A new batch of monthly PlayStation Plus Essential games dropped earlier this week. Differing from the mid-month PS Plus Extra and Premium Catalog drops, this is a group of three games available from now until February 4 that PS Plus subscribers from all tiers can redeem. It’s one of the more eclectic PS Plus Essential months in some time, as it features a disappointing shooter based on the Suicide Squad comics from DC, a remaster of a 2010 racing game from EA, and a hilarious pseudo-sequel to an infamous indie game from the early 2010s. If you’re wondering what you should be playing on your PS4 or PS5 this weekend, these are the games that you should be starting with.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was an ambitious live-service shooter from Rocksteady, the developer behind the Batman: Arkham games. It’s now infamous for flopping hard upon its release; revisiting the game one year later, I still have mixed feelings about it. As the game gets its final content update this month, WB Games offers Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for free to any PS Plus subscriber who wants it. While I wouldn’t recommend playing this game because it’s good, it’s a gaming curiosity worth claiming and having as part of your game library in case you ever want to check it out.
The PS5 version of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is available to all PS Plus subscribers until February 4. It’s also on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
The Stanley Parable originally released in 2013 and was one of the earliest comedic games to go viral on YouTube as people loved watching players break free of the commands of a narrator trying to navigate a man named Stanley through a dull day job. Originally thought to be a remaster of the original game, 2022’s The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is actually more of a sequel to the original. I don’t want to spoil much, but go into this game blind and not afraid to defy the narrator, and you’ll have a fantastic time experiencing one of the funniest games ever made.
The PS4 and PS5 versions of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe are available to all PS Plus subscribers until February 4. It’s also on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is a 2020 remaster of the first Need for Speed game that Criterion Games ever worked on. It’s based on the version of Hot Pursuit released for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in 2010, a well-received open-world street racing game. This remaster enhances the visuals to bring them up to PS4-generation standards, includes all of the DLC ever released for the original, and even has cross-platform multiplayer. It’s a racing game densely packed with content, so it should keep you entertained, as no new Need for Speed, Forza, or Gran Turismo games seem to be on the horizon right now.
The PS4 version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered is available to all PS Plus subscribers until February 4. The remaster is also on PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.