Welp, It came much later then in past years, but it is almost here. My annual super awesome gaming day. Basically every year I get busier and busier and have less and less times for games. This year I bought my first home and also have a new job with longer hours then I did in the past. I still can squeeze a few hours of gaming in from time to time, but it's few and far between. When I was around 27 (I'm 33 now) or so I decided to take 1 day off of work every year and pley games all day long. No girlfriend, no friends (except maybe online ones), no distractions. Just about 16+ hours of gaming goodness. It is my selfish day. I eat what I want, and play what I want. The phone is turned off. And it is awesome.

Every year I put together a time line and schedule of what I intend to play. It's more of something that gets my hyped up for the day then an real schedule. If I get into a game, sometimes I will just play it all day. Last year I posted it up here and people seemed to get a kick out of the idea. So with out further adieu, the 2012 game day...

9:30am - Wake up, Let the Dog out, Run him a bit, Eat something small.

10:00am - NBA 2k. Hey my Lakers are sucking in real life, but on NBA 2k they can play like they should!

11:00am - Skyrim. I did beat Skyrim when it came out, but then never got a chance to get back into it. I made a new guy (ranger/assassin type) and am looking forward to leveling him up a little.

1:00pm - Lunch. Taco Bell... what else could it be on a gaming binge? Play with the dog, etc.

2:00pm - Bayonetta. Still sealed in the plactic from when I picked it up for $10 over a year ago. Going to try it out.

3:00pm - Bully (just like last year lol) Love this game, want to get a little further in it or maybe ever beat it.

4:00pm - Gears of War 3 Campaign. Will probably be on this one for a while. Can't wait. Only made it through act 1 so far.

6:00pm - Forza 4 - Level up a bit.

7:00pm - Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning - Suprisingly fun game.

8:00pm - Another food break

9:00pm - A game I bought and never played. I have a bunch of sealed games.

10:00pm - 2:00am - Some online gaming. Possibly Gears 3, Maybe MW3, Forza 4, Spades, Uno who knows.

And thats it!

Prefix:

So I am a 31 year old gamer without much time to game. I have a full-time job, a girlfriend, a puppy, friends, family, etc. In a normal week I probally can get about 10 hours or less of gaming time in. I remember when I was younger and could play games all weekend long any weekend I wanted. I remember playing games in 10 hour stretches. And I loved it. So about 4 years ago I had a planned day off and I played games all day long. For like 15 hours. After that day I decided to make it an annual stress relieving tradition. Every year I take one random day off from workin Jan and play games all day. I make a tenitive schedule of what I want to play (I never stick to it, what fun would that be?) mostly just to get hyped up for the day. I also like to play a lot of games I neverfinished or have yet to start.No job, no friends (except online ones), no girlfriend, just games. So this is what I have planned and later I will post what I did.

9am-10am - Wake up, let the pup out, hit up Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee and bagel sandwich. Get everything all ready to go (pot of coffee on, lap top, games out, etc)

10am-10:30am - Either Pac-Man C.E. DX or Geometry Wars to get my eyes open and ready to go. Both awesome games.

10:30am - 12pm - Super Mario Galaxy 2 - I could see myself getting sucked into this game and playing it for hours. This is the only game I remember in the last month playing for a good amount of time in one sitting. I think I played it for like 4 hours the day I got it.

12:00pm-12:45 - MLB '10 The Show - Best baseball game ever made. Haven't played it in months, but def gonna get a game in befor lunch.

12:45pm-1:15pm - Lunch - What else for a gaming day? Taco Bell, baby!

1:15pm-2:15pm - Fable 3 - Need a little easy RPG action.

2:15pm-3:15pm - Bully SE - Haven't played this game in over a year. Would like to make a little progress in the campaign.

3:15pm-3:30pm - Break - Let the Dog out, Smoke, Etc

3:30pm-5:30pm - Read Dead Redemption - Another game I have hardly played, but I really liked. Want to at least completea few missions in this.

5:30pm-6:15pm - NBA 2k11 - Maybe the best NBA game ever. Probally will do one of the Jordan Challenges

6:15-6:30 - Break

6:30pm-7:30pm - Forza Motorsport 3 - Best console sim racer ever! Level up a little.

7:30pm-8:30pm - New Super Mario Bros Wii - Got this for Christmas and have only been able to play it once. Awesome old-school platforming action!

8:30pm-9:00pm - Dinner - Thinking pizza...

9:00pm-10:00pm - Crackdown 2 - Also have only been able to play this once since I got it and I wanna play through it a little.

10:00pm-11:00pm - Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Haven't even started the campaign yet and thats what I plan to do...

11:00-11:15 - Break

11:15-12:00am - Halo Reach - Currently my fav game atm. Will just do some quick online matches.

12:00am-2:00am (maybe later) - Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion - So close to getting 1250/1250 gamerscore on this one. Been playing this game for years but haven't touched it in months. Just gotta complete some Shivering Isles stuff.

Then sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I want to make this a national holiday!

So only having the PS360 combo lasted for about 14 months. Found a sale on Wii's for $100 and picked one up. Totally worth it for the Nintendo exclusives like Monster Hunter Tri, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Guess I will wait til ned gen for that gaming PC ;) Still Like the 360 the best.

As much as I love me 360 I got a PS3 and I'm glad I did. While the two systems get many of the same games there is a few exclusives that make it worth it to me. MLB the Show, Uncharted, God of War, etc are all great games that you can only get here. I do still stand by my feeling that 360 is the best console of all time and that XBL is the best online service, but the more the merrier lol. Also I love that the PS3 is so quiet. The 360 sounds like a plane about to take off. I still will be getting online multi-platform games on 360 because live still rocks on PSN. However, single player games I will lean toward the PS3 as it is the much quieter system for late night playing when the girlfriend is sleeping. Still haven't rebought the Wii yet, and probally woun't. Now to get a gaming PC .......

In my lifetime I have owed the vast majority of gaming systems that have hit the market. I had an Atari & NES. I had a SNES & Genesis. A Nintendo 64, Gamecube & Wii. Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2 and Micosoft Xbox. And one thing is thing is true about every system I have owned. They all pale in compairison to the Xbox 360.

I have never owned a system that literally had way too many good games. I understand that when I was a child I have more time to game, but I still have about 20 hours a week that I get to play my hobby. The variety of 360 games is amazing. Western RPGs, Japanese RPGs, FPS, Racing, TPS, Strategy, Board, Card, Puzzle, Action, Adventure, stealth, etc. But what more amazing is not the variety but the level of greatness in each type of game.

Everyone has known since the creation of Halo that the Xbox was the shooter king of consoles. The 360 has followed in the Xbox's footsteps in this regard. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, & Bioshock are all amazing first person shooters for differant reasons. The 360 also gave birth the the AAA series Gears of War. Adding to these fantastic games are games like, Perfect Dark Zero,Orange Box, Call of Duty WAW, Prey & Far Cry. You could only play shooters for the 360 and have a great game to play everyday for years. But, why would you want to do that with all the other great gaming goodness it has to offer?

As far as consoles go there is quite some debate to which one has the best RPGs. SNES, PS1 & PS2 all had great Japanese RPGs. You could probally name a few classics on each easy. However, look at the 360 line-up. Great JRPG's already out include Tales of Vesparia & Eternal Sonata. Add to that Final Fantasy XIII & Infinate Undicovery coming soon and the 360 has JRPG on lock. However, the 360 also has a huge amount of great western RPGS. Mass Effect (which will be a trilogy), Oblivion, Fallout 3 & Fable 2 are all amazing RPGs. I think people get nostalgic for these old systems, but what experance on any of the old consoles was like coming out of the sewer in Oblivion?

You can go across the board with the great games. Racing? Forza Motorsport 2, Burnout Paradise, Moto GP & PGR series. Action/Adventure? Grand Theft Auto 4, Prince of Persia, Mirror's Edge & Dead Rising. Strategy? Civ Rev, Endwar & C&C. Fighting games? Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Caliber & Dead or Alive. It goes on and on. Add to that all the great downloadable games and it is truely amazing how many awesome titles the 360 has. And it still has years to add to those titles.

I think it is fact that the 360 has the best game line-up of alltime. People will deny this based soley on nostalgia. Games back when can not compete with games today. Games today are too deep and compelling. To polished and pretty. And to whoever brings up the "3 rings of death", keep in mind how many NES' and PS2's you went through. The 360 has done something this generation that I never thought would happen. It turned me into a one-system gamer.

So two nights ago I opened up Madden 07 and popped it into my 360. It is a OK game so far, but nothing great. I cant help but think that if 2k was able to do NFL games right now that either it would be better or it would drive EA to make Madden better. EA is just being sloppy with this release. The are glitches that just shouldnt be in a finished game. Let alone a game that you know is going to sell millions. I couldnt see Halo or Devil May Cry or RE or GTA or any other big name francise coming out with a horrible outtage and then backing it up less then a year later with some middle of the line game. They couldnt do it. Maddenites will buy this game year after year no matter how trash it is. And I am forced to buy it because there is no other NFL game.

How EA can have such a cash cow and not take care of its fans is beyond me. They dont care because people will buy it. This is my first Madden game since '03 (03 was a very good game btw) and I am not impressed. NFL 2k5 was such a great game I cant help but think 06 would have been a little bit better, and next gen would have been awesome. Oh well, hopefully 2k does a "fake league" game or something. I just need a football game thats good it doesn't need to be NFL.