It feels as though the summer is just getting started. Though July saw the release of highly anticipated titles like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Wolfenstein Youngblood, next month promises even more to look forward. Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Désilets is set to return with an interesting take on human evolution through Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, while Double Fine Productions will hopefully maintain the insanity its known for via Rad. The following are all the best August 2019 games that PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC users should pay attention to, because it’s still too hot outside anyway.
August 2019 Games | Rad
Double Fine’s Lee Petty — the mind behind Stacking and Headlander — will release his newest software oddity, Rad, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on August 20. Players will be tasked with using a range of mutations to make it through a harsh post-apocalyptic wasteland unscathed. Snake heads, bat wings, spider babies, and psychic abilities will be part of what makes the game seem both strange and charming. As if these powers aren’t cool enough, a vaporwave soundtrack looks to bring the procedurally-generated adventure to life. Rad may not be a Tim Schafer title, but it certainly seems weird enough to make the legendary game maker proud.
August 2019 Games | Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey looks to be a vast departure from Patrice Désilets’ work on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, as it will be set 10 million years before our time. Players will ensure that an ape clan survives in an unforgiving open world filled with environmental hazards and ferocious predators. Throughout the 40 to 50 hour adventure, they’ll be given the opportunity to learn how to build tools, shelter, and medicine to help the clan live longer. Ancestors may offer a fascinating perspective on humanity’s evolution when it releases for PC on August 27. It’s due out for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this December.
August 2019 Games | Control
Remedy Entertainment’s newest supernatural thriller, Control, releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on August 27. As the Federal Bureau of Control’s Jesse Faden, fans will have to use the malleable Service Weapon and a variety of psychic abilities to defend reality from an otherworldly force called the Hiss. Unlike the studio’s previous games, Control will allow players to explore areas in whichever order they please. Along the way, they’ll be able to upgrade the Service Weapon according to their combat preferences. Jesse herself will be able to wield new abilities as she discovers new Objects of Power. Fans of Quantum Break, Alan Wake, and, according to our E3 2019 interview, Dark Souls should be eagerly anticipating Control, as it looks to maintain a lot of the action and innovation that makes Remedy’s prior games worthwhile.
August 2019 Games | Astral Chain
PlatinumGames’ next action-heavy romp, Astral Chain, will see Switch owners alternate between rookie police officers and their living weapons in order to save the world from interdimensional invaders. The Legions that players will be able to control vary in terms of combat style and will have to be used intelligently in order to make it out of skirmishes alive. Their usefulness will extend to crime investigations and puzzles outside of battle. Seeing as how this “Synergetic Action” title will be the product of Nier: Automata lead game designer Takahisa Taura and Zetman mangaka Masakazu Katsura, wild set pieces and outrageous characters are likely in store. Astral Chain releases exclusively for Nintendo’s hybrid console on August 30.
August 2019 Games | Blair Witch
Blair Witch also releases for Xbox One and PC on August 30. Not much has been shared about the title since its reveal at Microsoft’s E3 conference this year, outside of the fact that it will be told from a first-person perspective and take place two years after the events of the classic 1999 film. Given how the developer behind the project, Bloober Team, previously worked on the well-received Layers of Fear series, there’s reason to believe that this video game sequel will satiate horror fans who haven’t had a terrifying experience to sink into since the Resident Evil 2 remake. Hopefully the game’s dog, Bullet, will make it out alive.
August 2019 Games | The Dark Pictures: Man Of Medan
Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures: Man Of Medan is another title that horror fans should keep on their radars is. Similarly to Until Dawn, the title will have players attempt to survive as five different protagonists when a vacation in the South Pacific Ocean goes horribly wrong. Each character will live or die according to one’s choices, and the entire party will be murdered if fans aren’t careful. Thankfully, pictures scattered around the ghost ship these vacationers are trapped on will clue fans in on what may happen in the future. Man of Medan has potential so long as it successfully emulates Until Dawn‘s charm. The title releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on August 30.
Video game fans should enjoy all the rest they can get this summer, as they’ll likely stay awake way past their bed times during the last four months of 2019. September alone sees the debut of Gears 5, Borderlands 3, Daemon X Machina, Code Vein, and the Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. That’s not to mention that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Death Stranding, and more are slated for release in the months after. The rest of the year is filled to the brim with games to play. We all may need to see our eye doctors by the time 2020 arrives.
