The holidays have come and gone and in it’s aftermath we are left to deal with the madness that is the month of December. Despite the lunacy, I have managed to keep alive a strong tradition of over-gaming during the holiday season. It all started Christmas 1996 when I received the Nintendo 64. The following years have always brought new games, consoles and accessories under the tree. Even to this day, at 24 years old, I am still receiving video games for Christmas.

I received Bioshock for the XBOX 360 and two books The Ultimate History of Video Games and Mass Effect: Revelation. I haven’t touched Bioshock (I’ll get into that in a little bit) or the The Ultimate History of Video Games but I have read nearly a third of Mass Effect: Revelation. The book is a must have for Mass Effect fans. It chronicles the adventures of David Anderson, fans of the game will know who that is. The book is a prequel and was written by Drew Karpyshyn one of the game’s lead writers. It does an excellent job exploring issues that the game doesn’t have time for as there are some things a writer can do in a novel that he can’t do in a video game. Namely allowing the reader access to the characters personal thoughts, fears, hopes, etc. It’s a great book that I would recommend not just to fans of the critically acclaimed XBOX 360 game but to fans of the science fiction genre as well.

You may be wondering why I haven’t touched Bioshock given the amount of praise the game has received. Well random Internet person, I’ll tell you. I picked up Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with some extra holiday cash. Before I get into this behemoth of a game, let’s rewind back to the summer of 2003. I had just finished my freshman year of college and as a gift to myself I pickled up Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the XBOX. That summer became known as the summer of Morrowind, it was the only game I played for over three months, and I played it for hours on end nearly every day that summer. I had never played such an open-ended game before. I literally spent about a week collecting pillows… only in Morrowind! It took Bioware’s Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic to finally tear me away from Morrowind.

4.5 years later and now I have the latest installment of Elder Scrolls, this is both a blessing and a curse. I love the game but it is devouring my soul. I have already clocked in 10 hours and I haven’t even touched the main quest, I’m too busy Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil talking to townspeople and collecting more pillows! The curse is that I have been neglecting other quality games, Mass Effect and Bioshock to name a couple. I meant to play Bioshock this morning so I could include my impressions in this column but I ended up in Cyrodiil.

I have come to accept that this may be the only game I play for quite some time. If you see me online playing Oblivion, yell at me to play something else, please don’t encourage my debilitating habit.