Without a doubt, gamers have to be living in one of the best times possible for new releases. Not only have we had great games to look forward to each month, but each month has been better than the last. Traditionally speaking though, the summer hasn’t really been the best time to be a gamer. The sun rolls on in and we’re forced to accept that with such slim pickings for new releases, we’ll have to go to the pool or the local ice cream social instead of packing more points on to our gamerscores. That’s all changed in the last few years with publishers finally taking notice and rolling out titles that would’ve otherwise been lost in the holiday shuffle. While it should be noted that number one on my lists usually does delineate the best, I feel it necessary to notify you, my readers, that number one will in fact be the title coming out nearest in the future and so on – merely as a point of reference to make everyone’s life as convenient as possible. Aren’t I nice? Below are the top 10 video game releases of Summer 2010 (June-August releases).
10. Dead Rising 2 – Tuesday, August 31st - Sure, we all loved playing as Frank West and stalking around Willamette mall, hitting zombies with CDs and slaying psychopaths with equal contempt, but Chuck Greene is a man who isn’t a stranger to dealing with Zombies. Taking place in the illustrious Las Vegas doppelganger, Fortune City, players will be face with a narrative surrounding their daughter having been subjected to the zombie virus. As her father and badass-in-the-making, you not only get to deal with that objective, but slaughter your way through walls of the undead. To add icing to the cake, it seems like Capcom has decided to turn everything up to 11 in this iteration. The humor, violence and even the sheer amount of on-screen zombies will be enough to create a virtual playground of undead massacre. Confirmed that the undead-on-screen ratio has been upped significantly from the 800 previous possible to a staggering 6000 should keep those day before school starts and even some after pretty busy.
9. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days – Tuesday, August 24th - Ditching the Kane point of view from the first title, players will not assume the role of Lynch – that’s right – the self-medicated psychopath from the original. Additionally, the game will be attempting a new visual style that is more reminiscent of documentary or user-generated content a la Youtube. Basically, it seems like Eidos and IO are going for a gritty, violent game and from the early looks of it; they can pull it off and do so quite impressively. While Kane & Lynch: Dead Men received lukewarm reviews across the board from most of the gaming industry, the precedence established by the franchise is more than enough to garner a sequel for the title. And if it can pull off a Reservoir Dogs/Dog Day Afternoon effect, then it’ll definitely serve as yet another plateau of awesome during the impeding summer.
8. Madden 11 – Tuesday, August 10th - Every year, very much like clockwork, EA Sports releases yet another Madden title and while the changes have never been drastic enough to set it apart from predecessors – the series does admittedly continue to evolve in ways that appeal to veteran gamers and inductees. This year however, EA does hope to set Madden 11 apart from previous titles by drastically altering some of the more traditional game mechanics and show that the series truly has endured some deeper level of growth. Implementing a new play-calling system, GameFlow, players will supposedly be able to call plays based on situational scenarios as authentically as an NFL coach. Moreover, the hope is that players will be able to spend less time digging through a digital rulebook and actually get to play the game. But that is yet to be seen, as with every other Madden game ever produced.
This feature top 10 list continues on the next page, please click below to see our next couple choices for the top 10 games to keep you busy during Summer 2010.
