Yes I’m still here despite not, you know, being here.

Like Greg, I find myself assaulted by a rich library of games this season, many of which I can not play.  Well, that’s entirely not true.  I choose not to play them because I can’t spend enough time with them.  Well, that’s also not true.  I can spend enough time with them if I weren’t driven by the need to get achievements.

When Microsoft first announced the achievement system, I scoffed at it.  Now I spend equal times devoted to it and loathing it.  Achievements are my abusive boyfriend.

But I digress.  For a month now I have played almost nothing but Saints Row 2 during the prime time gaming hours.  I did manage to finish up my Insane run in Mass Effect as well as get to level 60 and get my last two biotic ability achievements when working out, but other than that, and the occasional Rock Band 2 session, I’ve been spending all of my time in Stilwater.  Some of this is so that I can get as many achievements as possible, but a lot of it is because I genuinely enjoy playing co-op and Saints has so much co-op that it hurts your brain.  It literally pains your cortex.  Oh, I know, you’re saying that the brain has no nerve endings so that it can’t feel pain, but I ask you, have you ever been stabbed in the brain?  No?  I thought so.  Who are you going to believe about brain pain, qualified neurosurgeons, or me, a guy who has trouble spelling “neurosurgeon”?

Because the co-op in Saints Row 2 is so deliciously compelling, I am on my second story run through and am working on getting all of the activities completed.  Once my time in Stilwater is through, me and my co-op partner will be boarding the first transport to Sera where we will take up arms against the Locust horde in Gears of War 2.  This too has co-op, and not just two person co-op but a five person Horde mode where you spend hours upon hours blasting things to hell, pausing only to scrape the gore from your goggles and maybe have a juice box and some cookies.  We will do this game on one difficulty level, via co-op and then, undoubtedly, we will do it again on Insane.  When he and I are not doing it in co-op, I’ll be playing it, again in co-op, with one of the four other coworkers I have that’s buying the game.

Now, all of this co-op is great, and is enjoyable as all get out to take part in, but at the same time, I have limited gaming time, and if it’s all spent doing co-op, that leaves no time for single player.  This is why Mercenaries 2 sits unfinished.  And yes, I know that the game has co-op but most my friends that have played the game have already finished it and I don’t want to bother them to jump into my game and help out.  Rock Band 2 sits similarly unused.  Oh sure, my kids enjoy watching their dad drum, but that’s not exactly helping Saving Throw in their quest for rock greatness.  Fallout 3, venerable Fallout, one of my most beloved gaming franchises sits unopened.  And not just unopened, but still sealed.  What kind of a world are we living in where the sequel to the series that got me into role playing games in the first place sits entombed in plastic?

Oh sure, eventually I’ll be finished with the campaigns in Gears, and can go back to single player games.  The band will tour again, the vault doors will open and I’ll get around to downloading the next Penny Arcade game, but for now, the call to play co-op is just too hard to resist.  I’m glad that there isn’t anything coming out for the rest of the year that I’m really, truly interested in, because if there were, it would only add to the list of things I’m actively ignoring.

On that note, is it me or is there nothing out for handhelds this holiday season?  My word.  The only time I boot up my DS or PSP of late is to review things.  Those games I have all sorts of time for, but there’s nothing to play.  Maybe I can convince someone to convert Fallout 3 to the DS.  Greg seems like a technical fellow.

Hmmm….