Game time
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School may be about to start for many, but summer is in full swing, and that means two things. First, we’ve got a big lineup of new games. Second, we’re having oppressive summer heat, giving you the perfect excuse to spend a little more time indoors. To help you decide how best to spend your extra time, we’ve put together a list of some of the biggest hits — and misses — of the summer so far, as well as a look ahead at some upcoming major releases.
Red Faction: Guerilla
With a shallow plot and an emphasis on blowing things up, Red Faction looks like the game industry’s answer to the Hollywood summer blockbuster. The game’s complex destruction modeling gives it some surprising depth, though, and makes it one of the most fun open-world games to date.
The Sims 3
The latest entry in the groundbreaking, real-life simulating series adds interesting complexity to your Sims’ personalities while placing them in a more interactive and dynamic world. Now to wait for the inevitable deluge of expansion packs.
NCAA Football 10
Football doesn’t change much from year to year, and neither do football games. The new NCAA doesn’t offer any major improvements over last year’s model, but it does include a lot of small but interesting enhancements to nearly every game mode, including a nicely expanded TeamBuilder. Even if you don’t care for them all, you’ll probably find enough to make it worth the upgrade.
UFC Undisputed 2009
It can take a while to get used to the controls, but so many small, perfect details — from the lack of a direct status display to the huge amount of unique commentary — make this not just an amazing UFC game, but also a great fighting game in its own right.
The Conduit
With good graphics, great use of the Wii Remote’s unique capabilities, and solid online multiplayer support, The Conduit manages to shoot down a lot of the common complaints about the Wii. The core game and story aren’t exactly amazing, but the total package is one of the most compelling third-party titles on Nintendo’s little system that could.
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings
With terrible graphics, frustrating attempts to use the Wii Remote’s unique capabilities, and very little that feels like a modern game, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings reinforces a lot of the common complaints about the Wii. The story has an Indiana Jones feel to it, but that’s mostly because it copies Raiders of the Lost Ark wherever it can.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This is an interesting attempt at creating an entire Harry Potter game through three mini-games: Quidditch, potion-making, and dueling. The problem is that all three minigames get old fast, in addition to presenting a few more cases of frustrating overreliance on Wiimote motion controls.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers suffers from the same shallowness as Red Faction but lacks the interestingly interactive destruction. Add to this some really questionable controls, periodic graphics-induced slowdown, and a general repetitiveness, and the end result is far from a fun game. It’s becoming clear that movie tie-in games simply don’t work.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Or do they? Ghostbusters: The Video Game reunites all of the principal actors from the films, as well as most of the supporting cast, working off a script from the original writers. Add to that a great translation of movie action to gameplay mechanics, and the game you get is simultaneously endearing, familiar, and fun. Ghostbusters proves that movie tie-in games can work, when they’re executed with patience and care.
Infamous
An open-world game that gives you interesting super powers and a vast domain in which to experiment with them, Infamous starts to drag its feet a bit toward the end and is full, from the beginning, of somewhat silly moral-choice moments. Nevertheless, it really captures the spirit of the comic-book superhero in some interesting and fun ways.
Prototype
Another open-world game with an ethically ambiguous superpowered protagonist, Prototype removes most of the morality system in favor of having your character be an out-an-out self-centered jerk. On the whole, it’s not quite as fun as Infamous, but it still has some interesting powers and ways to interact with the world around you.
Trine
A physics-based platformer, Trine, adds some really interesting variables to an equation that hasn’t changed much since the first Super Mario Bros. Three characters with a few simple abilities and a lot of complex interactions produce a surprisingly large amount of fun. The PC edition is out already, with Xbox Live and PlayStation versions to follow.
Wii Sports Resort
Finally, a true sequel to the game that made the Wii. Wii Sports Resort ships with the new WiiMotionPlus adapter, and minigames like archery, table tennis, and fencing really show off the much finer motion controls now available. A few of the games fall flat, but there is such a wide variety that you and your family are bound to find more than a few new favorites.
Shadow Complex
Another entry in the platformer genre, Shadow Complex is looking to channel less Mario Bros. and more Metroid, with its focus on exploration and item-collecting. One of the flagship titles in Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade,” it’ll be available for download on August 19th.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
It’s hard to argue with a game that seeks to combine the darkness and maturity of the recent Batman movies with the broad and diverse array of villains from the comic books. With an interesting mix of action, stealth, and puzzle-solving, Arkham Asylum is shaping up to be a very interesting game when it releases on August 25th.
The Beatles: Rock Band
If you aren’t already excited about September 9th, either you haven’t heard of The Beatles: Rock Band, or you don’t understand what it is. A game, made by the team that arguably created the modern music game, featuring 45 tracks by the group that arguably created modern music? What could possibly go wrong? Spoiler warning: Nothing. Nothing could go wrong.
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