As we head into June, new game releases slow down quite a bit, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have anything to play. If you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you get access to several free games, including an underrated kart racer and the spin-off to a popular historical series.
For the entire month of June, Xbox One players will be able to grab Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia for free. The game is the third entry in the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles trilogy, which shifts the action to a 2.5D perspective and focuses on stealth gameplay similar to Mark of the Ninja. If you’ve been subscribed to Xbox Live Gold for a while now, you may already have Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India on your account — the former was given away in 2016, while the latter was free earlier this year.
The other Xbox One freebie for June isn’t actually a game, but a bundle of content for Smite. Available from June 16 through July 15, the Smite “Gold Bundle” includes $100 worth of extra goodies, such as 20 extra gods to play with and 50 bonus cosmetic items. It appears to be nearly identical to what Sony gave away through its own PlayStation Plus program late last year.
Xbox 360 owners might get the better deal in June. From June 1 through June 15, they’ll be able to download Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, a kart racer in the style of Mario Kart. It’s a surprisingly great racing game and was given away for the PlayStation Vita by Sony in December 2013. As of yet, the game hasn’t seen another sequel.
From June 16 through the end of the month, Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues will be free for Xbox 360. It contains scenes from all four Indiana Jones movies — even the one you try to forget — and supports two-player cooperative play. It originally released back in 2009 to middling reviews.
As always, both Xbox 360 games will be fully playable on Xbox One through backward compatibility.
June’s games are a bit of a letdown when you consider what Microsoft offered this past month. In May, subscribers were given Super Mega Baseball 2 on the same day it launched, along with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the cult-hit shooter Vanquish.
