The Best Free Games To Play With Friends in August 2024
We've checked out the latest PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass entries to find the best games to play for free with your friends in August!
Posted 3 months ago
Demons are best slain alongside a buddy. And this month, you've got the chance to enjoy doing so without splashing out big time! That's because we’ve checked out the latest additions to PS Plus, Xbox Game Pass, and Steam to find and trial the best free games to play with your friends in August. Whether you're into punching Pinkies or taking things to pieces, the games below will have you covered.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
- Players: 1-2 (Local or via Share Play)
- Available for free on: PlayStation Plus
Arriving in August’s PS Plus games batch, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is ideal light-hearted co-op entertainment for all ages. It's a chunky package too, including missions covering all the main movies! The best part is that you can jump directly into your favorite trilogy. So if the idea of the Clone Wars makes you cringe, you're free to skip right ahead to Luke or Rey’s adventures instead.
Like most Lego games, The Skywalker Saga is immediately entertaining, with a mix of simple third-person combat, shooting, driving sections, and puzzles. Within minutes you’ll be swishing a lightsaber through adorably blocky enemies and scattering them into pieces. There's also a gargantuan list of more than 300 characters to unlock. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga offers a sizable playground of cinematic toys and pairs it with plenty of harmless humor.
Multiplayer here is local only, supporting two-player co-op. However, it’s possible to play it online on PS5 thanks to the PlayStation Plus Share Play system. If one of you launches the game, they can then invite the other to join a Share Play session for up to an hour. When the time runs out, all you need to do is start a new session to continue as before. Whether local or online, it’s a far less expensive way to enjoy some Lego Star Wars than picking up one of the real sets!
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Release Date: April 5, 2022
Doom + Doom 2
- Players: 1-2
- Available for free on: Xbox Game Pass (or via upgrade)
Bursting onto our screens this month with a surprising (yet entirely welcome) demonic roar, Doom + Doom 2 is a new and definitive release of some very old FPS classics. The collection – which is included in its entirety on Xbox Game Pass or available as a free upgrade to digital owners of Doom and/or Doom 2 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, or PC – includes Doom, Doom 2, Master Levels for Doom 2, TNT: Evilution, The Plutonia Experiment, No Rest for the Living, Sigil, and Legacy of Rust.
What we’re here for is the online co-op and deathmatch multiplayer support. Yes, you can rip and tear together or indeed against one another online or in four-player local multiplayer. There’s even support for up to eight-player split-screen on Series X/S and PC – assuming you have a screen big enough to make that viable, of course!
Even if you were born long, long after Doom ignited the world’s fire for first-person shooters and chainsawing through Cacodemons, this is a retro package not to be missed, especially when diving in with friends. Blast through the wealth of campaign levels together, and be sure to explore them all carefully to discover the secrets dotted throughout each! And when you're done with the main games, there's also mod support to open up an extra trove of unlicensed levels.
Doom + Doom 2
Release Date: August 8, 2024
Digital Only
Supermarket Together
- Players: 1-16
- Available for free on: Steam
We've already put far too many hours into real-life checkout duty to enjoy a digital trip to the grocery store. But if you and a group of friends have avoided that fate and are interested in giving a co-operative store simulation game a go? Then the recently released Supermarket Together is a great way to give the format a try for free.
The visuals and setup on offer are pretty basic, but it won't take you long to start getting products on shelves so you can welcome in customers and get to making some money. When playing with friends, it's most efficient to divide your time. Securing new stock and equipment, stocking shelves, and taking customers through the checkouts are difficult acts to balance solo, but as a team you'll be able to develop an efficient routine before you expand and hire staff.
Order stock, price stock, sell stock, then expand your store and its inventory. There's a simple satisfaction to the loop that doesn't require much thinking. As such, it's a decent game to fill time while holding a conversation. If you're interested in dabbling in this corner of the simulation genre, Supermarket Together seems a solid place to start before investing in a more polished experience. And unlike in most real retail work, here you'll get to keep your fair share of the profits!
Still looking to fill your free time? Lucky you! Here are even more August games to look forward to – provided you’re willing to pay for them.