PS3 Games of Summer 2009
Sony's system is sizzling this season. We'll show you why,
June 19, 2009 -
The weather is hot and the games are even hotter. IGN's Games of Summer is your guide to the biggest and best titles of the season. We've picked the games that have us most psyched for the season, from sports games to shooters and everything in between.
So grab a cool beverage, sit near the pool (but not too close) and check out our PS3 Games of Summer 2009. And make sure to swing by our other gaming channels to see what else is sizzling this summer.
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Batman: Arkham Asylum Release Date: August 25 Watch the The Batman Trailer >> |
What It Is: The Dark Knight has entered the very place his worst enemies have been locked inside since he put them there, and now they're loose in the loony bin. It's a beat-em-up meets sandbox stalking. Awesome.
Why It's Hot: Ignoring the fact that all our play time has made it pretty obvious this will be the best Batman game ever made (which isn't saying a whole lot)... well, c'mon, man! He's The GD Batman!
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The Beatles: Rock Band Release Date: September 9 Watch the The Beatles Rock Band Trailer >> |
What It Is: Until now, the folks at Harmonix Music Systems haven't really felt the need to make a one-band music game experience. It took one of the greatest bands in the history of music, but it's happened.
Why It's Hot: The Rock Band formula has become so firmly established, so slickly refined, that with the exception of three-part harmonies, there's not a ton here to talk ab-IT'S THE FRIGGIN' BEATLES, MAN! Remastered recordings! Studio chatter!
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The BIGS 2 Release Date: July 7 Watch the BIGS Trailer >> |
What It Is: The BIGS is baseball taken to the extreme. Then pushed a little farther. Massive home runs, Flash-like sprints around the base paths and hands-down the coolest take on a home run derby in video games.
Why It's Hot: Five words: Home Run Pinball is back. If you played the first one, you stopped reading this and rushed off to pre-order the game. If you didn't, you probably should. You'll thank us later. Seriously.
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DiRT 2 Release Date: September Watch the Dirt 2 Trailer >> |
What It Is: As a collection of various types of on- and off-road racing, the first DiRT was a surprisingly solid (and varied) racer. Now, it's back with a deeper, prettier, tighter racer using Codies' latest EGO Engine.
Why It's Hot: Codemasters' considerable experience in making racers has been brought to bear here, and there seems to be even more types of racing and upgrades to everything that made DiRT so enjoyable; handling, damage and variety.
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Fight Night Round 4 Release Date: June 23 Watch the Fight Night Round 4 Trailer >> |
What It Is: Hands-down the most realistic looking boxing series out there, FNR4 drops some of the greatest boxers in history into the same ring and lets 'em slug it out with a new control system and physics.
Why It's Hot: Until you've seen Round 4 running in glorious high-def at 60 frames a second, it doesn't really click. Once you do, though, and see how all the physics make hits come alive, it's clicky-clicky time.
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Guitar Hero 5 Release Date: September 1 Watch the Guitar Hero 5 Trailer >> |
What It Is: You are some kind of media blackout god if you've managed to survive games for the past five years or so and don't know what Guitar Hero is. We would like to borrow your skills.
Why It's Hot: Accessibility is the name of the game here. Real-time difficulty changes, drop-in/drop-out multiplayer, challenges, and any combination of band members you want have all been added to keep the game fresh for newcomers and vets.
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Guitar Hero: Van Halen Release Date: August 4 Learn More About Guitar Hero Van Halen >> |
What It Is: Guitar Hero, plus Van Halen. What, that's not descriptive enough for you? Okay, so we don't quite know what's in store for this one completely, but... well, we've got a pretty good idea by now.
Why It's Hot: Guitar Hero: Metallica proved that Neversoft has the chops to do a band justice and advance things a little with additions like double-bass. Provided it can make lightning strike twice, arena rock could be amazing.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Release Date: June 30 Watch the Half-Blood Prince Trailer >> |
What It Is: Ever since EA acquired the license to the Harry Potter flicks, the movies have seen a videogame pairing fairly close to the box office debut. Half-Blood Prince is no different, dropping two weeks later.
Why It's Hot: The aim this time around is apparently to replicate as much of the big screen Hogwarts as possible, including new areas from the latest flick. More enticing, however, is the promise of multiplayer spell duels.
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The King of Fighters XII Release Date: July 7 Watch the King of Fighters XII Trailer >> |
What It Is: SNK's perennial fighting game series has been a mainstay for years now, but KOF XII represents a ground-up reboot of nearly everything -- particularly the visuals which are gorgeously hi-res sprites hand-drawn from 3D models.
Why It's Hot: Online multiplayer, reworked balance, newbie-friendly mechanics... That's all well and good, and we're sure the game will be tweaked to tourney-ready status by release, but hummina hummina, those graphics! It's fun to just look at.
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Madden NFL 10 Release Date: August 14 Watch the Madden 10 Trailer >> |
What It Is: Since football isn't going anywhere, nor shall its perennial video game complement. If you honestly don't know what a Madden game is by now, we have this awesome bridge we want to sell you. Discounted!
Why It's Hot: The usual yearly updates like a "new presentation" and "broadcast-like commentary" are making appearances, but the new Pro-Tak system for handling tackles (including gang pile-ups and fumble recoveries) looks neat. Plus, new franchise mode highlights!
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NCAA Football 10 Release Date: July 14 Watch the NCAA 10 Trailer >> |
What It Is: Like the Madden series, NCAA Football is so inevitable that we'd sooner find all the water in San Francisco had turned to Cheese Whiz than go a year without getting another yearly iteration. Ah, consistency.
Why It's Hot: The march to include ever-increasing amounts of authenticity and realism (minus the real-life players, mind you) continues, expanding to all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools, plus mascots, cheerleaders, marching bands and more.
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SingStar Queen Release Date: August 18 Watch the The SingStar Trailer >> |
What It Is: Sony's karaoke simulation is still among the best out there, particularly when it comes to interface and clean, simple aesthetics. When combined with dozens of classic Queen songs, what was great becomes damn near irresistible.
Why It's Hot: What? Really? Either you've never heard of Queen before (in which case you're about to have a revelation upon playing this game) or you had your ears shorn off in a tragic accident. We're sorry.
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Wolfenstein Release Date: August 4 Watch the Wolfenstein Trailer >> |
What It Is: BZ Blazkowicz, Nazis, the occult and Hitler are back! Familiar territory for fans of the series, sure, but the increased focus on Nazi superweapons and the occult mean more than just mindless, constant first-person pew-pew.
Why It's Hot: Though treading familiar territory, the addition of BJ having (gasp) powers now throws things a little off-kilter -- enough so that what was old can feel rather new again. Hey, the occult's powerful stuff, y'know.
![[Prototype]](https://www.vgchartz.com/games/boxart/2846586AmericaFrontccc.jpg)
