We all say it at least once throughout the year, so I'm just gonna meet my quota right here and now:

This year just flew by.

Making this October thread really drove the point home.

Some prolific movie releases hitting home this month.  I can't wait to see the new high-def remastering of Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition on Blu-ray.  It's been getting stellar reviews, and the screenshot stills are eye-candy gorgeous.  I was pleasantly surprised with The Karate Kid, which was one of the better films during a summer filled with mediocrity.  Due to its limited theatrical release, I missed out on The Secret of Kells; I'm glad that it's now getting a home release outside of Ireland. 

October 15th is the big one.  The near seven months waiting for How To Train Your Dragon has been painfully titillating, to say the least.  If it wasn't obvious before, I'll reiterate here: I <3, <3, <3 this movie with a passion.

Soundtrack releases are..... shockingly barren, so on to the games.  I'm determined to finish up my 2010 backlog before picking up anything new.  (Peace Walker, Dragon Quest IX, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are taking FOREVER for me to complete.)  Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is looking mighty tempting, though; has anyone actually played through the Japanese release?  Is it any good? 

Despite all the good press, I'm leaning more toward 'nay' than 'yay' for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow; I just don't think I could tummy another DMC/GoW style action game like this.  (Dope looking Limited Edition, though.)  Kirby's Epic Yarn seems extremely promising, but I'm more likely to pick up Donkey Kong Country Returns in November first.  I'll take a look at Vanquish some other time, and while the three-games-in-one Time Crisis Razing Storm sounds sweet, I'm not about to invest in a Guncon 3.

Ooooh, I didn't know How to Train your Dragon was coming out! I might pick that up as well.

I'll definitely be getting Epic Yarn and the Wii release of Mario All-Stars (twice!), as well as Kingdom Hearts: Coded next week.

I wasn't really excited about Lords of Shadow in the first place, but after seeing the Gametrailers review, I can wait until it drops to around ground level before ever touching it. I'm in no particular hurry for Vanquish either.

Other than that, I'll be trying to save as much money as possible for the Monster of a Month that is coming November.

I don't know so much about the year, but I know September did - jeepers creepers, where did the last month go!

What she said.  I played the demo and it really turned me off.  Doesn't feel like Castlevania at all, just another GoW/DMC clone with the Castlevania brand slapped on.  The music to me is even more of a letdown, just generic-sounding orchestral Hollywood music, at least that's how it sounded in the demo.

Anyway..

Music:

LORD of ARCANA Original Soundtrack
NO MORE HEROES 2 DESPERATE STRUGGLE MINI SOUND TRACK

Maybe: VANQUISH ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, SUPER MARIO HISTORY Sound Track CD

Games:

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (PS3)

Maybe: Time Crisis Razing Storm (PS3), Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS)

Slow month.  Also is it just me or has this year just flown by?

Yeah, I had a feeling that was going to happen.

With Ghost Trick and LittleBigPlanet 2 jettisoned into 2011 (damn it), October is far and away the most interesting month left in the calendar.

Definites
---
Kirby's Epic Yarn - most interesting console game from here on out, for me anyway.
No More Heroes 2: Hopper's Edition - a music sampler and a bridging story on DVD? Finally my import PS2 has a second use!
Shantae: Risky's Revenge - loved the original and have been waiting on this forever. Looks fun and sounds fun, and Monday is looking miles away.

Probables
---
Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light - hopefully the rumors of an actual fast-paced battle system are true.
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals - not 100% sold on some of the changes, but I enjoyed the original enough that I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt.
Super Scribblenauts - still haven't finished the first, though.

Maybes
---
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - I genuinely liked Lament of Innocence, and Adam seems very enthusiastic about it.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 - I haven't seen anything that makes me think, 'hell yeah' but as a downloadable game, I start to think, 'well, why not?'
Vanquish - Looks fast and kind of hilarious in a way (that crazy Megaman-style slide), but PlatinumGames' track record is all over the place so far. We'll see.

There's also the GotY editions of Borderlands and Uncharted 2 to consider, two games I've been curious about but haven't yet tried.

I'm probably forgetting something, but hell, isn't that enough?

I haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon yet, so I plan to pick that one up. I did listen to the soundtrack, and it gave me goosebumps--best movie score I've heard in years.

Still having all kinds of money problems, but I've got a new job with regular hours and so I'm hoping to get things cleaned up this month. That said, there are definitely a few things that I can't pass up:

-Alien Anthology (limited edition)
-Beauty and the Beast
-How to Train Your Dragon

I'm actually feeling pretty good about video games and soundtracks. I've gotten a little behind on both and this seems like a rather slow month over all. This will be a great chance to do some catching up (both on what I own and prior releases that I missed out on). I've also started FFXIV and that's been consuming most of my life outside work and college. I don't regret even a second of it though.

After Contra 4, I'll happily support anything that WayForward puts out.  Risky's Revenge will be a download once I have the means to play DSiWare titles - likely when the 3DS hits.

Can't speak for Borderlands, but you're getting an excellent value with Uncharted 2's GotY Edition.  The game itself is ten shades of awesome, and the Drake's Fortune and Siege Expansion Packs are sweet bonuses.

YES.  Sonically, thematically, and contextually, there hasn't been a single movie score as satisfying as How To Train Your Dragon this year.  You're in for a treat once you get to 'see' the music in action. 

To the rest of you who are planning on picking up Dragon this month, I'm buying you all the brewskies of your choice.

Going to have to pass along a giant "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?" - Shame on you Konami...The reviews have been less than stellar as well (7.5)  I'll probably pass on getting a gamefly rental on this..

I think the FFXIII Play Arts Kai Odin horse should be comin my way sometime this month.  My shelf at work is getting pretty full tho...

http://plixi.com/p/48171049

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

I don't often buy games at launch, but after I played the demo, I promptly walked over to my computer and placed a pre-order.  The demo made a tantalizing promise of a game of the rare sort that is greater than the sum of its parts.

I was also impressed by the demo. That countdown before the escape pod was exciting, and the following cutscene really piqued my interest. The two main characters are an unlikely pairing; they're not the typical "guy and girl form bond upon first meeting." Also, when I see Monkey running he reminds me of Jak from Jak and Daxter.

The demo for the new Lara Croft game was pretty fun as well. I expected it to be more generic. The full game probably wouldn't last too long though.

Curious about this, I had heard there is some added scenes on "Aliens" - (Supposedly Burke asking Ripley to kill him when searching for Newt, after being cocooned)

My first buy of October is the Inception soundtrack, which finally came out. Been waiting for that since the movie debuted. Now, it's waiting time for the DVD.

I can't remember if any changes have been made to the films (apart from Alien 3*), but my understanding is that this set is basically the complete Alien Quadrilogy set on Blu-ray with literally a butt-load of new features and content. I do know that both the original and director's cut of each film will be included (where applicable). All four films also have isolated score tracks (2 for the original Alien) and seamless branching, both of which I'm really looking forward to. :3

* The audio on the working cut of Alien 3 has been repaired. They even brought in the original actors to re-record lines that were lost or inaudible in Alien Quadrilogy release.

Bottom line: this set is shaping up to be the definitive Alien release. I'm really excited about this baby!

The Inception soundtrack has been out for a while, no?  Like, since its theatrical release in July?

Did you get a load of the upcoming Blu-ray deluxe edition of the UK version?  Wonder if the U.S. release will get something similar.

Also, to Inception fans, The Shooting Script comes as a recommended read.  It's not the final, final draft that ended up in the movie, but the original connotations shed more light on the intended plot and character motives.

Scratch that.  I'll be getting this instead: NO MORE HEROES 2 DESPERATE STRUGGLE ORIGINAL SOUND TRACKS.  Three discs!

It was? None of the bookstores in my local area carried it back then - that, or they carried so few copies that it sold out quick. Was finally happy to see it.

Ooh, that's nice. It comes with the dream machine manual? *eyes goggle* That's awesome. Lucky UK people.

...you actually go by what's in stores to think if something is out or not?

*boggles*

For soundtracks, I wait for the stores to show them. I only buy video game soundtracks off the Internet. So yeah, for certain purchases, I go by the store dates or whenever they actually stock them for availability. *shrugs* That's how it works for me.

Really tempted to pick up Kirby's Epic Yarn upon release.

I've still got a mountain of other games to play, but I've been slugging away at each of those for at least the past year now; I could really stand to sink my teeth into something new; besides, I just went on a wild rant some time ago, about how there haven't been any new Kirby games recently. I wouldn't mind seeing the little guy in action again!

Still haven't picked up the soundtracks for NieR or Bayonetta yet, I should do that one of these days...

Glad it's finally getting a release, but THREE DISCS?! AGAIN?! I don't need a bunch of tracks that could stand to be half the length they are on the album. (Raging against six minute tracks that loop over again each minute...) Worst come to worst, I'll end up having to use an audio editor to slim some tracks down to size; best case scenario, I won't have to. Hoping on the latter.

I got to try a good twenty minutes of the retail game at a local store today, and was very much tempted to continue playing it a little while more.  It might not be buy-worthy, given the purported short length, but it does seem like it'd make for a solid weekend rental.

And hey, a game directed by Sméagol himself has GOTTA be good.

I'm at Chapter 6 (out of an estimated 14 or 15), and the production values are through the friggin' roof.
The game looks absolutely gorgeous, facial animation (like Heavenly Sword) is superb, and the acting is about as good as it gets in a video game.

The game is definitely heavily inspired by Uncharted for its acrobatics, and reminds me of Beyond Good & Evil with its combat system (mainly because of the staff), so there is a nagging feeling of "been there, done that" throughout the whole game.

Also, as great as the voice acting is, I'm having trouble liking the main characters.
Trip hasn't progressed beyond being a whiny, cowering little girl (perhaps understandable because of the circumstances. Maybe her excessive resemblance to Nariko made me expect more), and Monkey (I know the legend this game is based on, but "Monkey"!? [i]Seriously!?]/i]) is too grumpy the whole time to make the conversation a lot of fun to listen to.

I expect the character interaction to pick up in the course of the game, but having played Uncharted 2 and seeing Kotaku even comparing it to Sands of Time, I find any kind of chemistry and likeability in these characters severely lacking so far.

Forgive me if someone already mentioned this, but apparently you can order this straight from Grasshopper's facebook page.  I gave it a shot and they tell me it's already shipped, so maybe it'll be waiting for me when I return to work next week.