Game Release Tuesday: Clown Car Edition

So Many Games...

The weirdest bit is that as opposed to the film industry, the summer tends to be a bit of dry spell for the gaming world.  A few titles will be released to satiate gamers between the typical late spring releases and the cavalcade of pre-holiday fall games, but summer is generally a time for development studios to work their teams to death in preparation for E3 and the fall.

Apparently a few people missed the memo.

It's utterly ridiculous.  Tuesday will see four major titles released to the gaming public, each one an incredibly diverse title, and each one earning surprisingly high marks with critics.

Alan Wake, the action/thriller from Max Payne developer Remedy, finally releases after its five year old announcement way back at E3 2005.  Having played a good four hours already, I can say it's entirely worth the wait.  Also, at last years E3, Alan Wake took away DailyMonotony's 2nd Runner Up award, where I claimed this game would be 2010's Deadspace, an out-of-left-field hit.  So far, I'm pretty confident I nailed that :).

Red Dead Redemption, the long awaited "GTA in the wild wild west" game, ropes its way into stores from developer Rockstar San Diego.  If early critic rumblings are any indication, this game may have finally accomplished what Gun and Call of Juarez valiantly attempted, but never quite realized: a full fledged, ride 'em, rope 'em, shoot 'em, stuff 'em, cowboy game.

Split Second is a truly unique racing title which has players racing through cinematic scenes of catastrophe, using the crumbling environment as an active weapon against opponents.  I got a chance to play this both at PAX and on the recent Xbox Live demo, and while it doesn't quite feel like a $60 dollar purchase, I doubt you will find a much more exhilarating experience than narrowly swerving out of the path of a crashing jumbo jet.  The game is courtesy of the new Black Rock Studios made up of former Criterion vets, responsible for the popular Burnout franchise.

And last but not least, the 5th installment in the long running reboot of the Prince of Persia franchise, this time subtitled The Forgotten Sands.  The game leaves behind its cell-shaded predecessor and refocuses on the story, platforming and combat that made the original Sands of Time so popular.  And while it is releasing within wall-running distance of the Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Ubisoft Montreal insists that The Forgotten Sands is not a tie-in.  

So there you have it, four great games to play, all released on the same day, with about a week for you to finish them all in preparation for next week's release: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Blur, UFC 2010, and ModNation Racers.  

Will there be any games left for the fall?