So despite the fact that I won't be able to play on my 360 for a couple of weeks (depending on how long it takes for Microsoft to fix it and send it back) I'll still be hitting up Walmart at 12am tonight and getting my copy of Gears of War 2. I guess I'm just impulsive in that way. I mean seeing the awesome Gears 2 videos just isn't tempting enough I guess, I have to have the full retail box sitting next to me, knowing very well that I can't play it for a while.

Yes, I realize that I have a problem, but I can't help it. (And I'll do the exact same thing for COD W@W on the 11th)

Also, I've been playing Red Alert 3 and I have to say, I'm not lovin' it. Can't really explain why but I have very little desire to play that game after about half-way through the Russian campaign. The FMV is great and I love the art design but I would still rather play through Fallout 3 a third time then finish just one campaign in RA3.

So my 360 flashed the 3 red lights earlier today (repeatedly which means it's broken) after nearly 2 years of service. So just when I thought I was one of the lucky ones not to get the red lights of death, well it happened. The timing is impeccable as well with Gears 2 and COD W@W dropping in the next two weeks. Well I have several tests the next two weeks so I guess not too much is lost. If I had the free time though, I'd be pretty bummed right now. Though I was hoping to finish Dead Space before Gears 2 dropped. I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks. Well at least I have Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and Red Alert 3 to play on the PC.

Okay so similar to 2007, there are a boatload of games during Q4 of 2008. And it just so happens that between October 14 and 28, four of those games were ones that I wanted to play. Now given that I am a student with a part-time job, I'm already short on free time to begin with and having four big games released within two of each other just makes things harder. The result? Well Dead Space ended up sitting unopened on my desk for nearly two weeks while I went from playing Saints Row 2 to Fable 2 to Far Cry 2. Then when I finally started Dead Space, Fallout 3 was about to come out. Right now I'm at a point where I'm essentially playing four games at once (thank God I'm pretty much done with Fable 2): half-way through Dead Space, just starting Fallout 3, finishing up the side missions in Saints Row 2, and about a quarter of the way through Far Cry 2. Of course things don't get much better in the coming weeks with Gears 2 dropping on the 7th and COD W@W not following far behind. Not to mention I'll be picking up Red Alert 3 on the 30th. I think by the middle of November I may be playing about 7 games at once.

My point? Well as pretty much everyone has been saying, game publishers should know by now that releasing their games during the year rather then all at once near the end of the year can be a good thing. Yes there are guys like me who are willing to play 4 games at once, but a lot of people when faced with the same dilemma will probably just buy one or two games, not all four. Now yes, statistics tell us that games coming out closer to the holiday season tends to sell better, but as common sense tells us that if the game is big enough or good enough, it will sell regardless of when it is released. Games like Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears 2, etc. will sell well whether they are released in June or December. At least this way, we won't have to deal with multiple AAA titles releasing on the same day or within a few days of each other.

On a side note, yes Fallout 3 is Oblivion with guns, but unlike what some others have said, I feel that, so far, Oblivion is the better game. Though ultimately time will tell . . .