Two specific events have really impacted my gaming experience so far in 2009. The first is that my wife so generously gave me Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Game of the Year Edition) for PC for Christmas. It's an awesome game, and I expect I will get tons of fulfilling play from it.

The second, more significant event, one that will impact my gaming significantly for a long time, is that last week I became a father. I now have a son and, whether he likes it or not, he has changed and will continue to change the way I play games.

Games are my favourite way to unwind, and it's been my habit to play an hour or so here and there just to tune out, decompress, forget myself. With a newborn, it's been hard to find that time to play, and you might guess that having a new baby around is sometimes the kind of thing that you need to decompress from.

Don't get me wrong, I adore my son. Everything he does, from sleep to look curiously around at absolutely everything in the world to fill a diaper with a range of fluids, just makes me melt with love and affection. But, I can't deny that he's putting a cramp on my gaming lifestyle. (Yes, I know he's not doing it on purpose.)

In the past week, I've tried to get a game of Oblivion going on at least 8 separate occasions. On 7 of those occasions, I played about 5 minutes, enough to check my character's inventory and then either fight a couple of monsters or talk to a couple of NPC's before my son starts fretting and needs some attention. Oblivion is not the kind of casual game that can be played in 5-minute spurts. Even on the 8th occasion, where I had a full half an hour to play (my wife's aunt was over to hold the baby so we could unwind a bit), my experience was affected. I was never fully immersed in the game, as there was always a part of me that was listening carefully for my son's cry to make sure he's all right. I guess the coincidence of Oblivion and baby just wasn't an auspicious conjunction.

I know this won't last forever, but it's a new way for me to experience gaming. I know as he grows that my gaming will have to adapt to him and his needs. Whether that means that I play at night after he's gone to bed, or start playing E-rated games with him when he's old enough, or start accepting the fact that he'll beat me at every competitive game we'll ever play against each other (except Street Fighter, if it's still around by then), it will just be different from what it was. But different is just that, different. Not terrible. Not the end of the world.

I did find a bit of a compromise last night when I was holding my son to keep him from fretting and to allow his mom to get some much-needed sleep: I fired up my PSP and managed to play an hour of Puzzle Quest one-handed, while I cradled my boy with the other arm.

Which leads me to wonder: what other good games exist that I would be able to play one-handed? Could be for PC, PSP, or PS2. I'd prefer it to be more than just a puzzle game or card game.