PlayStation Plus Games April 2020 – A Lot of Mud

Every month Sony Interactive Entertainment reveals their PlayStation Plus Free Game lineup, an exclusive offer to those that subscribe to their online membership. Players part of this membership, called PlayStation Plus, are entitled to two (sometimes more!) free games that are theirs to keep so long the members retain their subscription.

As this once a month holiday rolls around, we here at Noisy Pixel decided to break down each new title coming to PlayStation Plus every month, so you know what you’re getting yourself into before you even start downloading!

Let’s get started!

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Sony Computer Entertainment is back to finish off your Nathan Drake digital collection with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Regarded as Drake’s final adventure, the third-person action title had a lot riding on a satisfying and epic end for Naughty Dog’s flagship series. And many critics are confident that the developer has done it right. With a Metacritic average of 93, Uncharted 4 was met with high praises and awards for its improved storytelling, huge technical set pieces, and gameplay that finally stands to set itself apart from the rest.

That story that everyone is talking about is the tale of Nathan Drake has completely taken a new course in his life. Having settled down and but not forgotten his previous life, Drake is now torn between his friends and family or completely losing them all. And this isn’t because of the life and death situations Drake finds himself in but the harm he’s doing to himself and the relationships he was built over the years.

Uncharted 4 is a bit surprising as a PS Plus free game if I’m being honest. While we did recently get the Uncharted Collection a few months ago, there isn’t much to gain from this other than some people that have never beaten the series can now do so for the price of one year’s membership (provided you went that route.) But from a PlayStation fan’s perspective, we’ve already bought and played these games, and the mindshare for Naughty Dog’s other prized game, The Last of Us Part II is alive and well for its release later this year. Personally, I have been replaying Uncharted for fun, and conveniently, I’m on the fourth game, so now I can wait for April 7th to download the game instead of the disc if I’m feeling lazy.

Fun Fact: There are many Uncharted fun facts to throw out: People got mad at Laura Bailey for playing Nadine Ross, The Uncharted 4 E3 2015 demo was almost ruined because the controller for the demo was plugged into the wrong PS4. But my favorite facts are the ones that nearly got us a completely different game. Emily Rose, who voices Elena Fisher wasn’t even auditioning for the role. She was tagging along with a friend when the series creator, Amy Hennig, noticed she was hitting it off with Nate’s voice actor, Nolan North, and loved their chemistry.

DiRT Rally 2.0

More unusual racing games that evolve dirt is coming in the form of DiRT Rally 2.0, which I will from now on refer to as Dirt 2 to avoid my shift key as much as possible. Masterminded by the British developer Codemasters, Dirt 2 is an off-road driving simulator that takes player over six real-life rally tracks in over 50 cars ready to eat drag mud and stuff. Along with a Metacritic average of 84, Dirt 2 won critics over with its authentic driving and graphical prowess.

While racing games don’t have much of a story, Dirt 2 has a decent amount of content from a career mode and various means of free play that allows players to drive historical cars, play in daily and weekly events, compete in FIA World rallies, time trials or completely custom solo and online races. The career hosts rally and cross rally races complete with car tuning to really make your car your own.

As for why Dirt 2 is on PS Plus free games lineup, it’s a bit of a mystery. Other than Dirt 2 being a well-made game, Codemasters is really making a name in the industry for the continuing series it has under its belt, like F1 and Grid, making this deal a potentially positive one to hype up an upcoming title from those series.

Fun Fact: Codemasters is pretty much known recently as an up and coming racing game developer, but Codemasters has been active since 1986, and you should see their old logo on Wikipedia. And they also have made games that are not racing games. My favorite of which is 2011’s Bodycount even though its a bad game.