I’ve wrapped my first playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum. I’d delayed playing it as long as I had because it’s a licensed game. In general, licensed games stink. I was pleased to find that Arkham Asylum does not, in fact, stink. Awesome game. The game has me listed as 91% complete, mostly because there are a number of challenges I haven’t hit yet. I won’t be going for 100% achievements on this one, mainly because I know I’ll never finish all the challenges perfectly, and a 40-hit combo feels a bit beyond my reach, but I might consider a second playthrough on Hard difficulty now that I’ve finished the first. I did manage to get all of The Riddler’s challenges.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles is a fun little Wii game. I mainly bought it for the trip on memory lane through Resident Evil 2, which holds a very warm place in my heart. Paradoxically, it’s also a very scary place. The game’s fun, but I haven’t played it much recently.

Red Faction: Guerilla has been taking up a lot of my time. I bought it on Steam when it went on sale – I can’t remember whether I paid $5 or $10 for the game. I’m in Oasis, on casual difficulty, and the game’s already feeling a bit monotonous. I might just go back and play every once in a while. If only I didn’t have that damned completionist thing going, I could just put the game aside and be done with it.

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes turned out to be a mistake. It cost $15, so it sounded like a good deal for a decent tactical fantasy combat game. But it’s seriously broken, and the dialog is hideous. I quit after 3 tries at the first battle. I’m actually unable to move where I want to. I click on a square and the character sprints in the other direction. Avoid this one. I should seek a refund.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is an expansion from my favorite game of last year. I really loved Dragon Age. But this expansion has some problems. Notably, the difficulty is erratic as all hell. After a far too easy first chapter, I set the difficulty to hard, and I’ve played that way through most of the game. But when I got to the dragon at the end, I got stomped. Flat. I set the difficulty to normal, then easy, and kept losing. After my 3rd attempt on easy, I managed to pull off a victory. Barely. Jesus, I just want the game to end now, but I’m having difficulty mustering the will to go back to it for the final two or three battles.

Once I wrap up Awakening and possibly Red Faction, I’ll install the copy of Mass Effect 2 I’ve had sitting here. It might be hard to go right from one Bioware game to another. I just ordered Enslaved, and I might try that one first. I’ve also been considering going back to oldies like Grim Fandango or Metal Gear Solid. I also never got far in Torchlight. I guess we’ll see what strikes my fancy. I’ve been putting a lot of time into Gem Miner: Dig Deeper recently.