Summer Drought: Part 1

As we enter into August, we enter a dark time in gaming. The sun is allegedly out, and as such we should be playing outside. Swingball, walking about, all that shit. Well, for some of us, we don't buy into it. After a hard week at work, we don't want to be sat in a park sweating somewhere. We want to be inside, on a comfortable sofa, drinking a beer and shooting some questionable characters in the face. But it's here us gamers strike a problem.

Summer is a DRY time for gamers. You should know, you're the one desperately clambering to play games, looking for something new whilst people are asking you out for a 'kick about'. So what do we do? I'm currently at a loss. My LoveFilm account is delivering some terrible games of late, and I'm struggling to get my gaming fix. I decided that instead of sitting about sulking, I'd tackle it head on, do some research, and share my findings.

I've talked to a few of my friends/colleagues/fellow Gainboyers, and provide my findings below. In fact, I got so many awesome responses, I decided it was only right to give them all, over a few posts. Hopefully our collective knowledge can provide some answers!

Kermit1986, CurrentlyPlaying Blogger,

Street Fighter Obsessive.

How are you coping with the Summer drought of games?

I've bought so many games in sales and such over the past year that I've actually got a lot of unopened games just waiting to be played. I could probably live off what I have yet to play/ finish until next summer with the way it stands!

What are you playing to keep yourself going over Summer?

Mostly Super Street Fighter IV. It's not just my game of the summer, but the year. It's an amazingly balanced fighting game, with a lot of depth that provides me with things to continuously get better at.

I've also been pacing myself through Super Mario Galaxy 2 over the past 6-7 weeks. So many throwbacks to Mario platformers of the past, amazing level design, and a lot to keep me coming back. Nintendo have no rust when it comes to making great platform games, they're always on form.

What advice do you have to help people survive until the new games season starts?

If you're lucky enough to have several consoles you'll no doubt have a lot of choice when it comes to games worth playing. So much so that it's hard to keep up with them all. When I see a game I was tempted to buy only a couple of months ago is now being sold for a very appealing price, I'll hop on the impulse buy, regardless of if I actually have time to play it!

CalibratedMig29, Musician and NHL fanboy

How are you coping with the Summer drought of games?

Not too bad. I've had less XBox time lately as I've found plenty of excuses to get out into the wider world. In any case, I usually use summer to go back over older games and rack up any little achievements I've missed or get in completions on higher skill levels.

What are you playing to keep yourself going over Summer?

I'm currently hammering the career modes on NHL10 (Be a Pro), Madden (Season) and Prizefighter, and trying to complete a few games I've borrowed from mates. I'll be on NHL and Madden pretty much continuously until the new versions come out in about a month, although I doubt I'll be buying Madden. I've been playing NHL for about twelve years so I've pretty much built that into my annual budget now!

What advice do you have to help people survive until the new games season starts?

I'd say people should hit the shops for any sale games that they didn't pick up first time round. Apart from the big-budget games, most games these days are available for dirt cheap after a while, especially the pre-owned ones. August's weather seems to be turning to shit pretty quickly so it looks like we'll all be having a lot of indoor time until about next spring!

DrLucianSanchez, GainBoy Dude and

US TV Expert.

How are you coping with the summer drought in games?

Honestly, i've had a great few months - i got Red Dead Redemption late on, and that's pretty much consumed my gaming quota. I did also enjoy a run of decent XBLA titles.

What are you playing to keep yourself ticking over?

Well, im on 95% completion on Red Dead and I'm a whore for in-game collectables. Ive been playing some older titles, playing Overlord 2 and FightNight Round 4. I got these both very, VERY cheap. Pre-owned is definitely the way to go over Summer.

What advice do you have to help people survive until the new games season starts?

Hmmm, good question sir! I know all the goodies are abound in October and beyond but these next few months are gonna be spent playing old classics. Q4 sees Fable 3, Fallout New Vegas, and loads of others. For now i can finally start Mass Effect. I can't believe I STILL haven't played the first one!

So there you have it! More to follow next week, but some excellent advice to get you started, and let's get this blasted month of August out of the way TOGETHER!