ARMS
Nintendo’s new heavy hitter ARMS released for the Nintendo Switch on June 16 with praise for its notably complex fighting strategies using interchangeable arms, while still being evocative of classic fighting Nintendo games like Punch-Out.
Up to four players can control numerous different fighters, ranging from a classic looking stretchy guy named Spring Man to a girl made out of literal ramen noodles by the name of Min Min. You jump, dodge, and punch at your enemies with special arms that can be switched up to better fit your fighting style. Besides the classic multiplayer mode with both online and couch co-op functionality, ARMS also has a few other modes including Grand Prix where you attempt to win 10 fights in a row with seven different levels of difficulty, or other versus modes where you can play springy versions of basketball, volleyball, target shooting, and more.
ARMS released on the Nintendo Switch on June 16.
TEKKEN 7
Originally, Tekken 7 had a limited arcade release in Japan in 2015 (with an updated version dropping in 2016 entitled Tekken 7: Fated Retribution), but it has finally made its way to PC, Xbox One, and PS4 at the very beginning of last month on June 2. Tekken 7 revolves around 1v1 battles with both single and multiplayer availability.
A story mode is available for single players, which picks up the narrative after the proceedings of Tekken 6. However, Tekken 7 is best while playing with others in both online or local multiplayer. A new rage mechanic has been added to add some balance to matches, where you can deal significantly more damage to the other player when your health reaches critical levels. A new mechanism called Power Crush also allows you to continue dealing attacks every while getting hit by the enemy player. Say goodbye to getting stuck in the corner while your buddy spams one move over and over.
2017 has been a great year for fighting games so far, and Tekken 7 continues that trend with a title perfect for duking it out with your buddies.
THE ELDER SCROLLS ONLINE: MORROWIND
The Elder Scrolls Online is a MMORPG set in the land of Tamriel, offering an online multiplayer experience in line with the rest of The Elder Scrolls main series. With a story indirectly connected to the rest of the single-player games, The Elder Scrolls Online takes place over 1000 years before the events of Skyrim, and approximately 700 years before Morrowind and Oblivion.
Even though the game originally launched in 2014 after seven years of development, a new chapter expansion released on June 6 and featured the new location of Vvardenfell where the events of Morrowind took place. Unlike other downloadable content for Elder Scrolls Online, the Morrowind expansion could not be purchased with in-game “crown points” and instead is available as a separate title.
The Elder Scroll Online: Morrowind includes over 30 hours of additional content, with a whole new Warden player class, Vvardenfell land expansion, 12-player trials, and 4v4v4 battle mode entitled “Battlegrounds.” The battle mode is a particularly fun inclusion for multiplayer, with competitive matches against other online players spanning across three maps with several game types.
WIPEOUT OMEGA COLLECTION
For the first of two racing games featured this month, WipEout Omega Collection is the assemblage of three titles in the WipEout sci-fi racing series. These include WipEout HD first released in 2008, WipEout HD Fury an expansion for the first game released in 2009, and WipEout 2048 from 2012. These three are the most recent releases in the WipEout series, with seven others dating all the way back to 1995.
The Omega Collection takes these titles and enhances them for both the PS4 and PS4 Pro. This remaster improves the frame-rate to 60 FPS, fixes minor technical aspects, remasters sounds, and offers dynamic 4K with HDR support on PS4 Pro.
Each game has its own career mode, with split-screen local multiplayer and online races with up to 12 others in tournaments, single races, time trials, or WipEout’s speical zone mode. In zone mode, one player controls a ship incapable of slowing down, with speed increasing every ten seconds. The goal is to last as long as possible without destroying your ship, with this getting exceedingly harder as the speed increases.
The WipEout Omega Collection is a PS4 exclusive, and released on June 7.
DIRT 4
If you’re into racing games, then here is another one for you, Dirt 4 is a rally-themed racer with enough variety to keep you playing for hours. Despite the lack of splitscreen for local co-op, Dirt 4 still has some great online multiplayer modes with mainline and custom PvP matches for up to eight players.
You can also design your own courses with a new “Your Stage” feature, where you can adjust two sliders for length of race and complexity in order for a map in five different countries to procedurally generate your chosen preference. If you’re feeling up for a challenge, why not crank both up to the max and just see how you fare?
Even though Dirt 4 has more of a focus for single-player racing than other racing games out there, there’s still enough variety with multiplayer content for you and your friends to get together online for a good time. Dirt 4 released for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on June 9.
FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD
The Stormblood expansion for Final Fantasy XIV (or Final Fantasy Online) has been highly anticipated for players of the mainline game. It offers a ton of new content, including an increased level cap, red mage and samurai jobs, and new quests, maps, dungeons, raids, and more.
Final Fantasy XIV released all the way back in 2010, with a remake/relaunch entitled Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn a few years later in 2013. Since then, major expansions include Heavensward in 2015 and now Stormblood in 2017. If you have ever considered giving Final Fantasy XIV Online a try, now would defiantly be the time after this meaty new addition.
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood has traditional MMORPG multiplayer elements, with questing and exploring with other players likely taking up most of your time. The expansion released for PC and PS4 on June 20.
DEAD BY DAYLIGHT (CONSOLES)
If your friends have ever made you so angry you just wanted to clamp their leg in a bear trap and chase them around haunted asylums, dark and desolate forests, or abandoned junkyards, then Dead by Daylight is the game for you.
With up to four players (four is definitely the most fun), one person takes control of a deranged killer in first-person while the remaining players attempt to escape your grasp as the survivors in third-person. The goal is to get out of the enclosed areas by either repairing generators to open giant metal doors, or ducking through a tiny trap door offered as a last chance to the final remaining survivor. While trying to start the generators, you must make sure to avoid the killer at all costs by crawling, ducking, and sneaking, and if it comes to it, an all-out sprint.
There are several types of killers available, each with their own special skill. Even though the killers cannot crouch or even run, they walk at a fast pace that is even faster than a survivor’s sprint speed.
If you’re thinking this might get boring after a few tries, there’s notable variety with how games can turn out. For example, the killer can place survivors on numerous (and gruesome) hooks placed throughout the maps, but there is a chance for escape from these before death. Offering a 4% chance for survival, you can press a button to attempt to free yourself from the hook, but if it doesn’t work you only speed up your time left before you eventually bleed out and die.
Dead by Daylight has been available on PC since last year, but came to both PS4 and Xbox One on June 23. Unfortunately, there is no couch co-op since split screen would likely cause screen-peeking by the killer in order to figure out where all the survivors are, but you can still play online with up to four people.
If you’re looking for more ideas of fun games to play with friends, why not check out our list of the best multiplayer games of May 2017?
