Decembering

Some quick hits as we enter December:

• Maybe getting up to 40K by the end of the year isn't totally far-fetched. I've got less than 900 points to go, and plenty of Fallout 3 and the forthcoming Prince of Persia to go through, as well as giving Dead Space another, proper go; I suppose I could always try to finish up what's left in Tomb Raider Underworld, if things got really out of hand...

• Speaking of reaching the end of the year, I'm really just waiting for Prince of Persia to come out before I make my big GOTY post; I don't necessarily think PoP will impact my top 10 one way or the other, but you never know. And I'd love to be wrong about PoP.

• I finished Tomb Raider over the weekend; as I'd guessed, I wasn't that far off from the end, although I was a bit surprised at how abrupt the end actually turned out. Perhaps my expectations were unrealistically high, but I was pretty disappointed; the game has certain high points but for the most part it feels lazy and uninspired. Supposedly there is 360-exclusive DLC coming up, so I guess I will hold on to my copy for the time being; I would imagine it'll be a bonus level or two (possibly even the Croft Manor puzzle level that's been a favorite of mine in the last two installments).
  

• I've only played the first 10 minutes of Chrono Trigger for the DS, which is probably why I'm failing to see this as the greatest RPG of all time.

• My brother got me the Wii Classic Controller as an early birthday/holiday present. I mention this because having the Classic Controller has finally gotten me excited about owning a Wii again - I'm going to go download Ocarina of Time and Donkey Kong Country. And I think that pretty much says it all, in terms of the state of the Wii this year.

• I was at a Best Buy on Black Friday - in the afternoon - and the scene was decidedly non-hysterical; indeed, you'd almost never know what day it was if not for various sale-related posters. Anyway, my inability to find a Blackberry Storm very nearly resulted in me getting an iPhone, but cooler heads prevailed, and I was actually able to find and buy a Storm last night in NYC. So far I'm relatively pleased with it; it does the things I want it to do, at any rate. That said:

1. The contact list is ugly and could use a re-design.
   
2. The interface in general is sluggish, although this is supposedly being addressed in an upcoming software update.
3. There isn't a tremendous amount of apps to use, nor is there a store (that I can find, at any rate) to buy games. It's not a dealbreaker, but having solitaire or sudoku on the go is always handy.

Stay tuned for the forthcoming GOTY post, which will be a doozy.