play station Plus
Since the end of the Cold War, we have all lived in the shadow of another ideological battle between rival superpowers: the Console War. On one side is Microsoft, with its all-American Xbox. On the other hand, there’s the Japanese might of Sony and its ever-popular PlayStation.
It’s hard not to think of something these two forces do, at least in gaming, as a new front in this conflict – and that goes doubly for the launch of the revamped PlayStation Plus service last week.
For those who have already made monthly payments to PlayStation Plus, they will recognize a lot about this new version, such as online gaming and backups to the cloud. But it also includes the features of a previous service – PlayStation Now – and a few other things.
Think of it as Sony’s attempt at a Netflix for games: quick access to dozens and dozens of titles, as long as you keep subscribing.
This week I played Card Shark, a game set in the gambling dens and gilded parlors of 18th-century France
Card Shark is so ingrained in my head that I’m now at least ten times more courteous…and a hundred times more devious
Card Shark is much more than just the mechanics. It’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, an illustrated world full of light
But it comes years after Microsoft launched its own Netflix-like service, Xbox Game Pass, which has attracted 25 million subscribers to date. Game Pass, frankly, offers a lot of great games for a reasonable price. It’s my go-to recommendation for anyone looking for a Christmas or birthday gift for a gamer.
So we run into the question: does PlayStation Plus match Xbox Game Pass?
In terms of cost and structure, the two services are quite similar. PlayStation Plus has three levels, each with more features for more of your hard-earned points. The ‘essential’ tier is basically the old PlayStation Plus at £6.99 per month or £49.99 per year. ‘Extra’ (£10.00 per month, £83.99 per year) gives you access to a catalog of dozens of games. ‘Premium’ (£13.49 per month, £99.99 per year) opens up an even larger catalog.
Being a classy person, I got a premium subscription and immediately started testing the special features. It was a lot of fun diving into the selection of classics, including Ape Escape (1999) and Tekken 2 (1996), although less than I expected – 37, by my count – from the bygone days of the PlayStations 1, 2 and portable .
More impressive is the cloud streaming available to Premium subscribers, which means you can play PlayStation games on your console or (new) on your PC without having to spend time downloading them. It took me less than a minute to start playing what is arguably the best PlayStation-only game of them all, Bloodborne, and it was a completely stutter-free experience.
There are many other games available, including some of the best of recent years: Spider-Man, Death Stranding, and Desperados III among them.
But when it comes to the most recent of the recent, PlayStation Plus is starting to feel different from Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft’s service gives its subscribers full access to the biggest Xbox-exclusive titles, such as Forza Horizon 5 and Microsoft Flight Simulator, on their release days.
While PlayStation Plus is much more guarded with its exclusives. For example, this year’s Horizon Forbidden West is offered as a five-hour trial – and that’s only if you’re a Premium subscriber. If you want to continue playing, you have to buy the game like everyone else.
And that’s when the other limitations of PlayStation Plus start to stand out. There’s Far Cry 4 in the catalog, but no Far Cries 5 or 6. The discounts offered on games on the PlayStation Store are often quite meager and in any case, are just another way to encourage subscribers to spend more money. stand.
Still, I don’t want to complain unnecessarily. PlayStation Plus still offers hundreds of hours of mostly fantastic gameplay for less than the price of a thimble of gas. If you already own a PlayStation then the Essential tier is really just that – essential – while the Extra and Premium tiers have a lot to commend.
It’s just that Xbox Game Pass is so generous that it could appeal to people who don’t even own an Xbox, and even influence their future actions in the console war. Microsoft vs Sony. It’s never over.
WHO SAYS CHEATERS NEVER SUCCESSFUL?
Card Shark (Switch, PC, £17.99)
Verdict: Ooh la la!
Rating: 
Madam. Sir. Sit down, s’il vous plait, and I’ll proceed to – how do you say? – rinse your money.
Sorry. I don’t know what happened to me there. Or rather, this week I’m playing Card Shark, a game set in the gambling dens and gilded parlors of 18th-century France. And it’s so good in my head that I’m now at least ten times more courteous… and a hundred times more devious.
As the name suggests, Card Shark is all about card games, but it is clearly not a card game. Instead, you, a stupid one, must team up with the Comte de Saint Germain, a bloated con man, to cheat your opponents out of their money. When you see a card, it’s to put it in your pocket, swap it, mark it, or otherwise use it in your schemes.
This is one of the funniest games I’ve ever played, full of characters and situations written to perfection
Can you press all the right buttons in the right order so that the next hand falls nicely for the Comte?
In terms of gameplay, this means learning a series of increasingly complicated tricks. Can you press all the right buttons in the right order so that the next hand falls nicely for the Comte? It is a game of dexterity, but also of pressure. The longer it takes you, the more suspicious your opponents become.
But Card Shark is much more than just the mechanics. It’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, an illustrated world full of light. And it’s also one of the funniest, full of characters and situations written to perfection.
Sometimes it is true that there is not enough of that writing – you will see a lot of repeated text when you return to old locations. But it hardly matters when the rest of the game is so elegant, so evocative, so… oh no, you’ve lost again! As we say in France: c’est la vie.