July has been a great month so far, and there’s still games coming this week, with the Great Ace Attorney collection and NEO TWEWY and Blaster Master Zero 3 (and I’m curious about The Ascent so that’s a maybe). I reviewed a bunch of stuff in July, and ranted about the Steam Deck, and I have plenty more to go. August is a bit of a quieter month, so maybe I’ll get to some time to play other things I had skipped in the year to play the more high-priority stuff… Or not. Definitely a few games I skipped that I want to play. I’m not running out of games to review, that’s for sure.
So in August we’re getting: 9 multiplats, 4 Switch games, 2 PC games and 1 PS4 game. As for heavy hitters, there’s a few, but I think the more interesting games this time are smaller releases. There’s actually only 2 “for sure” purchases for me, but there’s a whole lot of maybes. So lots of potential reviews.
*Edit 7/28: Added a multiplat game*
*Edit 7/29: Removed a multiplat game because it was delayed lol*
*Edit 2 7/29: Removed another multiplat that was also delayed… you should’ve known a while ago about the delay, why wait until 2 weeks before release to announce it?*
Disclaimer: I only list games that I think are worth mentioning. This includes games I’m personally interested in, games that will likely be popular, highly advertised games, small interesting ones I may notice and such. Not just games I care about myself, I highlight as much as I think makes sense. And of course I can’t see the future, so I may be missing games and I may be listing games that may get delayed.
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
The Falconeer: Warrior Edition 08/05 (Switch, PS4, PS5)
This is a game that went completely under the radar for me on its previous PC and Xbox release, but one I’m pretty curious about now that I’ve seen gameplay footage. You play as a giant falcon that shoots laser beams, and it plays something akin to a Star Fox all-range mode mission. I’m putting this on the maybe list, though of course I’d probably go with the already-released PC version rather than the Switch one.
Dodgeball Academia 08/05 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone)
I’ve seen people saying this feels like MHA… which makes no sense at all. This surface-level observations based on the fact that literally it has “academia” in the title… It’s a dodgeball game with some RPG elements, and it gives an impression similar to the old Kunio-kun dodgeball games with its special moves and such. It actually looks quite fun. This is also on the maybe list for me.
Hades 08/13 (PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is out on PC and Switch already, now you can play this game on the lamer platforms. It’s a very good game, definitely do it. People are still hyped about this game for good reason. If you couldn’t grab a previous version, do it now.
12 Minutes 08/19 (PC, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
This has been pushed a lot at, like, indie showcase streams and Playstation streams. It’s a point-and-click adventure game of sorts, focusing on events repeating and you having to puzzle out how to get out of bad situations. It sounds okay, not sure I’m that interested myself.
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut 08/20 (PS4, PS5)
Ghost of Tsushima had so much potential. If the developers had, you know, designed stealth that isn’t stupid and combat that’s fun, this would’ve been a bonafide classic. Unfortunately, this game focuses on both stealth and combat, but is shit in both aspects. Add to it a really fucking boring (but really fucking pretty) open world and you just end up with garbage. Pretty garbage, but garbage nonetheless. It’s really a shame, I wanted to love this game. The graphics are so amazing, but nothing else is.
This version has DLC if you want to be bored for even longer.
Madden NFL 22 08/20 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
It’s another Madden release. Not meaningful or worth getting.
King’s Bounty II 08/24 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone)
I’m not familiar with King’s Bounty. Looking at it, the combat gives an impression similar to Heroes of Might and Magic. I thought this was a full-on strategy RPG from some early screenshots, but you do walk around like an RPG and trigger these battles. And in-between you can customize your leader and equip your different units and such. It actually looks pretty interesting. I’m putting it way down on the maybe list.
Psychonauts 2 08/25 (PC, PS4, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
I didn’t like the first Psychonauts. I know people hype it up a lot, but I found the gameplay and world to be kinda boring. This one looks fine but I didn’t see anything about it that would convince me that it’s that big a step up from the first. I’ll get it when it pops up in a humble bundle so I can be sure none of my money goes to Tim Schafer.
Baldo the guardian owls 08/27 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
What a weird title. Not just because it’s Baldo, but how the title is actually written. You’d think it was “Baldo: The Guardian Owls”, but no, it’s “Baldo the guardian owls” according to the Steam entry. Strange. I know people are a bit excited for this one with its budget Ghibli look and Zelda-ish gameplay. Look okay. I’m putting it on the maybe list.
SWITCH RELEASES
Dragon Star Varnir 08/03
This came out a while ago on PS4 and PC. I had skipped it back then because there was other stuff to play. It has been on my steam wishlist for a while. It’s a pretty niche anime JRPG thing that I tend to like. This one seems to have some interesting combat elements with a lot of combat taking place in the air. I dunno about price, I assume it’ll be more expensive on Switch compared to the sales prices it gets pretty frequently on Steam. It’s on the wishlist already, so I’ll likely play this at some point if there’s some time with fewer new games to play.
Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle 08/10
I’m a bit dumb. I was looking at some gameplay screenshots thinking “this looks a lot like that one mobile card game, Shadowverse”… not realizing that this is in fact Shadowverse just by, you know, reading the title. I didn’t realize that because the mobile app doesn’t have this Yu-Gi-Oh-like anime style to it, so it didn’t click that it was the same thing. Shadowverse is a pretty okay card game. I’m sure some people are excited.
No More Heroes 3 08/27
No More Heroes is a really fun wacky series where you mow lawns and do other such minigames. And also you fight people and kill them and stuff. This one has Travis fighting off an alien invasion or something. It seems pretty wacky. There’s definitely some parts where the framerate looks like it runs at a crispy 5fps even when there’s not much even happening on screen. This is why games should always also come to at least PC, that way you can actually choose between portability and performance. Either way, I’m getting this. Should be fun despite the framerate.
Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1 08/31
This is a nice little pack with Phantom Brave and Soul Nomad, 2 great PS2 RPGs by NIS (with Soul Nomad being very little-known overall but it’s actually pretty interesting). Definitely worth checking out if you never played these classics.
PC RELEASES
GRIME 08/02
This is a side-scrolling action RPG thing that looks like it may be Metroidvania from the little I’ve looked at. You play as a naked muscleman with a black hole for a head. It does look quite fun actually, there’s a bunch of weapons and armor and skill trees and stuff. Another one for the maybe list.
Humankind 08/17
I definitely had this on another monthly list post… Must have gotten delayed, maybe to fix how broken the game looked back then. Literally the only video I watched for this had the guy just breaking everything with a pretty simple strategy. It’s a Civ-like game though, I’m sure there’s gonna be some fun to be had here.
PS4 RELEASE
Godfall 08/10
The game that was “impossible” for the PS4 to play, is coming to PS4. Guess it must be doing pretty badly on PS5 and PC for Gearbox to get a PS4 version made. Not sure why they’re doing this, most people seem to think it’s not very good, so I don’t know how much sales potential it really has. I’ve heard nothing but negative impressions for this.
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