With many summer blockbusters delayed, what’s left to play this year?

Recently, I wrote a column touting the “video games of summer” that were due to be released in the weeks after that article. However, the video game industry is a tricky business, and many of the games I mentioned have had their release dates pushed so far back that they aren’t going to be “games of this year,” let alone “games of this summer.”
The game I was most waiting for — “Grand Theft Auto IV” was positioned to be released in late August. Well, last week this changed when the game’s release date was pushed back until spring of next year. That is a long time to wait just to tear around Liberty City, committing crimes and running from “the fuzz.”
Also, “Mass Effect” for the Xbox 360, which looks to be an engaging space-opera, was to have been released in late spring, but instead, the title might be on shelves by the winter holiday season. I stress that it’s just a “maybe,” and it could be pushed back even further.
Maybe it is due to the requirements of next-generation systems, and maybe it is the fact that video game development is an extremely expensive venture, and perhaps developers want to ensure that their titles have a little bit of extra polish and sheen before they push them out the door. For whatever reason, gamers are growing weary because most games released this year have been mediocre at best.
It’s truly a shame that the best Nintendo Wii game I’ve played this summer was just a rehash of a game that came out originally in 2005. But, other systems haven’t fared well, either. The Sony PlayStation 3 has been plagued with nothing but bad games or no games at all. In fact, the best game Sony has released all year was “God of War 2,” which came out for the PlayStation 2, a last-generation system.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has fared the best this year with a few good titles like “Forza Motorsport 2,” but big-name games that have been released have been relatively poor. Just look at any review of “The Darkness” or “Spider-Man 3,” and you’ll see that these games, with all the potential and hype surrounding their release, have been met with lukewarm reviews.
But, there is hope. A few games will retain their release dates and will be on store shelves and in gamer’s hands before too long.
First and foremost, Bioware’s “Bioshock” is still set to be released on Aug. 21. If this game comes out on its expected release date, I believe this could be the game that players have been waiting for all year. Bioware is a successful company with a few quality titles under its belt — the “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” games — and the “Bioshock” title is actually building off the successful “System Shock” series that was popular in the late 90s.
The upcoming game tells the tale of a man, the player’s character, who is lost at sea. He is a sailor overboard when he dives underwater. Then, in the depths, he sees a shining city on the ocean floor, and he swims toward its light.
From then on, players must investigate this ruined underwater city and search for reasons why the only inhabitants left, in what was meant to be an example of humanity conquering nature and living undersea, are monsters and maniacs with no memory of what occurred. Needless to say, it looks interesting.
Also, fans of the “Guitar Hero” franchise should be excited as “Guitar Hero III” will soon be released. Honestly, though, this is a game I could never get interested in. It looks to me like grown men playing a Fisher-Price guitar. Real guitars exist, and learning to play guitar should be as rewarding as pushing buttons on a cheap, plastic, guitar-shaped controller. If you actually learn guitar, you’re learning a skill that you can enjoy even when you have no television or PlayStation, and, ask any band member, girls like guys who can play guitar. But, I don’t think playing air guitar, while smacking on something that looks like a toy from a kindergarten playroom, will turn any heads — at least not in a positive way.
But, to each his own. That’s why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream, right?
Anyway, “Guitar Hero” is out, and, following that idea, Electronic Arts will soon release “Boogie” for the Nintendo Wii.
“Boogie” is a dancing simulator that invites players to get off the couch and shake their respective “groove thangs.”
It looks to be a lot of fun, and I’m a fan of any game for the Wii that gets the players off the couch and invites people to laugh and play together.
So, there you have it, a few of the upcoming games of late summer. The fall holds another round of good games like “Halo 3,” “Assassin’s Creed” and “Smash Bros. Brawl.”
But, until then, I say play some of the older games again or get your hands on “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.” It is available for almost every console and computer system, and it offers enough to get players through these slow summer months.