Aug 2019's Save the Date: Control, Astral Chain, WoW Classic and more!
New month, new games. Here's a list of must-know titles coming out in August 2019, from Control and Astral Chain to Blair Witch and Warcraft Classic. Time to Save the Date!
Welcome to our monthly Save the Date segment, where we list all the notable games coming out this month, and why you might want to keep an eye on them. August is a big moment for horror fans, and it just so happens to coincide with the Hungry Ghost Festival too. No better time to get spooked, right?
Metal Wolf Chaos XD (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – August 6
This particular FromSoftware game garnered a ton of attention last year, when Devolver Digital announced the remaster. This will be the game's first official release outside Japan, and a chance for the rest of us to see the types of games FromSoftware produced once upon a time… before us masochists discovered Dark Souls.
RAD (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch) – August 20
Double Fine’s next game looks pretty, uh, rad? Set in a quirky post apocalypse filled with monsters, Rad lets you take on the form and abilities of other monsters and even give birth to pet spiders! All this and more, painted over with tons of '80s neon nostalgia.
Life is Strange 2, Episode 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – August 22
Dontnod’s sequel to the smash hit Life is Strange is getting yet another episode this month. This game has been fairly rough in quality thus far, but hopefully things pick up since this is meant to be the penultimate episode. If it’s anything like Season 1 Episode 4, it’s going to be an absolutely insane climax to Sean and Daniel’s story.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (PC) – August 27
This (temporary) PC exclusive comes from the mind of Patrice Désilets, the man behind games like the first Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Ancestors is said to be 40 to 50 hours long, tasking players with the evolution of a clan of apes across eight million years. It sounds ambitious to say the least, but let’s hope this doesn’t turn out to be another Spore or launch-day No Man’s Sky, eh?
Control (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – August 27
Undoubtedly my personal highlight of the month, Remedy Games’ Control promises to take players through a mind-bending trip in the Oldest House, owned by the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC). A supernatural event has taken place there, leaving the place infested by a hostile presence known as "the Hiss". You play as Jesse Faden, the new FBC director tasked with setting things right in the Oldest House. Fun times!
Fun fact! The game will have "shifting architecture in a deeply unpredictable world."
World of Warcraft Classic (PC) – August 27
The addition of Warcraft Classic makes 27th August a pretty massive day for game releases. As promised, players will return to the early days of Azeroth, touch up with remastered graphics but left with many of the quirks of vanilla WoW. Older players can revisit the landmark moments that defined the industry shaking MMORPG, whereas newcomes can go on a wide-eyed tour and see what it made so special in the first place. Just remember that it came out 13 years ago!
WoW Classic will launch in a "post Drums of War" state.
Astral Chain (Switch) – August 30
There’s a ton of reasons to be excited for Astral Chain. First, it’s developed by PlatinumGames, a storied studio with hits like Nier: Automata and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to their name. Second, Bayonetta and Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya supervised production for this game, essentially guaranteeing that Astral Chain's combat is going to be spectacular. Third, that trailer! The combat! I need a breather.
Blair Witch (PC, Xbox One) – August 30, 2019
Blair Witch was one of the many big surprises that Xbox had to offer at their E3 2019 showing. Naturally, it looks like a big budget mixture of Outlast and Slenderman, with players using torchlights to ward off all kinds of spooky things in a dark forest. What is perhaps the most exciting element though is your canine companion. I swear, if it dies… Oh, who am I kidding, of course it’s going to die.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – August 30
I wasn't kidding about the horror games. It’s not even October! Anyway, Supermassive Games, the creators of Until Dawn, are continuing their tradition of interactive horror games. It's basically loads of quick-time events. Man of Medan is set on a haunted ship, boasting notable actors like Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) and Pip Torrens (Preacher). It’s also got a couple of multiplayer modes, for those itching for some Friday night spookiness with their friends.
***
That's a lot of great games! Which ones are you picking up? Which ones did we leave out? Let us know, and check back in September for our next Save the Date!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.