All say hi to the top 10 upcoming games that are arriving to stores this June. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone who wishes to retreat from the customary summer sultriness and keep on gaming non-stop.
A new month arrives and it’s time to have a look to the upcoming games for June 2016! The next four weeks bring again a mixture of much anticipated titles, such as the latest Mirror’s Edge installment and The Technomancer, as well as injecting some Japanese vibe and bringing the universe of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lego-style.
Yes, there’s more to this month than your typical E3 craze and the gaming echoes of May, which are still beating hard in our machines (oh, all those invested hours at getting better in Overwatch…). As it will become painfully apparent, the great absentee from this top 10 list is No Man’s Sky, which has been pushed back to August due to some last-minute necessary tweaking.
But let’s not delve into the tragedies of videogame delaying and let’s jump right into our list!
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: June 7 (June 9 in Europe)
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Catalyst-PlayStation-4/dp/B00ZDYJ9P0″ variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on Amazon[/button]
Get those ergonomic shoes going and drill into Faith’s past. The fidgety heroine has been a while fighting totalitarianism in the metropolis and we’ll get to the origin of it all. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst brings back all the elements we loved from the original title – albeit overhauled, of course. The folks at DICE wanted to give us more freedom and thus, the city will welcome free-roaming exploration and environmental puzzles and trials on top of the main campaign.
Faith’s gameplay has been essentially shifted to running, parkour actions and melee attacks – so you will not find any guns this time. Both swiftness and evasion in all Faith’s movements are key and this will be enhanced by the absence of loading screens in the game. Or so we have been told – quite sweet indeed!
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst also contains several multiplayer features, embraced by the DICE folk as the so-called “social play”. While not bringing co-op or side-by-side competitive modes, the social play allows players’ actions to impact the world for other players’ games – and apparently there’s something for all gamers who like to play geocaching in their virtual lives.
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
Release Date: June 7
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Odin-Sphere-Leifthrasir-PlayStation-4-Standard/dp/B0186D1UQ0/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464543345&sr=1-2&keywords=Odin+Sphere%3A+Leifthrasir” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir on Amazon[/button]
Ok, we are technically not in front of a brand new title here – consider this the humbler version of Final Fantasy VII, in its own way. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir is a revamped, high-definition version of the 2D action RPG that Vanillaware put out of their sleeves back in 2007 for the PlayStation 2.
Back in those days, good sales and critics in both Japan and the rest of the world went hand by hand, praising the easy-to-master mechanics, its intricate storyline and combat systems. Hardcore fans had been asking for this for a while so Vanillaware delivers and brings essentially the very same original game with some performance tweaks. The extra cool thing of Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir is that it comes cross-platform – only for the PlayStation versions though!
Kirby: Planet Robobot
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: June 10
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Kirby-Planet-Robobot-Nintendo-3DS-Standard/dp/B01CKGI0XA/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464543437&sr=1-1&keywords=Kirby%3A+Planet+Robobot” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Kirby:Planet Robobot on Amazon[/button]
We know Kirby to be everything but a fluffy harmless ball, right? Now, you know things are getting out of control when this cheerful creature slips on a robot suit that also punches some blows of its own. HAL Laboratory brings their Kirby:Planet Robobot to our 3DS with the promise of adding new touches to that platform universe that is very known and dear to us.
As we mentioned in our trailer review, Kirby:Planet Robobot‘s new features revolve around that fancy robot suit, the main ticket Kirby has to ensure the security of its home world. Apart from the typical single-player campaign, the game adds a RPG-typle, multiplayer brawl mode that will host up to four players.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: June 10
Originally planned for May 27, the next Sherlock Holmes title belongs to the (in)famous group of “delayed games of 2016”. Luckily for us, the adjournment is a rather brief one.
The Devil’s Daughter is the next proposal developed by Frogwares that enables us to play the mind of Mr Holmes as he swags all his style up through the streets of London, avid of new cases to resolve. If you are familiar with other Frogwares’ titles, then you know the drill. The game proposes a combination of scene investigation and clue examination that leads afterwards to the “deduction board” feature, where different deductions schemes take place and allow Sherlock to interpret the case and find (or not) the culprit. All of this spiced up with action sequences, cinematic scenes and the amazing Watson as sidekick and banter provider.
Mighty No. 9
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U
Release Date: June 21
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-No-9-PlayStation-4/dp/B00VZAQ2X8/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464544089&sr=1-1&keywords=Mighty+No+9″ variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Mighty No 9 on Amazon[/button]
Another game, another delay. No, really. The story is getting old so we will not sing this tune anymore for the rest of the article.
Mighty No.9 is an action-platform title developed hand in hand by Comcept and Inti Creates. It comes directly from the Kickstarter oven where it harvested an amazing funding success, therefore making it a very community-oriented game. Mighty No.9 drinks directly from another successful title, Mega Man, in that we control a platforming hero that advances through the screen jumping, shooting and also dashing: enemies can be teared to gain a substance that grant special enhancements. Attention to those lovely 2D and 3D scenarios. Mighty No.9 may appear simple at first but it will likely generate more games in the future.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4
Release Date: June 21
Known as Biohazard: Umbrella Corps in Japan, this shooter is a spin-off of the Resident Evil series and their own addition to the world of competitive multiplayer gaming.
12 years after the collapse of the Umbrella Corporation, some of their research information plans are still out there and other corporations are seeking these badly. Each player will take up the role of a mercenary sent into zombie-infested battlegrounds with the task of retrieving some of those lost secrets. Combats will happen between two factions or corporations and the task range is rather straight-forward: team up with your homies, survive the zombies, annihilate the hostile team. Repeat. Capcom brings us again to the ravaging world of Resident Evil and a plethora of very cool weapons and gears to choose for each of the three classes we can play.
The Technomancer
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: June 28
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Technomancer-Xbox-One/dp/B01CKOP666/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464544648&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Technomancer” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy The Technomancer on Amazon[/button]
If you are all into sci-fi, RPG games and post-apocalyptic versions of the Red Planet, then The Technomancer should clearly be in your list. It’s developed by Spiders, the same guys behind Mars: War Logs, and according to their CEO, it’s the biggest and most immersive game they have made so far.
The Martian setting has not changed although the characters are new. Our protagonist this time is an aspiring technomancer, meaning, a cybernetic “mage-warrior”, who is on the brink of passing his initiation rite amidst the so-called War of Water. The game brings skill trees, different fighting styles and a complete character customization as well as companions, interactivity, decisions and consequences and tons of crafting.
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS,Wii U
Release Date: June 28
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Star-Wars-Force-Awakens-Standard/dp/B01BCMBTTA/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464544806&sr=1-2&keywords=Lego+Star+Wars%3A+The+Force+Awakens” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Amazon[/button]
The fifth installment of Lego’s very own Star Wars adaptations comes from the stove of TT Games and it looks pretty neat. Although The Force Awakens does not divert drastically from the gameplay mechanics of previous games it does bring some new features on the table. The Multi-Build system and the “Blaster Battles”, a special type of ranged combats, are among those. Playable characters include the essential list you would expect and some more: Rey, Finn, Han Solo, Kylo Ren, C-3PO, BB-8 and Poe Cameron, among others.
The interesting bit is that while reenacting the favorite scenes of the movie, the game also gifts us with several characters’ backstories. Meaning, we’ll get to know a tad more about what happens between the Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens episodes. All of that energized with the witty Lego touch, of course.
Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Release Date: June 28 (July 1 in Europe)
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/Star-Ocean-Integrity-Faithlessness-PlayStation-4/dp/B00ZM6I932/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464544988&sr=1-1&keywords=Star+Ocean+5%3A+Integrity+and+Faithlessness” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness on Amazon[/button]
Tearing apart between honesty and treachery, the world of Star Ocean never gets too boring. Integrity and Faithlessness is the highly-awaited next game of the Star Ocean franchise, developed by tri-Ace. It jumps back in time to a line of events between the second and third game of the series and it promises another unforgettable storyline with multiple endings.
A bunch of years have passed since the previous Star Ocean, The Last Hope, was presented to the world. Since then, the development team has had time to improve the game mechanics and to make the game look and feel more dynamic than its predecessors. This rule of fluidity directs the real-time action encounters, the transitions between actual gameplay and cut scenes, the switching between characters and the angling of the camera, to name but a few of those. The levels of interactivity and item creation from previous games are also coming back.
7 Days to Die
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: June 28 (July 1 in Europe)
[button type=”link” link=”http://www.amazon.com/7-Days-Die-PlayStation-4/dp/B01DPUVMNU/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1464545308&sr=1-1&keywords=7+Days+to+Die” variation=”btn-success” target=”blank”]Buy 7 Days to Die on Amazon[/button]
Telltale ventures into the world of publishing by bringing The Fun Pimps’ 7 Days to Die to our computers and consoles. The game has a proven record of success since its launch on the Steam Early Access program back in December 2013. It has sold more than 1.5 million copies since then and the development horizon is still expanding.
7 Days to Die comprises all the core elements that you may expect in your typical survival genre game – and we are not talking about the casual existence of hungry zombies here. However, its strongest point relies in its combination between RPG elements (character growth and customization is rather big) and building schemes. An interesting title if you are really into world-building stuff and crafting amidst the chaos.
Getting Ready for July and August
There’re still a number of interesting titles in the pipeline for the next two months, including No Man’s Sky, Song of the Deep, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. However, this summer seems to take things easy. We will sing a different story as fall approaches and the list starts getting hectic again.
And you, are you playing some new titles this month or are you keeping the May momentum? Let us know!
