This year, it’s not necessarily the sheer number of games that’s got me pinned down, it’s the fact that there are three big ones, and they’re all huge. I’m already 10% of the way into Batman: Arkham City, and I’m really enjoying it. They’ve integrated some of the fighting moves so well that I find myself stunned when Batman smashes guys’ heads together mid-fight, or slams somebody into a wall, or ends the fight by dangling a guy over the edge of a building and interrogating him. The game is definately a game-of-the-year contender, and may prove to be better than Portal 2, which is saying a lot.

In about two weeks, Skyrim comes out. I’ve got to play it on PC for the mods, which means that I’ll likely be buying a new graphics card for my 4-year-old PC. As huge as Arkham City is looking to be, Skyrim is likely to dwarf it in scale. The only game I’ve ever spent more time on than Oblivion was Ultima V on my Commodore 64.

Lastly, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The bonus here for me is that unlike the other two games, I’ll let my four-year-old daughter watch me play Zelda, which means there’ll be more hours in which to play, because if Twilight Princess is any measure, Skyward Sword is gonna be another long-ass game.

It’ll probably be nearing the end of 2012 by the time I’m done with all three of these.