Choose your end of summer hobby: demon racing or scrapbooking
The Heat is literally on in the month of September with Need for Speed: Heat, one of the free games in the PlayStation Plus Essentials tier this month available to all PlayStation Plus Subscribers now.
If illegal street racing isn’t your thing PlayStation Essentials subscribers can also download the Anime style fighting game based on the Granblue Fantasy game called: Granblue Fantasy: Versus.
If you like a little more slower paced game, and you’re lucky enough to own a PS5, then TOEM might be the game that tickles your photographic creativity fancy.
September’s Free PSP Games:
- Need For Speed: Heat
- Granblue Fantasy: Versus
- TOEM
Need for Speed: Heat
If you’ve got a need for speed but don’t have the green to pay the outrageous gas prices that are currently draining wallets throughout the globe, you might be able to get a little bit of that angst and some of that road rage out of your system with Need for Speed:Heat.
This is the impressive 24th installment of the N4S franchise and commemorates the 25th anniversary of its initial release.
Need For Speed Heat is an intense street racing game with both a story mode and online play.
In the story, the player is an up-and-coming street racer trying to earn a name for themselves. They hook up with a small group of locals and make their own crew in order to gain the attention of the high-level elites of street racing. The only way the player can get their attention is by earning a rep.
Players are able to earn rep by running missions at night. Players have to make it back to a garage to “end the night” and have the rep applied to their total. Cops search more aggressively during the night missions. During the day, the player can take part in legal sanctioned street races for lots of cash.
Online play allows players to go head to head with other players in the same street races that are in the single player mode. Playing online can give players a bonus when it comes to money and experience earned. All money and experience is shared across the single player and online game. When playing in a group, players are automatically placed in the same race. If there aren’t enough online players, the remaining slots are controlled by NPCs.
As players level up they unlock new vehicles that they can buy for money. Some new vehicles are also available by completing certain missions or tasks. There are many types of cars available so players are sure to find the car of their dreams somewhere in the game. My personal favorite is the Lotus. She’s a pretty girl and super fast!
Players are able to customize their car from the license plate to the wraps and paint jobs that the cars have. Players can change the colors and size of their wheels and rims as well as the brake pads and caliper colors. Players can add additional cosmetic items like “under lights” or colored exhaust flames.
Players can create and save wraps they make and apply them to multiple cars to give all of their cars uniformity going across the players car collection.
Players are able to add special parts to their cars to increase their performance level. Most tracks have a minimum recommended performance level for participating contestants. Parts vary in range and cost. Some parts can only be unlocked when the player reaches the prerequisite level.
There are plenty of smaller activities to do besides Street Racing. Racers who enjoy drifting can modify their WIP with drift tires and shocks and run drift courses to earn money and rep.
Players will notice a lot of billboards around the city with conveniently placed ramps nearby. If players are able to smash through the billboards they are given money and rep. If players complete all of the challenges in an area they are given a special reward.
Speed traps are abundant in the city but they are more of a challenge than anything. Players are encouraged to reach the designated top speed for the speed trap. If they do they can earn a few thousand dollars in their bank.
If players catch the attention of local law enforcement, they have to lose them or they will be busted, taken to jail, and have a significant amount of their money taken. I highly recommend spending all your cash on upgrades as soon as possible to lessen the loss when and if you get busted.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Based on the popular Japanese video game characters from the Granblue Fantasy world, Granblue Fantasy: Versus is a head to head fighting game that puts player against player in a test of hand eye coordination and fighting technique in a classic side scrolling fight game.
Each character in GFV has special skills called “Skybound Arts” which are based on the skills that the particular character has in the Granblue Fantasy game. The special skill is used by pushing one button to activate it, this is to simplify gameplay.
Players fight head to head using combos and a simplified one button activation for the “Skybound” move. The special move does have a slight cool down which can be shortened when the Skybound Arts moves are included in a successful combination strike.
There are 12 characters to choose from initially with additional characters available by either unlocking them by playing in the story mode or by purchasing the games season pass. There are 25 characters total.
Granblue Fantasy: Versus does have a single player mode called “RPG Mode” and is a side scrolling action game where the player has to complete levels fighting goons and minions, working their way up to bosses to advance to the next level.
TOEM (PS5 only)
TOEM is a photography game released by Swedish independent game studio “Something we Made” and won the 2021 British Game Award.
Players take on the role of a photographer who needs to help the NPCs that live in tiny villages with their requests and puzzles. The player uses their camera in a first person POV while taking pictures, the general gameplay navigation and NPC Interaction is done in a bird’s eyes view very similar to Pokémon games. Once the photographer has fulfilled the NPCs request they will be given a stamp. Once the player collects enough stamps they can hop on a bus to the next town and challenge. Players can also customize their characters outfits with items that they find.
TOEM is a wholesome and cute game. Its very clean looking and stylized. It’s a little too simple, in my opinion, for the PS5 but it’s still an entertaining game for the younger gamers and digital collectors in your house.
