How’s it going everyone? Bad? Yeah, I know. Due to the holiday this past Monday, Veterans Day for those outside the U.S., I’m eschewing normal coverage. Below you’ll find a list of upcoming titles, some exciting, some not so exciting, but all guaranteed to make you have less money if you buy it.

In fact, I was stupid enough to pre-order two copies of Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, so I spent a lovely $120 bucks on it that I definitely shouldn’t have; amazing!

Top Releases:

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 14^th

LEGO Horizon Adventures (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Nov. 14^th

Tetris Forever (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 12^th

Farming Simulator 25 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 12^th

Songs of Silence (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 13^th

VED (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 14^th

Ports and Re-releases:

• ASTROSMASH 1981 (PC) – Releases Nov. 12^th
• Irem Collection Volume 2 (PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Nov. 14^th
• Rage of the Dragons NEO (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 14^th

Everything else:

• In Sink (PC) – Releases Nov. 12^th
• Neo Harbor Rescue Squad (PC/PS4/PS5) – Releases Nov. 12^th
• The Rise of the Golden Idol (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 12^th
• Mindcop (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Nov. 14^th
• Petit Island (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 14^th
• Great God Grove (PC/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Nov. 15^th
• Inspector Waffles Early Days (PC) – Releases Nov. 15^th

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 years ago:

A few quick tidbits about this week’s notable titles on this post-holiday Tuesday.

2014 gave us Assassin’s Creed Unity, the first AssCreed game to be fully contained to eighth generation consoles (PS4 & XBone). I’m sure Ubisoft would have preferred it to only be remembered for that little factoid but, instead, Unity was far more well known for its glitches and bugs (including the horrifying image above). Online requirements kept the game from being playable for several days (weeks?) after launch, causing players to revolt, fitting due to the game’s French Revolution setting. Ubisoft begged players not to sue, offering them free games and a multitude of free gifts and other content for Unity.

The biggest controversy, however, was the famous “women are too hard to program” excuse for why there are no female characters in the game’s online mode. Ubisoft went on to further explain that every character was, in a sense, playing as the game’s protagonist, Arno Dorian, although they have different faces; right.

In any case, Unity was a major disaster for Ubisoft and was part of a larger feeling of Assassin’s Creed fatigue. Unity was the FOURTH AssCreed game to come out in 2014, and the 13th game in the franchise to come out in just the 2010’s (an average of 3.25 games a year). If you can believe it, a different AssCreed game, Rogue, released on the same day! After 2015’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Ubisoft started to change direction on the franchise, revamping the game play and limiting the frequency of releases.

2004 saw the release of one of the biggest, if not THE BIGGEST, MMO of all time, World of Warcraft. I didn’t play this, I didn’t have the financial means, nor the free time to support a WoW addiction, but many people did.

Personally, I was (and still am) just not a fan of online only games. I can appreciate the amount of people that WoW brought into the gaming hobby, all of the relationships and life long friendships it created (and still creates), but I missed the boat.

Speaking of World of Warcraft, that game wouldn’t exist without the success of our notable title from 1994, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. RTS games were just coming into their own by the early 1990’s after the release of the games Herzog Zwei and Dune II, which inspired Blizzard to throw their hat into the ring.

Inspired by the tabletop game Warhammer and their own game The Lost Vikings, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans has players taking the role of one of two factions; can you guess what they are? Yes, Orcs & Humans, very good! My introduction to the Warcraft franchise wouldn’t come until Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, so when I went back and played Orcs & Humans I was a bit let down due to the drop in quality and rougher gameplay.

While the game is a tough play today, it can’t be understated just how much it did for Blizzard, and the RTS genre in general. Following 1995’s Command & Conquer from Westwood Studios, the two companies became major rivals, urging each studio to try and put out a better product than one another, with players being the real winners.

In notable films, 2014 gave us Dumb and Dumber To which, I mean, I guess was necessary? I’ve seen it, don’t remember a thing about it. I assume there were jokes in it, and they were probably funny. 2004 saw the release of Ray, the biopic on singer Ray Charles as portrayed by actor Jamie Foxx. I really liked this movie and so did a lot of other people, including critics and Oscar voters who called it one of the best film of the year, winning Best Actor and Best Sound Mixing, while being nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing.

1994’s notable film is the Luc Besson classing The Professional, starring Jeno Reno as a hitman with a heart of gold who takes in a young girl, played by Natalie Portman, after her family is killed by a crooked cop, played brilliantly by Gary Oldman. While Besson had made a name for himself on the art house circuit with the films Subway, La Femme Nikita, and The Big Blue, it was The Professional that put him on the map and led to the long Hollywood careers of both Reno and Portman.

In a tie to video games, 1997’s Diablo has an easter egg dedicated to the film’s lead actress. A message reading “Natalie Portman Rocks” can be seen if you are able to change the color of the title screen’s background, revealing the hidden message (as well as another, which reads “Buy War II”. This is a fitting message put out by a guy who was probably in his 20’s or 30’s, showing much appreciate for the teenage Portman, who was only 16 when Diablo came out. Very cool, very normal.

Alright, notable albums, what do we have here? 2014 gave us the fifth and, so far, final album from the group TV on the Radio, called Seeds. Received well by critics and fans, Seeds peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The album came on a somber note, released only three years after the death of their bass player, Gerard Smith.

2004 saw No Doubt’s lead singer, Gwen Stefani, finally go solo with her debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby, which featured the mega hit single “Hollaback Girl”. The album was a huge hit for Stefani and continued to show how influential she was to women’s fashion, turning many a teen girl into a “Harajuku Girl”. She even influenced my buddy to sing “Hollaback Girl” when we visited Harvard in 2004. Why was I there? Oh, just helping a buddy film an interview with Noam Chomsky over at MIT, no big deal. He signed my copy of his 9/11 book, I have it in a box somewhere.

Personally, I fucking HATED this album. However, I’m not a Grammy voter (yet) so I couldn’t stop them from nominating the album for six, Record of the Year (Hollaback Girl), Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Hollaback Girl), Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (Rich Girl ft. Eve), and another Best Female Pop Vocal Performance the following year for “What You Waiting For?” (don’t ask me how that happened).

The notable album from 1994 is TLC’s breakthrough CrazySexyCool, which featured the hit song “Waterfalls” which, my god, you could not get away from in 1994. The album was a smash success, peaking at number three on the Billboard Top 200, and stayed on the list for over two years.

CrazySexyCool is often noted as being one of the best albums of all time and was a big winner at the Grammy awards, receiving six nominations and winning two, Best R&B Album and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals (Creep). While “Waterfalls” was nominated for Best Record, it would lose to Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” (I mean, if you gotta lose, it might as well be to “Kiss From a Rose”).

Assassin’s Creed Unity (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released Nov. 11^th, 2014

World of Warcraft (PC) – Released Nov. 23^rd, 2004

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (PC) – Released Nov. 15^th, 1994

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