Well the beginning of my vacation has served me well. I finished Ventus section of Birth by Sleep. 9 hours and 38 minutes) and level 29 at the end. So it took almost exactly 5 hours less then Terra (I beat his in 14 hours and 29 minutes and level 32).

I did enjoy Ven's gameplay better once I got into it and though his final group of enemies again drove me to insane rage it wasn't as bad as Terra's. (actually I only had issues with his last bosses first form, the second was a cake walk and the third I just had to figure out what to do)

So now I'm onto Aqua with no idea what to expect time or challenge wise. As her description is placing her as more magic based it may take me a bit more effort.

So still progressing nicely and heading into the 3rd round.

So I'm coming up on my end of the year Vacation. After I leave work this Friday I won't be returning until December 13th. It isn't much but it is needed (I haven't had a day off since July).

I'm already trying to lay out my planned gaming for the week. I'm effectively broke as appearently my kids insist on growing and needed a new cold weather wardrobe for both of them, so not going anywhere.

I plan to keep working on Birth By Sleep during the day. I'm about a 3rd of the way through Ventus chapter. (I'm mainly guessing as I'm level 13, and I beat Terra at level 35) PSP during the day is pretty easy as I don't have to fight for the TV.

At night I want to finish off Black Ops if I don't this week. (I'm borrowing it and on level 7 now). Then it will be back to the PS3 to complete Prince of Poop..uhmm..Persia.

I'm hoping to manage most of this by mid-week.

After that will have to see what I'm feeling. I'd love to start AC:Brotherhood...

I just wanted to wish all my fellow CAGers a Happy Thanksgiving, and even for all you dirty Canadians that celebrated it back in October.

Hope you all have a great day of food, family, and maybe some video gaming to top it all off.

So I intended to knock out Prince of Persia this weekend. While I did put about an hour into it, I instead found myself sucked back into Birth By Sleep.

I'm normally slow in progressing in handheld games. I only play them either before bedtime, while sitting upon the throne, or when the wife is taking my TV.

So since it's release I've only logged about 14 hours in BBS. I finally got back to it Saturday though. I didn't realize how close I was to finishing up Terra's story. After beating a rather unexpected boss, I found myself in the Keyblade Graveyard and tangling with the final enemies.

Boss 1...no problem
Boss 2...even less problem
Boss 3...stupid mother er!

The final enemy of Terra's story drove me to nearly PSP throwing rage. After six rather brutal deaths I took a couple hour break and went back to it.

I am normally aggressive in games. Though I may pump up my character defense a good bit,...

So last night I got around to finishing Lego Harry Potter. Knocked out all of Year 4 in one sitting. Took longer then I expected at a couple hours.

I still got some achievements to go, collecting gold bricks, house crests, characters, and killing so and so with so and so. The story is done though and I'm over 50% achievements in it so I consider it significantly defeated.

So one more backlog down and on to the next.

So I was playing with my kids yesterday on Lego Harry Potter and realized I was half-way done Year 3. So it will become the next game to fall in my backlog.

The Lego games can take a long time to do everything so I'm just focusing on beating the main story. I polished off Year 3 last night and will get Year 4 this week.

Tonight however is not for gaming. It is for watching the Eagles stomp on the Redskins.

Short and sweet for this one.

One of my backlog is down. I beat Fable III last night. Didn't get as many achievements as I was hoping I'm at 700/1000 right now. I may go back later and work on the collections but otherwise didn't do to bad.

End game was painfully easy compared to some balverine hordes earlier on but whatever. I still enjoyed the 28 hours I put into it and look forward to another trip to Albion in the future.

So pay day was yesterday and I happily log online to get my first Play Arts figures.

I have Rinoa, Sora(KHII), and Lightning in my basket and about to checkout and drop $83. (It was $60-somethign with $13 shipping for just Rinoa and Lightnign so figure I'd get Sora and get free shipping)

I get to the part where I enter my credit card and move the cursor to complete my order. Then I find I just can't do it.

I want an entire collection of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts Play Arts Kai. I've spent the last two weeks getting a list together, deciding which websites have the best prices and preparing for payday. Now I just can't do it.

Some part of me is just utterly in shock that I was preparing to spend $83 on what are essentially glorified toys. Toys that will just sit on my bookshelf and look pretty.

I even waited a few hours went back and tried again, still couldn't no matter how much I wanted them.

...

The battle with Fable III resumed on Friday the 5th and has been waged daily since. On Saturday with four rather delicious vanilla rum coffees in me, I stayed up until 4am doing deeds good and ill across Albion.

Though I am a bit upset over that fact I got an STD in game from my spouse(after I didn't let Logan kill her as well!) and had to resist the urge to smash her with whatever weapon was on hand at the time. Progress is good, I'm really enjoying it at 21 hours into the game.

As of last night I have become King of Albion and progressed to some mission sending me back to Aurora. I have 10 million in the treasury and 3 million in my pocket. So I'm pretty well prepared to finish this sucker up and put it in the Win column.

This is just a little rant about a topic close to my heart. Impulse buying and control issues.

I am a victim of both of these. If I have money it burns a whole in my pocket until it is spent,if I don't have it I try to figure out how I can move things around so I do.

This is actually to blame for my huge backlog of games. I go out to lunch, or shopping for household stuff, see a game that I was mildly interested in at a decent price and get it. Sales are even worse.

Well lately I've been defeating my gaming purchases. I haven't gotten anything new for almost two full weeks (which is a record for me) and don't really have the urge to go out and get anything.

On the other side I'm now obsessed with trying to get as many of the various Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts figures as I can. When online I'm checking prices, trying to line up what to look for etc. I'm also in that last stretch before payday but find myself eyeing my savings...

I know what you are immediatly thinking. "Monkey, you furred mass of simian stud, what does this have to do with gaming?" Well in the World of Monkey they have to do with a lot.

You see Monkey has realized that his backlog has a might ally. An ally that is very close to Monkey and knows his weakness. Yes..Monkey must also contend with Mrs. Monkey and her powerful minion the 36DD Demon.

The two (or is it three..hmmm) of them are a near unstoppable combination that get in the way of Monkey defeating the backlog.

Mrs.Monkey makes it very clear that if Monkey wishes for his various dances and scratches to be for more then show he must not engage in battle with the Backlog. The grapples with the 36DD Demon always bring their own sense of accomplishment, so this a bad thing.(though it also means Monkey has to be subjected to psychological torment first with things such as Hoarders and Bad Girls Club being projected into his optics)
...

A few days ago I began what I expected to be the great battle against the nation of Fable III. It was a new enemy rather then one of my old foes but I still considered it's destruction essential to my overall success. The battle still continues but I feel I have at least taken a measure of my enemy.

It is ruled by the Demon Lord Molyneux, a horrible foe. His weapons are disinformation and fear but little in the way of actual might.

I began with a full assault on October 26th but found myself repelled due to bad decision making by early the next day. So on the 27th I renewed my attack from a different angle and plunged deep into his territory.

I had advanced past the town of Brightwood and into Bowerstone before my attack slowed. It has dipped into small skirmishes as...

So I'm going to give myself some rules in the eternal struggle against the 278 games in my backlog. The war will not be short but it can be won hopefully by the time I retire from the workforce.

Anyway here we go.

1.) To purchase a new game, two already possessed games must be completed.
2.) To play a new game, an old game must be played and completed.
3.) One console game and one handheld can be played at a time but no other variation until completion.

So that is it pretty simple and to the point. This also means I won't be getting Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or God of War: Ghost of Sparta for a bit. (Which is good for my wallet and maybe gives someone a Christmas gift option for me)

So I plan to start a series of Blogs about my rather futile attempts to conquer my massive game backlog. As new games continue to pile up it will be interesting to see whether I finish games quicker then I buy them.

At the moment I am broke so that should help this overall. I've also skipped some big titles like Fallout New Vegas, Epic Yarn and some others so my willpower is growing.

Right now my backlog sits at 33 PSP games, 28 PS3, 54 Xbox360, 25 DS, 72 PS2, 16GBA, 9 Wii, 9 Gamecube, 10 XBox, and 22 PS1 games. Which is just a massive expensive pile. So wish me luck and maybe by the time I get to laugh at my mother and her 2012 fears I'll have made a dent.

(Tips and suggestions for this conquest are welcome)

Round 1 ....of 278 coming soon.

My complete list and also thus my backlog are here

So as is know I took part in the Extra Life gaming marathon for Children's Miracle Network this past weekend. I raised a total of $199 for a local hospital which while good wasnt' great. Still I'm glad to have been part of it.

In the line of gaming I got started early on Friday night. (my wife was out of town so best time to get to it and better early then late).

7:00pm-8:30pm: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Juggernaut/Goblin levels)
8:30pm-11:00pm: Halo: Reach (all daily challenges/weekly challenge)
11:00pm-2:00am: SPider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (beat game)
8:00am-1:00pm: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
1:00pm-2:00pm: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
2:00pm-4:00pm: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
6:00pm-7:00pm: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (level 1)
9:00pm-10:00pm: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
11:30pm-2:00am: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
2:00am-6:00am: Disgaea:...

So to sum up the day so far.

A lot of Enslaved, some Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. A few small breaks put in to eat, go pick up the wife etc. Still making a lot of progress game wise.

Still $20 short of getting a t-shirt and $75 short of my goal. Still hoping for some last minute donations but otherwise having some fun.

So I've been playing Enslaved for almost 3 hours now. I did the first level about 4 times trying to get the damn Untouchable achievement. After doing that I'm not on level 4.

I'm really enjoying it. The story brings you in, as does the top notch graphics and facial animations. The gameplay is nothing special but it makes up for it in other areas.

So after a night spent playing Halo: Reach and beating Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, I've skipped out working OT and am getting started with the day.

Today is the Extra Life Charity Gaming Marathon. For those who gave thank you and those who didn't you can still give here. So until my wife demands I come pick her up I'm putting in as much as possible. (then rushing home and getting back to it as well as playing DS in the car).

The day is going to start with Enslaved. I've heard a lot of good things about it and can't wait to see if they are fulfilled.

Not much to put here.

I went ahead and got the Force Unleashed DLC for 400 points each while on sale. Knocked those both out the other night. Not bad but glad I didn't pay $10 a pop.

Also started messing with lists. Got 3 made and a couple to go.

So after giving another go at Silent Hill (Wii) last night and suffering another minor though potentially life-changing injury to my kibbles and bits, I decided it was time to move on.

I said to myself "Hell Monkey you dashing hunk of manhood. This game is indeed the incarnation of all that is evil. It sees that you will step up to repopulate after the coming Zombiepocolypse and seeks to foil your road to greatness."

Thus in the interest of humanity I have set Silent Hill aside. (and lent it to a co-worker who I'm sure is virgin at 32 and thus already has no need of his boy-parts).

After a failed attempt to convince my spouse of the logic in my practicing my coming repopulation duties, (I'm guessing Silent Hill got her to as she was claiming a headache, the game must have sent out psychic signals in a last ditch attack), I sat down again wtih Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

I see a trend with Shattering, first Memories...