With over 50 million copies sold, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the star of the upcoming PlayStation Plus games on August 20. However, 14 other titles will be joining the fray, such as the extraordinary Ride 5 and the hacktastic Watch Dogs 2. There are also a ton of Sword Art Online titles, followed by the PS2-era TimeSplitters series, Cult of the Lamb, and Vacation Simulator for PS VR2, but all of these are out of place.
Before we get to that point, remember that these games are PS Plus Extra and Premium only, not Essential. Starting with Ride 5, Dragos Chitulescu of Autoevolution, and resident Gran Turismo 7 expert, gave the two-wheeled marvel a 95 out of 100. He said, “Ride 5 will keep you busy for at least a few months, while hardcore fans might continue to do so for a few years. One thing is for sure: this title gets my vote for the best racing game of 2023!“
Not many people have purchased it on Steam, with a peak concurrent player count of just 957 during its launch in late August 2023, but it is well-received. It has a mostly positive user review score of 76% and has a Metacritic score of 75/100 from 25 publications.
Ride 5 features over 35 tracks and 200 bikes. One of the highlights of the game is the graphics, which look phenomenal, especially when it’s cloudy and raining. If you have an OLED TV, you might fall in love with it at first sight. You can find it on Steam for $60 and to run it properly at 1080p/60fps, your PC will need at least an Intel i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor paired with a GeForce RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card and 16GB of RAM.
The underrated Watch Dogs 2 is next, with one big caveat: Ubisoft never made a native PS5 version, so it’s running the PS4 version via backwards compatibility, which means it’s capped at 30fps. Well, it’s actually the enhanced PS4 Pro version, which bumps the base resolution from 1080p to 1800p (checkerboard rendering), close to native 4K (2160p), which means the graphics will be very clear.
Watch Dogs 2 is a great Ubisoft title, similar to the Grand Theft Auto series. However, instead of being a social parody, it takes itself very seriously, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The graphics are still great, even after seven years and nine months. The gameplay is beautiful, fun, and easy to learn.
The car mechanics, like handling, aren't revolutionary but they work well. Also, hacking vehicles can be a lot of fun. You can cause havoc and chaos wherever you go by making them accelerate, go into reverse, turn left or right, or activate special functions. It's currently $60 on Steam, but it's also included in the Game Pass subscription, along with the new Mafia: Definitive Edition.