I have more time to catch up on my gaming than ever before, since being laid off from work two weeks ago. Before the termination, however, I did manage to purchase some cool gear from jinx as well as a copy of GTA: SA for the xbox. Also in the meantime, I acquired and beat Katamari Damacy - a very fun game.

With said free time, I'm now near the end of Half-Life 2, half way through Halo 2, 1/5 of the way through San Andreas, all while sampling other games, reading and living. Psychonauts remains untouched; I'm stuck at a punishing platformer part.

The gluttonous gamer in me still wants more but I do have enough self restraint not to spend needlessly without an income.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I land the editing position with prima. It would be incredibly cool to work for a game publication...

Sorry Psychonauts, your completion is now, yet again, officially delayed. I picked up Battlefield 2 two days ago and have played little else since.

And despite still having most of last year's great games to complete, I find myself wanting to throw more plastic money down for GTA: SA X-Box, Meteos and Katamari Damacy.

What's an impulsive, spoiled gamer to do? Games are similar to women for me. Once I get one in my head, I pursue the paths to either's fruition.

After a six-month long production cycle at work, the latest edition of one of the annuals we publish went to press, and, finally, I get to take a real vacation.

Though I'm definitely getting out of town more than once, I'm also going to spend a considerable amount of time gaming. I'm intent on finishing Psychonauts. Have about fifteen hours into it so far - I've been going slow, trying to collect as much as possible in one pass. I'm on a dinner break, in fact.

I've also been playing Lumines; haven't topped 100k yet...

And I'm still WoW'in with about twelve days total into my main alter ego, Shortyrob.

Unless I get inspired to leave my air conditioned apartment, my next entry will be proclaiming victory over Psychonauts.

Just finished God of War on normal. What an incredible game! If I didn't have so many other titles to play, I'd be right into god mode. Besides that, this game needs to go to friends as proof positive that the PS2 doesn't yet belong in the closet...

After nine plus days of in-game time, I feel that my addiction to World of Warcraft is perhaps beginning to wane. My level 43 gnome mage came to be what he is today because there was always rather immediate gratification to be had. Now that my alter ego, Shortyrob, is at midlife crisis age, I'm finding my crisis to be saving up the hundred gold required to learn to ride and then purchase my mount. I can vaguely recall my 30s. A mad dash of leveling with the promise of a mount coming at forty.

Needless to say, forty has come and gone and I'm still wearing out my pair of level 34 boots. I've grown to like these boots; they fit nicely. But the task before me is daunting (forty-seven gold to go) and the allure of life outside Azeroth is growing. Despite my average of 2+ hours a day in WoW, and despite not being that well off, I've purchased at least six games since the first of the year.

How many days have to evaporate before all that gold's in my bag? Will this great struggle for mecha-chocobo prove worthwhile?

There's always a chance that Shorty won't live to ride his mount. I might have to drop whatever it is retailers are charging these days for a new PS2 controller so as to better enjoy the new Ys game (my square button sticks, quite a thorn in my side).

THUG 2 has come and gone. It's almost Thanksgiving and, as a gamer, I have very much to be thankful for. It took a nerve fraying week for my copy of Halo 2 to arrive via ebgames. The time it took to reach me was somewhat disappointing but getting Halo 2 & Half Life 2 on the same day was quite amazing. The opportunity to play both games at once has created a prolonged Christmas-like state in me. I'm rambling and drunk and will conclude by saying that the DS is quite captivating thus far. I canceled my pre-order from EB and bought it on Sunday at a Best Buy (along with Mario 64 & Feel the Magic).

From a gaming standpoint, it doesn't get any better than this.

There are so many great games out now that I find myself acting on the irrepressible urge to go out and buy more of them. (I'm basically trying to formulate why I shouldn't pick up a copy of Paper Mario 2)

Games recently acquired:

Myst IV, Sims 2, Neverwinter Nights Gold, CS: Source, Donkey Konga, Guilty Gear x2 Reloaded, SW: Battlefront, Doom 3.

This is just from the last 2 months and doesn't include the sundry other titles I'm in the middle of. For example:

Call of Duty (borrowed), UT2004, Rainbow Six 3, Warcraft 3, Morrowind, Xenosaga, Pandora Tomorrow, Chronicles of Riddick, Ninja Gaiden (borrowed)

Other things to consider:

I probably won't be able to resist preordering the DS for much longer. I've already paid for and preloaded Half Life 2. THUG2 arrives via gamefly tomorrow. I'll be tempted to keep THUG2. I just spent $80 on a laser mouse.

It's a good thing I have a decent paying job. I realize now that the anticipation of my rental is enough to tide me over for the rest of the afternoon. Now my only problem is figuring out which of the above 20 titles to play next. Hmm.. Maybe I should resubscribe to Final Fantasy XI? And City of Heroes?!

Steam Silver package rocks!! Especially for someone who's never played Half Life or Counter Strike.

After logging in about eleven hours, I finished Fable earlier this afternoon. While I enjoyed it, the game wasn't very impressive. All in all, it was worth the rental.

Now it's back to the strange, beautiful world of Myst IV.

Yesterday was birthday number twenty-six. It was a good day all-in-all. My sister and adorable two-year old niece made the hour drive up to visit. That evening, I spent nearly two hours on the phone with my brother, who's in the military and is stationed in upstate New York. Good times.

The amount I spent on games for myself this birthday wasn't all that outrageous. I was compelled to pick up two new releases: Myst IV (decided on after playing the demo) and Donky Konga (I love novelty-party games). But considering the rate at which I've been buying new games lately, any purchase is really kind of pushing it, financially and logically.

After having spent a couple of hours apiece on each of my newest titles, I have to say that, at this early point, Myst is exceeding expectations in terms of both its eye candy and its fun factor. Donky Konga is fun, but I'll hold off on saying any more than that as I've only played it alone thus far.