With Hollywood, the flashy blockbusters all tend to come out in the summer and the fall is reserved for quality, prestige projects. With video games, the flashy blockbusters are the prestige projects, and the best of the best start hitting stores in the months before Christmas. This week's Silent Hill 4: The Room and last week's Pikmin 2 are already making gamers regret squandering their money all summer, and it's only going to get worse from here.
By month's end, all three consoles will be visited by everyone's favorite team of mutants (unless you're still stuck on Ninja Turtles). The diverse assortment of powers found in the X-Men make them ideal candidates for a long overdue RPG, and X-Men Legends will be the game to give it to us. Of course, if it's great role-playing you're looking for, then Xbox's Fable, with it's character whose very essence changes with every decision-making button pressed, will be the title to beat. Speaking of beating, you'll be able to slap the jungle drums in GameCube's Donkey Konga, provided you buy the drum peripheral that comes with this addictive, musical game.
October is owned by one game, and anything foolish enough to challenge it will get blown away by a four-person drive-by. It'll take the rest of the year for most gamers to adequately explore the three sprawling cities making up the state of San Andreas in the new Grand Theft Auto 4: San Andreas. But closer to Halloween, those who are willing to take a break from boosting cars can sink their teeth into the long-awaited sequel to BloodRayne and find out if the fiery-haired, scantily clad vampiress can live up to the bloody hype. Finally, anyone whose lust for violence isn't satiated by BloodRayne 2 and GTA4 will certainly be able to squeeze a fatality or two out of Mortal Kombat: Deception.
If nothing I've listed so far has your thumbs twitching, then the sequel-laden month of November is offering Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Gran Turismo 4, Jak 3, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, not to mention the greatest reason to be grateful on Thanksgiving: Halo 2.
Of course, Resident Evil 4 has already horrified us by getting itself pushed back to next year, and the same could happen to any one of these titles. But if all goes according to schedule, gamers across the country will be needing the same thing for Christmas: new thumbs.