Game Pass's August Wave 2 Has One AAA, and It's Locked to the Pricier Tiers

Microsoft's rolled out the second wave of August Game Pass additions, and it's a generous pile of indies with one AAA sitting on top: Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. The catch is where that headliner lands.

Resonance, Asobo's prequel set 15 years before A Plague Tale: Requiem, arrives day one on August 27, but only for Ultimate and PC Game Pass. On a cheaper tier, you're locked out at launch. It's the now-familiar Game Pass shape: the marquee game is the one dangling the upsell.

The rest of the wave

Plenty to like below the headline:

• Blood Dungeon (August 25, day one), a roguelike from Nidhogg artist Mark Essen, and about as strange as that pedigree suggests.
• Vapor World: Over the Mind (August 19), a deflection-focused soulslike platformer, in through Game Preview.
• BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (August 19), on Premium.
• Egging On (August 18) and Shelldiver (September 1) round things out.

A good month if you like a rummage through the smaller stuff. Just know the one big-budget name is the one you'll pay more to play on day one.