Skip to main content

‘XCOM 2’ headlines June’s PlayStation Plus freebie games

 

It’s nearly the end of the month, which means it’s time for Sony to announce the free games PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive in June. This time around, you get access to a brilliant turn-based strategy game, as well as an underrated squad-based shooter from the last generation.

Recommended Videos

Beginning June 5, PlayStation 4 owners will be able to download XCOM 2 for free. Firaxis’ excellent sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown is even tougher than the original, with much more difficult and intelligent enemies who will exploit your every weakness. It expands on bizarre features, such as mind-control, and its guerilla warfare story has stakes even higher than the previous game.

Also free for PlayStation 4 is Trials Fusion, the motorcycle racing game from RedLynx and Ubisoft. The excellent physics-based title adds a futuristic twist to the series’ tried-and-true formula, and with the addition of special trick-based courses, there are plenty of ways to enjoy it. User-created tracks also give you nearly endless racing opportunities, and you can challenge your fellow PlayStation Plus members to beat your high score.

PlayStation 3 players get a treat this month, as well. Free in June is Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The squad-based tactical shooter takes a far more linear approach than its follow-up Wildlands, but the game’s excellent level design and streamlined mechanics make it satisfying and replayable. The competitive multiplayer portion sees the game at its absolute best, with objective-based modes that force players to work together.

Also free for PlayStation 3 is Zombie Driver HD, a top-down driving game similar to the first few Grand Theft Auto titles, but with an undead twist. Vita owners get Atomic Ninjas, a 2013 2.5D competitive platformer, as well as the puzzle game Squares, which uses a simple tile-based interface and is a perfect fit for the system.

Sony certainly offers a better selection of free games in June than Microsoft, which revealed its own lineup of Games With Gold titles earlier this week. Sony’s program will undergo a radical change next March, as it will stop giving away free PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita games in favor of only supporting the PlayStation 4. Occasionally, we’ve seen bonus PlayStation VR games given away, as well, which will likely continue after the change is made.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
3 new PlayStation Plus games to play this weekend (May 30-June 1)
Key art for Destiny 2: The Final Shape. It shows three characters standing in front of an orange sky.

Under normal circumstances, we would have to wait until next week to get our drop of new PlayStation Plus games, but this is a special occasion. We're currently right at the start of the Days of Play event where Sony celebrates with tons of community events and huge discounts on PS5 games and accessories. The icing on the cake is that we're not only getting four new games for Essential members, but an additional four for Extra and two more for Premium, with several already available. That's a lot to keep up with if you weren't prepared for it, which is where I come in. We will have to wait for most of the games until Tuesday, but here are a few new games you can start playing over this weekend to start the celebrations early.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Read more
GTA3 is coming to PlayStation Plus in big June update
Grand Theft Auto 3

June is just around the corner, and that means new PlayStation Plus freebies and even more games added to the catalog and classics collection — including Grand Theft Auto 3. The news comes on the heels of the PlayStation 5 Pro's first-ever discount, as well as more price cuts for the Days of Play 2025 sale.

The upcoming free titles include:

Read more
I found a great gaming subscription service in the most unlikely of places
The Cruncyroll game vault logo.

It has become a monthly habit of mine to mark my calendar and wait for the latest PS Plus games or Game Pass games announcement to drop to see whether or not I will be making full use of my subscription. With the exception of knowing all Xbox published games will be day one additions on its service, the rest of the games are always a mystery. That kind of unpredictability can be a nice incentive to try out some games or genres I normally wouldn't, but no matter how open-minded I try to be about new experiences, there's always going to be months I'm left disappointed.

Looking around at forums and comments surrounding the new lineup of games is always a mixed bag of praise, disappointment, and those poor souls who bemoan their fate of having just purchased a game announced for the service. With that major exception of day one Xbox games, the two biggest gaming subscription services follow nearly identical models of keeping its subscribers mostly in the dark about what games to expect. Naturally, this approach will never please everyone.

Read more