Libraries around the country, from the Library of Congress, to university and community libraries, are beginning to archive, collect and even check-out video games.

A 2007 study found that of the more than 400 libraries surveyed, a quarter of them said they had PC games available at their location to be checked out and nearly 20 percent said they checked out console games.

But why would a place of learning become a home to gaming?

Scott Nicholson, associate professor and library scientist at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and the Library Game Lab of Syracuse, said there are three main goals libraries have for including video games in their collections.

They do so to provide a new service for those who aren't coming to the library, to help the library grow in its role as a community hub and to provide a service alongside existing library services like book clubs or story time.

Some libraries even have events where people can play the games inside the library, Nicholson added.

"Gaming in the library provides users with a chance to meet other people in their community who are not in their normal school or work life - people far outside their typical demographic boundaries," he said. "The library has become a place not just for taking materials home, but for engaging with others in the same physical community.

"Communities on the Web typically are from many different areas - communities in the library are people who all live and pay taxes in the same physical space."

And, Nicholson points out, games have been in libraries since the 1850s in one form or another.

"Video games are simply one current manifestation of an activity that has been in libraries for decades," he said. "Along with video games, some libraries support many other forms of gaming - board, card, (role-playing games), and big games."

The inclusion of games and video games aren't just limited to public, community libraries. Universities and research libraries have also started including them. Even the Library of Congress is in the midst of a video game archiving effort.

Recently the Universty of Colorado at Boulder announced they were considering adding playable video game consoles in their library as part of a commons area, which also houses a café.

CU outreach librarian Deborah Fink told the university paper that the center could provide a break to students.

"I think education is waking up to the fact that we are whole beings," she told the Colorado Daily. "We know it's important to take breaks and to refresh yourself."

Nicholson says the inclusion of a gaming area is no different than having a coffee shop in a university library.

"The cafe does not support the mission of the library, but draws people in and makes the library a more comfortable space for people to explore information and get to know each other," he said. "Gaming is a similar activity - if the goal of the library is to be a place for relaxation and socialization, then it fits into that goal."

The inclusion of video games in libraries isn't much different than earlier movements to include pieces of art, movies and music as items that could be checked out.

By opening the door to video games, libraries and communities nationwide are reflecting the growing importance of gaming not only as part of today's popular culture but as a medium that can confront serious issues and spur emotional and intellectual debate.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

Lingering sunlight and mild evening temperatures on weeknights make great excuses to drag happy hour till midnight - who needs sleep? On the weekends, practically the entire neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint take to the streets for block parties, backyard barbecues, rooftop shows and packed loft parties held unglamorously without air conditioning. No matter where Brooklyn's denizens are getting their Summer on, one common thread ties it all together: music.

Hitting the neighborhood for sweltering, sun-drenched shows feels worlds away from indoor gaming time, and watching rock bands feels so different from playing band games that I decided to try an experiment in bringing the two worlds together. My plan? To grab one of the most celebrated party bands I know and force them to play Rock Band with me.

Can one of ChangeUp Mag's top contenders for "New York's Best Party Band" outdo me on the plastic guitar? Would they enjoy the game? And finally, we strive to answer the long-running question: is playing Rock Band anything like being in a real band?

I knew right away whom to consult for my experiment. Anyone who's attended one of local act GunFight!'s densely-packed, yet still-intimate, performances can see how they've earned their reputation. There's something infectious about the group's unmistakable blend of hard metallic rock with country-twang — "post-country," as it's been called — that transforms even the most heat-wilted and booze-dazed party crowds into rowdy, cheering dancers.

know when you're on a real good streak at Rock Band and the crowd's going wild? Yeah, it's like that. And just like group-play band games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, GunFight!'s built its reputation on crowd-pleasing good times. Local experts Jezebel Music has called them "rootsy but fresh," and challenges "anyone who cares to think they can party harder than the four Bushwick boys."

Those four boys: frontman Drew Mintz, guitarist Bill Dvorak, bassist Anthony Aquilino (known to appear in his underwear on special occasions) and drummer Dominic Turi, himself a frequent rooftop party host, possessed a healthy dose of skepticism that there could be much common ground between music video games and, y'know, real bands.

But one sunny Summer Sunday evening, between an all-day waterfront show and a Lower East Side show by the shoegazey Quiet Loudly (bassist Aquilino's other project), I accomplished no mean feat: Herding all four of the famous GunFight! boys indoors for some Rock Band.

While Aquilino says his brother could "write the bible" on band games, he himself has only played a few times, and the rest of the band even less. But all of GunFight has some gaming love: Dvorak fondly recalls Metal Gear Solid, Aquilino played Final Fantasy games, and Mintz says he played innumerable hours of SimCity.

All the guys remember playing hours of Goldeneye with friends in the college dorms, and Mintz says he once saved up all of his coins in a green Crayola bank to get himself a Game Boy. He not only has plenty of memories of Monkey Island and other adventures, but says the game he's most looking forward to is Uncharted 2. Maybe there's some commonality between the band and the video game scene after all.

"This is kind of like our real practices," quipped Mintz warily, when I encountered my customary difficulty in trying to untangle the instrument wires and connect them all - and when guitarist Dvorak was a hair too sauced to realize he wasn't helping the effort by strumming the plastic guitar all over the menu screen.

My expectations for how the band would take to Rock Band were initially low, especially when the microphone kept disconnecting, preventing an experiment in how Mintz's signature howling vocals might translate to the game. As the Rock Band quartet lost Dvorak's attention in favor of the Persona 4 stuffed toy he found in my living room, I helpfully set all the other instruments to "easy' and hoped for the best.

Stunningly, after only a couple of songs, Aquilino and drummer Turi were playing like pros. "Will it mess up your article if I turn it up to hard?" Turi looked over his shoulder to ask, twirling the sticks.

Before long, the two were in sync to skyrocketing scores - yes, Turi was better on the drums in just a few minutes than I am after months of consistent, albeit casual practice. And Aquilino moved with the bass the same way he does with a real one. You should have seen their unison bonuses.

The band also seemed in good spirits, having enjoyed Rock Band far more than they expected to. And so was I — with no musical inclination of my own, playing Rock Band with GunFight! is about as close as I'll ever get to the guitar-god fantasy current band games thrive on promising. I still played fake-guitar better (of course), but the fun of Rock Band is about the group experience, not competition - and there, we began to uncover real layers of commonality between bands and band video games (aside from the fact that Aquilino likes to play both real and plastic instruments in his underwear).

During our session, I was able to find an unlikely parallel between the game we played and the music GunFight! Performs. I feel the same surge of joy as when I'm playing fake guitar well. The band tells me that the strong community vibe their music encourages has a lot to do with its country influences. "There's something very universal about country music," says Aquilino. "There's an appeal that speaks to us as Americans, since country music is really one of America's main contributions to music."

It's this universality that appeals to Mintz, too. The boys said that, being a less-technical musical form, country music is also more accessible. "People who weren't trained musicians taught themselves to play," he said. "It's kind of like a working class form of music that is just something that appeals to everybody who's ever been miserable at their day job."

A musical form with a low barrier to entry that people use to enjoy community and a sense of escape from the mundane world? Sounds a lot like Rock Band. I'm certainly not miserable at my day job, but like all gamers, I had to teach myself to play those music games – and aren't they credited with being less "technical" than more complex next-gen titles, thereby inviting new audiences in? The idea of "accessibility" is as essential to music's appeal as it is to games, I realized. While GunFight!'s lifestyle — band shows all weekend, parties all night — may seem like a world separate from my living room video game performances, it looks like we're drawn to our respective pastimes for similar reasons.

GunFight! couldn't agree, though, that the core experience of playing band games necessarily correlates to the act of playing music. But Aquilino conceded that the games offer some positives for music: "It puts music in the hands of people who might not ever think about playing otherwise," he suggested.

"The pictorial representation of music is not necessarily accurate to the way one would think when they're playing an instrument," added Mintz. "And when we play, it's a very physical process — I don't think you necessarily get that playing a video game."

But aren't I going to be a little better at guitar thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band than I would have otherwise been? "It's not even relevant," said Turi flatly. Having played with the fake instruments, the entire band agreed the skillset doesn't translate at all. We got more beer, and the drummer decided to console me for my lack of musicality by discovering my nail polish and painting my left foot pink and my right foot blue.

"I can't even make a power chord with that thing," complained Dvorak of the plastic guitar. "And I've never played a set where I hit the 'right' note and was then rewarded with so many cheers and points." Although among us Bill was the one by far who'd had the most to drink, he raised the most salient point – performing is a fluid, responsive thing, not something to be done "right" or "wrong," or "win" or "lose."

"You're missing the creative experience," Aquilino tells me. But when I told the band about the newly-announced feature that will allow bands like theirs to upload their own tracks to play and sell on the Rock Band Network, they seemed a little more interested. "That's really cool," he said. "That's probably adapting it more to further introduce people to the process of being in a band, that maybe would never pick up an instrument otherwise."

Overall, GunFight! had fun with Rock Band. And for this gamer? I love getting out into their world every weekend for the summer music season, and I wish more gamers would go out and try real music. The sun's been good for me. And the band seemed to enjoy their visit to "our" world of games – in fact, when Dvorak asserted he'd rather play Mortal Kombat than Rock Band, our visit devolved into a discussion on fighting game supremacy between MK and Street Fighter. They may not be pure gamers, but GunFight! understands that this is an important topic. Given that it was such a successful ambassadorship, I asked the guys if they'd consider having regular Rock Band parties.

"Only if it was naked," says Dvorak.

"You might want to cover your consoles in plastic," warned Turi.

"I just want them to bring back SimCity," said Mintz.

Said Dvorak, "That hasn't gone anywhere."

[Leigh Alexander is news director for Gamasutra, author of the Sexy Videogameland blog, and freelances reviews and criticism to a variety of outlets. Her monthly column at Kotaku deals with cultural issues surrounding games and gamers. She can be reached at leighalexander1 AT gmail DOT com.]

Today Fred Zeleny, one of the Bethesda Softworks crew who worked on Fallout 3, created three more games for playing outside. These modern backyard classics are inspired by Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and, of course, Fallout 3.

Here are the rules for Mutant in the Middle, Prince of Playground and Tagsassin's Creed.

Mutant in the Middle
Objective: Toss a water balloon between the vault dwellers without letting the supermutant get it.
Need: At least two friends, and some water balloons (full, but not too full!).
To Win: Keep the water balloon from breaking for as long as you can!
Inspiration: Fallout 3

Set-Up:
1. Pick two or more players to be the vault dwellers for the first round.
2. Pick one or more players to be the supermutants for the first round.
3. One of the vault dwellers gets a water balloon to start.

Rules:
1. Vault dwellers cannot stand closer to each other than 5 feet.
2. Supermutants can move wherever they want, but cannot touch vault dwellers.
3. Vault dwellers take turns tossing the water balloon to each other. Remember, vault dwellers cannot be closer than 5 feet from each other.
4. Supermutants try to catch or burst the water balloon, but they cannot touch the vault dwellers.
5. If a supermutant catches or bursts the water balloon, they win and can be a vault dweller in the next round.
6. If the water balloon bursts when a vault dweller throws or catches it, without a supermutant touching it, then all of the vault dwellers swap with all of the supermutants for the next round.
7. Keep playing until you're out of water balloons, until you're thoroughly soaked, or until nuclear armageddon!

Tagsassin's Creed
Objective: Tag your target and get back to a safe hiding spot before they catch you!
Need: At least two players, and anyplace that has a lot of hiding spots. A hiding spot is anyplace between two similar objects within arm's reach - between two trees, two bookshelves, two swings, etc.
To Win: Catch the Tagsassin when he tags you.
Inspiration: Assassin's Creed

Set-Up:
1. Pick a player to start as the Tagsassin.
2. Everybody else goes to a hiding spot and "blends in."

Rules:
1. At a hiding spot, you can "blend in" by taking a pose like the two items you're hiding between - if you're between two rocks, you might curl up like a rock; if you're between two trees, you might stand up straight with your arms out like a tree.
2. The Tagsassin sneaks up on someone who is hidden and tags them, then tries to run to a different hiding spot and "blend in."
3. Whoever is tagged must try to catch the Tagsassin before he blends in and hides again.
4. If you catch the Tagsassin, you win, and can pick a new hiding space to begin again.
5. If the Tagsassin gets away, you are the new Tagsassin, and must pick a new player to tag.

Prince of Playground
Objective: Take turns jumping, climbing, and balancing your way along a path without touching the ground.
Need: A playground or other suitable series of large objects for climbing and balancing, like tree stumps, logs, large rocks, sturdy furniture, etc.
To Win: Successfully travel from the start to the finish without touching the ground, or successfully catch someone who falls to the ground.
Inspiration: Prince of Persia

Set-Up:
1. Each player takes turns playing as either the jumper or the catcher. If there is only one player, they are the jumper.
2. Players pick a Start (where jumpers will begin) and a Finish (where jumpers will try to reach without touching the ground.)
3. The catcher waits on the ground near the starting point, and the jumpers get in position at the Start.

Rules:
1. The jumper tries to travel from Start to Finish without touching the ground - jumping over gaps, balancing on beams, climbing on monkey bars, etc.
2. A catcher isn't allowed to interfere with a jumper unless they're touching the ground (or about to hit the ground).
3. If a jumper touches the ground, they have to run back to the Start before a catcher tags them. If they make it back to the Start, they can begin again from there.
4. If a catcher tags a jumper who's touched the ground, that jumper becomes a catcher.
5. If a jumper reaches the Finish without touching the ground, they win.
6. If the jumpers are all caught by the catcher, the catchers win.
7. Play again, taking turns as jumper and catcher!

Now that I've egged Zeleny into whipping these up, when can we expect to here from David Perry, David Jaffe, Dylan Jobe and John Drake? Though Drake sorta did come up with something on Twitter.

Backyard Adaptations of Video Game Classics and Modern Backyard Classics

"When I was in Best Buy the other day and saw the huge EA Sports Active displays it felt like we'd hit saturation but until we have Richard Simmons Wii Workout I don't think we've reached it,"says Ben Sawyer, who co-founded of the Serious Games Initiative and heads up the Games for Health initiative. "Famous last words, right?"

EA has been capitalizing in the last couple of months on the fitness game craze with half-a-million-plus seller EA Sports Active, but Nintendo lead the re-newed interest in "exergames" with Wii Sports and Wii Fit. In 2007, Nintendo was coming off its smash-hit Wii Remote and Wii Sports one-two-punch. Those successes laid the groundwork for Wii Fit: players got up off the couch, moved around, swung their arms. There was an audience for this — but there had always been. Thing is, it was a largely untapped audience.

During the early 1980s, the VCR revolution brought exercise into the home with Oscar-winning-actress Jane Fonda telling folks to "go for the burn" with her 1982 exercise debut Jane Fonda's Workout. The tapes sold millions and made millions. The same year computer maker Amiga released the Joyboard, a peripheral on which players would stand and use their body weight to play a slalom skiing game. It was a failure, and the two follow-up titles to support the peripheral were never released. Ditto for an Atari exercise-controlled bike that never found its way out of the concept stage. The exercise bike game would later be realized in 1996 by Namco with Prop Cycle.

There was a market that could be tapped, but it needed someone to do it. And do it right. Enter Nintendo.

The Kyoto-based game company brought the Power Pad to home consoles in 1988, letting kids jog in place on a mat marked with giant buttons. The next year, Namco followed up with Dance Aerobics for Nintendo Entertainment System, foreshadowing the deluge of rhythm dancing games released in the following decades.

While they were developing Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, Konami's own staffers were reporting weight loss. Same for players when it was finally released in the late 1990s. Konami continued to release updated versions of DDR with increasingly complicated steps. The home versions were more forgiving, but the arcade ones were not. In Japan, Konami has even introduced DDR exercise routines into its health club chain called "Groove Motion DDR". Group classes use digital projector screens showing DDR patterns, mats and motion sensor belts.

Nintendo has struck gaming gold with Wii Fit, selling over 18 million copies of the game. The follow-up, Wii Fit Plus, goes on sale later this year.

"When we first announced the Wii Balance Board, people were skeptical," recalls Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America's vice president of Corporate Affairs. "But consumers responded quickly and told their friends about it. Now when a new fitness game like Wii Fit Plus is announced, no one bats an eye. Fitness games are now an accepted part of the video game landscape." Not only that — but the larger cultural landscape. In 2008, Nintendo teamed up with Westin Hotels to offer Wii Sports and Wii Fit as part of the hotel's fitness program.

Get up off your ass, sure, but why not get out of your house? Go take a walk. Jog. Trend or no trend, what's the point of exercising with a game indoors? Explains Nintendo's Kaigler, "Legendary Nintendo video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who led the Wii Fit team, is fond of saying, 'If it's sunny, go outside and play.'" Sometimes that's not always possible, she continues. "Sometimes it's because of the seasons or inclement weather. Other times it's situational: Some people come home late from work, while others can't leave the house because they can't leave the kids alone."

The medical profession has started latching onto these exergames. Geraldine O'Shea, D.O., an osteopathic physician and Chair of the American Osteopathic Association's Bureau on Scientific Affairs and Public Health, first began looking at the impact of video games as physical activity in 2007. "What might appear as nothing more than another entertaining game was revealed as a tool for not just activity but directed physical therapy," explains O'Shea.

Around the same time, researchers began using Wii Sports in physical therapy. O'Shea has spearheaded a measure by the American Osteopathic Association to support video games as part of a patient's fitness and therapeutic program. "Because I believe any activity is better than no activity," she adds, "I have become a convert."

"Wii gaming actually turns over more energy than sedentary gaming, but not as much as authentic sports," said Gareth Stratton, a co-author of British study on Wii Sports health benefits. "While it's not going to replace the real thing," Stratton told The New York Times, "it's certainly moving in the right direction." Several researchers conclude that Wii Fit does not replace regular exercise, but concede that the game has done something key: raised fitness awareness.

"I think it's more important to realize now that with Wii Fit and EA Active Sports we may be beyond this being a trend," says Sawyer. "We might really begin to see a genre emerge and stay."

Here's a chance for you help build up our Summer of Gaming. What do you plan to do this summer that's video game related?

Will you be reading a bunch of game-themed books, hanging out at the beach playing in sandy arcades, traveling with handhelds on hand, maybe taking our creations for a spin?

Who knows, maybe your summer experiences this year could lead to great games in a few decades.

My brother and I spent those sweltering days in Maryland, Thailand and Korea coming up with ways to torment one another and sometimes even have fun together. From the fabled pine cone wars faux fought in the nearby woods, to endless games of tag, cops n' robbers and spotlight, we never ran out of things to do.

I can't pretend that children today have those same sorts of childhood experiences. Many spend their days inside watching TV, reading books and even playing video games. That's not a bad thing, but it does lack some of the sweaty charm of a day spent running with friends.

Here, mostly for my amusement, is a collection of games meant to be enjoyed outdoors. I've taken some of my favorite video games and tried to turn them into the sorts of games you play with friends on the lawn, in a park or anywhere there's space.

Included are homages to Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Bros. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Frogger, and Metal Gear Solid. Enjoy, but don't blame me if you break something... even a sweat.

Instead of straining your eyes trying to read all of these, how about just downloading the PDFs instead?
Katamari StickWithMe
Pac-Tag
Leapfrogger
Dodge Space Invaders
Metal Hear Hide and Sneak
Super Hopscotch Bros.

Images remixed by Kotaku. Originals by Eleanor Campbell, Keith Ward and Robert Childress.

Katamari StickWithMe
Pac-Tag
LeapFrogger
Dodge Space Invaders
Metal Gear Hide and Sneak
Super Hopscotch Bros. Part 1
Super Hopscotch Bros. Part 2

There's a key difference! Unlike licensed fare, which are forced to stick to the plot and characters of the film, these games simply take a motivational cue from an existing movie and run with it. Whether that be in terms of visual design, themes, the relationship between characters, it doesn't matter; these are just some of the games inspired by a summer blockbuster, and they wear that inspiration proudly on their sleeves.

Any others people can think of they'd like to share?

Independence Day / Star Fox 64

While the Star Fox series has tipped its hat to many science fiction staples over the years, none are as blatant as Star Fox 64's stage on Katina.

From the enemy fighters to the landscape to the protection of a prominent building from a large, saucer-shaped mothership, it doesn't just borrow from ID4, it lifts entire segments. Some people say even the music is modelled on Independence Day's score.

Just a shame there's no animal version of a wasted Randy Quaid up there.
Saving Private Ryan / Medal of Honor: Allied Assault

In 1998, moviegoers were shocked by what is still widely regarded as the most graphic, confronting sequence ever seen in a war movie. Through a use of shaky-cam and special effects, Steven Spielberg depicts the Omaha Beach landings on June 6, 1944 with an unnerving sense of intimacy, bullets whizzing past your head in surround sound, bodies exploding all over the screen.

Then, in 2002, gamers got their chance to actually take part in the sequence. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault followed the events of the film's introduction almost to the letter, from a disastrous beach landing to a deadly crawl up the beach to the storming of the German fortifications.

And it's not just the opening that models itself on Saving Private Ryan; there are subsequent levels in the game that also reference locations visited in the film. Then again, with Spielberg having helped write the events of the game, that shouldn't have been a great surprise.
Star Wars / Final Fantasy XII

Now this one, this one doesn't seem as obvious. Final Fantasy XII - a Square Enix RPG - being heavily influenced by Star Wars? But it's true.

While art director Hideo Minaba says of the game "I'll just say that I'm a fan. I wouldn't say that [Star Wars] an influence", we don't believe him for a second. The game is about a young blonde boy who yearns to take to the skies and escape the grip of a totalitarian empire on his desert home. He's accompanied by a shifty, though good-hearted pirate. Who in turn is accompanied by a stoic, furry friend. There's also an old-warrior-cum-mentor for the boy, a bounty hunter after the pirate, and even some Jawas.

Come on, Minaba. Fess up. It's OK! Everyone loves Star Wars.
Aliens / Everything

Aliens was released in 1986. And almost every single game that involves men fighting in space has taken something from it. Halo borrows from its aesthetic (Pelican dropships and assault rifles). Halo also borrows from its cast (Sgt. Johnson). Countless games have named their protagonists "Space Marines". The xenomorphs - and their face huggers - are another gaming staple. And sentry guns? Yeah, they're from Aliens as well.

It's shocking the influence this movie has had on an entire medium. As 2K's Stephen Alexander told Totilo the other day, it's so embedded in the imaginations of designers and artists that often people reference it without even realising it. Its legacy, whether artistically or in terms of its plot or gadgets, has been copied by so many games over the years that those staples - the marines, the weapons, the aliens - are now seen as part of gaming's mythology, not that of Aliens.

And since we're in the midst of celebrating all things summer and all things gaming, what better time to honour – and shame – the games of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.

The Star Wars Series (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005)

The Movies: Star Wars needs no introduction. The most powerful force in popular culture of the past generation, its six movies were released across four decades, the first in 1977, the last in 2005. Some of them are great! Some of them, not so great.

The Games: There are just too many Star Wars games to mention here. Though, remarkably, for all the franchise's success, very few have been directly related to the events of the movies. And the best of those by far were Lucasarts Super Star Wars series, released in the mid-1990's for the Super Nintendo. Re-telling the events of the original trilogy through a combination of 2D platforming and vehicle sections, they stand as an example of movie licenses done right (even if they were a little late).
The Dark Knight (2008)

The Movie: The Dark Knight sits at #4 on the all-time box office charts, having taken in a whopping $1,001,921,825. It also holds the all-time record for the biggest opening weekend in cinema history, making $155,340,000.

The Game: Despite the immense interest in both the film and the franchise brought about by this movie (and, admittedly, the death of co-star Heath Ledger), in a rare showing there was never a console Dark Knight game. Well, there was never one released.

Pandemic's Australian studio were working on a tie-in game, which was destined to be an open-world title (GTA meets Splinter Cell), but publisher mismanagement and quality concerns led to the game's (and the studio's) demise.
Jurassic Park (1993)

The Movie: Just squeaking into the top 10-grossing movies of all time, Jurassic Park saw Steven Spielberg bring Michael Crichton's novel about dinosaur cloning gone mad to the big screen. With spectacular results. Sure, it wasn't as gritty as the source material, and those kids were annoying, but it still ranks as one of the most visually impressive films of all time.

The Games: While there have been many games based on the franchise over the years, at the time of the original film's release, only two tie-in titles were put out, one for the Super Nintendo, one for the Genesis. And in a rare move, both games were completely different. The Mega Drive game was a woeful platformer, while the SNES game was a surprisingly brilliant title, blending top-down exploration with first-person combat sections.
The Lion King (1994)

The Movie: Many would argue that The Lion King was Disney's last truly great in-house movie, and it's box office takings bear that out, as at #24 it's the highest-ranked Disney cartoon on the list of the top-grossing films of all time. A simple tale of a cub's difficult journey to adulthood, it's given surprising depth and maturity from some excellent casting and bleak visuals.

The Game: Lion King had a lot to live up to, following Shiny's amazing Aladdin title, but for the most part it lived up to those lofty expectations. The art and animation was handled by Disney, while the game was worked on by none other than Westwood Studios, of Command & Conquer fame.
ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

The Movie: Spielberg's film about an alien that comes to spread love, and not destruction, is still fondly-remembered, even if that fondness is restricted to a silly catchphrase about phones and the fact Drew Barrymore was in it.

The Game: Oh boy. When you want to talk about crummy games based on movies, they don't get much worse than ET. Rushed out in a matter of weeks so it could cash in on the film, the game bore little resemblance to the movie, and was a sales disaster. Things were so bad, in fact, that in 1983 Atari - reeling from the video game market crash it helped create with games like ET - filled a truck full of ET cartridges and buried them in a hole somewhere in the New Mexico desert.
The Back To The Future Series (1985, 1989, 1990)

The Movies: Marty McFly. Awesome Nike sneakers. Time-travelling locomotives. The Back to the Future series was perhaps the best example of the feel-good 80's blockbuster, with Michael J Fox and his time-travelling companion, the bonkers Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) managing to screw with the space-time continuum not once, not twice, but thrice.

The Games: For a movie trilogy that wasn't exactly big on action, Back to the Future somehow spawned around half a dozen games. Here, we're paying tribute to the worst, a vertically-scrolling game for the NES where you, as Marty McFly (apparently) have to run up a street collecting clocks, all the while avoiding men carrying panes of glass. And...that's about it.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean Series (2003, 2006, 2007)

The Movies: Based on a theme park ride of all things, Pirates of the Caribbean was one of the surprise hits of 2003, so much so that two further movies were released in 2006 and 2007. A fourth film is in pre-production. Johnny Depp steals the show as slightly camp pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, though we're equally fond of Bill Nighy's portrayal of fish-faced Davey Jones, partly because he's Bill Nighy, and partly because he's Bill Nighy with a giant pet squid.

The Games: Not much to speak of here. A game based on the third film, At World's End, came and went without troubling many people. More interesting is the game based on the first film. Or shall we say, "based on", since it has absolutely nothing to do with the events of the movie. It was, in fact, the sequel to PC Pirates! clone Sea Dogs, and was hastily repackaged to cash in on the first movie. And was about as successful as you'd expect such a venture to be.
The Transformers (2007, 2009)

The Movies: Michael Bay & Steven Spielberg (we're seeing that name a lot in here) team up to bring the most beloved cartoon series of the 1980s to life. Despite both being poor films - the second especially so - they're cashing in on 80's nostalgia and feature giant robots fighting, so it's no surprise the two films have already grossed over $1 billion combined.

The Games: The Transformers franchise has always been marred by poor video game adaptations, and these two films are no exception. Both tie-ins have been sub-par, generic action titles, only notable for the fact they managed to get the original Megatron voice actor to reprise his role, rather than Hugo Weaving, who voices the Decepticon leader in the films. Our advice? Go play the 2004 Transformers game, based on the Armada universe and developed by Melbourne House. It's actually good.
Independence Day (1996)

The Movie: One of the biggest summer blockbusters of the 1990's, ID4 may have featured silly characters and a silly plot by aliens to destroy humanity, but it had a memorable scene involving the White House, alien face-punching and a drunk Randy Quaid as the hero, so shut up. It's a great flick.

The Game: Sadly, the same can't be said of the adaptation, which appeared on the PS1 and Saturn. You fly an F-18 around shooting aliens, your view constrained by a technical cop-out squishing the playing area between an alien mothership and the ground, and...that's it. No face-punching. No smoky alien body snatching. No motivational speeches. Shame.
The Indiana Jones Series (1981, 1984, 1989, 2008)

The Movies: Ah, the Indiana Jones trilogy (there was never a fourth movie, got it?)!! Harrison Ford plays an adventurous archaeologist who has to stop Nazis (and creepy Indians) from taking over the world. While opinions are divided on the second film, the first and third go down as all-time classics, with Last Crusade also known as "the last good thing George Lucas ever did".

The Games: There have been a ton of Indy games released over the years, but like many older film franchises, not many dealt directly with the plot of the movies (LEGO Indy doesn't count as it was released so long after the fact). Lucasart's adventure game take on Last Crusade did, however, and being a Lucasarts adventure game, is pretty damn good. For some reason Last Crusade always gets forgotten in the wake of the later, superior Fate of Atlantis (also a Lucasarts adventure game), but it's worth checking out regardless.
The Jaws Series (1975, 1978, 1983, 1987)

The Movie: Jaws is remembered not just for the fact it made whole generations afraid to go near the water, but also because it was the very first "summer blockbuster." Spielberg's story of a giant shark terrorising a seaside community was so successful it spawned three sequels, which contrary to popular belief, are all good, Jaws 3 for the dream team of Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr., Jaws 4 for teaming Oscar-winner Michael Caine with...Mario Van Peebles.

The Games: There have only been a few Jaws games, one on the PS2 which was terrible, and one for the NES, pictured above. Which was also terrible. Though terrible in a good way, as it's based loosely on the events of Jaws 4, meaning you can play the game narrating the events in your best Michael Caine accent. It would have helped if either of the games was even remotely scary.
The Spider-Man Series (2002, 2004, 2007)

The Movies: Spider-Man is the king of the summer blockbuster this decade, and held the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time until beaten last year by The Dark Knight. A modern depiction of Marvel's classic comic character, the Spider-Man movies have benefited from not only amazing special effects, but a sexy, memorable cast as well. Who could ever forget the way James Franco eats that pie?

The Games: Each modern Spider-Man flick has spawned adaptations, but these for the most part have been terrible. With the exception of Spider-Man 2, on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. It took the key appeal of Spider-Man - his web-slinging - and applied it to an open city, giving us a watered down version of Grand Theft Peter Parker. Successive titles have failed to strike the same balance between action and exploration that this game managed so well.

One famously disastrous movie-to-video game adaptation was Atari's hastily developed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial based on the 1982 summer hit. Thrown together in less than two months, the game was unusually expensive to license at the time, but entrusted to essentially one man—programmer and designer Howard Scott Warshaw. E.T. was also an unqualified flop, selling less than half of its production run of 4 million copies.

On the other hand, there's GoldenEye 007, an atypical film to video game adaptation. Not only was the film a success, but the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter was met with critical acclaim and racked up 8 million units in sales. (True, GoldenEye wasn't a summer film, but it turned out to be a hell of a summer game.)

The video game industry has learned some lessons from the epic failure that was Atari's rapid-fire cash-in attempt with E.T., but it hasn't made the business immune from suffering the fall out of a cinematic bomb. So here are some helpful dos and don'ts, just in case you're hard at work on next summer's potential blockbusters.

Release Day And Date Or Die
"The financial risk of making a movie-based game is no different than making a game based on original IP," says Keith Boesky of Boesky & Company. His firm represents game developers, like Liquid Entertainment and Spark Unlimited, as well as holders of intellectual property, such as the Robert Ludlum estate and author Clive Barker. "The biggest threat is the scheduling."

Align your game with a film and you'll spend less on advertising, but the same on development costs, says Boesky.

"You lose something like 50% of your sales if you don't hit day and date; it's really substantial," says Matt Wolf of D20, a production company that creates and adapts intellectual property for video games.

"What makes it difficult for these movie games, is [they] don't have bargaining power," Wolf says. Instead of delaying movie-based games to ensure the quality is on par, developers will often be forced to cut features, keep a film's deleted set pieces in the game, or, worse, ship an E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and pray you can coast on the license. A bad Transformers: The Video Game or Iron Man will still sell to a Walmart shopper with blockbuster on the brain.

But if your game does manage to ship alongside the film, pray that the box office is good. Even though Starbreeze Studios' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was critically well received and shipped on time, the movie it was pegged to barely earned back its budget. Sales of the Xbox game were good enough to warrant a budget re-release, but sales of the PC version—which shipped months later—were far less impressive.

Don't Be Brash
One of the more recent industry catastrophes was that of Brash Entertainment, a publisher founded on the concept of releasing licensed games based on movie properties. It released three titles based on Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jumper, and Space Chimps before fizzling out. Some of the publisher's still-in-development projects for properties such as Saw and Night At The Museum have gone on to find new homes, while other aborted games have left Brash's smaller developers reeling.

Brash put all of its eggs in the same basket, a financially risky move for a handful of reasons.

"Profit margins are razor thin as the movie studios take a large cut and development costs always seem to extend over budget as the games release date is static and must coincide with the movie release," says Jesse Divnich, Director of Analyst Services at EEDAR. "Since the release date cannot be adjusted, any delays in production must be offset through overtime or additional man hours thrown on to the project."

Spread The Love
If you're going to release a video game based on a big Hollywood production, put it on as many platforms as possible. With maybe one exception.

"Movie based games tend to produce a lot of volume because they are made available on every platform," Divnich notes. "A game like Transformers was released on every major platform and even though no single platform will produce sales above 1 million units, combined they could produce sales well above 3 million."

"For this generation, your average movie branded game based on a summer blockbuster could bring in anywhere from 2 million to 4 million units or $90 to $160 million," Divnich estimates. Impressive numbers, but still down from the previous generation, when movie based games sometimes topped 6 million units. EA's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, for example, moved some 10 million copies across its eight platforms.

The platforms that might not yet be worth developing movie games for are the digital ones—PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare.

"I don't know that it's a totally viable model for making money. If you look at some of the stats for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, they just don't seem to be making money," says Matt Wolf. "From a business standpoint, I don't know that downloadable games are totally viable yet... but my caveat is that it's still early."

Wolf may be right, but we don't have sales figures for two prominent summer movies turned digital download, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh and Star Trek: D-A-C, to test that claim.

If All Else Fails, Direct Your Way To DVD
The summertime release list for video games isn't typically as stuffed as the fall and holiday release list, meaning potentially less competition. So if you can release in the summer time, day and date with the theatrical release, do it. Failing that, wait for the DVD, as EA did with the video game release of Superman Returns and Warner Bros. is doing with the second episode of Watchmen: The End Is Nigh.

While risky, most of the spending in the U.S. happens during the fourth quarter of the year, a product of the video game industry following a "toy-based" model, according to Wolf, not a media-based model.

Last year, U.S. consumers spent $4.2 billion on video game software during the months of November and December, according to the NPD Group. The tally from June and July of 2008 was just $1.46 million. Some of that bigger slice could be yours.

Divnich sees one benefit from late year game releases based on films.

"Another benefit movie based games received, especially for summer blockbusters, is the holiday lift through the movies DVD sales," he points out. "Additional marketing of the DVD release and retail bundles that include a discount for purchasing the DVD and game help bump up sales exponentially compared to non-branded summer video games."

Optional: Make A Good Game
It's not required, but, please, make the game good. Some of us have to review this stuff.

1975, Jaws — "It was the Village East theater in Birmingham, Alabama. And we rode in my sister's husband's Trans Am…I have certain flashes of scenes, like the scene where Roy Scheider pulls the license plate out of the stomach of the shark. I remember that. They're just flashes. I remember it being very scary. My brother was traumatized, to this day. I loved it." — Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe, born in 1971

Video games all but smell of popcorn. They have been influenced by the movies, arguably more so than they have been by any other art form, save for other games. And the movies that influence them most appear to be the biggest, the summer blockbusters.

Play a game or simply visit a game development studio — watch for the posters, the action figures or listen to the mentions in casual conversation — and the influence of summer movies is apparent. A week can't go by without noticing the sway big movies have on creators. Last Wednesday, while showing Kotaku his game The Saboteur, Pandemic designer Tom French cited Indiana Jones' bigness and coolness of action as an influence on his game's anti-Nazi adventure. Over the weekend as I neared the end of Ghostbusters: The Video Game — itself an offspring of summer movies — I saw a late-game scene in which one of the heroes flees from a massive rolling boulder.

"[Summer movies] are touchstones in a sense they are generational touchstones," Stephen Alexander, veteran gaming artist at 2K Boston told Kotaku. "Games tend to reference them a lot, because the people who are making them are making them for people who are like themselves. Or they make the assumption, that because I like this, the audience will like this."

Prints of Aliens and Star Wars can be lifted from Gears of War and Halo, Star Fox and Final Fantasy. Also, the Indiana Jones films and Predator. T2 and Tron. Jaws. Top Gun. Independence Day.

1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark — "Indiana Jones meant nothing to me. It looked like a boring Western. I had no interest in it. I remember watching the review on Siskel and Ebert in the house with my parents — the whole family was over — and I was like, ah that seems kind of cool, whatever. My dad said, 'Yeah let's go see that.' …It was sold out, so we sat in the car, which I think was this 1970s-era brown Cadillac. And we just sat there for two hours, hanging out as a family, waiting for the next show to start. Eventually we got in, and, I'm not shitting you, it changed my life. It changed my fucking life. This is what I want to do. To live in that world and to be in that world, not so much Indiana Jones' world — though that would be great — but the world of creativity and escapism and summer excitement in terms of film and video games… It just opened the world of geekdom and film-loving and it affects me to this day." — David Jaffe

Summer movies touch everyone, not just game creators. But they may have a stronger grip in a community where it's not uncommon for a development studio to shut down for the afternoon so the team can catch the latest summer flick at a rented theater. That was a mandatory outing just a few Fridays ago, for 2K Boston, when they went to see Up.

"The great thing about the blockbusters is having the common vocabulary," 2K Boston designer Bill Gardner said. "Who doesn't talk about the Predator's cloaking device, whatever the hell it's called? And the T1000 and all that stuff, constantly touching on these reference points."

In the lingua franca of video games, George Lucas is king. "Star Wars pops up all the time," Gardner's colleague at 2K Boston, Stephen Alexander, said. "And that's where a lot of games draw from because it is such an iconic journey to go on and it has such emotional resonance and pays off so well."

But game creators don't borrow from all the summer hits of the '80s and '90s. Alexander may see some Goonies in Zelda, but he guesses that's just him. Ferris Bueller's Day Off doesn't seem to have informed many games. Back to the Future's influence, if it exists, is subtle.

1982, E.T. — "I remember seeing it at the Brooklyn Mall theater and [film company people] handing out the buttons and I was just like, 'Oh my god, I got a button.' And now the PR department is like, 'Big fucking deal, we made a million buttons.' But to a kid in Alabama who was in love with the movies, especially Spielberg and Spielberg's movies, this was like the Holy Grail." — David Jaffe

For all the love E.T. gets, it's had only a light touch on games. Alexander has a theory why. "The real power of E.T. was that emotional bond between E.T. and Elliott," he argued. "Emotional resonance is something that games are still wrestling with… I haven't seen too many games that have managed to pull that off." Ico is the only game he can think of that fits.

The more bombastic, escapist summer movies exert the most influence. They are, according to developers like Alexander and Gardner, parallel works to video games: They share the goal of escapism. The best blockbuster movies and the best blockbuster games take you out of yourself, on a ride.

1983, Return of the Jedi — "[My mom] had come to check me and my neighbor out of sixth grade. We were going to go to like the first show at one o'clock. …I was so excited, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. The word got out and my math teacher, Mrs. Vance, who to this day I don't forgive, basically had a shit fit about it and ended up calling my mom and stuff. It became this big deal and she wasn't going to let me — whatever the fuck — graduate sixth grade. Ultimately, I ended up going to the movie, and I remember waiting in line. It was all the people who show up for a summer movie the first day. It was a big deal. …And I remember, after that point, really trying to recreate that for the rest of my junior high and high school experience. I remember hoping — hoping so bad — that Willow would have this huge line and it never really did." — David Jaffe

Some developers bristle at this or at least laugh off the overwhelming influence that summer movies have. Alexander and Gardner's boss, Ken Levine, said as much to me in January 2007: "Most video game people have read one book and seen one movie in their life, which is Lord of the Rings and Aliens or variations of that. There's great things in that, but you need some variety… Look, I just steal from other sources."

Aliens is the one that gets the eye-rolls a lot. Another drop-ship? Another group of space marines? Another tough-talking black sergeant? Another drab color palette? "When it came out, Aliens' visual design was so amazingly fresh and almost mind-blowing, it's not surprising that so many people have taken it and used it to make their space game," Alexander said. "It is a rich ground to place a game in, but it seems like people have gotten a little bit lazy in using this visual language at this point."

But don't blame the summer movies alone for this, Alexander said. "A game creator has a brilliant flash of inspiration and they mimic something from Aliens, for example, and it's incredibly successful and then other creators mimic that game. I don't know that it's everybody drawing from the same source. I think games are maybe borrowing too much from each other in some ways. You fall into the 'it worked once — let's not be risky — and do it again.'"

1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — "When Last Crusade opened I was such a total fucking geek. I didn't care. I was in high school. The cement had dried on what kind of geek I was going to be. My brother, with me and a couple of my buddies, we all had logos of Last Crusade painted on the back of our cars like it was homecoming." — David Jaffe

There's another draw the summer films have for game creators and the publishers they work for: Bigness.

There's spectacle that surrounds the release of the film expressed in long lines, big ads, talk-show guest appearances, commercials, souvenir cups, national — international — media attention. It's natural to want that.
"The spectacle around the summer blockbusters is something to envy," Gardner said. "You want to break into the mainstream and get people talking, but when you come down to it, as envious as I may be, I try to focus on what we're doing right more than anything else. When it comes down to it, I don't know if we'll every be able to emulate that type of hype."

Still, while the siren song of summer movie status can be hard to resist, it can cause problems when game companies misuse the model. Taking the rate of explosions from a Michael Bay movie and injecting it into a game won't make the game as exciting as the Bay movie. Even a summer movie fanatic like David Jaffe knows this. Borrowing a key scene — the visuals, the audio — doesn't play to gaming's core strength, interactivity. So developers should best bear their influence with caution. A little nod here or there can be a nice touch, of course.

2005, God of War — "God of War is the game I always wanted to make. And there's a huge influence of Raiders of the Lost Ark in God of War. Pandora's Box is the Greek mythology version of the Ark of the Covenant. Actual moves that Kratos does in God of War are directly an homage to what Indy does in Raiders of the Lost Ark. When Indy kicks over that statue when he's in the Well of the Souls, it's the exact same animation — obviously Harrison Ford or the stuntman did it for real — we had Kratos mimic what he did with his body with the giant column when he first gets to Athens." - David Jaffe

So maybe the summer movie blockbusters are safe from video games ripping them off wholesale. And maybe games will continue to find their own way to develop as a unique medium. In fact, games have already been seen to be exerting their own influence on the summer films: see the sidescrolling action sequence in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones or the increasingly video-game-like action scenes and car chases in so many other summer films, like Terminator Salvation and The Bourne Ultimatum.

That doesn't mean some creators won't want you to feel that summer movie feeling when you settle down in front of one of their games.

2009, Eat Sleep Play — "There is a literal aspect to the influence these things have had. But then, more importantly, there is a philosophical impact that the summer movies have had from a standpoint of wanting to provide, for my audience — look I understand that we don't make movies, we don't reach as big of an audience — but I still take the responsibility of the audience we do speak to very seriously. And, as much as I look at the works of [Flow and Flower development studio] That Game Company or [Ico creator Fumito] Ueda when he does Shadow of the Colossus, I'm so okay leaving that level of emotion and that level of meaning to someone else. I want to be the guy who provides the escape. I want to be the guy who provides the video game equivalent of the summer blockbuster." — David Jaffe, co-founder of game development studio Eat Sleep Play

(Movie poster images via the Internet Movie Poster Awards site.)

This hasn't happened to you? Lucky. Tell you what. We're going to put together our summer list, the games that you must have played - great, good, underwhelming - just so you can be leading the cultural conversationalist in our corner of the arts.

Better yet, we' pairing these with specific comments you can offer to sound smart amongst your less enlightened gaming friends, not that any of you are hanging out at the club with popped collars and tennis sweaters. But you can pretend, right?

Must Play
Ghostbusters: The Video Game:
Certainly this summer's multiplayer staples remain titles like Left 4 Dead, anything in the Call of Duty series, and standbys such as Crysis or Team Fortress 2. Ghostbusters' multiplayer makes it a worthy colleague of these, at least for the summer, offering nonstop ghost-wrangling, trapping and blasting across five mission varieties on nine maps. The longer campaigns, provided you battle them out with players who know what they're doing, offer fulfilling cooperative play opportunities and the chance to make some good friends for the summer.

Comment to make you sound smart: "Of course the dialogue was spectacular - did you see who was writing it? But you can't just string together one-liners and make a story."


BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Hype is hot for this hand-drawn 2D fighter, touted by some as the latest meaningful innovation in the fighting genre. It may pose a real challenge to players less experienced in the genre, but it definitely will be talked about as the summer wears on. Plus, few game types are as meant for summer as a good old fashioned fighter which, no matter where it's played, calls to mind evenings spent firing quarters down an arcade cabinet, inhaling the aromas of waffle cones and french fries, and trash-talking between slurps of an Icee.

Comment to make you sound smart: "I had difficulty following the story and some of the weird characters, until I just switched it to the Japanese voiceovers and nodded along."


inFamous and/or Prototype
This season's action standardbearers are both about real guys given super powers, and the mayhem and moral ambiguity that follows. Except in this case, both inFamous and Prototype are well-regarded enough to require your attention. Xbox 360 owners have no choice except Prototype, as inFamous is a PS3 exclusive. The games deliver plenty of memorable moments and the feeling of being suffused with unbelievable power.


Comment to make you sound smart: "I worry that game development is catching on to the fad mentality of the Hollywood studio system. Two blockbusters built on the same premise? Didn't we see that when everyone discovered Tommy Lee Jones in a SWAT vest barking orders was the road to cash?"

Punch-Out!!
The right combination of nostalgia, action, and fun among friends makes Punch-Out!! a summer party favorite that will bring even the most casual game observers into the room to see said fun. It has a two-player mode that won't set anyone's hair on fire, as Punch-Out!!'s calling always has been the zany opposing boxers and their outlandish characteristics. But then, thinking back to grade school, how many of us played Punch-Out!! for an hour, handed over the controller, and watched a friend do the same?

Comment to make you sound smart: "It really is amazing how fighting Great Tiger brings back a muscle memory spanning two decades."


1 vs. 100:
We're hearing actual skill-based prizes are on the way for Xbox Live's avatar-based game show; even if you don't make it to the Mob, or, better yet, the hot seat as The One, there are few casual experiences better than forming an Xbox Live party, venturing into 1 vs. 100 live play, blurting out all the answers, riffing on the questions or the host and complaining about how awful players in the Mob must be.


Comment to make you sound smart: "Of course I'll never make the Mob. They never ask any questions about fertility gods of Bermuda's pre-Colombian natives."




Mobile:
Rock Band: Unplugged
Though you won't be playing it among friends, Unplugged pays a great tribute to Harmonix' pre-Rock Band games Amplitude and Frequency. The base soundtrack gives you a great variety of music and the means to play with it, rather than just listening to whatever's on your mp3 player while waiting in an airport.

Comment to make you sound smart:Selling Rock Band without a peripheral isn't impossible. Selling it without DLC is.




Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Granted, those old enough to play M-rated games might not be the ones stuck in the back seat for a long drive to the mountains or the beach. But a successful getaway to a beach house often depends on the creative use of time spent doing nothing. GTA's entry into the DS market offers long stretches of gameplay that are more thought-provoking than standard puzzles or other timekillers.


Comment to make you sound smart: Only five percent who have played this game have completed it; that reminds me a lot of my percentile on the college boards ...




Plants vs. Zombies:
We're including this, for PC and Mac, as a mobile pick because, hey, it can be played on that laptop too. And these days, who goes out of town without theirs? Plants vs. Zombies is full of audiovisual delight and addicting gameplay. Nothing stops you from grabbing it for your desktop, either.

Comment to make you sound smart: "You know what's next, right? Plants vs. Zombie Pirates."


Rent for the Weekend:
UFC Undisputed or Fight Night Round 4:
Undisputed is probably the better game, but if MMA isn't your cup of tea, Fight Night does as good a job as a leading sports title to give you and your friends a good rumble. The control schematic might throw some expecting an experience like Round 3's, pushing this a little outside of the must-play range. But as a rental among friends, it is definitely worth a look, proving that bashing one another to a cauliflower-eared pulp isn't antisocial, it's actually damn good fun.

Comment to make you sound smart: Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas provide a fine commentary, but it's not like Norman Mailer and George Plimpton at the Rumble in the Jungle.


Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:
Appropriate as the tie-in for a summer popcorn flick, it gets a nod as a summer pick for its multiplayer features, which are much stronger than a singleplayer mode hampered by chore-like mission structure and a weak story.

Comment to make your sound smart: Oh, no, I didn't buy this, GameFly accidentally sent it to me. Really.




Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood:
Ubisoft's western sequel is a darkhorse among the summer's leading titles; we're including it as a rental because a fake gunfight among friends is a staple of summer playtime going back to the days when we pointed stick-finger guns at each other, and Juarez beefed up its multiplayer from what the original offered in 2007. Or, get it for the single-player and blast your way through the story campaign; either way, it'll fill up a weekend but good.


Comment to make you sound smart: I keep wondering when we'll see the definitive Wild West MMO, until I realize that everyone back then was basically detestable and functionally illiterate.

Less than 150 feet from any shoreline near a beach boardwalk, there's probably a video game arcade. Beach arcades have been around even before there were video games – in the late 1880s and early 1900s, you could pay a nickel to have your palms shocked by an electric current or your grip tested by a challenge to squeeze metal handles at Venice Beach, California or Coney Island, New York. And then, since the advent of Pong in the 1970s and through the phenomenon of Dance Dance Revolution, video game arcades and beaches have been closely linked.

Your average trip to the seaside can be a trip back to childhood. We undervalue trips like this, especially since the bum economy has many people taking "stay-cations" to local beaches instead of vacations to tropical resorts. Even worse, we undervalue some of the last dedicated video game arcades in the country, which you can find at Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts, Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, Redondo Beach, California or Virginia Beach in Virginia. With a good listing of local arcades featuring classic video games, you're all set for a summer of time travel.

Santa Cruz, main arcade.

For me, my beach arcade nostalgia trip began with a visit last week to the arcades at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I walked up and down the boardwalk, watching kids try to drag their parents into the smaller arcades where redemption machines were visible from the walkway. I saw a group of preteen girls gather around MTV Drumscape, unsure of how to work the controls and apparently unwilling to read the instructions. I doubled back toward the Casino arcade and noted how the sand that people tracked in from the seaside gathered in little piles by the line of Mario Kart arcade machines. Turns out, people were sitting down on the plastic kart seat to empty out their shoes. And I saw a sunburned little girl who could have been me 15 years ago head toward the Galaga machine with a handful of tokens.

I'd never been to Santa Cruz as a kid, but I was overwhelmed with nostalgia as I walked between arcade machines and squinted against the flashing neon lights coming from their screens. It took me back in time 15 years to a noisy, air-conditioned cacophony of flashing neon lights and blaring 8-bit music in an arcade somewhere near Monterey Bay, California. On that fateful day 15 years ago, I was converted from a budding beach bunny into a total arcade animal when I got a high score on Galaga after two hours and $10 in quarters.

Santa Cruz, the Classic Corner.

That arcade in Monterey is gone, now. Like so many arcades across the country, it probably closed when Nolan Bushnell's Atari and Chuck E. Cheese empire declined and arcade machines across the country lost the 3D technology battle to Nintendo and Sega's home consoles. By 1997, there were maybe two arcades in my hometown where I could find Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ms. Pac-Man, but by and large, those "arcades" threw out their video games and replaced them with kiddy gambling machines that spat tickets. The thrill I got from those kinds of arcades faded like a sunburn – it was nothing like the burning passion Galaga instilled.

The feelings and experiences of that long-gone arcade all came back to me within minutes of finding the Galaga machine at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk – tucked into the Classic Corner of the Casino arcade building along with a dozen other old-timers, even a Sea Wolf machine, circa 1976. There were actually several Galaga machines throughout the boardwalk, since there's more than one video game arcade. In the last few years or so, the management team at the boardwalk decided to merge their video game arcades with their kiddy gambling centers (a.k.a. "redemption centers") and now you cannot go twenty feet along the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk without spotting Street Fighter, DDR, or Ms. Pac-Man right next to ski ball and UFO catcher machines.

Santa Cruz.

The arcades at Santa Cruz have a reputation among hardcore arcade gamers for having one of the largest selections of classic arcade games of any beach arcade. There's only one other place where you can find more than the 50-odd functioning classic arcade games of the 70s and early 80s; and Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire doesn't count because it's a museum, not a beach arcade.

What does count as a beach arcade but doesn't quite top Santa Cruz's collection is Half Moon Arcade at Weirs Beach, New Hampshire – about two miles away from Funspot. Like Santa Cruz, it's a tourist location with a lot of local traffic, but unlike Santa Cruz, it's only open in the summer. Arcade manager Robert Ames says that no matter what, there will always been an arcade at that beach.

Weirs Beach — Image Cred.

"I grew up with this business," he says. "At one time or another, we've had just about everything in this arcade." Between the arcade's two locations along the shoreline of Lake Winnipesaukee, there are more than 200 machines (redemption and video game) for people to play. Ames says the arcades see a mixed crowd of families and teenagers as well as hardcore gamers who compete at DDR.

The crowds who gather at Santa Cruz's Casino arcade include hardcore gamers, first-time teenagers and a ton of families. Arcade manager Barb Phillips and chief technician Brian Gustavson say that the Santa Cruz crowd shifts from mostly families and 15-year-olds without driver's licenses in the summer, to hardcore Capcom vs. SNK and DDR crowds and students from nearby UC Santa Cruz during the off-season in the winter.

Even with the recent downturn in the economy, the boardwalk hasn't taken a hit. "We're seen as a local destination, so people think of it as an inexpensive vacation," says Phillips. "We've had consistent [tourism] numbers this year and even in the off-season we do okay." I can see how they would. The Classic Corner may not have gotten as much foot traffic as the rest of the arcade – it's tucked into an awkward location next to laser tag and a row of pinball machines and can only fit about 15 comfortably. But tight clusters of teens formed around light gun games like Time Crisis 3 and around fighting games like Virtua Fighter 4, feeding token after token into the machines with the same fervor I remember from my 15-year-old affair with Galaga.

Santa Cruz.
Fuller would not disclose just how much money the arcade games pull in for the boardwalk total – but of the 176 arcade machines that don't spit tickets, every single one pulls its weight enough for Gustavson to justify the expense of ordering custom parts to fix them when they break.

Maintaining old arcade machines is definitely a challenge for beach arcades in a strapped economy. Gustavson talked about how sand gets where isn't supposed to go, overzealous gamers break joysticks and about how machines left in storage near salty sea air tend not to do so well when you try to switch them back on. Replacement parts for machines from the 70s can cost as much as $200 on auction sites; and many arcade technicians have to improvise.

Flipper McCoy's arcade in Virginia Beach does pretty well on its own repairs. Most coin-operated machines in the South are run by the Southern Amusement Corporation – and according to arcade manager Jay, the chief technician at the arcade is the husband of one of the corporation's owners. "He never has trouble finding parts," says Jay, who declined to give his last name because he's joining the Navy. "We've got a ton of machines here and they run off quarters, so there's enough money to keep ‘em all running."

Jay says Flipper McCoy's hasn't had a hard time with the drop off in summer travel, either – mostly because their tourist crowd is made up of foreigners from Russia or Morocco. "We do get a lot of local hardcore gamers who want to play Marvel vs. Capcom, but there are a lot of [tourists] who are all like, ‘Hey, there's Spider-Man in a game, I want to play that.'" Arcade games and classics like the original Super Mario Bros. are a big draw for the Flipper McCoy's crowd, he says, but there are still way more redemption machines than classic arcade games.

Back in Santa Cruz, Gustavson observes that any game where you can show off or at least ride a plastic motorcycle is enormously popular with older kids and adults – while the ticket-spitters are mostly the domain of young children. "People like to compete with each other," he says. "And the games where you can sit down and pull a curtain shut – they're pretty popular with the teenagers out on dates."

Santa Cruz, Casino Arcade.

That made me blush. Jurassic Park, first French kiss, Chuck E. Cheese, 1994. See what I mean about time travel?

Beach arcades may not be that different from other arcades that survived the downfall of the Golden Age. A few arcade gaming experts I interviewed said as much.

Ken Chaney, co-conspirator and operator of classic video game arcade showcase California Extreme says that after the Golden Age ended, "Arcade games were relegated to niche markets, tourist traps." And what are beach boardwalks besides very large tourist traps?

Chaney's co-organizer, East Coast-based arcade tournament director Bowen Kerins, agrees and adds that the redemption machines are just as ubiquitous at beach arcades as they are in the Chuck E. Cheeses they conquered. "These games are not providing the kind of experience people will want to come back to," he says.

But there's something to be said for the nostalgia the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk brought me. Chaney and Kerins trade on that same feeling for their annual showcase – but with the right arcade nearby, anyone can take that trip back in time almost at any time of the year.

I take comfort in knowing both that there's a place where I can get my Galaga fix and in knowing that there will be other generations of kids after me that will one day grow up, go to the beach for a vacation, and find that arcade game and all of the memories attached to it somewhere nearby.

Game Daily has compiled a list of what moniker's our favorite video game characters would have achieved had they all gone to what could only be the greatest high school ever. The list doles out 16 awards, including most athletic for pill-popping Pac-Man, biggest flirt for Niko Bellic and class clown for... Gordon Freeman?

Video Game Yearbook Awards [Game Daily]

Mario can swim. Sonic would not. A jump in the water used to kill the anti-heroes of Grand Theft Auto. Altair, the deadly hero of Assassin's Creed couldn't get wet. His successor can.

Large bodies of water are fatal in inFamous, act as pools of quicksand in the new Bionic Commando and are just off-limits in games as wide-ranging as Animal Crossing and everything beyond the first 30 minutes of undersea adventure BioShock.

Problem: Swimming Can Be Boring
There are smart and serious design reasons for the omission of swimming in so many top games. But before even thinking about those, a fair assessment is that video game swimming can be dull. There may be fans of Super Mario Bros.' World 2-2 and the opportunity it affords players to throw fireballs underwater at squids. There may be fans of swimming in Metal Gears and Zeldas. Swimming, though, isn't what carries most games, and it's frequently a source of gamer frustration.

"Swimming is not as fast as running or jumping or flying, and is generally not as fun," Darren Bridges, a game designer at Sucker Punch, the studio behind the swimming-not-permitted hits inFamous and Sly Cooper. "The gameplay [for swimming] is often bland: mashing a single button in the best cases, and just pointing the stick in a direction at the worst."

Pete Wanat, veteran producer of many games, including Scarface: The World Is Yours, backed Bridges up. Scarface, which was primarily played on land as an open-world crime adventure in the style of a GTA, allowed swimming — until players got too far adrift and were chewed by a shark. But it also gave players the option to have hero Tony Montana stay dry and summon a boat. That ability, he wrote via e-mail "hopefully kept players in the action and not doing the 300 medley in Miami Harbor trying to reach the nearest dock." That was a merciful decision, explained Wanat: "Because in almost every game, swimming long distances is ultra boring."

So un-fun is a lot of video game swimming that developers who plan to include it often cut it. "Most [development] teams want their character to do everything under the sun, but reality kicks in and they start tearing out the ability to dance and swim pretty fast," veteran game designer Dave Perry told Kotaku. "Many games have you instantly drown. Plenty just let you go up to your ankles. Some let you swim off into oblivion with nothing out there, and then you have to swim back. If there's no good reason to swim (nothing to find or do), then it's a waste of valuable team attention, so that's why so many teams just trash the idea and focus on something more important instead."

Swimming Bans Help Game Creators
Maybe many games are better off without empowering heroes to do the backstroke or the doggy-paddle.

Developers say that omitting swimming helps them. Making a dive in the water deadly can add a core element of the game's difficulty, no matter how absurd that element may be to the game's fiction — or how much the fiction must be stretched to accommodate it. Really, should water barricade a bunch of athletic freedom-fighters and animals?

"Fictionally speaking, it really doesn't make sense to have water as a boundary in the Sly Cooper games," Bridges admitted. "There, I said it. The three main characters are Sly the Raccoon, Bentley the Turtle, and Murray the Hippo. Real raccoons are decent swimmers, and turtles and hippos spend the majority of their lives in water, but our heroes had to swear off water as part of their transition to
the video game universe."

Capcom's Bionic Commando producer, Ben Judd, stressed to Kotaku that the metal arm of his game's hero is just too heavy to keep its hero — a guy who can survive multiple bullet shots and steep falls — afloat.

That's the story explanation.

The real reason they limit swimming from games like Sly and Bionic Commando is to add an aspect of difficulty to their games. Heroes like Sly or inFamous' Cole McGrath are so strong that other obstacles won't do. "Cole and Sly are both excellent climbers," said Bridges, "So tipping a car sideways to block an alley entrance is not enough to keep them out." He noted that "water is often a better alternative than other boundary options, such as 'Steep Mountains,' 'Giant Walls,' 'Flaming Lava Fields,' or 'Infinite Cliffs.'"

Judd described how water was used to add challenge to Bionic Commando: "With Bionic Commando, we needed something that could be used as an obstacle that would both limit where Spencer could go but also prove to be a danger so that if he fell into it he could die… early levels have very few 'pit traps' at all. If you fall, you just need to climb back up in early levels. Around the middle of the game, we use water as a device that people want to avoid. But if they do fall into it, there is a small window in which they can hook onto something nearby and avoid death because we didn't want any insta-kills so early in the game. Toward the end of the game, there are more tried and true pitfalls that will kill you if miss the swing."

And if water won't kill a games' heroes, stuff in the water might, like that Scarface shark. Or, as Drew Murray, lead designer of PlayStation 3 first-person shooter Resistance 2, reminded Kotaku, there's the Fury, a classic deadly-swimming-enemy type seen in that game: "The Fury went through a number of iterations, from its initial design as a 'Chimeran walrus' that would be fast and deadly in the water but slow and lumbering on land (with arm-mounted guns to boot!), to our final design as a purely aquatic enemy that essentially acted like a sign next to a toxic lake reading 'Swimming Here Is Hazardous to Your Health!"" he said. "We also used them in several places as timing-puzzle challenges for swimming sections, where the player would have to time their swimming based on the speed and location of furies in the water."

Just Add Swimming
There are so many reasons not to have swimming in games, that the addition of it can be a feature worth promoting. It's a literal game-changer, as players who transitioned from the death-water of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the pearl-diving-permissible depths of GTA: San Andreas can attest.

To add swimming, developers need to draw more graphics, tweak their camera system, add animations and find that elusive fun in video game breaststroke. Some have determined all that works' worthwhile.

The Assassin's Creed series is making the move from non-swimmable to swimmable with this fall's sequel. The sequel's lead game designer, Patrick Plourde, told Kotaku, "We listened to the feedback of the players who were pretty vocal that the fact that that Altair couldn't swim wasn't feeling right for a master Assassin – they were right. Also our new setting which included Venice has a much stronger need to interact with water. So that explains why swimming wasn't in Assassin's Creed but is in Assassin's Creed II."

Swimming wasn't available in the first game, Plourde said, simply because the team knew water wasn't going to be an important enough part of the game's terrain to make getting in it worth the development energy. The threat of water wound up shaping one port-based assassination mission in that first game, forcing Altair to hopscotch across moored boats. In Venice, new Assassin Ezio will have to have other hazards to worry about than a bad soaking.

Just Remove Swimming
For all the nice things that swimming might add to a game, it's not a must. Some designers have de-emphasized it. See the drop in swimming content from Super Mario Sunshine to Super Mario Galaxy.

Others are removing swimming completely. That's happening in the next Ratchet & Clank. That series' creative director, Brian Allgeier of Insomniac, explained how swimming had served Ratchet well in the past but proved a reasonable omission for the next adventure, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time: "On the Ratchet & Clank games, we included swimming as another means of exploration and felt that it rounded out a nice set of moves for our main character," he said. "Ironically, water was also used at times as a level boundary along with lava, toxic goo, and fall-to-death areas to prevent people from exploring too far. Sometimes we've used swimmable and non-swimmable water together. For instance in Quest for Booty, we had a lagoon area in the Hoolefar Island level where Ratchet could swim, but further out there was deadly water that bounded the level. For A Crack in Time we've decided to change course and not include swimming. We're putting a lot of new gameplay features and modes in this game and decided that swimming wasn't Ratchet's strongest suit. Plus we also wanted to avoid the confusion of swimmable water versus non-swimmable water. So he won't be swimming in the latest game in favor of Hoverboots, Clank time gameplay, new gadgets, and a lot more."

Who would miss swimming in a game, anyway? It's not like Insomniac is cutting the ability to hover, shoot cartoon weapons or smack enemies with a big wrench. That's what the people pay for.

As 2009 turns to summer for many of us, and as you dip your toes in the pool or step toward a crashing beach wave, enjoy this one easy thing you can do that so many video game characters can't.

Swimming can be a chore in games, a hassle for gamers and game makers. But wouldn't we all rather swing giant hammers and double-jump over cars instead?

While video game publishers aren't quite as afraid to release new titles during the summer months as they used to be, there is still a dry period between the last games of spring and the beginning of the fall holiday season. Just because there aren't quite as many games to play doesn't mean you can't still immerse yourself in your favorite titles. We've compiled a list of quality reading materials to keep you steeped in game culture throughout the hot days of summer and beyond.

Fiction
What makes a great work of video game fiction? Strong writing helps, but it's the more supportive nature of gaming fiction that makes a title stand out. The author must not only tell a compelling tale, but tell it in such a way that, when the reader returns to the game, they find the nature of their relationship to the title has changed. Whether it enhances familiarity with one of the title's characters, or deepens our understanding of the game world, video game fiction excels when it changes the way we experience what we play.

Here is a list of some titles that excel at adding depth to the games they are inspired by, as well as a few that have inspired games on their own.

The Divine Comedy Author: Dante Alighieri Publisher: Various First Publication: 1300's Thanks to Electronic Arts there is a 14,000 line poem on Kotaku's Summer Reading List. If you are going to play and hopefully enjoy the loose video game adaptation of Dante's Inferno, you may as well familiarize yourself with the source material. It may be a dense, allegorical vision of the Christian life and afterlife, but it's also considered to be one of the greatest works of world literature, and being able to discuss such things really impresses the opposite sex at fancy dinner parties.

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne Author: David Gaider Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC Pub. Date: March 2009 Who better to pen a prequel novel to an upcoming role-playing game than the lead writer for the game itself? David Gaider of BioWare has lent his writing talents to such classic games as Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and his work translates quite well onto the printed page, as evidenced by his first novel, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne. The book tells the story of a Maric, the son of the Rebel Queen, seeking to reclaim the throne of Ferelden following his mother's murder. The story is compelling and entertaining, setting the tone for the upcoming game quite nicely. I really appreciate it when the lore comes before the game, letting the player step into the action feeling as if they have a deeper understanding of the world they are about to experience.

Ender's Game Author: Orson Scott Card Publisher: Various First Publication: 1985 What's a science fiction novel from 1985 doing on Kotaku's Summer Reading list? Aside from the fact that Chair Entertainment is working on a downloadable title based on the novel, Ender's Game is one of the ultimate video game-themed novels of all time. The story centers on Ender Wiggins, a young boy who is part of a class of students at Earth's Battle School, where they train gifted children to take command positions in humanity's war against the alien Formics. The children are trained using simulators - high tech video games that place them in the midst of virtual battles, commanding fleets in what could be the ultimate real-time strategy game. Woven into the science fiction plot is a poignant coming-of-age tale, making Ender's Game a book that delivers on multiple levels. If you've not read it you should, and if you have read it, shush.

Gears Of War: Aspho Fields Author: Karen Traviss Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Pub. Date: October 2008 Author Karen Traviss was at her best when she wrote the Star Wars: Republic Commando novels, and now she takes that same understanding of both combat and camaraderie and applies it to the Gears of War universe, telling the story of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago in a way that the games never could. Her book takes them from childhood to the battle of Aspho Fields, where they must face a dark secret about Dominic's brother Carlos. Traviss seems to understand the bonding of brothers in battle better than most male writers who tackle the same sort of subject matter, making for an entertaining read no matter how you feel about the series itself. Traviss revisits Gears in late July, picking up where the second game left off with Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant.

Halo: Contact Harvest Author: Joseph Staten Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC Pub. Date: October 2007 Wait, isn't the latest Halo novel The Cole Protocol? Yes it was, and that's why I am recommending Halo: Contact Harvest. If you want a novel that tells a compelling story set during the early days of the war between humanity and the Covenant, you'd be better off avoiding Tobias S. Buckell's The Cole Protocol and reading or re-reading Contact Harvest. As Staten did with Sergeant Johnson in Contact Harvest, Buckell tries to develop Captain Jacob Keyes in The Cole Protocol. Wile he succeeds in telling a multi-layered story with well-developed characters, they aren't likable characters that you'd want to know the story behind. On top of that, I'm not even that hardcore a Halo fan and I noted several inconsistencies between the game and the book. In Contact Harvest, Bungie writer Joseph Staten takes a character that isn't more than a caricature in the game and develops him in a way that changes how you'll view his appearances in the Halo series.

Halo: Uprising Author: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: Alex Maleev Publisher: Marvel Enterprises, Inc. Pub. Date: June 2009 While I hate to use the phrase "must-have", this hardcover collection of the four issues of Marvel's Halo: Uprising comic book series is indeed just that, bridging the gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3 with a compelling story and some fantastic artwork.

Hellgate: London Trilogy - Exodus / Goetia / Covenant Author: Mel Odom Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: June 2007 - August 2008 Simon Cross never believed in demons. Despite the fact that his father raised him in a hidden underground commune belonging to the Templar, an organization training in secrecy to defend mankind against a prophesied invasion from the infernal, Simon lacked the faith of his fellows. He left the commune in hopes of finding a normal life. But when the gates of hell do open, Cross finds himself drawn back to London to lead a desperate battle to save humanity. Mel Odom treats Hellgate so much better than the game deserves to be treated. If the game contained just a small portion of the personality Odom gives his characters it would still be operational in North America today. The third book is a bit of a letdown, feeling rushed, possibly due to the game's impending failure, but getting there is one hell of a ride. Forget the bad game. This is a series of good books.

Mass Effect: Revelation / Ascension Author: Drew Karpyshyn Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Pub. Date: May 2007, July 2008 The Mass Effect novels, Crecente's contribution to the Kotaku Summer Reading List, are more prequel than companion. They add to the already-rich lore of the Mass Effect universe. With BioWare's own resident novelist and lead writer for Mass Effect Drew Karpyshyn penning the stories, you can expect a level of detail that no outside author could hope to deliver.

Metal Gear Solid Author: Raymond Benson Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Pub. Date: May 2008 Given that the author has written James Bond novels, one has to overlook Raymond Benson's Bondification of Solid Snake in this adaptation of the first Metal Gear Solid game. The book follows the plot of the game closely, adding little details that should please fans of the series. It fleshes out some of the character's motivations quite nicely. The only issue is the characterization of Snake himself...which one has to admit wasn't all that deep in the game. Benson takes a few liberties with the character, giving him Bond-like quips that don't quite jibe with Snake as we know him today. Still a good read, and with Benson busy penning the novelization of the game's follow-up, Sons of Liberty, we might as well get used to his writing style.

Nova: StarCraft Ghost Author: Keith R.A. DeCandido with an introduction by Chris Metzen Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: November 2006 The tragic and often heart-wrenching story of Nova, Emperor Arcturus Mengst's most deadly Ghost operative. When her parents are murdered by a rebel militia, young Nova lashes out with her devastating powers, killing hundreds in the blink of an eye. She finds herself alone in the streets of Tarsonis, pursued by a special agent tasked with hunting her down. Definitely a book that deserves to be read. DeCandido's portrayal of Nova's plight touches all the right chords, and the tragedy of the situation is made all the more poignant by the fact that this is a novel based on a game we may never see.

Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel Author: A.B. Sina with Art by LeUyen Pham and Alex Puviland Publisher: First Second Pub. Date: September 2008 The Prince of Persia isn't a person, but rather an ideal or spirit that certain Persian princes embody. This is the theme that poet A.B. Sina presents in this lovely graphic novel inspired by the video game series. The book follows the story of two princes, separated by time but entwined by fate, with Sina's words texturing the canvas on which artists Pham and Puviland practice their craft. A bit hard to follow at first, once the separate story threads are braided together the tale truly takes off. As an added bonus, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner provides a brief history of the game series in the volume, neatly counterbalancing the more artistic take on the legend.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy Author: S.D. Perry Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: October 1998 This one goes way back, but when I asked for staff recommendations for the list, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy was the first thing out of AJ's mouth, and so here it is. She claims the first book is the best in the series, with the quality slowly dwindling thereafter. That's a bit odd, because I remember reading an Aliens series by S.D. Perry that followed that exact same pattern - a strong start followed by diminishing returns.

StarCraft: Dark Templar Series - Firstborn / Shadow Hunters / Twilight Author: Christie Golden Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: May 2007 - June 2009 Archaeologist Jake Ramsey, hired to explore an unearthed Xel'Naga temple, finds himself bonded to the spirit of a long-dead Protoss mystic. Driven by the mystic's memories, Jake sets off on a journey that spans the universe. The three book series sees its protagonist pursued by the Zerg, hounded by a powerful Dark Aarchon, and taking a good, hard look at humanity's role in the universe. Author Christie Golden has penned a large number of licensed novels in her time, and there's a good reason she is constantly tapped for said duty. While other adaptation authors simply familiarize themselves with their subject matter, Golden seems to fall in love with each universe she visits, and that love shines through on every page.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Author: Sean Williams Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Pub. Date: August 2008 Sean Williams takes the already-compelling tale of Darth Vader's secret apprentice and fleshes it out in vibrant detail, creating an excellent companion piece to the video game. It's a great example of a novelization that adds a layer of depth to the source material.

Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning: Empire In Chaos Author: Anthony Reynolds Publisher: Games Workshop Pub. Date: August 2008 The battle between the Empire and the forces of Chaos escalates in this solid companion to the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. It's basically a classic fantasy tale - a band of characters from different backgrounds find themselves thrust together against a backdrop of war. You've got your innocent maiden who finds herself in possession of tremendous power; your tough-as-nails anti-hero; an enigmatic elf struggling to overcome the language barrier; and a dwarf who takes the grumpy dwarf routine to a new level. A bit formulaic, but a solid read.

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King Author: Christie Golden Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: April 2009 Yes, it's another Blizzard book by Christie Golden, but as I mentioned previously, there is a reason she is tapped to pen some of the most important stories in video game fiction. The story of Arthas' transformation from paladin of the Silver Hand to evil lord of the undead is one of the most classically tragic tales in Azeroth. Golden handles the details with an expert pen, building up Arthas Menethil's world and then slowly tearing it apart.

Non-Fiction
While some of prefer their video game reading to tend to the fantastic, others prefer to take time during the summer months to brush up on their facts, get a little bit of back story, or wax philosophical on their favorite titles in preparation for the busy fall forum flaming season. Here's a handful of more-grounded gaming reads.

Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers Author: Brian Ashcraft Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: January 2009 Didn't think I'd miss this one, did you? Written by our own Brian Ashcraft, Arcade Mania takes us deep inside the arcades of Japan, exploring not only the games themselves, but the colorful people who play them, presenting both history and culture in equal servings. I enjoyed the quirky page layouts almost as much as I enjoyed the actual words, and while I would have preferred a bit more lead in and lead out, all in all it's one heck of a good read.

Guinness World Records Gamers' Edition 2009 Compiled by Guinness World Records Publisher: Guinness World Records Limited Pub. Date: February 2009 Because we have to use the bathroom in the summer as well.

Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games - And What Parents Can Do Authors: Lawrence Kutner, Cheryl K. Olson Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group Pub. Date: April 2008 You've probably seen quotes from the husband-and-wife writing team and references to this book on Kotaku before, and you'll more than likely see them again. The pair studied some of the habits and behaviors of some 1,300 middle-school gamers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, and their findings are some of the most balanced ones I've seen. Many violent video game studies feel like they have an agenda, be it to condemn video games or exonerate them. Grand Theft Childhood moves the focus away from that debate and directs parents' attention where it should be anyway - their own children.

High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, Second Edition Authors: Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Pub. Date: 2nd Edition, December 2003 This one was Ashcraft's suggestion, but I couldn't agree more that High Score! deserves a place on any video game reader's list. DeMaria and Wilson take on the history of the video game industry, from its humble beginnings as dots moving on a screen to the coming of the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox. They break things down by company, era, and geographical region, making it the perfect book to just open up to any random page and begin reading, or as Ashcraft puts it, "Great to pick up and put down whenever you are on the throne."

The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy Editor: Luke Cuddy Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company Pub. Date: November 2008 If you think far too much about the Legend of Zelda series, then here is a book for you. The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy is a series of essays that explores topics both confined to the game, as in Rachel Robison's "Shape Shifting and Time Traveling: Link's Identity Issues", to more all-encompassing philosophical fare, which we see in Paul Brown's "Hyrule's Green and Pleasant Land: The Minish Cap as Utopian Ideal". It's equal bits absurd and insightful.

This first edition of the Kotaku Summer Reading List presents a rather broad range of titles, from fantasy and science fiction to philosophy and scientific study. Hopefully you'll find something worth a sunny afternoon read somewhere amongst the selection. Of course, this certainly isn't the end of this list. You are all part of Kotaku as well, so now that we've shared some of our favorites, it's your turn to share some of your own. After all, the only thing better than reading a good book is sharing a good book.

The game has you pick a big open space, than uses GPS to create a satellite map of your location. The game then spreads virtual letters across the map that you have to run to to gather up and add to your virtual tray of letters.

The letters are then used to spell out words for points.

The game recently won an award for Best Use of Technology in the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival in New York. To celebrate, the developers have dropped the price of the App down to 99 cents from July 2 to July 6.

"We are honored that the Come Out & Play Festival recognized Seek ‘n Spell for its innovative use of the iPhone and GPS technology," said Dan Walton, co-founder of The Retronyms. "We felt that Independence Day weekend would be a perfect time to celebrate with our fans by offering a holiday discount. Seek ‘n Spell is a great game to play with family and friends during picnics, barbecues, or any other outdoor festivity."

Growing up in..., well growing up just about everywhere, my summers usually meant staying outside until it was dark out and my parents were serving dinner. But nowadays I think a lot of folks spend their summers inside playing video games and watching TV.

I have nothing against electronics and gaming, but why not blend the best of both worlds? During the month of July that's exactly what Kotaku will be trying to do: Tapping into the greater world of video game culture to talk about some of the more physical, more cerebral, more out-of-doors ways to have fun in the sun without abandoning your favorite pastime.

We're kicking off Kotaku's Summer of Gaming a bit later today with a great summer reading list of video game books meant to be a handy guide to the novels you should take along while traveling, sunning and kicking back.

Stay tuned throughout the rest of the month for plenty more fun features that tackle everything from game design and summer blockbusters to arcade guides and outdoor games.

Who says you can't get a tan while playing video games?

[Pic]