Alas, it is time to bid adieu to August. The Hands of Time have dragged summer into an alleyway, and throttled it to death for shits and giggles.
We've all eaten our fill of 99s, complained about the weather until our jaws ached, and holidayed in places we otherwise wouldn't want to visit because how many ruined amphitheatres/castles do you need to see in one lifetime anyway?
But now it is over. It's time to pack away your summer wellies, and dust off your knitted autumn sheath. Seasonal Affective Disorder approaches.
The good news is: the remainder of the year is the biggest in gaming for quite a while. Metal Gear Solid V, Mad Max and Mario Maker all arrive in the next week or two - and between now and Christmas, there's due to be a steady flow of major releases, floating past us like corpses in a stream.
Thing is, games aren't like movies. When it comes to cinema releases, they generally step aside for one another with a gentlemanly bow. Besides, films are a couple of hours long; it's not as if seeing Guardians of the Galaxy 7 is going to stop you seeing Jurrassic World 10. With games, it's different.
And stupid.
We've all eaten our fill of 99s, complained about the weather until our jaws ached, and holidayed in places we otherwise wouldn't want to visit because how many ruined amphitheatres/castles do you need to see in one lifetime anyway?
But now it is over. It's time to pack away your summer wellies, and dust off your knitted autumn sheath. Seasonal Affective Disorder approaches.
The good news is: the remainder of the year is the biggest in gaming for quite a while. Metal Gear Solid V, Mad Max and Mario Maker all arrive in the next week or two - and between now and Christmas, there's due to be a steady flow of major releases, floating past us like corpses in a stream.
Thing is, games aren't like movies. When it comes to cinema releases, they generally step aside for one another with a gentlemanly bow. Besides, films are a couple of hours long; it's not as if seeing Guardians of the Galaxy 7 is going to stop you seeing Jurrassic World 10. With games, it's different.
And stupid.
REASONABLE
It seems reasonable to assume that Metal Gear Solid V and Mad Max will share a similar audience. It also seems fair to assume - at this stage - that both games offer more hours of entertainment than the average movie.
Sure, some of us have the time to sink into them, to burn through them in a week or less. The rest of us have to fit gaming around the day-to-day stress of our lives, our jobs, our families, our - shudder - responsibilities. If we don't find the hours in the day to troll celebrities on Twitter, hit our children with spoons, or argue with our partners over the correct way to load a dishwasher... who will?
Consequently, it seems unlikely that the average gamer is going to get MGSV and Mad Max completed before The Taken King arrives.
And there's no way that's going to be exhausted before The Nathan Drake Collection hits, and there's no way that'll be finished before Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and that won't be done before Halo 5, and Black Ops III, or Fallout 4, or Rise of the Tomb Raider, or Star Wars Battlefront, or Star Fox Zero, or Rainbow Six Siege, or Just Cause 3, or... or... or... or... or... or...
Do you see?
It seems reasonable to assume that Metal Gear Solid V and Mad Max will share a similar audience. It also seems fair to assume - at this stage - that both games offer more hours of entertainment than the average movie.
Sure, some of us have the time to sink into them, to burn through them in a week or less. The rest of us have to fit gaming around the day-to-day stress of our lives, our jobs, our families, our - shudder - responsibilities. If we don't find the hours in the day to troll celebrities on Twitter, hit our children with spoons, or argue with our partners over the correct way to load a dishwasher... who will?
Consequently, it seems unlikely that the average gamer is going to get MGSV and Mad Max completed before The Taken King arrives.
And there's no way that's going to be exhausted before The Nathan Drake Collection hits, and there's no way that'll be finished before Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and that won't be done before Halo 5, and Black Ops III, or Fallout 4, or Rise of the Tomb Raider, or Star Wars Battlefront, or Star Fox Zero, or Rainbow Six Siege, or Just Cause 3, or... or... or... or... or... or...
Do you see?
ACTION-ME-DO
Admittedly, I've just run down the action games - there are plenty of other, more original and esoteric games due for release this year - but if you're a solid action game fan, you're sort of buggered. Doubly so, if you're an action game fan, and you also want to get Rock Band 4.
You're never going to be able to find the time to play that lot - let alone afford to.
Oh, yeah, we can all go "Oh, but you don't have to buy them all - save some for next year". But how realistic is that? How do you even choose what to play?
What if they're all brilliant? What if we buy Halo 5, and our mate - for the sake of argument, we'll call her "Bronson-9" - buys Rise of the Tomb Raider, and won't shut-up about how good it is? How do we resist punching her in the hip?
Admittedly, it's an embarrassment of riches, and an archetypical First World problem - boo-boo we've got too much stuff - but it's the games companies that are really going to suffer this dilution of revenue. We get that Christmas is an important time of year for releases, but surely there'd be some sense in spacing things out a bit? Not every game can win the Christmas sales race.
It happens every single year... but if you've been starved for a long time, you can't just jump in and eat a four-course lobster supper, and devour everything in sight. You've got to let your digestive system adjust, otherwise you'll throw-up, and get the runs. Or something. I don't quite know how to make that analogy fit, but you get the general idea: too many games, crammed into too small a window. Spread the love.
Admittedly, I've just run down the action games - there are plenty of other, more original and esoteric games due for release this year - but if you're a solid action game fan, you're sort of buggered. Doubly so, if you're an action game fan, and you also want to get Rock Band 4.
You're never going to be able to find the time to play that lot - let alone afford to.
Oh, yeah, we can all go "Oh, but you don't have to buy them all - save some for next year". But how realistic is that? How do you even choose what to play?
What if they're all brilliant? What if we buy Halo 5, and our mate - for the sake of argument, we'll call her "Bronson-9" - buys Rise of the Tomb Raider, and won't shut-up about how good it is? How do we resist punching her in the hip?
Admittedly, it's an embarrassment of riches, and an archetypical First World problem - boo-boo we've got too much stuff - but it's the games companies that are really going to suffer this dilution of revenue. We get that Christmas is an important time of year for releases, but surely there'd be some sense in spacing things out a bit? Not every game can win the Christmas sales race.
It happens every single year... but if you've been starved for a long time, you can't just jump in and eat a four-course lobster supper, and devour everything in sight. You've got to let your digestive system adjust, otherwise you'll throw-up, and get the runs. Or something. I don't quite know how to make that analogy fit, but you get the general idea: too many games, crammed into too small a window. Spread the love.
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