You know what sucks? The thing that really drives me nuts?

When the gaming industry wants to drop four games in one month while I'm in the middle of doing some major work that is going to keep me from buying those games.

In particular, I'm working on doing some restoration work to my 1991 Mustang - about $1200 work of work. In the meantime, the gaming industry has decided that January and February have turned around from being the "dumping ground for shitty games" into "the timeframe we release games that will be pretty damn awesome and we just couldn't quite squeeze them into the holidays".

Fuck you, gaming industry, for making this difficult. I love gaming, but I love my car more. This means that you have forced my hand. The only two games that I will be purchasing this month are Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and SSX. I will not be dumping money out for The Darkness II and Syndicate after all, as that is essentially the cost of my A/C compressor, and I don't feel like throwing that much out on games that I know will be $20 cheaper in two months.

That's part of the problem with game buying now, isn't it? You go to the store to pick that shiny new copy up on day one, and then you get that sinking in your heart a couple of months later when it's $20 cheaper. Luckily, I've got this lovely little system in my brain where I can tell if a game is going to hit that lower price bracket soon. Want the secret? Here you go...

1. Is it published by EA? If the answer is yes and the game doesn't sell a million out of the gate, then expect it to be $40 within two months.

2. Is it published by Activision? If the answer is yes and it is not Call of Duty, then expect it to be $40 within two months.

3. Is it a game that you've seen a lot of advertisement for but not a lot of people talking about on forums? If the answer is yes, expect it to be $40 within two months.

4. Is it critically panned? Two months, if not shorter...

Given that three of the four games I want happen to be from EA, I feel like I'm in luck. Nonetheless, I already have my pre-orders (yeah yeah, I know, I hate them too) for KoA and SSX.

What about you guys? Which games this month are you picking up, if any? Are you going to be waiting around for some to get cheaper?