Best of 2016 Awards - Best PS Plus Games 2016

In today’s PlayStation LifeStyle “Best Of” 2016 awards, we acknowledge the best “freebie” game people could have downloaded in 2016.

While there were a lot of PlayStation Plus titles that were available for PlayStation platforms throughout 2016, we had to pick the best of the lot, and from that, pick a winner as the best PS+ game of 2016! Same as before, the winner was picked based on a tally of votes from the staff, and not necessarily based on the review score.

What’s your top five PlayStation Plus games of 2016? What’s your overall winner? Share your picks in the comments below.

Don’t forget to check back all throughout the month for our other “Best Of” picks of the year! Be sure to follow PlayStation LifeStyle on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and YouTube for the latest in PlayStation coverage.

You can check out the other Best of 2016 winners here!

Essential Reading:

Best of 2016 Game Awards - PlayStation Plus Game

Best of 2016 Game Awards - PlayStation Plus Game
Helldivers

Helldivers brings a fun and intensity to cooperative play that I have not had in a long time. Single players may want to skip this one, but if you have some friends to sit down with, either on the couch or via the PSN, I highly recommend getting your squad ready to defend Super Earth from impending doom. Just watch out for that turret.

(Read our review)
Gone Home

This PC game almost didn't make it to consoles, but thankfully, it did! It's a different beat from the 8-bit indie games that people are used to, but that's a good thing.

Gone Home's story is second to none and rewards those patient gamers out there.
Siren: Blood Curse

This 2008 title saw a re-release on PS+ this year much to the delight of horror fans everywhere. While some of its gameplay mechanics might feel outdated compared to more recent games in the genre, there's no denying that the atmosphere, tension and just scare factor is still as frightening now as it was back then.
Journey

Journey is minimalist to allow you to fill in those gaps with your own emotion and experience — to apply your personal situation and make the story your own. It’s a simple beauty, but one that shines brightly and now has the opportunity to be played by millions more thanks to its stunning upgrade to PS4, with beautiful lighting and environments that impress. Whether you’ve played Journey before, or never had the opportunity, do yourself a favor and make your way to the top of the mountain on PS4. You may find more on the way to the peak than you expected at the outset.

(Read our review)
Resident Evil Remastered

If you want some good, classic scares, then pick up this great Resident Evil remaster as soon as you can. $20 might sound like a lot for what is really an old game with shiny new “packaging,” but with multiple endings, the best visuals possible, and that iconic mansion setting, you’re always going to want to come back for more. Whether you want to relive the nightmares of your youth or experience a classic for the first time, this version of Resident Evil is an easy recommendation to real survival horror fans.

(Read our review)
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

You already know if you want to buy in on this experience. If you’re looking for a gory, bloody, violent apocalypse, well, there are already a myriad of other titles to choose from. But if you’re looking for an interesting method of storytelling full of drama, then you will want to check out Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture. This is a video game as a piece of literature. Some may call it art, but I like to think gaming has evolved beyond such a contemporary definition. The Chinese Room had a story to tell, and they have done so in such a unique fashion that I eagerly await their next adventure.

(Read our review)
Grim Fandango: Remastered

Like watching a classic old movie, Grim Fandango Remastered feels like a hearkening back to the golden days of gaming, when PC adventure games ruled and games didn’t have difficulty settings so easy that it seems like the game is playing itself. This is as much a history lesson as it is entertainment, lest we forget the roots of great gaming. Sure, the backgrounds and cutscenes are untouched, but remember the fit everyone threw when they edited the original Star Wars trilogy too much (Han shot first…)? Grim Fandango Remastered has been put together with care as a passion project from Tim Schafer, and is sure to delight both players new to the game and long time players of Grim Fandango and the LucasArts graphic puzzle adventure genre. Perhaps most important to this release will be the potential effects that bringing this game back into the limelight will have on the future development of adventure titles, and the thought of a merging of great classics and new technology really excites me.

(Read our review)
And the winner is...
Winner - Journey

Journey is minimalist to allow you to fill in those gaps with your own emotion and experience — to apply your personal situation and make the story your own. It’s a simple beauty, but one that shines brightly and now has the opportunity to be played by millions more thanks to its stunning upgrade to PS4, with beautiful lighting and environments that impress. Whether you’ve played Journey before, or never had the opportunity, do yourself a favor and make your way to the top of the mountain on PS4. You may find more on the way to the peak than you expected at the outset.

(Read our review)