How To Survive The Summer Gaming Drought

Posted on Wednesday, June 20 @ 16:30:00 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Don't forget to bring a handheld!

OK, he's playing a console, whatever.

If you're headed to the beach or some other wilderness retreat, it's probably not a good idea to bring your shiny new PlayStation Vita or 3DS with you. At least throw it in the backseat, so you have something to do on the car ride.

Summer presents a wealth of opportunities for portable gaming. They say the handheld is dead, but those assholes are wrong! LONG LIVE THE GAME BOY!

I know many of us are lapsed handheld gamers without the funds for the shiny new toys, but what about your old Game Boy, Advance, SP, or DS? Or be one of those hipster kids with a Sega Game Gear. I don't care what you have, just make sure to bring it with you. Handhelds are invariably valuable when you don't think you would need one but find yourself with a little time waiting in line at the theme park or in the backseat of someone's car.

Fans.

The newer consoles are extremely susceptible to heat. If you've got a fat PS3 or an original Xbox 360, you can kiss your baby goodbye as it melts and has a heart attack in a summer heat wave. The same goes for high-end gaming PCs. These things suck a ton of power and generate a ton of heat.

Make sure your vents and fans are clear and there's nothing obstructing the flow of air. Pull that 360 out of the entertainment console and set it out on top.

Have fans pointed everywhere. Get the air circulating around you and your gaming hardware. God knows you're not playing Kinect, so make sure that as you sit still on the couch, you at least have some fresh air rotating around you. Gaming is no fun if you're sweating out your body weight or if your console dies.

Next: Big Gulp of Classic Coke....

Comments

Guernica
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
Hit up the summer bin sales and Steam sales for games you always were told you should have played.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Excellent tip! There are a ton of discounts to be had during the summer.

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Eyebrowsbv31
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Danny doesn't like steam. He's at 106 days offline right now. :)

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Yes it's been a while. I had to return that beefy review rig so I haven't had much reason to log on.

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Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 8:06 pm
Summer is certainly bad this year. That said, I'm catching up on a bunch of PC games that are $8 or less including Total War: SHOGUN 2, Alan Wake, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, LIMBO, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 9:52 pm
What order are you playing in? Here's my suggestion:
DXHR, Alan Wake, Limbo, Amnesia, and Total War. I can't say I LOVED Shogun 2 all that much :-/

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Jonathan_Leack
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
I've played a few already. I got about 60% into DXHR then quit because I was bored. I beat Amnesia and absolutely loved it. I still haven't started Alan Wake. I've only done the tutorials of SHOGUN 2 and it seems like a good strategy game, just not as enjoyable as Civilization V.

Thanks for the tips, though.

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crazydanO5
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
I absolutely loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution solely because it was the one game in 2011 that I had to put the most thought into.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 1:41 am
It did require a lot from the player but it had so much to give back too.

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Kakulukia
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
I have a serious case of backlog, so I'll work on that this summer.
I've had MGS4 for at least 18 months and I barely played any of it, mostly because I hadn't played MGS1 and had no idea who the hell Meryl was and only had a vague understanding of Liquid/Ocelot's motivations since he barely had anything to do with MGS2. So I'll play through MGS1 for the first time EVAR, then replay through 2 and 3 and then restart 4, hopefully understanding a bit of what's going on.
After that, I still have to get through Catherine, Resistance 2 (and probably 3 afterwards), Assassin's Creed 2, some questlines in Skyrim and maybe Borderlands and Resident Evil 5 if I find co-op partners (because **** those games in single-player) . I got Bayonetta on eBay after Daniel's recommendation, so I'll give that a second chance in HD.

I think I'll be busy.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 1:42 am
Busy summer right there! I might be restarting MGS4 too after all the fanboys at PlayStation Lifestyle talked it up during E3.

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 20th, 2012 at 10:51 pm
GRAVITY RUSH!!!
:D

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 1:43 am
Yes more Gravity Rush! How terrible is it that I'll probably buy all the DLC... Even if it's just costumes?

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 3:53 am
I've never purchased a single piece of DLC in my life, but Gravity Rush has tempted me.

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nihm
Joined: Jan 2011

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:32 am
Gravity Rush owns bones and I thank you guys for hyping it. Everyone with a Vita should play it!

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:42 am
Good to hear that! I love when we can steer people in the right direction with games.

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spanky1113
Joined: Mar 2008

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 5:52 am
I got the Humble Indie Bundle 5. Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Braid, Bastion and more. Plenty to keep me entertained over the summer.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:06 am
That bundle was incredible. I already own many of them but I bought again.

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MasterRabbi
Joined: May 2007

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 6:00 am
Start a huge game of Civ [insert favorite number]. Marathon if you're *that* hardcore. See ya in a few weeks. On a related note, Huge is the last maptype I need...

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:07 am
Civ games do tend to run quite a long time. That could easily eat up half your summer.

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crazycracker22
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 9:54 am
Or face the terrifying real world and meet new peop-- oh god, nevermind the mailman is glaring at me

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 10:07 am
THEY CAN SEE YOU. GET BACK INSIDE!

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OdiousLupous
Joined: Jul 2011

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 1:43 pm
If you have the internet and 1 good hand... you can spend a lil quality time with yourself.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 21st, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Haha, that's disgusting. Thanks for sharing though. Oh jesus please don't do that while you're reading GameRevolution.

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warmaster670
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jun 23rd, 2012 at 1:22 am
I guess you won't want to know what I've been doing to your posts...

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warmaster670
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jun 23rd, 2012 at 1:23 am
Just can't control myself around batman

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 24th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
LOL NASTY SPAM

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seesaw24
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Jun 25th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
So much backlog...Witcher 2, Kingdoms of Amalur, Xenoblade Chronicles, Skyward Sword, Mass Effect 3, Dragon's Dogma

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