June often marks a last hurrah for summer game releases. Typically, as we lead into July and August there tends to be a dry patch as we prepare for our annual nosedive into the blockbuster gaming season. It’s not all bad news – in fact, many cherish this late summer lull, feverishly crossing games off their backlog, digging around for any hidden gems they may have missed.
Looking back, June was quite the scorcher, especially for PlayStation fans. Alongside nostalgia-filled remasters in the forms of Crash and WipEout, we had a flurry of strong sequels with some solid debuts to match. Housemarque demonstrated its golden touch with the sublime Nex Machina while Nintendo scored a knock-out with its super-fun fighter, ARMS. Upsets were few and far between this month though some will be left a little underwhelmed by Micro Machines World Series – a game many of our readers had been looking forward to.
Top Picks of June 2017
WipEout Omega Collection – 9/10
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – 9/10
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood – 9/10
New Releases
ARMS – 8/10 (Video Review Chat)
Micro Machines World Series – 6/10
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Extended Edition – 6/10
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series Episode 2 – No Score*
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls PS4 – No Score*
Hardware & Accessories
So, which games did you end up buying or shunning this month? Were there any stand-out surprises when reviews went live? Let us know in the comments below.
*For episodic games, we do not issue a score until the full series is available. Typically, we don’t score re-releases or ports either.
Avenger
Dirt 4 was disappointing. Like a tasty squash which someone watered down too much.
Arms is fantastic. I don’t do motion games for the whimsical nature and lack of reliable tracking, but Arms has nailed it all.
Not sure I’m feeling the Summer drought personally. Got Assetto Corsa DLC, Splatoon 2, Mario + Rabbids, F1 2017 to look forward to before Forza 7, Cuphead, and PCars hit beggining in early Autumn. The backlog will wash down any thirst :p
ron_mcphatty
I rarely splash out on preorders but Elite and Wipeout both firmly grabbed my interest this month. I feel a bit ambivalent about Crash, I didn’t play the original much, but I do get its iconic status so it’s good to see it getting so much attention, on the other hand I was so excited for Micro Machines and it’s gutting to see such a half hearted result. Summer is an odd one, I feel like I’ve come to the end of a long line of big, time hungry games and now I’ve got a nice little backlog and not much on the horizon for me but a lot of outdoor distractions, so I’m wondering do I save something big for autumn and do I really want a Switch or not? First world problems for sure haha.