Just as year 2009 was coming to an end, I beat my 142nd game. It was also my 101st game since 1999, when I began marking down the year when each game was beaten.

What a long, strange trip it’s been…

A lot has happened in these years. Highs and lows, relationships and breakups, books and movies, jobs and travels, houses and cars, colleges and military service. They all are important because they are what makes up my life and who I am, but I’m also glad my gaming hobby has been with me alongside these life events.

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What has always bothered me about the year-end compilations of any sort of “best of” lists, is that everybody seems to focus of the recent releases, as opposed to doing their due diligence in going over the entire gamut of that year’s titles. Yes, both Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2 were put on shelves in October and November respectively, but does that automatically mean they were this year’s best games? In any event, there is no way for me to be knowledgeable in every single game released this year, so instead I am going to take a look at the games I beat in 2009 so far.

That list includes a total of sixteen games, but many of them like Fallout 3 and Spore were released prior to 2009, so I will not include them. The games that I did count are Dawn of War II, Zeno Clash, Overlord 2, Plants vs. Zombies, Rosemary, Pizza Morgana – Episode 1, Heroes Over Europe, Modern Warfare 2, Torchlight and Devil’s Tuning Fork. In addition to these games, there were also some that I’ve played but didn’t (or couldn’t) complete. One such game is Aion, which is an MMO and thus can never be finished. A lot of these games were excellent, some were disappointing, and some had both good and bad aspects to them. From this group, I’ve selected my top four finalists.

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Back in the day, then I was writing for another site, the kind people over at Atari UK sent me a copy of The Witcher. You may wonder why I got in touch with the UK division, and the answer is simple, the American version was mercilessly censored at the time. In any event, The Witcher is a wonderful game, and I was very happy with it. (That means you should buy it, by the way.)

Later, however, the patch came out, and then an extended edition, and another patch. These were not your regular patches; they actually added content and improved many things about the game. Or so I have heard, because I couldn’t install a single one of them.

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Hello, everyone! Congratulations to all of you, for today is the day of my glorious return. It’s been 1606453 hours since I departed, but now you can stop holding your breath. That’s right, I have come back and will write for Avault once again. Just as before, I will focus on reviewing PC games so that you know what’s good for you. Follow my recommendations and you will live a long, productive and healthy life, become successful in your business and studies, acquire fame and riches beyond your wildest dreams, get the girl, win the lottery, your children will be accepted into a good college, and your enemies will tremble! Go forth my minions and… Umm… Sorry… I’ve been seeing a specialist for my megalomania.

In any event, I’m glad to be back officially. You’ve probably seen some of my reviews over the past few months, but now that I have a blog of my own – I’m a real boy… man… man-child.

As to my latest gaming endeavors, some of you will be pleased to know that I am currently playing a new MMO, with intent to review. Also I am in a beta test of a multiplayer tactics game, which I may also write about. If that’s not enough, I am playing World in Conflict, which I will not review because it’s old, but I’d like to report that I am kicking some serious commie behind which (along with zombie, nazi and orc ones) is the best behind to kick.

Alaric out