Don't miss these free PlayStation Plus games in August

Before we get to that, remember that these games are only available on PS Plus Extra and Premium, not Essential. Starting with Ride 5, Autoevolution's Dragos Chitulescu, also the Gran Turismo 7 expert, gave the two-wheeled wonder 95 out of 100. He said: “Ride 5 will keep you busy for at least a few months, hardcore enthusiasts might even stick around 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 bought it on Steam, with a concurrent player peak of just 957 upon its release in late August 2023, but it is highly regarded. It has a mostly positive user rating of 76% and scored 75/100 out of 25 releases on Metacritic.

Ride 5 features over 35 tracks and 200 bikes. One of the main highlights of the game is the graphics, which look phenomenal, especially in cloudy and rainy conditions. If you have an OLED TV, you might fall in love with the game 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.

Next up is the underrated Watch Dogs 2, but with one major caveat: Ubisoft never developed a native PS5 version, so the PS4 version runs due to backwards compatibility, which means it's capped at 30fps. Well, it's actually the enhanced PS4 Pro version, which increases the base resolution from 1080p to 1800p (checkerboard rendering), which is close to native 4K (2160p), meaning the graphics will be very clear.

Watch Dogs 2 is a great Ubisoft title, similar to the Grand Theft Auto series. Rather than being a social parody, however, it takes itself very seriously, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The graphics still look great after seven years and nine months. The gameplay is nice, fun, and easy to learn.

The gameplay mechanics of the cars, such as handling, are not revolutionary but work well. Plus, hacking vehicles can be very entertaining. You can wreak havoc everywhere by making them speed up, reverse, turn left or right, or activate special features. It currently costs $60 on Steam, but is also included in Game Pass membership, along with the newly launched Mafia: Definitive Edition.