PlayStation Plus gave out $894 worth of games in 2019. Were they any good? - Polygon

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PlayStation Plus gave out $894 worth of games in 2019. Were they any good? – Polygon

Published

4 years ago

December 23, 2019

Harry Miller

You have less than a week left to claim the last two games PlayStation Plus is offering to subscribers in the ninth year of its Instant Game Collection. The subscription gave out 32 games, in all, in 2019; Were any of these any good? What would they otherwise cost? In short, what do the data say about the value of this PlayStation Plus benefit, which has been a part of the service since 2010?

We’ll try to answer that question for this year as we have the past five years, along with a few other questions. Such as: How old is the game? Did Sony publish it? What publisher did PlayStation Plus use the most? And did these appear earlier on Xbox Live Games With Gold?

These questions may shed light on where these free games programs are headed, particularly with a new console generation arriving next year in the form of the PlayStation 5.

What about Xbox Live Games With Gold?

Getting Started

In all, there were 32 games in the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection for 2019, with an average Metacritic score of 77.6 and a combined retail price (at the time of the offer) of $894.68.

The Metacritic average is 8.1 points higher than 2018, but the MSRP of the collection is $614.06 less. However, these figures don’t really compare well in light of the fact PlayStation Plus dropped support for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita after February 2018.

That reduced the number of free games offered from six to two (and therefore, the whole dollar value of the collection). Also, by shedding the dead weight of the PlayStation Vita, whose PS Plus games were often poorly reviewed and largely unknown, the catalog’s average critical score surged upward. And deservedly so; many high-quality first-party PS4 games were made available to players this year. It’s just a smaller sample size.

Some titles from January and February were cross-play enabled to one or more platforms; their primary platform is the one listed. After February, all games are for PlayStation 4 only.

Steep

Image: Ubisoft Annecy/Ubisoft

January

Amplitude (PS3)
Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion (PS Vita)
Portal Knights (PS4)
Steep (PS4)
Super Mutant Alien Assault (PS Vita)
Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3)

Average Metacritic score: 65.5

Average age: 2 years, 7 months

Total value: $134.94

Skinny: Amplitude and Steep are sort of hey-it’s-that-guy games that many folks may remember but never picked up. Skiing and a rhythm game are somewhat eclectic, but both are better than their Metacritic suggests, in my book.

Old Snake salutes a dead friend in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots — *Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots*

February

Divekick (PS3)
For Honor (PS4)
Gunhouse (PS Vita)
Hitman: The Complete First Season (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Rogue Aces (PS Vita)

Average Metacritic score: 77.2

Average age: 3 years, 10 months

Total value: $122.94

Skinny: In its last month on PS Plus, the PS3 gets a very fitting, very touching send-off with one of the best games ever made for it. Ten years ago, the PS3 inaugurated the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection, and with it the consumer expectation that a console’s premium service should toss its loyal customers a bone or two every month. The PS3’s no hero; just an old killer hired to do some wet work.

A special forces operator, soaking wet from the rain, inside a helicopter with its bay doors open — *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered*

March

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
The Witness

Average Metacritic score: 85

Average age: 2 years, 10 months

Total value: $79.98

Skinny: Whoa! Where did that come from? Activision makes the best part of of 2016’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare available for good buddy Sony, and The Witness, which launched the same year, picked up a bathtub full of prestige nominations.

Players fight a massive dragon-like monster in Conan Exiles. — *Conan Exiles*

April

Conan Exiles
The Surge

Average Metacritic score: 70.5

Average age: 1 year, 5 months

Total value: $69.98

Skinny: This is what passes for a middling month now. Both games had a mixed critical reception, but if their genres are your cup of tea (survival action-adventure, or Souls-like action role-playing) it’s like found money.

What Remains of Edith Finch - Calvin Finch — *What Remains of Edith Finch*

May

Overcooked!
What Remains of Edith Finch

Average Metacritic score: 83

Average age: 2 years, 4 months

Total value: $36.98

Skinny: An indie-only May doesn’t just pull out two any-old titles; What Remains of Edith Finch took Best Narrative at the 2018 Game Developers Choice Awards, and Overcooked was a grand prize nominee at the 2016 Independent Game Festival. It was followed by a sequel in 2018.

June

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Sonic Mania

Average Metacritic score: 84

Average age: 3 years

Total value: $79.98

Skinny: Can’t argue with the value of three Borderlands games, even if they are five years old or more. Sonic Mania was also a breath of fresh air, celebrating the franchise’s 25th anniversary back in 2017.

Detroit: Become Human - Connor on rooftop — *Detroit: Become Human*

July

Detroit: Become Human Digital Deluxe Edition
Horizon Chase Turbo

Average Metacritic score: 78

Average age: 2 years, 6 months

Total value: $49.98

Skinny: Maybe you wondered if Detroit was worth the hype; maybe you thought it wasn’t. Either way, you could find out for yourself for free this month.

August

Sniper Elite 4
Wipeout Omega Collection

Average Metacritic score: 81

Average age: 2 years, 4 months

Total value: $79.98

Skinny: Many will disagree, and for good reasons, but I think Rebellion’s Sniper Elite is a sorely under-rated series. Always happy to see that show up, even in a slow month paired with an older first-party anthology.

Batman Arkham Knight — *Batman: Arkham Knight*

September

Batman: Arkham Knight
Darksiders 3

Average Metacritic score: 75.5

Average age: 2 years, 6 months

Total value: $79.98

Skinny: Darksiders 3 was nothing special but we raved about Arkham Knight. Sure, it’s four years ago, but if you haven’t played Rocksteady’s Arkham finale yet, this is a month when you definitely feel like you’re getting something for nothing.

MLB The Show 19 - Giancarlo Stanton hits a home run at Yankee Stadium — *MLB The Show 19*

October

MLB The Show 19
The Last of Us Remastered

Average Metacritic score: 90.5

Average age: 2 years, 11 months

Total value: $49.98

Skinny: A first-party only October highlighted Sony’s push on the PlayStation Now streaming/download service, which got a price discount and these two titles this month. MLB The Show 19’s career is always a time vortex for baseball fans, and it’s rare to get a AAA sports video game in its current year in one of these programs.

November

Nioh
Outlast 2

Average Metacritic score: 78

Average age: 2 years, 8 months

Total value: $49.98

Skinny: Nioh was one of our top 50 games of 2017 and is the rare game that combines quality gameplay with mass-market recognition and cultlike devotion. Its sequel is on the way in March.

Titans and pilots fight in a grassy field in a screenshot from Titanfall 2 — *Titanfall 2*

December

Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame
Titanfall 2

Average Metacritic score: 78

Average age: 2 years, 6 months

Total value: $59.98

Skinny: Titanfall 2 had one of this decade’s best single-player campaigns for a first-person shooter, and is timely here in light of Respawn’s launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order the month before. If you liked one, you’ll probably dig the other.

Wrapping it up

Though Sony Interactive Entertainment itself stopped developing for the platform four years ago, 2019 was the year it finally took the PS Vita to the vet and buried it in the flower garden. Dropping PS3 from PlayStation Plus at the same time means a catalog one third the size of last year’s, but the high quality of the PlayStation 4’s deep library really shone through in 2019. And that’s before you get to third-party standouts like Nioh and Titanfall 2 to close out the year, or the well chosen indie cohort of The Witness and What Remains of Edith Finch, or even games with cult followings like Sniper Elite 4 and Conan Exiles. In all, it was a very strong, very well balanced year of offerings for PlayStation Plus. Games With Gold, which has advantages in backward compatibility and third-party support, looks slapdash by comparison.

Though Microsoft seems determined to drive everyone through its Xbox Game Pass program, especially for the new console generation, it’s less clear what Sony has in mind for its older program in PlayStation Plus. But this year’s focus on fewer, better games, rather than highlighting the lower (and often arbitrary) dollar figure of the catalog, instead draws attention to several titles who more than pay for the $60 subscription fee on their own. There is value in every month of 2019.

A knight and samurai clash with their swords in a screenshot from For Honor — *For Honor*

By the Numbers

Average score: 77

Average price: $27.96

Average age: 2 years, 10 months

Highest average Metacritic month: October (90.5) with The Last of Us Remastered (95) and MLB The Show 19 (86).

Highest dollar value month: January ($134.94), with Steep ($29.99), Portal Knights ($19.99), Zone of the Enders HD Collection ($34.99), Amplitude ($19.99), and Super Mutant Alien Assault ($9.99). After PS3 and PS Vita games left the service, it’s there were three months at $79.98 (June, August, and September).

Month with newest games on average: April (1 year, 5 months) with Conan Exiles (May 2018) and The Surge (May 2017).

Lowest average Metacritic month: January (65.5) with Steep (71), Portal Knights (71), Zone of the Enders HD Collection (73), Amplitude (74), Super Mutant Alien Assault (67), and Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellion (37).

Lowest dollar value month: May ($36.98) with What Remains of Edith Finch ($19.99) and Overcooked! ($16.99)

Month with oldest games on average: February (3 years, 10 months) with For Honor (February 2017), Hitman: the Complete First Season (March 2016), Divekick (August 2013), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (June 2008), Gunhouse (April 2018) and Rogue Aces (April 2018).

Published by Sony: Four titles: Detroit: Become Human, Wipeout Omega Collection, MLB the Show 19 and The Last of Us Remastered.

Publisher with the most titles: Sony. Second most was Ubisoft (Steep and For Honor) and Konami (Zone of the Enders HD Collection and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots).

Appeared on Games With Gold earlier: The Witness (April 2018), For Honor (August 2018), Overcooked! (October 2018), and Hitman: The Complete First Season (September 2019).

Total value: $894.68

*Borderlands 2*, part of *Borderlands: The Handsome Collection*

Platform Averages

PlayStation 3: 76.5 Metacritic average, 6 years, 5 months old, $19.99 per title.

PlayStation 4 (PS Vita cross-buy excluded): 79.6 Metacritic average, 2 years, 5 months old, $31.53 per title.

PlayStation Vita: 61.5 Metacritic average, 1 year, 4 months old, $14.49 per title.

Apples-to-apples with Xbox Live Games With Gold (PS3 and PS4 only): 79.2 Metacritic average, 3 years old, $29.88 per title.

Highest rated PlayStation 4 game: The Last of Us Remastered (95)

Highest price PlayStation 4 game: Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, Sniper Elite 4 and Darksiders 3 ($59.99 each).

Lowest rated PlayStation 4 game: Darksiders 3 (64)

Lowest price PlayStation 4 game (PS Vita cross-play excluded): Overcooked! $16.99

Metacritic ranges

90 and up: 2

80 to 89: 11

70 to 79: 12

60 to 69: 6

59 and below: 1

Price ranges:

$40 and up: 4

$30 to $39.99: 5

$25 to $29.99: 5

$20 to $24.99: 0

$15 to $19.99: 14

$10 to $14.99: 2

$5 to $9.99: 1

$4.99 and under: 1

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Model doesn't feel safe wearing designer clothes in Canada's biggest city | Canada – Daily Hive

Published

4 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Harry Miller

A model says she feels like a “sitting duck” wearing designer clothes in downtown Toronto amid a general state of unease in the city in response to an uptick in violent crimes.

Hanya Kizemchuk posted a video on Instagram and TikTok where the local model claimed that she sprinted two blocks to her car after a recent modelling shoot in Toronto after being overcome with the sense that her expensive attire read as “a stop sign screaming ‘rob me.’”

In the video, Kizemchuk describes the scene on a cold, rainy night after finishing a shoot, explaining, “I wrapped my head in my Louis Vuitton wrap. I had my Louis Vuitton duffle bag with all my shoes and makeup and whatever I need for that job. I was wearing my Gucci crossover and I was wearing my black leather Burberry coat.”

“And as I jumped out onto the street, I have to say that I realized for the first time ever in the city of downtown Toronto, I was truly like a sitting duck and that this is no longer okay to be running around like this, that I need to be a little more downplayed so that I don’t attract attention.”

Kizemchuk says she was “a little unnerved” and felt compelled to run “two blocks to my car and continuously check to see if anyone was popping out from somewhere because I was like a stop sign screaming, ‘Rob me.’”

“And that’s how I felt for the first time ever in this beautiful city of Toronto, which I grew up in and don’t recognize anymore.”

A few chimed in, sharing comments siding with Kizemchuk.

Unfortunately crime has increased everywhere. If you are on the street in downtown Toronto, and you are decked out head to toe in designer goods, you are calling attention to yourself and you would be lucky if you’re not mugged. Sadly, it is the same or worse in all big cities.

— john smith (@jsmith9999992) April 18, 2024

Others questioned why she would run away without identifying any specific threats and then make a post online about feeling unsafe.

So nothing happened? She just felt scared walking to her car and no one was around?

— Graeme 🦀 (@hexagraeme) April 18, 2024

One user pointed out how this video is another example of wealth inequality and the ever-growing divide between the rich and poor in Toronto.

lady with extreme wealth complains about wealth inequality

🤷‍♂️

lady, we’ve been screaming for years.

— Dave Jay (@DaveJayToronto) April 18, 2024

According to Toronto Police data, major crime indicators have spiked year-to-date in several categories during 2024, including assault (+10.9%) and robbery (+19.7%).

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Forged by friendship, this year's Stampede boots pay tribute to Stoney Nakoda iconography – MSN

Published

5 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Harry Miller

If not for Duane Mark and Lloyd Templeton’s budding friendship, this year’s Calgary Stampede boot design would have never existed.

While the boot was only constructed in recent months, the process began when Templeton, a Calgary-raised artist in his early 20s, approached Mark with a request to use images of the Stoney Nakoda teepee-holder and educator for artwork he was preparing for the Calgary Stampede.

The two clicked from the get-go. By November, after hours together, Templeton’s piece featuring Mark — dressed in full regalia standing in the foreground of the Calgary Tower among a diverse group of parade participants — was chosen as the 2024 Stampede poster artwork.

On Thursday, Templeton’s art was unveiled as the design for this year’s Stampede boot — now the second product of their friendship that’s been produced for this year’s 10-day rodeo and fair.

“What comes to mind is the growth of a young man named Lloyd,” Mark said, when asked what he sees in this year’s boot design.

The artwork on the exterior reflects key Stoney Nakoda First Nation and Treaty 7 iconography, Templeton said at Thursday’s unveiling. Stitchings of Alberta’s mountain range and the golden eagle flying through a rising sun — two important symbols for the First Nation’s culture — line the outside of the boot.

The boot’s interior has the words Oyadé Gichiyabi, Ahogichopabi Îyûhabith inscribed, which roughly translates in Stoney language to “be empowered to foster peace and respect,” which was selected at Mark’s recommendation.

A recent graduate from the Alberta University of the Arts, Templeton is becoming a household name in Calgary’s arts community at a pace that’s not lost on him.

“Just last year I was making school projects, and a year later, there’s going to be people wearing my art. That’s nuts,” he said.

Working in three dimensions was a new challenge for Templeton. To start, he would tape paper to the back of the boot to get a feel for the shapes he needed to produce. He then drew the designs by pencil, scanned them into his computer and produced it into a special file that allowed it to be etched by laser onto the boots.

“My poster was oil paint, a very traditional process,” he said. “I was kind of making it up on the go to see what worked. I liked the challenge of that.”

Margaret Holloway, the Stampede’s 2024 First Nations Princess who also provided input on the boot design, said she was “breathtaken, speechless” when she first saw the design. Breaking from tradition, this year’s design will be available on five different shades of boot. Alberta Boot normally creates one special boot for each Stampede.

The 22-year-old jingle dancer is the first person from Stoney Nakoda to be named First Nations Princess in more than 20 years.

Holloway’s family teepee at the Elbow River Camp has three large eagles on it, she said.

“Back home, we see the eagles fly and we feel blessed by their presence, and we feel amazed just by their beauty of soaring in the skies. To see that on this year’s Stampede boot was absolutely unbelievable.”

With their latest creation publicly revealed, Templeton and Mark’s friendship will extend far past their artistic collaboration.

“He’s the coolest dude. We have a lot in common — a good sense of humour, listen to the same music and movies. We make a lot of the same jokes,” Templeton said.

Mark said he’s watched the young artist grow and mature in front of his eyes. Over the past year they’ve discussed “deep Indigenous philosophy,” which Templeton has evidently absorbed into his own life, he said.

“We became the best of friends and will continue to be the best of friends,” Mark said.

mscace@postmedia.com

X: @mattscace67

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Huawei's new Kirin 9010 brings minor CPU improvements – GSMArena.com news – GSMArena.com

Published

11 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Harry Miller

Huawei announced the Pura 70 series today, and once again offered no details regarding the chipsets. However, early benchrmarks confirmed they feature a new platform called Kirin 9010, which has an 8-core CPU, identified by apps as 12-core unit due to hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading is nothing new in the chipset industry, as the Taishan cores have been supporting the technology for some time; it has been part of the Kirin 9000s and now is a part of the 9010 as well.

First Geekbench results revealed a minor improvement in raw performance, coming from slightly faster core speeds. The numbers show improvement single digit percentage improvements in both single core and multi core tests.

Kirin 9010 vs Kirin 9000S on Geekbench

The actual octa-core combination of Kirin 9010 is as follows: one 2.30 GHz Taishan Big, three 2.18 GHz Taishan Mid and four 1.55 GHz Cortex-A510. The GPU remains Maleoon 910 at 750 MHz.

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