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

Best month in a long time for me

I played the free trial of Lego 2K and I enjoyed it, probably not quite enough for me to buy it so I held off in the hope it would come to PS Plus, low and behold here we are.

I didn't expect it to come so quickly if I'm honest so that was a nice bonus

Also I played power wash simulator on Xbox Game pass, it's surprisingly addictive.

For anyone who hasn't tried it, I'd advise not to just dismiss it as I almost did, there's something quite therapeutic about it

Yeah, solid selection imo. Had my eye on Sable for a while now, 2K Drive I'd happily give it a go, and Power Wash simulator is fantastic, I've already spent hours on it on Xbox, great to hunt for some trophies now. Good month.

This selection was a real divide based on last article but my 7 year old boy is super excited for Lego 2k drive! So it’s a winner for me!

“Happy” is a strong word. I didn’t smile or feel anything when I saw what the games were, but I think it’s an ok selection once you realize Sony just sees PS+ Ess as a cash cow and doesn’t care about PS+ basic customers, they are only paying to play online and cloud saves, if you want a game rental service you pay for Extra or Premium. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I probably won’t be happy again until we change the clocks forward in spring.😩

@DrClayman - Sable is excellent but it's an absolute chore to get through due to horrendous performance issues. It rarely hits the 30fps mark and often turns into a slideshow that drops to single digit fps. It's always been awful on console, has been since launch and the dev team won't patch it.

I’ve been wanting to try Power Wash Simulator. I’ve never played a “simulator” game and am fascinated by the surprising popularity of the genre. Lawn mowing, farming, city building, bus driving, park managing…. All seem to be rather mundane tasks that people hate doing in real life or are merely compelled to do in order to earn a paycheck. It’s so strange. And Power Wash Simulator seems to be one of the most popular of these types of games. I wanted to try one and yet I didn’t want to pay for it, so this is a great use of PS+ for me!

I don’t think it’s that bad. Powerwash simulator is perfect for PS Plus. And honestly these three are better than the last few months of Premium.

I was VERY close to buying Lego Drive on Black Friday, so this is a great get for me. I also always liked what I saw of Sable since it was revealed for Xbox.

Solid month for my tastes.

Worst month of the year for me, maybe if I was a parent the Lego game would have made it worth it. I'm still waiting to see where the extra money they are getting is going towards, moving forward I will just expect garbage and be pleasantly surprised when I get a game I'm interested in.

Sable probably.but the other games.🤔come on son.word up son.

Absolute crap. Not looking forward to any of those games.
At least some people are, so overall probably not the worst month of the year.

Maybe I should stop buying games all together, seeing as every1 I buy comes to ps plus, thanks Sony remind me why I'm paying for this?

Already have Powerwash and its a fun game.
Was tempted to get 2K Drive in the black friday sales so glad i held out lol
Dont know much about Sable but it decently reviewed and patches should have fixed the tech issues

Solid if unspectacular selection but im happy

@Shigurui oh really? That's a bit disappointing. Remember seeing some good reviews when it first came out, wonder if they were based on a PC version now.

on average, i would say that i am happy with 10-12 games per year. at the current msrp of $107CAD for the essential plan, that works out to $9-10 per game average which is decent but not great. with the old msrp of $80CAD, the average would work out to $7-8 per game which i considered much better value.

even if sony can continue to release 10-12 games on essential per year that appeal to me, the value just isn't there anymore unless i can get a steep discount on the subscription. the past few months of essential have been painful — outside of mafia 2, the last good game for me was dreams back in august. i.e. the games have clearly gotten worse since the price hike which is sad to see.

i am happy to see the poll results being what they are. nearly 50% of respondents are not looking forward to any of the games on offer. this means sony will see the complaints online and will continue to lose subscribers. that will force their hand to do better.

"good" 2023 essential releases included:

Axiom Verge 2
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Mafia: The Definitive Edition
OlliOlli World
Code Vein
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Trek to Yomi
Alan Wake Remastered
Endling – Extinction is Forever
Dreams
The Callisto Protocol
Mafia II: Definitive Edition

Awful. They're lucky so many of us need PS+ for online pvp/co-op lol

If online play wasn't locked behind Plus it would be dead.

They had until end of 2023 to prove themselves and the price hike.
I would say that even at the old price, Essential as it stands simply isn't worth it.
I will not be renewing PS+ for next year.

My youngest will be happy with Lego Drive, and we'll probably play a fair few rounds of that together. Beyond that though, not much for me.

Seems a marmite month but I'm well happy.

Power wash looks fun and is something I wanted to try but wouldn't have wanted to buy.

Lego 2k looks decent

But Sable is the one I'm most eager to try. Nearly bought it not too long ago.

For me getting 3 games I can try as part of my subscription that I wanted to play risk free is what plus is for in my view

Terrible selection. Unless you have kids under 10 it's total dogs s*+t

I'm happy to check out Sable. If there's one game I want to play I call it a win, because the games most people get excited about don't interest me in the slightest.

I let my subscription lapse after the price increase and, so far, it hasn't been a loss at all. I already own Sable, so that wasn't a problem for me. If you're diligent about claiming free games on Epic each week, you already own most of the games that Sony puts on PS+.

@B_Lindz Epic doesn't make any profit i really think they will go down eventually. I have to be honest I don't have lots of time and a massive backlog if I can get a tier with me only backup and maybe a discount for games alone I would love to try have that.

Power Wash Simulator is overrated. I got it thinking I’d have some fun playing a relaxing game, and I found it maddening to try to get all the little sides of the thing you’re washing 100% cleaned. It’s like, I washed the bejesus out of the underside of that big umbrella on the patio and it looks great…but I missed something…and five minutes later, I’m still rewashing it to get it done…and, oh, there it is…I must have missed that microscopic, undetectable-by-the-human-eye speck of debris on the wingnut. Oy. And why doesn’t it have local co-op multiplayer? Bah! Ah, well. I hope others enjoy it.

I’ll try the Lego driving game, because, well, why not?! Sable? Hmm…ok. I’ll try that one, too, if I can download it without having to free up space on the hard drive.

That’s it for me. It’s runs out in January anyway, I rarely play online and I have gamepass. It feels like there are just too many disappointing months and I can’t remember the last game I got excited for, I think it was Crash 4.

Wow. I mean, I feel more affected by the negativity here than the games themselves.

Horrible for me but im sure there are several kids out there happy with this.

I have beaten roughly 15 games on PS Plus this year and at £64.99, hard to argue against that value.

Not every month will be for you

@B_Lindz how do I claim and play the free epic games on my playstation please?......

This was the best month in a while for me.

Favorites this year:

Jan: Fallen Order
Feb: OlliOlli World
Apr: Sackboy
Jun: Jurassic World Evolution 2
Jul: Alan Wake Remastered
Jul: Endling
Aug: Death’s Door
Dec: Powerwash Simulator

I’m hoping Sony had another surprise in store for later this month but not holding my breath.

Are we ever? People expect to be given Spiderman 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 already.

Why this selection there's nothing good about them power wash simulator really I'd rather be outside using a real one why would I want to play a game about

@MatthewJP You can't. It's only for PC/Mac/Linux. If you have a computer of any kind then you can claim and play these games.

Lego games are relaxing fun games. I am happy with just Lego 2K.

I reckon out of every 100 people, 2 think it's solid.

I am 100% not renewing my subscription on 20th December, so it makes no difference to me.

People need to remember kids play games too lol Sony have to put games on for all audiences hence the Lego game. The more diverse range of games they have the more subs they will get.

@Member_the_game in general all Lego games are very good...but I'll take CTR (Crash Bandicoot Racing) or Hot Wheels..... I'll try the Lego for sure, as you suggest, but I'm not eager to...

Looking for a PS Plus month people are satisfied with is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The games aren't even bad this month. What the hell did y'all expect, Cyberpunk!? I swear, these entitled comment sections always disappoint more than PS Plus ever could.

@Volsung Exactly. I've been paying for PS+ purely so I can play online with my brother once in a blue moon on the fly. It was fine when I was paying around $40/yr (discount site price) for the convenience, but with the higher price it's not worth it, especially as I'm planning to build a budget gaming PC to play on next year instead of getting a PS5.

Looking forward to playing powerwash with a stream or podcast in the background. Seems the perfect sort of game for it.

This month wasn't for me — a kid's game reportedly plagued by microtransactions, a 'painting' style game (which tend to be awkward with thumbsticks), and a game that won't run on my PS4.

I've said it before and will say it again: they should either offer a cheaper cloud save & online-play-only subscription option, or use the extra money to switch the monthly freebie to a "pick 2 games out of this list of options" system so people aren't so dissatisfied.

It's fine for me. If I didn't have a backlog I'd probably play all of them. As it is, I'll give Sable a go.

@themightyant that's fair. i don't play online MP games so the online functionality isn't a perk that applies to me. the ps+ discounts is a nice feature. i just wish there were more sales that included ps+ discounts because strangely enough, i don't see them listed all that often.

Sable is good but I already have it.
Today is my last day of PS+!

@B_Lindz OK I have an old laptop in the attic I will cancel my ps plus and download and play these epic games on my laptop if it still works

@MatthewJP Oh, this is perfect timing for you. Epic gives away 1 or 2 games per week, but they give away a new game every day for the 15 days (15 games total) during December for Christmas. They're usually really great games too. Last year, one of the games they gave away for free was Death Stranding.

Yeah... these last offerings are making me seriously reconsider whether I should keep my PS Plus subscription.

It's a decent month tbh

I debated whether I'd regret letting it lapse in 10 days, and this months games are for me the worst I can recall personally in a while, so I feel petty but vindicated

I’m usually very happy with the line-ups. But, for (I think) at least the last three months, I’ve not been excited for the games. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good games there. Not for me though. I can see the appeal to some players’ tastes!

I’ve been pretty pleased with Extra… usually. Premium needs to step up and add downloading for all PS3 games. I tried to stream God of War (first one) and it was so difficult with the lagging. The timing on button pushing was off so much I couldn’t get far into the game. I was so bummed because I wanted to play the trilogy so badly 😭😭 Tried to stream a couple Ratchet & Clank games and again, it was very difficult to play. I do believe part of this is my Internet’s fault. But nonetheless, we should be able to download these games IMO!! End of my rant haha

@eM1x029

I was more referring to giving Power wash simulator a try without simply dismissing it but yes Lego 2K is definitely worth a try too.

Especially even if you have a passing interest in open world racers

@B_Lindz I think @MatthewJP is being sarcastic with you. The point being you can't play Epic games on your PlayStation and you'll need a fairly new device to run these games so it's not a great comparison.

I'm not picking a side either, I don't have a PC capable of paying anything worthwhile and I've recently quit Plus because I don't see the value in it.

I’m looking forward to trying Powerwash simulator. I’d rather do it in real life but it’s winter and I’m always concerned with wasting water, so there’s that. I would have probably bought it if I saw it on the cheap. Like this I get to try it first and potentially not wasting my money like I did on Terminator Resistance.

Cheers.

The best thing I did this year was cancelling my premium.

Cor what a load of toss

I don’t have a PS5 so that’s just two games for me this month, neither of which I’m interested. The only one I am interested in is Sable, which is PS5 only. So no, not that pleased with this selection.

Sony could never please everyone ever, people are always going to moan
I don’t get why though, as a service it’s great value
They could give everyone Baldurs gate 3 away for all and there would be people complaining
I find it hilarious though as it would be like complaining about getting free oxygen

Three pretty chill, fun games I imagine - I’m satisfied, been interested in Sable since it launched. I’m not going to rush to download right away, but they’ll make for a fun lazy afternoon sometime.

Abomination. But previous months were very good.

I'm glad some people are happy.

But come on, back to reality, its a very weak selection for the end of year, Christmas month.

Its a weak selection again considering they have upped the price for ps plus.

Since they upped the price, they've not really given us anything what says yea was worth the increase.

2k Lego drive yea maybe a fun builder and racer game, double A game but the microtransactions ruin it for me.

PowerWash Simulator, I do already have it and its a good relaxing game. It's still a mid tier game.

Sable, not for me but im not gonna judge the game for that.

I voted an absolutely Cr*p Selection on the basis of it being the end of year Christmas Holidays, final free games of the year bundle.

If this was mid season then I'd of probably said an OK month but its not.

So for the last games bundle of the year.
After a price hike in the subscription, we are are getting a selection of mid tier games at best, utter cr*p.

Hopefully the announcement for ps plus extra is alot better mid month.

I'm still in a bit of disbelief that they've up the prices and these are the games they've decided to put out at the beginning of the price hike. Normally when someone puts the prices up they give you at least an incentive for the rise.

(Side note i still think extra is a very good deal for anyone who can buy only 1 or 2 games, 500 games for a year for the price of 1 n half games is a great offer).

@Bez87
I’m confused about what difference it being the end of the year makes to it being a good or bad month.
I do see what you are saying about price increase (although in the U.K. here it isn’t much, and I saved further on Black Friday so it didn’t really impact me). I would say on that though, that they have recently added streaming for a load of PS5 games, so that is something extra.
You are right also that they are AA and not AAA, but I would never expect much AAA at the price (which for me on premium was just over £7 a month, which also includes the extra and premium games of course, not just these 3).
So, yeah, struggling to see how anybody can say it’s a cr*p month of bad games/bad value. You especially as you though one of the games was good enough to buy outright yourself.

Meh, only thing I would try this month is the power wash game that's it really, other games are filler

Please shoot me , I can't bear to see Januarys meagre offerings 🙄

Maybe I should just quit buying games I have all of them already! 😢

Understand why these may not be for everybody, but i am seriously looking forward to all three...Sable looks awesome, always wanted to try powerwash and lego is always fun...

@Avalanchee totally agree. Essential for me expires this month and I'm not renewing. The games being good or bad are debatable but upping the price to play online is ridiculous when I can play online on PC for free.

Personally I can get why people aren’t happy with this lineup I really do but considering I’ve been wanting to play Lego 2K Drive for a while but never saw a good price for it that alone has me a little happy.

@Member_the_game sometimes (twice a year) I have to powrrwash our farm. It takes about ten days, each day eight hard hours...😝 thanks, but no thanks! You enjoy it though! Happy holidays!

Having recently bought 2k drive physical PS4 for £15, I thought I'd got a bargain!
I was surprised to find I couldn't update to ps5 at all, so to get it free now will be great.
Powerwash is something I wouldn't have got, but will enjoy once I get it, and I know nothing about sable.
Overall, I'm very happy with this selection.

Like often, these are games I'd never buy. And I'm probably too lazy to download them or my SSD lifetime is too precious to go down with them.
I think most interesting is Powerwash Simulator.

Finally a month with games I will actually play. AND a month where the games I would actually play I haven’t bought yet 😁. Best month of the year for me.