Upon completion of the “God of War Collection,” I made the not-so-subtle transition from disemboweling mythological creatures to the interactive experience that is “Heavy Rain.” Ironically, “God of War” might have been a great warm-up exercise to this game because the main gameplay elements largely revolve around quicktime events made more popular by the Kratos franchise. “God of War” helped me focus on the quick button pop-ups and memorization of the location of the square, circle, triangle and “X” buttons. But that’s where the comparisons end…

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A couple of weeks before the sequel’s release, I went back and finished my second playthrough of “Mass Effect,” but this time making the “evil/bad” choices. On my first playthrough, I had made all Paragon, or good, decisions at the main plot points of the game and this time I wanted to have a new game with all of the opposite outcomes. Playing the game again, I was reminded of all of the little annoyances about the game: the load times, constant elevator rides and texture pop-ins. But I was glad that I returned to this universe before starting “Mass Effect 2” because it helped me greatly appreciate everything BioWare got right in the sequel.

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Until I read the final reviews, I was very interested in playing Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. I was intrigued by having the chance to play a Spider-man game not constrained as a movie tie-in. The initial screenshots of New York City entangled in the webs of the symbiote  looked amazing and having Venom as the main baddie was also a big plus. Then came the first shots of Spidey and Wolverine together (ok, maybe there are some team-up missions), but then the shots of symbiote-like Wolverine appeared. Uh oh… what’s going on here? Finally the reviews dropped: GameSpot – 8.0/10.0, Game Informer – 65/100, 1UP: C+, IGN – 5.7/10.0; and so I held off from buying the game.

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Over the past several months, I have become smothered under an avalanche of games to play. There were so many to play this year that I’ve missed out on several top games in many people’s Game of the Year debates, like Dead Space, Fable 2 and Fallout 3 (which is in the mail). Here are some quick thoughts on some games that I’ve recently finished and other that are in rotation:

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Depending on which side of the fanboy fence you are on, I have either gone to the Dark Side or have seen the light. Last Friday, I purchased a PS3 (*gasp*). Several things sent me down this path: my birthday, Iron Man on Blu-ray (with The Dark Knight coming in December) and I felt it was my duty as an American to revitalize the U.S. economy. You’re welcome, Mr. Paulson. So as the owner of both systems, I thought I’d share my opinions comparing the Sony PlayStation 3 against Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

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In a game where the odds were stacked against my team, the AI decided to pile it on by causing plenty of drive-ending turnovers - including this “fumble.” This 24-14 loss brought an end to the regular season, giving the Huskies a 2-3 record and the #4 seed where I will face the #5 seeded Texas A&M in the first round of our playoffs.

This week, I won’t bore you with the taint-filled play of a game-deciding touchdown by Texas in a hard-fought 17-10 loss by my Washington Huskies. For that and more, check out the stats and other videos here.