A reader looks back at the best games to ever be released in September, from Driver: San Francisco to GTA 5, and looks forward to this year’s bumper batch of new titles.
Autumn is a time for new beginnings, and this writer has certainly found plenty of meaning as to why September feels fresh and new. For one thing, September begins one day after my birthday, and I live in the UK, where school begins again – but I’ll save you the personal journey through my tumultuous and evolving journey through the education system. September in the realm of video games is very exciting, and here I want to share my favourite games that came out in September and explain why I love those games as much as I do.
One game that immediately springs to mind when I think of September is 2011’s Driver: San Francisco. One of the coolest games to grace any console ever, Driver: San Francisco combined the series’ classic chase movie action with an insane out-of-body and astral projection experience. Playing as a man in a coma, you are John Tanner, and you discover the ability to cause wholesale vehicular mayhem in your mind, from above the San Francisco clouds. And yes, I do think that says enough about how ebullient this game is.
Next on a whistle stop tour of September in games is 2013’s Rayman Legends, perhaps the best platformer in existence, or at least the craziest. If you thought Origins was off the wall, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The variety and the fluidity of the platforming gameplay in Rayman Legends is sublime, and it’s freakishly well made, with colour and whimsy bursting out of every fibre of its existence.
The leviathan that was GTA 5 also landed in September 2013 and I wolfed that one down as urgently as a man on hunger strike, once he sees a delectable steak dinner. GTA 5 was massive and showed us exactly why Rockstar keeps on impressing us with its scale. OK, so the story isn’t on the level of GTA 4, but you can play as three protagonists, and it’s extremely well written, looks amazing, and boasts insane mission variety the series hadn’t seen before. All told it was an extraordinary GTA game.
Marvel’s Spider-Man web-slung his way onto the PlayStation 4 with amazing results. Managing to capture the true essence of Spider-Man and giving us the Spidey title we had waited over a decade and a half for, Spider-Man was one of the almighty trinity of Game of the Year games in 2018, along with God Of War and Red Dead Redemption 2, and it put up a huge fight for supremacy at that.
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Mafia: Definitive Edition showed up in 2020, when we were all still contending with the uncertainty of those times, and it turned out to be one of the best remakes ever made. It was a full body remake at that, and it turned Mafia into a gorgeous modern shooter you’d definitely be happy you played.
In 2024, we were all treated to one of the greatest platformers ever made when Astro Bot came along to bring an astronomical level of joy to the souls of PlayStation gamers everywhere. This joy was matched by all the PlayStation icon bots you got the chance to meet and collect, as well as all of those out of this world specialised levels you participated in. Astro Bot was a PlayStation adventure like no other and brought a cheery sunshine to the format, which had been overtaken by too much focus on deep emotional and mature experiences.
September this year looks to feature even more excellence, with Onimusha: Way Of The Sword, The Blood Of Dawnwalker, Marvel’s Wolverine, Silent Hill: Townfall, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, and Control Resonant scheduled for release. September is one heck of a month to get excited about games; there is no other month quite like it for gaming.
By reader James Davie
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