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Games with Gold June Lineup: Just ‘Cause We Can

By on May 30, 2015

Microsoft’s free Games with Gold June lineup is, frankly, anemic at best. It doesn’t quite match up to the enormously crowd-pleasing/promotional goldmine that is Playstation Plus free games next month. Oh well. This is where we say “free is still free” and somberly gaze across the street at the happy families and their ice cream cones.

Okay, it’s not that bad. Save for a repeat, the other three titles are worth your time. Probably. Maybe. Here’s the list, courtesy of Major Nelson.

Xbox One

(both Xbox One titles are free for the entirety of June 2015)

Massive Chalice

Have no idea what this is? I didn’t either until a day ago. It’s a turn-based, squad-commanding game from Double Fine (Psychonauts, Broken Age), representing an eerie parallelism between Microsoft’s and Sony’s offerings this month. The latter is putting out Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-A-Fide Edition. Massive Chalice is launching for the Xbox One on June 1, which should make downloading it for free on that day all that much sweeter.

Consider it an XCOM: Enemy Unknown-lite, swapping between the macro and micro strategies of managing your units. The most compelling feature – you can mate your units and create new fighters generated from their “genetic code.” With permadeath on thsoe units a prevailing feature as well, you’re bound to encounter some tragedy along the way.

Pool Nation FX

Somebody at Microsoft really, really likes billiards. Or really, really hates billiards. Either way, Pool Nation FX, now in its third month as a free Games with Gold offering, goes for realism in billiard simulation. I think we can officially put it down as a running joke, too. Nevertheless, it’s a decent pool simulator for all those people without a table in their basements.

Fair warning to Microsoft: next month the adjectives won’t be so kind.

Xbox 360

Just Cause 2 (available free from June 1 to June 15)

If Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is Sony’s promotion monster leading up to E3, Just Cause 2 is most certainly Microsoft’s. Avalanche Studios has two massive games on the horizon, both based around a familier open-world, destruction-happy framework, both with an IP to live up to. The obvious one is Just Cause 3, with the other Mad Max. Putting out Just Cause 2 for free is a smart move for the developer. It’s a great, pure escapism kind game.

Just Cause 2 Xbox 360 Games with Gold June

Just Cause 2 is an open world game that wasn’t made by Ubisoft, which automatically makes it unique. But it’s better than that. You can blow up most buildings, grapple hook and parachute your way anywhere and generally wreak havoc in a tropical paradise that isn’t populated by privileged white people (that was a jab at Ubisoft’s Far Cry). So we don’t lose sight of what’s really important, here’s a trailer for Just Cause 3, just ’cause (I’m going to make that joke until I die).

Thief (available free from June 16 to June 30)

Thief was a disappointment. That’s a fact. Maybe it will feel like less of a disappointment when its free.

Thief Xbox 360 Games with Gold June

This long-gestating reboot for the first-person stealth franchise (which was a revolution at the time of the original’s release) suffered from the dichotomy of high expectations and little room to maneuver. It needed to be a good Thief game, but the only good Thief games could have ever existed when the original came out. Now the concepts are outdated, but the new team couldn’t afford to alienate the expectations of the built-in day-one purchasers.

In other words, a bummer of a position for any designer, and an unfortunate misstep. To leave things on a brighter note, here’s why you should just play Just Cause 2 instead.

About Trevor Ruben

Though I contribute to many online publications on a regular basis, including The Checkout, the crux of my writing lies in video games. When not writing, I'm often streaming a variety of games on Twitch.

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