Games with Gold June 2017: these are the free games you can get this month

One of the main benefits of being an Xbox Live Gold subscriber is definitely the fact that each month you get access to a range of free games across the Xbox One and Xbox 360 platforms. If you’re an Xbox One owner, backwards compatibility means you get to take advantage of the Xbox 360 titles too.

This is a great way to try games you might not otherwise have played, whether because they're indie titles that slip under your radar or simply because you don’t have the funds to buy several games a month.

Even if you don’t have the console memory or the time to spare right now, we’d say it’s always worth claiming them every month anyway as you’ll then have free access to them for as long as you have an active Xbox Live account.

Since this is a monthly event, we’ve decided to create a one-stop shop where you’ll be able to find the newest free games, as well as scroll back and see which games were featured in previous months. That way you’ll know whether it’s worth holding out for a game to appear in an upcoming Games with Gold month or if it's already been offered.

So without further ado, here are the free Xbox Live games in North America, Europe, and Australia for June 2017.

Don't forget some of the May titles are still available too!

June 2017

Xbox One

SpeedRunners - Available June 1 to June 30

Speedrunners is a 2D side-scrolling game in which up to four players race to get to the end of a level. This is a game that's entirely based around momentum, so you'll want to dodge every obstacle to keep your speed up and your character ahead of the opposition.

Making things more complicated is the fact that you and your opponents can pick up items to speed themselves up and slow each other down.

Speedrunners is a fantastic multiplayer gaming experience. It hasn't been available on Xbox One before now, and you'd be crazy to not give it a try for free.

Watch Dogs - Available June 26 to July 15 (usually $29.99/ £23.99/ AU$39.95)

If you've ever been frustrated by the lack of hacking in Grand Theft Auto, then Watch Dogs might just be the game for you.

Set in a techno-dystopian future, you play as Aiden Pearce, a hacker who's seeking revenge against the system that's responsible for the death of his niece.

Gameplay-wise the game revolves around you completing missions in an open-world setting where you'll be able to hack everything about your surroundings including changing traffic lights and gaining access to security cameras.

The hacking might not have been as deep as some hoped it would be, but Watch Dogs offers an enjoyable enough twist on the open-world formula.

Xbox 360

Assassin's Creed III - Available June 1 to June 15 (usually $19.99/ £8.99/ AU$14.95)

We're not going to sugarcoat it, Assassin's Creed III isn't the best game in the franchise. In fact it's probably one of the worst.

The game moved away from the story of Ezio (who we'd played as in the three Assassin's Creed 2 games) towards a new protagonist, and changed the setting from Renaissance Italy to America around the time of the American Revolution.

However while the setting and characters brought some much needed change to the series, a lot of the new ideas the game introduced felt a little under-baked, and a lot of criticism was levelled at the game's numerous bugs.

Nevertheless, if you've previously missed out on this part of the Assassin's Creed story, now is the perfect time to fill in the blanks.

Dragon Age: Origins - Available June 16 to June 30 (usually $14.99/ £14.99/ AU$19.95)

Bioware is best known for its sci-fi RPGs, namely Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, but Dragon Age: Origins saw the company embrace a fantasy setting with great results.

Despite the change in setting, the game remains a staunchly Bioware experience. You build up a party of characters that you grow immensely invested in, and the game's numerous side-quests can easy eat up dozens of hours of your time.

If you want to see where the Dragon Age franchise started, this is the game for you.

May 2017

Xbox One

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris – Available May 16 to June 15 (usually $19.99/ £14.99/ AU $26.95)

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is an isometric-view four-player local and online co-op take on the Lara Croft series.

Temple of Osiris is a sequel to Guardian of Light and takes players and their friends to the Temple of Osiris in Egypt where they'll be able to play as Lara, her rival Carter Bell or the gods Isis or Horus to fight against the forces of nature and defeat the evil deity Set.

The game works very well as a co-op experience, but it can also be played in single player with no changes to the quests and story.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Director's Cut – Available May 1 to May 31 (usually $14.99/ £11.99 / listed as Coming Soon on Australian store)

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a fast-paced and challenging platformer in which players move between two boldly designed game dream worlds across 33 levels to solve puzzles and fight enemies.

Xbox 360

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II – Available May 1 to May 15 (usually $19.99 / £11.99/ AU $29.95)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is a third-person action-adventure title which has players take control of a clone of Starkiller, the anti-hero protagonist of the original Force Unleashed game.

The game's plot starts six months after the events of the first game and revolves around the clone's quest to find out more about his identity and find his love interest armed with the force, his lightsaber and a choice between the light side and the dark side.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga – Available May 16 to May 31 (usually $19.99/ £11.99/ AU $29.95)

It's a good month for Star Wars fans! We're all fairly used to the whimsical Lego video game adaptions of famous franchises by now and this title plays much the same as all the rest.

This one is a combination of the game Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, spanning the first six episodes of the Star Wars saga and allowing you to play more than 120 Star Wars characters.

April 2017

Xbox One

Ryse: Son of Rome – Available April 1 to April 30 (currently only available as part of a bundle in US and AU for ($29.99/ AU $69.95)

Ryse: Son of Rome takes players back to the violent days of the Roman Empire and places them in the leather sandals of soldier Marius Titus. The game doesn't break any new ground with its themes, taking the lead from Gladiator with a quest that sees you go on a perilous journey to avenge the death of your family and embody the glory of Rome. There's even a Colosseum mode.

The Walking Dead: Season Two – Available April 16 to May 15 (usually £19.99/ $24.99/ AU $33.45)

This is one that will naturally be of greatest interest to those that have played season one but even if you haven't, it's worth picking it up if you plan to buy season one and play at a later date. The Walking Dead is the usual narrative-heavy, difficult decision making gameplay that we've come to know and love and it's definitely one of the better franchises the studio has tackled.

Players will follow the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse who must fight to survive on her own.

Xbox 360

Darksiders – Available April 1 to April 15 (usually £14.99/ $19.99/ AU$29.95)

Looking for a solid hack and slash role playing game? Then you may very well want to pick up Darksiders. Taking inspiration from the story of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the Book of Revelations, it's safe to say it's not throwing you into a light and cheery game world but it is a fascinating one, with great combat and good replay value.

Players take up the role of War, one of the four horsemen and must engage in combat, solve puzzles and explore the game world.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Available April 16 to April 30 (usually £8.99/ $19.99/ AU $9.95)

This month's Games With Gold is fairly historical in nature, isn't it? Assassin's Creed: Revelations is a peaking point for the Assassin's Creed series as the final chapter in the Ezio Auditore trilogy. In this title the aging Ezio climbs and fights his way across Constantinople in the familiar Assassin's Creed fashion as he attempts to unlock the secrets of his ancestor Altair.