WHAT IS PS PLUS?

“After the wheel, the PlayStation is the best invention of all time.” - Andrea Pirlo.

Console gaming is flourishing right now; gaming is flourishing right now, and, given that Xbox is no longer offering exclusive games that aren’t also available on the PC, it’s hard not to feel a sense of excitement towards Playstation as an industry leader. It offers its users the opportunity to subscribe to a service called ‘PS Plus’.

PS Plus offers a number of benefits, as can be seen at the site, but three of those aforementioned benefits are as follows:

1) Discounts exclusive to PS Plus members are available at the PlayStation Store, enabling users to save some of the money they spent on the cost of PS plus;

2) Online multiplayer becomes available, allowing you to play with your friends; and

3) The opportunity to download any of a selection of games that will, for a limited period of time, be available to download for free.

This costs about $10 a month, and whether or not this constitutes good value for you all depends upon a concatenation of factors, but the major one is the extent to which you are an open-minded gamer.

That is to say, not every game offered will be to everyone’s taste: games like Fallout 76, for example, have been considered to be polarizing, but some people seem to ignore the bad of games, and focus on the good; to find the fun in whatever it is they might be playing through an effective use of cognitive reframing.

And Dmitry Rogalchuk - Head of Content at CasinoCanada (a Canadian iGaming guide) - argues that feeling “hard done by” can be part of the point, in a positive way: “The monthly, subscription-based model Playstation has employed creates a feeling akin to gambling: a constant payout on a monthly basis, with uncertain rewards that exacerbate the dopaminergic response of the consumer. That is to say, when you’re paying a certain amount a month for your PS Plus membership, you’re sitting at the slots. You’re hoping you’ll get a big payout, but, some months, you feel a little hard done by. But it’s a Skinner Box. You not knowing when you’ll get great payouts makes the whole process more addictive, you know?”

Either way, always be sure to look out for a free trial if you don’t already have a PS Plus subscription, as they’ve often been known to come around.

PS Plus Free Games: March 2024

As to be expected in a subsection titled “PS Plus Free Games: March 2024” (as opposed to, say, “PS Plus: September Free Games”), we’re going to reveal the four games you’ll be getting in March 2024, and will be doing so in reverse Metacritic score order, and briefly touch on what each of these games has to offer. Hopefully, these games will appeal to you but, to quote from Deathloop, “Life’s full of maybes”.

1) Hello Neighbour 2, which received a 59% on Metacritic, is a puzzle-platformer and is, self-evidently, a sequel to Hello Neighbour. As the Metacritic rating suggests, this game - along with the first - was extremely polarizing. The thing with polarizing games is that it’s hard to recommend paying for them directly, but, if you have a PS Plus subscription, it seems like a no-brainer to download the game, give it a go, and see if it resonates with you.

2) EA Sports FIFA 23, which received a 76% on Metacritic, is the second-most recent release of EA Sports in the FIFA franchise, with only FIFA 24 being newer. With soccer seemingly constantly growing across the world, there’s never been a better time to give this game a go, and whilst a lot of EA Sports games are somewhat polarizing, lovers of soccer should definitely give this one a go.

3) Sifu, which received an 81% on Metacritic, is what’s known as a “Beat ‘em Up”: a game in which the enjoyment is beating hordes of enemies that swarm, representing a mismatch between yourself and the group of enemies that you find yourself fighting against. There is something incredibly cathartic about it, and with this game having averaged just over 4/5, this is a great showing by Sloclap, the game’s developers.

4) Destiny 2: Witch Queen, which received an 86% on Metacritic, differs from the other items on this list in the sense that it is a DLC, rather than a standalone game. However, even if you don’t own Destiny 2, it’s still worth a download on the offchance that Destiny 2 becomes free to download later, and is a must-download for those already fortunate enough to own Destiny 2.

Such a selection of titles will have its detractors. However, when one considers that the monthly cost of PS Plus is only $10 a month - and that you can get a yearly subscription for $80 - the maths doesn’t work out too badly.

Even Sifu is, arguably, a steal at $10. Hopefully, you’re happy with the games you got this month, and, even if not, it’s worth remembering that tastes change over time: a game you currently hate might become one you grow to love with time. Either way, happy gaming!
 

Asura Kagawa (@AsuraKagawa)
Editor, NoobFeed