Rayman Origins Free, Discounts In Tow For PS Plus This Week

This week's PlayStation Plus highlight is the limbless wonder himself, Rayman. While Rayman Origins was added to the PlayStation 3 Instant Game Collection a while back, now it's the PlayStation Vita version of the game's chance to stand in the spotlight, as it'll be free for subscribers for a limited time.

With Rayman Legends launching just a couple of weeks ago, now might be a good time for newcomers to the series to bone up on their Rayman history. Origins is a 2011 game, so we're not exactly talking “ancient history” here, but at least it'll give you a chance to see where this latest craze all got started.

Rayman is actually on older platforming series, first arriving on the scene back in 1995 for the PS1, Sega Saturn and Atari Jaguar. The original Rayman was similar to Origins and Legends in that all of the action took place on a 2D plane. Subsequent Rayman games took the series into the third dimension before quietly fading into the background in the early 2000's.

Then along comes Rayman Origins, a beautiful, challenging and utterly wonderful 2D platformer that took the series back to its roots while simultaneously moving the genre forward. It's a great game, and now you can play it at no extra cost to your Plus subscription by downloading the PSV version when PlayStation Network's weekly update goes live later this afternoon.

Other than that, the rest of this week's update is all about the discounts. First up are two appropriately timed creepy games for the Halloween season, Limbo and Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut.

We announced earlier this week that Lone Survivor had finally been given a release date on Sony platforms, set to release today on both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita as a Cross Buy title. This dark and gritty thriller with an old-school twist is now launching with a small discount for Plusers, too, marked down from $12.99 to $11.69 for a limited time.

Also discounted in the utterly and wonderfully creepy department is the monochromatic indie darling, Limbo. The less said about limbo the better. Just get it, play through its short three-hour campaign, and soak it all in. Normally $14.99, Plus subscribers can get it for $11.99 for a limited time. This is another Cross Buy title, so nabbing it for your PS3 or Vita will get you the other version of the game at no additional charge.

Worms Revolution for the PS3 is also being marked down this week, giving players access to 20 single player puzzles and all of the multiplayer action (and really, multiplayer is what these games are all about) they can handle. It's price tag has been cut in half this week, marked down from $14.99 to just $7.50.

And, finally, there's a sale on all things Pinballistik. This pinball game for the PS3 is offering a couple of discounts this week, including an Alien Tycoon Bundle price reduction from $4.99 to $3.99, and a bundle containing the game and some additional DLC marked down to the same price point. The game's Made of Money and Sector X DLC have also received a slight discount, now going for $2.39 a pop.

For more details on this week's Plus offerings, you know where to go.