Top Releases:

• Phantom Blade 0 (PC/PS5) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 27^th
• Anomalith (PC/PS5/Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 28^th
• Hello Kitty Party Land (Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Croc 2: Kingdom of the Gobbos (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Joe & Mac Retro Collection (PC/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• The Wolf Among Us Remastered (PC/PS5/Xbox One) – Releases Oct. 29^th

We’ve got a smattering of new games, including a souls-like with Phantom Blade 0, but the vast majority of titles are either collections or ports (mostly to Switch 2). I don’t know about all of you, but the impending release of GTA VI is starting to feel more and more like a video game finale, of sorts. Something just feels different about it, like things will never be the same in gaming again, and I’m not talking about in a good way. Maybe I’m just getting older, maybe it’s the Fall season messing with my serotonin levels, but I’m kind of pessimistic about the state of gaming (and the world in general) in a post GTA VI world. Hey, it’s probably nothing; right?

Phantom Blade 0 (PC/PS5) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Developed by: S-Game
Published by: S-Game

Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 27^th

Developed by: Stormwind Games
Published by: Stormwind Games/Soft Source

Anomalith (PC/PS5/Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 28^th

Developed by: Furyu Corporation/Winning Entertainment Group Inc.
Published by: Furyu Corporation

Hello Kitty Party Land (Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Developed by: Sanrio Games/G-Style Co. Ltd.
Published by: Sanrio Games/Bandai Namco

Croc 2: Kingdom of the Gobbos (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Developed by: Titanium Studios
Published by: Argonaut Games

Joe & Mac Retro Collection (PC/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Developed by: Red Art Studios
Published by: Red Art Games

The Wolf Among Us Remastered (PC/PS5/Xbox One) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Developed by: Telltale
Published by: Telltale

Ports and Expansions:

• Crimson Desert: Charting the Unknown (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 28^th
• Minecraft (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 27^th
• Village in the Shade (PS5/Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 27^th
• Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 28^th
• Cities: Skylines – Expanded Edition (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 28^th
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Metro 2033/Metro: Last Light – Redux (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Mouthwashing (PS4/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Pokemon Legends: Z-A + Mega Dimension (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT (PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Blasphemous: Martyrs’ Edition (Switch 2) – Releases Oct. 29^th

Everything else:

• Dog Man: Bark in Action (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Oct. 27^th
• Gennady (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 28^th
• Hunting Simulator 3 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Planted! (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Terrible Lizards (PC) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• The Transference (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th

• The Zibbo Show (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 29^th
• Bobo and the Chest of Nightmares (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 30^th
• The Cat in the Hat: Rainy Day Mayhem (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 30^th
• Queen’s Domain (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Oct. 30^th
• SURI: The Seventh Note (PC/PS5) – Releases Oct. 30^th

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

I don’t have a ton to say about our notable titles, but I know that a lot of people really love Titanfall 2 but, because it was a commercial failure, we’ll never get another one. I really wish I had something nostalgic to say about Final Fantasy XII, but the series kind of lost me after FFXI (even though I played the heck out of it). I jumped back in with XIII and played XIV for literally thousands of hours. For me, Final Fantasy lost the plot after Sakaguchi left (or was kicked off…) the series and it hasn’t really found its footing since then.

I also wish I had something nostalgic to say about Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, but I don’t. I guess the only thing nostalgic I can say is that it certainly looks like the 1990’s, so it does evoke memories of other games that looked like this, especially Diablo (which I’m sure it borrowed liberally from). The series would spawn multiple sequels, all of which went into a 3D, third person style, ditching the top down view of the original. The game is easily available, today, as a digital download on PC and PS4/PS5.

In notable films, Moonlight won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but not without some controversy. On the night of the awards show, presenters Faye Dunaway & Warren Beatty announced the winner as La La Land after they were accidentally a duplicate Best Actress envelope that announced La La Land’s Emma Stone as the winner. The mix up was legendary, causing mass confusion backstage and led to a very awkward moment where the entire La La Land crew on stage to accept, only to learn that there was a problem and that Moonlight had, instead, won the award.

Babel is an incredible film from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu about how the problems of our world affect everyone, all at once, even if we don’t immediately see it happening in front of our face. Now, in the past twenty years we can thank the internet for helping us to all be more aware of the chain reactions of the bad decisions made by our governments but, alas, we are also bombarded by AI fueled disinformation, so getting real information is, arguably, the worst it has ever been. It was nominated for Best Picture but lost to The Departed.

I watched Sleepers 20+ years ago and don’t really remember a lot, except that it deals with the sexual assault and brutal torture of minors by a group of prison guards. It’s not really a family film.

I’ve got nothing on the notable albums. Lady Gaga put out the stripped down snooze fest Joanne; next. Amy Winehouse burst onto the scene with Back to Black and subsequently crashed due to the overwhelming fame and fortune (she would sadly pass away in 2011). Back in 1996 we had another massive arrival with the Spice Girls and their album Spice. These British pop stars were, arguably, the biggest musical act in the world at the time, selling out arenas and appearing all over television and the radio with their hit singles “Wannabe”, “Say You’ll Be There”, and “2 Become 1”.

If you’re wondering why it might have felt like the Spice Girls got bigger a little later in the 90’s, that’s because they didn’t hit big in the U.S. until 1997, when “Wannabe” finally graced our airwaves in January, debuting at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest charting debut by a non-US artist since The Beatles. The album itself wouldn’t debut in the US until February of 1997 so, I guess, I’m doing this one a little early; fuck it. Later on, in 1997, “Spice Up Your Life” would hit the airwaves in promotion for their second album, Spiceworld, which led their feature film debut, 1998’s Spice World.

The Spice Girls would burn brightly for a couple of years, finally kind of fizzling out in 1999/2000, when it kind of became clear that they weren’t all that great to begin with. Oh well, at least we all had some fun for a little bit, right? I still enjoy their whole shtick, it was cheesy, campy, fun released at a time when it felt like the world was doing okay. I guess it would just take the internet, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, to let us know that, actually, the world kind of sucked. You guys see Digger yet?

Titanfall 2 (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released Oct. 28^th, 2016

Final Fantasy XII (PS2) – Released Oct. 31^st, 2006

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (PlayStation) – Released Nov. 1^st, 1996

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