Welcome back to Geek Out, the column where I empty my brain of the things I cannot stop thinking about so they can live rent-free in yours instead. August brought cartridges, kaiju, robots (in two very different ways… item four got heavier than planned this week), and a couple of games I did not expect to be this excited about. And yes, a certain block turns 25 next week… but we’ve got a whole separate piece coming for that one.

Five things. Let’s go.

1. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners II (October 20)

The first Cyberpunk: Edgerunners did the thing anime tie-ins almost never do: it mattered. It revived an entire video game’s reputation and it broke hearts on a schedule. A second season had no right to exist (the first one ended… decisively), which is why the sequel’s approach makes sense: the characters appear to be all new. The trailer premiered at Anime NYC, and it did its job on me.

But here’s the thing that actually has me leaning in. The official site introduces four of the new characters… and then a fifth slot marked “Coming Soon.” Is that a hint that somebody who survived the first series is coming back? Lucy, perhaps? Or someone from the game side, like Johnny Silverhand… can a Netflix anime get Keanu to voice? Anything’s possible, I suppose.

And one more thing: October 20 happens to be my birthday. So this premiere is either the best present of the year or an emotional ambush at my own party… and knowing Edgerunners, it will somehow be both. There is a real chance I cry into my own birthday cake, and I’ve made peace with it.

2. The Godzilla x Hello Kitty McDonald’s Run (A Field Report)

Somewhere in a boardroom, someone said “what if the King of the Monsters and the world’s most polite cat shared a Happy Meal” and NOBODY STOPPED THEM, and that is why civilization is worth defending. The first draft of this entry said “I can’t wait to go.” Events have overtaken it: the Galbo household has already made the pilgrimage.

The objective was the headliner, Hello Kitty-Godzilla… but McDonald’s operates on a strict you-get-what-you-get toy distribution system, so I told my wife I’d accept that one or Keroppi-King Ghidorah (the objectively correct second choice; I will not be taking questions). One hellish trip later, we walked out with BOTH. The system works. I will also not be going back for the foreseeable future… some victories you retire on.

3. Atari x Activision: The Prodigal Cartridges Return

Here’s the poetry: in 1979, four Atari programmers walked out and founded Activision, the first third-party game developer in history. Forty-seven years later, Atari is putting 39 classic Activision games back on real, physical Atari 2600 cartridges… Pitfall!, River Raid, Kaboom!, H.E.R.O., the whole shelf.

The deluxe collections ($249.99, starting with November’s Treasure Collection) come with woven patches and enamel pins, which is a direct callback to the legendary Activision patch program… the one where 1980s kids mailed in Polaroids of their high scores and got actual embroidered patches back. Those patches were achievements before achievements existed. Somebody at Atari understands the assignment on a spiritual level.

4. Transformers: The Movie Turns 40… and Then Wednesday Happened

Full disclosure on how this entry was born. I was already geeking out over the anniversary wave: a 40th Anniversary 4K Steelbook, Upper Deck picking up Transformers and G.I. Joe trading cards, a Transformers: The Movie Visual Guide coming from Insight Editions… plus everything else that keeps surfacing as the film’s 40th anniversary re-release gets closer. And then, as I was literally punching up this print, the unthinkable: Peter Cullen, one of the (pardon the pun) prime voices of my childhood, passed away at 85.

His family’s statement ended with the five words he spent decades crediting to his brother Larry, a Marine, offered before the 1984 audition… the five words the entire voice was built on: “Be strong enough to be gentle.”

Which changes what this anniversary is. 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie turns 40 this year… the film that made a generation watch Optimus Prime die, arriving in the year we actually had to say goodbye. The steelbook for the shelf, the cards for the binder, the book for the coffee table: they were solicited as celebrations. They arrive as memorials… three ways to keep the voice in the room.

Two thoughts I haven’t been able to shake since Wednesday. The re-release’s new post-credits scene… whatever it holds… just became a great deal more profound than anyone planned. And I keep wondering if there’s still time to add three small letters at the end of it. An “RIP” card would cost nothing and mean everything.

’Til all are one, Peter.

5. gamescom Delivered (Mega Man! Turok! First-Person Dinosaurs!)

Quietly, gamescom has become the thing E3 used to be… the big summer stage where upcoming games actually get revealed instead of teased. This year’s show gave me two reasons to be insufferable.

First: Mega Man: Dual Override. A new side-scrolling Mega Man with a twist? Yes please. That is the entire pitch and it worked on me completely.

Second, and this one’s a redemption arc: Turok: Origins. When it was first announced (back at the Game Awards last December, if memory serves), I wasn’t on board… it looked like they were steering the series into generic third-person shooter territory, which is not why anyone loves Turok. But surprise: they’re taking a page from Fallout (and the handful of games like it… if you can find them) by letting you toggle into first-person. Which makes it, functionally, the classic Turok game we all know and love… hunting dinosaurs from behind your own eyeballs, the way nature intended.

Two more from the show floor. Stage Tour (already revealed) looks legitimately neat… a spiritual successor to Rock Band, a genre I assumed we buried with the plastic instruments. And Alien: Isolation 2 looks primed to reveal something… I have a history with the first one, so consider this both an announcement and a warning: when it arrives, I’ll be playing it on our Twitch, and I will be pretty buzzed. Interpret that however you like. You’ll be right.

And the show isn’t even over as I write this. Also on the pile: Gears of War: E-Day, a new take on the Worms franchise, and more still rolling out of Cologne… September’s Geek Out is already half-booked. Consider this the appetizer.

That’s the brain dump. What are YOU geeking out over? Comments are open… and if your answer is also secretly having an anniversary, I promise not to be surprised.