If you look at the banner above, you’ll see a list of topics that I’m supposed to be writing about. If you look over to the tag fog over to the right, you’ll see that I’ve mostly written about two things (at least as of this writing): Apple and FriendFeed. I’m not really living up to the banner now, am I? I actually even have a handful of articles from the other categories in various stages of incompleteness. Why? Probably anxiety: I know people like reading about technology and social media. Do people like reading about gaming, though? Especially when it’s not console juggalo gaming? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

Ever since my daughter was born, I’ve gone through periods where I’ve had a lot of time for gaming and periods where I’ve had close to none. During the good months, I had a couple of guys coming over to push cardboard once or twice a week. At other times, we were lucky to be meeting up once a month. Computer gaming has faired worse as I have become much more of a board gamer than a video gamer. This mostly has to do with the quality of games available combined with my sincere inability to complete a game (I’m very close to completing Fallout 3 but haven’t gone back to do so yet). The quality, of course, is a bigger issue: Dragon Age ended up being a repetitive headache (walk down a corridor of closed doors, open them one at a time, fight the monsters behind each one, whee!), Hearts of Iron III is still a mess after three patches while Football Manager 2010 is probably one patch away from perfection. I was also enjoying the heck out of Sims 3 but somehow managed to lose the DVD (after months of searching for, I eventually broke down and bought a second copy along with Sims 3 World Adventures both of which are now installed but unplayed).

So what’s going on, then?

On the computer side, I’ve been playing the hell out of Empires of Steel and the combat demo for The Age of Decadence; in other words, I’ve been more excited about indie games than major releases. I plan on writing a review of Empires of Steel over the next few days but I’ll summarize it as this: it’s a turn-based empire-based world domination wargame that plays with all the speed and ease of the original Command & Conquer with a feel similar to Civilization. It’s really fun and doesn’t burn too many brain cells in the process.

I’m still most excitedly waiting for Hearts of Iron III and Football Manager 2010 to get into more final shape. I know a lot of people are having a great time with both as they are but I’ve read enough existing issues and bugs that I know I don’t want to bother until they’re resolved. I want to but don’t know if I will finish Fallout 3 (I’ve never finished a Bethesda game in my life). Sims 3 is an eventuality, I’m sure. I just haven’t found the time for it. And, this year, I hope to see the release of World in Flames and The Age of Decadence.

On the cardboard side, Agricola (and it’s first expansion, Farmers of the Moor) has been hitting the table more than any other game. It’s hard to beat such an interesting, fun, and fast-paced game with such pleasing and high quality components. I now have the deluxe edition of Twilight Struggle but it’s yet to see any play time. And my players and I have made a solemn vow to make Advanced Squad Leader our primary game again; it had been eclipsed by Agricola and, to a lesser extent, Through the Ages.

In other news, I’m kinda-sorta and unofficially participating in Project52. For what it’s worth.