PlayStation Plus added a particularly noisy group of games to its August catalog on August 12: Helldivers 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Vampire Survivors, and Hell is Us. Sony's announcement notes that catalog availability can differ by region, so check the PlayStation Store before you make a plan.
The list is useful because the games pull in different directions. One is built around co-op chaos. One is a large role-playing game. One can turn a spare half-hour into several hours without asking permission. One is a stranger, more deliberate proposition. A subscription catalog can make all of them feel urgent at once.
They are not all asking the same question of you. That matters.
The catalog is not the backlog
A catalog is a menu. A backlog is a record of the things you have chosen to carry.
Those two things blur together when a new batch lands. The game is suddenly available, the internet starts talking about it, and the little voice arrives: if I do not start this now, I am wasting the subscription.
You are not. Availability is not an obligation. A game can be worth trying without becoming your next long-term project.
This is where a simple journal helps. Put a game in the right place before you launch it:
- Playing if you have started and intend to return.
- Plan to play if you are interested but have not made time.
- Shelved if you tried it and it did not fit your week.
- Played if the experiment is over, whether you finished the game or not.
The labels are less important than the act of choosing one. Without that small decision, every new addition stays mentally active forever.
Pick a trial, not a commitment
The safest way to approach a crowded catalog is to choose one game for a real first session. Not a ten-minute launch, not a trailer, and not three open downloads sitting on the console while you scroll your phone.
Give one game an honest try. Then write down what happened while the memory is still fresh.
For Helldivers 2, the question might be whether its co-op loop fits the people you actually play with. For Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, it might be whether you want a long role-playing game right now, not whether the game is important enough to play. With Vampire Survivors, the test could be simple: did the short, repeatable runs make you want another one? Hell is Us may ask for a different kind of attention altogether.
These are not reviews. They are notes to your future self.
A star rating can capture the broad feeling. A short review can capture the reason. "Good, but I am not in the mood for another huge RPG" will be more useful in a month than a vague five-star impulse. So will "The loop clicked after the second run" or "I liked the atmosphere, but the pace was wrong for me this week."
Keep the maybes visible
The awkward middle is where most game lists fail. A title is neither a clear yes nor a clear no, so it disappears into a giant wishlist and waits to be forgotten.
A next-up view gives that middle a limit. Put one game there. Maybe two if you know you switch between long and short sessions. Do not turn it into another catalog.
You can also make a list for the month, but keep the list honest. "August games I might actually play" is better than "Everything I should experience before September." The first is a useful shelf. The second is homework wearing a nice title.
If you import your PlayStation Network library into Perthro, those older games can sit beside the new catalog additions instead of living in separate memories. That does not solve the choice for you. It does make the choice visible, which is usually the part we skip.
Let shelving count as an answer
There is a stubborn idea that shelving a game means you failed it. Sometimes it means the opposite. You noticed that the game was not right for the time you had, and you stopped pretending that forcing another hour would create enthusiasm.
Shelving is not a verdict on the game. It is a note about the fit between the game and your life at that moment.
That note is worth keeping. Games you shelved can return later without the pressure of a fresh purchase or a dramatic promise to finally finish them. Games you played and did not enjoy can stay finished. Games you loved can become part of a custom list you can revisit when you want to remember the shape of a particular year.
A social feed adds another useful layer, if you want it. Seeing what friends are rating or reviewing can give a game context without turning the choice into a ranking exercise. Someone else's note might tell you why a game worked for them. Your own note can say whether it worked for you.
Start with the game you can explain
The best first choice from a crowded catalog is often the one you can describe in one sentence.
"I want a co-op game for Friday night" is a clear reason. So is "I have forty minutes and want something I can finish a run in." "Everyone says I should play this" is weaker. It may still lead to a good game, but it gives you no way to tell whether the choice was yours.
The August catalog will keep moving. Another list will replace it. The point of tracking games is not to defeat that motion. It is to leave yourself a trail: what you tried, what stayed with you, what you put aside, and what you still want to find.
That is enough. Pick one game. Give it a proper evening. Then write down the truth before the next announcement gets loud.
Perthro is free on the App Store for iPhone running iOS 17.0 or later. You can track games, rate them, write reviews, manage a backlog and wishlist, build custom lists, follow friends, and import supported libraries from Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live. Read the community guidelines or visit support.