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1 It’s time to have a look at the 3 games bundled for free with PlayStation Plus Essential for May 2025. There is one stand-out for me this month, and it’s a game that will take over your life if you let it. These games are available between May 6th and June 2nd. Remember that even if you don’t plan to play these games immediately, you should still add them to your library when they become available. That way, you can check them out at any time — as long as you have an active sub.
Balatro | PS5, PS4
Genre: Rougelike, Card Game
Longevity: 10hrs+ | Trophies: 32 (incl Platinum)
Metacritic: 90 | OpenCritic: 92
Balatro is the poker-inspired, deck-manipulation roguelike that you never knew you needed. Take a deck of playing cards, manage ever-changing rules and enhancements, and play your best hands, in an attempt to topple increasingly higher scores and ‘win’. It’s a surprisingly simply and very addictive premise that has claimed almost 100hrs of my life over the past 5 months. Add it to your library and launch at your own risk.
ARK: Survival Ascended | PS5
Genre: Survival, MMORPG
Longevity: 50hrs+ | Trophies: 32 (incl Platinum)
Metacritic: TBD | OpenCritic: TBD
The ‘ground-up’ remake of Ark: Survival Evolved had a launch marred by technical issues. In fact it still has a mixed Steam rating. With a lack of console reviews to refer to, it’s unclear to us how well the PS5 version of the game holds up. ARK: Survival Ascended offers players the opportunity to “form a tribe, tame and breed hundreds of species of dinosaurs and other primeval creatures, explore, craft, build, and fight”. There are several ways to join friends in this adventure. What with 70-player online public-sessions, 8 player private-sessions, and even good old-fashioned 2-player split-screen. However it performs, there’s no harm in trying for free!
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun | PS5, PS4
Genre: Shooter
Longevity: 10hrs+ | Trophies: 21 (No Platinum)
Metacritic: 75 | OpenCritic: 76
Are you ready for some Warhammer-themed DOOM-like slaying? Then Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is the place for you. Guide the Space Marines to victory. Chop, blast, shoot and stab your way through hordes of Cultists, Traitors, and Chaos Daemons. Classic 90s pixel gore, typical of boomer shooters of the time, awaits. What are you waiting for? Get out there and cause carnage, for the Emperor!
Don’t Forget
You’ve got a few days, until May 5th, to add April’s games to your library, so act now before it’s too late. We’ll have news in a couple of weeks regarding the PlayStation Plus catalogue update for May.
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