Players Aren't Happy About The January PlayStation Now Lineup
PlayStation has just announced three new additions to its PS Now subscription service for January: The Crew 2, Surviving Mars and Frostpunk: Console Edition. While some fans have responded to the announcement by stating their general appreciation for PS Now, a significant number of comments expressed disappointment with the new slate of titles.
Reviews aren't always a definitive indicator of how much gamers may enjoy a particular title. That said, Metacritic scores for all three games suggest a generally middling-to-positive critical reception overall to this lineup. The Crew 2 sits at a Metascore of 64 (failing to match considerable prerelease hype), Surviving Mars at 76 and Frostpunk: Console Edition at an 89. Averaging these three numbers results in a score of roughly 76.3.
One reply to the announcement of these games on Reddit questions the inclusion of both Frostpunk and Surviving Mars. Both games are similar in style, the poster argues, and neither constitutes a marquee title. This could mean that an already tempered excitement for these two releases could be stretched even thinner due to their similarities and simultaneous addition to the PS Now service. In the past, Surviving Mars alone was free on the Epic Game Store.
Concurrently with this announcement, and causing the source of another significant contingent of responses to the PS Now announcement, many PS4 owners are having trouble downloading the latest free games just made available to PS Plus subscribers.
Many such users have documented their troubles with downloading them in a Reddit thread. Comments recount how Maneater and Godfall remained listed at their full retail prices, while attempting to access Shadow of the Tomb Raider returned an error, leaving users unable to receive any of January's three free PS Plus titles.
As a point of comparison, December's PS Now lineup included Horizon Zero Dawn, a much more popular game. At the time of its release, Horizon Zero Dawn was a critical darling. The feedback to the December announcement nevertheless included some inevitable disappointment, but the majority of replies were excited in tone, likely in response to the strength of Horizon Zero Dawn alone.
That said, not all comments in response to PS Now's January additions were expressions of disappointment. One Reddit commenter first noted the overwhelmingly negative response to the PS Now announcement before sharing their own excitement about getting access to Frostpunk. Its PC version, notably, is among some of Steam's best hidden gems.
All three games are now available at no additional cost to PS Now subscribers. The Crew 2 will remain on the service until July 5, 2021.