PS Plus Premium members can sample a selection of full games in time-limited trials, and the group of titles in that range has just folded in what are arguably this year's best and worst. If you're on PS Plus' highest tier subscription, you can now take Baldur's Gate 3 and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum for a test run.
The former is Larian Studios' wildly successful entry in the RPG series that has been heralded as one of 2023's top games, if not the best. While it's great for many reasons, the praise largely boils down to the sheer amount of choices offered to the player, pretty much recreating Dungeons & Dragons-style tabletop RPGs in digital form. Enormous in scope and accounting for an eye-watering number of variables, it's no wonder it's resonated so much with RPG fans.
The latter is an action adventure from Daedalic Entertainment that has you playing as Gollum, a character driven to madness by the power of the One Ring. It's an attempt to flesh out the scraggly little guy, whose mind has been shredded by his dual personalities. Unfortunately, the final game misses the mark in almost all areas, failing to be either a decent game or an interesting side story to Tolkien's beloved books.
With a PS Plus Premium subscription, you can check out Baldur's Gate 3 for two hours, and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum for one. Any progress you make carries over if you decide to buy, as with all the trial games.
Will you be taking a look at either of these game trials? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source x.com]
Comments 34
The best of both worlds
Finally, a reason to upgrade to Premium. A Gollum demo. You gotta respect that optimism though.
Must…fight…morbid…curiosity…
I wouldn't call LOTR: Gollum the Best game of 2023, but it is up there somewhere.
Definitely downloading the Gollum trial. Got to see how it compares to Kong.
The duality of man
Sweet, want to give BG3 a go, dont want to buy it as im not sure if i will enjoy it, watched trailers and looks ok. But so many ppl on here are saying game of year, so can at least give it a try first before buying it.
Edit. Well have tried BG3 and from what i played its good, but the 2hr trial was not enough time lol. So might pick this up,maybe something to get lost in over xmas maybe.
Has Gollum not been fixed yet?
Damn, I was hoping for Skull Island Rise of Kong
Dam, would like to have trialed BG3 before buying. A demo for everyone would have been nice.
Only 2 hours for BG3? Be lucky to finish the character creation in that time!!!
Brilliant news.Can finally see if BG3 isn't kind of game.
Both games are certainly eye watering.
I’ll be trying Gollum for a few laughs.
@UltimateOtaku91 The only way they can fix it is by removing it from all digital stores and burying all physical copies in the desert, like what was done with ET!
Remember in the PS4 days when demos were just that - demos that you could play and see if you liked it?
Now, in the PS5 era, you have to subscribe to the highest (and most pointless) tier of PS- to get the same. So wrong on so many levels.
Mmm, Premium suddenly looks a lot more appealing, but it's also going to need a Rise of Kong trial to win me over. 😉
@sanderson72 there are still demos. Trials allow you to play the actual game from the start. Demos used to give you a sense of what the video game is about even if that was not part of the final game.
@naruball Yeah, I know they still exist, my point on this is that a Baldur's Gate 3 demo/trial it's locked behind the highest paywall available - why?
Why should Essential and Extra subscribers not be allowed to try it?
As for Gollum, no-one is going to try that unless it's for morbid curiosity!
@Czar_Khastik Out of the 1,000,000 games released this year, it’s definitely in the top 999,999, easily beating out Skull Island: Rise of Kong.
Hot v Hot Trash
For anyone curious, two hours of BG3 will probably see you through character creation, to the end of the nautiloid and maybe some ways in to opening sections of the bulk of the first act. Up to the ruins and remains of the nautiloid, maybe.
Probably not enough to even give you an idea of what the game is truly like.
the walking dead destines is getting a roasting as it from the rise of kong developers its in the worst top 3 games of the year
Finally my year is complete, first to be controlled by the precious then something else, I’m not quite sure yet, I mean I think I’ll make my own Gollum game, it’ll be impressive if it’s worse, right?
2 hours, how generous. I am in awe.
Do the makers of Gollum really think a demo will entice people to buy it? Honestly I'm surprised Sony even agreed to put it on there for them but I suppose at least this will stop some people making the mistake of buying it.
@Impossibilium There should be a category in the olympic games where contestants play Gollum and Kong without any patches trying to keep their sanity
@UltimateOtaku91
You gotta try the demo and tell us!
I might try Balders's Gate ahead of my pre-order of the physical edition but I maintain these trials should be available to anyone with a PS Plus account. Not Premium only
@sanderson72 well, they have the option to offer a demo, but they don't. So, blame the studios or the publishers for that. They obviously don't want people to sample their game. They aren't part of extra or essential because Sony needs to justify the cost of premium somehow and so far the games offered have been a joke, so all they have left is trials, streaming, and a tiny selection of games.
@MrMagic But it's not a demo. Making a demo usually requires time. It shows that you believe in your game and you reckon that, if people give it a try, they'll likely buy it. Trials seem to be something that Sony offers. An incentive to upgrade to premium. Even the fact that we're talking about it is free publicity for Sony.
@naruball I've never had Premium just Extra but I always thought trials just let you play part of the game like a demo that's why I called it that. Like a try before you buy sort of thing.
I played the Gollum trial. It wasn't great, but it was certainly better than the Hellboy trial I played after it. What a jittery, shaking mess that is!
Yep, gonna give an hour away I'll never get back trying Gollum
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