Was trying to post my thoughts/feelings on the PS Plus blog on the Sony website... but 1,250 characters just isn't enough to do my mind being utterly blown justice... so I'll put it here instead:
*Shakes head* I've got something like 9 months left of my PS+ sub left, and not even sure I want to see anymore. Each and every month it just gets worse... and I truly want to love Sony -- I do, they're my console of preference... I defend Sony from all the haters, etc. I'm stoked for PS4... I'd even be a fanboy if it wasn't for the fact I won't make empty excuses when Sony drops the ball. And as far as the US PS+ goes, the ball is beyond dropped... it's in somebody else's court... the EU court.
Now, I can fully appreciate that EU members after exchange rate probably pay a bit more than US does... but I'm REALLY kicking myself in the backside lately, and here's why. I used to have one of the original PS3s, ran like a champ, big HDD... played PS2 games. Then my old roommate (and sleaze) moved out and stole my old PS3 along with most of my games. Since money doesn't exactly grow on trees for me, I had to sit and wait and wait until I had enough *spare* money that I could comfortably spend on another PS3. At first I eyeballed up all the different packages. The packages that came with Move, the packages that came with multiple games, I was even eyeballing a GTA5 pre-order bundle for $300 (I so could have been playing GTA5 right now instead!?!?!? ARGH!)... which turns out was the same price as the one I settled on. The white PS3 500GB bundle that came with PS Plus. Why did I go with that bundle? Well, let's see... since most my games were stolen, I don't often have expendable income I can toss on games, I don't have a Vita, and I barely use my PSP... I figured, "hey, PS Plus has always had cool stuff in the past, I think I'll finally bite the bullet and go full on Plus member". Until then I'd always just been a free PS3 user. I figured with having next to no games for the PS3, as the months rolled on, I could have some nice games to play.
Bummer part was, I did this about three months ago I believe it was... turns out Infamous 2 was dropped from PS Plus like maybe two days before I purchased my PS3... bummer. I did get Uncharted 3 which was awesome. And even though I had already played and beaten Saints Row The Third on PC, I got it for the trophies and such on PS3. Only other real big ones I can think of are The Cave (which is "okay" at best), and the Labyrinth one is slightly cute I suppose. But lately, what the heck has happened!? I will say I set myself up for the disappointment on Hitman: Absolution -- not sure what was going on there... the reviews said it was great... but between the annoying scoring system, pretty much forced linearity, and unlockables that you don't even have to pay attention to or really use to get through the game... it had pretty eye-candy I guess. But other than that, eh... I had myself all built up, thinking, "I'll go plus, and it'll be a whole new mind-blowing PlayStation experience like I've never imagined"... oh heck yes... I never imagined this.
At first I thought, "maybe it's just the line-up"... then I started seeing bits around the net about EU's line-up (and then next month they're getting FarCry 3, Dragon's Dogma, etc!? Why is it they're getting games barely a year old, and we're getting games from decades ago!?)... yeah, that hurt right between the uprights pretty decent. I figured, "well, maybe they just rolled out better stuff for PSP or Vita that month", and then the next month, and now this month. And what the heck!? This month, seriously, for PS3... we get a 12 year old ported PS2 game (Ico) which I guess was kind of fun, bit too easy, kind of made me feel like I was playing a 3D rendered Atari 2600 game to be honest. Then the RE Chronicles HD Collection... two ported Wii on-rail shooter games... and seriously, I *love* zombie stuff, love zombie games (at least sandboxy ones, can't stand Nazi Zombies or Left 4 Dead, bit too straight-forward and non thought-provoking)... but seriously, without a Move controller, they're lame as heck to play with the regular controller. Best of the bunch I think is Galaga HD... which is fun as heck to play, I'll admit... but seriously... that's when you KNOW the grouping is bad, when Galaga... a remade HD port from a game that was big/popular back in the 80s when I was kid, is the BEST of the bunch.
Like I said, I've got something like 8 or 9 months left on my sub... and seriously, if whatever's going on with the US side of PS Plus doesn't improve... I'm just going to get a Gamefly sub. Oh but wait, Sony says we need PS Plus for multiplayer on PS4? I'm not really a huge multiplayer nut anyways... I prefer to play solo when I can... if I have to team up in an MMO, or occasionally in an MMO, perhaps... but I can easily live without multiplayer to be honest... no sweat off my brow.
The line-up has just been horrendous to say the least... it should say something when you can find more fun and excitement from random demos on the PS market than you can with most the games on PS Plus as of late -- I mean, I literally had to push and force myself just to finish Hitman: Absolution for at least one full playthrough... and that's sad, because I loved all the prior Hitman games.
But a 12 year old PS2 game... what gives? There's TONS of games that could have been supplemented over the past 12 years instead... an old Final Fantasy game, or Kingdom Hearts, or Just Cause 2, or Saboteur, or Silent Hill, or Test Drive Unlimited, or Driver San Francisco, or Heavy Rain, or something open-world or sandboxy... something.... seriously. I also see a lot of posts about people getting tired of PSP games being ported to Vita, and then being given to them as a "freebie"... like it suddenly makes the dust-riddled cobweb-covered bargain-bin special that much more elequent!? o_O
