Ten Reasons to pick up PlayStation Plus Premium for the Holidays

Sure, “ten reasons to pick up PlayStation Plus Premium for the holidays” sounds like a sales pitch or something you’d find on the PlayStation blog, but we’ve been sampling the service for a few months and found that there’s a single great reason that jumps out when faced with a period in which you have some extra time to play games. So if you’re going to be indoors and need something to play when not mingling with family and friends, read on….

And yes…. one reason? When we said ten? That wasn’t a typo, but there’s a singular reason for us and it’s not the access to multiplayer gaming – it’s having access to a catalogue of classic titles that you can’t otherwise play on a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 as they are PS3-era titles. And if there’s ever a time to catch up on a few classics, it’s when you have a week (or two) off to dive into them. Which is where “ten reasons” suddenly makes a lot more sense. Here are ten good ways to spend a few hours of the upcoming break, in random order.

1) Fallout 3 & Fallout: New Vegas

Two of the best RPGs ever made and absolute must-plays. These two can fill up two weeks by themselves, and will tell you why we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a Fallout 5.

2) inFAMOUS & inFAMOUS 2

The inFAMOUS games (inFAMOUS Festival of Blood is also on the service) are PlayStation-exclusive action adventures from Sucker Punch. They’re both excellent, and provide a nice look at what the studio did prior to Ghost of Tsushima.

3) Heavenly Sword

One of the most gorgeous action adventures of the PlayStation 3 era, Heavily Sword by Ninja Theory is an early showcase from the studio that later produced Hellblade and is currently working on Hellblade 2.

4) Alone in the Dark: Inferno

A new Alone in the Dark game is in the works and should be with us next year, but Inferno is a surprisingly well made and too often overlooked entry in the long-running franchise, with a solid take on an episodic format.

5) Ratchet & Clank

And really not just (the original) Ratchet & Clank, but also Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked. You can only get the two most recent games on the PS4/PS5, so if you missed out on the originals this is a great opportunity to catch up.

6) LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

We could have listed a number of classic LEGO games that aren’t available for modern PlayStation consoles here, as a bunch are features on PS Plus, but with a new film coming out this year we thought this would be a great pick.

7) Cuboid

Probably the least well-known title in this list, Cuboid is a gorgeous little puzzle game that was released as a digital-only title for the PS3. It can’t even be found on other consoles or PC, although there’s an iOS version as well.

8) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

It’s a shame that the first Lords of Shadow isn’t currently on PS Plus, but the sequel is another example of why we’d love to see Capcom take another stab at this Castlevania franchise in the future.

9) F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon

A pioneering kind of first person shooter that blended classic shooter gameplay with horror/terror elements, F.E.A.R. holds up pretty well today. If you like story-driven shooters and never played this franchise, start here.

10) Tales from Space: About a Blob & Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

DrinkBox Studios is probably best known for their Guacamelee games (which are both fantastic), but you should definitely check out their earlier Tales from Space games as well – two lovely side-scrolling (puzzle) platform games.