Holy crap, it’s October!
This year has gone by blazingly fast, and we are now smack dab in one of my favorite months. While I don’t miss a lot about the weather where I come from (the Pacific Northwest), I do miss the crisp change to fall, and I do miss cooler weather at this time of year. Here in Southern California it is cruising the high 90’s on a regular basis and it is getting uncomfortable.
The other day it was 109 degrees. 109. That’s just so hot I can’t even tell you.
My challenge for last month was to get current with 2016 releases, and I did that, to a degree. This month’s challenge is a bit of a hodgepodge as well as a continuation of September’s challenge to get current. I will also be enjoying plenty of horror movies (I make an October playlist every year), diving in to some horror books (some Stephen King is on the menu), and hopefully getting to at least a few horror games.
My amended list of 2016 releases that I have, but have yet to finish, is as follows (in order of initial release date):
02.09 Unravel
02.16 Layers of Fear
02.23 Far Cry Primal
02.23 Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
04.12 Dark Souls III
06.10 Trials of the Blood Dragon
06.21 Asemblance
07.19 Lifeless Planet
07.26 Hyper Light Drifter
08.09 No Man’s Sky
09.06 The Tomorrow Children
09.13 BioShock: The Collection
09.13 Pac-Man Championship Edition
09.13 PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness
09.20 The Bunker
09.20 Dear Esther: Landmark Edition
09.20 Jazzpunk
09.22 Virginia
That list is by no means complete, but it is, in fact, daunting. With all the releases happening this month, not to mention November and December, I don’t see how I will ever actually get current by year’s end. Here are this month’s releases that I have on pre-order:
10.04 Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide
10.07 Mafia III
10.25 Darksiders: Warmastered Edition
10.25 Yomawari: Night Alone / htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary
10.28 Root Letter
Yeesh. I am in trouble. In the best possible way, of course, but I am in trouble. And those lists don’t include something that I want to play from one of my favorite games ever, but that also released this year: the last expansion for Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Between the two expansions I have yet to play for that game, that’s around 45 hours of content.
As an aside, I’d like to send out a thank you to every game developer out there for creating these amazing games. I’m worried about how to complete all of these games on my list and then I think about how many thousands of hours went into creating those experiences.
It’s humbling.
To veer even further off course here, I’m also really keen to try to get to an actual haunt this year. I’ve always wanted to go to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights, but I’ve been too daunted to go. I may love horror movies and games and books, but those are very different from walking through a maze while people jump out and scare the bejesus out of you. This year I find myself wanting to go places and experience various celebrations of Halloween.
Who knows if any of that will happen, but here’s hoping.
So, as you can see, I have my digital work cut out for me this month. I know there’s no way I can finish all of those games by the end of October, but I’m going to try my best and see what I can do.
What games are you playing this week? Have you been able to stay current with 2016 releases? Or are you also behind? Let’s commiserate!
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
I’m really looking forward to playing Mafia 3 Friday. Until that I’ll probably play Overwatch and Uncharted 4.
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MAFIA FRIDAY
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YEP
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Rebekah, I am current on my 2016 backlog. I have PvZ on my backlog. For remaining 2016, you can probably add Mafia 3, ROTR, TT’ Batman ep. 3, & Battlefield 1. Thoughts?
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Ah ha! So you have ONE game on your backlog?! That’s impressive! I would love to get current one day. I’m not sure it’s ever going to happen.
This fall is going to be amazing for games. We are so close to so many bitchin’ releases!
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With the up coming fall releases, I will have a few more games to add to my backlog, lol! I understand you pain. Hey Rebekah! You should do a blog on how you choose which games you decide to play when you have a decent sized backlog.
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At least your backlog is manageable. That’s a good thing! Of course, having good games just waiting to be played is never a bad thing.
I’ve actually written a bit about backlog woes before:
https://rebekahlang.com/2015/07/10/if-we-want-to-play-a-game-we-already-own-why-do-we-not-play-it/
As far as choosing which game to play when, I can never put my finger on why I choose one over the other. I wish I could!
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I managed to finish both Uncharted 4 and Danganronpa 2 over the weekend! I haven’t decided what to play next, but Gears of War 4 might be the front runner since its coming out soon. I’m nowhere near caught up on 2016 games so I’ve got my work cut out for me. I saw that you and Richard were interested in my thoughts on Uncharted 4 so here they are:
I thought Uncharted 4 was definitely the best Uncharted game I’ve played in terms of story. For clarification, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Uncharted’s overall narrative as I felt they never fundamentally changed from game to game, but I enjoyed the characters and blockbuster stylings and setpieces. With 4 this definitely felt like the culmination of everything Naughty Dog developed during the PS3 generation. I felt it was a satisfying close to the series but like any good summer blockbuster, left just enough room for the possibility of continuing.
Combat I found to be the harder issue to enjoy early on as no matter what gun I used they seemed to jump erratically to the point where I was finding it annoying and would attempt stealth for as long as possible. I got used to it after a while though and actually started a new run on Crushing that hasn’t been giving me too many problems so far. Whether it’s actually true or not, I just feel that the gun mechanics in 2 were the best and that each game after has made them worse.
Overall, I enjoyed this game and at this moment in time could possibly be my game of the year. However, I’ve only played maybe three other 2016 games this year so there’s definitely a lot of gaps. I still wouldn’t discount it though.
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Hey Brian! If they continued the Uncharted series, where do you think they would go next?
I’m excited for Tomb Raider’s release next week & Battlefield 1 the week after next.
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I think it might be interesting if Naughty Dog did like the next God of War is doing and change mythologies. The initial thoughts that come to my head are Norse related like maybe trying to find Yggdrasil, the tree of life, or maybe a lost city that was “Valhalla on Earth” in legend.
I’ve got Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox One that I still haven’t gotten to yet. I still haven’t played the remake yet either, so at some point I’ve got to get on those since they look just as good now as Uncharted. I’m keeping my eye on Battlefield 1 too since I had been big on multiplayer since Modern Warfare 2 but I haven’t played a Battlefield game yet. It does look interesting especially after how many modern and futuristic shooters there have been over the past few years.
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Interesting thought Brian! I like where you’re going with Uncharted lore. It would make for an interesting game. With the way, U4, Uncharted 4 ended it looks like they might have “hinted” at another game, imho!
As Tomb Raider remake, you have GOT to play it. The sooner, the better! As ROTR, I’ll be playing it next weekend. As times allows I’ll drop a comment here, if Rebekah will allow me. :) Although, I’m NOT a fan of MP games, Battlefield 1 has my “number”. It feels different & refreshing. It was the thing that “sold me” on the game. Along with the era, WW1. Enough said! SOLD!! What about you?
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Of course you can comment wherever you want, Richard!
Were you thinking the epilogue hinted at the future for the series? Perhaps in a female capacity?
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While the stories in both the rebooted Tomb Raider games weren’t great, I thought they were far better than any Uncharted entry I’ve played. Though, to be fair, I’m not big on the Uncharted series.
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You are one productive camper! And I had to laugh at your last couple of sentences. :)
I have been jamming trying to catch up on games. It’s daunting, especially while facing down the upcoming schedule of fall releases.
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Yeah, I was surprised I got two games finished around the same time. I stayed up until 4AM to finish Uncharted 4 and paid for it the next day.
I’m glad I was able to make you smile! It’s sad but true that my gaming habits leave me woefully behind every year. I actually had to stop for a few minutes and think about the actual 2016 games I finished so far. I might have just enough for a top 5 by the end of the year. :)
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Oh no. I hear you on that. I’ve stayed up before to finish a game and I feel like garbage in the morning. I hope you were able to shake it off before too long.
And you did, thank you!
I don’t doubt it! So many games are out there to play, and so many that were released on consoles this year came out on other platforms in years prior. I think, as of right now, I’ve only finished 14 games that released this year. That doesn’t seem like that many now that I’ve looked at it. I have work to do! I need to catch up!
Also, I’m looking forward to your top five. :)
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