Another weekend has gone by, and we're inching closer to Christmas and New Year. We're planning an overseas trip to visit friend and family for the holidays in about 10 days, so preparations are beginning.

Since we'll be out of town for a little while, we've been cleaning up the DVR and watched the entire season of The Amazing Race, right in time for last night's finale. We also watched Chuck and Bones, bringing our DVR down to about 30%, the lowest it has been in months.

Been playing a bit of Battlefield 3 multiplayer over the weekend, ranking up and unlocking lots of goodies.

Duke Nukem brings his signature brand of babe-lovin', cigar-smoking, beer-chugging and ass-kicking action as he once again saves the Earth and our babes from hordes of invading aliens.

Postal III will deliver a new and advanced technical level of social satire and politically incorrect virtual violence, featuring motion-captured performances by a wide array of celebrities as well as a storyline that offers gamers vast latitude in terms of their behavior.

In Forge Of Empires players will have the chance to build and lead an entire empire through the centuries and write the history of mankind.

Get rich quicker than your opponents through a mixture of property acquisition and property investment. Challenge up to three friends at home on the same Wii Remote or play against people from across the world over Wi-Fi. You can even use an in-game stock market to purchase shares and earn dividends for extra wealth.

Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy - Commonwealth Forces is the first Module in the series of WW2 ground warfare tactical simulations, including all new, meticulously researched and historically accurate UK, Canadian and Polish units and formations.

FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction takes the franchise to a new level in terms of content, physics and for the first time extensive multiplayer capabilities.

We met up with our friends from Kalypso last night, checked out Jagged Alliance and Demonicon, had a good time, a few drinks, and then a quick nap turned into a night-long snooze fest. So much for that ...

So (bad) luck has it that my Metallica fan membership ran out earlier this year, making me miss out on the fan-members-only notification that the band was have a week-long concert at a local venue in celebration of its 30th anniversary. With tickets only costing $6, it's of course been sold out for months, but we just found out that they are still letting people in that show up at the door without tickets, so we're going to chance it tonight.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

IndieGala has launched its first pay-what-you-want indie game bundle, with five great indie games, plus two more games and other items as a bonus for early buyers.

Oil Rush is a real-time strategy game based on the group control, offering mechanics of a classical RTS combined with a Tower Wars genre: control construction and upgrading of production platforms as well as their defence forces, and send battle groups of naval and air units to capture enemy's platforms and oil rigs.

Happy Friday!

Now that all the turkey sandwiches have been eaten, it's time for life to return to normal, so we can prepare for Christmas and New Year. We're preparing a trip to Europe for the holidays, travel has been booked, accommodations have been made, and now we're planning the most difficult part: the sightseeing.

This weekend, however, we have the usual plans, errands, groceries, gift shopping, DVR, and probably a quick trip to the movie theater to catch J. Edgar (Clint Eastwood movie about the FBI director, starring Leonardo DiCaprio).

Forza Motorsport 4 will bring together genre-defining, controller-based racing, the power and freedom of Kinect, and content from leading brands like “Top Gear” to create an automotive experience unlike anything before it.

In Forge Of Empires players will have the chance to build and lead an entire empire through the centuries and write the history of mankind.

Bodoink is an XBLA Kinect game where you are dropped into a pinball-like environment. Control your very own Xbox Avatar to pop as many pegs as possible while getting knocked around by pistons, conveyor belts, and teleporters.

We've been flipping through catalogs to shop for Christmas gifts, toys mainly, and it strikes me that I find most of the stuff boring, or simply not fun for more than a few minutes. We've come up with a few possibilities, but it has taken us a few dozen catalogs over the past month to even narrow it down to that. I must be getting picky in my old age ...

I haven't watched the newest Sons Of Anarchy yet. Turns out it's a two-parter, so I'm going to wait until next week so I can watch both episodes back to back. We did, however, check out House and Chuck.

Comedian Patrice O'Neal, who was recently on the Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen, died at age 41 after suffering a stroke last month, from which he apparently never fully recovered.

Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the ultimate four-player Role-Playing Shooter loot fest. Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story.

Gears of War 3 plunges players into a harrowing tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood that concludes the current story arc for Gears of War. With the last human city destroyed and the remaining survivors stranded, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race from the jaws of extinction.

Trine 2 is an physics-based action platformer that takes the original's beloved triad (the powerful knight, the swift rogue, and the crafty wizard) and puts them into an all-new adventure filled with more action, more puzzles, and the introduction of online support for cooperative 3-person gameplay.

It's called The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world's most notorious drivers on the country's most dangerous roads.

Data Jammers: FastForward is a continuously moving three dimensional driving and destruction game set within a retro wireframe world of impossible race tracks.

League of Legends is a session-based online multiplayer game that combines elements of RPG and RTS genres with addictive battle action where rival teams compete against one another for victory on highly stylized battlefields and landscapes.

Square Enix has signed an agreement with Epic Games granting it a license to develop multiple games with Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 technology. 

Targeting a wide audience, Microïds - Games for All brings together all Anuman Interactive video game business, with the exception of adventure games based on Microïds’ traditional major licenses.

Not much going on at the moment. Playing some Fallen Earth, Stronghold Kingdom, APB, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, as well as trying to finish up LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7.

On Monday and Tuesday nights, our DVR is very busy recording a bunch of shows, so we quickly scratched The Walking Dead and Blue Bloods off the list. Both good episodes ...

Some VERY exciting news on the music front. The original members of Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler) have confirmed they’re heading back into the studio to record an album of new material with producer Rick Rubin.

When do the tickets go on sale!!?!?!?!