Q4 Isn’t Letting Gamers Breathe One Bit…

By: Knux456 | October 22nd, 2026 | Thursday 2:30am EST

September belonged to Wolverine. That game had me up until five in the morning, and I’m still out here chasing the Platinum. I figured once the credits rolled, I’d get a little breather. Nah, gaming said absolutely not. 😂 Apparently Wolverine was just the beginning. When you look at what’s dropping between now and the end of the year, it’s kind of ridiculous. October gets two heavy hitters. November gets two more, and one of them is GTA VI.

It’s gonna be a big gaming fourth quarter, y’all. Maybe one of the biggest we’ve had in a long time, so let’s walk through it, game by game.

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October: Gears of War: E-Day — October 6

I’m gonna keep it a buck: I don’t own an Xbox. I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I’m a Gears expert. But I’d have to be blind not to notice what Xbox is putting out this month.

Gears of War: E-Day takes the series all the way back to the beginning. We’re talking 14 years before the original Gears of War, with a young Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago living through the day the Locust first broke out of the ground. Emergence Day. That’s the kind of origin story longtime Gears fans have wanted to see for years.

It launched October 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and it’s coming to Game Pass. If you grabbed the Premium Edition, early access starts October 1. Timing-wise, Gears gets a nice little window to itself before the next monster shows up later in October. If you’re Xbox squad, enjoy this one for me. 😂 my October starts a little later.

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October: Modern Warfare 4 — October 23

For me, October is about Modern Warfare 4, it doesn’t land until October 23, but that’s the one I’m locked in on. It’s hitting PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2 on the same day. And Call of Duty launching day-and-date on a Nintendo console still sounds crazy when I say it out loud. We really are living in a different gaming era.

I already got some time with the beta, and I liked what I played, but there’s still one thing sitting in the back of my mind. Okay…where the hell are the Zombies? 😂 Right now, Activision is talking Campaign, Multiplayer and the return of DMZ. Zombies? Not really part of the conversation. Maybe there’s more coming. Maybe there isn’t. But this close to launch, that silence definitely has my attention. That hits a little differently if you were there for MWZ.

Back when Modern Warfare III dropped in 2023, the Modern Warfare side of Call of Duty got its own open-world Zombies experience. Modern Warfare Zombies. Big map. Squads. Contracts. Rifts. Threat zones, and I ain’t gonna lie: That shit was actually dope.

It felt different. Instead of another version of the traditional round-based formula, we got this huge space where you could load in, gear up, complete contracts, move through increasingly dangerous areas and decide how deep you wanted to go.

Then came the "Tombstone Glitch" If you know, you know. 😂 The Tombstone exploit became its own damn economy. People were duplicating gear, rare items, schematics, everything. Patch after patch, somebody seemed to find another way to keep it going.

Eventually, people were talking about the glitch almost as much as they were talking about Zombies itself. That’s what makes MW4 interesting to me. I don’t know if MWZ was always supposed to be a one-time experiment. I don’t know if Zombies is simply going back to being more associated with the Black Ops side of Call of Duty. And I’m definitely not gonna pretend Tombstone somehow killed the entire mode.

Hey, I do know I would’ve liked another shot at MWZ done right. Right now, it looks like DMZ is getting the attention instead. We’ll see what happens.

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November: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — November 5

Then November shows up, and November is nuts. Switch 2 is literally getting a rebuilt version of Ocarina of Time. This isn’t just Nintendo cleaning up an old game, bumping the resolution and calling it a day.

We’re talking overhauled visuals, voiced cutscenes, expanded dialogue, an orchestral score and modernized movement and camera controls. Nintendo is rebuilding the experience for Switch 2 while keeping the core of Ocarina of Time intact.

Same adventure, same legacy, but completely glowed up for modern hardware. I’m interested in this one for another reason too. There are certain games where you’re not just revisiting a game, you’re revisiting a time in gaming. Ocarina of Time is one of those.

For people who were there, there’s nostalgia attached to it. For somebody younger who’s only heard people talk about why this game mattered so much, now there’s another way into it. November 5? Yeah, Switch 2 is getting some work. 😂

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November: GTA VI — November 19

Now, two weeks later: GTA VI, November 19th, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. I don’t think I need to sell anybody on this one. We’ve all been waiting through trailers, speculation, delays and enough internet detective work to qualify half the gaming community for law enforcement. 😂 It’s finally almost here.

If you’ve been rocking with The Gamerhood, you already knew there was gonna be a “but.” because there’s something about this release that bothers me. The physical edition? There’s no game disc inside.

Rockstar says the physical package contains a download code. Retail boxes arrive November 12, allowing players to preload ahead of launch. So yeah, preloading is convenient, but let’s call it what it is. A download code in a box is still a digital game.

You can’t take that disc to somebody’s house, you can’t lend it to your boy. You can’t trade it in when you’re finished, you can’t put the actual game on your shelf. We’ve been talking around The Gamerhood about where physical ownership is headed, and I’m not hijacking this whole article with that conversation. Trust me ya'll… that’s getting its own damn blog. 😂 For now, I’ll just say this: Putting a code inside a plastic case doesn’t suddenly make me feel better about digital ownership.

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Look at This Damn Calendar, now step back for a second. October 6 — Gears of War: E-Day, October 23 — Modern Warfare 4, November 5 — Ocarina of Time, November 19 — GTA VI.. That’s four major releases in roughly six weeks. That Zelda and GTA VI? Literally fourteen days apart. That’s some nasty work. 😂 Every lane gets something this year. Xbox has Gears. Switch 2 has Zelda, Call of Duty is showing up on damn near everything.

Then GTA VI  walks into the room in November like it owns the building. Whatever you play on, Q4 has something sitting there looking at your wallet. Which brings us to the other problem.

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Our Wallets and Backlog Are About to Hate Us 😂 Nobody is playing all of this at launch. Nobody, and if you are… God bless your sleep schedule. 😂 For real, this is where gaming can get weird. We’re supposed to be excited when great games come out. But somewhere along the way, gaming culture turned keeping up with releases into another damn job.

You gotta finish this before that drops, you gotta Platinum this. Everybody’s talking about that. Your backlog keeps growing, another game goes on sale. Then suddenly you’ve got 17 games installed and you’re staring at the dashboard trying to figure out what the hell you actually feel like playing. That’s not the move.

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Hey look, I’m a PS5 and Switch 2 guy. I’m not trying to play everything, and I’m not pretending to. My Q4 looks like Modern Warfare 4, then Zelda, then GTA VI, with that Wolverine Platinum squeezed in there somewhere. Apparently I’m supposed to sleep too. We’ll figure that part out later. 😂 Stepping back and looking across the whole industry? Gaming is eating right now. That’s really what this fourth quarter looks like to me.

The move isn’t to chase every release just so you can say you were there on launch day. Pick your lane, play what actually interests you. Take your time with it. Don’t let what could be one of the most stacked stretches we’ve had in a while turn into another damn backlog guilt trip. I just spent 21 hours learning this lesson with Wolverine: Play the game because you want to play it. Not because the internet told you it’s incredible. Not because the internet told you it’s trash, or because everybody else finished it already. Definitely not because you feel like you’re falling behind. Gaming isn’t homework.

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So now I wanna hear from y’all. What’s your Q4 lineup looking like? Are you locked in on Gears? Waiting for Modern Warfare 4? Getting nostalgic with Ocarina of Time? Clearing your entire November schedule for GTA VI? Or are you one of the crazy people trying to run all four? 😂

Plus to all my Zombies people, I especially wanna hear from y’all. Would you have taken another shot at MWZ, or are you good with DMZ getting the spotlight this time?

Drop it in the comments, Sound off in The Gamerhood Discord

Or just Pull Up to The Gamerhood group 🎮

— Knux456