Oh how we love the beautiful days of Summer. Well…except when it’s so hot you don’t want to move. Obviously, this is when air conditioning and video games come into play. Pun totally intended. With E3 recently wrapping up, here are five highly anticipated games that every gamer, casual or battle-hardened, will want to twitch their trigger fingers for.

YOUR VIDEO GAME TO-DO LIST

5. Mario Kart 8

If you’re reading this, that means you have an internet connection, and if you clicked on this article that means that you know a somewhat decent amount about video games, and all of this means that at some point you played a Mario Kart game. It’s as infamous as Monopoly. Lightning bolts, knocking the coins out of your friends, and the dreaded blue turtle shell, thee are staples not only in the Mario Kart series but in video game lore. This new edition features not only the classic characters we’ve all grown to love but new maps, abilities, and best of all, anti-gravity features that involves players driving upside down. While this could cause problems for inebriated players, it’s a brilliant new feature that makes us wonder why it took so long to introduce.

4. Fable Anniversary

There are games that are played for mindless fun, and then there are more serious, heartfelt, Lord of the Rings-like adventure games like Fable. Little has been shown of Fable in regards to game clips and trailers, but two things are clear. One, if you’re as diehard of a Fable fans as the others, you’ll want to check this one out as well. And two, the graphics are more stylish, so take a look.

3. Walking Dead: 400 Days

Based on the popular television show, Walking Dead: 400 Days is geared to work as a bridge between the first and second season of the show. Rather than go the generic route, 400 Days is comprised of five separate stories involving five separate protagonists dealing with the first four hundred days of the zombie apocalypse. This inventive story structure deserves a look by itself, but what is also nice to see from the trailers and game play clips are the graphics and art direction which appear derived from comic book style. The heavy lines and colors bring to mind the Team Fortress series from Valve and it’s refreshing to see a game be unafraid to be kitschy with its animation while being a gory zombie game.

2. Saints Row IV

Brainless, awesome fun. The Saints Row series has always been a beacon of unabashed enjoyment, where physics are only suggestions, gameplay is based on freedom and gamer stimuli, and the craziness only increases with each new edition. Saints Row IV is clearly not letting up in the energy of the prior games, with plenty of open world violence and mayhem, yet the graphics are sharper, the voice acting has improved, and the overall design has more of a professional sheen. This is not to say that series isn’t zany anymore. The protagonists are given the option to punch people in the face or kick them in the nuts. Little things like that, ridiculous yet highly enjoyable little bonuses like that, in addition to the open world gameplay and freedom is what made the series great and it runs deep here as well. Except now, it simply looks better,.

1. Evil Within

Created by one of the minds of the Resident Evil series, Evil Within is a new horror game that ranks #1 on this list because it displays just how damn great graphics and use of atmosphere have become. All the classic chills and thrills are here, from the bodies hanging from ceilings to the creepy, long corridors yet the design is so polished, so realistic yet so gorgeous to look at that it’s hard to tear your eyes away from the screen even as baddies are getting shotgunned in the face. It’s easily the most technically impressive and beautiful looking game at E3, and from the visuals and gut-wrenching sound effects alone it deserves at least a viewing of their demo on Youtube.