PSN Welcome Back – Winners and Losers

The ‘Welcome Back’ package from Sony was finally made available late last week, to thank PSN users for their patience and support while Sony tried to steady their corporate ship. It’s a nice gesture, though many will be less than pleased with the lack of newer content, considering there’s a decent chance most Playstation owners already own many of the games. They are quite good however, but some gamers will benefit more than others from the package, depending on what they enjoy. Here’s a quick rundown of which games are the best choice for a few types of gamers, and who benefits most from the PSN outage.

The Solo Player

Players who game alone made out like bandits with the Welcome Back Pacakge. Not only are they least affected by the lack of online services, but they get some of the best games for their tastes. inFamous is one of the PS3’s best single-player experience, an open world adventure with hours of excellent gameplay, a fun comic-style story and a ton of side missions. It’s a must-download for anyone yet to play it, as is Little Big Planet. While not a real solo experience in the same vein as inFamous, LBP has an almost never-ending stream of content to enjoy alone – a solid story mode, robust level editor and thousands of user-generated levels to download. Aside from those two, Dead Nation is a fun, if somewhat mindless, old-school shooter with plenty of zombie blasting action for one player to enjoy, and Wipeout is a phenomenal racer with some incredible graphics. Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty is a little disappointing, being a shorter version of the full retail R&C games, but still a fun single player experience, should you own the rest of the games. Basically, this is a great package for solo gamers.

The Party Player

For the person who prefers local multiplayer to going online, this is a fairly nice set of games. inFamous and Ratchet and Clank are, of course, out of the running, but Little Big Planet is one of the most enjoyable local multiplayer games on PS3. It’s co-op gameplay and multiplayer puzzle solving lead to some great shouting and fighting over what to do and where to go, a multiplayer staple. In fact, LBP is probably best enjoyed with friends, and playing some of the more bizarre levels available online is far more amusing with a few friends in the room. Wipeout is a decent option, but the graphics aren’t quite as impressive in split-screen, and the game is generally better in single-player mode. Dead Nation however, is far more fun when played co-op. Having a friend watch your back as you fight the zombie horde adds a layer of team-based depth lacking when the game is played alone. As with LBP Dead Nation is a far more enjoyable game when played with others, so those two should really be the first choice of the local multiplayer gamer.

The Retro Gamer

Another of the big winners are those gamers who enjoy the classics. Obviously there aren’t any games from the pre-PS3 consoles on offer, but the 30 day Playstation Plus subscription allows access to some PS1 games, and the excellent Streets of Rage 2. On top of that, there are three games which stand out for fans of classic gameplay. Little Big Planet is almost the spiritual successor to Mario or Sonic, a clever and simple platform title with old-school sensibilities hidden beneath the sheen of online content and HD graphics. Wipeout is much the same, and hasn’t changed significantly since its PS1 heyday. It’s still a thrilling racer, with plenty to do and a fantastic soundtrack. It may be the best in the series, and that’s high praise when both 2097 and Wip3out were classics of their era which still hold up well. Dead Nation will suit retro players down to the ground. It’s little more than Smash TV with zombies. Throw in a clever weapon upgrade system, a cheesy storyline that makes Resident Evil look deep and score-attack gameplay and you have a throwback that looks and feels like a souped-up Amiga game.

The Racer

Racing game fans have a lot to shout about lately, with Dirt, Test Drive Unlimited and Need for Speed Shift all getting sequels this year. On top of that they now get some compensation for not being able to show off their absurd cars and handbrake turns online – possibly leading to an increase in traffic accidents in the real world (may not be remotely true). Wipeout is the obvious first port of call, it’s an excellent racer with a lot of depth, but where next? Little Big Planet maybe, with its occasional burst of speed on a motorbike or car, or Dead Nation, where cars can be used as explosive zombie distracters. For the PSP they have the option of ModNation Racers, but for the second game, it really could be any of the four. Where they really win out though, is with the PS+ subscription. Burnout Revenge is free for the month of June, and is one of the best racers on current gen consoles, an absolutely brilliant open-world driving game with enough to keep most gamers going well after June. Pity it’ll be unavailable once the sub runs out.

The Casual Gamer

For the gamer who likes short, simple games, the package is a wonderful proposition. Little Big Planet has a lot to do, but the story mode is nice and simple, not too long and probably a familiar style of game. Dead Nation again is simple and fun, and Wipeout is a blast, even just for a race now and again. inFamous may be a little on the long side, and has more complex controls, but for players who just play the occasional game of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto it might be a nice choice with similar controls and a similar open-world structure to GTA. Ratchet and Clank is short enough to keep a casual player hooked, in contrast to its full-sized iterations, and again, has a fairly similar control scheme to some of the more popular games on the market. Really, for a casual gamer it’s a great list of titles and any of them should provide plenty of entertainment without seeming overly complex.

The Shooter

Shooter fans don’t have a lot to be happy with here. inFamous may appeal, but it’s more of an adventure/open world game than a straight up shooter. FPS players should probably have been looking at the Sony-published MAG on the list, they certainly suffered more than most by being deprived of the key element of most recent FPS games – multiplayer. MAG would have been a great way to get more people playing the game and to appease the masses of online shooter players who were left without their hobby for an extended period. As far as choices from the list go, Dead Nation is the obvious one. It’s not first person, but it’s also not a lot more than shooting enemy after enemy. After that it’s anyone’s guess, LBP and Ratchet and Clank aren’t exactly the most appealing titles for gamers who mostly want to shoot people in the face, despite being good games, and Wipeout is great for racing fans, but doesn’t have the same visceral thrills of an FPS. inFamous and Dead Nation certainly look the best choice here, and maybe Killzone: Liberation for the PSP if they own one. Other than that, they’re one of the biggest losers of the PSN outage.

The Online Gamer

Those gamers who play almost exclusively online multiplayer games obviously took the brunt of the PSN going down, totally cut off from the online communities they’ve formed. It seems strange then, that the games offered are so focused on either single player or local multiplayer. inFamous is single-player only, as is Ratchet and Clank. Wipeout can be played online of course, but may not be to everyone’s taste, racing games often aren’t. That leaves Dead Nation and Little Big Planet. Dead Nation’s co-op is quite good, but is also only two-player and only co-op. LBP again lacks competitive multiplayer, and has a style that might put some players off, it shouldn’t, as the game is excellent, but it might. As previously mentioned, an online shooter such as MAG would have made up far more effectively for the PSN issues than what has been offered. The worst affected players have been somewhat looked over in the Welcome Back Package and that is a shame. Sony should have stepped up and offered something for these gamers in the form of a competitive online multiplayer game, rather than giving free games to people who barely noticed the service disappearing.

The Portable Gamer

PSP owners got a great deal with the package, a choice of four good games, two of which are relatively recent releases. Little Big Planet is a great, though scaled down, version of its big brother on PS3, with an all-new set of levels. It also suits quick play on the go very well with short, fun levels and a lot to do. The level editor is even included, which is quite impressive for a PSP game. ModNation Racers, while not brilliant, is an enjoyable game, with enough customisation options to keep most players distracted for a few bus journeys. It lacks the same charm and appeal of LBP, but offers a similar experience, with racetracks replacing levels. Of the older titles Killzone: Liberation is the better, a top-down shooter based in the KIllzone universe which may actually be more enjoyable for some gamers than the PS3 games. Pursuit Force isn’t quite as good, but it has its moments, and leaping from car to car and taking out the bad guys is a blast for a while. It does get repetitive, but for the occasional play while travelling it’s worth a look, particularly if you already own the other games. PSP owners did extremely well from the deal, and probably never play PSP games online anyway, so all in all they may be the biggest winners, with a great variety of good titles.