Limbo did turn out to have a few more surprises in store for me. For one, a sort of... not really a narrative, but some Half-Life-style real-time events that give a greater insight into the game's ambiguous story. Unfortunately these scenes are pretty scant.

The other surprise was the ending, which pretty much came out of nowhere. I knew Limbo was going to be a short game, but the single-take gameplay really succeeded at making me think it would never end -- up until it did, very abruptly. I wouldn't call it a disappointment, but it did feel a little unsatisfying.

There were a good amount of genuine brain-scratchers in Limbo's puzzles, and also a good amount of hectic action sequences. I want to complain about how generally imitative its accomplishments were, and how the imperfect controls made some precision platforming more frustrating than it needed to be. At the same time, I want to praise the overall effectiveness of its cocktail of mechanics, and its user-friendly checkpoints and environmental hints.

Limbo is a good game, and you'll almost certainly have fun with it. But it's simple, and unlike some other simple games, it won't make you think differently about the medium.

Better than: LostWinds
Not as good as: Braid
The last surprise: was the game's credits. I expected a team of two or three (plus Microsoft production), but apparently this was a somewhat major undertaking.

Progress: Complete

From the free demo, it was relatively easy to tell that Magicka is a delightful little co-op magic action game, not unlike Crystal Chronicles or Trine. The magic blending system is straight-up awesome: eight principle elements, with several further elements from particular combinations (such as Fire + Water = Steam), and innumerable magic spells that can result from different amounts and combinations of these elements. I'm incredibly impressed with the depth of the magic system, not to mention its potential for hilarious accidents.

That said, I haven't actually tried the game with multiple players, as no one I know has the game yet. But since it's only $10 - cmon! - I took the plunge and decided to toy around with the Adventure mode a little. And something that the demo really doesn't show, due to its brevity, is the fantastic humorous writing. Magicka's world isn't just a parody of RPGs and Lord of the Rings, but is also chock full of pop culture references, especially in its amazing list of achievements. Magicka goes to great lengths to make sure you aren't taking it too seriously.

Unfortunately, this otherwise fantastic game is slightly diminished by its general performance issues, bugginess, and some gameplay quirks that may or may not be bugs (like enemies that attack too quickly to defend against). But even unfinished, Magicka is worth well more than its paltry $10 asking price.

Progress: Chapter 4: A New Hope

I can't hail Limbo as a work of genius. It isn't as creative as VVVVVV, or as challenging as Super Meat Boy, or as elegant as Braid. The cold open makes the game's few controls a little confusing to figure out, and the monochrome graphics have the MadWorld issue of occasionally obscuring important information. That being said, it does very well for itself -- the environment is engrossing, the controls are solid, and the puzzles are genuinely clever.

What's most interesting about Limbo is the single-take design: setting aside its generous checkpoints, the entire game is one uninterrupted stream of level. It's a neat concept, and the puzzle design is to be commended for keeping the mostly-constant environment from becoming tedious.

Progress: On top of a giant rolling boulder

Funny story: I bought Cataclysm before it came out, so I could pre-load the game, and play it immediately. Since then I've logged in for a sum total of, maybe four hours, tops.

My hectic work schedule certainly had something to do with it. But even when I started to have free time again - even on lazy weekends - I wasn't really that compelled to play. And when I did pick it up, I simply couldn't stay in it that long.

Cataclysm adds a host of new features to the World of Warcraft, and changes the existing game parameters so significantly, that it forces you to take a fresh look at WoW's core mechanics. And maybe that's why I've become so disinterested in it. With all its new gears and widgets, with all the layers of fresh paint, this is still World of Warcraft -- and even if it's better than ever, it's still based on a six-year-old game design.

Maybe in a few months I'll want to give it another whirl. But until then, I've got plenty of other games to play.

Progress: Still level 80

It starts with a melodramatic interruption to Red Dead Redemption's main storyline, takes John Marston on a six-hour tour of the Old West brimming with zombies, and is filled with satirical dialog that barely manages to keep its tongue in its cheek. Undead Nightmare takes the mechanics you learned in RDR, throws away trivialities like fame, justice, and money, and mixes up the combat by replacing wild animals and gun-toting banditos with, uh, wild zombified banditos.

There are only about a dozen missions in Undead Nightmare (including optional side-missions), and since it's lacking most of Redemption's other extras, the content offering might seem a little thin. But the real star of the show is the town defense/rescue system, which has Marston saving several towns and settlements from onslaughts of the undead. It's somewhat reminiscent of Gang Warfare from GTA San Andreas, except that your only rival gang is zombies. While it does get a bit tedious in some exceptionally long invasions, the utter and outlandish brutality of slaughtering the undead hordes is pretty great. (By the end of my game, I'd killed over a thousand zombies -- that's 2.5 zombie kills per minute!)

Not to mention, the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. That pretty much speaks for itself.

So while the content on offer isn't very extensive, and pretty much relies on the sheer joy of headshotting brainless monsters, there's something to be said for the straightforwardness of Undead Nightmare. And for horses on fire. All for $10!

Better than: Overlord: Raising Hell
Not as good as: The Ballad of Gay Tony
I may have forgotten to mention: War, the horse that's on fire

Progress: Tamed the Four Horses

In Redemption's first area of New Austin (the world is split into three regions, separated by rivers ... just like in every other Rockstar game), I was amazed by the game's potential and impressed by its execution, albeit bored by cattle-herding and horse-breaking. As a big fan of the 3d GTAs, I was pretty concerned that the Old West's empty landscapes and lack of potential victims would bore me to death; but taking side-missions, running into random world encounters, and getting to know interesting characters like the MacFarlanes really completed the package for me. Horse riding, rather than a replacement for driving, felt more like breathing room between the action.

When I got to Mexico, though, all of that changed. The landscape became wide, but rocky, persuading me to make extensive use of RDR's unsatisfying Fast Travel system; and there simply wasn't as much content to go around. And while I was hoping that this was just the game taking a siesta, the third act of West Elizabeth was, while much smaller and more full of interesting environments, spread just as thin in terms of fun things to do. I found out that I'd already encountered the majority of the game's Stranger missions, and none of the campaign's characters in Mexico, or (even more so) in West Elizabeth, were as interesting as the ones I encountered in New Austin.

Not to mention, the story kind of falls apart in the end. While the conclusion is genuinely good, the last hour or two of getting there feels rushed and incomplete. The whole Homestead segment really just seemed out of place.

So while RDR's first third had me daring to dream that its improvements on GTA4's optional content would make it an even better game, the empty Mexican wilderness, gradually disappointing mission pacing, and ultimately awkward final act brought things back down to earth. It's still a greatly fun game, of course, with plenty to do after-the-fact if you're interested in that sort of thing. But I'll still take a Blista Compact over a Kentucky Saddler any day.

Better than: Grand Theft Auto III, Red Dead Revolver
Not as good as: Grand Theft Auto IV
Now I'm looking forward to: the Undead Nightmare expansion, which has a horse that's on fire

Progress: Remembered My Family

Another difference between Epic Yarn and Muramasa is that I was able to return to Kirby after a months-long hiatus without reading the instruction manual. I may have complained that Muramasa's mechanics weren't deep enough, but - as should be expected for any Kirby romp - Epic Yarn will make any other game's control scheme look like a Rube Goldberg device by comparison.

And while I would ordinarily consider this kind of mechanical shallowness to be detrimental to a game, Epic Yarn (again, like most Kirby adventures) really succeeds at making simplicity fun. Figuring out puzzles in a few seconds; being surprised by an enemy, but immediately conquering it anyway; and just enjoying the gorgeous visual style make Epic Yarn a real treat. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that you'll "enjoy" this game, rather than "play" it.

Even if you don't give half a shit about going for high scores and collecting Kirby furniture, which I sure didn't, I think gamers of all disciplines can get some enjoyment out of Epic Yarn's simple gameplay and charming presentation.

Better than: Kirby: Squeak Squad
Not as good as: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror
Meta-Knight made of string: is kind of incredible

Progress: Beat in co-op

The grand irony of Red Dead Redemption is that, while its Wild West is leagues less busy and populated than Liberty City, it has significantly more meaningful side-missions and naturally emergent gameplay. Personally I miss the cars and highways -- but Redemption does a good job of keeping things entertaining, aside from some menial ranch work (which I guess is John Marston's equivalent of going bowling or playing pool). And of course, the storytelling is excellent, even if the "reforming outlaw with a grudge to settle" premise is a little familiar.

Progress: Tracking outlaws in New Austin

I was pretty disappointed at how poorly Super Meat Boy ran on my netbook (in the default settings -- launching the game with -lowdetail runs great). But I can forgive the two-person team for having some polish issues. When the game is playable, it's very playable, and presents not just an intense challenge but also an interesting assortment of puzzling platform levels.

While many of Super Meat Boy's unlockables and special levels may remain impossible to me, it's comforting to know that I can, in theory, "beat" the game much more feasibly. But the special characters, especially Mr. Minecraft, taunt me endlessly.

Progress: Hell!

Another weekend, another Nolan North adventure. Dark Void is a tale of misfortune, mystery, doubt, confusion, shortcoming, and in the end, success that feels like failure -- at least, that was my interpretation of the game. Not the game's story, mind you. The story was very obviously half-finished, at best, with giant dramatic breaks, completely unexplained plot threads, and an ending that's as confusing as it is disappointing. Nolan does a fine performance, but everything else about Dark Void's exposition is weak, at best.

As for the rest of the game, I think the phrase "not quite good enough" can basically cover it. The controls work well considering what they have to accomplish, but you still won't be completely accustomed to them by the final chapter; the gunplay is competent, and has a little weapon variety to keep things interesting, but never feels like anything more than a sci-fi Gears clone (and nothing feels powerful enough until you get some upgrades in); the campaign's pacing is all over the place, with some chapters lasting three minutes, and others lasting an hour; the orchestral soundtrack has engrossing highs, along with tedious lows; the environments are often beautiful, but the characters in them look like Robert Zemeckis cartoons (and the framerate falters regularly).

The 'verticality' gimmick is interesting at first, but really just adds "look up" and "look down" to your bog-standard third-person shooter mechanics. If there's anything that really sets Dark Void apart from other shooters, it's the dogfighting -- which can work pretty well, a handful of times throughout the game. There are enough flies in the ointment (primarily, some enemies which require precise aim, and/or stupid quick-time events) that, like the rest of the game, it can't be considered a complete success. But it is pretty impressive how seamlessly you can blend walking, hovering, and flying with a couple of button-presses. This jetpack is easily the video game industry's best jetpack yet.

Ultimately, and unfortunately, Dark Void comes across as some good ideas wracked by inadequate execution. Except the story, which seems like it was a bad idea from the beginning. There's fun to be had here, but some frustration as well, and overall I can only describe it as mediocre.

Better than: Jurassic: The Hunted
Not as good as: Bionic Commando (2009)
Since there's no chance of a sequel: it would be nice if someone else would just rip off the rocketeer concept and dump some money into it

Progress: Finished on Normal