Sony has announced the May 2025 lineup for PlayStation Plus Essential subscribers. Three new games have been revealed. All three will be available next Tuesday, May 6th.
Two out of the three of these are excellent additions to PS Plus, while the third has dinosaurs and is therefore instantly worthwhile, even if its review scores aren’t as stellar as the first two. Let’s take a look at all three.
ARK: Survival Ascended
This is the worst-reviewed game of the three, but it’s also still in Early Access. If you enjoy multiplayer survival games this might be your cup of tea, especially since it takes place on a primal planet filled with massive dinosaurs. The game supports public online multiplayer for up to 70 players, private-session multiplayer for up to 8 players, and local split-screen for 2 players, which gives you lots of options. The biggest complaint from gamers is that the game feels like little more than a minor upgrade to its predecessor Ark Survival Evolved, with lots of new performance issues dragging it down. But free is free!
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun
If you like the dark and gritty Warhammer 40k universe and are also a fan of retro DOOM-like shooters, please download and play this marvelous, high-octane FPS. Lovely retro graphics and plenty of blood and gore make this a real treat. It has a “Very Positive” review score on Steam and for good reason. This is a classic “boomer shooter” as the kids say.
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Balatro
I should have had this on my predictions list, but it never really occurred to me as a possible PS Plus title, mainly because I didn’t even realize this was out on consoles. Balatro is a “roguelike deckbuilding poker game” which is a great summary but still doesn’t really explain just how fascinating and addictive this little card game is. You basically play a very different version of poker, but with lots of special cards that give you extra abilities. This has an “Overwhelmingly Positive” user review rating on Steam and was on a lot of Best Of lists and a real GOTY contender in 2024. Genuinely a unique and fun game that everyone should play.
And that’s it for the Essential lineup. Sony will announce the rest of its May lineup early next month.
