Without the burden of classwork, summer is the ideal season for gaming. Long wasted afternoons spent on the couch, embracing the 21st century miracle of air conditioning and losing yourself to a digital landscape. Deep nights with friends, sharing a few cold beers between rounds of intense competition. This is the sort of stuff that we dream of all year long, and these are the games that will keep you preoccupied for the season.
Heroes of the Storm (PC, Mac) – MOBAs are scary. Or rather, Massive Online Battle Arenas are scary (See, even the name is intimidating). Games like League of Legends and DOTA 2 have gained unparalleled global popularity, yet also carry a reputation for having an immense learning curve. They’re also team based games, dense with players who do not appreciate teammates playing at anything less than perfection.
With such a barrier to entry, it’s easy to wonder where the MOBA for normal human beings is. Perhaps that’s the role that Blizzard will fill with Heroes of the Storm. And with the recognizable characters from Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and more — Blizzard‘s take on the genre (which originated as a popular Warcraft 3 multiplayer mod) is a bit more instantly digestible than its’ competitors. Many of the counter-intuitive and complex systems have been stripped in favor of a more action-based approach, keeping teams of five closely knit as they aggressively smash for supremacy.
The game has been in private beta for months, but it officially goes live on June 2.
Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4, XBox ONE, PC) – Rocksteady, the studio behind Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, return to the streets of Gotham for one last fight. Arkham Knight promises a bigger, badder and more visually stimulating open world than anything else attempted by the studio.
This is the series which defined hand-to-hand combat in games for an entire generation with its first iteration and open-world game design with its’ second. For the finale, Rocksteady have turned its eye to the wheel — bringing the iconic Batmobile into the fold. A mix of Italian supercar and American-made war machine, it’ll bring more power to the hands of the players than ever before.
Expect dozens of hours worth of crime solving, neck-busting and stealthy sleuthing when Arkham Knight hits on June 23.
Mad Max (PS4, XBox ONE, PC) – If you’re still riding that spray-paint fueled high coming off of Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s likely that you’re jonesing for more anarchy in the wasteland.
Come and take it from Avalanche Studios, the team who perfected chaos with Just Cause 2. Mad Max blends elements of traditional open-world action games (Shadow of Mordor, Assassin’s Creed), with survival mechanics and wicked car combat. George Miller’s blissfully insane world of water wars, sand and blood is on full display — harnessing the power of next-gen systems for some jaw-dropping visuals. The carnage will close out the summer season, releasing September 1.
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25