Gaming this Fall: Features and Distractions

After much consideration I've decided not to endorse your park. No wait. That's not right. After much consideration, I've picked my fall gaming line-up. It was tough. Skyrim. Rage. Arkum City. Gears. Saints. The Old Republic. I can't play them all at once.

With plenty of backlog to go, I had a hard decision ahead of me. But I have a system; not a schedule, a system of features and diversions. The feature or features are the games that occupy most of my screen time; I let go and get sucked into these gaming worlds.

My features for this fall are Skyrim and Disgaea 4. I didn't put D4 in the opening list, because it was a given. I'm kinda hoping Skyrim will be my next Fallout 3. Bethesda, I'm throwing you a bone here. You surprised me with your take on the Fallout universe. Having never touched an Elder Scrolls game before in my life, all I can say is I hope your dragons do it for me. But seriously, I want the world and its story. However, if the dragons disappoint, I will let you know.

The real measuring stick for Skyrim's success will be how much it pulls me away from Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten; this game drops on September 6. There's an event in my google calendar and a bookmark in my graph paper notebook where the map designs start. Skyrim will only stand a chance because it lands sometime in November. That'll give me plenty of time to break my controller playing D4. And (hopefully) enough time to find another PS3 controller.

This time around, the diversion was the most difficult to pick. In my system, the diversions are games that I turn to when I need a break from the feature. Rage and Gears of War 3 were the two biggest contenders this year, as shooters usually fall into the diversion role for me. Stirrings of madness often require me to blow hordes of enemies into steaming piles of fresh and bone for my sanity's sake. Aka, I like diversions that help me blow off steam.

After seeing more videos then necessary, I decided to pass on Gears and Rage for Saints Row: The Third and I must shamefully admit that the man-a-pult car had something to do with my choice. It's like the cannons in Mario 64, but rated M. Like Elder Scrolls, I have never touched a Saints game and I don't give two shits about its gangland story; I just want to reek havoc and be goofy. Goofy. That's what I want in this fall's diversion title.

On a closing note, I'm just choosing to wait on The Old Republic and Batman: Arkum City. I cracked open Arkum Asylum about a year after it dropped and loved it. Hopefully waiting (again) will make the bat and the cat that much sweeter.