Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Mafia 2 to be free for PlayStation Plus in August

Sony has announced the new line-up of games that will be added to PlayStation Plus subscribers’ Instant Game Collection for the month of August. All of the new games will be added to the Instant Game Collection on July 31. Headlining the Instant Game Collection for August is last year’s stellar Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the PlayStation 3. Other PS3 games include Mafia 2 and Spec Ops: The Line. The Vita is also getting some action with Lego Lord of the Rings and When Vikings Attack!

Need for Speed: Most Wanted is a reimagining of the classic racing game from 2005. It has been developed by Criterion, better known for its Burnout series. Criterion stripped out the story, improved the vehicle modification system and added Burnout’s Takedown system. It also has a great multiplayer where players essentially race with each other even before the actual race itself starts.

One of the best racing games from last year

Mafia 2 is a sequel to the critically acclaimed Mafia. It revolves around Vito, a poor Italian American immigrant who is trying to escape a life of poverty. A petty criminal his whole life, Vito, along with his childhood friend Joe, descends into the world of organised crime in a bid to prove themselves to the mafia. Despite being a sequel to the original game, however, Mafia 2 is considered more of a spiritual successor than an actual sequel, since there is only one direct connection between them.

Spec Ops: The Line is a brilliant and critically-acclaimed deconstruction of the modern military shooter genre, which includes titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield. The game revolves around Captain Martin Walker and his squad mates as they are sent into a post-catastrophe Dubai on a reconnaissance mission. However, the situation escalates quite quickly into a hunt for rogue US officer John Konrad. The game was praised for how well it turned the modern military shooter genre on its head.

Lego Lord of the Rings is essentially a lego game with the cast, characters and plot of the Lord of the Rings movies. This means lots of humour and creativity, as the Lego games are usually famous for. When Vikings Attack! is an action adventure game. It has cross-save functionality between the Vita version and the PS3 version of the game, meaning you retain your progress when you switch devices and continue playing.

Leaving the Instant Game Collection on July 31 are Battlefield 3, Catherine, Malicious, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus and Unit 13.