The PS Plus and Xbox Games with Gold free games are out now for August 2021.
After an incredible year of free games on PlayStation Plus, Sony has kind of dropped the ball in August.
PlayStation Plus subscribers can download brand new Battle Royale game Hunter’s Arena: Legends on PS5.
That’s on top of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Tennis World Tour 2 on PS4.
All three PlayStation Plus games are available to download from now until the morning of Tuesday, September 7.
Over on Xbox, Games with Gold subscribers are currently able to download Darksiders 3 and Lost Planet 3.
This will be followed by 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee on August 16, as well as classic SNK fighting game Garou: Mark of the Wolves.
With the latest batch of free games out now, it seems like a good time to pit PlayStation against Xbox in a battle of the monthly games.
Can Sony pull off a shock victory despite a lacklustre line-up, or has Microsoft scored a rare victory over PlayStation?
First up on PlayStation Plus, Hunter’s Arena: Legends is a brand new Battle Royale game in which players battle to be the last person standing.
“The 30 player PvP & PvE combat-based battle royale is set in an ancient age in which humanity battles each other as well as a growing legion of demons that have been unleashed upon the world.
“In this vicious frontier, you’ll face threats on two fronts. Head into high-risk, high-reward dungeons to encounter demonic foes. Dangerous but necessary for your continued survival: you’ll earn powerful items and experience points.
“Powering yourself up will give you a much-needed edge on the battlefield when you face off against your Hunter brethren.”
Tennis World Tour 2 is pretty self-explanatory, while Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville is a team shooter with a cartoonish visual style.
“Choose one of 20 fully-customisable character classes, and perfect your play-style as you earn new rewards for each victory on the battlefield.
“Team up with friends, either on couch co-op or online, and take on a cavalcade of new challenges, tackling enemy hordes in PvE, going up against others online, or braving all-out mayhem in the new Battle Arena.”
Darksiders III is arguably the highest-profile free game available as part of Games with Gold in August.
“In this hack-and-slash action adventure, assume the role of Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in her quest to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins.
“Explore an open-ended, living world, and use your whip and magic to restore the balance between good and evil.
Yooka-Laylee, on the other hand, is a 3D platformer developed by some of the key figures behind the Banjo-Kazooie series.
“Explore huge, beautiful worlds and meet an unforgettable cast of characters. As buddy duo, Yooka & Laylee, embark on an epic quest to thwart the corporate villain, Capital B, and his devious scheme to absorb all of the world’s literature.”
A prequel to the original two games, Lost Planet 3 is the final entry in Capcom’s third-person shooter series, while Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a 2D fighting game developed by SNK.
Picking a winner is difficult in August, mainly because the standards are much lower than usual.
Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Garou: Mark of the Wolves are the highest-rated games on Metacritic, both scoring 77%.
Next up is Yooka-Laylee with 73%, followed by Darksiders III with 69%. Lost Planet 3 scores a lowly 58%, followed by Tennis World Tour 2 on just 56%.
Hunter’s Arena: Legends doesn’t have a Metacritic score, but it does have mixed reviews on Steam. With this in mind, I’m giving the victory to Microsoft for August – but only just!