August Games Roundup: Here come the games

Things are looking up for us fellow gamers as there are quite a few interesting titles to look forward to this month. The more notable releases include Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered for the PC (August 12), the Saints Row reboot (August 23) and Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed (August 30). However, you should also take note of these ‘smaller’ titles we have listed below:

Hard West 2

Go west they said. It’d be fun, they said.

Release Date August 4
Platform Windows

The long-awaited sequel to one of 2015’s sleeper hits, Hard West 2 is a turn-based tactical game that draws inspiration from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and gives it an American Old West coat of paint with supernatural elements.  In this sequel, you must lead a posse of outlaws and chase down the Devil to save your soul.

Hard West received praise for its story and also challenging tactical combat, and according to developers Ice Code Games, the sequel ups the ante in every possible way. One of the new features that have received the spotlight is the Bravado State mechanic. This unique mechanic rewards players for taking a more offensive approach as the more kills you rack up, the more Action Points get replenished. So you will have to think on your feet about how to chain together kills, extend your streak and unleash a single turn of mass destruction.

No matter what the context, standing around in a Mexican standoff always looks cool. Until something happens.

The world of Hard West 2 is incredibly varied as you will wander the lands and visit snow-covered vistas and frontier towns struggling to survive in a merciless world. To further bring the world to life, characters you meet and who join your crew are voiced by the likes of Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series), Darien Sills-Evans (Days Gone, League of Legends) and Adam Gifford (The Colony, Batman: Hush).

Two Point Campus

Not an ideal range for wizards, but maybe that’s why I don’t teach wizardry.

Release Date August 9
Platform Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

In this follow-up to the zany management sim Two Point Hospital, instead of treating patients you now have to prepare the perfect university to produce the next generation of wizards, spies, archaeologists and more.

Unlike Two Point Hospital where your interactions with patients only lasted as long as they needed treatment, Two Point Campus has you dealing with students for an academic year. This allows you to connect even deeper with your students and discover the best ways to keep them entertained and productive. At the end of the day, you want them to be happy, well-rounded individuals.

Two Point Campus knows three-piece is best.

Summer break will also be the best time for you to customise your campus, choose which wild and wonderful courses you want to offer, and make sure everything is up to Two Point County’s impeccable standards. Whether it all comes together or falls apart, is based on your decisions.

Rollerdrome

Old school skating with old school aesthetics. And a shotgun.

Release Date August 16
Platform Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

From the folks that gave us the very fun and very addictive OlliOlli World, comes yet another interesting new idea in the form of Rollerdrome, a third-person shooter that melds high-octane combat with adrenaline-fueled skate stunts for a truly unique retro-futuristic action experience.

Set in the year 2030, citizens of the world are kept distracted from an increasingly sinister political situation by the violence and excess of a brutal new arena sport: Rollerdrome. Players step into the skates of Kara Hassan, a newcomer to this brutal sport. While the mysteries are unfolding behind the scenes, players and Kara will have to stay focused on their goal–to become the next Rollerdrome champion.

“You ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?”

And how does one become a champion? By participating in a series of brutal gauntlets and achieving the highest score possible by combining eliminations with flashy tricks while also successfully completing numerous challenges.

Tinykin

What do you mean by ‘is the game buggy’?

Release Date August 30
Platform Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

Tinykin is a 3D platform adventure inspired by classic Saturday morning cartoons and games like Pikin and Paper Mario. In Tinykin, you play as galactic explorer Milo who has been shrunk down to just an inch tall upon beaming down to the long-lost home of mankind, Earth.

He finds himself lost in a nineties-style house populated by sentient insects. Milo is free to explore the massive, miniature environments of the house, with each room populated by its own strange cultures and fresh problems to solve. Some of these puzzles include bringing music back to the living room, cleaning up the bathroom and finding parts to repair the machine that will crack the puzzle of this bizarre world.

They certainly nailed the ’90s Saturday morning cartoon vibe.

The strange land and its puzzles will be tricky but Milo will have the aid of the mostly friendly insect population and he can also call on the aid of the Tinykin, mysterious and colourful critters who live to help wayward adventures. Milo can build up a swarm of these new friends and have them move massive objects, build ladders, blast open sealed passages and more.