I've been having a bit of a dig though my back catalogue of games this week - Steam in particular. I'm as guilty as anyone of buying hundreds of Steam games on special offer and then forgetting all about them for weeks on end.

Here's a shortlist of my revisited games.

Civilization IV - One of the classics. I've always had a bit of a struggle to get into it as after 30-40 turns things tend to get a bit chaotic and I start to struggle in terms of deciding on a winning strategy. I spent a few hours running through the tutorial campaign last night in an effort to remind myself about some of game mechanics like production, food and culture. I think I understand it a bit better now - hopefully this'll help me feel a bit less lost when there's 3 or 4 different nations attacking me.

Half Life Episode 2 - Unbelievably I actually missed out on playing this. I think I got distracted by the lure of Portal and TF2. I set it to download last night so it should be ready to go for tonight. Crowbars ftw.

Battlefield : BC2 - I own this game on 360 as well. Annoyingly, playing the two different versions one after another I'm reminded of two things. Firstly, the graphics on the PC are much MUCH better than that of the 360 and secondly, I'm made acutely aware of how shit I am with the gamepad compared to the classic keyboard and mouse combo.

Trine - Actually, this was a fairly recent purchase for the bargain price of less than a fiver. This game is truly outstanding. Looking forward to ploughing many more hours into it.

Empire : Total War - I LOVE the Total War games. The newest one took me a while to adjust as they'd update the campaign map and switched around some features. To be honest, I found it really off putting at first because I didn't know my way around it any more. Thankfully, the tutorial campaign did a really good job of breaking me gently in to the otherwise vertical learning curve. I'm now happily ploughing away at it and enjoy it just as much as ever. It's a real time sink though! I've put about 10 hours into my new campaign and I've barely invaded any of Europe and only have a marginal foothold of North America.

Left 4 Dead 2 - Got this a couple of weeks back for £15 and what a bargain that was. Had a really good couple of hours on it the other day thanks to randomly bumping into a good bunch of players (one German, one French). Recently received a free expansion as well which I've yet to play.

Shatter - Pong with fancy graphics and added game mechanics (you can suck and blow the ball!). Very good little indie game with a surprising amount of hidden depth. Get's played when I'm listening to podcasts or am waiting for something else to finish doing something.

Mass Effect - Got it for a couple of quid a few weeks ago. I played it almost to completion on the 360 and remembered enjoying it. Although as I go through my second play through on the PC, I'm aware of how much of the story I'd forgotten.

Dragon Age - This game is massive! I put about 20-30 hours into it and I'm not even sure I'm half way through as yet. That's some good value for money!! Despite the negative reviews on the consoles, the PC version is actually pretty decent. 

There are at least twenty more, but realistically there's only so much you can play simultaneously!! I'll keep you posted as I plough through them.    

 Being as I've been permanently skint of late I decided to start renting games again as this seemed like the best way of feeding my habit whilst going easy on the bank balance.

I've just finished the main quest in Assasins Creed 2 and very good it was too. My dilemma is this. Do I hang on to the game to complete some of the extra achievements OR do I send it back and get something else.

The obsessive compulsive in me is screaming out to complete some of those side quests (some of which I'm tantalisingly close to getting) but the tight arsed git in me says I should send it back and get another rental in order to maximise my monthly spend.

So far I've procrastinated long enough that I've not been compelled to play any more AC2 nor mustered up the will power to put it in the envelope and post it back to the rental company. Ultimately I'm trapped by my own stupid compulsions.

Bah!    

Just transferred a load of my game reviews from Gamespot (boo hiss).

More reviews coming soon.

Hi everyone. First blog post ftw!

I've gotta say, it's great to finally see the site up and running. Like a phoenix from the flames Giantbomb has risen and filled the void in my life that Gamespot has recently left. It's great to see (and hear) Jeff, Ryan, Vinney and Brad doing what they do best and maintain that wonderful dynamic they have that all started on Gamespot.com.

Long live the bomb!!!!!!!1111oneoneone