The summer is always a slow time for games.  It seems that few good games come out in late May, early June so that companies can post profits at the end of their fiscal quarters then nothing comes out again till Madden roles out in the second week of August.  For me I spent a bit of time playing Forza this summer.  Thankfully that was one deep gaming experience and I'm still playing that game to get some achievements.  

Right now we have some quite good games coming down the pike.  If you haven't yet you should really download the Bioshock demo.  This FPS takes place in an underground Utopia gone wrong around the 50s.   The reviewers are calling this game the Game of the Year and it has gotten a perfect score from several review sites.  This game is 100% single player and they put a lot of effort into making this the best game you will ever play.  Bioshock comes out on August 21st and I have my copy pre-ordered.

Another demo from Xbox Live is Eternal Sonata.  This is a Japanese turn based RPG.  Now normally this is enough to make me run away from this game but since I was a bit bored I downloaded the demo.  I was very surprised at how much I liked this game.  The game is centered around composer Federic Chopin and features his music.  I really liked the combat system and I like the art style.  The demo is fairly deep and should give you a feel of how this game plays.  I am a bit disappointed at the games release date, September 17th.  By coming out a week before Halo 3 this game will be lost in the Halo 3 media blitz. 

Another poorly timed release is Stranglehold, a game developed with John Woo based on the characters from the movie Hard Boiled.  There is a demo on Xbox Live you can download and play.  The game is a 3rd person shooter where you play as Chow Yun Fat and shoot everything that moves.  The game has some nice gameplay elements help as you kill swarms of bad guys that come from everywhere.  If you like John Woo movies you'll probably love this movie but I found it only ok.  I'll probably rent this game.  This game comes out September 17th also so don't expect to see too many people talking about this game.  If this game came out a month earlier it would have sold very well, now I think sales will be poor on the 360.

I'm now waiting for a few good games to come out.  I'm a bit disappointed I have not hear much about Two Worlds, an action RPG in the vein of Oblivion.  This game comes out in two weeks yet I've not heard anything about this game in a while.  I was really looking forward to this game but now this game is probably going to be a rental unless some amazing reviews come in.  This game comes out next week and I exp0ect I'll be spending too much time playing Bioshock.

As you can tell this summer is almost over because there are a ton of good games coming out soon.  I'm hoping to play Bioshock for a couple weeks then maybe get into Stranglehold before Halo 3 come out.  I'll be picking up Eternal Sonata after I finish playing Halo 3 and that should keep me busy well into November.  In November there will be another slew of good games and my gaming cup will be running over till next summer.