I took a quick inventory of my entertainment activities in the last month and was a actually a bit surprised at what I have done.

First, I played a month of retail Champions Online, I had fun but as I neared level 30 the game started to feel a bit stale. The worst part is I have not sat down and recorded all my feelings about the retail game, in an effort to narrow down why it started to feel stale to me.  When I skip that step, I know that I have lost interest in it; at least for a time. I already have a time card already bought, so I know at some point I will come back to the game. My plan is to check back in four or five months and see how much it has improved.

Next

I did take about more 10 days of WoW time just to wrap up the Brewfest achievements allowing me to get my Violet Protodrake, which was a goal I had in the game from a year ago. Now, other than logging in for the 5 year anniversary celebration, I don’t plan on playing a lot of WoW; well at least until just before Cataclysm comes out.  Of course that siren may sing to me again drawing me back, but I really plan to take some time for other things.

Things like taking a week to play and complete Batman: Arkham Asylum , and Call of Duty: World at War.  Batman was fantastic, a really great game one I think every gamer should play at least a small bit of.  Call of Duty: WaW, was ok. It had a few moments of close to greatness, and I did play any of the Multiplayer, so it could really shine there. But of what I played, compared to how great Modern Warfare was World at War paled. Still a fun game, and one I would recommend to any shooter fan.

I also installed and played about four hours of Dungeons and Dragons Online: Unlimited, and I am impressed. This is a now a free to play, pay as want new junk, MMO one that has improved dramatically since I last played at its original retail launch.

I have not really played enough to talk too much about it, but thus far I love that it is in many ways NOT world of warcraft. I love the the adventures, with the DM voice and text helping to craft the mood and setting, and the action-y combat feels really good.   My next step is to try and hook up with a buddy and try running some of the adventures at harder difficulties. I suspect the combat is a lot more interesting with party members.

Not playing WoW, has also allowed me to do a bit more reading. I finally finished Eye of the World and Gardens of the Moon, both books that I have tried to finish several times but could , for whatever reason, fail to complete. This time both entertained me rather well and I am looking forward to reading the next book in each series.  I have also taken some time reading several stories out of various World War II books. I suspect it will take me a long time to actually complete the books, but I love jumping in and reading a chapter here and there.

And Finally I should mention the Fall 2009 TV season. As always, we are still very behind on TV shows but I have checked out a few new shows and figured it would be smart to jot down some of what we watch.

Mondays have; House, Lie to Me, and Castle (one of the best written shows we watch)

Tuesday is NCIS and NCIS:LA. NCIS is a fairly standard and predictable show but for some reason we are sucked in by the characters. The new LA show, is just ok and if Fringe was still on Tuesdays I would not miss NCIS:LA at all.

Wednesday until LOST comes back all I have on this night is CSI:NY. The only other show that I would watch Criminal Minds, but that show was a bit to ‘real’ for my wife.  Although, I watched some GLEE online and for some reason that show has almost me, so it might get the the wed. tivo nod.

Thursday is Bones and Fringe night. Fringe is a great show, one we have to let several episodes build up on tivo before we watch simply because we hate having to stop watching after one.

Friday has Smallville, Stargate Universe Oct 2 (Fridays 8) and Numbers. Poor Smallville, I have 20+ episodes on my tivo right now, and I am not sure when I will ever get around to watching them. That show started so strong and then something happened and it lost its hook in us. Though not completely because I know I will watch them some day.

Well, I think that pretty much sums things up for now. Moving ahead I am looking forward to playing a bit of Sacred 2 with Randy, some Borderlands, then some Dragon Age. Those should keep me busy until the holidays.