At the end of my last post, I said that I hoped not to be gone as long next time. That has gone down like a lead balloon, and here I am nearly 3 months later writing the next post. Once again, I do apologise for the massive gap between posts, these past couple of months have been and gone so quickly that my feet barely touched the ground. This time, I’ve been away to Greece for a week, whilst also spending a week in August hanging out with some friends who I don’t get to see very often. I also managed to get away to London a couple of times, just for the weekend, which was very nice indeed. I have also been working on the piece I alluded to in the last post, a deep dive into Sony’s extensive marketing campaign for the PlayStation 1 and 2. I want to make sure I get this absolutely right however, and it is taking its sweet time. I can’t guarantee when it will be ready, but it is ticking away in the background.
This piece however is more of a casual one, just to explain the absence, and to also talk about some of the games I’ve been playing in the background since the last post. Believe me, there has been a lot of them. I think it’s been around 13 in total that I have managed to get through, with a mixture ranging from brand new releases (Donkey Kong Bananza, Borderlands 4, Gears of War: Reloaded) to some old classics that I have been putting off for far too long (Hollow Knight, God of War 2005, Call of Duty: World at War). I figured for this post, I’m going to outline what the rest of the year looks like for me gaming wise, and a few titles I’m excited for next year!
First things first, in terms of new releases, I did just pick up Battlefield 6, and I’m having a blast in the multiplayer. At the time of writing, I’ve put about 12 hours in, and the game hasn’t even been out for 3 days. I haven’t touched the campaign just yet, but it is high up on my list to get through, so I expect to have this completed by the end of the year.
I’m also planning to get through Ninja Gaiden 4, as one of the games I played through during my “hiatus” was Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, and I found that to be a really fun experience. If Ninja Gaiden 4 can replicate that, then I feel like I’m in for a treat. The Outer Worlds 2 rounds off my October releases, and this is one I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth into. I loved the first game, even if it was a little short, so I have full faith in Obsidian to knock it out of the park with the sequel.
After these two is where it does begin to fall a little short for me, with November and December being almost barren in terms of games I personally will pick up. I imagine I’ll probably give Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 a go, purely due to it being on Game Pass, and the CoD campaigns are typically decent for the 6-8 hours they go on for. Which means, hopefully I should be able to clear out a lot of my backlog over the Christmas period, that is if FC26 and Football Manager 26 don’t eat up every free minute of the day!
In terms of 2026, obviously we’re all looking forward to the big one. Grand Theft Auto VI has been over a decade in the making, and we’re all counting down the days until it is in our hands. However, for me, I have my eyes on a few other titles. Forza Horizon 6 and Fable are high up on my list, being a huge fan of both series. And, if rumours are to be believed, we are going to see the return of a certain green super solider to mark the 25th anniversary of both his series, and the Xbox itself, which excites me a lot. In terms of releases on PlayStation, so far it is Saros and Wolverine for me, however I do recognise that Sony like to play their cards close to their chest, so we’ll see what is around the corner. As far as Nintendo goes next year, I have a huge eye on Tomodachi Life, as it does appear to be right up my alley being an Animal Crossing lover. So far, it is just the one game for the Switch 2 I’m interested in, however I do expect more to crop up throughout the year.
For the rest of the third-party publishers, so far, most of them have kept their cards close to their chest in terms of a release date. I can’t help but think that Grand Theft Auto may be part of this, just in case it doesn’t make its date of May 26. However, for me so far, I really like the look of 007 First Light, and will almost certainly be picking that up on release. I’m very much on the fence regarding Resident Evil Requiem, as whilst I do like the series, I can’t help but feel some fatigue towards the series at the moment, as there has been so many games within the last few years.
Lastly, I do just want to apologise again for the length of time this has taken. I do aim to put out at least one post a month, and I failed big time on that! However, I’m once again going to reaffirm the one post a month schedule and give it my best to stick to this. I also want to plug my Game List which can be found at https://www.mygamelist.club/Squashy. This is a list of every game I’ve beaten since around 2018 time, and a little score next to each to give my overall thought on it. I did used to write little reviews on Twitter, and maybe for 2026 I will go back to doing that, but in the meantime, this is the system I’m currently using. So, if I ever talk about a game on here and you wish to know my overall opinion on it, chances are that it will be on that link above. I’d also encourage you to use it if you’re anything like me and forget what you’ve played through half the time! All followers welcome of course ;P.
On that (final) note, I’m going to get this posted, and then jump straight into the Battlefield 6 campaign. I will also be working on the Sony piece in the background, I can’t guarantee whether that will be the very next post on here or not, but it is coming, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me this far, and thanks for reading this and being patient, it’s very kind of you. See you on the battlefield (see what I did there?).
Squash.