It’s technically still summer, but try telling that to Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and the dozens of game developers and publishers that have lined up major franchise titles and potential blockbuster games for the next five months. Even without Grand Theft Auto IV, which got pushed back to early 2008, the late summer-autumn-holiday season could be a record-setting era for PC and video games. In fact, there are so many big games coming out that we had to comb through all the different titles and separate the list into several parts. The first part deals with titles scheduled for release in late August and September. So let’s get to it.

BioShock

Release Date: Aug. 21
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 (see below for PC requirements)
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Boston/2K Australia, formerly Irrational Games
Description: I’m not sure what else I can say about this game before I actually play the full version this week. During E3 last month, 2K Games and Ken Levine gave me a tour of BioShock, which you can read about here. I’ll reiterate some points and try to add a few new ones as well. First, from what I’ve seen so far, this game is a true achievement in video game design. Sure, the graphics look fantastic on both the Xbox 360 and the PC. But that’s only part of the equation.

A Big Daddy makes an appearance in BioShock.

The imagery and attention to detail of BioShock’s underwater city Rapture is incredible, and it has the potential to be one of the all-time-greatest video game worlds ever created, alongside the Half-Life series’ Black Mesa and City 17, Fallout’s post-apocalyptic Southern California, and The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule. The dark, moody setting creates a horror movie atmosphere, as there are some truly nail-biting moments in the game. One of the things I like best about BioShock is that while it is technically a first-person shooter, the gameplay goes far beyond simply running and gunning.

Players will have a variety of different telekinetic abilities, such as creating sonic booms, controlling fire and firing lightning bolts (it’s all part of BioShock’s weird but compelling story). In an era of redundant action-heavy FPS titles with the same pitch - humans must fight back against an invading alien race - it’s refreshing to see a game like BioShock that has a different spin. The game has gotten a tremendous amount of hype, as well as glowing reviews for the demo (which is currently available on Xbox Live), so it’s a good bet that BioShock will be one of this fall’s biggest titles.

PC Requirements: minimum requirements include a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, a DirectX 9.0c compliant card with 128MB of RAM (Nvidia 6600/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550). Recommended requirements include Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2 GB of RAM, a DirectX 9.0c compliant card with 512MB of RAM (Nvidia 7900GT or better) or DirectX 10 compliant card (NVIDIA 8600 or better). An Internet connection and 8 GB of hard drive space are also required.