![PS Plus Poll May 2023](https://images.pushsquare.com/d4469e4468495/ps-plus-poll-may-2023.900x.jpg)
May 2023's PS Plus Essential games were leaked just hours ahead of their official reveal earlier this week, and it's fair to say that the lineup divided opinion on both occasions. To be fair, it is a bit of an odd selection.
We've got GRID Legends headlining things — a solid racer with some questionable FMV story stuff thrown in. Then there's Chivalry 2, a multiplayer-focused medieval warfare 'sim' that's actually really good, chaotic fun — but we all know how multiplayer games go down with PS Plus' more hardcore audience. And finally we've got Descenders, a rougelite that's all about cycling. Editor Sammy tells us that it's deceptively enjoyable, but there's no denying it's a niche inclusion.
And so we have to ask: are you happy with your PS Plus Essential games for May 2023? As always, vote in our polls, and then feed us your thoughts — positive or negative — in the comments section below.
Are you happy with your PS Plus Essential games for May 2023? (2,179 votes)
- Yes, very happy
- Yeah, mostly happy
- Meh, they're okay
- Nah, I'm not happy
- No, it's a crap selection
- I don't have PS Plus
Which May 2023 PS Plus Essential game are you most looking forward to? (1,877 votes)
- Chivalry 2
- Descenders
- GRID Legends
- None of them, to be honest
- I don't have PS Plus
Comments 45
Meh, nothing here for me.
First time in a long time it's three games that I haven't already got!
Im interested in trying out Descenders but overall a meh month for me. Any month with a racing title usually results in a shrug
Ive had my eye on GRID Legends but i haven't got round to playing GT7 yet XD too many games and the last racer i played was NFS Unbound and that annoyed me
Essential is just like Games With Gold for me; I get them for free but am not interested in them. Which is fine. I pay for Extra/GP Ultimate and both are worth the money.
I will play Grid Legends (always happy with some racing) and probably give Descenders a go. I will add Chivalry 2 to library but never download it.
I might give Grid a go but there's nothing really here for me. Hard to claim unhappiness over a handful of games to try. I don't have a ton of time to even play games these days. Besides, still in the middle of Star Wars Fallen Order which was a Plus game a couple months ago. You win some. You lose some. It evens out.
@Danloaded Completed Legends. A very nice game. Worth a play
As an avid mountain biker I was hyped for descenders, but it turned out to be terrible. Essentially a rogue like racer.
It's a tough activity to translate to a game for sure so I get that. Haven't gotten around to trying riders republic but I assume that's just as bad on the biking front, plus, it's Ubisoft.
Has anyone played grid? After the stale disappointing feeling I got after a few hrs with GT7, I'd love a game that is more modern in terms of basic realism such as damage and physics.
@KundaliniRising333 Riders Republic is good casual fun, I prefer the snow events, and tricks, but the bikes aren't bad to be fair. Ubisoft isn't all bad, but these type of games are definitely more suited to sub services, but now it's on Extra it's decent fun (mute the TV during "cutscenes" I'd advise though)
Grid is a gd game but nowhere near as gd as gt7 ,gt7 is way more realistic in terms of physics etc etc ,can't complain bout this month though all gd ,grid Is gd arcade fun ,gt7 much more sim like
@KaijuKaiser Their quality might be better but both don’t offer games I’m interested in playing, so in that way they’re equal to me.
@Ravix yeah that's mainly what I was waiting for. There were a few times I almost bought it when it was on sale but held off because Ubisoft seems to love allowing their titles to pad out the ps plus tiers.
Is it a game one can enjoy and ignore the microtransactions? Yah I could tell ride away the cut scenes were gonna be cringe and tone deaf. Even dirt 5 was cringe AF. I'll probably give it a go. Thanks for the insights.
I don't mean to shade Ubisoft so much but man have they earned it for me personally. Even on the most basic level even if a game looks interesting from them, I have this almost subconscious hesitation and feeling of caution just knowing it's coming from them. This isn't just an assumption either, it's based on years and years of playing their titles that almost always become a chore to get through, and often for the same recurring design decisions throughout their IPs.
It's to the point now I don't think I would ever pay anything more than a third of full price for anything they make unless they were to really break out of the formulaic corporate shareholder assembly line they have been in for some time.
Meh Descenders is ok, I’m bored of online multiplayer games, might give GRID a go
Grid was fun when I did the EA trial. The over the top FMV was easy to skip and yet added to the experience. Descenders might be fun. I tend to like stuff like that. And Chivalry 2 is absolute bloody fun chaos.
@KundaliniRising333 to be fair, I only picked up Origins and Odyssey because they were dirt cheap, and that's what got me in to their games having only played a few ever anyway, so no embedded lethargy with them. I don't think I'd play more than one or two a year still
RR I have not really noticed microtransactions, as it's mostly cosmetic, there is a game mode that is locked (BMX tricks) so that's a bit sucky as the BMX actually feels quite unique (so I guess that's why it's locked, it probably took extra development) but as far as snow and downhill and bike tricks events, all is free. You unlock some random cosmetic stuff anyway, and I see no reason to actually spend for cosmetics even if there were none unlocked for free, I just don't get why people bother, but yeah, it's good casual short term fun. Not played any this week, but I might get back on from time to time.
Also, the way they handle the world and live lobby feel is cool, the world feels really full of people, even if sometimes it's just ghosts from previous runs, not always genuine live players in the moment. It adds to the feel of the multiplayer world though.
I think there was a kind of story of events building too, but as I ignored most of the dialogue, I just do whatever I feel like at the time, and have no idea if it is progressing any extra stuff they keep shouting at me about.
It's a bad month for me, I think I'll play horizon chase turbo instead, now that's a good psplus racing games
Ehhh. None really thrill me but I’m not mad. Going to add Grid to my collection though
Struggling to understand why this has got quite such condemnation in the voting. I sometimes wonder what people actually want lolz
Not my most exciting month but it’s hard to complain when the last several have been so good; I’m still making my way through many of them, so a so-so month kind of comes as a relief. That said, I know I don’t have nearly as much time to play as I used to/as others might.
Grid legends 👍 but the other 2 are crap.
Its ok.my backlog is huge.so i got a lot of games to play.word up son
Impossible to please everyone on every single month. I adore racing games of all types and have been holding off on getting Grid Legends for this reason so I'm delighted. Just a shame close to sim racers are a barren wasteland on consoles with Grid being yet another arcade racer dressed up to look realistic, still gonna enjoy it nonetheless
Yeah...this selection is no good.
@ShogunRok
“And finally we've got Descenders, a rougelite that's all about cycling.”
It’s nice to know that the cyclists aren’t putting too much red makeup on their cheeks. 😂
But seriously… I already own Descenders, and enjoyed what I played of it. I keep meaning to go back to it.
I don’t have Grid Legends, but I’m always up to playing a racing game.
I played the beta for Chivalry 2. It was loud and chaotic, but not bad. I usually don’t gravitate toward multiplayer games — so I didn’t like it enough to buy it — but it’s good to have some games on Plus that you wouldn’t normally play, to try out genres that you might not know you like and never gave them a chance before.
@Rob_230
I'm actually the opposite, absolutely love racing games so good month as far as I'm concerned
If you wait long enough codies comes to plus. 😃
Objectively, it's fine- but subjectively: "meh". Not crap, per se, but not enough wide appeal to keep everyone but a very niche crowd happy. The 1 game I'd play, I already have, so I can't say it's a total wipeout, but neither can I say I'm pleased... PS plus needs to start including games that are a bit less divisive, in that sense, as last month seemed objectively better!
@wiiware I had a blast playing that- even (or especially?) as a non-fan of racing games... coop was great fun, even after my gf turned out to be better at it than me!
Weakest month in ages for me.
People are definitely underestimating this month.
Grid is from the same guys that did Dirt and F1 games, both fantastic series
Chivalry looks dope and Descenders looks quite fun too
Nothing to see here, better luck next month.
all the more reason not to subscribe to plus is the consistent amount of garbage months. maybe if enough ppl are against it and don’t sub anymore theyll make online free again and stop scamming us to use our own internet
even the games u get for free aren’t really free and locks you out the moment your plus expires . it didn’t used to be like that & you were able to keep the games
@J2theEzzo The first time I played it on ps4 I only plan to do a quick play before deleting it, but the game is so fun that not only I play it seriously, I bough the smartphone version too 😃
Nothing here for me and I won't be redeeming any of them.
Grid Legends is the best Grid since the original one. Also, it has fantastic visuals and the car engine sounds put GT7 to shame. The career mode is actually quite good, too.
I'll be subbing to PS+ to get the essentials collection, but Chivilry looks fun. Descenders was also really fun when I played it on gamepass so that's pretty neat.
Nothing for me this month, i do sometimes wonder if it's worth it, but if i get around 10 good games a year out of it, it is fine.
But i can't really stop as i have a big backlog that i would lose haha.
Also i have started to cherry pick a little more, having well over 300 games in my library is a headache. So i have decided to sort to wheat from the chaff more instead of adding everything.
May add Grid, but i'm not sure if i would actually ever play it.
Not an epic month but for people who can’t afford games all the time essential is well essential 👍
Jumped in early with Grid due to still having EA Play till the 3rd. It has a very similar feel to Driveclub (which was very underrated)
@nomither6 what are you smoking, it's always been the case where you don't have access to PS Plus titles if your sub ends
@tangyzesty no it wasn’t
Knew there would be many eh months comments but if people aren't into racing it's understandable.
No interest in Descenders but glad it's here at least having a bike game is nice (playing Ride 2 though so busy with that for bike games right now).
Not into Chivalry but it has a place and Grid I platinumed after $30 buying it new at the time it was on Gamepass because I wanted a physical PS4 copy and made for a good present too and don't regret playing it. Best racing game that's modern I tolerated in years. I loved it as someone that really dislikes modern racing games decisions of structure and sometimes their physics and driving model.
But Grid Legends was good enough I wanted to play it every day story (not perfect but hey why not a R Racing/TOCA story in a modern racing game, not played the F1 games by Codies so this was something I was curious about just in general), career and trophies and that's rare for a racing game for me that's current.
Skill trees eh finished them early game but never felt it did anything at all. The upgrades I did for progression sake because stage 1 & 2 locked things but eh the repetitiveness of that wasn't great but I didn't realise any changes really with the cars at all. No touge either is a bummer got to go to Grid 2008 for that. The playlist/event editor was great for trophies and cars to level up.
It has it's issues clearly but it's structure even if it wasn't perfect was far more entertaining then GT7. I don't care even about the physics/driving I've had my GT5 to Sport driving model issues and tolerated them over the years.
It was good enough and wasn't Grid 2019 annoying but GT7's campaign has so many issues I will never play it. Let alone the other elements as the core.. GT7 plays well but that's not good enough the content has to be worth and it isn't I find. The more I see people analyse it the more I get how interesting and how disappointing some parts are and I am not watching them to bash the game just look at it deeper and I find some aspects a bit odd and others not so bad.
Sport I had less issues with and wanted to play (hate the internet connection reason for save file editing/DRM grrrrrrr thanks for making me keep the game on my console or just let the game die Polyphony playing enough to have it on there even after servers go done as if you don't play enough unlocks don't open so thanks for that :/) because the content variety and structure was good.
GT7 has issues they will never change no matter how many years down the line what's done is done. It isn't a classic GT game like the marketing so they can stop lying to me there. The classic tracks are made for online and that's fine but I'd they did old and new Fuji of 80s/90s/2005 they can do the same for other tracks same with Le Man chicane and not but no can't do that. Sony sucks at nostalgia marketing it's not the case stop lying to me I know what old games of your past gens are I play them the ones I never owned and did own so you can't fool collectors and people that know the games inside and out developers and publishers I know what old design and content was offered. I don't take themes and story as the only aspect of your games especially not a racing game.
Having the same issues with Forza Motorsport 6 where the roulette, the car classes don't matter in FM6 just pick one and go for the however races. at least they do in GT7 the classes matter and the event order select it there but it's still forced of what you do so its a bit more freeing but so what. But otherwise the showcases are the only reason I'm playing it I hate the rest it's boring as ever. At least the upgrades or events aren't behind GT5 & 7 level gating. Hated that in GT5 and GT7 is like GT5 but worse and a live service and linear in the wrong ways. Even the quality of life was better in GT5 like tiebas getting around menus in GT1&2 it's not the same but still. Heck even a walking garage in PGR2 or Gear Club Unlimited a mobile game is more exciting.
Glad FM7 backtracked (and hope FM8 doesn't ruin itself in other ways) but both GT7 and FM6 celebrated anniversaries and I hated both, not a good look.
a rare disagree with the consensus from me as I've been dying to try Chivalry 2 but dont like paying for multiplayer titles in case I fall off quickly
Just saw these poll results! Utterly crazy, that is not a "crap" selection!
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