Last year at this time I was working three jobs, building a nest egg in preparation for the Holiday 2013 gaming season. With two new consoles coming out I knew I’d need a wad of cash to make it through.

This year things are different. Not only am I not doing that third job, but job #2 feels like it might be winding down. If I end up working only one job it’ll mean money is going to be a lot more tight than it has been, but I’ll have more time for playing games. A conundrum!

This year I plan to take it easy when it comes to buying games, and work a bit on my backlist. I’ve already started doing that to some extent. I recently finally played through Bioshock Infinite and I’m currently working my way through Dragon Age: Origins.

As it stands now, here’re the games I’m planning on getting for the remainder of this year:

In August I’ll be picking up Diablo III for the PS4. I really loved playing Diablo III on the PS3 but as soon as I learned it was coming to PS4 I stopped in order to ‘save’ it. Because I am dumb.

In September it’ll be Destiny on the PS4. That one is already pre-ordered and I even scheduled a couple of PTO days for the launch window. Even if the servers fall down, at least I won’t be working, right? Gotta take PTO somewhere or else I’ll lose it at the end of the year.

Also in September, Forza Horizons 2 for the Xbox One. I missed out on Forza Horizons but everyone I know who played it really enjoyed it, and I’m a fan of driving games that fall somewhere between ‘ridiculously arcade racing’ and ‘simulation.’

Drive Club is coming to the PS4 at some point. I’m going to try the free version before I make a decision on that one. The game has been delayed by almost a year and they still aren’t managing to get weather in for launch. My Spidey-Sense is tingling and I’m afraid it’ll be a huge disappointment.

In October Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive launches for the Xbox One. I’m on the fence with this one. We’ve seen how wacky it all is, but haven’t seen a lot about whether there’s a narrative driving that action or if it’s just all fighting for the sake of fighting, or what. Plus I’m still kind of mad at Insomniac for abandoning the PS4.

Also in October is Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I’m going to wait until closer to launch to make a decision on this one. It’s looking good in preview trailers and such but we’ll see how that plays out. Probably would get it for the PS4.

In November we have The Crew from Ubisoft. If Forza Horizons 2 and Drive Club haven’t totally sated my driving appetite I’ll take a look at this one, but I’ll probably be waiting for reviews before taking the plunge. Again, PS4 most likely.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming this holiday season but I’m going to try to resist its charms until I’ve finished Dragon Age I & II. If I’ve done that by the launch of DA:I then I’ll be picking that up, probably on PS4.

Two other games on my ‘maybe’ list are The Golf Club (coming to PS4 this summer I think) and Project Cars. I like a good golf game now and then and I don’t have one on the PS4 so depending on when it launches I’ll pick it up. Project Cars looks good but there are already so many driving games on my list.

So those are the ‘big’ (ie $60) games on my list from now until January 1st. I’m sure I’ll be grabbing the odd $10 and $15 game here and there as well. Plus on both PS4 and XBox One I now get free games each month.

On the PC I’ll be working through my Steam backlog. Steam’s sales have pretty much trained me never to buy a PC game at full price so… I’m starting to dabble in MMOs again but I don’t know of any big launches coming for the rest of this year; on the PC I think it’ll just be business as usual. Y’know, play the backlog until something interesting goes on sale for $10 and then distract myself with that. No more MMO subs for me though, at least for the time being. If I get seriously hooked on an MMO that has a “Premium” kind of sub I might do that, but while I’m just puttering in these games it makes no sense to pay $15/month.

Oh, and Playstation TV is coming this fall and I have one pre-ordered. Mostly I’m getting it so I can play PS4 games on the upstairs TV (via streaming) but it’ll also give me a second chance to look at my Vita library. As much as I love the Vita (and the 3DS) I find that I really prefer playing games on a bigger screen.

So what’s on your list? Am I forgetting anything? I know lots of people are excited about The Sims 4 but I’ll probably wait for a sale for that.

Holiday 2014 is looking a bit quiet, really. So many games have slipped to 2015. I think we’ll have our hands full in February-March 2015!