Summer Gaming Highlights: Climbing Trash, Dark Hour Dungeons, and Puzzling Adventures

Today we are talking about the big video games of the summer. This is what the employees here are playing. We’re talking about the big summer games, just like the big summer books, chained together. This is the game that is on everyone’s TikTok for you page. Every live streamer is playing it. And it’s almost a simple game just at first look. You’re climbing a bunch of trash and clutter higher and higher into the sky as a lava pit fills up below you. What makes this game so addictive and more importantly so fun to watch is you are chained with one of your friends who’s playing with you. So you have to time all the jumps together, climb the ladder together, avoid the lava. And oftentimes that does not go as planned. Three, two, one, jump. I’m so sorry guys. Who’s the idiot? Who’s the idiot? Tyler, Tyler, Tyler. There seems like maybe there’s a little bit of lag in the game. And so you find yourself tumbling through the sky all the way back down to the start of the game, which leads to, I would say, some fun frustration. So when I describe Persona 3 Reload to people, I describe it as like the game your psychologist maybe made after they played Pokemon. It’s a game that combines both these role-playing aspects of a life sim. So you’re a Japanese teenager going to school, making relationships. But then at night, you’re exploring this dungeon in this case called the Dark Hour. In this dungeon, you’re kind of collecting these persona, which are often based on myths, Japanese and Western, and fighting your way through. It’s a really fun game, but it also has a really deep dark story. It’s a story about accepting death. You know, it depends on exactly what you like. But for me, having that really like deep story and an addictive gameplay was an amazing summer game. A Ranger, a role-puzzling adventure. This is a game that stars a girl named Gemma. And she doesn’t quite fit into her hometown. She seeks the outside world. The whole world is on a grid, and you’re actually moving the tiles to get her to explore and interact with different characters. So sometimes, like, you’ll move the tile left. Maybe there’s another character on that row, and they’ll fall off their ladder, and they’ll blame you for it. It’s really lovely. It’s like a fun, light summer game with beautiful colors, beautiful artwork. We’re getting the artist who worked on Braid, which was an indie hit from a number of years ago, David Hellman. If you’re in for a good time, something a little lighter, this is the game for you. So these are just three games that New York Times employees are playing. But of course, there’s so many other games that came out this season. We’re updating our list basically every month to tell you what’s coming out, what’s new, and ultimately, what’s fun to play.