Feature Friday: Summer Games; what’s keeping you cooped up indoors this Summer?

Summer is traditionally a slower time for new game releases, but there are plenty of titles out there (both new and old) that are keeping the BG staff locked away in their air-conditioned lairs during the hottest months of the year.

I’ve never been much for Summertime personally. I’m a big fan of baseball and loved being off from school when I was a kid too, but the heat, humidity, and general uncomfortableness of the season were far from favorites of mine. Inside the house, windows shut, air-conditioning blasting and with a cool drink at the ready? Much better.

When it comes to gaming though, Summer is a time unlike most others. During the three or so months of the year that we’d all pretty much stamp with the season’s title, there are little new and exciting things happening. So that obviously causes most gamers to check out titles that they might have missed out on when they debuted, or delve into their libraries of games to dig out perennial faves to re-play.

Here at BG we’re no different and will be playing some of our favorite titles to death once more in the midst of these Summer doldrums, as well as catching up on some games that we’ve collectively missed out on during this and the past few release years. So here for your enjoyment (we hope) are our favorites, our ‘must plays’ that seem to come off the shelf every year and the ‘new to us’ games that we might have skipped but will be diving headlong into for Summer ’14. In general, these are the games that will be keeping us indoors and in that sweet, sweet air conditioning.

So crank up the cool, grab a beverage of the chilly kind and enjoy!

Kiri, UK Staff Writer

This summer I am attempting to play Outlast. I’ve been preparing, I have watched a few walk-through’s of this game, such as PewDiePie’s, and I think it looks really awesome. I will have to play it mainly during daytime, as that’s when my son is in school. Unfortunately, my other half is a complete screamer when it comes to horror games, so I’m guessing I’m going to have the full on jump scare experience with this, expect smashed windows, and spilt drinks. I will be playing on my beuatiful PS4 and I’m very hopeful of the graphics being nice and clear, especially during the really dark basement scenes! I’m really looking forward to having a go at the DLC ‘Whistleblower’ too.

I will be sure to keep everyone updated on how many times I die. Place your bets in the comments below.

Naeem; UK Staff Writer

I feel somewhat disappointed in the games that have been released in the past 2-3 years, so I’ve gone back to my retro collection.

I’ve started playing the Tex Murphy series from the beginning again (still haven’t played Tesla Effect yet so no spoilers) and seeing footage of Star Citizen got me so excited that I’ve started playing the Wing Commander series again. I’ve even picked up USB Joystick so I can play it as intended! I’m half way through The Saboteur too, which is unbelievably underrated, I can’t believe how overlooked this game was when it was first released. And I’m going to buy a Wii U soon, so I can finally get my hands on Mario Kart 8.

Ted; UK Staff Writer

For me right now it’s the re-release of Rise of Nations on Steam. Finally being able to play up to the modern
age in an Age of Empires environment is something I’ve long missed since the game’s original release back
in the early 2000s. Going from simple tools to stealth bombers is always good fun and the online community
right now is quite lively… if a little noob unfriendly.

The other game I’m spending a lot of time on is Guns of Icarus Online also via Steam. I completely missed it during it’s original release window but hearing ‘it’s four people playing co-op as a flying ship shooting at other real player controlled airships’ really peaked my interest. Being able to play co-op is a welcome thing at any given time but being able to play as the engineer, gunner or the captain running from one station to another with no transition screens seeing other players flying by on their airships from a first person perspective is something I’ve never experienced before in gaming. Well, the closest is the engineer class in Team Fortress 2 with the same repair damaged items ability. If a Star Trek version of this was released it would sell huge amounts.