A little later than usual, the Playstation Plus games for September have been announced officially by Sony without any obvious leaks. I guess they're playing their cards closer to their chest these days. The bigger thing on most of our minds though are if they're any good? The PS Plus games have been declining in their attractiveness of late so hopefully this can month can start slowly move back in the other direction.
Lords of the Fallen on the PS4 is one of older Triple A titles available on the PS4, with a release date of 2014. It's not a terrible game, but it is often compared to the massively successful Dark Souls, which essentially makes this game turn into the wannabe younger sibling. Give it a go, but it's hard and sometimes unrewarding.
Journey was released in 2012 on the PS3 as a weird single player experience that had hidden meaning and features within. Most that played this title found themselves spreading the word that others should try it. After finally checking out this game about a year after release, I was intrigued but not surprised by its content. It's an interesting game but for me it was well overhyped. There is a feature in this game that is easily spoiled so be careful if you're researching it. It was nice to see this game ported over the PS4 too but it makes little difference to the overall experience.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands for the PS3 is another aged title with an original release date of 2010. The Prince of Persia games have originally been known as 2D side scrollers until they were brought into the next generation with full 3D environments. The Prince of Persia games increased in popularity and became a household name once again. Unfortunately the new formula was reused over and over again until they became just another version of what he had before. The Forgotten Sands is likely to be one of the last of its kind that wasn't absolutely terrible, but was still getting old.
Datura for the PS3 is a game that has gone relatively under the radar for a lot of people. I haven't even heard of this game let alone have I played it. Datura was released for the PS3 in 2012 and came packed with PS Move compatibility if you can remember what that was. As I have not played the game myself, I will leave you with this blurb from metacritic.com
"Finding yourself in a mysterious forest, you will navigate your way through the game by controlling your character's hand using Playstation Move technology. From here, you are immersed into the game's unique experimental narrative and original way of interaction, which enables you to experience the world not only visually, but also empirically - an illusion that you can actually touch trees, faces, and other objects".
Badland gives us all a game from 2013 that has been ported to just about every single playable platform known to mankind. It has even had a game of the year version even though it's a simple side scrolling puzzle style game. You control a bunch of fuzzy little silhouetted creatures that flap their stumpy little arms to fly across the screen. Think of Flappy Bird with a lot more replayability and fun thrown in there. Not a bad game to play, but it's better suited on mobile devices to play while you're commuting or taking a poop.
Last up is Amnesia: Memories for the PS Vita. This one was released in 2015 and will really appeal to those who love their interactive novels and anime style gaming. One of the combat mechanics is a recreation of the "Paper, Scissors, Rock" game so I shall say no more.
Enjoy your free games for September for Playstation Plus Subscribers.
