June started with both the bad news that FIFA 16 was not coming to PS Vita or 3DS, and the good news that XCOM 2 was on the way – albeit only for PC. That was just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg as Fallout 4 was announced by Bethesda and we got our first look at the Ratchet & Clank reboot.
Titanfall entered the EA Access vault despite previous statements that it never would, and I took a wander in Wander, one of the worst games to ever grace a console. The Rumour Mill suggested the impending reveals of The Nathan Drake Collection (correct), Final Fantasy VII Remake (correct), and the remaster no one wanted, Prototype II for Xbox One and PS4 (correct).
And then E3 and the unthinkable happened, as The Last Guardian was back! There were tonnes of new games announced including Plants vs Zombies 2, Unravel, Transformers: Devastation, Gears of War 4, Rock Band, Horizon: Zero Dawn, For Honor, and Rigs. We also got a look at a stunning Uncharted 4 demo, which is the video I always send to people when they ask “Xbox One or PS4?”
I can’t cover everything that happened at E3, so handily there a nice catch up post with everything in it, you can find it here.
Big games for June include Batman: Arkham Knight, The Elder Scrolls Online, and after months of delay, the PlayStation Plus version of Driveclub.
The scandal of the month was provided by Activision and Bungie who revealed utterly ridiculous pricing for The Taken King expansion for Destiny. They changed their stance ever so slightly but remained firm on the price which was akin to a brand new game rather than expansion. Of course, the internet went nuts for a couple of weeks, but everyone bought the expansion at full price and it topped both the digital and phsyical charts.
One of the most interesting news items of the month was that the main Devil May Cry series is not over. Capcom decided that the reboot, DmC: Devil May Cry, was an alternate universe version of Dante, and DmC 5 (if it ever happens) will pick up from the end of DmC 4.
Outside the world of video games the immigrant crisis started to get headlines in the UK, with over 5,000 African migrants rescued in just three days in the Mediterranean. A roller-coaster at Alton Towers crashed leaving four people critically injured, and Sepp Blatter announced his resignation from FIFA. Apple announced it’s streaming music service, Chris Evans becomes the new host of Top Gear, and nine people were killed in a horrific a mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
In more cheerful news, hundreds of Americans were eaten by dinosaurs, much to the delight of everyone who saw Jurassic World. Meanwhile Pixar showed us the inside of our heads with the superb Inside Out.
As for the weather, the first day of summer was exactly what you would expect: a deep area of low pressure centred to the west of Scotland with the UK almost entirely covered by cloud. Much of June was rather cool in an often westerly or north-westerly flow, but – huzzah! – it became very warm at the end of the month, when 32.5 °C was recorded at Heathrow.