I survived Black Weekend. I wasn't sure how I'd handle the monster that the retail industry has created, but I did alright. Now, if I can just stay sane through the rest of this month, I'll be just fine.

What am I doing here again? Oh yeah...

I only finished one game this time:

24. Saints Row 2 (X360)

But who cares? I met my goal! At any rate, Saints Row 2 is a great game in the mold of GTA. While it's not quite as good as GTA, I like it better for one reason. GTA has started to take it self a bit too seriously over the years. Saints Row reminds me of GTAIII in that some of the humor is just over-the-top silly. The main character doing a reverse header over a couch in the hideout while completely faded in the Sons of Samedi mission strain still makes me laugh. In the end it's a very solid game that stacks up well with GTA.

On the acquisition front, it was a relatively slow month. My 360 got almost all the love, while I did find a quirky little PS2 game that I'd been seeking for some time. The damage:

-Damnation (X360)
-Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (X360)
-Guitar Hero: Van Halen (X360)
-Assassin's Creed II (X360)
-Dog's Life (PS2)
-Silent Hill: Homecoming (X360)

Assassin's Creed II is a masterpiece. If you follow my Twitter feed (@jollyroger3251), you'll know I have some complaints. The control isn't quite as precise as it should be and there are way too many assassination sidequests, for example. But overall, it's a completely engrossing experience that you start and find yourself looking at the clock four hours later wondering what happened. I'm almost finished with it and I'm already wondering what they'll do with the inevitable third installment.

With that, I'm out of here. The Christmas season is here and that means I'm a busy little retail elf. If my devious little plan works, I'll be compiling a bunch of gift cards from my family to the store where I work and combining them with my employee discount to obtain a PS3 and Demon's Souls. I see 2010 shaping up as the year of the epic RPG for me (although, as usual, my best laid gaming plans often go awry).

Happy holidays to you all (whichever one or ones you celebrate).