【Esther Studer】

LOL! It's August 8 and Esther Studerwe still haven't shared our most hype-worthy gaming picks for the month.

Yes, the final days of summer are usually quiet, but there are still good things to look forward to this year. In fact: some of that good stuff is already here. Let's take a quick look at those first.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrificeis out, and it's a gorgeous descent into madness from the combat wizards at Ninja Theory. Also out now is LawBreakers, a new online shooter from the Gears of Warcreator, and Tacoma, a story-driven journey from the team behind Gone Home.

There's still more to come, too. Here's a look at the rest of Mashable's as-yet-unreleased gaming highlights for August.

Sonic Mania (Aug. 15)

There's a new Sonic game coming and it's meant to bring back old-school fans. Sonic Maniaditches the series' more recent forays into 3D worlds, in favor of sprite-based graphics and 2D side-scrolling. Can it live up to the original Genesis games? That's definitely what Sega is hoping for.

Available for PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Aug. 22)

By most accounts, Uncharted: The Lost Legacyis a full-blown new game in the Unchartedseries. It ditches Nathan Drake in favor of two leading ladies -- Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross -- as they hunt for lost treasure. It also seems like Lost Legacybuilds on some of the newer ideas we saw in Uncharted 4.

Available for PlayStation 4.

Madden NFL 18 (Aug. 25)

Another year, another Madden season. Madden NFL 18is exactly what fans of virtual pro football want: more of the same. Like every other game in the long-running series, the latest Maddenfeatures its own quirks and new feature bullet points -- the big one this year is a story mode of some kind. But at its heart, it's still the same football game that many of us have been playing for years.

Available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Aug. 29)

This one may be the weirdest game of 2017. It's a Nintendo/Ubisoft collaboration that pairs Ubi's bizarro cartoon bunny Rabbids with the characters and locations of Super Mario's Mushroom Kingdom. Then there's the game itself, a tactical strategy game that has a lot in common with XCOM. Like, what? Can't wait to try this one.

Available for Switch.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Aug. 31)

There's one, final treat before August closes: a prequel to Dontnod's episodic slice-of-life thriller, Life is Strange. In Before the Storm, a prequel, you play out the story of how Chloe Price and Rachel Amber -- two key figures from the original five-episode run -- met and became friends. It's only three episodes, but the little we know sure sounds promising.

Available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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