Martin Crownover

So we've got a lot of good games on deck, and even a few that were just released. Over the last few months, I've been getting progressively more excited about a great number of these games. The problem is, I don't know when I'll have time to play through all these games, and I really don't want to rack up a huge bill by buying all of them at once, either. Christmas is right around the corner, however, and so is my birthday, so I've decided I'm going to separate my hotlist of games into a few groups: must buy, gift request, buy later, and undecided.

Following is the list of all the games I'm looking forward to, and how I've split them up (and if you're reading this, Mom, this might be a good place to start for my Christmas list).

Gears of War 2

Must Buy - Though I've been careful not to spoil any of the surprises of the Gears sequel for myself, each time I get a glance at any new information on the game it seems better than before. This game is going to be awesome, and I'm really looking forward to playing through the campaign with my buddies, as well as jumping back into Gears multiplayer. Grenade sticking FTW!

Fable 2

Undecided - This is another game which I've been anxiously awaiting for some time now, and in only a few days it'll be on store shelves. It's garnering good reviews so far, and like Gears 2, each time I do some research on the title, it seems that much better, and I get more excited about it. Albion never looked better, and it's going to be hard to wait until Christmas or my birthday for this game, if I can go that long.

Left 4 Dead

Must Buy - The co-op multiplayer for L4D looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, and come on, it's a great-looking new Valve game. The only trouble I'm going to have with this decision is which platform to buy it for: PC or Xbox 360.

Fallout 3

Gift Request - Don't get me wrong here; I'm really looking forward to Fallout 3. I like the whole idea of a more modern Oblivion-ish RPG, and all the tweaks Bethesda has made to the game engine in order to create Fallout look both interesting and well done. But since, to my knowledge, the game doesn't feature any multiplayer action, I can shelve it for a few weeks while I play the rest of the games, since the world will be just the same when I decide I'm ready to enter it. And that's why I like single player games.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Must Buy - Only 3 weeks are left until the long-awaited second expansion to the World of Warcraft universe is released, and after spending two days at BlizzCon and experiencing all the big changes to the game introduced in last week's 3.0.2 patch, I'm more than ready to start working my way up to level 80, and maybe even turning my main character into a Death Knight. I won't be one of the people who gets in line a few days before the release, and I probably won't even pre-order. But I'll definitely be picking this one up within a day or two of it's release.

Dead Space

Buy Later - Initially I wasn't too excited about Dead Space, as it looked very generic and Doom 3-ish to me. Since I've read a few reviews however, I've changed my mind on the game, and I might just pick it up at some point. I'm not sure if I want to buy it or ask for it as a gift - it probably depends on how long I can hold out on buying all the other titles in the list. This game looks pretty fun though, and I am sure that at some point it will become part of my games library.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Undecided - The vehicle-crafting platformer gameplay in the new BK game looks like it could be a lot of fun, and pre-orders for the game nab you the original game (updated with a better display resolution and higher resolution textures) on Xbox Live Arcade as well, all for only $40. I'm going to have a hard time passing this game up if it gets good reviews on release.

Chrono Trigger DS

Gift Request - It's Chrono Trigger, but on the DS. I shouldn't even have to explain how awesome that is. It'll take a good gift request though, because it's cheap, and like Fallout, is single player only.

Saint's Row 2

Buy Later - I wasn't too hot on the original game until a few years had gone by and I gave it a second chance. Much to my surprise, the original Saints turned out to be a lot of fun, and was a great deal at only $20. Saints Row 2 looks pretty similar, only with more mayhem. The good reviews have convinced me that I will have to pick the game up sometime, but we'll see if that happens before this one hits $20 as well.

Call of Duty: World at War

Undecided - I came to COD4 a little late in the game, but still had a blast with its multiplayer and a good time working my way through the campaign. I'm hoping COD:WaW will be similar, but I want to see how the game turns out before I make any final decisions on it.

Other games I'm interested in, but weren't worth mentioning in the list yet: Tom Clancy's Endwar, Spore, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, Need for Speed: Undercover, Far Cry 2

I'll be back later in the week with more to say about some of this stuff, I'm sure. Thanks for reading!