The last week has been rather busy work-wise and the next couple of weeks are going to be more or less the same, which means my backlog will probably be at a standstill with the exception of a few handheld titles.

In the meantime I’ve begun the process of consolidation for some of my PC games. I’m setting up my PC for specifically MMO’s, Online games, strategy games, a few indie games, and Japanese visual novels. It’s a nice machine for some higher-spec games…but the frustrations of dealing with DRM and being away from the comfort of the couch and a big screen is what draws me away from more mainstream games. Fortunately most of my “Must-Have” PC titles have been released for free on Playstation Plus in the last few months, such as Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, and Payday 2…which practically has turned my laptop into an expensive web browser.

With that said, I’ve been shopping around for some good free MMOs. I have Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, DC Universe Online, APB Reloaded, and Lord of the Rings Online queued up on Steam so I’ll see if those are any good. I also tried Tera Online and Phantasy Star Online 2, which both seem pretty decent, although I need to get an English patch for PSO2 and risk getting permabanned.. There’s also Elsword and Aura Kingdom which I’ve barely touched.

Still, my MMO of choice is Final Fantasy XIV. I have a buddy on the ship who has a character on the same server as me, but I generally don’t like pairing up with friends for MMORPGs. Often they are so far ahead that when I pair up with them, they will either help me power-level (which forces me to skip a lot of the content in the game without understanding much of the mechanics)…or they will be doing high-end dungeons while I’m running around looking at trees and stuff…yeah I’m not quite a devoted hard-core online gamer as my buddies, which is why I don’t play multiplayer games with them often.

I also have been playing around with some PC Customizable Card Games. I picked up the open beta for Hearthstone which is fantastic so far, like a simplified version of Magic the Gathering. It’s a great game and I can’t wait for the Android release for my Nexus 7. I’ve been playing Magic 2014 on my Tablet and it’s A LOT of fun :), it’s like having $500 worth of Magic cards in a $10 digital format…can’t go wrong with that!

February is a big month for gaming. I finally received my confirmation e-mail on my Bravely Default Collectors Edition which should arrive next week. There is also Toukiden, Final Fantasy XIII-3, Professor Layton, Ragnarok Odyssey ACE, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2, EDF 2025, and Danganronpa coming in this month.  Along with my hectic work schedule, it’s going to be a very busy month.