And I thought 2007 was the best year in gaming... my current slate of games says differently.

So...I obviously haven't been able to get a taste of all the games I have on my plate right now, but thankfully among work and Thanksgiving and such I've been able to essentially beat Fable 2 (not really, but as far as major gameplay goes, yes) and beat the single player portion of Gears of War 2 on Hardcore and a good bit of Horde on Casual. First off I'll say I actually enjoyed Fable 2 a good bit, probably more than I should of considering the game is really what Fable 1 should of been the first time around, but I can't hold that against them of course. Regardless, pretty much all aspects are improved and refined and it is really a better game for it. The story is certainly more interesting and if nothing else the environments you explore offer way more variety and settings that Fable 1 did out of the gate. I mean, you don't go into Fable 2 expecting Oblivion-like scale, but you never feel like your not getting your moneys worth, I'm not exactly sure how many hours I have in the game, but I'd expect atleast 15+ hours, which is great considered conisdered how short Fable 1 was.

Of course on the other end of the spectrum in Gears 2 which like I said I beat the campaign on Hardcore. I must say, while I can't say I was quite as blown away with the campaign as some it's still pretty damn impressive at times and if anything the amount of variety is just rediculous. I'm not going to spoil anything of course, but suffice it to say anything left unexplored in Gears 1 is thouroughly done in the sequel, almost excessively so. What really surprised me was Horde, I mean, it's not like this is the first time a game has put this kind of mode in it. I mean, hell, I'm pretty sure MechAssault had it's Grinder mode which was basically the same deal. Still though, Horde is qutie a bit of fun, and I'd imagine if you had a group of decent friends it'd be that much better for it.

So yeah...the backlog continues! I got my copy of GTA 4 in today so I got to finally sit down with that a play through that a bit which is awesome. I'll probably keep trying to get to level 50 on Horde mode in Gears 2 and get as much out of Fable 2 as I can before finally moving on to Fallout 3.  Thank goodness for the winter break.