Before Breath of the Wild, there was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. For years, CD Projekt Red’s magnum opus was the standard for touching grass in the virtual world. If you somehow haven’t yet conquered The Continent, your time has finally come. The Witcher 3 is officially hitting the PlayStation Plus “free” games catalogue this August.
Time to join the PS Plus cult
You’ll notice we don’t often venture into PlayStation Plus territory when it comes to monthly additions, but The Witcher 3 is a special case. Not only did it set the bar for the action RPG genre that’s yet to be topped – but it was also recently updated with more frames, ray tracing, and generally quicker loading times befitting Sony’s PS5.
Already worn your copy down in the nine years since its release? Fret not, for PlayStation has thrown in a couple of other gems to satiate your appetite, making for a total of fourteen titles. Those include Cult of the Lamb, Wild Hearts, Watch Dogs 2, Ride 5 and what appears to be most of the Sword Art Online franchise. Oh. That’s why.
As excited as we are for *checks notes* Vacation Simulator, it’s clear what the main course here is. For those who aren’t familiar with Geralt’s story, players fill the shoes of a monster hunter for hire as he sets out on a mission to find his destined daughter, Ciri, before the Wild Hunt does. It’s tied up in some impressive combat mechanics, stellar writing chops and sunsets that’ll have you going ‘oooh’ every few paces.
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Anyone still awaiting Stardew Valley’s highly anticipated 1.6 update can (and should) make friends with Massive Monster’s superb cosy roguelike dungeon-crawler Cult of the Lamb. Even if only to test out the game’s free Unholy Alliance DLC that’ll see you and a friend raise a cult of lil’ critters before viciously sacrificing them… for the good of the cult. We promise.
It’s worth noting that customers hoping to take advantage of these “free” titles will require a PlayStation Plus Extra or Deluxe subscription – both of which offer access to a massive library of constantly rotating titles that can be played as long as you have an active subscription.
Here are the games hitting PlayStation Plus Extra/Deluxe on 20 August 2024:
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – PS4, PS5
- Wild Hearts (Standard Edition) – PS5
- Cult of the Lamb – PS4, PS5
- Ride 5 – PS5
- Watch Dogs 2 – PS4
- Sword Art Online: Last Recollection – PS4, PS5
- Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris – PS4
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet – PS4
- Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization – PS4
- Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker – PS4
- TimeSplitters – PS4, PS5
- TimeSplitters 2 – PS4, PS5
- Vacation Simulator – PSVR 2