Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for September 2023?

It's fine. Guess I can give Saints Row a playthrough but it won't come close to the first 2 games. Volition really screwed the pooch on that one. But at least I have Starfield to look forward to

Honestly, I'm looking forward Generation Zero just in pure interest what it is. Black Desert is automatically disqualified because it is "multiplayer" and Saints Row may sit in backlog just in case.

@Luvstagrind Starfield... hmm... looks like you have taste in invisible walls. 🙂

Yup. Really wanted to try Saints Row and for free (=no additional cost), I can't say no.

@Luvstagrind I think having every console us the only option for me spiderman 2 zelda pikmin 4 final fantasy starfield and forza don't want miss out on any of those then playstation has ps plus and xbox has gankepass which is the best deal in gaming o don't think there's a better time be a gamer at the minute

@djlard I can't help but think you wouldn't say that if the game was coming to playstation. Invisible borders don't bother me. Just give me enough space (pun intended) to run around and I'll be happy

Not pleased at all with the options. Luckily I still have Sea of Stars, Blasphemous 2 which I am playing and BG3 will be available in just over an hour, and then MK1 later on this month.

It was a good month for PS+ to offer forgettable titles for the essentials.

@Luvstagrind there's still plenty of people who would not want to play Starfield even if it were available on PS5, myself included.

As long as you're enjoying it what do you care what other people think?

Not a ‘fan boy’ of Saints Row and only never played it due to the bad reviews and public criticism.. it looks like a pretty/polished game though.. not EXCITED per say, but I’m definitely interested to check it out.. just wish I could DL it now cuz I have nothing to play (thanks for that Bethesda you f***ing sellout)

I'll give Saints Row a go, until the Cyberpunk update comes out. And I'll probably try Gen Zero, on the basis that maybe it's not crap, just tragically misunderstood..

@General_Disarray tell that to djlard. They just sound like someone unhappy because they likely won't be able to play it.

Nope. None of these games would appeal to me...

I like the selection, because two of these games I've never played, and the third I actually like. So sue me. Although personally I can't understand why Sony would put a game about mechs (good or otherwise) on the service this month. Almost like they are trying to whet people's appetites or something. 🤔

Did want to play SR to see what the fuss is about , however the other two. A big meh.

@djlard I've had generation zero for a few years now and it's a decent game, you basically have a huge open map to explore and loot for gear, weapons and ammo etc the world is full of robots of various types that want to kill you on site and can be quite challenging on your own but definitely doable, but you can play online with three other people. There's houses and under ground bunkers to explore but if I'm honest the game world feels lonely, there's no NPC's to interact with in the base game but there are two DLC packs that add more big areas and those do have NPC's in and more of a story. But the base game is like machines have took over the world and you're the only one left and you have to solve the mystery and find humanity.

In terms of Starfield it sounds like it's not the game of the year everyone was hoping for, basically No Man's Sky does a better job at being a space exploration game in evey aspect apart from maybe ground combat.

Not a good month for me, I don't like games like Saints Row, I already have Generation Zero and Black Desert.

Hopefully the next Extra/Premium additions make up for it.

Only plus side is i can get rid of my physical copy of saints. Downside is playing the murder circus to mop up trophies. Its sad to see Volition close but man the dlcs were weak

Next month we will pay more for this?

@djlard The cons seem to make NMS a AAA gold mine.

Truthfully, it makes little odds to me; I'll be allowing my Essential to lapse shortly, meaning I shall not have access to the games anyway...

Black desert is a decent game yall should give it a shot

@WolfyTn it's really, really, really NOT polished. It's an absolute pain to play gameplay wise, compared to other games and the visual and audio are overall pretty poop considering the year it came out. I find myself switching between 4K, 1440 ray traced and 1440 performance because every time I get used to one mode I think "urgh this doesn't look or feel right I'll try the other mode" rinse and repeat.

It would genuinely be some great casual fun if it weren't for that, regardless of the direction they took it

I really want to like the game, too 😅

One of the problems with PS Plus games is they don't include the dlc most of the time. You'll probably be able to buy a complete version of Saints Row for very little soon enough.

It's Starfield and BG3 this month. Sony knows not to waste money on games for the service this month.

Nope. Cancelled my subscription in fact this month.

Crazy that'd you pair a price increase with this trio of abject offerings. I've plenty to be playing right now, but that's not the point.

Sony have upped their prices so they really need to up their game.

@Luvstagrind dont be game shamed. If you want to play starfield then you go ahead. It looks really good but i dont want an xbox so i'll never find out. I'll give saints row a play as its free whooops i mean as i'm renting it from sony in my subscription. Already own black desert and i'm not interested in the other one.

It's a crap selection... again.
Also, given the recently announced and soon to come price hike for the 12 month packs, a 3rd question would have been good: "will you continue your current subscription in light of the newly announced prices?"

I'm even more interested in trying Saint's Row with Volition being shuttered.

Im pretty sure its this bad just so they can go 'See!! This is what you get if we DONT put the price up!'

Is Black Desert a single player game?

I wish they would drip feed these and the extra games. It would allow some of the smaller titles time to be tried Vs ignored when they land against the pick of the month etc. That reward loop for subscribers would be more effective too.

Sony dropped the ball in my opinion.

At least do a good lineup of mo thly games to soften the price hike for some players who weren't happy about it.

While it is a pretty crap month, I'm happy I don't have to buy saints row. I have a feeling I'll put a few hours in and realise it's not for me. I'm just in the mood for a open world checklist game.

I'm pretty happy. I enjoyed the saints row games and actually liked agent's of mayhem but the art style of the new one is awful so didn't bother but can now for 'free'. They're the ones I like most from this, aa games I passed on. Really want evil west on there soon

@Total_Weirdo

Sony doesn't care about its fans. At all. It's about time the Playstation fanbase wakes up and acknowledge this. It's fine to like the PS5.. but pretending that Sony actually cares goes too far haha.

@PenguinLtd a lot of Devs have said this is why they don't mind having their games on a service. A bigger audience to sell DLC packs to.

Still playing Grid Legends from previous months ago Essential. An F1 car in snow conditions is ridiculous and all the real world famous tracks are in reverse half the time which genuinely irritates but I'm enjoying it enough to have plat almost done and all expansions cheaply grabbed, before moving onto the next Plus game

I cannot find the words to criticise this lineup strongly enough. An absolute insult of a month! I'd be embarrassed to ask for more of people's hard earned while simultaneously dishing out this heaving pile of excrement. Just unbelievable

@UltimateOtaku91 Thanx, I'll see. I'm not fan of big open worlds, but if robots don't respawn and it has single player than I'll give it a shot.

Starfield I cannot judge because my PC runs on WinXP.

@Luvstagrind No, it is based on reviews I've read. I'm not interested in Starfield at all.

I have PS Plus mostly for cloud saves and online. The crap games they give you for free are just that, crap. I don't even bother.

@djlard yet you feel the need to ridicule others that are? Why? Trolling for the sake of trolling

Was going to buy Saints Row when it was cheap... so in essence this has saved me money. So that makes me happy.

I got a Steam Deck and with Playstation games moving to PC after one year and most of the Atlus/Falcom stuff going PC and/or multiplatform makes me less interested in the Playstation ecosystem. That said, I reup’d my Ps+ before the price hike and we’ll see how it goes. Over the past year I think I did quite well with PS+ (even with this terrible month) and I will hope for that to continue.

I'll give Saints Row a go. Heard it's crap but may a brainless blast

Worst month ever for psplus games.and sony increase the price of psplus.makes it even more horrible.word upson

@Mauzuri I‘m also thinking about not extending my PS Plus Essential subscription in December. It depends on the prices at Black Friday. In fact, for the price of one year I can buy two or three world-class retail games per year and have more fun.

@Fiendish-Beaver Black Desert is an MMO

@Luvstagrind I must let you down. It was not ment to mock. It was just a little poke. No offense.

I'm going to finally give Saints Row a fair shake. Maybe if I mute the game and turn off subtitles and skip the cutscenes there will at least be some amusing shooting?

Pretty weak selection imo so I don't think I'll be adding any of them to my library.

I don’t normally dunk on these too much, but it’s definitely a weaker month and the news of the price rise is very poorly timed. Hopefully next month will pick it up again. Again shows how much comparative value game pass presents.

Entitled gamers return.

Nothing wrong with these titles, 99% of the above haven’t played any and will no doubt enjoy them anyway.

Even at the price of $FREE.99 I still have no interest in playing Saints Row. Nothing I saw about it made me want to play that. No interest in the other games this month either. Sony did themselves no favors dropping these duds and announcing the price hike for the PS+ tiers.

It would be nice with Plus Premium to be able to stream the larger essentials games to play and or demo before downloading. If so I would stream demo Gen and SR. However a 6th replay of SR2 from 2008 still looks better than a first-time play of this SR reboot game.

I will try Saints Row out of pure curiosity. The other two I have no interest in. Sony is just baffling sometimes. Very down month for Essential line-up, AND you decide to announce very rough price hikes for all PS Plus tiers. It’s like they said “yes, we are going to double down on awful.” 🤷‍♂️

This selection sucks. Combined with the price increase it’s a disaster.

I’ll keep trucking on Red Dead 2 (this game really deserved a PS5 version) and playing my Switch for now.

...I'm happy I'm not subscribed. So there's that.

I'm really thinking on downgrading from extra to essential TBH.

What I find hilarious 😂 is this the line up they use in the same month as outing the news of a big ps plus price hike to represent that! If I was a new person looking into maybe getting ps plus I'd say screw you keep that junk and I'll keep my money. My yearly sub of extra runs out in April of 2024. I'm not sure if I'm going to re up or not giving I'll be paying close to $200 for extra. That to me is a bit over board for a yearly subscription service.

Might be able to give it a good or great rating if they added knack 2...

I don't have PS PLUS.
I only made account on my PS4 Slim to buy the DLC.
I only play kids games with physical disc.
PS PLUS is just waste of money for nothing.

This line up and the price hike really made the decision not to re-sub when my subscription runs out on the 15th a lot easier...

@Luvstagrind I will warn you now the ship combat sucks probably until you upgrade perks and parts, did a sim with a better ship and it felt much better than starter ship.

Can't speak on generation zero but saints row that was expected to be bargain bin or subscription service, black desert from what i played years ago had very limited character facial customisation but it's an mmo so maybe it's changed? That's the only game i would be intrigued to see if i had ps plus.

Don't they put old first party games on the service? Days gone/Ghosts of tsushima both good candidates if they haven't already been part of a ps plus tier.

I was going to get Saint's Row on a sale obviously with the DLC on sale too, £25 max for game & DLC. But all I have to buy inow is the DLC, not too sure about the other two games but apparently Generation Zero is worth playing now in 2023 so I'll just add them to my library.

I don't care what anyone says Bethesda need to drop their in house engine. It's why Starfield is littered with loading screens and invisible wall's. I am still looking forwards to play it on GamePass but will be definitely buying too probably on it's first sale.

I have no interest in any of them, will no doubt add them all to my library and never play them.

To be fair though I've just started BG3, Starfield in a couple of days, Cyberpunk DLC and with all the changes, that will need a new playthrough, Cities Skylines 2 and Spidey 2 in October. And I'll probably pick up EAFC24 to see what that is like.

So I will have plenty to keep me amused over the next 2 months

PS+ looks less tempting than ever.

Especially when Game Pass is comparably priced (far cheaper if you use MS Rewards points to sub) and will get games like Starfield, Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Tactica, Hollow Knight: Silk Song, etc.

My buddy recently played Saints and said it was pretty fun, the rest are bad though.

I can now report, that despite some of the technical annoyances and almost having to fight to make the game play more how I want it to. There is fun to be had, some of the side quests, especially, are a good bit of fun. Just wish there was a bit more of the good to counteract the bad.

So for PS Plus I think Saints Row is a decent pick and worth a mess around on at the very least.

What an absolutely shocking selection. Sony should be ashamed of themselves. Looks like I'll just be playing more Turbo Golf Racing on my laptop this munf!

I'm sure somebody will find a game of interest here but, imo, it's a putrid selection.

I think I can safely say most people don't want the new Saints Row even if its included in a subscription.

I thought as much, @Nepp67, thank you... 👍

I will add SR to my library altough I will probably never play it...tbh, that's usual for me with free games. I played from good months for example Alan Wake Remastered and it was boring to death for me, quit playing after 2-3hours. I have extra from the beginning and there is always something for me or my kids, free games from essential are only nice bonus (don't care if not every month)

I also believe that Sony knows the calendar with big releases on the way and they intended to give lower quality games to not spend too much on them

Yes, only because I've been wanting to buy Saints Row but was waiting for all the updates first before purchasing. I love the Saints Row games and I never played the 1st one so I couldn't wait to play. I'm glad I don't have to spend any money on it now. The other games i don't care about though.

Sony do better for PS+ next month, all three games suck!

Has to be one of the worst months in PS Plus history.

I don't even have PS+ and I'm angry with this month's offerings! /s

Not great but what do people expect, no one ever happy you've either played the best games they put on it or you don't think they are any good. We have to have a mix of all games.

Saints row is not a bad shout to give it a go for free

On a side note, once upon a time we used to pay for multiplaher without getting free games, xbox started it off.
Just be grateful we get games every month, well worth the mention

Whoever put this selection together is most definitely going to hell for crimes against PlayStation gamers

@djlard
That was a bit of cheap shot. Almost all games ever have invisible walls.

@BrettAwesome Yes, but lots of developers are at least trying to mask it.

@djlard
Yes. Behind visible walls. Big whoop.

@BrettAwesome It is at least something.

Not interested in MMO games. Never been interested in Saints Row.

I bought GenZ on Steam a few months ago, and even several years after launch, it's a buggy mess... and apparently the console versions are worse than PC.

A couple of friends and I bought GenZ for the co-op, but we had to give up playing it... after several hours of gameplay (so too late to refund), it started crashing consistently in one area of the map, and then enemies stopped appearing for me as the host, and I just had to watch my buddies apparently shooting at nothing, over and over. No enemies to kill means no loot and no progression. When I looked into it for a solution, I discovered via the official forums that this is a known bug that's been there since launch and has no solution. So we gave up on it.

It's okay as a single player game, but not as much fun, and many of the missions still bug out.

With the recent news of price increases with no obvious improvements to the service in terms of features, they're going to have to start doing much better on these monthly games. I rarely take any of the games (usually between 4 and 6 a year), so I basically only use it for the online play and cloud storage - and £60 a year isn't worth it. I'm actually paid up for Essential until September 2026, so by the time I next need to renew it's likely to be even higher... probably £70 or £80.

Sony wants you all playing spiderman 2 come launch day. They dont want you discovering a new game and playing it for the next few months and thinking I'll wait for sp2 on sale or I'm not really bothered anymore with free games for a cheap price....they pick weak titles and make spiderman 2 even more appealing than it already is