Ah, video games, a topic that I’ve neglect to write about for quite some time now. After sifting through my PS3 “collection”, I’ve come to the realization that I have 4 unopened games, along with 13 games that I have yet to beat. My list of games doesn’t even include the pre-orders I made at GameStop for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Uncharted 3, and Battlefield 3.

[ My PS3 backlog: Bioshock 2, Borderlands, Castlevania, Dead Space 2, Demon’s Souls, Final Fantasy XIII, inFamous 2, LA Noire, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mirror’s Edge, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, Uncharted 1 & 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Valkyria Chronicles, and Vanquish ]

I honestly had no plans to pre-order Uncharted 3 until I played the multiplayer beta. I can’t really begin to describe how entertaining this multiplayer 3rd person shooter is, when playing it online. I bought Uncharted 1 about a year ago, but stopped playing for some unknown reason. It was a lot of fun, but to see the evolution of the series, and its online capabilities is something else. I believe my favorite ability in the game was hanging from a ledge and pulling people down to their deaths. Another favorite move would have to be running up to someone from behind and knocking them out with a flying knee to the spine. I can recall several stages where people would continuously take me out with that move. Talk about frustrating.

Modern Warfare 3 was definitely on my list of games to pre-order, but after thinking about the train wreck that occured during the making of Black Ops; I have a lack of confidence that MW3 is going to be anything like the original award winning MW1 & 2 games. After listening to games people are anticipating, I decided to switch my pre-order from MW3 to Battlefield 3.

What got me to change my mind on this was definitely the visual appearance of the game. Call of Duty: Black Ops seemed to take a step backwards in its visual appearance, almost resembling a cartoonistic, rather than realistic feel to the game. I didn’t opt to buy, simply because I wasn’t sure if it was going to be any good. After hearing about the graphics and watching others play it, it was almost evident just by watching that it wasn’t up to par. The only drawback for me on this pre-order, however, is that I’ve never actually played a Battlefield game (except for 1943, which I barely played).

Lastly, there’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The moment I was sold on this game was when I saw the official trailer with credits to Square Enix and Eidos Montreal. Other factors that sold me were the graphics, metal gear solid feel, knowing Square Enix tends to write exceptional stories, and their declaration to use the Unreal physics engine. I never even knew there was a game before this one, but heard that it wasn’t bad. I have no plans to play it (as my backlog is large enough), so hopefully I won’t need to know the history to make any sense of the newest installment.

Aside from all of these games that I’ve pre-ordered, I definitely have a very limited amount of free time I can commit to while I’m in school. Luckily, I’ll have almost an entire month off between summer and fall term, and I hope I spend it wisely and not being consumed indoors. The funny thing is, living here in the pacific northwest, even summer weather resembles fall, winter and spring.

On a side note, I also bought the novel Dead Space: Martyr. I’m stoked to start reading that, and hope it has some similarities to the franchise. Aside from these things, I also won a free redemption code from 1up.com for Limbo. I’ve installed it, but have yet to play it. I’m extremely low on HDD space on my PS3, so it makes me leery of how many more games I can play before I completely run out. I guess time will tell.