Sony lists free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers for January

Sony has announced the list of games that will be free to subscribers of its PlayStation Plus service for the month of January. The headlining game this time around will be BioShock 2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed and widely praised survival horror FPS BioShock.

Developed by the talented teams at 2K Marin and Digital Extremes, this first person shooter takes you back to the underwater dystopia of Rapture. You’ll step into the boots of the original ‘Big Daddy’ in a thrilling adventure that see you tracking down the evil force responsible for snatching girls for the Atlantic coastline. This would be a great time to visit Rapture with BioShock Infinite just over the horizon. BioShock will be free from January 2.

As good a time as any to revisit Rapture

Another game that will be free to PS Plus subscribers on the same day as BioShock 2 will be Guardians of Middle Earth. Guardians is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) that has been specially developed with a controller in mind, as most MOBAs are played on the PC with the keyboard and mouse setup.

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The third game will be the latest game in the Mortal Kombat series, simply titled Mortal Kombat. This is the game that brought the franchise back up to its feet after a string of critically panned games. The game goes back to its 2D fighting roots and has fast-paced combat and plenty of violence and gore. It will be available from January 2.

On the handheld side of things, owners of the PlayStation Vita will get their hands on Jet Set Radio on January 16. In the game, you join up with an up-and-coming street gang in the futuristic city of Tokyo-to—the GGs—as you fight for the right of self-expression. Rolling through crowded urban environments on magnetically-driven inline skates, you take control of gang leader Beat and his growing posse of artists as they steal turf from local gangs by covering the city with graffiti.

The next addition to the list of games for Vita is The Pinball Arcade on January 23. This is a retro score-chasing game that nails the visual and aural aesthetic of playing an actual pinball machine.

Sony has also announced which games are on their way out next month. This list includes Batman: Arkham City, Bulletstorm and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition on January 2, Mortal Kombat for Vita players on January 16 and Knytt Underground on January 23.

The headlining game for December was Batman: Arkham City. Other games were Limbo, Big Sky Infinity and Knytt Underground for the PlayStation 3, and Big Sky Infinity, Mortal Kombat and Knytt Underground for the PlayStation Vita. The games removed in December were Crysis 2, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and Double Dragon Neon for the PlayStation 3, and Chronovolt and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack for the PlayStation Vita.