It’s June, and with nearly half of 2024 behind us, we continue to look to the future – and that means the new games dropping onto Xbox and Game Pass in the month ahead.
June 2024 seemingly sticks to traditional, keeping quiet, saving the big guns until later in the year. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a host of new Xbox and Game Pass games that you should be playing.
We’ve rounded up nine of the finest. Well, eight and a half…
Tour de France 2024
Get ready to don some oh-so-flattering multi-coloured lycra because the latest instalment of the Tour de France game franchise is heading to consoles this month.
We can’t say we’re that excited as previous editions have failed to capture the dynamism of the tour, but we can always be hopeful that Tour de France 2024 is the game that breaks the mould.
New features this year include more than 10 Pro Tour teams and over 300 additional riders, the Tour de France 2024 route (which we take as a given), and improved accessibility for players with disabilities. There’s some proper criterium multiplayer for the first time too.
Still Wakes The Deep
Even though pedalling up a mountain seems like a nightmare, the Xbox is offering up scarier things this month with Still Wakes The Deep.
This first-person narrative horror game comes to us from The Chinese Room, creator of games such as Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and Dear Esther.
This time you’ll be getting scared on an off-shore oil rig during a vicious storm, which, in true horror movie style, has had its lines of communication severed. All you know is that an unknowable horror has come aboard and your crew have mysteriously vanished. You’ll have to try and escape with your life intact by swimming through flooded corridors, traversing the failing structure and not slipping in the numerous puddles of blood.
Expect a health and safety nightmare.
Democracy 4: Console Edition
If you’re a UK resident and a fan of all things political then the release of Democracy 4: Console Edition seems like perfect timing. As we enter the build up to a general election, you can play along at home, taking the role of President or Prime Minister in one of ten countries (USA, UK, Japan, France, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Italy, or South Korea), hoping to do better in a virtual world than the real-life goons currently in charge.
Heavy on the stats, and resembling Football Manager in game style, in Democracy 4: Console Edition you’ll get to make decisions to run the country your way. But, with having to keep one eye on the budget and one on the popularity polls, will you do a good job?
NeoSprint
Atari’s Sprint series of racing games is back after a bit of a hiatus – the last game releasing in 1987.
NeoSprint is a single screen arcade racer for up to 8 players and promises a racing experience that will satisfy even the most radical of speed demons. The game also features a track builder experience where you can build ramps, jumps, banks and decorations in four different biomes – forest, desert, winter, and city.
Campaign mode, Grand Prix, Obstacle Courses and Time Trials provide tons of pulse-pounding race content, and multiplayer modes make for chaotic fun.
#BLUD
This game is giving us all the nostalgic feels, looking very much like the wacky and chaotic animated shows of the 90s and 00s and featuring their irreverent humour.
In #BLUD, a blend of action RPG and dungeon crawler, you’ll play as Becky Brewster, the new kid at Carpentersville High whose Buffey-esque mission is to hunt down vampires and slay the undead.
The game has some innovative features including being able to enhance your magic skills with grimoires and school supplies, investigate demonic infestations through the town’s social media and taking selfies with demons to analyse their weaknesses.
Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic
If the 2021 platformer Roxy Racoon passed you by, as it did us, then have no fear because the game is now being retold using a pinball format.
We’ve got our fair share of pinball games on the Xbox but Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic could be something a bit different as it utilises a story mode, where you have to try and stop a maniacal witch from spreading her dark magic and play on tables through nine unique worlds based on parks and urban streets to casinos and more.
Glyphs of Gitzan
A release from the very busy people at Eastasiasoft, (behind Roxy Raccoon’s Pinball Panic too), Glyphs of Gitzan is a block-sliding puzzle adventure with over 50 top-down pixel art style levels.Â
Playing as a young explorer, you’ll visit mysterious ruins and push stone pillars across tiled floors to align them with rows of glyphs in order to unlock the next tricky chamber. If you’re a fan of simple, yet engaging puzzlers then this might be worth a closer look.
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
The RPG Shin Megami Tensai V released onto Nintendo Switch in 2021 and now Xbox players get to experience this definitive version of the game, which has been massively expanded with a brand-new storyline.
And what a storyline it is, complete with not one but two complete story paths that promise an eternal conflict between angels and demons in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, and choices to make that will dictate the fate of all existence.
Fans of dense plotlines and turn-based combat rejoice.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Even critics of the genre will have heard of Elden Ring, the vast RPG game that’s racked up its fair share of awards and acclaim since its release in 2022.
The Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansion to the base game that beckons players to the brand new Land of Shadow with an all-new story imbued with mystery, perilous dungeons and new enemies.
Shadow of the Erdtree also comes with new weapons, equipment and magic not available in the base game, further adding to fan’s enjoyment of this fantastical game.
So that’s your lot for June. A bit of cycling, some political fun, retro racing and pinball magic. There’s even the much anticipated first bit of new content for the acclaimed Elden Ring. But what will you be playing? Get into the comments and let us know.
And as for July? Well, it’s another tough, pretty slow month, but EA SPORTS College Football 25, F1 Manager 2024 and Alaskan Road Truckers: Highway Edition should be on your radar. We’ll be back next month with a complete rundown – and hopefully some more games!
