PlayStation Now: Playing the Expected and Unexpected Games
PlayStation Now is Sony’s streaming subscription service that allows gamers to stream and play PlayStation 3 games on their PlayStation 4 or Windows PC. Additionally, gamers can also access the service through the PlayStation Vita. For newcomers, there’s a free 7-day trial, while 1-month subscriptions costs $19.99 and 3-month subscriptions cost $44.99.
PlayStation Now consists of over 500 games from seemingly every genre out there. It includes greats such as Red Dead Redemption, Dark Souls, Resident Evil, and Sonic the Hedgehog, along with excellent PlayStation exclusives like the Uncharted and God of War Series, and so much more. It’s a fantastic collection of games that are readily available at the click of a button.
While trying out the PlayStation Now service I used my Vita, PS4, and PC. When using the Vita and PS4 I was connected wirelessly to the internet which, I must say, didn’t leave me with the best impression of the service. I had moments where my input seemed delayed when racing in games like GRID 2 and GRID Autosport. Obviously, when racing, brief moments of lag isn’t a good thing to encounter when taking turns at high speeds. It didn’t matter as much when playing a game like Sonic Unleashed though.
I also didn’t have the best experience on the Vita when it comes to games that require the use of L2, L3 and R2, R3 as those buttons are placed on the touch screen. Games that don’t allow you to switch the controls can make using those buttons a mighty challenge, especially when needing to use multiple buttons in quick succession. However, I had a blast playing a game like Super Mega Baseball on my Vita.
Basically, what I discovered is that the best way to experience the PlayStation Now service is by being directly connected to the internet with a wired connection. My PS4 isn’t, but my PC is, therefore I had most my fun with limited connectivity issues while playing on my PC.
The fun thing about PlayStation Now is that there are 500 games. This means that there are games available that a lot of us wouldn’t even consider playing. Sure, I could check out some of the PlayStation exclusives that I missed such as the Ratchet & Clank series, or I could dive deep into RPGs like The Legend of Heroes: Trials of Cold Steel. However, while I did check those out, I also found myself tempted by games I would never rent or buy.
I found myself playing Truck Racer because I’ve been in a racing mood, and playing an arcade racer with semi-trucks looked like stupid fun. And while it’s not great, I did enjoy a few moments of it and grabbed some easy trophies. I then moved on to Skydive: Proximity Flight which I actually enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Not only were there plenty of easy trophies to add to my collection, but the gameplay was actually pretty enjoyable for a while. Who doesn’t like flying at high speeds in a wingsuit and then parachuting at the last moment for perfectly completing a challenge? Lastly, for the first time ever, I participated in the Rugby World Cup! I had no idea what I was doing, but since I love sports I figured I would check it out. I began on easy and found myself losing 29-0 at half time. However, I eventually figured it out played much better, to the point where I lost that game 29-26. I eventually collected some trophies on that game as well and even won a game playing on hard difficulty. I was actually having a really good time with it. However, I wouldn’t recommend playing Rugby World Cup 2015 as it’s a buggy mess and has some game breaking issues that stopped me from winning the championship.
The point is, the PlayStation Now service lets gamers experience games they may never have considered trying at any other point in time. A lot of those games might be just as bad as they expected, however there could still very well be a gem hidden in there also. I had a great time going through different games even though I probably won’t play many of them ever again. Although, again, the Skydiving game was pretty enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmxTd_pWhWI
PlayStation Now is also perfect for trophy hunters. Talk about the ideal service for adding trophies to your profile, especially with there being many games that make collecting a good portion of trophies easy to do. Some might even say that PlayStation Now could be renamed to (Get) PlayStation Trophies Now. Go get ‘em!
PlayStation Now is excellent when using the service with a wired connection. I had very little issue and found myself having a ton of fun playing many of the PS3 games streamed to my PC at 720p. Sure, the visual quality isn’t always the best, but it still works just fine. My only question about the service would be the price.
$20 a month does seem pretty steep, especially if you’re interested in checking out some of the RPGs or other time intensive games that could easily take up an entire month’s subscription. Gamers might find it more appeals to purchase a hard copy of the game at that point and not use PS Now for time intensive games. However, if you enjoy the 7-day trial and think a three-month commitment would be worth trying at $45 dollars, that comes out to $15 dollars a month which is a little bit more reasonable. It’s simply going to be up to the collection of games and how much time people think they could spend playing them to get their money’s worth.
There’s no doubt that PlayStation Now is a good service with a ton of content for gamers to check out and experience. When connected with a wired connection, it runs perfectly fine with rare hiccups in connection. There’s more than enough games to keep players entertained. Those who haven’t tried out the 7-day trial should certainly do so and determine if subscribing to the service is right for them.
With over 500 games available and the announcement of PS4 titles being released at some point on the service as well, there’s really no reason not to at least check out the service. There’s a lot of goodness available to play and a lot of unique and not-so-popular games that might be worth a look as well.
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