Video games to play summer 2024

'Star Wars' is finally getting the open-world treatment fans have been waiting for

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

published 17 June 2024

Summer is usually a slow season for new video game releases, but that's not necessarily set in stone. This year, several long-anticipated games are coming, including the conclusion of a decade-long saga in "Destiny 2" and a remaster of a classic Nintendo game. If you're looking for a reprieve from the hot weather, here are a few video games you can grab to keep you company inside.

'Destiny 2: The Final Shape' (June 4)

Great news for the "Destiny" fanbase: "The Final Shape" DLC finally arrives in early June. Over the past decade since "Destiny 1" first dropped, the series has set itself apart from other multiplayers due to its "rock-solid, first-class gunplay with captivating sci-fi settings" and semi-regular updates that introduce players to new locations, Vulture said. While last year's "Lightfall" expansion was a "damp squib, churlishly drip-feeding levels that really should have been included in one big update," the newest update looks to make up for where it fell short.

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The latest game from the developer Chinese Room, creator of "Dear Esther" and "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture," sees the company pivoting back to the first-person narrative horror genre. Set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland during Christmas 1975, "Still Wakes the Deep" features players faced with surviving the elements, plus there's something supernaturally spooky about the isolated setting. Like the studio's older games, the latest has no combat — but that does not mean there is not plenty of action to terrorize players.

The studio hoped to create an "experiential narrative horror that was very strongly grounded in its time and place on this iconic location of an oil rig in the North Sea," lead designer Robert McLachlan said to Games Radar+. The horror is tempered by a "narrative theme about love, family, and letting go of relationships, all seen through the lens of extraordinary events happening to an ordinary person," McLachlan said. Pre-order here for PlayStation, Xbox, or Steam.

Technically, it's not a new game, but 2024 has proven to be the "year of remasters and remakes for the Nintendo Switch," The Gamer said. It's been a "quieter year for Nintendo," likely because the next-generation console news is on the horizon; in the meantime, the company is porting old titles over to the Switch. "Luigi's Mansion 2 HD" is a remaster of the 3DS classic initially titled "Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon." The remastered sequel is not expected to add new features to the original game, but will include the game's original multiplayer options. "Team up with other Luigis, either locally or online, and clear the game's haunted houses of ghosts and ghouls together," said The Gamer. Pre-order here.

If you want to add another action role-playing game to your repertoire, then "Black Myth: Wukong" is worth considering. Based on the 16th century Chinese novel "Journey to the West," "Black Myth: Wukong " is a "fantasy epic with a 'Dark Souls'-like twist," said Rolling Stone. Developed by Chinese indie studio Gamescience, the game stars a warrior monkey named the Destined One who is "on a path to paint his own legend." The action RPG is the studio's first significant game following a series of small free-to-play titles, and it is hoping to deliver a game on par with those like "Lies of P" and "Elden Ring," only "paired with lush visuals evoking the rich depths of Chinese mythology." Plus, there are dragons! "Everything's better with dragons," Rolling Stone said. Pre-order here for PlayStation or on Steam.

This may not be the first video game set in the sci-fi universe, but "Star Wars Outlaw" will be the first open-world experience of its kind. Ubisoft is behind the title, a follow-up to another successful licensed project, "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora." The game depicts a lesser-shown side of the 'Star Wars' universe and centers on scoundrel Kay Vess as she navigates the "dangerous underbelly of the Outer Rim, with some familiar faces like Jabba the Hutt making an appearance," Games Radar+ said. Pre-order here.

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Theara Coleman has worked as a staff writer at The Week since September 2022. She frequently writes about technology, education, literature and general news. She was previously a contributing writer and assistant editor at Honeysuckle Magazine, where she covered racial politics and cannabis industry news.