PS Plus just added four genuinely great games in one month — here's what to play first

PlayStation Plus just had one of its best months in years, and none of the headline additions feel like filler. Helldivers 2 joined the Extra tier today, August 12. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Vampire Survivors follow on August 18. And Hell Is Us, Metro Exodus and Dying Light 2 close out the month on August 25 — five genuinely well-reviewed games landing in a single catalog update.

Helldivers 2 is the one people are actually going to play

Arrowhead's co-op shooter has spent nearly two and a half years as one of PlayStation's biggest live-service hits since its February 2024 launch, and it's still getting active content updates rather than coasting on its release-week buzz. Adding a game that's still culturally relevant to a subscription catalog is rarer than it sounds — most Game Catalog additions are older titles a publisher is happy to license cheaply once sales have flattened. Full details on the rollout are in Sony's own announcement.

The odd couple: a 100-hour RPG next to a 20-minute roguelite

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a punishing, historically obsessive medieval RPG that expects a real time commitment and a machine that can actually run it. Vampire Survivors is the opposite: a tiny, screen-filling roguelite you can start and finish in twenty minutes on almost anything. Putting both in the same catalog update in the same week is a strange pairing, but it means there's genuinely something here whether you've got a free weekend or five spare minutes before bed.

Verdict: what to play first

Why this month matters more than usual

My honest take: PS Plus's Game Catalog spends most months padding out with decent-but-forgettable back-catalog titles, so a month with four games this well-reviewed lands differently. Helldivers 2 alone is worth an Extra subscription for a lot of people right now — it's rare for a service to add a game that's still actively updated and culturally relevant, not just old and cheap to license. If you've been sitting on Essential wondering whether the upgrade is worth it, this is the month that makes the case.

Watch for Sony's September announcement in the next few weeks — catalog months this strong are usually followed by a quieter one, so it's worth clearing time for these five titles now rather than assuming next month will match it.