Poll: Are You Happy with Your PS Plus Essential Games for December 2024?

Each month I think "this month is the worst" and each time psn somehow ups themselves.

50% Yeah Mostly Happy

50% No it's a crap selection

"I love democracy"

That's as bad a month as I've seen this gen.

💩 absolute
Rubbish

I already have temetem and highly recommend it for those that like Pokémon. Looking forward to playing It Takes Two and Alien Descent, so good month for me. Hopefully there's another game given away on the 30th Anniversary.

Personally for me this is the worse month I can remember for many many a year. But some seem happy so too each their own

I think it’s a good month.

It Takes Two is a Game Of The Year Award winning game.

And Aliens: Dark Descent and Temtem seem pretty well regarded.

What more do you want? A tripple A game and two more niche ones. For me this is way better than months with Sports games. Or months with games that are released day one on PS Plus because they probably aren’t that good. (Looking at you Foamstars / Quidditch)

Just let me pay for online. I don't need anymore games I won't play

I'm not bothered, but I'm surprised we don't have a special 30th anniversary selection of SIE games, rather than the third party stuff, this month.

Just cancelled my PS+ sub, first time since the PS3 days. Says it all, really.

Can you play it takes two online? I don't know people who want to play games. But why are people calling it so bad I don't know. To be fair every month people complain about everything. Even if we get a nice selection there will always be a few complainers.

Aliens and Temtem look fun.

No interest in It Takes Two, rubbish choice.

Luck of the draw is I own it takes 2. Id recommend that game for anyone into co-op and platform games

@TheStormGL I'm not even entirely sure which of the three you think is a AAA production game, but if you mean It Takes Two, I am pretty sure it's not a AAA production, and I have played it.

I don't believe any of them are AAA games, and certainly none of them had AAA price tags attached to them.

The “free” monthly games are usually crap, but every once in awhile we get something like “Dead Space” that makes up for it.

If you also have an Xbox both It Takes Two & Aliens Dark Descent are on game pass.

Temtem has been on the service also.

All in all kind of hard to be excited for these being on my PS5 as well

I’m happiest with Temtem, but only as we have already completed It Takes Two, which is probably the best game there.

Edit: to my utter desolation I discover Temtem is an MMO where you need to team up with 3 people to conclude one of the completionist challenges. Deleted.

Mostly happy. Can't wait to try Alien Dark Descent and It Takes Two.

I never got around to It Takes Two, so maybe this time I'll make it happen. I also am on a games with romantic partner protagonists (Banishers, Haven), so what the hey!

Looking forward to alien, nothing else. It's okay, not great but at least varied. Not a bad selection for Crimbo

Besides ‘it takes two’ (my internet is rubbish), I’d be happy to try the other two games - so pretty good if unremarkable month. Could be fun if I find any space in my backlog

Forgive me for asking a probable stupid question. But can you play It Takes Two single player? I know it's a coop game but is there a way to play solo as well?

Meh, only one that I might play is aliens but who knows when

Bla bla bla NO! Crap selection! lucky me i buy spiderman 2 and Gran turismo 7 on black friday

Dark Descent was pretty good, but I just wish we could get a great Aliens single player FPS - like what Colonial Marines should've been.

I am temtempted to sub for essential for a month with a day left of December just to try Alien Descent and hope next months' games are appealing to me.

Right now I am using EA play, which is soooo cheap (1 dollar first month, 5 dollars the subsequent months). How can EA do this to their developers? It seems almost cruel.

Eh, not great at all. Already played It Takes Two and got bored before the ending and no interest in TemTem. I will try Aliens because XCom type games are alright. Not very good but I never have high expectations for the monthly games.

I cannot believe 30% of the votes and a majority of the comments are saying it's a crap selection. This is a very good month. It Takes Two won Game of the Year for a reason- it ***** rocks. Sorry if you don't have anyone to play it with! Doesn't make it a bad selection. Temtem is a game I've been interested in for years because it's supposed to actually be good a good Pokemon game, it got good reviews. The Alien game is supposed to be one of the best tactical RTS games around, and it looks awesome and has a great setting. All three of these are very good!

It Takes Two is awesome for those who haven't played it. And I've actually wanted to try TemTem for a while. I figured it'd possibly be a fun one to play with my wife too.

I don’t have anyone to play it with but I like having It Takes Two, just in case

Definitely not a bad month, but nothing to write home about.

Aliens dark descent for the win.it takes two looks cool.word up son

If you have any love for the aliens franchise you should try dark decent. I am not a strategy fan at all (have tried so many and probably like 10 percent of them), but that game is absolutely oozing with atmosphere and fan service. It's honestly one of the games I had the most fun with since baldurs gate 3. To all those that are saying it it is rubbish are not being too honest. If you don't like the franchise then maybe I can see that, but its top notch (your team gets ptsd and they have to see a psychiatrist before you can have them in combat, or welding of doors for a safe zone etc)

@zhoont can agree with aliens. Its also a good tactical game for people who are not too big into the genre. I tell everyone who likes aliens to try it, and most of them were glad I did.

Does Playstation still have the 20 or so games collection that was available back when the PS5 first came out?

I already own Aliens and couldn't really care about the other two, not a bad month for those that haven't got Aliens and or like the other two Co-op games.

This time, I don't really care for any of these games (and I believe I own Alien already) but as usual these are a BONUS, I don't pay for PS+ to get Games.

I'm more excited, as always, for the Classics... Sly 2/3 to finish off the Trilogy (yeah I know of Thieves In Time, I'm just not counting it here) and good ole Jak & Daxter, PEAK Naughty Dog and my 4th/5th Platinum for that particular game 👌 (plus the almost guaranteed fact that we'll get updated releases of Jak 2/3/X now as well) has me hyped enough 🤷‍♂️

I've actually always wanted to check out It Takes Two with my partner; looks like there's no excuse now!

Objectively, there's no way this is a crap month regardless of whether you're interested in the games. the quality of the games is good enough.

My gripe is twofold with it takes two. Firstly it's a 2 player only game. Finding somebody to play with and commit to playing the entire thing together and all that entails with regards to scheduling doesn't fit my gaming habits and is the single reason I'll never even download it. Second gripe is a minor one in comparison but the extra/essential double dipping really ***** on extra/premium subscribers.

I'm excited to play aliens, looks really good, temtem seems fine just not sure I'll ever get round to playing it, it's a big commitment and fairly low down the backlog pecking order.

The votes suck because all 3 games are worth playing.

@TheStormGL it's a game of the year that explicitly requires two player (ONLY)... and on top of that is NOT a couch co-op game that I would recommend to my children to play. Finally - I'm not sure how much of an anomaly I am, but my wife doesn't play couch coop except Switch games...and do you think a game about a painful marriage break-up would be the thing to bring us together in gaming on the PS5... I'm just trying to imagine how that pitch would go....

So I get it may be GOTY (accroding to a literal sub-sample of journalists and Geoff's-friends...) but I didn't understand how wide this game could go then, and I don't understand it's appeal as a PS+ game now. That could be on me...

@zimbogamer sorry - don't take this the wrong way... but you telling people how good it is that your team gets PTSD and needs to see a psychologist (edit - psychiatrist) before they can be assigned a mission is neither fun, nor a good game mechanic. If you have people with PTSD, it's not like just giving them a bandage and saying "toughen up soldier". This made me have zero interest in this game - and I accept that maybe the way you describe it is inaccurate... but here we are.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare first of all I am a therapist and find the mechanic fascinating. Second of all, its a mechanic where you can't use that soldier for a while cause they are getting treatment before they are well enough to go back in the field. Third of all, the army already does this with therapy and soldiers in combat. Its brief therapy for ptsd and trauma and then when they are able to function again enough to complete the mission they are sent out. Its cruel and wrong, but its the truth of how mental illness is handled in the military. I find the honesty of the mechanic interesting and well implemented. Fourth of all, its in a universe that sucks and its tough, plus its a game so chill.

Temtem is awesome.

Three well-reviewed games and people are not happy. Tsk. Gamers gonna be gamers I guess.

No I said knack two, not it takes two!

I have not played any of these games so yeah its a decent month as its new stuff to try.

Like a few others Aliens was on my "Wish" or "Wouldn't mind giving that a try" list - either way it has saved me approx £17.50 - if I look back over my recent Essential Games then Alan Wake, Zombie Army 4, Like a Dragon and Control, plus a few non-AA titles have made annual subscription a good investment.

For the holiday season, I would have expected some family/kids games.

Im going to give alien a shot. It genuinely looks good. I think we have a good deal of people expecting something like black myth wukong or astro bot straight away.

A bad month is one with a sports game and/or an already doomed live service title that was actually meant to be f2p.

Temtem seems interesting to try out def want to check out the aliens game. Mortem gave it decent praise.

And of course there's always the one game I JUST finished bc they're literally watching my playlist so they make sure they only give away things i own outside the small offerings.

Nice.

6/10

@B0udoir temtem is literally a game aimed at kids/family friendly tho

They could give something like Baldur's Gate 3 or Alan Wake 2 for free and people will still complain.

I always look at PS Plus monthly games as being aimed at players who will buy all the games they want to play and then get given indie games to try that they might not play otherwise.

Im lucky to have access to just about every platform to play video games and I'm so glad I do as the games on offer on playstation are underwhelming to say the least it's quite depressing

Actually pretty good month. No idea how Alien Descent is but probably fair what MP game like Fireteam was? Or something different? Or is it not good?

Otherwise Tem Tem and It Takes Two are great picks, whether people have them or not is another thing and sure they aren't the 'big' titles people expect or not action enough or whatever. I mean they may be family friendly titles or in some cases the types some of us like not in a Nintendo way but in just a enjoy the genre/mechanics or other aspects way regardless of looking family friendly still a blast to play type games not just oh themes/tone matters or else the game sucks. Which these games are great.

But I appreciate some smaller titles getting a chance and are good games like these here.

The amount of Xbox Indies I saw for Xbox Live Gold when it was still relevant and people go eh month and I"m like, how? Just because they don't do their research on good Indie titles because wasn't typical action/themes or a title they'd wanted for PS+/Live Gold and didn't want to buy it or waited cheap and still wasn't.

It's like seeing Xbox try and people go eh and I'm like so no wonder Xbox struggles it has more stereotypical people that own the platform and the other games flop because of a stereotypical audience.

PS doesn't have that image as much but it can seem that way sometimes.

Bought Aliens cause it was on sale, then 3 days later they tell us it's going to be free in December SONY is a scumbag! Won't even give me a refund either.

Mannnnnnnnn y’all already giving us crap games as it is and now y’all giving us the same games 🤣🤣🤣 what’s next gonna release the ps5 as the ps6🤣🤣🤣

There’s a difference between a crap month and a month with games you’re not interested in. These are 3 well regarded games that all offer something different

@zimbogamer in all honesty, if you think patching up people with severe mental trauma issues (enough to go back on missions) is 'good'... then we may have different views on therapy. Also this makes for a weird game-play take; as it's comparing severe (and often long-lasting) mental health disorders to a physical injury cooldown.

I know you said it's cruel and wrong... but you seem to be suggesting that it's good. So if they wanted to do this as a mechanic, then there should be costs associated with re-deploying a PTSD sufferer; or are they just good-to-go? Not having played the game, I won't pretend to know if there are - so what's the cost of ptsd? And why do you think this would be affirming for people dealing with mental health concerns?

Worst month i remember on PS Plus. I just canceled it as i haven't seen a good game for months in it, not in extra either.

@illegalmonkey
Could you not have waited 3 days to make sure that didn’t happen? I’d agree that would be very annoying if it wasn’t that every sale has a specified end date so you can plan these things out.

Best month I've seen so far in the 3 years or so I have PS+. All 3 games seems great!

@thefourfoldroot1 Frankly it's a predatory practice hoping people w/ PS+ will excitedly buy a game that's 50% off before they find out it will be free.

Platinum trophied Aliens Dark Descent. Give it a chance its a brilliant game

@illegalmonkey
Yes, if the devs know they will take up Sony’s offer of their game being on plus, and put it on sale just before , then this is a little unethical of them I agree. But that’s why all sales have an expiry date stated, and the plus games are announced at the same time every month. Sony give you the tools needed to mitigate this risk.

One game I can't play as it's PS5-only (also not particularly into Pokemon-type games), one game I can't play because I have nobody to play it with, and one game I have no interest in playing as I'm not into strategy. Garbage selection from my perspective.

So, these three games has raked up two 8/10 and one 7/10 on this very site, and yet the readers call it a crap selection?

@thefourfoldroot1 They know what 3 games will be free way beforehand I'm sure. All they need to do is not put those three games up for sale. In this case I fully believe SONY hoped they could get some PS+ subscribers to spend extra money they didn't need to.

@illegalmonkey
I think you are confusing Sony and the game developers who set the price (admittedly I think Sony need to OK it, maybe). You are also mistaken if you think plus games are negotiated weeks in advance. So many times things miss last minute.

End of the year and 30th anniversary you'd think they would go out with a BANG! But they just ended with a whimper