Newsletter Update - September 2025
Spooky Season Begins!
Scratch One Grub
Well, I finished Gears of War: Reloaded and I’ll have a quick review for the game soon, but I found myself transported to the past and enjoying the heck out of it - despite some flaws. It was nice to play a game that wasn’t some sixty hour mega open world epic, like most games try to be these days. I was so happy playing this series again that I went ahead and booted Gears 2, as I’ve decided to play through the original trilogy. The big kahuna to track, however, is Hollow Knight: Silksong, which is apparently real after all and is launching the day after the publishing of this article! I'm super hyped for the game, but I’ve had time to think about the aspects of Hollow Knight that haven’t aged well for me, and I kind of dread dealing with those issues again, but who knows what the developers took from feedback. That game will be the main game for September, with the Gears games sprinkled in.
Spooky Season Begins!
So my favorite season is here, Halloween, or as I call it, Spooky Season. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Jose, it’s not October!”. Due to my schedule and limited free time, I'd like to dedicate two months to watching plenty of movies. See, for me, I enjoy celebrating by watching horror or seasonally perfect movies. I have a set of traditional films and mix them in with first time watches or movies I haven’t seen in a while. I already got five movies down, including two traditional films (House on Haunted Hill and Son of Frankenstein). If you’ve been following me on social media (1UPVault on X, Threads, or BlueSky), you’ll see my quick posts with reviews for each film, marked with an out of five pumpkins score. With my new Pop Vault series, I’ll release articles giving updates on the tradition and recommending movies for any readers interested. While I also do this for the Holiday/Christmas period, it’s the Spooky Season films that I most love to watch.
I want to find other ways to celebrate the season. Obviously, there’s some personal stuff I’ll do with the family. My wife tends to drag me to a Fall Festival, and there are decorations already in my house. Of course, Trick or Treat on Halloween night is a highlight for my daughter. I do hope Nintendo releases Luigi’s Mansion on the Switch 2 NSO service, because a playthrough of that game would be an awesome new tradition to add to the season, especially since I haven’t played it since I had a GameCube.
Much Needed Changes and Schedule
This month, I’m finally going to do something I’ve been meaning to do and keep delaying. I’m going to create links on the home page of the Substack that make it easier to find older articles, especially for ongoing series such as Strachey’s Game List, History of Video Games, Reviews, and my new Pop Vault articles. I’m getting closer and closer to 200 subscribers, so I want to make sure that as I grow, my older and ongoing content are easy to find. I’m also going to start writing on the weekends instead of the weekdays, which hopefully increases my output. My goal is to have three articles a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). It won’t be like that non-stop, as I know life and special events could take away a day. Still, I want to have a more consistent schedule, and writing on the weekend will help me avoid the typical post-work tiredness and the decision of whether to write, play, or watch a movie. I probably should’ve done this a long time ago, but better late than never. As for now, expect a Gears of War: Reloaded review on Friday (September 5th), and next week I’m going to aim for three articles as my new writing schedule starts this weekend. I got a Pop Vault, Strachey’s Game List, and Opinion articles lined up.
Let’s make this a great month.
Keep it up, really enjoy what you write and loving the idea on links to older articles.