There are also a number of games out there that I’m just dying to play. Chief amongst them is Heavy Rain, a game that I’ve been looking forward to from the day it was released. I loved Indigo Prophecy despite the plot derailment in the later portions of the game, and with all the thought I’ve put into the fact that Dragon Age was the first game in a long time to make me feel anything, I’m hopeful that Heavy Rain will achieve something similar.

Uncharted 2 is coming down in price – I can get a used copy for around $35 now, and it’s at the top of my EBay shopping list. Also high on that list is Retro Game Challenge, a DS game that I’ve heard a lot of good things about. It contains a number of different games made in a retro style. Old skool racers, RPGs, shooters and platformers which ostensibly maintain the old style of gameplay while removing the most annoying things about those games. All this is wrapped with the storyline of a 12-year-old sitting in front of a TV with his friend in the NES era, entering cheat codes and achieving high scores.

Another game I can’t wait to get my hands on is No More Heroes 2. I may wait for the price to come down a bit before I get a copy, but I was a big fan of the first one, and I’ve heard that the sequel removes all the flaws of the original and makes the gameplay a bit easier. Maybe I’ll be able to finish this one.

I’ve decided that the PC is the platform on which I want to play Batman: Arkham Asylum. It’s a GFW Live game, and while that interface annoys the crap out of me, its one benefit is that I can get XBox achievements. And since GFW/360 achievements, PSN Trophies, and Steam achievements are the only achievements that mean much of anything to me, I’ll be happy to add to my collection.

From early on, I’d decided that I did not want to play Demon’s Souls. A game that everyone lauds as the most difficult and frustrating game they’ve played since Ninja Gaiden doesn’t sound appealing to me. But when I heard the Brainy Gamer gamers’ confab folks discussing the game on Michael Abbott’s four part best of 2009 podcast series, I grew intrigued. Many of them cited Demon’s Souls as their favorite game of 2009, despite the game’s oppressive difficulty. I pondered this as I played through Trine’s Tower of Sarek level twenty or thirty times, trying to pass the level without dying once. Maybe I am up for it after all. In the end, I determined that if I do try the game, I’d be best off renting it rather than buying. Less commitment that way.

But I don’t generally rent games. Gamefly’s monthly plan runs $16 or $23 depending on whether you want one or two games. That’s a bit more than I’m willing to pay given that I don’t always want to have a game rented at any given time. I may be better off trying to get a copy from a Blockbuster for a weekend. I haven’t rented anything from Blockbuster in over fifteen years, so that should be interesting.

Other games I might consider renting include the new Wii Punch-Out!, which seems like a quick playthrough, the newest Prince of Persia, which I’m very hesitant to play given how much I hated Sands of Time and The Two Thrones, House of the Dead: Overkill, Dead Space: Extraction, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. I’m excited to play Darkside Chronicles, but I’m not convinced that it’s going to be a keeper.

So far, this is a long list. But while I’ve listed all the games about which I’m most excited to play, there are plenty more on my radar.

A Boy and his Blob is a game that looks like a lot of fun. And while it’s not top on my list, I’d really like to try it for some point, and it’s likely more than a rental. Maybe I’ll get to it before next Christmas. Ditto InFamous. Looks good, but not high priority.

Cold Fear is a game I’ll likely download from a service like Direct2Drive or Steam, depending on where I can get it cheapest. It’s not a triple-A title, but it looks interesting, and I don’t expect it to cost much. In the end, if it disappoints, I can stop playing and I won’t feel as though I’ve lost much.

I’ll probably end up getting Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and Henry Hatsworth in another year or so once they’re bargain basement titles on EBay. I expect to enjoy them, but I’ve got DS games coming out my ears right now, so I’m in no rush.

There are also a metric butt-ton of sequels about which I’m less than excited. Bioshock 2? Meh. Mass Effect 2? Sure, I’ll try it eventually. Assassins Creed 2? Yeah – I’ll get to it. My feelings about Killzone 2 and Wolfenstein are similar. All games I’d like to try at some point. We’ll see if I ever get around to them.

Lastly, there are a few games I expect to be released later this year. I’ll definitely be picking up Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening when it’s out. Ditto Super Mario Galaxy 2. I loved the first one. Starcraft 2 is a game I’ll try to buy on day one if I can. If The Last Guardian comes out this year, I’ll be as excited about it as I am about Heavy Rain, and I’ll get that one ASAP. God of War 3 and Final Fantasy 13 look potentially good, but I’ll likely wait until 2011 to pick them up.

That’s okay. I can deal with that. But on Sunday when I went to start playing Trine, my Playstation threw a 8001050F error, and Trine wouldn’t start. Looking it up online, I found that the error code meant that I won’t be able to connect to PSN (which I couldn’t) and that I very likely would have to send in the console for repair. It wasn’t until today that I’m not the only one having this problem. Sony says that they’ll have a fix soon. Looks like I’m not playing Trine tonight. Hope I don’t lose the four trophies that I never synced.

So after that on Sunday, I decided to try a disc-based game and was pleased to find that Brutal Legend still worked. But I’ve decided that the only good part of the game is the part that appeared in the demo. After you meet up with Metalheade and start playing the RTS portion of the game, the gameplay is just crap. I’m really disappointed, because I love the game’s style and humor. If I could get past the poor gameplay, I’m sure I’d enjoy it. Too bad. I’ve listed my copy of Brutal Legend on EBay.

After the disappointments with the Playstation, I jumped on the PC to play Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It’s a lot more polished than Butcher Bay, although I can’t yet speak for the story as I’m only about an hour into the game. But while transitioning between areas, the game froze and crashed. I didn’t try to start it back up after that, but I should’ve at least tried, because now I’m nervous that my cheap Direct2Drive copy of the game is a lemon.

I guess it’s back to Dragon Age for me. It’s my second playthrough and I’m seeing how badly I can screw up the world. I’ve already aided in destroying three of the game’s main areas, which I can only imagine will vastly change the game’s storyline. I can’t wait to see where things go from here.

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

As Lore Sjoberg once brilliantly put it, video games and movies get along like cats made of oil and dogs made of water. Aside from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, there are no good movies based on video games. No! Shut up. I don’t want to hear about Doom, Resident Evil, or anything Uwe Boll has come within a furlong of.

On the flip side of the coin, you have video games based on movies. While the good ones may still be rare, they’re likely still countable on your fingers unless your name is Frodo. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is one of a rare breed: very good games that are based on movie properties. I’ve played through Escape From Butcher Bay twice now, and it’s likely that I will again. I can’t think of a shooter that has better stealth mechanics, although Dark Messiah of Might and Magic comes close. Lurking in the Pitch Dark (har har) and seeing every move your enemies make while they can’t see you at all is loads of fun. But that’s Riddick.

I just bought a copy of Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena for $5 from Direct2Drive. I hope it’s as good as the original.

There’s also the intro for the game. Enjoy.