First a quick plug, I posted an Uncharted : Drakes Fortune review today. Thumbs it up if you like it, and discuss below if you have any tips or comments.

While nothing has been signed yet, it is a pretty good bet that I and my parents (partners) have sold our business. This is going to be a change for me on a number of levels, so it is both exciting and scary. The business is a deli/video, and as such the vast majority of my food and entertainment needs have been met by the business, as well as petrol, seeing as the business owns the cars.

So for the last few years I've simply been taking games home from the shop (we've owned it for about 6 years, but I only got back into console gaming when I bought a 360 a couple of years ago) as well as movies, placing a priority on my value for time. But soon I'm going to have start paying for the privilege. At the start of this year a rental share company supplied us with games (a more profitable way for us to rent games), so I took home a bunch that we sold off as a result, with the intent of keeping them in reserve until this inevitable day. So I do have a few great games (Mass Effect, Super Paper Mario, Forza 2, Viva Pinata) plus some that might not have had been huge hits but I'm sure I will still enjoy (Eternal Sonata, Overlord, MOH : Airborne, plus some GameCube games I bought for the Wii but never played).

So with that in mind, I'm probably going to try and cram in as many of the shorter linear games as I can that happen to be on the rental shelf, though there are a few I'm not sure about. I want to play Bioshock, but perhaps I should wait for the PS3 version. I think I will like Burnout Paradise, but that seems like a longer term game; I should probably take it home at least once before we sell to see if I do enjoy it though. I'm wondering whether to give Metal Gear Solid 4 a run through, or whether that might be worth purchasing. For those that have played it, does it have much replay value? There is Oblivion and Two Worlds, but they are longer term games I should probably buy if I want to play them. I've been eyeing Metroid Prime 3, but I keep leaving it because I think I should finish 1 & 2 first. There are a few games that do seem pretty simple 'play them once' games though. I brought home No More Heroes tonight, and I expect Ninja Gaiden 2 and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 to follow.

Of course there are also some games I've wanted to play that the shop never had, so when it comes time to lay down my own money, they will be top of the list. Zack & Wiki, Marvel : Ultimate Alliance and Ratchet & Clank : Tools of Destruction spring to mind. I also recently grabbed a 3000 point card for XBLA, and given the quality of releases lately I think I might order another one before we get out. For the price of one full game I should be able to get some really good value out of the likes of Braid, Geometry Wars 2, Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando : Rearmed, Assault Heroes 2, N+ and Exit. Given I can take free Wii games from the shop, I haven't even checked out Wiiware, so I might grab some points for that too and keep them up my sleeve in case something catches my eye (all tax deductible of course).

While we are selling this business for a profit, we have also been carrying debt from a previous business that went downhill, so overall we are going to end up probably just over break even. We've been doing 60+ hour weeks for a decade (over the 2 business), and I'm over it. I bought a house a couple of years ago, and given there isn't going to be huge wads of cash left over when we sell, I'm going to need to get a job relatively quickly so I can pay it off, not to mention that I'm going to have get used to paying for food and petrol (as the business provided most of this). Having worked for myself for a decade, that might be weird. I consider myself to be a great worker with a good work ethic so hopefully it won't be too hard to get my foot in a door. I've just got no idea what door I want to stick my foot in. I could probably become a sales rep pretty easy by talking to some of the companies that supply us at the moment, but I'm also thinking something easy like working for a bank. Dad keeps telling me to go work in a mine where they earn big bucks from day one, but I just don't think I'd like the work, even if the pay is great.Suppose I'd better start looking at the careers section of the paper and see if something takes my fancy. I work very well with my parents and we will consider another business, but we are done with something that requires extra hours to make it profitable. If we can get something that is more like 40 hours each a week and still pulling in a decent wage, then we will consider it.

Then I've got to consider whether I will have someone living with me. My sister lives with me and was paying me rent (less than what I could ask of course, though she is prone to whinge about it) and I've been missing that extra money while she has been away in America for 3 months. She comes back soon, but she also got engaged before she left. They seem to want to move out with each other pretty quickly, and I want to try and convince them both to live with me. I understand they want more privacy, but I think they would be doing themselves a financial disservice if they rented in the general market while trying to save for a house; I reckon they could save a couple hundred dollars a week if they stayed with me. I've got plenty of good stuff, and if she moves out, I don't think I could just have a random person come and live with me.

Ah, interesting times.