
Hold on, we're in October already?! If you've somehow avoided the avalanche of new releases over the last few months, you might be looking forward to the PS Plus Essential drop next week. As always, three PS5 and PS4 games are up for grabs, and the variety on offer is honestly quite crazy.
The headline act has to be The Callisto Protocol, which you could consider a near perfect PS Plus title thanks to the fact that it received some very mixed reviews at launch last year. Why not try it for yourself?
And if you need a comedown from the survival horror tension, there's Farming Simulator 22 to consider, alongside Weird West. All you need to know about the former is in the name, while the latter is an oddball RPG that might be worth checking out if you're looking for a bit of a palate cleanser.
So, what do you think of October's PS Plus Essential selection? Are you happy with these games? Vote in our polls, and then explain your opinion in the comments section below.
Are you happy with your PS Plus Essential games for October 2023? (7,039 votes)
- Yes, very happy
- Yeah, mostly happy
- Meh, they're okay
- Nah, I'm unhappy
- No, it's a crap selection
- I don't have PS Plus
Which October 2023 PS Plus Essential game are you most looking forward to? (5,910 votes)
- Farming Simulator 2023
- The Callisto Protocol
- Weird West
- None of them, to be honest
- I don't have PS Plus
Comments 64
I've got Callisto on Series X.
I like it.
not a fan of horror/ survival games so skipping another month
Wanted to try Callisto, very happy it's free.
Its a good month.i wanted to try weird west definitive edition and the callisto protocol for a while now.so its all good.word up son
Usually I’m in the “meh, whatever, we’re lucky when we get a good one,” but this time I’ve got to vote that this is a crap selection. Farming Sim is tedious no matter what year it is, and I didn’t like either Callisto or Weird West. Nothing that I’m even going to press the button to redeem here and later forget about.
They’re OK, but not worth my limited gaming time. Worth the cost of plus per month, if you have spare gaming time though.
There's normally at least one of the games that pricks my interest even if it's something I wouldn't usually play.
Unfortunately this isn't one of those months, not suggesting they are bad games just nothing of interest to me personally
@somnambulance
To be fair, if you’ve played them all, then you can’t say it’s a bad selection. If you hadn’t played them then this would have been 3 games you had some interest in playing and, upon playing them, 3 games you saved money not buying.
I didn't really understand the hate towards The Callisto Protocol. I feel like people criticized it for what it was not rather than what it is.
Looks like a good month for PS+.
Another crappy month for me. Zero interest.
We get another title that was a financial disaster...it's like if Sony was waiting for Saints Row and The Callisto Protocol to hit rock bottom prices for them to offer them on PSPlus.
Weird West is a title I'll probably try out at some point so that'll do for me
@MasterPlayerOne
If those Xbox leaks on how much they expect to pay to publishers to put the games on Game pass are true then I think you could be absolutely spot on
I got Callisto at launch and have zero interest in the other two games. Weird West actually was on sale just before they announced this and might still be. They really have to stop doing that.
I’m quite content with this month — I’ve been wanting to try out The Callisto Protocol for a while. And, as a plus, Weird West is coming as well, and that’s a great game.
I've been fascinated by Callisto, mostly out of morbid curiosity, so at least I'll be able to try it without having to pay any extra for it
The initial reveal of the Callisto Project really grabbed my interest but as more and more game-play came out, the less and less interested I became. After seeing the reviews and some more game-play after it released, I had lost all interest. Now I can play it via PS+, I don't know that I will bother trying it - not with a backlog of games I really want to play.
Weird West looks interesting - not sure if its my type of Game-play, but of the 3, its the one I am most likely to try. However, I have no interest in Farming Sim at all.
In terms of PS+, I guess its not bad but for me personally, it feels a bit 'meh'. Nothing I'm excited for and/or can't wait to download when they become available to play.
Very good month, because Callisto Protocol is an amazing and highly underrated game. Hopefully more people getting their hands on it means more people get to experience what I did.
To rewind… Saints Row from last month has been outstanding. Never played it because of the reviews but pshhhh that game is on point if ya like GTA.
Any month that has three games I don’t already own is a good one to me. Even if none of them were on my wishlist, that’s what I like about PS+ — getting to try games I wouldn’t normally buy,
I’ll give Callisto a try, but I usually don’t jive with horror games, so I probably won’t stick with it. Weird west looks interesting — I really like immersive sims. I’ll definitely give Farming Sim a look — I always end up playing more hours on relaxing busywork type games than I intend to, looking at my playtime on Powerwash Simulator, Mudrunner/Snowrunner, House Flipper, and Animal Crossing, while leaving the big AAA games and old classics unplayed.
The best month for a while for me (and I’ve been ‘mostly’ happy with the essential games all year). Do not own but quite fancy all three games… gotta love it!
Fantastic month. Would even be worth the whole year's price of PS plus essential tier.
I've got Callisto already, got to the last chapter and started playing another game, need to get back to it. Good game, very much like Dead Space, some tense moments
Couple of games in happy to try but probably wouldn't buy so works out for me.
..and a farming simulator.
Can you get a brand new combine harvester? If so I might give it a go as well.
Callisto doesn't really interest me. I think it looks fine but it's just Dead Space without the character. It's a shame that so many developers want to cling on to the past rather than try to branch out into something fresh and new.
Best month in ages, two top games and even though farming simulator isn't for me I still know it's a popular game that many will play.
First time I have ever voted 'no, it's crap'. A farming simulator is so neich that anybody who is interested has it, weird west I started in Xbox games pass months ago and have no interest in Callisto. TBH there is usually something I play so it's just an odd month for me.
I think we all knew Callisto would come to PS+, I’m interested as to how it stacks up against Dead Space, so I’ll give it a shot. I might give the other two a shot if I ever get a chance now BG3 owns me
I doubt I'll ever download any of these.
I'm letting my subscription run out because of the 33% price increase.
Weird west has been a game on my radar for awhile people keep telling me it's good so I'm definitely trying it
I think it's a good month. Calisto isnt bad and weird west looks great.
@DrVenture69 it looks fantastic but isn't a patch on Dead Space when it comes to story and gameplay. One of the best looking games I've played though and that was on at 1080p
It is the best month we've had for a while, although that's not saying much..
@TheDaddyOtaku
In the U.K. it’s only 1/5 not 1/3 increase as in US; never the less, I’ll likely let mine lapse also. Maybe. With minimal time I don’t get to make the most value from it and I could likely have bought the games I’ve played on it for less. Then again it lets me try games I’d otherwise never look at and I’ve loved several of them…then there’s the money it saves me not buying the games I would have done but found out via plus I didn’t like…
@thefourfoldroot1 See, in my view, it’s a bad selection because I wouldn’t even recommend these games to anyone. It’s a bad selection when it’s a game I dropped from Gamepass, Farming Simulator, and a boring carnage sim. Not a game above 5/10 in the lot. Believe me, I’m glad I didn’t actually purchase any of them! Glad I’ve had other ways to try them out (except Farming Sim, but that seems to land on PS+ annually and I’ve definitely gotten curious with a previous entry).
I guess I wanted to check out The Callisto Protocol at some point, so I'll gladly add it to my library for later.
No, it’s a disgrace. They charge 20 a year more for the same rubbish. If online play was free or at least, 5 a month-who would pay the extra? It’s a joke completely. Nothing at all this year of any interest
@Rusty82, I was thinking that would be the case. Real shame it didn’t live up to its potential, but at least it’s free 😃
2 games I was curious about that I would never have bought. This is exactly what I want out of Plus.
I've been wanting to try Callisto Protocol, so this is perfect for me. It'll be a great appetite wetter for Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake II.
@NinjaNicky
Why would you do that to yourself?
If people honestly think this is a ‘crap’ selection of free games on the basic tier, they should probably go live in isolation on a desert island at this stage …
For anyone thinking they want to bin their subscription, take a look in the sale just after Christmas (literally 26th December), I’ve not paid more than £24.99 for it for about three years. I bet you could get it for £29.99. I don’t play online, so it’s the only reason I get it
Yeah very happy as i've yet to play TCP.
I let my sub lapse. I'm no longer in the trap of mediocre crap games and paying to play online. Any first party single player games I'm interested in, I'll pick up, but even then I can just wait until they get to PC and grab a cheap copy off G2A, and get the best version. No more 30 FPS gaming, no more crap performance modes where they just spread Vaseline on my screen, I am finally in next gen. Feels good man.
I am grandfathered into OG Humble Bundle, and I have Gamepass. I've got enough games to play, and I am not paying for online anymore. That's all I used Plus for. I very rarely play any of the games they offer, the last one being Control from...that's gotta be a year or two ago. Horrible value in my personal experience with it in the last few years.
@somnambulance
Well, being glad to have ways to try them out means you are glad they are on PS Extra, and thus for you it should be considered a good month. That you happen to have tried them elsewhere first is not really a reflection on the selection itself, obviously.
Personally for me it’s a bad month, as I wouldn’t even consider any of them worth trying, so worse for me than you, but I can’t objectively say it’s a bad month per se.
Farm sim and weird west will be downloaded.
I voted that I was Very Happy, which is the first time I can remember doing so in a long long time. Two games I'm very happy to be getting (The Callisto Protocol and Weird West), and another that is solid but just doesn't interest me.
Some good games ...to bad I already played weird west on game pass and rented Callisto on playstation a while back and completed it
My region got Tropico 5 instead of Callisto Protocol which I’m interested in trying. Otherwise Weird West could also be worth checking out. Fairly happy
To each their own, but it's a good month for me. I don't play online, but each year as a look back through the PS Plus "free" games I feel that I get my money's worth. Games from 2023 so far that I've either played or happy to put on my backlog to play in the future include:
For less than the price of a single AAA new release (probably half the price because I always stack up during sales) that's not bad value.
Zero interest.
I mean, they all look great, but I'm only here for Farming Simulator.
I dont know where people say value, because I picked everything up in a physical copy for less than the premium sub on everything they offered on Extra and Essential this yr. And its really the premuim that would be worth it if they actually put anything on there but the handful that they already had on the PS3 store, and most likely why they wanted to shut down the only support that the vita even has bc they wanted it all on sub. But they have pulled just about everything off that they put on premium so far. But on a previous comment, I mention we just got the same old same old from Plus and Now rolled into one for 3x's the cash. They have had a few sucesses here and there but not much this yr, and now they want more with nothing said about why. But good news Jim is stepping out, but they may not still get a real gamer CEO in there though.
Perfectly happy, but I pretty much always am. I feel the service offers plenty for the cost.
@sorteddan I think Farmer Giles loans you his until you have the funds to buy your own, but they are quite Deere.
Also looking at the trophies as you do, there is one called "Fix me up again Aunt Sally"
It is for mowing down every Worzel in all the fields.
@CaptD
Ultra rare trophies for stating menacingly at ramblers with a shotgun under your armpit or correctly pronouncing 'get off my lahnd'??
Im not even gonna play it, just gonna turn it on and wait for the subsidies to roll in.
A very good month tbh, i'm looking forward to Weird West and Callisto
I'm sure they're all great, but I've not yet been able to tear myself away from Saints Row, so I'll catch up with y'all later. Much later.
Solid month for me...interested in Callisto mainly , but will add Weird West into my library too
Keen to try Callisto.
I absolutely loved Dead Space and haven't yet tried Callisto or the remake, so will definitely pick this up. The biggest problem is having the time to play it! Still haven't finished God of War Ragnarok after Hogwarts Legacy came out and then Baldurs Gate 😭
Weird West just left Game Pass so I don't have much interest in that. Farming Simulator? Very hard pass. But Callisto Protocol? I played it once and absolutely LOVED it. The Season Pass is on sale right now for $15 so I grabbed that since I didn't have it on my initial playthrough. Excited for the extra story DLC even if it's only 2-3 hours long. The extra modes seem like a lot of fun too.
@GamingFan4Lyf it's like a cheap parody of Dead Space
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...