Throw out your sunscreen

With the academic year winding down, summer brings promises of road trips, waterfront music festivals and, of course, lazy afternoons escaping the heat indoors with friends. While the majority of 2008’s most-anticipated games were released in the last few months, here’s a look at the rockin’ games of summer.

With the academic year winding down, summer brings promises of road trips, waterfront music festivals and, of course, lazy afternoons escaping the heat indoors with friends. While the majority of 2008’s most-anticipated games were released in the last few months, here’s a look at the rockin’ games of summer.

LegendaryPS3, Xbox 360, PCRelease date: Sept. 9, 2008In this first-person shooter you play as a thief who breaks into a museum in New York City and haplessly opens Pandora’s box. If that weren’t cool enough, opening the box unleashes all manner of creatures upon the world for you to go blast with a shotgun. The game eventually takes you from New York over the Atlantic to England, which is, as everyone knows, the absolute best place to get into a fight with a gryphon on top of a cathedral.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsPS3Release date: June 12, 2008Snake is back, older, wiser and just as kick-ass as ever. This much-anticipated final chapter of the Metal Gear series promises to absolutely blow us away with its supreme radness. Finally, all that business with the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo will come together and make some sense (hopefully). Any of you readers who are as excited about this release as I am, and actually own a PS3, give me a call–I will be your best friend this summer.

Heavenly GuardianWiiRelease Date: July 8, 2008In 1994 my parents grounded me for the entire summer. They relented around the beginning of August, but there were two entire months in which I had little to do but play Tetris on my PC. I can only wish that there’d been an at-home arcade shooter-style game like Guardian to play at the time. Blast your way through hand-drawn 2-D space monsters and demons as Snow Goddess Sayuki to save the love of your life: a peasant boy from a small town in ancient Japan!

Soulcalibur IVPS3, Xbox 360Release Date: July 29, 2008The Soulcalibur series debuts on the next-gen platforms this summer with the help of Star Wars characters Yoda and Darth Vader. I don’t know what they’re doing hanging out with Talim and Nightmare, but it sure looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Namco has promised us new battle modes, enhancements to the customization options and optimization for online play.