Haven’t really been playing too much this month. Passing the time with the demos or betas for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Supreme Commander 2, God of War 3, Yakuza 3 and Heavy Rain. March is what I’m waiting for now, just a few days until Bad Company 2 and then a week or so later will see the first expansion for Dawn of War 2, then the release of third God of War game. The end of the month will also see the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey for the DS. Which reminds me I need to disassemble my DS lite and see if I can repair the short in the top screen before then – I better go see what kind of screw drivers I’ll need…

It’s that time once again, time to realize that maybe I do play too many games, as my game library continues to swell and my free time continues to shrink. This month I added a few more games from Steam, picking up Psychonauts, the Freedom Force: Freedom Pack and the Eidos Collector Pack (which added 14 or so titles including Batman: Arkham Asylum, Tomb Raider: Underworld and fan favorite Kane and Lynch: Dead Men). Seventeen games for around $52 dollars, that’s not a bad deal at all. Thanks Steam!

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)

I’ve only spent about two hours with the Batman so far. Since, I’ve already played through the game once on the 360 I decided that this run through would be on the hardest difficulty. It’s very strange playing the game without a controller but, I’m getting used to it. It’s not a terribly long game so I’m hoping to actually get through it in a reasonable amount of time.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta/Demo (PC/360)

This past week EA released a PC beta and a 360 demo of “BFBC2″. Both versions are basically the same thing, having a single multi-player map and game mode. That hasn’t stopped me from sinking in a handful of hours with each and having a good bit of fun. I’ve never really followed the Battlefield series very closely, only playing a little of Battlefield 1942 quite a while ago. Anyway, I’ve been enjoying myself enough that I’m actually considering picking up the first game as well as pre-ordering from Steam. Playing on the 360 is fun and all but it just can’t match the quality of my PC.

Team Fortress 2 (PC)

I know two people that combined have about 700 hours of Team Fortress 2 play time. 700 hours! Hard to believe that I’ve only played just over 25 hours. I’ve been spending much more time with it lately, trying to unlock some of the Soldiers weapons. It took a bit of time but I did finally unlocked the Direct Hit, the rocket launcher with a faster firing rate but smaller splash damage. Why did I want it? That comes from my desire for a faster firing rocket, I’ve always been a fan of the Quake games so that may be where that comes from. Now, I just need to spend some time getting used to the new way of playing.

Anyway, that’s really it for this month, still working my way through some old games and not working my way through new ones.

Here we are at the list Now Playing for the year, maybe I’ll get it posted on time. It’s all going to sound pretty familiar since I’m still playing most of the same games. It’ll be nice and short this time around – have to go get some dinner before ringing in the New Year.

Torchlight (PC)

I’m still slowly grinding my way through the gound below Torchlight. I had a bit of a setback when they released the Steamworks update since I needed to start over to get the new achievements.

Street Fighter IV (PC)

Just picked up Street Fighter today as part of the Steam holiday sale. $9.99 is just too good to pass up. Now I just need to get my PS3 controller working.

inFAMOUS (PS3)

I’ve managed to squeeze in a bit of inFAMOUS here and there. I’m not sure how far I am through the game though. Still enjoying it – it’s the only PS3 game I have at the moment so that’s good.

Happy New Year.

*Twenty Ten Update* The PC port is so good it’s just as cheap when you get to Seth as the 360 version.

Torchlight (PC)

[Insert the sound of a clicking mouse here.] I always have Diablo 2 installed and ready to go at a moments notice. Like many others I have a strange love for it’s click-y loot-fest. The problem is the game hasn’t aged very well and I say that as a fan of retro games. It’s main problem is that it’s forced to run in one resolution. Sure, there are ways around that but, then you can’t play on Battle.net. Well, now Torchlight is here to take care of that Diablo itch and it does so perfectly. I’ve been slowly working my way down into the depths below Torchlight, steadily clicking on a never ending stream of monsters and picking up their multicolored loot. The story is a bit slim but, that’s not really what the release was about as far as I can tell. It seems to be more of a vehicle to get Runic Games and the IP out into the public. Oh, and if it sells well of course it helps raise funds for the online version. Which I can’t wait for, I miss Mythos, that was a good time. Word on the street is that it will be back playable soon thanks to it’s new owners. Wonder if it will still be any good.

Borderlands (PC)

The fun of Borderlands seems to be falling through geometry and getting stuck. Alright, well that’s not exactly true, playing with friends is the best part of, even if most the time I have been under leveled. That’s alright though, I’ll take my over powered weapons and self back into my game and wipe up all the people who get in my way. I haven’t exactly finished the game yet even though I’ve seen the credits roll. Great game, it could have been truly awesome too, hopefully the sequel will fix the few small things I consider issues, most of which are cosmetic and non-game breaking (so far). Maybe once I’ve finally made it all the way through the story I’ll come back as say some more.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)

I had a chance to try Modern Warfare 2 a few days after it came out and what should have been a quick session, ended about five hours later when the credits rolled. I can’t really tell you much about the game, just that it was almost always “on”. The amount of crazy stuff that was going down was mind boggling. I don’t remember the first one being quite so insane. I think what I need to do is going and actually pick up a copy instead of looting a friends, then play through both games back to back. Then maybe I’ll have the story gaps filled in. That and I’ll get to play some multi-player, I love Modern Warfare’s so I’m betting this will be just as good.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360)

The day after I played through Modern Warfare 2 I decided it was time that I finally when back and actually finished playing Modern Warfare. As it turned out, I only had like 20 minutes of game play left. So, I wrapped that up and that’s all I have to say about that.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360)

I had a $25 gift card for Best Buy so I picked up a copy. I’ve only played for a little while and probably won’t be finishing it any time soon.