The busy holidays in December bled right into the Winter-een-mas festivities, which in turn ran right into heavy Digital Overload prep, coupled with getting a couple of book projects off to the printer, so the last few months I’ve pretty much had my head down powering through work stuff. I peek up now to realize that the video-game industry slow season is just about to draw to a close, and I didn’t even realize it.

Army of Two hits shelves next week. This was a game I was super psyched about last fall, and then it got delayed and sort of fell off my radar. Apparently it’s back and they took those extra few months to tweak the graphics and gameplay. They cut out some stuff, but most of the co-op experience should be there, and the more I look into it, the more it rekindles my excitement for the game. I’ll have to try and get in a game or two of this at Digital Overload next weekend.

Then Smash Bros. Brawl comes out, which pretty much everyone knows. I’ll pick it up and enjoy it, but I’ve never really gotten that hyped over Smash Bros.

The following week, Condemned 2 hits. The first one was a lot of fun, and I hope that the sequel can live up to that experience. I’m a little disappointed that Greg Grunberg isn’t voicing the main character anymore, but he’s off being a Hero.

Then after that, I’m hearing that The Force Unleashed is coming out in April, which would surprise me. I thought it was still farther away than that.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 looks exactly like the first from most of the videos I’ve seen, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer for RSV, so I expect I’ll get wrapped up in RSV2 just the same. My only gripe about the that series (and GRAW as well) is that there is no cohesive co-op campaign. Sure, you can play the missions one by one, but they aren’t linked by any kind of story or campaign feel, which just detracts from the over all experience. You feel less like you’re playing a co-op campaign, and more like you’re playing deathmatch versus bots.

And of course, Grand Theft Auto 4, which I am really anxious for, but have been holding my tongue on the subject because I’m worried it won’t live up to my expectations.

Am I the only one that’s starting to feel like it’s the fall all over again?