Although a polarizing game, Catherine was definitely one of my favourites of 2011 (ended up in the top 3 of my GOTY list) and is absolutely worth checking out.

For other lucky EU users who may have PS+ or are considering it, I just wanted to shout about this from the rooftops as free is a fantastic price for this game. You also get Hitman: Absolution, Thomas Was Alone, Virtue's Last Reward and a bunch of other stuff free, but Catherine is easily my pick of the bunch.

Maybe I'm crazy for being so pumped - but I hope this convinces some people to at least give it a shot. (Especially as this game is usually $89.99 AUD on the ps store >_> )

ED: Just to be clear, at least in Australia it's already on the store. So yeah, you can get it for free right now.

Definitely check it out if you haven't played it, counter to what the Giant Bomb lads say about it, I think it's actually a pretty fantastic puzzle game (though I wasn't big on the boss encounters).

Awesome, will have to check it out. Have to say, super impressed by the PS+ offerings for Europe. Anyone know when it'll be up? Guessing next week or so?

@trueenglishgent said:

I saw it on the store just now. It's already there in Australia - so I'm pretty sure it's already there for other EU guys as well.

I'll add that to the OP.

@selfconfessedcynic: Awesome, thanks.

Man, EU gets all of the good PS+ action.

And yeah, go play this game. It's great, contrary to what Jeff says.

@joshthebear said:

Yeah, I continue to be surprised at EU PS+ offerings. The only reason I can think of for it is that playstation seems to be more popular in the EU so Sony EU may have more buying power. But then, our sales / deals frequently come to the US the next month.

Here's hoping for US PS+ guys.

I'm primarily interested in this for the story and the characters so should I just play it on easy? I've heard that it can get pretty hard even on normal difficulty.

For sure. Some of the puzzles and boss battles can be extremely frustrating and kill the momentum of actually playing the game. If you do get stuck, there's a million guides to getting through the more difficult puzzles.

Holy hell, at least $250.65 worth of video games. I'm really glad I subscribed. I'm looking forward to playing Catherine, but I'm really enjoying Thomas Was Alone right now.

Shame I can't access the Playstation Store for some reason, really wanted to try this.

How many hours of the game is the story and character interaction stuff? I actually like the look of the puzzles but just wondering what percentage they are.

I have been thinking of getting it at some point. Now it is free! PS Plus is so awesome! I barely need to buy games anymore. PS Plus alone gives me more games than I have time with.

I'm around the 7th night, seems alright so far however I'm glad I decided to cancel my preorder import since I wouldn't pay £50-£60 for it. Speaking of which, when I went to download it they had bumped the price up to £50 instead of the £40 it was previously. I'm really glad our PS+ service is so good, because everything else about the EU store is so terrible.

Obligatory no fair EU PSN+ gets the best stuff. I heard you guys even got a discount on Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon when it was first released.

@billyhoush: Still do, it's 10% off I think.

Just got PS+, downloading DOA5, Catherine & Hitman Absolution now!

Don't forget Thomas was alone, Virtue's Last Reward, The Cave, and War in the North are all still free as of this post.

As well as Malicious.

You're right. This month we're getting Sleeping Dogs & Knytt Underground. Finally. Also Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extended (Vita) & Pinball Arcade. Don't care for those 2 but Sleeping Dogs is enough to make me happy. Not to say I'm ever disappointed in PS+. Even though they have some crappy months, I still appreciate the time and money Sony uses to give us free games. Unlike most of the people on the NA PS Blog. They're such assholes when it comes to the PS Store & Plus update.

Yeah buying PS games almost seems silly now with the big chance of them ending up free later on.

Just played up through the 2nd night, and damn is this game wierd. I'm usually playing games à la carte - it's really odd playing games like this again (PS+ is the everything and the kitchen sink approach to gaming really). Dunno if I enjoy it enough to play it rather than weathering the influx of shitty players in TLOU multiplayer or playing even more Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

@seppli: Just wondering, on what difficulty are you playing on?

THAT IS VALUE FOR MONEY

Catherine? Normal. Beating the fork lady was quite exciting.

Dammit! I did not see the EU in the thread title at first! I feel so sad