Halo 5: Guardians – Xbox One – October 27th
Halo is what made people buy the original Xbox back in the early 2000’s so any time an official numbered entry drops, it’s instantly a big deal. The franchise has since changed hands from Bungie to 343 Industries, but the magic of the series still remains intact with Guardians. Halo 5 focuses more on the cooperative side of things in its campaign mode and its multiplayer is going to be relevant for years to come. For more on Halo 5: Guardians, check out our review.
Divinity Original Sin: Enhanced Edition – Xbox One, PS4 – Xbox One, PS4, PC – October 27th
Divinity Original Sin is a very complex game that demands your time, but if you’re willing to invest it, you will be rewarded with one of the most open ended and engrossing role-playing experiences that has ever been made. That sounds like quite a mouthful, but critics have agreed (as well as our own Mike Splechta) since the game released as a PC exclusive in June of last year that Divinity Original Sin is deep old school role-playing for the modern age and you be doing yourself a disservice to skip it. For more on Divinity: Original Sin: Enhanced Edition, check out our review.
Not bad, October. Not bad at all. The best part about having all these great games is that everybody wins. And if November is any indication, the best may very well be yet to come.
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone – PS4, Xbox One, PC – October 13th
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is arguably the best game to launch in 2015 and Hearts of Stone is a package that adds on to an already stellar experience. Boasting 15 hours of additional content, Hearts of Stone succeeded in bringing fans back to the world of The Witcher (or extended their stay if you’re like me and still haven’t finished it). It also brought back Shani, a beloved character that hasn’t been seen since the first game. At $10, Hearts of Stone will give you more bang for your buck than a lot of standalone titles, so to say that this DLC is more than worth it would be an understatement. For more on The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, check out our review.
Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut – Xbox One, PS4, PC – October 13th
Even though everybody is looking to November 10th for the premier post-apocalyptic RPG of the year, however it would be a travesty to assume that it is the only one. Some would argue that Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is in some many more of a Fallout game than Fallout 4 is. That’s because Developer inExile employs several veteran developers that worked on Fallout 1 and 2, back when the series was a top-down cRPG. Wasteland 2 is a game where no matter what you do, or what choice you make, you will fail in same fashion. This is a refreshing change of pace from the “you’re the hero that saves everyone from all things evil” narratives that you see in just about every game. Wasteland 2 does a great job of humanizing your efforts as good but imperfect. For more on Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, check out our review.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – Xbox One, PS4 – October 23rd
Denial is not just a river in Egypt (or so the saying goes), but a lot of fans would like to forget that thing that happened last year. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate represents a return to form for Ubisoft’s most important franchise, and progresses the series forward with refinements in climbing mechanics and the ability to swap between two different assassins on the fly. Assassin’s Creed fans rejoice, there won’t be any memes poking fun at you this year. For more on Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, check out our review.
Overall, October was a solid month on the release calendar. A few high quality PC ports found their way to console players’ hands and they did not disappoint. Not to be confused with A Thief’s End, The Nathan Drake Collection was the highlight for PlayStation owners while Xbox One netted a long awaited entry in the Microsoft’s most popular franchise, Halo. Ubisoft also made amends to those who were let down by that game that shall not be named (Unity? Never heard of it). The only thing you could possibly criticize October for is not giving us an epic horror game (though that Friday the 13th Kickstarter looked pretty sick). Let’s take a look at the best games from the month of October.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection – PS4 – October 9th
No, I promise this is not Uncharted 4, but it does look damn good. There was really no going wrong with The Nathan Drake Collection since it was basically the best versions of games that were already considered great. Whether or not you fell in love with it, really depended on your stance on Remasters. Some people like them, some people hate them, but it can’t be argued that the Uncharted franchise is quality action adventure personified. Check out our review roundup.
The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition – PS4 – October 13th
This sneaky good PC puzzle made its console debut this month, and it did not disappoint. Boasting brain busting puzzle design and a thoughtful narrative surrounding the notion of existence, The Talos Principle truly stands out as one of a kind. It also doesn’t hurt that The Deluxe Edition is the best value you can get for the game at $50 which is $5 less than what you would get for the main game plus the Road to Gehenna DLC on Steam. It also didn’t hurt that the game scored an impressive 88 on Metacritic, so if you are a fan of 1st person puzzle games, this is not a game to miss.
