December’s PS Plus Monthly Games feature It Takes Two & Temtem

thesixthaxis.com:

The PlayStation Plus monthly games for December 2024 have been announced, and Sony’s getting right into the holiday spirit with one of the best local co-op games out there, some family friendly monster battling aaaaaaand…. Aliens.

The following three games will be available from the first Tuesday of the month, which will be 3rd December.

If you haven’t already played It Takes Two, then I don’t know what is wrong with you – OK, so it can be difficult to get someone to sit down for co-op, and maybe 3D platformers ain’t your thing. Hazelight’s latest game is easily their greatest, though, with full couch co-op at the heart of the game (and an online counterpart that works really well), and a quirky story that sends its married protagonists on a wild and ever-changing adventure. It’s well worth playing, if you can, and chances are this is tying in with a new Hazelight game announcement very soon. Fares has a knack of popping up at The Game Awards…

For a complete change of pace we have Aliens: Dark Descent, a fraught real time tactical game set in the dark sci-fi universe. You have to command a small team of Colonial Marines on missions where the possibility of xenomorphs appearing to attack you is around every corner. In our review, Steve said “It absolutely nails the feel of the films and brings exactly the kind of tense and thrilling strategy combat you would want. The iconic motion tracker and creature design fit perfectly with the genre and there is even an interesting narrative that introduces some new perspectives to the series. While game over can come far too swiftly at times, there is always something to draw you back in.”

Rounding this month out is the PS5-only Temtem, a game that riffs off the monster collecting and battling of Pokémon with an online multiplayer twist. The game spent a good year or two in early access, building out from an initial island to a broader game. We played that initial launch, with Aran saying “So far Temtem has captured similar