Ahh, the fall. The air starts getting cooler… the foliage begins to change color… and gamers get absolutely drowned in a deluge of new releases.

If you’re a gaming enthusiast, you are likely all too familiar with this time of the year. Developers want their games out right before/during the holiday shopping insanity, and so we see week after week of quality game releases.

Unless you’re unemployed and indepentantly wealthy, you probably also know just as well that either due to a lack of time or budget, some of these games likely have to be put on a “to be played later” list. A gaming purgatory where they will sit and wait until perhaps the late winter/early spring release draught.

I’ve already put a couple of titles on my list. Enslaved, which came out last week, is a game I greatly look forward to playing, but just don’t have the time for right now. I’ve been reading some fantastic things about the game’s story and acting. However sacrifices must be made.

Medal of Honor was an easier decision. That’s a game that I may just let pass by all together. It looks alright, but I know that if I bought it, it would get a week of play, tops, and then immediately get trumped by Fallout: New Vegas.

Fallout: NV followed a week later by Fable 3 and The Force Unleashed 2 is nightmare of a free-time crisis all its own that I am not looking forward to.

So how do you deal with the fall release schedule? Do you put games aside, to be played at a later date when things slow down? Do you make sacrifices elsewhere in your life in order to find the free time/money to play all the games as they’re coming out? Perhaps you’re only even interested in a couple of titles anyway, and so it really isn’t an issue for you?

Amidst the constant stream of new releases, it’s hard to get all that broken up when a game like Brink or DCUO gets delayed a few months and gives us a slight reprieve from the urge to buy and play all these new titles.

Speaking of DCUO, I was fortunate enough to begin participating in the beta test over the weekend. There’s an NDA in place, so I’m afraid I can’t share any real details with you, but if you’re anticipating this MMO, I can tell you that my attitude towards the game has now gone from skeptical to incredibly optimistic, even at this stage in the early testing. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a super hero MMO. I know the wait a game can be tough, but I really think it will be worth it. They’ve got something special here.