{"id":3342,"date":"2010-12-30T07:11:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T12:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/?p=3342"},"modified":"2010-12-30T07:20:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T12:20:58","slug":"christmas-gaming-treats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/12\/30\/christmas-gaming-treats\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Gaming Treats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a kid I always looked forward to getting new videogames in December (birthday and Christmas).  I always held out hope that I was going to get a few new games, and they just had to be better than decent because I knew that my gaming library was not going to increase during the upcoming year.<\/p>\n<p>These days I just buy what I want, usually via pre-order, or I watch a game, waiting for the inevitable price drop before finally indulging myself.  Either way, my gaming comes to me when I want, and if I happen to get a dud, I can flip it on eBay.  No worries, no fuss.<\/p>\n<p>This year, thanks to Santa (and of course my family), I have enough games to keep me occupied until December 2011, or until I decide to pick up the next great, have to play it now spectacular, super special gaming extravaganza.  Something along those lines; call me a sucker for pre-release build up hype.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Gaming Treasure Trove:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Greatest Hits<\/em>.  I have always wanted to give this game a go, but for whatever reason, I never did.<\/li>\n<li><em>FIFA 11<\/em> (Under $30 during Amazon Thanksgiving sales).  I wrote a few weeks ago that I have been playing the shit out of FIFA 10.  I love the FIFA 10 experience; the virtual pro is a very immersive experience.  I am going to stay with FIFA 10 for the rest of 2010 to see how many Trophies I can pick up before flipping FIFA 10 on eBay, and then I will start my FIFA 11 journey.  I can only hope that FIFA 11 is as fun and entertaining as FIFA 10 has been over the last six weeks.<\/li>\n<li><em>God of War 3<\/em> (Under $35 during Amazon Thanksgiving sales).  Because one cannot have enough God of War.<\/li>\n<li><em>God of War Collection Greatest Hits<\/em> ($10 during Amazon Thanksgiving sales).  Are you kidding me?  $10 for high-def updates of two highly rated PS2 game?  Complete with a gaggle of Trophies for my gaming pleasure.  I never played the PS2 versions, but thanks to the PSP God of War games, I am a converted fan.<\/li>\n<li><em>Gran Turismo 5<\/em> Prima Essential Track Guide*<\/li>\n<li><em>Rapala Pro Bass Fishing 2010<\/em>.  Some different.  Something for the Move.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>* OK, so this little spiral bound book is not game, but I figured I would include it in the overall haul.  It is getting a lot of flack in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Turismo-Prima-Essential-Track-Guide\/dp\/0307889890\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293709238&sr=8-1-catcorr\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Turismo-Prima-Essential-Track-Guide\/dp\/0307889890\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1293709238&amp;sr=8-1-catcorr', 'Amazon review listings');\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon review listings<\/a>, however it is exactly what it states \u2013 a track guide.  If you are looking for a traditional cheat (er, strategy guide) book, then the Prima guide is not your cup of tea.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe all these new games will have an added bonus; getting my <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.us.playstation.com\/2010\/10\/27\/introducing-playstation-rewards-a-new-way-to-earn-exclusive-status-and-recognition\/\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/blog.us.playstation.com\/2010\/10\/27\/introducing-playstation-rewards-a-new-way-to-earn-exclusive-status-and-recognition\/', 'PlayStation');\" target=\"_blank\">PlayStation<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.us.playstation.com\/2010\/12\/06\/quests-added-to-playstation-rewards-program\/\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/blog.us.playstation.com\/2010\/12\/06\/quests-added-to-playstation-rewards-program\/', 'Rewards');\" target=\"_blank\">Rewards<\/a> status to nudge a little for the first time since the week after Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking Forward To \u2026<\/strong><br \/>\nWith all these new gaming Christmas experiences, plus the current backlog of goodies, is there anything left on my radar?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Little Big Planet 2<\/em>.  Of course I never played the first one, but everyone says LBP is a must have experience, which is fun for the whole family.<\/li>\n<li><em>MLB 11:  The Show<\/em>.  See FIFA 10 + FIFA 11; I have until March to get my money\u2019s worth from MLB 10.<\/li>\n<li><em>Need for Speed Hot Pursuit<\/em>.  I want to try the newest NFS title, but I am going to wait for a lower price.  Plus I still have GT5 to keep me occupied, and F1 2010 is not getting any love.<\/li>\n<li><em>Madden and NCAA Football<\/em>.  Yeah, I know, let\u2019s don\u2019t go there yet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are probably other gems lurking out there, but right now I actually do not have anything on pre-order or a \u201cwatch list.\u201d  OK, just kidding.  I have the HD update of the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection on pre-order.  But other than that one \u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a kid I always looked forward to getting new videogames in December (birthday and Christmas). I always held out hope that I was going to get a few new games, and they just had to be better than decent because I knew that my gaming library was not going to increase during the upcoming &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/12\/30\/christmas-gaming-treats\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Christmas Gaming Treats<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,31,30,44,21,20,9,32,56,28],"class_list":["post-3342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-baseball","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-gran-turismo","tag-madden","tag-mlb-the-show","tag-ps3","tag-racing","tag-soccer","tag-trophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3342"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3344,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3342\/revisions\/3344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}