“Free” games for February 2020 on Xbox One and Ps4

Yes, I know these are not free since you have to subscribe to the appropriate yearly pass. Okay, we got that disclaimer out of the way who won the month.

The winner is this month is Playstation. Last month Xbox won because Playstation gave us Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. A very good collection of games. But still a collection of remastered games from last generation.

This month, Playstation steps up to the plate with BioShock: The Collection. A remastered collection of games from last generation. What is the difference? While Xbox last month went from strength to strength. This month well ugh…

I am curious if this pattern of remasters from Playstation and mixed bags from Xbox continue until the new consoles release. I am also curious if the new consoles will release in any numbers with China currently shut down because of the 2019 novel coronavirus, but that is a topic for another time.

From Playstation Plus

BioShock: The Collection

Confession time I never finished the first BioShock. In fact, I have the feeling I only made it about a third of the way through. Still better than BioShock 2, which I also owned and never even booted up.

So why am I excited by this remaster? Well , I always wanted to try BioShock Infinite. Something about the game appeals to me more than the original Bioshock. Despite my affinity for Lovecraft, I like the city in the clouds as a location more than Bioshock’s underwater city. In fact, it might be my affinity for Lovecraft that makes Infinite’s deconstruction of elitism, nativism and institutional racism more appealing than the critique of objectivism by the first two BioShocks. 

BioShock Infinite seems like a game I would try out and not stop playing until I finished the main story. Of course I said the same thing about the first BioShock as well, so we will see where that gets us.

The Sims 4

Every so-called hardcore or “real” gamer usually has at least one game in their most played that could be considered um.. casual. Whether it is Fortnite, Candy Crush Saga, or Dark Souls these games sneak on to our top five most played cause sometimes you just want to chill out.

And sometimes you just want to decorate a living room and try on a new outfit. Per my Gog Galaxy purple launcher thingie my time played on Sims 4 is 3,225 hours and 28 minutes or a little over 134 days.

Okay deep breath… maybe I should seek some sort of Twelve-step program. Anyway, that dwarfs (hopefully) my playtime on Skyrim, Fallout 4 and My Friend Pedro. In my defense at least I spent a thousand hours of that looking at loading screens. And another thousand of that was spent fiddling around with the endless mods I use. So in reality I have barely 1300 hours of actual gameplay… I need help.

As someone who states he is a console gamer and prefers to use a controller one would think I would welcome a console version of Sims 4 particularly since this is such a faithful port. And in a way I do. It has two big positives: It is more colorful and prettier on my larger screen OLED TV than it ever looked in my business all in one PC. And the PS4’s load times are much shorter than the PCs (Ironically it is the PC that makes the jet engine sounds occasionally while playing this game rather than the PS4 Pro that has a tendency to do that during other gaming sessions.)

One reason that the PS4 version is running so much better than the PC is that it doesn’t have gigabits of mods to contend with. While Sony allows limited mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4, Sims 4 has no mod support at all. And as any Sims 4 player can tell you it is all about the mods. I can’t even list all the clothing and furniture options allowed. Sure Wicked Whims allows you to have orgies with graphic sex and Basemental Drugs allows you to choose the Scarface career path. But that is not the reason for using mods. It is the wonderful MCCC by Deaderpool that fixes everything and gives all the Sims in the game free will. Soon people are having affairs, divorcing, joining cults and hunting vampires. All on their own. It’s downright addictive.

It’s not just the mods that make the PC the go to place to play Sims 4 (Okay that is ninety percent of it.)There is also the fact that they have not changed the controls for console. It is basically the mouse controls using a controller. It is about as awkward as it sounds. Then there is the cost (even with the free base game) which is higher on a console and this is a game that has a lot of DLC and while the PC often has sales on the must have DLC, the console is not so lucky.

While I prefer consoles, I recognize that some games are just better on PC. One of Sims 4 strengths it is a game you can kind of play on your browser while you are doing something else like holding a work meeting or doing your taxes. Unlike a console game where you are focused on the game at hand Sims 4 can run in the background and you can check on it every once in a while. So that is the reason to play on PC. The ability to multitask and a lower cost. Not because of the Nisa’s Wicked Perversions mod. I mean, why would you even bring that up? What would make you even think of that?

Firewall Zero Hour

I do not own a PlayStation VR unit. I have no plans to buy a PlayStation VR unit. That said, I am happy that they are at least giving those with a PlayStation VR unit a chance to play this VR version of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. I wouldn’t play it for more than half an hour even if it wasn’t VR. Not my cup of tea. It seems a very solid (If somewhat content light) game for its type.

From Games with Gold

TT Isle of Man 

Speaking of games I would play for half an hour never to touch again we have TT Isle of Man. This is a game about a motorcycle race on … checks notes…the Isle of Man.

This is a fairly popular race in Europe and has been going since around 1907 with some time off for World Wars and such. In the 99 years they actually raced there a have been a few notable incidents and I believe even a few deaths… let me check the Wikipedia on that. ” Between 1907 and 2019 there have been 151 fatalities during official practices or races on the Snaefell Mountain Course, and 260 total fatalities” Good God.

Okay, so this is the real life Super Meat Boy of motorcycle racing. How is the game? It’s okay. Not pretty enough and a narrow focus. It is basically one race and on motorcycles. It is a very niche product with lukewarm reviews.,

Call of Cthulhu 

I will play this game. I will wear my HP Lovecraft shirt my, Yog-Sothoth baseball cap and my Cthulhu slippers and sit down for a long session while sipping earl grey tea and complaining about the swarthy Italians that just moved two doors down.

If you are not a fanboy? Well, it is a mediocre adventure that depends entirely on theming for its appeal. See every other Lovecraft game (Outside of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth), most Sherlock Holmes games, and anything with Leisure Suit Larry in it.

Fable Heroes 

Is Fable Heroes the worst Fable game ever made? No, that would be Fable: The Journey which is a Kinect only game where you play a Dweller (Fable’s version of a Gypsy) who runs away from things for hours on end.

Since Fable the Journey is unplayable, it is technically worse than Fable Heroes. Though now I think about it, being unplayable its awfulness is only accessible through watching lets plays on YouTube while Fable Heroes desecration of everything Fable is not just still technically playable but will invade the consoles of millions of people.

Okay, I take it back Fable Heroes is the worst Fable game and one of the worst video games period. A mindless four player hack and slash with a pedestrian board game attached for no particular reason.

How Xbox got through this entire generation without producing a Fable 4 is a mystery we may never solve. While the three main games are solid and some of the best gaming of the last generation, the Fable spinoffs are notoriously awful cash grabs.

Star Wars Battlefront

Millie Bobby Brown is an acclaimed actress best known for her role in Stranger Things, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and that upcoming documentary about how Drake shouldn’t be grooming underage girls.

Star Wars Battlefront is older than Millie Bobby Brown. It’s a good game, but the multiplayer arena genre has moved on from the Bush years.