September is the sports games' month, always has been, but this year the roster updates are sharing space with actual heavy hitters. Per MSN's roundup, the big one is Marvel's Wolverine, landing September 15. After years of live-service skeletons piling up, a big single-player Insomniac game feels almost novel. It shouldn't.

Here's the shape of the month. NHL 27 and EA Sports FC 27 are both on the September docket, per the roundup, and that's about as specific as I'm getting on dates until they're locked. The sports corridor is doing what it always does: filling the early weeks so everyone's deep into a franchise season before the leaves finish falling.

Then there's Wolverine. Insomniac earned the benefit of the doubt twice over with the Spider-Man games, and September 15 gives it a clean runway ahead of the holiday crush. The character's solo track record, though, has been rough for a long time. I'd argue we haven't gotten a Wolverine game I genuinely loved since the PS2 era, and even the ones people remember fondly were more nostalgia bait than classics. I sunk embarrassing hours into X2: Wolverine's Revenge back in the day and I still wouldn't call it great. Your mileage may vary, and that's fine. The point is Insomniac is a studio with real credits, and whether you've played the Spider-Man games or just watched from the sidelines, you know what this team brings to a superhero action game.

That's the month. A genuine headliner and the usual sports wave. It's a busier September than we've gotten in a while, and I said something similar when I looked at October's calendar: when everyone crowds the same stretch, mid-budget games end up competing for the same shelf space and the same wallets. Count how many games you actually finished last fall. Exactly.

So my advice is the same advice I always give in September. Play the sports game if that's your thing, watch the Wolverine reviews and buy with confidence if Insomniac's track record means anything to you, and let the rest sort itself out. Your wallet will want the breathing room by November, when the big holiday titles come to collect anyway.