XCOM 2 and Trials Fusion headline PlayStation Plus' games for June
Plus Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on PS3, and more.
PlayStation Plus' games line-up for June has been revealed, and it's another good 'un, with XCOM 2 and Trails Fusion leading the charge on PlayStation 4.
XCOM 2, of course, is the acclaimed follow-up to Firaxis' lauded reboot of Julian Gollop's celebrated tactical turn-based classic, and came to PlayStation 4 in 2016. Chris Bratt loved it when he reviewed it for Eurogamer back in the day - ever-present time-limit, procedurally generated maps, and all.
"Moment to moment, the thing that makes this astonishing game truly sing is the way in which it's managed to respond to the bad habits we picked up last time around," said Chris as his Essential stamp came down, "Move faster, it urges. Take more risks. Become a more interesting player. XCOM 2 isn't a reworking of the original game, then - it's a genuine response to it."
Trials Fusion, meanwhile, earned a classic Eurogamer 8/10 back in 2014. It had a tough act to follow after the superb Trials Evolution, so it was no real surprise when developer RedLynx opted to only subtly tweak the formula. Luckily, that meant Fusion still featured excellent level design, crowd-pleasing acrobatics, tight technical riding, plus minor additions like its faintly futuristic setting, quad bikes, and new trick system.
"Trials Fusion is still a supremely enjoyable game," said Tom Bramwell in his review, "but it takes very few risks in its desire to stand the test of time [...] Perhaps that was always likely to happen after a game as complete as Trials Evolution [but I've] still spent a dozen hours enjoying everything Fusion has to offer and can't imagine anyone finding much fault with any of it."
Over on PS3, June's PlayStation Plus offerings very much resemble four-wheeled arcade slaughterer Zombie Driver HD and third-person tactical shooter, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
Future Solider, said Eurogamer on release, "retains enough of its strategic core to make it an easy recommendation for those hungry for another tour of duty." Zombie Driver, meanwhile, was called "a particularly goofy example of the sort of guilty gaming pleasure that rarely gets a look-in amongst the autumn blockbusters [...] it's impossible to dislike."
And that just leaves June's PlayStation Vita offerings, which this month take the form of competitive platformer Atomic Ninjas and "fast puzzle reflex game" Squares.