Happy Tuesday, folks! It’s another week of new releases and while I’m sure there are people excited for NBA 2K24, Chants of Sennaar, Rune Factory 3: Special, and The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo, the only game most of us probably care about is Bethesda’s latest massive open world game, Starfield.

Some of you may have already started playing it, as the game unlocked early for people who pre-ordered the fancy pants edition, la dee da. As for all of us commoners, we get the privilege of playing it this Wednesday, which I am so mother effing excited to do, fuck. Early reports have been mostly positive, though Mashable has put out a not at all controversial/contrarian article titled “‘Starfield’ has everything you could want, except a reason to keep playing“, in which they chastise Bethesda for not making it more clear that space travel/exploration is dangerous (it’s a bizarre article).

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, a few more games are coming out, and if you’re one of the hoity toity “indie” gamers, or whatever, then I’m sure you’ll be excited to play a game I haven’t even mentioned, which you can only get on some obscure website that none of us have heard of. Meanwhile, I’ll be eating Doritos and playing Starfield, giving my Xbox controller an unintentional black & orange Halloween motif.

Oh yeah, no video this week, sorry. I took a trip and just didn’t have time to come up with anything I thought would be of good quality. I’ll be back next week, don’t worry.

Top Releases:

Starfield (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 6^th

Developed by: Bethesda Game Studios
Published by: Bethesda Softworks

NBA 2K24 (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 8^th

Developed by: Visual Concepts
Published by: 2K Games

Chants of Sennaar (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 5^th

Developed by: Rundisc
Published by: Focus Entertainment

Rune Factory 3: Special (PC/Switch) – Releases Sep. 5^th

Developed by: Marvelous
Published by: XSEED Games

The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 6^th

Developed by: Gammera Nest
Published by: Astrolab Games/Meridiem Games

Ports and Re-releases:

Baldur’s Gate 3 (PS5) – Releases Sep. 6^th

While Starfield is exclusive to Xbox and PC, PS5 owners will be the first players to check out Baldur’s Gate 3 on a home console. This console exclusivity won’t last long, as Microsoft has loosened their stance on games having console parity between Series X & S, but it’s something, at least.

Everything else:

• Enchanted Portals (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 5^th
• Anonymous;Code (PC (maybe?)/PS4/Switch) – Releases Sep. 8^th
• Fae Farm (PC/Switch) – Releases Sep. 8^th

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 (and sometimes 40) years ago:

Well, I knew it would happen sometime folks, but I just didn’t have time to go deep into any of these notable titles this week, sorry. Sometimes life gets in the way of things, and sometimes you just need a break. Ya know?

Still, we can briefly mention some interesting facts about these titles. 2013’s Rayman Legends was initially going to be a Wii U launch window exclusive, however, the game was delayed several months in order to “polish it”, but conspiracy theorists believe that Ubisoft saw how poorly the Wii U did out the gate that they withheld the game an waited until the PC, PS3, and 360 versions were ready (a Vita version also came out, but who gives a shit).

2003’s Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy was the third (well, fourth, technically) and final entry in the series, which saw players take on the role of Jaden Korr, a young male or female Jedi who is trained by series regular Kyle Katarn, as they take on a mysterious cult. The game’s multiplayer is, surprisingly, still active with a small but dedicated player base.

From 1993 we have the SNES classic Super Bomberman, one of the most fun party games ever made. Before Super Bomberman the thought of playing any game at home with four players was a foreign concept, it just didn’t happen. While there were four player controller adapters for the NES, I would wager that most players first experience with the multitap was through Super Bomberman. For me, this game solidified the character as an all-time video game great, putting Bomberman in the same league as other mascots like Mario and Sonic. If you were of age in the 1990’s, I have to believe that you played this game, or one of its many sequels, at some point during a slumber party, or an after school hangout at your buddy’s house. I fucking LOVE Super Bomberman.

Our last notable title is the 1983 arcade game Discs of Tron from Bally Midway. What might be considered DLC today, Discs of Tron was built on an abandoned mini-game from the original Tron arcade game from 1982. In the game, players must use their disc thingy-s to destroy a platform where there opponent is standing, while protecting their own. The game, like most other arcade titles of the day, just recycles the same basic screen over and over again, with increased difficulty. Discs of Tron doesn’t appear to have done particularly well, or at least there’s no mention of financial results, but it is notable for being one of the last major games to be released before the infamous video game crash of 1983.

Well, those were the games, I hope you have fond memories of them, I certainly do of Super Bomberman. Let’s quickly go over the notable films; 2013 gave us the latest and, to date, final entry in the Riddick saga with Riddick. 2003 fell victim to the box office dumpster fire Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, starring SNL’s David Spade. 1993 didn’t do much better, with the absolute bomb Kalifornia, starring a young Brad Pitt as a serial killer, playing well against type. Finally, 1983’s Eddie and the Cruisers was a movie about a faux 1960’s rock & roll band and the mysterious disappearance of its lead singer, Eddie. I tried watching it digitally this past week but it was not available ANYWHERE; womp womp.

The notable albums are pretty good, for the most part. 2013 gave us Artic Monkeys mainstream breakthrough AM, their fifth studio album. Bolstered by singles “R U Mine?” and “Do I Wanna Know”, AM was a massive commercial and critical success with critics saying shit like “rock & roll is back!” before saying “rock & roll is dead!” a few weeks later. 2003’s big album was John Mayer’s Heavier Things, his second studio album and helped him solidify his status as a modern rock & roll star. While John Mayer’s career was was just taking off in 2003, another John, John Mellencamp, was seeing his star kind of fade out in 1993 with his album Human Wheels. Critics loved the album, calling it one of the best of the year, and it sold over 1 million copies, but this would be Mellencamp’s final album to produce a #1 single, as his brand of rock & roll was going out of style in favor of the grunge movement that was sweeping the country.

Our last notable album is More Fun in the New World by the fantastic punk band X. The fourth studio album from the band, More Fun in the New World was the band’s final collaboration with producer Ray Manzarek, of The Doors fame. Critics enjoyed the album and noted that co-lead singer Exene sounded phenomenal, due to vocal training between albums. My favorite track is “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts”, which I discovered through Rock Band when it was released as DLC in 2010. That’s it folks! See you in the comments.

Rayman Legends (PC/PS3/PS Vita/Wii U/Xbox 360) – Released Sep. 3^rd, 2013: Wiki Link

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC) – Released Sep. 16^th, 2003: Wiki Link

Super Bomberman (SNES) – Released Sep. 1993: Wiki Link

Discs of Tron (Arcade) – Released Sep. 1983: Wiki Link