by Phoenix, HSM team writer

The PlayStation Plus instant game collection continues to grow, both on the PS3 and (now) on PS4.  If you have both consoles, then you know PS Plus is portable. If you have a membership but not a PS4, rest assured that your membership will be available on the next-gen console (and the Vita, if you’re so inclined to have all three).

I can’t say it enough: PS Plus is one of the best programs Sony ever conceived.  The sheer number of games possible to have in your collection is phenomenal. Once downloaded, these games are accessible at any time: eighteen games on the instant collection per month, plus discounts on other content. There are free, dynamic screen savers as well as regular ones and avatars for your PSN ID tag. Plus offers access to games you might never have thought about playing, or games you thought about but weren’t sure you wanted to spend the money on and end up not liking. The idea that Plus is portable is in itself a plus that means games on the Vita, PS3 and PS4 are at your fingertips. As Sony says: one membership, three devices…

The excitement of the PS4 for me was minimal at first. Oh, I liked the outer design and overall shape of the console, I guess. I must confess I prefer the rounded shape of the newer PS3 console I have, but the new shape of the PS4 is okay. This may not be a concern to some, but it is to me. I have to have the console on display and it has to be appealing to me. The games offered were the draw.

Resogun is a next gen shoot’em up game for PS4. Simply put, it is a game that shows who is the best! This is a game reminiscent of Super Stardust form PS3, on a next gen epic scale. The explosions are constant and stellar if you can dominate this game. The gameplay is set to changing techno beats that invade your head, pumping you up with energy in a never-ending quest to destroy the invading horde.  Resogun was just one of the free to play games in PS Plus membership for PS4 owners. Resogun is a leaderboard game, with levels of play and skill. Shoot, survive and improve are the requirements of this game. This game, as with many of others on the next gen console, are a visceral experience where everything is constantly moving and changing at an ever increasing pace.

I have taken note of the games in January’s free collection for PS Plus members and I can tell you I now regret my decision not to have one, thus far. There are a couple of games I would like to play, Resogun being one. By the time I get my hands on a PS4, the game I am interested in will be unavailable as a free download, as I had to replace my PS3 in early September and as a single parent have just had Christmas deplete my funds.

I will just have to console myself with Galaga. This game was on the list for recent instant collection selections for PS3, and I have it. These games are similar in play and content. But Resogun looks amazing!

January has some more interesting games coming. The thing is, with Plus, I sometimes feel like a kid in a candy store. There are so many games that one might get over-choiced to death.  In a month you may not get to start or play all the games you chose. The bad thing is no chance to pick up a missed game free after the next selection of games.

The good thing here is that the games are on your XMB anytime you get to them. If for any reason you have to delete any or all of them they are still available in your download history. You can simply go to your account management and transaction, then your download history and re-download any or all of them. So in a sense these games are yours for life. If you fall out of love with one, just put it away. You don’t have to worry about losing the disc or scratching it and ruining the game when you want to play it again.

The fact is this: PS Plus is a PSN program you will want if you’re like me and think it’s better than the laborious process of picking up a demo and then getting the full game.  January’s list of games will include, on the PS3, award-winning BioShock Infinite, which is slated to be available on the 7^th of January in the NA region. As for which games will leave the current lineup, no real word on that, but if I were you and I hadn’t gotten around to picking up any of this month’s games, I’d do it now.

For the PS4 collection, if you like survival games, Don’t Starve is a quirky survival game set in a wilderness. This game is an indie strategy adventure simulation. It comes from Klei Entertainment. The main character, Wilson, is a gentleman scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. In his new surrounding, Wilson must survive! The game features strange creatures and danger. As Wilson, you craft structures and items for survival. One of the most interesting ideas of this game is the map generation. In Don’t Starve, if you want a new map of a world to explore, you can generate it yourself; this offers a unique element to the game in possibly harsher worlds than the one you were in.

Don’t Starve is another one I’d like to play; it is set to replace Contrast in the lineup in January 2014. If Contrast is one you’ve thought about and you have a PS4 but haven’t downloaded, better get on it before it’s gone.

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