The most recent addition to that library for my wife and I is Mass Effect 2. We both enjoy BioWare titles in general, and this space trilogy is no exception to that rule. The new story and method of keeping your character intact is innovative and fun.

And Mass Effect 2 is by no means the only title we have our eyes on. My wife and I both want Alan Wake once the price comes down, and we may not even wait for a price-drop once Fable 3 is released. So while I favor my PS3 to my 360, I wouldn’t want to give it up; not for anything.

However, it’s getting a bit pricey in some cases.

Disgaea 3 is a good example. I love Disgaea as much as anyone, but really, do I look like a rube who wants to spend another $30 or more buying extra characters for my party? Nope. Much as I loved Laharl from the first game, I’m ready for someone else’s story in Disgaea 3. There’s just no way I’ll ever collect all the downloadables for Disgaea 3.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum (and not the one near SEM Chicago). And by that, I mean that some games keep the amount of DLCs offered down to a reasonable number, but they are price-and-HDD-space hogs!

For example, in Mass Effect 2, I have purchased all the DLC currently available, but I have an original 20GB Xbox360, so I’m already thin on space and each significant mission added in DLC is averaging 0.8 GB of hard drive space. That adds up quickly when you only have eight GB free to begin with.

Heck, Dragon Age: Origins’ Awakening add-on was so massive and expensive, it fit right in on the shelves with new games, and the prices were not that far apart. Yikes!

Sure, I could have waited fro ME2 to become a Platinum Hit before snatching it up; that would have saved me an extra ten dollars. However, while I have to be frugal with my gaming dollar these days, my wife and I had waited long enough to obtain the sequel to the best SF RPG on the 360 or any current system. Yes, that includes Star Ocean.

Playing videogames like Mass Effect 2 almost qualifies as one of those crash diets that work, since it hooks you in so effectively, to tend to forget about other priorities in your life, like sleep or, you know, eating. Not that I recommend that.

Also, by buying Mass Effect 2 now, I got the Cerebus Network for free with the included card, rather than having to pay for it on Xbox Live, which is what will likely be the case once the game becomes a Platinum Hit.

That brings up one of my big gripes; I still dislike Xbox Live’s point-system for buying game add-ons and the like; I wholly prefer the real-money system found on the PlayStation Network; it’s a system most Apple’s iTunes in that respect. It also eliminates the need to over-buy; if you have game add-ons that require 560 points to purchase on Xbox Live, it’s not like you can just purchase 560 points — you have to buy 800 points and then have a balance sitting there for a while. Ugly.

Anyway, I never finished Mass Effect when I reached the final mission because I’d just purchased an add-on and was hoping to find a way to go back and play it; now, if I want to start Mass Effect 2 and keep my original character of Shepherd, I’ll have to finish off the original first.

So I haven’t dug into ME2 just yet; I want to complete the original ME and bring my Shepherd over. Sure, I could start a new Shepherd, but what’s the fun in that, when the game was designed to allow you to import the character you started with?

The game appears to still focus on Ezio, the central character of Assassin’s Creed II, and his neverending quest for how to get rid of blackheads… err, I mean, how to off a whole bunch of famous people. Since the game does not appear to have the expected “Assassin’s Creed III” moniker, it appears this may be a side-story to the main series.

So long as Ubisoft keeps delivering the 1080p eye-candy combined with great play mechanics and a solid storyline, and they can issue new installments endlessly, as far as I’m concerned. However, let’s hope the series doesn’t travel down the Lara Croft path of diminishing returns by maintaining too steady a stream of titles to allow for actual improvement in the game.

Not that I’m suggesting their project management software needs upgrading or anything, and I love the Fallout world as much as anyone; however, A new Elder Scrolls title would be a welcome thing, too, and not premature at all.

The scope of Fable III is expected to expand from personal morality to social morality; as the tale begins, the world of Albion has evolved into the age of an industrial revolution and while the player begins as a revolutionary against an evil tyrant of a ruler, you are offered the chance to rise to power yourself, ascending even to the throne of Albion – and then ruling it, and beyond.

Now, not only do your decisions for selfishness or the benefit of others affect your own personal growth, the affect your dog, your friends, even the entire kingdom of Albion! Will you administer justice fairly, look to enrich yourself, or even offer credit cards for bad credit? The choices are in your own hands and the consequences have never been greater, it appears.

Nice advance in the Fable concept!

Wake was first announced six years ago by the team that brought us the Max Payne titles; however, those crime noir shooters bear little resemblance to what is billed as a “psychological thriller.” In point of fact, Alan Wake draws more from videogames like Silent Hill and Heavy Rain, as well as TV shows like Lost and Twin Peaks, that it does Max Payne.

Now, sometimes this genre can trigger click here nightmares of poorly executed games of a bygone, point-and-click era. Fortunately, Alan Wake appears to be nothing like that; it works with a solid “light versus dark” theme that is simultaneously basic and effective.

The game features a novelist, Wake, who is trying to track down his missing wife in the Pacific Northwest, with pages from a novel he doesn’t remember writing as his only clues … pages that seem to reflect the reality unfolding with each passing moment.

It’s a primal concept that reminds me of Silent Hill at its best, which for me was Silent Hill 2, the first appearance of the franchise on PS2, and by far the one with the more basic and visceral premise: a grieving husband being beckoned by his dead wife to “meet her” in Silent Hill.

Similarly, Wake offers up core, primal fears and motives that make this 360 title one of the more intriguing options on the market right now; it’s on my “seriously consider getting this” list, along with Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, White Knight Chronicles, and Cross Edge.

In fact, it’s likely to stay near the top of my want list right up until Fable 3 is released near the end of the year (if it stays on schedule).

I haven’t felt this strongly about an Ubisoft title in quite some time, and I can only hope that, much like Assassin’s Creed 2, PoP:Forgotten Sands will finally add 1080p support on PS3, a grossly overlooked feature last time out, and just about the only weakness of the last installment.

I do hope the Elika storyline will pick up in Forgotten Sands, although it appears she may not be as prominently featured as in the last title; a new companion is apparently the order of the day. As apprehensive as that makes me, I know that so long as the gameplay is as addictive as it was last time out, I’ll be enjoying every minute of the new game, just as soon as it’s out and I can drop by Best Buy.

Rather than explain everything up front before things get rolling, FFXIII moves you into some action right away. Sure, it’s not free-roaming exploration until about 15 hours in… so I’m getting there soon… but it is a way to get the player into battling and leveling up right away while doling out the story in smaller, bite-sized doses.

Massive story sequences and long waits between save spots have been a long-standing complaint I’ve had about SquareEnix RPGs, so I’m pleased to see someone listened… especially since I know I’m not the only one with this complaint. It’s practically a Symbol LS2208 among those in the know.

Plus, I have to say I’m overjoyed that, this time out, I am far more involved in the battles than I was when playing Final Fantasy XII on PS2. If I want to see a movie, I’ll see a movie; I play games in order to feel involved in the outcome. Thanks also, SquareEnix, for recognizing that and responding to this not-infrequent complaint in which I’ve not been alone.

Final Fantasy XIII is to Final Fantasy XII what Windows 7 is to Windows Vista…

I guess it’ll be fine, though I still wish whiny developers would get off their butts and design 1080p games for 1080p systems. Now that my wife and I have a 1080p set, we’d really like a few titles that actually take advantage of it… otherwise I’d be better off spending my time on a bumbleride indie twin.

I don’t care whether you play on Xbox 360 or PS3, whether you wear urban clothes or dungarees, this is a great week to be an RPG fan… or heck, a gamer of any stripe.

I don’t know exactly how, but I do want to find a way to get this game, and soon. Time for some budgeting. I’m sure with a nip here and a tuck there, I can figure out a way… I hope. Money’s tight.

Nonsense. While SquareEnix has sunk millions into FFXIII’s production, and has even hinted that the series may head in a markedly different direction in the future, the game is as relevant as ever because despite experiments nearly every time out with the character progression system and battle system, the truth is that Final Fantasy has always defined the standard role playing experience on videogame consoles, from the original NES until today.

Sure, some folks will complain that FFXIII is either a sconce too old school, or too new-school for those who loved the previous outings, but Final Fantasy has never really been all that staid; the series has thrived on experimentation.

So, yes, games like Dragon Age: Origins, Oblivion and Fallout 3 may all thrive in open-world settings, but that means little; Final Fantasy has never played follow the leader to someone else’s flute. Don’t expect that to start now.