Every month, Sony and Microsoft try to tempt us with free games to throw on the pile of shame, if we subscribe to either PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold. So, who has the best offer this month? Sony, with the most aptly named open-world franchise ever made.
PlayStation Plus, All Games Available From August 1 to August 3
Just Cause 3, PS4
If you’re unfamiliar, the goal of this game is to find things and explode them in the funniest way possible. Trash statues, blow up oil refineries, fire missiles at tanks, whatever. OK, there’s also a plot, but you’ll be too busy seeing what driving a car into a gas tanker will do.
Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry, PS4
This standalone game follows Adewale, the best character from Assassin’s Creed IV, as he works through the severe emotional trauma of abduction, slavery, and cultural shock. Mostly by killing slaveholders and their employees like a ninja. Kinda hard to blame him, no?
Downwell, PS4/Vita
Thanks to Cross-Buy, PS4 players get three free games this month. In Downwell, you, er, jump down a well. A very deep well with lots of malicious creatures in it, which is a bit worrying since isn’t this our hero’s water supply? Either way, it’s a cleverly designed game and worth a playthrough.
If you still have a PS3 handy, you get Super Motherload and Snake Ball this month.
Games With Gold
Slime Rancher, Xbox One (August 1 – 31)
This first-person sim game is all there in the title: You’re going to ranch slimes. You’ll feed them, you’ll cross-breed them (the intricacies of slime reproduction are thankfully not gotten into), you’ll raise them, and you’ll adore them.
Trials Fusion, Xbox One (August 16 – September 15)
You play either the luckiest or unluckiest motorbike rider as you navigate wacky courses and try to pull off stunts. Or, at least, not totally tank the course.
Bayonetta, Xbox 360 (August 1 – August 15, Backwards Compatible With Xbox One)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZFLYO1UKwY
You play a witch whose hair is both her clothes and her weapon, so she gets more naked the more butt she kicks. She also has revolvers for high heels. And is a witch. Yes, it makes no sense, we advise just rolling with it.
Red Faction: Armageddon, Xbox 360 (August 16 – August 31, Backwards Compatible With Xbox One)
Finally, if you never got a chance to lead a Communist revolution and trash Mars in the process, you’ve finally got your shot.
What games are you playing this month? Let us know in the comments!