[I originally had this post scheduled for lunchtime on August 23rd but for some reason it never posted. So I’m posting it now!]

Yesterday [accurate when this was supposed to post!] Uncharted: The Lost Legacy launched. For some reason my brain has decided that means the “holiday season” has arrived when it comes to big game releases. Given that, I sat down to plan out my autumn and y’know what? There’s really not that much to plan. Plus even the games I’m interested in I probably won’t get on release day.

I do have Destiny 2 for the PS4 pre-ordered and that comes out on September 6th, and I pre-ordered the Horizon Zero Dawn expansion that comes out in November I think. Between these two the only AAA games I can think of that I’m really hyped for are Middle Earth: Shadow of War (October 10th) and Assassin’s Creed Origins (October 27th).

I know there are other games coming but I just don’t get excited about the latest Call of Duty. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a maybe and I might get some more niche titles like .hack//G.U. Last Recode, but generally at this point in the season I’m thinking “How will I have time to play all these games?” and this year that just isn’t the case.

I don’t mean this in a ‘doom and gloom” way, just in a “what a strange season” way. Early 2018 seems PACKED with releases and that’s when I’m going to have to be really choosy and only purchase what I have time to play.

Compounding the weirdness is that I pre-ordered an Xbox One X which comes out on November 7th. I won’t buy Mordor or Origins until I see how they run on the Xbox X vs the PS4 Pro. I’m generally a Sony fanboy and I really feel comfortable on the PS4 in terms of the OS and sharing and the controllers and all that, but if these games run better on the XBX I’m going to get them over there. And they SHOULD run better but you never know, right?

Additionally there are some older Xbox games that I’ve deliberately held off on in anticipation of the XBX. When the 4K patches for Forza Horizon 3 and Gears of War 4 hit, I might be playing them. Maybe they’ll be my big “holiday 2017” games and I can pick up Mordor and Origins during a Black Friday sale or something.

While plenty of folks have commented on the lack of exclusives on the Xbox One, Sony has had a banner year for great exclusives on the PS4, but they’ve been spaced out over the entire 12 months rather than all being packed into the 4th quarter. Really I think this is a good thing and maybe how it should be. It’s just going to take a bit of a mental adjustment if this is how things are from now on. Or maybe this year is just an anomaly. I guess we’ll see.

PS: If you’re a fan of Uncharted, don’t miss The Lost Legacy; it’s really good so far even without Nathan Drake!