Topic: PlayStation Plus | OT |

@Voltan I was kind of disappointed with the DLC to be honest so don’t get too worried if you don’t get the disc back

January PS+ leaks (same source as the last few that checked out):

• Deep Rock Galactic (a co-op shooter that's been out on PC on Xbox and is now launching on PS)
• Persona 5 Strikers
• Dirt 5 (both PS4 and PS5)

Sounds good to me!

Anyone else still unable to upgrade FF7? I’m NA by the way.

@Jaz007 I upgraded a couple months ago via my PS4 disc and it was a fairly convoluted process as I recall. Popped in the disc and it started automatically downloading the PS4 version on my PS5 without giving me an option not to, then I had to still do the whole ‘click the option on the game page, click to open up the PS5 version of the game, then click download…’ and then go back and delete the PS4 version. It was a hassle, but eventually figured it out. Is the option for downloading greyed out for the PS Plus version or just not showing up at all when you go to look for it at the three little dots option button?

@Voltan Great lineup. Very satisfied. Both Dirt 5 and P5 Strikers have been on my watchlist.

Anyone have experience with P5 Strikers? What can I expect from the game as a newcomer to the Musou (sp?) genre? If nothing else, I’m looking forward to the music. 😄

@Th3solution I haven't played Strikers but my understanding is that while its combat is Musou style, it's actually fully a sequel to Persona 5 (that kinda ignores P5 Royal's existence) story-wise (so it does way more in that department than your average Musou).
As for the genre, just expect hacking and slashing through hordes of enemies, I guess

@Voltan I’ve been curious to try the genre and am intimidated by the Dynasty Warriors legacy since it’s pretty long in the tooth with so many installments now. I always worry if I jump in late to a series if I’m missing out on some of the fun.

With Persona, I’ve been a fan of the series for years and having completed the base Persona 5 game (finally!) a few months ago as well as the Dancing spinoff, I’m primed narratively for Strikers. Just don’t know about the gameplay, but it sounds like it’s probably very approachable. I think the review mentioned that you still have to take enemy weaknesses into account and switch between party members to gain the fullest advantages, and iirc they compared the style to FF7R combat. If so, that’s much more tactical than I expected from Musou, because yeah, I always thought of the genre as being a mindless button mashing spree.

@Th3solution To be fair, last one of these I played was Dynasty Warriors 7 or something but it was mostly about going against entire armies of enemies and feeling super powerful while defeating them single-handedly

I unfortunately haven't finished P5 so I'll probably hold off playing Strikers until I find the time to go back to that.

@Voltan Not really a 'great' month for 'ME' if it turns out to be true - Deep Rock and Dirt are both (or were) on Game Pass and I really don't do games like Persona. If I didn't have a Series X with Game Pass, the only game I'd try is Dirt and may well add it to my Library on PS5 anyway as another 'option'.

Being totally objective instead of looking at it from my own Personal situation, it would be a 'good' month and pretty decent start to the year. A 'new' (to PS5) fun Indie game, a AAA racing Game that was also part of the Launch line-up for PS5, and a spin-off of a popular franchise to Playstation fans...

@BAMozzy Whenever a new game releases on PS plus and is not console exclusive, I think it’s going to be very likely that it’s on GP as well, tbf

So, if I played Tina Tina DLC on Borderlands 2, is there any point in playing the standalone game, other than double dipping on the trophies?

I’m bummed that they recycled a game like this for one of the offerings, being that they gave away Borderlands The Handsome Collection a while back already. At least throw in Borderlands 3! 😄
But they’ve done it a couple times with a ‘repeat’ like giving Days Gone away twice — once as part of the PS Plus Collection and then shortly after again as a game of the month. Seems like there was another similar example of them giving out a game twice, but I can’t remember which.

Regardless, I’m not whining, but I am a little disappointed. UFC and Planet Coaster aren’t really pumping me up at all.

It does look like a poor offering, possible I might give Planet Coaster a go.. but probably not. But for me January's PS+ games were great so I don't mind so much.

I wasn’t sure where to put this comment, and here seems most fitting. And I apologize if this comes off as whiney or ignorant sounding —

I got thinking about the trajectory of PS+ after the leak referenced in the Push Square article yesterday stating the PS Plus games for March might include Ark Survival, and GTA Online.
Firstly, does it seem that PS Plus has just become the place to give struggling multiplayer online games and GAAS a place to go either before they either A) die a protracted death of neglect and woe, or B) squeeze out a few more dollars in microtransaction monies from the online community?

I’m probably looking at it through an unfair single-player-preference lens, but its been pretty heavy on these types of MP games lately. Just to name a few from the last 8 months or so: GTA Online, Ark Survival, Deep Rock Galactic, Godfall, Knockout City, First Class Trouble, Hell Let Loose, Overcooked, Predator Hunting Grounds, Hunter Arena Legends, Operation Tango, COD BLOPS 4, Battlefield V….
These are just a few that are MP or co-op only, Online only, can’t be played alone, or are designed with an online community in mind. Just a quick glance would say that about 50% of PS+ games are now in some way online or MP based.

And I get it — the way the industry is going, its becoming an online and multiplayer centric hobby. I have to adjust to the fact that I am now a member of the minority who prefers to play single player games, while just dabbling in MP from time to time. I think the majority of players are now the opposite —MP gamers who just dabble in SP from time to time.

Nevertheless, I think the maybe the PS Plus subscription service seems more a service designed to benefit the game publishers. Many of these games feel like they’re just one step away from F2P games, and rely on getting a large player base to then sell add-on content.

Sorry for the mini-rant. I still feel like PS+ is a worthy investment, because even just getting 2-3 quality gaming experiences out of it per year recoups the cost for me. Playing Dirt 5 now, in fact (only went online for a minute to see how it ran)

——————

My second and related musing (read: gripe) relates to the PS store and how it handles showing content. When I saw Ark Survival on the list for next month (I know its not confirmed yet), I searched the store out of curiosity to see what the game cost at retail ($30 by the way), and the first 10 items that come up after typing in “Ark” into the store search bar are all MTX items — expansions, outfits, dlc, season passes, and other add-on content. You have to scroll way down the list to even find the base game! It just annoys me. And the deluxe and special editions will always show up first before you can hunt and peck for the base game buried deep in the search results.

Alright, I’ll stop now. I’m in a mood. These are first world problems, and I realize its just the price of modern online commerce.

@Th3solution looks like the leak was updated and now includes Ghostrunner, which is a great single player game. It was the last game I played on PS4 before PS5's launch and I highly recommend it.

@Voltan It’s another one on PS Now 😛

@nessisonett I don't really follow the PS Now catalog since it's not available in my country. Didn't know that.
But also you get the PS5 version here and I understand it's only PS4 for PS Now games right now.

@Voltan Ah nice! Sony must have read my post. 😄
Disregard all my babbling up there.

Anyone else subscribe to both PS+ and PS Now? I wanted to see how long I'd got left on my subs as I probably wasn't going to renew Now due to being too busy playing new games but noticed that the subscriptions page now shows 2 subs to PS+ expiring at the same time and no sign of a PS Now sub. Could be a bug or could be something more interesting afoot 🤔

@render Interesting. I think it’s probably coming soon…

I really hope that as part of Spartacus they extend cloud saves to family accounts. Booted Harry Potter for the kids earlier and having told my son on previous occasions to not press any buttons until they got into the game I watched in dismay as my daughter accidentally chose New Game, then my son randomly moved over the Yes option when it asked if they wanted to overwrite the existing save and that was it - days of progress wiped out in an instant.

Flippin kids though, never listen 😅

@Diamond_Dog Ha ha yeah I get that a lot, I mean what do we know anyway right 🤪