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The PlayStation Plus monthly games lineup for August has been revealed and I’m not going to lie, I think this is one of the best ones to date.

There’s that classic nostalgia, a taste of the underworld and an adventure into the world of nightmares!

From Tuesday, 2 August, recent classics including Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, Little Nightmares, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon will arrive on PlayStation Plus across all the tiers so everyone has a chance to jump in!

The Best PlayStation Plus Monthly Line-Up Ever is on August 2
Additionally, the acclaimed Yakuza series will be coming to PlayStation Plus this year. Anyone who’s been intrigued by Sega’s long-running series will be able to experience its signature mix of crunchy combat, explorable districts, mini-games and fascinating storylines starting next month.

Let’s start with the first one, that I was really keen to play on release but ashamed to admit didn’t want to fork over the hard-earned as I felt like I’d bought them enough in the past. The acclaimed remakes of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games.

PlayStation Plus August 2022 Line-Up

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Cross-Gen Deluxe Bundle | PS4, PS5


Drop back in with the most iconic skateboarding games ever made. Play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater & Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 in one epic collection, rebuilt from the ground up in incredible HD. All the pro skaters, levels, and tricks are back and fully remastered, plus more. Skate to songs from the era-defining soundtrack along with new music, hit insane trick combos, or shred all the original game modes by going head-to-head with local 2-player modes! Strengthen your skills by taking your sessions online and competing against players from around the world in multiplayer modes and live leaderboards. Play as skaters from the original roster (Tony Hawk, Kareem Campbell, Bucky Lasek, and more) or slide into the new roster made up of Olympic skaters (Nyjah Huston, Aori Nishimura, Leticia Bufoni, and more).

Little Nightmares | PS4


Immerse yourself in Little Nightmares, a dark whimsical tale that will confront you with your childhood fears! Help Six escape The Maw – a vast, mysterious vessel inhabited by corrupted souls looking for their next meal. As you progress on your journey, explore the most disturbing dollhouse offering a prison to escape from and a playground full of secrets to discover. Reconnect with your inner child to unleash your imagination and find the way out!

Yakuza: Like A Dragon and the entire Kamazu Kiryu saga | PS5, PS4


Level up from underdog to dragon in this action RPG. Ichiban Kasuga, a low-ranking grunt of a low-ranking yakuza family in Tokyo, returns to society after serving 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Uncover the truth behind his family’s betrayal while exploring – and fighting – your way across a modern-day Japanese city. Build a party from a ragtag group of society’s outcasts, spending time with them to unlock new abilities and combo skills. Take time off from your quest to immerse yourself in go-karting, arcade games or 50 substories. Watch the trailer here.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscribers will also be able to experience Kazazu Kiryu’s epic journey through the criminal underworld with Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2 when the title’s launch as part of the August Game Catalog lineup.

Then, later this year, for Extra and Premium members, Kiryu’s story concludes with Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

So what do you think of the lineup for August? Sony has certainly stepped up the value of the subscription by adding these titles but also the overall catalogue is starting to really take shape into a list of classic and new games where there is something for everyone.

Don’t forget that you need to go in and add the current games to your library before they disappear after August 1: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Man of Medan and Arcadegeddon.

By Doccy Darko

 

 

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Get ready to be Shell Shocked!

Konami Digital Entertainment has announced that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection will launch on the 30th of August, releasing on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch™. 

In collaboration with Nickelodeon, thirteen radical games from KONAMI’s entire archive of retro 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade TMNT titles and their Japanese versions bring Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to life on console at RRP $69.95.

Physical copies are available for pre-order at your local retailers.

This timeless collection of original classics gives chasing down Shredder, fighting the Foot, and tangling up with Bebop and Rocksteady a fresh look at why KONAMI’s adaptations of the heroes in a half shell set the standard in beat ‘em up action games. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection includes:

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) [1989]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade) [1991]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) [1989]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES) [1990]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES) [1991]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES) [1993]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo) [1991]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo) [1993]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis) [1992]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis) [1993]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy) [1990]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy) [1991]
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy) [1993]

 KONAMI partnered with American game developer Digital Eclipse to expertly adapt these classics for modern gaming systems with a fantastic set of quality-of-life features including save anytime, rewind, button mapping, and added online play for certain games with local couch play for all titles where that was originally intended.

The games are based on the characters and themes of the 80's children's cartoon and comic book series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, often taking place in a fictionalised New York City, around the sewers, inside futuristic enemy bases and even across time itself! 

In collaboration with Nickelodeon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection will also include loads of extras using imagery from the original cartoons, comics and other historic TMNT media content in a compiled Museum connecting the franchise across the various mediums. Additionally, never-before-seen development art, sketches and game design material will also be included

 

 

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Stray is one of the most anticipated titles for the PlayStation since it was first announced in 2020 and for a non-AAA title, that’s a big expectation to fill.

The third person, uh cat, third “cat” adventure game is developed by BlueTwelve Studio. It is the story of a cat who falls into a mysterious ancient world of robots and machines and sets off on a journey to discover more of the cybercity’s past as well as a way to return to his family.

The game’s opening level captures this beautifully as you take on the mannerisms of a cat, playing and fighting with your colony showing moments of tenderness and adventure. It’s this adventure that leads you to be separated from the group and left alone and injured.

As you continue your journey home you meet wonderous robotic beings that unlock a mystery the more you interact and proceed through the game. You’ll meet friends along the way but you’ll also be plagued by creatures known as “Zurks” who will do you harm. So be careful, after all, “curiosity killed the cat” and this game is all about being curious.

The game has some really inspired level designs with an emphasis on puzzle solving. Having your lead character as a feline opens up the game to be a uniquely fresh take on the genre. In the past, we’ve seen anthropomorphic characters in games but it’s unusual to have an animal be on all fours and be limited to do what a cat in real life can achieve.

The team of mostly cat owners who created the game used their real-life pets not only as inspiration but also for motion capture in order to mimic the movements to perfection. Miko the main cat animator is said to have studied cats intensely and worked with Cat programer Remi to find the balance between realism and enjoyable gameplay.

Now, this is not “Cat Simulator” although there are many aspects of the game where you can achieve this. You can meow on command, scratch posts, lap up water, rub against legs lovingly, and many other mannerisms you’d expect a furry little friend to do. But the game is about putting the cat in a sci-fi world and it’s that story that really drives this game into one that will be remembered for years to come.

For a while, into the game, I was amazed at how I’d had little to no text, or human communication. The game guides you in the right direction with subtlety and it was nice not to be told exactly what I needed to do all of the time. It also made that first communication all the more powerful.

Eventually, you’ll meet up with a companion which literally opens more doors for your character. This comes in the form of a likeable side character named B-12, who lives in a backpack strapped to your cat. It’s a nice little moment when you first put it on and watching the symbiotic relationship grow is a beautiful story arc.

I really don’t want to describe every moment of the game as it’s one you really need to play for yourself to truly understand the gift that a game like Stray is. It needs to be a surprise and it’s everyone who plays this game’s responsibility to keep it that way.

The world that the team has built is not the “Cyberpunk” universe that we thought we were getting. It is in the genre but reminds me more in some ways of the more comedic tones from issues of 2000AD comic and even more recently some looks of the robots seem to come straight out of the pages of “Saga” with designs of characters that feel like they should be happy but are lost in this dystopian future. It’s a wonderful balance that will have you set on discovering more.

Stray is not as RPG as I would have liked, but there are brief elements of the style, however, it’s the use of puzzles that are extremely simple and effective. I can’t think of a time where I was stuck for too long, but I find with a puzzle game it’s more about how it’s incorporated into the story rather than just how hard it is and it’s moulded beautifully in this.

If anything the game runs a little shorter than I would like. Coming in at only 10 hours for a completionist is well below where I’d like to see the game finish. But I do feel like adding in more content might take away from the perfect balance of the story being told. I will welcome any DLC in the future however.

While the game has elements of platforming, it’s more about you directing where to go rather than performing the jumps yourself. The cat lands on the next ledge perfectly every time unless the story calls for you to do otherwise. Given the size of some of those tight platforms, I’m kind of glad it works in that manner.

Music in the game is composed by Taan Van Der Cruyssen who has captured the mood of the city and its inhabitants extremely well. A mission involving finding lost music sheets lets you curl up on your cat mat and enjoy the tunes even more.

Stray might be a slightly different game to what I was imagining in my head when I saw it being announced two years ago. But, it’s also one of the most refreshing titles I’ve played in around 10 years. Its humour and challenges take me back to playing puzzle adventure games like “Day of the Tentacle”, while its modern gameplay, graphics and attention to detail give it life and replay value.

Interestingly the digital release of the game is available now to purchase or via your PlayStation Plus service if you have the right tier (Extra/Deluxe). The physical release of the game is available on pre-order but not shipping until September. However, there are some nice added extras if you are a collector. 

Sigmund Freud said “Time spent with cats is never wasted” and I tend to agree.

This beautiful independent title deserves all the praise that is coming its way and given the detail in world-building shown in this title I can’t wait to see what comes next for the creators of Stray.

(by DoccyDarko)

 

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Publishers Annapurna Interactive and iam8bit, in distribution partnership with Skybound Games, announced that physical edition pre-orders for Stray, the third-person cyberpunk cat adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio, are now live.

Pre-orders for the retail edition (PlayStation 5) go live at your local retailer starting today and will ship on 20th September 2022.

You'll be able to jump into the world much sooner with the digital version available from July 19 via PlayStation Store and as part of the game catalogue lineup for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members.

Check out this new trailer showcasing the physical editions.

In the game, you take the role of a stray cat who must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity amidst the detailed neon-lit alleys and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly.

Along the way, the cat befriends a small flying drone, known only as B-12. With the help of this newfound companion, the duo must find a way out.

Explore some of the gameplay in this video.

Pre-order the Stray retail edition for PlayStation 5 at $59.95 AUD which also includes six full-colour art cards along with a physical copy of the game.

The retail edition will ship on September 20, 2022.