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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Quick Overview of Sony's "Welcome Back" PS3 Games


I'm going to reserve judgement on Sony's 'Welcome Back' plan until all the details about identity theft protection are released and the PlayStation Store is actually back online. The most often quoted portion of the plan, the two free games, isn't really of interest to me since I already own all the titles they list. While I appreciate the cost in offering free games to the entire PS3 community, only two are full release titles and c'mon - LittleBigPlanet came out in 2008 and inFamous in 2009. Anyone who wanted these titles probably already has them.

But if you don't, here's some quickie reviews for you.

Dead Nation
Top down, zombie apocalypse action best played with another person sitting next to you. This was done by HouseMarque, who also did another title on the list: Super Stardust HD. The graphics are pretty excellent, and they manage to change up some game mechanics so that this doesn't feel like just another coop zombie shooter / Smash TV clone. If enjoy couch coop, this is a pretty great title.

inFAMOUS
I rather enjoyed inFAMOUS when it was released and look forward to the sequel. The gameplay gets a little repetitive, but still stands as one of the better free roaming superhero themed titles out there, even today (though not quite as good, imho, as say Crysis 2). The good/evil mechanic is a little overwrought, but hey - so are most good/evil mechanics.


LittleBigPlanet
If you don't have this one, get this one. Some of the platforming concepts might not appeal to people who don't like, well, platformers - but LBP is an excellent and unique title which also offers an absolute plethora of user made content.

Super Stardust HD
I actually find Stardust's difficulty curve a bit frustrating, but there's no doubting this is one pretty PSN title and very easy to jump into. It was the first game when I got my HDTV that a fellow gamer insisted I had to try out. Twin shooter/boat style mechanics against asteroids with lots of powerups - it is a lot of fun if you don't mind dying a lot.

Wipeout HD + Fury
I got Wipeout HD and played it a few afternoons, that was about it. It's not bad - but seemed overly derivative to me. A title only for racer fans for sure, and probably only if you've grown bored with Need for Speed.

7 comments:

Steve said...

I'll probably grab a copy of all of those except inFamous as I've got that. LBP never really sounded worth dropping money on, but free seems like a fair price.

The funny thing in all of this is that:

1) Nobody who's pissed is going to become less pissed because they got LBP for free
2) Nobody who's pissed is going to stop playing games on PSN

I mean, it's not like you have another option for multiplayer gaming on your PS3. I suppose some people who also own 360's could decide that they'll get the 360 version of titles from now on, but my sense is most people do that already since multiplayer experience is better on 360.

So while this seems like a huge PR disaster for Sony, I don't see it really costing them all that much in the long run. They'll fortify their security, and by the time the PS4 comes out, nobody will be weighing this incident in their buying decision. I mean realistically, this could have happened to Microsoft just as easily (if not more so in their penchant for running Windows :).

Josh said...

Well, you only get to download two out of the set. Unless you own a PSP - then there's another set for the PSP. So, all five of those peoples (cymbals clash).

If someone had none of these, I'd say inFamous and LBP are the easy choices since they were originally full titles.

If you hadn't tried the three PSN titles, it's a bit of toss up ... but I'd say I've probably played Dead Nation the most out of all the titles. Wipeout HD just isn't as good as some full fledged racers, so last in my book, but Super Stardust would probably come in close second just for being so darn purty.

Josh said...

But to your point - you're right. This is all a little silly. I think a lot of users have been clamoring just because they see it as a chance to get free stuff. I've seen some go around stating they think Sony should refund them their actual PS3 - which is absolutely absurd.

Honestly? I don't want free stuff. I want:

- A transparent account of what they did wrong
- A transparent account of what they did to fix it
- That one year of free id theft protection which they said they would email us, what ... a week ago?

And if they want to toss in some free PSN or PSN coupons, free titles, whatever, after that - fine. It will make me like them more. But I think the three things above are what PSN users are actually entitled to.

daftdek said...

lot of rubbish !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

daftdek said...

josh this josh that

daftdek said...

josh put redeem codes on for ps3 £50

daftdek said...

who know any redeem codes