PlayStation's awesome new free games have players 'hooked'

We're not in Kansas anymore. Gone are the days where children and adults would deck each other in the playground over the console wars. Nay, the gaming ecosystem is now governed by subscription services and January's been a brilliant month for PlayStation Plus. Long may it continue.

PlayStation Plus subscribers got access to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Fallout 76 and Axiom Verge 2 in the Essential tier. Obviously, there's a lot of hype from getting Fallen Order for free only months before the second game in the series releases, but let's save some space to praise Axiom Verge 2. It's not necessary to have played the previous game and it offers "less Metroid, more Castlevania" in a strange new world that will test your courage.

And let's not mince words here - Fallout 76 was much maligned for its empty world, technical issues and meandering questlines. However, Bethesda has made leaps and bounds to correct the game's course, and judging by the response to this month's games, it's won players over.

Check out the trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, arriving in March, below!

"I'm hooked, it's like Fallout 5!" said Reddit user Grimmjo42. "Looks great, plays great, excellent voice cast so far and interesting goals on quests. I don't get the hate at all. I'm just starting out but so far it's an easy 8/10." Easy there, son. As announced last year, Fallout 4 is getting a PS5 version in the future, boosting visuals to a shiny 4K resolution and offers a high frame rate performance mode.

"I booted up [Axiom Verge 2] for the first time after work tonight, and I'm getting strong Hollow Knight vibes from it," added new_account_5009. "I think it's criminal that this game isn't mentioned more for its great using of haptics too. The nice subtle taps and thuds when climbing, attacking keep me very addicted!" replied Economy-Wedding-8150. Did I miss the memo for excellent Reddit usernames when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve?

"Waiting for Jedi Fallen Order has paid off immensely, the graphics are a lot better than I had expected," praised Thescottishguy87 (they also missed the username announcement, it seems). "The gameplay is also if a style that I am very familiar with. Great month."