I’m not a hardcore gamer by my definition of the term. I’ve been playing games since they were invented, but I’ve had more positive experiences in recent years, courtesy of the power fantasies most games provide, than the dignity crushing games of yesteryear. I don’t remember the pre checkpoint and automatic quick save times with nostalgic fondness, I remember them with the dull ache of childhood terror.

So it is with some dread that I started playing Dark Souls a game made to flay your dignity and crush any foolish belief you had that you were ever good at anything.

It’s not that easy to pigeon hole a game like El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron; it’s definitely different, it’s artistic and you might even say a bit pretentious. So me being a smart arse, pretentious douchebag who once wrote a Bioshock review using the term a ‘haunting lullaby that squeezes the soul’ for a video store magazine, you would think I’d be all over El Shaddai like a post modern artist on a free pastry buffet.

To my complete lack of shock and horror almost nothing happened in the mysterious limbo week between Christmas and New Years. When you’re a kid this week buzzes past in a haze of sensory overload brought on by sugar and new toys, but when you’re a grown up you find yourself sitting in a nearly empty work place wondering why you didn’t have the foresight to takes a week leave and reading incredibly boring ‘Best off 2011’ Lists.

So there’s not a lot of news for the last whole fortnight, but if you’re hungry what I could scrap from the jar is below.

Well it's almost 2012 and the much hyped end of civilisation as misinterpreted by quacks and loonies who think the Aztec's and Mayan's had magical and/or alien powers.

2011 was a pretty big year for games. Maybe even the biggest with event titles like the end of Gears of War, the greatest license game ever made in Batman Arkham City, the first triple A shooter playable with motion controls in Killzone 3 and the WIi's swan song, and best game, in Skyward Sword. There were some serious cowbell like duds thrown into the mix as well, the long awaited Duke Nukem didn't quite win new fans at it's debut and much vaunted Call of Duty killers like Homefront and Battlefield 3 fell short of Activisions iconic behemoth.

On top of that we saw new portable devices from Sony and Nintendo released new handhelds, unfortunately the same year the mobile gaming became the hot topic, either as the future or end of gaming depending on who you ask.

Here's a retrospective video of some of the last years most popular titles with some Placebo over the top, how many did you play?

Sorry, no cap today. Game news round ups will continue next week. I've got a tiny handful of days off and I'm making the most of them by gorging myself on shortbread and kahlua and having family time.

Hope you're enjoying the holidays and here's another hilarious christmas themed gif to get you through.

Have a Merry Christmas dear readers, Robo-He-Santa demands it! I hope Santa, or your specific religious or nationally denominated gift provider gives you some awesome games tomorrow!

And spare a thought for those of us, with jerk family members, who don’t receive games but instead get clothes or cologne or some junk.

See you in the New Year.

(PS: Amazing kick ass gif stolen from the super talented Matt Layzel at http://www.treatstudios.com/

Not much is happening right now any where in the realms of game industry, or gamdustry as no one calls it. It’s the holiday season! No one’s doing any work, so as our thoughts turn to massive dinners, drunken relatives, expensive gifts and some Jewish kid who was born a while back, lets recap the scant news stories of the past week.

In keeping the messianic focus of the season we open with the tale of a game, that died for the sins of exorbitant subscription price models, but was resurrected as a free to play title. Are you sitting comfortably children?

Then I shall begin.