4 Games To Help Get You Through A Slow Summer

Summer is just around the corner and, as is often the case, that lonely period spanning June and August isn't exactly jam-packed with new game releases to keep everyone busy. Thankfully, we managed to scrounge up a few recommendations to help pass the time and keep everyone indoors through the year's hottest months.

It's always baffled me that so few games release during the summer window, especially since that's the period when so many gamers are home from school/college for vacation, basically starving for something to keep them entertained. Thankfully, loads of indie games have helped flesh out those dry months in recent year, but launch dates for those titles are usually kept quiet until we're right on top of them.

As a result, you can check out a calendar for upcoming launches and see that the month of June is kind of light, with July and August currently hosting just a few new releases apiece. And unless you're into Madden, none of those summer games are the big AAA titles core players typically want to rush out and purchase.

Thankfully, there are a handful of big, meaty games coming out in the next several weeks that should help make those slow summer months fly right by. Here are a few of our recommendations.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (May 19)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt feels like its been in development forever, with playable sections of the game being shown off at the past two E3 game conferences. The reason for that is simple: The Witcher 3 is a massive game and the team at CD Project Red has taken the necessary time to make sure their latest open-world RPG delivers.

Boasting a campaign that can supposedly last up to 200 hours, The Witcher 3 drops players into a huge world and lets them craft their own monster-hunting adventure without being slowed down by load screens. Along with the main campaign, and helping explain why players will be able to spend so much time with the game, you'll find side quest peppered throughout the map. Unlike the types of quests you expect to find in a typical RPG, though, many of Wild Hunt's side missions have unique stories, memorable characters and events that impact the rest of the game. Choose not to save a village from bandits, for instance, and you may one day return to find the entire burg has been burned to the ground.

Heroes of the Storm (June 2)

While loads of folks are already losing hours of their lives to Blizzard's impressive new MOBA, the game's official launch arrives on June 2, just in time to murder your free time through the summer months.

As is often the case with a Blizzard game, the team has taken a familiar formula, polished it to a shine and presented it in a way that core fans, as well as newcomers, can enjoy. They've done it before with games like World of Warcraft and, more recently, Hearthstone.

Like similar MOBA's, Heroes of the Storm lets you pick a favorite hero, team up with friends or randos and battle for control of vibrant maps against an opposing force. A unique Blizzard twist in Heroes is that many maps feature tide-turning points of control that give teams control of dynamic weapons or events. It's fun, flashy and different enough to warrant a look-see. If Heroes of the Storm is like pretty much everything else Blizzard has made in the past decade, you can expect those hooks to sink in nice and deep.

Batman: Arkham Knight (June 23)

The thing that sets Arkham Knight apart from the rest of the games on this list is that it isn't a massive RPG or time-sink cooperative title likely to keep you busy for dozens upon dozens of hours. But, just like the superhero fare we get in movie theaters around this time of year, Arkham Knight looks like a great way to kick off summer with a bang, hopefully building a momentum that will let everyone coast into the more packed weeks of fall. On the flip side, the Arkham games are known for being beefy action titles, so you probably shouldn't go in expecting a measly five hour campaign, either. The team at Rocksteady Studios is basically batting a thousand with the series so far and, pushing Knight's launch date back a couple of times, I'm pretty confident that series fans and newcomers alike have something special to look forward to in this latest romp through a gritty city gone mad.

And as much as I'm not a huge fan of the price point, post-launch DLC promises to keep dishing out content for the next six months. So even if Arkham Knight only keeps you busy for a couple of weeks at the beginning of summer, here's hoping some of that DLC gets peppered throughout July and August to keep us coming back for more.

The Elder Scrolls Online (June 9)

Already available on PC, an updated version of Zenimax Online Studios' MMORPG set in the popular Bethesda universe is ready to launch on the PS4 and Xbox One early next month. What makes The Elder Scrolls Online so intriguing is that, based on all the recent announcements, it sounds like the development team has taken player feedback to heart from the earlier PC build and is aiming to make the game better than ever by the time it finally arrives on consoles.

It also doesn't hurt that The Elder Scrolls Online is a buy to play MMO, meaning you just need to fork over the initial 60 bucks to purchase the game and the whole world and all of its content is open to you without the need of a monthly fee. If you're looking for something to epically whittle away the summer months, there are few options better than an entire MMO boasting multiple classes to upgrade, hundreds of missions to tackle, a huge world to explore, players to meet, PvP and cooperative adventures to join.