By Nelson Schneider - 10/31/15 at 03:45 PM CT
As November – the month that shall be known as “Turkey” at some point in the distant future – arrives, we all need to stop and take time to think about what we’re thankful for. For most gamers, that will be the Turkey 10th release of “Fallout 4.” But the amount of shovelware still being crammed into the release schedule is a bit like Thanksgiving stuffing: nobody really likes or wants it, but it’s cheap filler, so we’re stuck with it. That, and it tastes bad fresh, but even worse left-over…
…Which is relevant because we have a rather large number of leftovers from last month that got delayed into this month. None of them are exciting or anticipated, though, so I will save us all the agony of rehashing them. Onto the fresh shovelware!
The biggest licensed release in quite some time is dropping in the same month as the latest movie sequel in its franchise, with “Star Wars: Battlefront” (a ‘Chris would love that’ title if ever there was one). Aside from that, the licensed shovelware is mostly stuff nobody wants or cares about. Again. There are two new movie tie-ins (besides “Star Wars”), one for the upcoming “Peanuts Movie” and one for the other upcoming Jack Black vehicle, “Kung-Fu Panda 3.” The perennial sexism-fueled franchise aimed at turning little girls into vapid twits is back in “Barbie and Her Sisters: Puppy Rescue,” while two anime-based games, the Sony-exclusive “Sword Art Online: Lost Song” and the 3DS exclusive “Yo-Kai Watch” round out the new licensed schlock.
But that’s not all! Due to the industry’s continued love affair with terrible licensed games and its new love affair with porting and rehashing everything to death in an attempt to sell multiple copies of the same thing, there are a number of licensed games releasing in November that are also ports or compilations! Both “Deadpool” and Telltale’s “A Game of Thrones” are getting ported around while two ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 3DS games are getting compiled into one box… on the 3DS (lazy!).
Don’t worry, though, there are a few non-shovelware ports and compilations. ‘Borderlands’ is getting a “Triple Pack” on the 7th Gen HD consoles (which is automatically better than the 8th Gen “Handsome Collection” because it contains the whole series instead of just 2/3 of it), “Shovel Knight” is getting more physical releases on more platforms, “Need For Speed” is getting rebooted for a new generation, and “Rodea the Sky Solider” is getting ported from the Wii to the WiiU and 3DS.
As mentioned in the intro, “Fallout 4” will be dominating the legit multi-platform releases this month. This is great news, as otherwise yet another banal ‘Call of Duty’ title would be the big release for this time of year. It pleases me greatly to see the Internet so excited about a new ‘Fallout’ and so apathetic about a new ‘CoD!’ Hopefully PvP military shooters are about to jump the shark. The other multi-platform release coming this month is the difficult-to-spell “Alekhine’s Gun,” which is apparently named after a “Chess” maneuver but is actually a Stealth game set during the Cold War (*snore*).
This month’s exclusives are looking as tepid as usual, but with the pulse-pounding change-up of Sony NOT actually having anything to show… except one Vita game (Visual Novel, “Norn9”). PC is getting a new ‘Anno’ title and the finale for “StarCraft 2,” in a seeming attempt at revitalizing the flagging RTS genre that has been cannibalized by MOBAs. Microsoft is getting the timed exclusive release of “Rise of the Tomb Raider” (which XBONErs will be able to enjoy for a year before everyone else), while Nintendo is bringing out a WiiU version of “Mario Tennis.” The 3DS is getting a new (SUPER) entry in the “Mystery Dungeon” series of ‘Pokemon’ Roguelikes and a sickeningly-sweet-looking new monster-training RPG, “Moco Moco Friends.”
I won’t be picking up very much, once again, this month. I’ll grab “Fallout 4” off Steam once the complete edition with all the DLC (because you KNOW there WILL be DLC) falls below $20 and hopefully gets most of the bugs fixed. I might also pick-up the physical WiiU release of “Shovel Knight” like I did with “DuckTales Remastered.” Aside from those, I’m content to blow giant *raspberries* at the rest of November’s releases.
Backlog Embiggened: +2
Comments
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/02/15 at 03:27 PM CT
I never got bitten by the RTS bug. Age of Empires was okay, but I could never get into the campaign.
Jonzor - wrote on 11/02/15 at 12:07 AM CT
Super excited for StarCraft. Mario Maker and StarCraft were my two big games this fall.
