All right my gaming brethren, summer is finally upon us. By looking at the calendar and the hot weather, you would think that summer was already in full swing. However, for the video game industry it doesn’t truthfully become summer until the dreaded video game drought.
Sure, you might be looking forward to your annual football games and there’s always sales and XBLA’s Summer of Arcade to keep us busy but as far as major retail releases go we’re swimming in a sea of emptiness.
That’s why I’m taking it upon myself to give you five slightly overlooked titles that you should seek out to keep you busy over the summer. Unless you buy into that whole “going outside” thing.
Bulletstorm
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t that the game with the terrible dude-bro stuff and middle school humor?” Yep, that’s Bulletstorm all right. It’s exactly that type of reaction that kept Bulletstorm from reaching a larger audience. However once you get past the style, which isn’t hard to do, you’ll be introduced to a first person shooter that most resembles a playground.
Instead of long, linear corridors with a focus on efficiency, Bulletstorm thrives by putting you in crazy environments and letting you have fun. No, it actual demands you have fun by rewarding creative kills with flashy points and awesome effects. Look past the crude exterior and you’ll find one of the most fun and unique first person shooters this generation.
Darksiders
With Darksiders 2 on the horizon as the game to save us from our summer, what better time to go back and play the original? Whether you’re replaying it or visiting for the first time, Darksiders is a game that gets better and better as it goes on. While it may at first glance look like a God or War knockoff, that comparison only goes skin deep.
Combat aside the game actually much more resembles The Legend of Zelda and that’s a very good thing. You’ll be conquering dungeons, solving puzzles and even roaming a vast landscape on top of a horse you can call at will. If you somehow missed it the first time you have no excuse, go pick Darksiders up.
Rayman Origins
Platformers were once king of the hill but now they are few and far between unless your name is Mario. Enter Rayman Origins, a platforming game for the new generation. We all enjoy New Super Mario Bros. but Rayman truly shows off the type of platformers we should expect. It has beautiful graphics and plays like a breeze with a sense of speed and fluidity usually reserved for classic Sonic games.
Almost everyone loved platformers at one time or another and Rayman Origins is a call to true form by sticking to great 2D action while dumping the pitfalls of older titles like lives and continues. Another reason why it is so easy to play is that you can find it cheap and it’s available on almost everything: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PC, Vita and 3DS. Go grab it and remind yourself why platformers used to be the biggest genre out there.
The Witcher 2
It’s arguable whether The Witcher 2 even belongs on a list of overlooked games but dammit it’s my list so I’m including it. The game received multiple game of the year nods from various outlets but was mildly overlooked because of its PC only release. That has since been remedied with an Xbox 360 version launching earlier this year. If you are a fan of games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fable or Skyrim you owe it to yourself to check out The Witcher 2.
The Witcher 2 has a great art style, fun gameplay but above all some of the best storytelling in an RPG. Even better is that, unlike other games who aim to offer the element of choice the game goes full force with choice by constantly giving you decisions that are not black and white but instead multiple shades of grey. More importantly, those choices affect the game in significant ways that you may never even see coming, leading to a game that you’ll want to play through at least twice.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Let me just say up front that the standalone Wolverine movie was pretty terrible by all accounts. Let me also point out that almost every movie tie-in game is also pretty terrible. That’s why a game such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an absolute gem. It is able to overcome not just the curse of being a movie tie-in but also the curse of a bad movie to become a great action game. Rumors pointed to this game being in production way earlier than the movie only to be later transformed to a movie tie-in. It makes sense when you play a game that only half follows the movie while the other half has you running through the jungle fighting off mystical creatures and infiltrating labs while battling Sentinels.
All along you control a Hugh Jackman-voiced Wolverine; an ultimate killing machine. It doesn’t shy away from the pure brutality of Wolverine, instead being Mature-rated with plenty of brutal kills. Wolverine also marks one of the few games where regenerating health actually makes sense for the character and the damage Wolverine takes is actually represented on his body by exposing his muscles and bones as he takes damage. The game is a blast to play with traditional brawler action and plenty of big set pieces. Don’t look past it just because of the terrible movie it’s attached to.
