, while the staging of an individual bout shifts to a combat viewpoint that meshes the likes of Dark Souls and The Witcher. Between the history, the classes, and the strategy, and coupled with multiplayer functionality, For Honor has been heralded as an effort to inject something new into several different genres, while dedicated servers have defeated some of its online launch hiccups.

Konami

PS3

Divekick

For the most part, the control schemes for 2D fighting games are simple: the buttons control punches and kicks of varying degrees of intensity, blocking, jumping, evasion and general movement.  It’s the combination of buttons, reflexes, and the prediction of an opponent’s next moves that make it complex.  Divekick attempts to take the simplicity to another level by further streamlining the control scheme, allowing the player to only control vertical jumps and the resulting angular kick (as well as midair and evasive jumps by pressing those same buttons). The idea is to create a new strategic form of fighting gameplay, and the differences between the power and speed of the combatants — as well as power-ups chosen before the match — try to leave their mark on the genre.  A reduction of control functions can naturally lead to repetition, though, and that’s a big part of the apathy toward Divekick.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Look, the impact that Metal Gear Solid 4 had on the PS3’s popularity is indisputable.  While Grand Theft Auto 4 may have generated interest in the next generation of gaming itself, the approaching release of Hideo Kojima’s next piece of work certainly impacted how single-system players made their decisions about which one to get, evidenced by its place in the Top 10 best-selling games for that console. Thus, it’s a fitting, thematic, yet somewhat peculiar and frustrating final inclusion in the PS+ program’s legacy freebies.  After all, based off the console’s age and the popularity of the franchise, how many players out there haven’t stealthed their way through MGS4? For those uninitiated few that never got around to it, it’s the opportunity to play one of the legacy console’s most instrumental and best-executed titles, as well as the option for the initiated to have a download handy in order to future proof for the digital age. I think they should’ve gone with Heavenly Sword, but … *sips tea*.

Necrosoft

PS Vita

Gunhouse

While the absence of an interactive novel this month for the PS Vita is a bit surprising, the other consistent slot in their PS+ slate, “yet another” alignment puzzle game, has been filled by Gunhouse. There’s a story involving monsters, orphans, and defending a house, but the focus of the game falls on the sliding board on the right side of the screen, taking shape as something of a tower defense layout. Critics confirm suspicions that the mobile-sized puzzle area and the graphical elements bombarding from the left seem oddly married and superficial.

Rogue Aces

Finally, there’s Rogue Aces, a delightfully retro side-scrolling warfare title, whose gameplay matches exactly what you’d expect out of something with that title and inspired by vintage gaming. Soaring through the air, the player fires bullets, drops bombs, and pulls of crazy aerial maneuvers in quick, fluid gameplay with admittedly bland visuals, even considering the retro intention.  An intriguing side-note: both the Vita games offered for free this month have also been made available – recently, within the past year — on the Nintendo Switch, an interesting swipe at Sony’s “mobile” competition.

PS+ Says Goodbye to Last-Gen Freebies With a Fitting, Flat Salute

It’s the final countdown – cue Europe’s iconic ‘80s tune here  – to the date when Sony will stop offering PS3 and PS Vita games through their PlayStation Plus subscription program, scheduled to take effect in March of 2019. To be honest, the selection of legacy titles over the past year wasn’t anything to get too excited about, perhaps to soften the blow as that point draws nearer. January’s free downloads aren’t any different, though the title that grabs the most attention in this shrug-worthy month does pop up in the PS3 offerings. Other factors may come into play with what’s being dished out this month, but it’s clear that Sony isn’t beginning the year with a bang.  Let’s jump into what’s there.

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Ubisoft Annecy

PS4

Steep

It seems as if Ubisoft wanted to create a wintry extreme-sports version of Burnout Paradise when they took the plunge into Steep. Stunning landscapes that duplicate the snowy Alps and Denali mountaintops provide open-world environment(s) through which the player can navigate … and by navigate, I mean shred and glide. Skiing and snowboarding provide the on-the-ground action, while wingsuits and gliders take the player through the air, constantly backed by impressively realistic visuals that can be viewed through either first- or third-person perspectives. Despite allowing the player to explore the areas at their leisure as well as to record videos and engage in a trick point system, Steep really wants people to play online against others in races and activities.  While some critics seem conflicted over whether it’s enough of a simulator, most seem to appreciate how it aspires for something different than being a duplication of SSX, Amped, or other arcade snowboarding games.

Portal Knights

“The World” of Portal Knights exists somewhere at the intersection of paths leading to Minecraft, Skyrim, and Castle Crashers. After selecting a class for your character – Mage, Ranger, or Warrior — and then going through the RPG-like tradition of customizing their appearance, the player gets thrown into its beautiful quasi-angular environment. A versatile experience then takes shape, first hallmarked by combat (from either a first-person or third-person perspective) and then leading into its crafting and construction aspects, which will quickly trigger thoughts of other games.  A direct arrangement of quests gives the player more of a gaming purpose as they tap into the combat’s relative depth and the building facets, while co-op functionality allows three other adventurers to tag along for battle, either online or split-screen locally. Critics note that The World lacks depth and the game’s functions can grow monotonous, but those are likely small hills to climb for the intended audience of Portal Knights.

High Voltage Software

PS3

Zone of the Enders HD Collection

Surprisingly, there aren’t many good games built around the concept of giant “mecha” robots beating up one another, even and especially when looking at the range of Gundam titles released over the years. Taking notice of that void, videogame mastermind Hideo Kojima and the folks at Konami struck while the iron was hot with Zone of the Enders, which brought together the grand scale of the concept with the creator’s intense storytelling style.  Zone of the Enders has developed a cult following since its release that overshadows the game’s recognized flaws – short story, iffy voice acting and dialogue – hinged mostly on its tech designs and tight shooter/brawling combat. A sequel, The 2^nd Runner, also received fine marks despite being criticized for further storytelling issues and engineered gaming conflicts. High Voltage Software’s HD-updated collection features the PS3-era remastering for both games.

Amplitude

Look, Harmonix didn’t invent the music/rhythm game, but it’s hard to dispute the impact that their dance and faux-instrument titles have had on the gaming climate over the years. It’s fitting, then, that they’d be the ones to try something a bit different with the concept: an attempt at bringing rhythm-based controls into a standard gaming atmosphere.   On its face, Amplitude actually looks a good bit like the Guitar Hero / Rock Band framework in how an arrangement of circles travel down a column and prompt the player to push buttons in concert with ‘em.  The difference lies in the vehicle pushing things forward, literally, taking shape as a science-fiction craft called a Beat Blaster that’s flowing along six different instrument paths of songs and shooting the notes with its cannon.  Considered a sequel of sorts to the studio’s game Frequency, Amplitude has been ported from the PS2 to the PS3 with unique songs crafted by folks at Harmonix and from other indie sources. Online multiplayer’s there, too.

YummyYummyTummy

PS Vita

Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion

YummyYummyTummy is a development studio that seems focused on educational games, so it’s interesting that they ventured into real-time RPG fare with Fallen Legion. Handdrawn artwork folds into the game’s side-scrolling combat and quasi visual-novel conversations, giving it the poise of something like Dragon Crown or Odin Sphere. Timed button-mashing and strategic placement of the 4-person party go in a different direction than those brawlers, though, adding an intentional methodical layer to the flow similar to segments of Valkyrie Profile.  Info about the reception to Flames of Rebellion specifically is scarce, but reviews for the PS4 physical release – Sins of an Empire, which fuses both this and another Fallen Legion game together – praise the live combat mechanics and smooth animations. Load times and twitchy animations have been reported as problems with the Vita iteration, though.

Super Mutant Alien Assault

Finally, there’s Super Mutant Alien Assault, a retro 2D action game with colorful visuals, brisk shooting, and a whole lot of dubstep-infused futurist music. The visuals have a certain vivid charm, there’s degree of randomization to the enemies and weapons available in the levels, and it’s always amusing to see a super tiny dude wielding a big ole’ gun. That seems to be about all there is to this quirky shooter, though, which critics have labeled as underwhelming and devoid of much relay value.

Sony Gets Off to a Rough Start in 2019 With January’s PS+ Freebies

We’re in the final stretch of Sony’s multi-console free offerings to PS+ subscribers; at the beginning of March, they’ll only be making PS4 freebies available to download. As the remaining months go by, the tilt in this direction becomes clearer, as they choose bigger, bolder titles as the downloads for their current-gen console and … well, put simply, toss out some incredibly lackluster remnants of the games they haven’t previously offered for their legacy and portable machines.  As the PS4 gets a flashy remaster of a popular last-gen game and a ground-up remake of a PS2-era powerhouse, the other consoles get party games, borderline-shovelware larks, unremarkable point-and-click adventures and a very odd limousine driving game. Shall we take a closer look?

Click Here to Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus Subscription at Amazon

People Can Fly

PS4

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition

Much like the political spectrum in America nowadays, the first-person genre seems to be splitting into polar-opposite sides from one another: either the games are as grim and hyper realistic as they can get, or the developers try to make them as gleefully outlandish as possible.  When it arrived in 2011, Bulletstorm was insistently marketed as the latter, wearing its outlandish violence and unruly shooting on its sleeve.  For those sold on that idea, the game delivered anarchistic action that tapped into its expletive-ridden attitude in just the right ways; for those who needed convincing, the game’s refined gunplay mechanics and a charmingly wayward sci-fi setting lured those detractors into relishing its chaos as well. Developer People Can Fly have unleased the Full Clip Edition through Gearbox Publishing as a full remastering of the original experience, while also including new content created by the dev team that includes a campaign mode sporting quick access to the game’s myriad guns and new competitive Echo maps.

Yakuza Kiwami

Kiwami means “ultimate” or “extreme” in Japanese depending on the context, so one can view the title of SEGA’s game to mean that it’s the ultimate version of Yakuza, a sleeper hit from the PS2 era and a franchise maker. In an environment dominated by the likes of Grand Theft Auto, Yakuza offered a similar urban-sandbox experience with incredibly distinct differences, notably in the combat and role-playing arenas.  Players take control of a yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu, as he traverses the fictionalized, elevated-reality district of Tokyo after a decade-long stint in prison, pursuing his disappeared childhood friend Yumi and navigating the gang warfare that’s breaking out in the area.  A foursome of fighting styles styles can be chosen mid-combat, while victories in battles earn Kazuma both coin and experience points that can poured into advancing his capabilities.  Yakuza: Kiwami adds new secondary narrative threads and game modes, but it sticks to many of the simulation aspects that propelled the original to an iconic status.

Jackbox Games

PS3

The Jackbox Party Pack 2

Console party games that aren’t under the Nintendo umbrella are a niche within a niche.  Typically, folks will boot up the likes of Mario Party or the Karts/Smash Bros. if they’re in the mood for that kind of atmosphere; or, they’ll pull out any number of popular tabletop party games, which continue to grow in popularity. If there’s a recognizable, reliable name among the rest, it’d be the “You Don’t Know Jack” franchise, which has released a series of Jackbox Party Pack games over the years; the fifth installment was released this year.  When asked, most gaming groups will point to the first one – which contains You Don’t Know Jack – or the third one as the essential packs to get, while this one, Party Pack 2, rarely if ever gets mentioned at the top.  Take that how you will.

Arkedo Series

Close to a decade ago, Arkedo Studio endeavored to create a game a month for an indefinite amount of time.  While a fourth game was announced, the pursuit ultimately ended in three titles, which comprise the Arkedo Series, a run of retro-heavy games that share elements with late-‘80s franchises. The vintage aspects seems to be the only real drawing factor to these games, though.

Brain&Brain

PS Vita

Burly Men at Sea

This point-and-click experience from Brain&Brain received a bit of a push for appearing on TIME Magazine’s Top Games of 2016, a distinction that seems mostly focused on how the aesthetics brought the folklore narratives to life.  Charming visuals and sound effects don’t seem to be strong enough to plow through the game’s sporadic control problems, though, which differs across the many systems that it’s been released on. More importantly, the lack of interactivity makes one question its distinction as a “game”, and iffy controls ewven in that regard make one double-guess whether to embark on this narrative-based adventure.

Roundabout

Finally, we’ve got Roundabout, which reminds me of those hybrid games from the ‘90s that combined standard game controls with live-action cutscenes. It’s kinda like Crazy Taxi meets Burnout Paradise’s crash mode, only you’re in a stretch limousine that can’t stop spinning in circles and the destruction gets viewed from an isometric point of view. An absurd premise mixes with amateurish cutscenes in a peculiar videogame excursion.

Bulletstorms, Yakuzas Do the Heavy Lifting in November’s PS+ Freebies

The same challenges posed to other subscription services apply just as much to Sony’s PS+ offerings for the month of October, perhaps even more so. While enthusiasm toward this month’s slate must combat against the lengthy sandbox experiences of a new Assassin’s Creed game and the hotly-anticipated sequel to Red Dead Redemption, PS4 owners are also caught in the web spun by Insomniac’s exclusive and surprisingly well-regarded Spider-Man.  There’s little use in challenging the enthusiastic momentum behind those games, yet there’s another area that Sony emphasizes in their monthly offerings that still earn attention: they’ve remembered that it’s Halloween, and they’ve offered a few tried and true horror goodies to play in between sandbox gaming marathons. It’s still a pretty shrug-worthy month, yet the way they’ve made on-theme games available during the gaps has given them an edge this time. Let’s take a stab at exploring these titles.

Click Here to Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus Subscription at Amazon

IllFonic

PS4

Friday the 13^th: The Game

Did you know that Japanese developer ATLUS, responsible for the Shin Megami Tensei role-playing triumphs and the Trauma Center surgery simulators, once made a Friday the 13^th game for the NES? The execution of that one illustrates one of the key problems with making an interactive experience out of a slasher or monster horror property, where the overwhelming power of the villain and the number of seemingly powerless “victims” trying to get away doesn’t fit terribly well with the traditional gaming model.  Friday the 13^th: The Game takes that to heart, instead delivering a multiplayer experience with two options: either playing as one of several victims – camp counselors — who coordinate to escape from Jason, or getting randomly selected to play as Jason himself and attempt to kill the others.  Technical issues with glitches and server communication didn’t keep players from having a gory good time with the experience at release, and has been supported by a year of patches for said problems.

Laser League

The visuals for Laser League easily draw one’s attention, looking like a combination of Tron and The Running Man in its top-down glimpse at a bizarre neon-infused sports arena. As a game, the functionality rests somewhere between Pong, Geometry Wars, and, yeah, the disc battles from Tron, pitting combatants against each other as lasers aim to take opponents out … and close-quartered swords can be used if those don’t do the trick. It’s a simple enough game in execution, but that seems to deepen once the player learns the ropes and formulates strategies on how to eliminate opponents with precision and timing. Some mild concerns over repetition in the concept didn’t seem to faze critics and players, who embraced the straightforwardness as a vehicle for accessibility and competitive mastery.

Wales Interactive

PS 3

Master Reboot

One frequent observation about the videogame Remember Me hinged on the fact that the game felt like Mirror’s Edge, only from a third-person perspective and with the science-fiction concept of directly preserved memories as its driving force.  “Kinda Like Mirror’s Edge, But About Memories” actually more aptly describes Master Reboot, a surreal first-person exploration game from Wales Interactive.  Players take control of Madison as she explore memories, solve puzzles, and traverse a haunting psychological landscape rendered in roughly pixelated yet entrancingly moody visuals, all in pursuit of solving the mystery of the Soul Clouds: clusters of data from deceased people’s consciousnesses that can be interacted with after their passing. Shades of other games’ ethereal attitudes and a healthy dose of the film Vanilla Sky hallmark this novel indie.

The Bridge

The works of M.C. Escher wouldn’t be classified as anything resembling the horror genre, but there’s something undeniably warped and psychologically provocative about the infinite, angular landscapes and twisted portraits he created.  The Bridge draws heavily from Escher’s style of overlapping realities in its black-and-white rendering of manipulated stages, which are flipped and rotated so the protagonist can collect keys and reach the end. A black-and-white sketched aesthetic, eerie oscillating sound effects and a delicately hypnotic score enhance the creepiness, though the drawn-out progression and dreary twists on perception proved a little too sludgy for some players.

Ratloop

PS Vita

Rocketbirds 2: Evolution

There’s something amusing about the mindset one has to get in to take Rocketbirds even remotely seriously, in which a satirical military-style action experience swaps out humans for … well, chickens and penguins. In the first game, Hardboiled Chicken gets assigned to take out an evil penguin dictator; in this sequel, Evolution, he’s got to finish the job against seemingly more complex odds. There’s something both amusing and cinematically fluid about how the character models respond to the side-scrolling controls, both the platform movement and the gunfire, though critics are quick to point out that a lack of precision in the controls detracts from the experience.

2064 Read Only Memories

To cap off the month with a dose of suspenseful variety, Sony has also included a retro visual-novel experience with 2064 Read Only Memories.  Responses to this title have been polarizing: some embrace the pixel-art style, voice acting, and undertones centered on artificial intelligence and journalism, while others have grown frustrated with its character development and technical hiccups.

Sony’s PS+ Treats for October Mix Up Slashers, Memories, and Chickens

Not much else probably needs to be said about Sony’s PlayStation Plus freebies for the month September beyond Destiny 2, but that’s not the only trick up their sleeve this time around.  Along with such a heavy-hitting AAA title, they’re also offering a remastered edition of one of the absolute best third-person action RPG-ish games from the previous generation, something that’ll satisfy the lingering hunger of those who recently completed one of the PS4’s finest exclusives released to date.  As has become the custom for the subscription service, the other legacy titles are footnotes and obligations, a cluster of legacy platform and puzzle experiences.  PS4 owners should be very happy. Let’s explore ‘em further.

Click Here to Grab a 1-Year PlayStation Plus Subscription at Amazon

Bungie

PS4

Destiny 2

A lot of pressure fell on Bungie at the announcement of their newest creation, Destiny. How could they possibly follow up on the lore, gameplay formula, and popularity of Halo? Turns out, they weren’t entirely sure of how to do that either: the first game in the series received lukewarm reviews upon release, and it only really started to jibe with its playerbase after numerous updates and expansions.  But once the shooter-RPG roots of Destiny took hold with its audience, it really started to appeal to ‘em, and that’s the lessons and foundation Bungie tries to take over to Destiny 2. As is so often the case with big releases like this, the sequel earned a broad range of both highly positive and damningly negative reviews: encouraging impressions center on its advancements over the original, the scope of both its story potential and gameplay setting, and how it focuses on better laying out what the game’s really about; the criticisms center on its threadbare content, sameness to the original, and other common dings like balance issues and loot disappointment. That just comes with the territory, though.

God of War III: Remastered Edition

One of my fondest gaming memories occurs in the very first scene in the original God of War: the moment when you’re given control of Kratos as he starts rapidly slinging his glowing chained blades on the surface of a rainy boat.  It’s exhilarating, sinking its hooks into the player almost immediately as the antiheroic story of vengeance sprawls across several chapters, which made the final installment, God of War III, an essential PS3 system seller for console fence-sitters.  As the franchise continues to be a driver for Sony with its recent Norse-inspired reboot, they’ve also offered the previous timeline’s final installment in a remastered version for the PS4.  It’s a little awkward that first two games aren’t backwards compatible and playable on the new hardware, but luckily each of the games have been designed to be relatively self-contained, so that anyone could pick up and relish the precise, chaotic, absorbing action that flowed through the series. God of War III is a dazzling finale, but it’s also a brilliant experience on its own.

The Digital Lounge

PS3

Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition

Reading over the list of systems that Another World has transitioned to since its creation in ’91 is overwhelming, numbering over 20 (!) if you’re counting its 20^th anniversary release. Even in its earliest blocky and pixelated version, it’s easy to see why the cinematic atmosphere strikes a strong-enough chord to be constantly re-released across platforms, which only gets enhanced – but not “changed” — by the polished visuals of the anniversary released.  The consensus among both critics and players, however, is that as soon as someone starts navigating the game’s challenges and trying to get used to the frustrating controls, the whimsy and nostalgia surrounding Another World quickly evaporates.

Q.U.B.E.: Director’s Cut

Take the sensation of figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B in the Portal series, then picture it done in a similar fashion with color-block slide puzzles and physics-based manipulations of an environment. Essentially, that’s what Q.U.B.E. aims to accomplish.  Originally created as a student project by the game’s developers, the game has been expanded into a narrative of sorts, in which the player deciphers chatter from two different comm channels explaining what they’re actually doing: either solving the ship’s puzzles to prevent the destruction of Earth, or doing so in an Aperture Laboratories-esque series of experiments in a vague location.  Critics have praised the straightforward but effective narrative and the elegance of the puzzles, though some dissatisfaction can come in the simplicity of its puzzle-solving and the potential futility of where the narrative goes.

10tons

PS Vita

Sparkle 2

This is yet another of those touchscreen puzzle games designed to function well enough on consoles, but are mostly engineered for portable devices. It owes a tremendous amount to games like Zuma, Bejeweled, and Luxor in its mechanics, with a little modernized spit-polish for visual allure.

Foul Play

Ever feel like an audience member watching the events of a side-scrolling game take place? Foul Play takes this concept and runs with it, in which the characters controlled by the player are performers on a stage in the midst of a play gone wrong. Standard 2D beat-‘em-up controls are in place, but they’re tied to a somewhat unique mechanic, in which visible audience members under the stage need to be amused by what’s going on. The visual presentation, the novelty of entertaining the audience, and the general charm of Foul Play seem to entertain both critics and players in progressively less-enthusiastic stages, as the enjoyment dries up once they see the lack of variety in this production.

Appeal of PS+ Free Games in September Driven by Destiny

There’s a tricky like that subscription services like Sony’s PS+ must walk in terms of the free games offered every month, seen by some as a merely a perk and others as a necessary component of whether to stay on or not. Variety is paramount, of course: the ability to offer a unique selection of games that somehow differ from the competition. However, the quality of the freebies also becomes a factor, since … well, if the games aren’t all that great, then players might grow frustrated with the perceived value of the freebies.  Props to Sony for thinking outside the box for their August downloads, ranging from a pseudo open-world gangster experience to a unique multiplayer horror game and a new stab at a dungeon-crawler RPG. However, none of the titles this month have been particularly well-received by either critics or eager gamers, yielding a dubious and lackluster slate of downloads.  Let’s look closer.

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Hangar 13

PS4

MAFIA III

The Mafia franchise may have been around since the early 2000s, but it’s only fired off a grand total of three releases in that period, taking its time between each game as it’s passed between developers. Most recently, Mafia III takes the familiar game design of the previous entries and brings it to late-‘60s New Orleans, in which a Vietnam war vet gets embroiled in the machinations of the region’s mobsters and exacts revenge upon them for murdering his family members. The hope has always been that the gang warfare and semi-historical period of the Mafia series would disguise its sandbox similarities to Grand Theft Auto, and for the most part that’s been the case, though Mafia III constantly struggles against mission repetitiveness and an attractive but unengaging open world that weigh it down.

Dead by Daylight

It’s unsurprising at this point to see two games of a similar concept come out in the same year, as Dead by Daylight shares more than a few likenesses to the recent Friday the 13^th gaming experience.  Players take on either one of two roles in the 4 vs. 1 gameplay dynamic: either as an indestructible murderer (one of several to choose from) pursuing their targets, or as one of many potential victims attempting to escape the killer. The victims rely on stealth and strategy to escape their surroundings, manipulating generators and tinkering with hooks, while the killer methodically moves toward his or her targets and attempts to either make them bleed out or drop them on said hooks. Thus, Dead by Daylight captures the essence of classic horror movies quite well, though the deliberate limitations of the experience also encroach on its successes as an actual PvP game.

Spiders

PS3

Bound by Flame

As I’ve mentioned before in previous articles, it isn’t easy for new action-RPGs to break into the market, both because of their renowned AAA competition (Elder Scrolls, Dark Souls) and because of a healthy range of lower-tier, yet high-quality contemporaries, such as Dragon’s Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur.  Bound By Flame puts forth a tried-and-true effort to enter the fray by offering character customization, class selection, crafting, different approaches to combat, and party relationship mechanics, revealing all the tools that one of such RPGs might need to battle against others of its type.  It’s the other nuts-‘n-bolts holding everything together that make this attempt from game developer Spiders a bit rickety, where clumsy combat mechanics unjustly spike difficulty levels and the depth of both the story and relationship developments tend to be much shallower than they should be. Despite this, both critics and those yearning for something new from the subgenre still found plenty to dig into with Bound by Flame, reminding them of other games while satisfying their hunger.

Serious Sam 3: BFE

Ah, Serious Sam. Kind of like a cross between the aesthetic of Tomb Raider with the first-person shooter gravitas of Duke Nukem and/or Doom, the franchise found a way to strike a chord with fans upon its introduction in the early 2000s. That’s mostly for the visual presentation in its first two entries, which have been spit-polished through remakes over the years.  Serious Sam 3 aims for another wild powerhouse of a first-person shooter, forming into a prequel to the events of the other games as it sends Sam Stone careening through levels overrun with aliens ready for his bullets. A tactical cover shooter this isn’t, as the full objective here hinges on old-school shooting reflexes in the decimation of waves upon waves of enemies. Some have lamented the straightforwardness and lack of innovation, while others have found that it enters a vintage comfort zone with its explosively simple, often challenging ambitions.

Mass Creation

PS Vita

Draw Slasher

Titles don’t get much more literal and descriptive than Draw Slasher, a gesture-based action game from Mass Creation.  As a ninja, the player uses push-based mechanics to control the character and sharp slashing motions to conduct attacks, slicing and dicing through zombies.  Personality and casual addictiveness seem to trump its one-dimensional aims, though many can’t seem to see Draw Slasher as anything beyond a mobile game carried over to the Vita.

Space Hulk

Having nothing to do with the Marvel character, Space Hulk adapts a board game released in the late ‘80s that’s set in the Warhammer 40K universe. A tactical experience set aboard a cluster of abandoned ships – the “space hulk” – that have been occupied by alien forces, the game requires the player to maneuver a shuttle to the end of the hulk, pushing through some of the universe’s critters to get there. The general consensus among critics and players is that Space Hulk adapts the game in about as accurate and straightforward of a way as possible, which ends up being both its strength and weakness.

PS+ Freebies for August Flame Out With Middling Rivals of Better Titles

When one thinks about the summer months, they typically imagine bright sunshine, flickering water, and vibrant fireworks … but not so much Sony and their slate of PS+ freebies for the month of July.  Instead, the big PS4 title this month hinges on a heavy mood – wink, wink – while the other taps into grim curses and violence involved with an open-world fighting game. The others may have a few rays of color involved, but they’re largely uninspired choices that seem born of obligation at this point, and the big draws this month lure players into shadowy, ominous atmospheres that’ll keep one occupied out of the summer heat for a dozen hours or so.  Let’s take a glimpse at the games.

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Quantic Dream

PS4

Heavy Rain

Just two months ago, Sony offered David Cage’s cinematic quasi-videogame Beyond: Two Souls as one of their free downloads, and I mentioned that the one-two punch of Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were responsible for establishing Quantic Dream’s reputation. Well, just two short months later, they’re offering his sophomore effort, Heavy Rain, the one that essentially put him on the map. In the pursuit for the Origami Killer and an abducted child, the story effectively blurs the line between interactive storytelling and actual gaming controls, taking on the perspective of several different people associated with the investigation. Branching choices yield different iterations of the conclusion — nearly two-dozen — though they all follow along the same twisted, insane trajectory through psychological suspense. There are holes that draw the narrative into question, and there isn’t a lot of actual enjoyment to be had with Heavy Rain as a “game”, but there’s no discounting the mesmerizing experience involved here.

Absolver

Ever since BioWare delivered a shockingly innovative experience with Jade Empire, players have been pining for another open-world, RPG-esque experience hinged on martial arts and customization. A sequel to Jade Empire still hasn’t happened – and likely never will – while other games like Sleeping Dogs and Remember Me nail a few of the ingredients without getting the complete package; one has the open-world aspect, the other has a custom combo feature, etc. Absolver gets rather close to the full idea sand role-playing elements, featuring a fluid ancient open-world atmosphere in which the player customizes their avatar – both their attributes (except for the face, which is covered in a mask) and their fighting style — and engages in hand-to-hand combat with its denizens.  A short campaign, halfhearted reliance on “training” others post-campaign, and a general lack of depth keep it from landing all the right blows, though.

Ubisoft

PS3

Rayman 3

It’s no surprise that both the big subscription services depend on the Rayman franchise for a dose of all-ages fun every couple of months or so. Ubisoft has yet to deliver an outright bad installment, and the reliable platform design and zany aesthetics make for something just about anyone can pick up and enjoy.  Rayman 3 remains a less-popular but still well-regarded entry, a remastered version of Hoodlum Havoc that preserves the majority of the original version’s charms and challenges, give or take a few aesthetic elements laced into Rayman’s battle with Andre and his (hood)lums.  It plays like the original game with gorgeously enhanced visuals, so it’s hard to find anything to complain about there.

Extreme Exorcism

If Ghostbusters, Castlevania, and the original Donkey Kong were thrown together in a blender, then you’d have something pretty close to Extreme Exorcism.  A pint-sized platformer with a lot of attitude, the premise follows Mae Barrons as she rids a mansion of the ghostly presences within, forcing the player to bounce between ledges and gather weapons while she’s a bustin’ ghosts.  The kicker? With every victory over one spirit, another one forms that learns from her prior behaviors and copies them, adding additional challenges to her level completions. A novel opponent mechanic, a spunky demeanor, and multiplayer functionality may not have a scared up much attention at release, but perhaps it should have.

Excalibur

PS Vita

Space Overlords

Apparently, the ability to create and destroy your own worlds still isn’t enough for Space Overlords.  Imagine the globe-spinning feel of Super Stardust HD, only with the top-down space shooter gameplay replaced with clunky robots moving around on the land, operating at a much slower pace as they move to destroy objects.  Critics have been nothing but harsh on this title, having little to compliment beyond the noble intentions underneath glitchy, sluggish execution.

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

Interestingly, over the past few months, Sony has been veering away from their regular rhythm of visual novels.  They’ve somewhat returned to that with Zero Time Dilemma, though it’s a slightly different beast than those other popular interactive stories.  Set in the universe of the long-running manga series, the story relies entirely on escape-room puzzles and moral dilemmas, amplified for effect with lingering shots on the character while contemplating exactly what to do.  Both critics and fans responded well to the suspense and how the subtle gameplay interweaves with the narrative.

July’s PS+ Freebies Heavy On Atmosphere, Light On Substance

It’s tough to know what to expect from the console subscription services during the month of E3. Sometimes, the studios like to go all-out to showcase what kinds of games come bundled with their specific system’s monthly sub, while other times they focus so much attention on their presentation and potential sales attached to the period that the freebies fall to the wayside. Turns out, both the big studios went in the latter direction this time around, and with debatably equal subpar lineups.  At least Sony has beamed down a somewhat high-profile title for PS+ subscribers – a sequel to a popular turn-based science-fiction warfare game – alongside an eclectic mix featuring racing games, a platformer, and a surprisingly objective puzzle game.  Let’s take a gander, shall we?

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Firaxis Games

PS4

XCOM 2

XCOM: Enemy Unknown was a quasi-remake of the mid-‘90s sci-fi game UFO: Enemy Unknown, to which Firaxis and 2K Games found success in its stringent difficulty, tactical versatility, and how they factored into the game’s absorbing premise. The consensus about XCOM 2 is that it improves upon and fine-tunes everything that worked in the first installment, continuing the story twenty years later with Bradford and the XCOM “rebels” against alien conquerors. Sizing up the faster-paced layouts of the battlefield, weathering random encounters, and meeting secondary goals of missions enhance the turn-based mechanics already in place, all while retaining the franchise’s signature difficulty throughout.

Trials Fusion

Sony’s treading over old ground here with Trials Fusion, offered by their competitors as a free download nearly a year ago now. With a new installment on the way, one wonders whether RedLynx will shake things up enough to justify another lap around the franchise’s tracks, because Fusion’s big downfall among critics and fans alike seemed to be its dire lack of innovation within the concept. Trial-and-error adjustment to levels while riding a dirt bike is the key to the series, and Fusion executes more of the same with their assortment of levels and the mixture of aggravation, memorization, and ultimately victory that comes along with ‘em.  But while players had a good enough time with the tracks and the muscle memory involved with besting them, the lack of evolution in the concept after … uh, Evolution makes one wonder if RedLynx will just rev up the newly-announced installment, Trials Rising, without tweaking things a bit.

Exor Studios

PS3

Zombie Driver

This game from Exor Studios combines two experiences from gaming’s yesteryear into one: top-down vehicular controls dating back to early consoles – memories of Ghostbusters are conjured by this one – and the awkwardness that ensues when someone runs into a pedestrian in the Grand Theft Auto series. Zombie Driver equips the player with an almost Mad Max-like car armed that’s armed to the teeth, drops them in an apocalyptic environment, and then requires them to complete objectives while plowing through and mowing down waves upon waves of hostile zombies.  Objectives range from rescue missions to traditional stage-clearing mayhem, and the player has the option of upgrading the gear on their cars with earned in-game currency, beefing up their ability to take out the brain-eaters. While it sounds fun, critics are quick to point out the brevity of the Zombie Driver’s minimal level count and lack of variation in the concept.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Even with many other heavy-duty military shooters dominating videogame culture, the Ghost Recon series of videogames has continued to go strong for over a decade and a half now. To stay fresh, Red Storm and Ubisoft decided to progress the franchise ahead into a futuristic environment in 2012, jumping ahead to the not-so-distant year of 2024 with its concept.  By jumping ahead just a little bit of time, Future Soldier lets the overall atmosphere of the game remain largely the same, yet opens the door for slightly advanced technology and geopolitical concerns to shake up the cover-based tactical shooting ambitions of the Ghost Recon brand.  Unfortunately, in the process of updating the setting, the game received some skepticism toward its condensing of the more logistical elements of the game’s tactics, leaving it as a simplified futuristic cover-based shooter instead of an embodiment of what Ghost Recon’s really about.

Grip Games

PS Vita

Atomic Ninjas

Humor and general vivacity can go a long way with competitive games, making even the most mediocre of titles just a bit more fun by mutually enjoying its energy.  Atomic Ninjas gathers together a host of quirky pint-sized combatants, throws them into neon-hued environments, and gets them to fight one another while analyzing the obstacles of platform-style level design. While it was created a few years prior to Speedrunners, Atomic Ninjas shares some similarities in the methods that the players attempt to knock out their opponents while utilizing the stage’s angles and grappling hooks for quick transport, with a visual style and attitude not unlike that of Castle Crashers. While the design received praise, it’s not enough to prevent critics and players from observing its repetitiveness and general mediocrity.

Squares

Finally, Sony have included Squares, a reflex puzzle game in which players are required to rapidly change the color of squares in a grid with the PS Vita’s touchscreen technology. A simple premise paves the way for relentless challenge, and there’s eighty levels of it to plow through along with a format so that the player can create their own designs.

June’s PS+ Games Prove Zombies, Aliens, Ninjas Don’t Equal Greatness