Mega Man: Legacy Collection – Xbox One, PS4, PC – August 25th
Mega Man games from the days of the NES are legendary for their pin point level design and challenge. Many gamers who grew up honing their platforming skills on these classic games, still play them today, mostly via PC emulation. With the Legacy Collection, Capcom has presented one of the most faithful representations of classic games in recent memory, even down to the glitches that every devoted player remembers taking advantage of. The collection consists of Mega Man 1-6 and also features a slew of timed challenges for the truly devoted.
Until Dawn – PS4 – August 25th
Until Dawn draws its inspiration from teen slasher movies like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. Now instead of shaking your head at the dumb characters that make equally dumb decisions, now you can shake your head at yourself for your own dumb decisions as you determine the fate of eight unsuspecting teenagers who have decided to party at an isolated cabin in the middle of a wintry storm. The game relies on a Butterfly Effect system, making every decision you choose, that much more impactful, and perhaps what is most compelling is that every character you play as can die. For more on Until Dawn, check out our official review.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition – Xbox One – August 25th
In preparation for the fourth entry in the Gears of War series, Xbox One owners can go back to where it all started with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. Gears is famous for popularizing cover mechanics in 3rd person shooters, and at full 1080p and 60 fps, it has never looked better. The game also comes with five additional campaign chapters that were never released on the Xbox 360 and at $40, it is one of the best value buys for the Xbox One. For more on Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, check out our official review.
Madden NFL 16 – Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 – August 25th
Another year, another Madden. But this year, EA has stepped up their game to deliver one of the most authentic NFL experiences yet. This year, the passing game mechanics are Madden NFL 16’s main focus, and the resulting changes prove to be exhilarating. Players now have three different ways of catching the football, Possession, Aggression and Run-After-the-Catch. Each one offers their own unique benefits, and the thrill comes from being able to discern which method to use in a split second. Quarterbacks now have five different types of passes, all of which are important for any given situation. You can now throw high or low, to avoid an interception. A touch pass will get the ball over lineman that try to bat the ball down at the line of scrimmage, while Bullet and Lob passes, which have been a part of the series for a while now, do pretty much what you expect. For more on Madden NFL 16, check out our official review.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong – PC, Mac, Linux – August 20th
The third game in the newly revitalized Shadowrun series by Harebrained Schemes landed this August, and it has not disappointed fans of the previous games. The game plays pretty much just like the previous two, a tactical, turn-based role playing game with freeform exploration while combining the elements of Cyberpunk and High Fantasy to create a world that is distinctly its own.
Dishonored: Definitive Edition – Xbox One, PS4 – August 25th
Dishonored got a next gen makeover that released this month, and unsurprisingly it was solid. Players take on the role of Corvo Attano, an assassin falsely accused of killing the Empress and abducting her daughter. Dishonored offers players the opportunity to tackle mission objectives violently or passively. Each method gives a different outcome to the end of the story, and both are a blast to play. The core of the Dishonored experience is using Corvo's super natural abilities, particularly the ability called Blink, which allows the player to teleport to a given location within a reasonable distance. Verticality quickly becomes a big part of the mechanics, making the player infinitely more deadly by striking from above and/or escaping hairy situation with greater ease.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture – PS4 – August 10th
How good can a game with a world devoid of human life with minimal interaction be? Apparently pretty good. Everybody’s Gone to Rapture is one of the PlayStation 4’s long awaited indie exclusives and it did not disappoint. The game uses an eerily compelling musical score to fill the void of character interaction that makes the world (ironically) come alive. For more on Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, check out our official review.
Smite – Xbox One – August 19th
Smite started out as a Free-to-Play PC exclusive about a year ago and quickly gained traction as a solid alternative take to the massively popular MOBA genre. Developer, Hi-Rez Studios has successfully adapted the complex keyboard inputs to the Xbox One controller seamlessly. Smite takes the traditional top-down perspective and brings it down to ground level in an over the shoulder, 3rd person view, making it feel almost like an action game set in a MOBA arena. Players can choose from over 50 mythological figures like Medusa, Hercules and Zeus and battle it out with spontaneously explosive action. For more on Smite, check out our official game page.
This month was huge for classic games. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay and Mega Man: Legacy Collection all released to positive reviews for their faithful re-creation of old favorites. The PlayStation 4 got a couple of long awaited, narratively focused exclusives, each with drastically different tones, but succeeded in setting out what they aimed to do. As we enter the final quarter of the release calendar, here is a look at the best games that came out in August 2015.
Rare Replay – Xbox One – August 4th
There was just no way this collection of classic games was going to turn out poorly. For younger gamer, this package might not be all that appealing, but if you are interested in games that shaped the foundation for modern game design, Rare Replay is a great place to start. Featuring classic games like Banjo Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Perfect Dark, players have 10,000 Gamer Points worth of content all for only $30. It’s also worth noting that with Rare Replay, the Xbox One now has more Nintendo 64 games available than the Wii U does. For more on Rare Replay, check out our official review.
