Borderlands. Tekken 6. Dragon Age : Origins, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed 2....And that's just in the last two to three weeks.

I think me and my wallet are going to fall out again. PC'll have to wait <_<

Borderlands is a decent little shooter, if needing a few mates around to make things a little more interesting. Ignore the promise of millions of "unique" guns however. Most are based around the same model with the same effects, but with mildly differing stats. And of course the ass pull of an ending which doesn't fit the game AT ALL. Seriously everything past killing off Baron Flynt doesn't even TRY to make sense.

Tekken 6 is Tekken Force with added "everything else". For the usual story mode, you're *forced* to play the mass brawls of the aforementioned Tekken Force, complete with stupid plot, to unlock characters for "the arena". And it's only five fights (The last two being reserved, as usual, for the bosses.) Arcade mode doesn't have this problem, and like Tekken 5, you can rank up your chosen scrapper with a large array of items. The much hyped "use" of these items however require an input you're never really told. I pulled it off once and never found it again. Another new thing this time around is the use of the Rage function. It fires up when you're on really low heath and makes your strikes do more damage. However %90 of the time you won't even get a chance to use it effectively due to how low the bar actually is, and the other %10 won't be much of an impact seeing a one well aimed punch would drop you. Never took it online, but then again, it can't be that much different from Soul Caliber or Street Fighter. However, fans of cheap bosses rejoice for the bastard that is Azareal. Part True Ogre, Part Jinpachi, this admitted cool designed Mummy-ish monster has no real cheap moves as such (His four stomp or his roll are pretty annoying but side stepping will avoid those. He has a Jin eye beam too, but you can duck, and it has a large wind up time) but is annoying just for one little fact alone. HE CAN BLOCK WHIST ATTACKING. Yep. Read that again. That eye beam I mentioned? He can block while it charges up. Even while walking toward you, he can block. Add in a few annoying ground spikes, A long range and hard to dodge pounce, a throw that strikes for 50% HP and a few hard to see projectile attacks, and this guy and go join Seth and co in the Fire of Fail. Also, Jin feels the need to activate his rage mode at the start of every round, but seeing as most of Jin's big moves are easy to spot, he's not much of a challenge if you know how to spot the wind ups. Disappointed in this installment as it really doesn't feel that much different from Tekken 5, and went you consider most of the new guys were in the PSP port, and the others are rip-offs from other games (the most glaring is Bob, pretty much the long lost brother to Rufus in SF4) it's hard to care about them really.

Dragon Age : Origins is, to put it simply, Mass Effect with swords. As negative as that sounds, the game does try to at least alter the usual "Pause after a few attacks to select a special attack" with the use of "Tactics". You can set up a number of these event flags (Depending on the level of the character's skill, naturally) so that, say a team mate is dropped to %50 Health, that will set off a healing spell. The game can set these up for you based on various presets, like the healer option, however if you don't fancy micromanaging that much. You can even select the character you want and task them with the skill, Ala KoTOR, as well. Bioware have taken a step away from their much abused alignment system which makes sense considering the stuff you can get up to in your quest to "slay the darkspawn", or orcs if you prefer. What you now have is an approval system, and basically it reflects the way your recruited followers feel about your actions. Get them to like you enough, and they can get a few boosts to their relevant skills, and even open a door to learn some new skills for yourself through the dialog. If they hate you however, they might even up sticks and LEAVE. It'll take a lot of pissing them off to do it mind. Of course if you don't want to waste time and effort appeasing them through your choice of smiting, you could just shower them with gifts, like in Fable. The Mass Effect remark also comes in again with the fact you can romance the female leads, or male or you're playing a female. Also there's a few brothels, like Fable, where the more...ahem...socially challenged can relieve themselves. You're only shown the "day after" however with this option. And any homosexuals among you can rest assured that option is catered for, as is the more...stranger options out there if you choose to be surprised. Let's just leave it with that, and the first time I chose this option, I was shown a large hammer called the Magic Wand.....Fill in the blanks and good luck getting the images out of your skull d. All in all a HUGE game, worthly of space on your shelf...or HDD....silence.

Modern Warfare 2. Well, this is actually not the cut and dried "Instant classic" I'd thought it would be. Single player is slightly smaller than the previous game, and a lot more time is actually spent trying to show events being tied together more than just linking firefights (I wonder how many people remember how Alasad got the nuke in the first place?). There's a lot more big time set pieces as well. New in the campaign is the "breaching" minigame, which basically allows you to be the guy first into the room rather than watching your team blow away the tangos. The game slows down, and it's practically a shooting gallery, complete with targets to hit, avoid and watch out for. IE, not shooting the bomb. What the game doesn't time you however is that good use of this slo-mo time could clear out a lot more bad guys than you'd normally would, and near the end, you could save a LOT of hassle with a little planning. However, the biggest change is NO MORE RESPAWNING BAD GUYS. You can actually see the forces mounted against you thinning in each "section". There's still plenty of people to make dead though, and still a rather a lot of surprises, in particular the Rio levels. Another thing to comment on are the two major slagging points for the press. Without spoiling too much, the attack on DC is real and fully explained, It's not bombed out overnight. As for the "No Russian" level, which sees you playing a CIA agent trying to work his way into a terrorist cell, it can be skipped completely if gunning down un-armed men and women aren't your thing. However, at no point are you forced to actually join in the slaughter, and the only time you have to shoot back is at the various guards and the special forces that storm in after the carnage. The level itself IS deeply disturbing, but it's pretty much the same as in GTA4 if you walk into a busy street and start spraying. It also fits VERY well into the game's general message of renouncing warfare. Moving on, we have the new Spec Ops mode, which are sets of challenges based on or in the Campaign levels, as well as re-living some of the better parts of the last game. One sees you trying to beat the time or your friend on the snowmobile section, another could be re-living Price's first mission with Macmillan sneaking into Chernobyl, or covering your friend's evacuation to a farm yard via AC130 gunship...Plenty of differing challenges of offer. The later ones however are INSANE, so be warned d. Now, finally, the major reason 70% of people buying the game wanted to see, the multiplayer. The perk system's been tweaked, so use one perk enough, and you'll upgrade it to allow another effect, like Steady Aim Pro gives you more time to hold your breath to line up that headshot on your Sniper Rifle. In addtion, you have the option to select a "Deathsteak", which gives you a little edge after three (Or four for Martydom) deaths without a kill. However, the biggest change is how you're rewarded for Kill streaks. After a certain enough of ranks, you'll be given any option to "unlock" a reward from a large range of support options. So, instead of a UAV at three, Care Package (Free killstreak support or ammo) at four and a Predator Missile (UAV fired and Guided Missle) at five, you could have a Counter UAV (No radar for the other team) at four, a "Chopper Gunner" at nine (You control the turret basically) and A TACTIAL NUKE at twenty five (Game over). This basically means the most skilled or lucky among you can opt for the larger, more devastating options while the ones barely hanging on to their 0.8 K/D like me can opt for the less exciting, but easier to nail supports. Finally, there's a LOT more ways to earn XP in the game, rewarding the player for shooting down air support (No more UAVs for YOU sunshine), scoring long range shots, or even headshots. In addition to this, you also have your Call-sign, which is basically the way players ID you in game. You get Titles and icons for this by completing challenges or just by ranking up, and those chasing Prestige won't have to panic about having to lose them come reset time as they stay unlocked. Why would this matter? Major moments in the game are reported to all players via your Call-sign, so nailing that triple kill, shooting down a Harrier, scoring a high leveled support option or just simply capping a flag will net you some showing off to all concerned. All in All, as the first mission is brilliantly called, Same Shit, Different Day. And believe me, that is good news indeed. However, vets of CoD4 be warned. The same tactics WON'T WORK. There is a small learning curve, especially with the way you unlock new attachments, to manage. And that might mean a few games or getting royally destroyed. But STICK WITH IT. You're be back into the swing of things in no time.

Finally, as I'm in the "sunny" UK, AC2 and L4D2 aren't actually out yet, so it'll be stupid me actually "reviewing" them. All I can see on the zombie front is I really don't know what to do. Played the 360 demo and it must be said I wasn't blown away by it. The melee feels tacked on, and the special ammo and new guns modifications seem a little unnecessary. Why would Sirus want a laser sight for when the average target is only going to be a few feet away? Only thing that would save it would be if it actually runs on my rig at the moment. I doubt I'll get the 360 version unless pressured by my friends to succumb.

AC2 is pretty much a no-brainer though. Despite the clear flwas of the first outing, I love some flashy, stabby death. The only thing I ask is please please please LESS REPEATING OF THE SIDE MISSIONS. If I have to pickpocket, eavesdrop or punch out another cardboard cut out just so I can do the mission, I SHALL NOT BE AMUSED....

.....

I HAVE A SLEDGEHAMMER.....

Ok, Can't do scary. Must be the.....uh.....

Anyway. Roll on 2010....and the millions of other games which are coming out that keep annoying me in my want to play them <_<....

LTB More free time and money. Will sell soul.