Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Maneater, and more are January’s free PS Plus games

By Giovanni Colantonio Published December 30, 2020

Sony has revealed its next batch of free games for PS Plus subscribers. The January’s freebies include Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall, as well as Maneater for PlayStation 5 users.

Both PS4 and PS5 owners will be able to add Shadow of the Tomb Raider to their library starting Tuesday, January 5. The action-adventure game is the third installment of the recent Tomb Raider series reboot. It features excellent bow combat, robust exploration, and tons of puzzles for Lara Croft to solve.

Recommended Videos

PS5 owners get an exclusive extra in the form of Maneater. In this underwater shark RPG, players control a shark who’s fighting for dominance. It essentially lets players experience Jaws from the shark’s perspective. Maneater released earlier this year and is one of this year’s quirkiest hidden gems.

All PlayStation owners can grab Greedfall in January. Not to be confused with PS5 launch title Godfall, Greedfall is a an action-RPG about settlers who land on a monster-infested island.

All three titles will be available starting on Tuesday, January 5. Subscribers can add them to their library for free until Monday, February 1. Players can still pick up December’s batch of games, including Just Cause 4, until the January selections go live.

This isn’t the first time Sony has given an extra game to PS5 owners. The company previously offered PS5 launch title Bugsnax free to PS Plus subscribers at launch. December’s PS Plus lineup was available for players across both consoles, so it’s not clear if this will be the norm going forward or an added bonus every couple of months.

Giovanni Colantonio

Former Senior Gaming Editor

As a veteran of the industry who first began writing about games professionally as a teenager, Giovanni brings a wealth of…

Topics

Gaming

Pusheen is getting its first game with Pusheen’s Place on Apple Arcade

Pusheen’s first official video game arrives on Apple Arcade alongside four more October additions

Book, Comics, Publication

Pusheen the Cat has been everywhere from plush toys to stickers, but the internet-famous cat has somehow never had an official video game. That changes on October 1, when Pusheen’s Place arrives exclusively on Apple Arcade.

The game headlines Apple Arcade’s October update alongside River City Survivors, Terraria+, Touchgrind BMX 2+, and 4 Pics 1 Word+. As usual for Apple Arcade releases, the games will be available without ads or in-app purchases.

Gaming

The $260 SteelSeries pro controller makes switching between Xbox and PC ridiculously easy

SteelSeries Aeon Pro

If you own a gaming PC and an Xbox, you know the hassle. You either need two controllers or constantly have to re-pair the only one you have. You probably need a pro gaming controller that doesn’t throw as many tantrums across different gaming platforms.

Enter SteelSeries, a company that has made headsets and mice for years. It’s entering the gaming controller market with a model that ships with a special dock that makes your life easier.

Gaming

Arm thinks AI is the secret to better gaming on your phone

Arm’s new Mali GPU uses neural rendering to chase sharper visuals, smoother frame rates, and more ambitious ray tracing without pushing phones quite as hard.

Photography, Light, Person

PC gaming has spent the past few years leaning heavily on AI to squeeze better graphics and higher frame rates out of hardware. Now, Arm wants to bring a similar idea to the phones in our pockets.

Arm has unveiled the Mali G2-Ultra NX, its first mobile GPU designed with dedicated neural acceleration built directly into the graphics hardware. That sounds like a mouthful, but the idea behind it is surprisingly simple: instead of asking the GPU to brute-force every pixel and every frame, AI can help fill in some of the gaps. For mobile gaming, where battery life and heat matter as much as raw performance, that could be a pretty big deal.