The March 2020 Free PS Plus Games are : Shadow of the Colossus and Sonic Forces!

Shadow of the Colossus is a PS2 game that was remastered by the same team that brought us the Uncharted Collection, Bluepoint Games.

Sonic Forces was the other game released to celebrate Sonic turning 25, and we got Sonic Mania way back in June 2019.

I am going to commit to at least killing the first Colossus and completing the first level set for Sonic, and then see where I go from there.

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PSPrices

Shadow of the Colossus is typically a $20 game but goes as low as $10.

Sonic Forces is typically a $20 game but goes as low as $10, as well.

So both games are collectively $40 at their highest and $20 at their lowest.

We already got our money’s worth last month with our subscription for the high end.  For the low end, we were at $41 dollars and now we are at $61, so that is one more dollar than the subscription service, so all of the games for the rest of the year are pure bonus.  I may keep tracking it just to see what the overall value is for the subscription service.

I checked the PlayStation Store and none of the games have any paid DLC.  Sonic Forces Digital Standard Edition which came with the free Shadow DLC.  Shadow of the Colossus does not have any additional DLC.

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Here are reddit’s responses to the announcement :

The most repeated criticism is that we are now three for three months wherein we have received a remaster.  Which I do not mind as I have been wanting to play Shadow of the Colossus for years now.  The other criticism of the month is that Sonic Force is the lesser of the two Sonic games, but I am sure it is still playable.

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Here are the videos from my YouTube peeps :

Nathan with PlayStation Access :

Now that Elle is leaving, Nathan is having to do the Free PS+ video and the store update videos again.

Adam of PlayStationGrenade :

Ben of Platinum Chasers :

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Here are the PlayStationTrophies.org guides :

Shadow of the Colossus

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/shadow-of-the-colossus-ps4/guide/

Sonic Force

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/sonic-forces/guide/

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Here is what I have been up to, gaming wise.

I earned my 28th Platinum with Adam’s Venture Origins, a pretty enjoyable game.  There were sections where it looked like collectibles were clearly meant to be added as there are some open spaces with nothing to explore.  The game literally had to point out the characters names were Adam and Eve(lyn).  Pretty clever.  My least favorite element was the stealth required for Chapter 14, it took a while for me to figure out the routes, and there were only two routes really.  Chapter 19 has the same stealth elements but I was able to figure it out fairly quickly.

I am considering Adam’s Venture Origins as a bonus platinum and still plan on earning Life is Strange : Before the Storm as my March Platinum.  Good to stock up on these.

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Erica, a game I really have been wanting for a while, is finally five dollars.  I did my first playthrough and only really messed up not walking across the carpet that Kirstie was cleaning.  My second playthrough was a tad more disastrous and has killed my buzz to continue with the game for a bit.  There is a moment when Detective Blake takes Erica back to her flat and he breaks open the neighbor’s door from across the hall.  We have a moment to either follow or stay and I desperately wanted to follow.  Instead, either the very gracious timer ran out or I did not hover the cursor over follow clearly enough.  So she stayed and I lost like 30 minutes or so, it could have been 20.  But it was so late at night that I did not want to restart it.  I did tweet at Flavorworks asking for a patch to make the cursor a tad user friendlier.

If it could be more like Late Shift, where the options are on the bottom of the screen or that I can choose what I want with the arrow prompts, that would be preferred.  You can use a phone app to play the game or the controller.  I did not like using my phone so I uninstalled the app but when you use the controller, you strictly use the touchpad.  Which is not that bad until you want some precise decisions to be made.

I will eventually get back to it but I am taking a break from the game.  I just have five more playthroughs, so I will do it but I will just move onward with my gaming rotation.

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A game that is giving me no problems is Hitman Go.  I am purely playing along with a guide but I am having such a great time with the game.  I just love how it is like a chess board as we move Agent 47 around, completing either one of two goals.  Sometimes, all three goals can be met at once but it is a rare treat.  The goals are usually:  complete the mission, do it under x amount of times, grab a briefcase.  I have completed the first two chapters and have the third one of seven to complete next.

There is a Lara Croft Go but I may just wait on that one.  I have never really played any Tomb Raider games besides attempting the third one on the original PlayStation One, and I barely could jump over the water slide onto the vine back then.

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With my final new game, Monopoly Family Fun Pack, I completed the Plus side of the pack and still have the Deal side to play.  Plus was a lot of fun, and that is the half of it that I wanted the game for.  There is a MyMonopoly DLC that is ten dollars, and it rarely goes on sale and when it does, it only goes down to eight dollars, so I probably will not be buying that anytime soon.

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I am in my final two levels of Lego Batman 3 in Free Play.  I still have to go back and get the bulk of minikits, save Adam West, and obtain all of the character tokens.  My main goal was to go through all of the levels in Free Play, earning the character token that will make Bat-Mite happy, obtaining the Red Brick with Plastic Man, seeking out any minikits that I can find (now that I have the minikit detector), and rescuing Adam West (now that I also have his location detector).  I earned those last two red bricks, plus the character token red brick, way late in the process, so I will have to go back and get those.  But in that clean up, I just have to get the item I want, and jump out of the game, which is pretty nice.

I am making my way through all of the Lantern planets, with just two left, Odym and Okaara.  I am also making pretty good progress with the VR missions.  After all of that, I just have to chase down all of the gold bricks in the Batcave and the Watchtower.  Plus, all of the DLC missions have to be done in Free Play too, but I wanted to wait until I got all of the red bricks first so I can get those done in one.

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I found a pretty handy guide to get the Sims 4 Platinum rather quickly :

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/9717-the-sims-4-platinum-trophy-walkthrough

I got the Full House trophy but could not download every recommended community pack, but it just feels wrong to earn the trophies in this way.  But I might commit as there are a few trophies that I rather not really put the work in for like outliving five spouses and making whoopie with a ghost and such.

In my proper file, I did master piano playing and programming, so that felt pretty good.  While taking a shower, I noted all of my instrument playing and cooking, I have gained like 30 pounds so, and all around my midsection, so that is not great.  I am working my painting skills now. I have to add a drink bar to my house so I can work on my mixology skill after that.

I have a real problem where I just want to play for like 30 minutes and I end up playing for hours, and I am staying up way too late!

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PlayStation is celebrating six years of the PS4 with a PlayStation Player Celebration :

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/campaigns/2020/playstation-player-celebration/

I registered but never received a confirmation email but it states I completed 2/2 tasks so I believe I am in.

There are an assortment of prizes and giveaways.

Goal One is 125K games played, and 500K Trophies earned.  We already hit the games goal and we are at 281,972/500,000 trophies earned.

We get an exclusive PS4 static theme and matched avatar.

Goal Two is 375K games played, 1.5M trophies earned and we get a set of five avatars.  Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us 2, Aloi from Horizon Zero Dawn, and Drake from Uncharted 4.

Goal Three is 675K games played, 2.7M trophies earned.  We will earn an exclusive PS4 dynamic theme.

The next goal starts when the previous goal is met.

The grand prize, to be given away on March 17, is a real-life Platinum trophy (that I really really want!) with our PSN ID on it, a $100 PSN voucher, and voucher codes for a selection of the PS4’s greatest games.  Pictured is Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, The Last of Us Remastered, and Uncharted 4.  So I would give away the Last of Us Remastered code, sell back my physical copy of Uncharted 4, and enjoy the heck out of Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War for the very first time.

I am pretty confident that the community will hit all of those goals pretty easily.  We just have to play one game for at least one hour (across multiple sessions) and each trophy earned goes toward the goal but multiplayer trophies count as double.  But only six trophies per day, so be careful out there!

We already got to the half way mark by the very first day so we are going to smash this!

I wonder how they came up with the 2.7M trophies number, seems very odd.